Duke, Is This Your First Time? -R15 - Chapter 52

“Elly.”

 

Elysia, who had been looking up at the tree that Har had climbed, turned her head to look at Lulien.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Why are you here?”

 

It was too direct a question, but Lulien thought that it was right to be honest about this.

 

“Of course I came to see Har. Thanks to you, I met you too.”

 

Seeing Elysia smiling as if she knew what she was asking, Lulien opened her mouth again. Her voice was so small that only Elysia could hear it.

 

“Yes, but the real purpose is different.”

 

“….”

 

Elysia’s expression darkened. It was unexpected but Lulien liked it.

 

After a while, her eyes gleamed like a half moon.

 

“By the way, there was something I wanted to ask you guys. Lulien, what are you going to do when you grow up?”

 

Lulien blinked her eyes at the question of her hopes for the future that came up instead of an answer.

 

Even though Elysia was trying to change the subject, Lulien put her thoughts into her mouth as she usually was. She had to answer in order to make Elysia answer.

 

“Well. There isn’t much I can say I want to do. Didn’t I say to make a living by doing things like restaurant work or chores, and if I was lucky, I would find a decent man and get married?”

 

She was too pessimistic for a seven-year-old to say something like that, but it was also a possible answer because it was Lulien, who had seen, heard, and experienced many things at a young age.

 

At 16, she left nursery school. What she could do as a woman in a male-dominated society was very limited.

 

Besides, she wasn’t well educated, so she had no choice but to do things like working in restaurants and chores.

 

In a nutshell, would you say that meeting a man well is the greatest success?

 

“That’s my future.”

 

She thought it was pathetic, but there was nothing she could do about it.

 

It was all young Lulien could do, thinking it was fortunate not to be in a worse situation.

 

Elysia, who had been quietly listening to Lulien’s answer, suddenly reached out her hand and lifted her second finger.

 

She waved in front of her and clicking her tongue.

 

“Not realistic, but your original dream.”

 

“My dream…?”

 

“Yes. What did you want to be?”

 

What I wanted to be…

 

Lulien remembered what the seven-year-old girl wanted to be. And as if possessed, she spoke without hesitation.

 

“Something like a secretary or an assistant. I work with my head, not my body, and do things with my organized abilities.”

 

“A secretary or an assistant? You know that’s a lot of work? Papers are piled up on my desk every day. Do you still want to?”

 

With a look of disgust at the thought, Elysia raised her hands to express the thickness of the pile of papers she had seen.

 

At Elysia’s exaggerated and playful expression, Lulien smiled and nodded her head.

 

“I still want to. But only men can do such things.”

 

“Who says that?”

 

“What?”

 

“Who says that only men can do it?”

 

Suddenly, her smile disappeared, and seeing Elysia asking with a serious expression, Lulien blinked her eyes again.

 

However, Lulien could soon understand Elysia’s reaction.

 

The Marquess of Camellia was a woman and the head of the house and inherited the title, so she thought that she might not be aware of the circumstances outside.

 

So, Lulien answered in an easy way for Elysia to understand.

 

“Actually, I’ve never seen or heard of a woman doing such a thing. Elly, you don’t have a female clerk or a female aide in your house. Have you seen it anywhere?”

 

“I’ve never seen it.”

 

“Look. Reality is like that.”

 

“Then you’ll be the first, Lulien.”

 

At Elysia’s words, Lulien gave her a bitter smile.

 

“But if no one hires me, then I’ll starve to death?”

 

“I’ll hire you.”

 

“What?”

 

Lulien doubted her ears. Meanwhile, Elysia continued.

 

“When I grow up, I will follow my mother’s footsteps, and I’m going to need either a clerk or an aide. Then I’ll give you the place.”

 

Elysia’s expression as she stared at Lulien was serious.

 

No, even if those words were uttered from the beating of her young heart, it was enough to shake the young Lulien.

 

Something felt hot in her chest as she clenched her hands.

 

Elysia continued when her eyes were about to turn red.

 

“Lulien. You’re smart, so if you want to go to a better place, I can’t hold you back, but when you become my aide, I’ll pay you a good salary. And I won’t bother you. Promise.”

 

Seeing Elysia speaking like a child with her hands on her waist, Lulien burst into laughing.

 

“Well, that’s natural. If you don’t pay my salary, you’re a bad employer.”

 

Unusually, when Lulien laughed out loud, Elysia stuck out her tongue playfully.

 

“Is that so?”

 

“Yes.”

 

While the two were laughing together, Har came down with fruits he had picked from the tree in one arm.

 

“Har.”

 

As Elysia sprinted away, Har grabbed one