I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 62. I Wanted to Eat Something Else
If it was the time for a picnic, it would probably be summer.
But in early summer Asiel would be conceived, and right after that she planned to leave this place.
Since he had set the contract marriage to last for one year, he must be speaking under the assumption that she would still be here in summer.
‘There’s no need to mention that fact right now.’
Blair hid that thought and nodded with a calm smile.
“Alright.
Let’s do that.”
Then, as she was about to eat a roasted marshmallow, she seemed to recall something and held it out to him.
Heredin looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“I saw you eat my marshmallow this morning.
If you want one too, you can eat it.”
One of Heredin’s eyebrows lifted.
“…‘My’ marshmallow?”
“Didn’t it become mine since you gave it to me?”
“No.
Everything in this house belongs to me.
Food, things.”
As he said that and looked at Blair, his eyes held a strange playfulness while also carrying a strangely sharp glint.
“Of course, people too.”
Like a beast guarding its territory.
Blair was puzzled by his sudden claim of ownership, but since everything in the House of Delmark did belong to him as he said, she did not particularly deny it.
“Anyway, I didn’t eat it.”
At his nonchalant reply, Blair blinked.
If he hadn’t eaten it, then it could only be Lina or Meli.
After thinking for a moment, Blair protested with a rather serious expression.
“Lina and Meli aren’t the kind of girls who would touch my things without permission.”
“Hm, then it seems a ghost must be living in this room.”
Hearing Heredin’s shameless reply, Blair finally realized he was teasing and frowned slightly.
“Don’t lie.”
Instead of answering, Heredin snickered and overlapped his hand over Blair’s hand that was holding the marshmallow.
Then he guided that hand and bit into the marshmallow she was holding.
It looked as if Blair were feeding him.
Blair stared blankly at the sight of him eating the marshmallow.
Was it just her imagination that the soft marshmallow disappearing into his mouth somehow felt indecent?
Feeling oddly embarrassed, she tried to avert her gaze, but just then he swallowed the marshmallow and lifted his eyes, meeting hers.
Her reflection was submerged in eyes like a winter lake.
As if captured by those eyes, she couldn’t look away.
In the silence where a strange tension flowed, his lips—red for a man—broke the silence first.
“Let’s stop here for today.”
With that whisper, his firm arm wrapped around Blair’s waist.
“Because I’ve started craving something else.”
What that “something else” was, his lips that touched hers answered instead.
* * *
“My lady, we’ve arrived.”
Blair, who had briefly fallen asleep to the rocking of the carriage like a lullaby, woke at the voices of Meli and Lina.
Outside the carriage window, the orphanage building had come into view.
The orphanage under the temple’s jurisdiction had an emblem symbolizing the temple carved into the exterior wall.
When she got off the carriage, a priest who had been waiting after receiving prior notice greeted her with delight.
“Welcome, Duchess!
It is an honor to meet you like this.
My name is Miriam.”
“Nice to meet you, Miriam.
You must be busy, so thank you for making time for us.”
“Oh my, please don’t say that.
We’re the ones who are grateful.”
After instructing the knights to unload the donated goods they had brought, Blair entered the orphanage together with the priest.
Even before she had entered the building, children had been pressed against the windows watching Blair, and now they were clustered at the doorway.
The children whispered among themselves while looking at Blair.
“Wow, she’s really pretty.
She looks like a princess.”
“But they said she really is a princess.”
“That’s all a lie.
Why would a princess come to a place like this?”
They probably thought they were speaking quietly, but unfortunately Blair could hear everything.
Blair forced herself to hold back her laughter as if she hadn’t heard.
But Lina seemed to have no intention of doing that and suddenly cut into the children’s conversation.
“You little brats do have good eyes.
She really is a princess.”
“Whoa!
Really really?”
“Yeah.
Really really.”
“But how does that lady know?”
“I’m the maid who serves the princess. …And who are you calling a lady?”
“Then are you not a lady but a mister?”
“No, I’m not a mister, you stupid mutt.”
The children giggled, making jokes that only they understood among themselves.
Blair and Meli laughed as they watched Lina get swept up in the children’s teasing.
“You shouldn’t call a guest a stupid mutt like that.”
The priest, who admonished the children, clapped his hands to draw their attention.
“Alright, children.
Come gather here.”
The children hesitated while glancing at Blair’s group, then one by one stepped forward.
The priest introduced Blair to the children.
“This is the guest I told you about earlier.”
“The princess?”
“She’s not a princess anymore. She’s the Duchess.”
“Hello.
Nice to meet you.
My name is Blair.”
When Blair greeted them, the children clapped enthusiastically as the priest had instructed beforehand.
Then a curious child raised a hand high and asked,
“But why did you come here?”
If an adult had asked, it might have sounded somewhat rude, but coming from a child it was simply cute.
Since she was planning to explain why she had come anyway, Blair answered kindly.
“Today is the day my husband’s mother went to heaven.
She hoped that today wouldn’t be a sad day, but a happy one for children like you.
So I prepared snacks and presents.”
“Waaah!”
Snacks and presents excited the children.
The children, now overflowing with interest in Blair, asked another question.
“But if the princess has a husband, is he a prince?”
Blair gave an awkward smile.
To children, whether someone was a duke or a baron probably just meant they were a great person, so there was no need to explain in detail.
“Hmm….
He’s not a prince, but he does look like one.”
“Wow, I want to meet a prince too.”
“Me too, me too.”
Not only the girls but even the boys who admired princes were filled with anticipation.
After finishing the introductions amid the children’s expectant eyes, Blair toured the orphanage with the priest and then came out to the yard.
While they had been looking around the orphanage, the donated goods the knights had unloaded were piled up on one side of the yard.
“Alright, boys line up here.
Girls line up here in two rows and come receive them.
Don’t forget to say thank you!”
Just as they were about to distribute the donations with the priest—
“Huh?
It’s Sister Miela!”
At one child’s shout, everyone’s gaze turned toward the orphanage entrance.
Miela was standing there.
The smile vanished from Blair’s face the moment she saw her.
‘Why… is she here?’
In her previous life, at this time on this day Miela had been at the temple’s main building…
Since she had appeared here, the reason Blair had deliberately chosen the orphanage instead of the temple had essentially disappeared.
“Big sister Miela!”
“Sister!”
The children who saw Miela rushed toward her.
The priest, who noticed Miela belatedly, looked surprised.
“Oh my, Priestess Miela.
What brings you here?”
“It’s my day off, so I came to see the children, and it looked like you needed help.”
After noticing Blair, Miela brightened and approached with a friendly greeting.
“Duchess, we meet again like this.
Have you been well?”
“Thanks to you.
I’m glad to see you’ve been well too.”
Blair quickly composed her expression and responded.
She wasn’t talented at lying, but she was confident in hiding her expressions.
“The Duke must be very busy.
I thought he would come with you.”
Words that had meant nothing in her previous life now sounded a little different.
At a glance it sounded like an ordinary question, so Blair decided not to point it out.
Otherwise she might look overly sensitive.
“As you know, he’s a very busy person.”
“Ah, I see.”
For a brief moment, it seemed as if a trace of expectation passed through Miela’s eyes, but it vanished instantly.
Miela stepped beside Blair and asked,
“May I help as well?”
“If it’s alright with you, Priestess.”
Miela naturally joined in distributing the donations.
The children gathered more around the familiar Miela than around the unfamiliar Blair or the maids from Delmark.
Watching that scene, Lina muttered bluntly,
“Somehow it feels like we’re just extras.”
Meli poked Lina in the side to make her close her mouth.
With Miela joining, the distribution of donations finished faster than planned, and it became playtime.
Blair sat in the shade of a tree, watching Miela and Lina play with the children.
It was surprising that Lina, who had rarely been around children, was quite popular.
Meanwhile, as someone accustomed to looking after children for a long time, Miela quickly sensed what the children wanted and played with them skillfully.
‘Because I acted differently from my previous life, did that change lead to her being here now?’
Even knowing the future, there seemed to be more variables in small details than she expected.
While Blair was lost in thought, a little girl who looked about three or four years old with her hair tied on both sides toddled over.
The child placed the storybook she had received as a donation on the table and tried to sit across from Blair.
But it was difficult for her to climb onto an adult chair.
“Do you want to sit on the chair?”
At the question, the child nodded.
Blair lifted the girl and placed her on her lap.
“Can you read?”
The child shook her head.
Blair was sure she had seen her talking with other children earlier, but since she only nodded instead of answering, it seemed she was shy.
Still, the child who had approached her willingly just to sit together was adorable.
“Then I’ll read it to you.”
Blair opened the storybook the child had brought.
⟨The Princess Turned to Stone⟩
It was one of the storybooks she used to read to Asiel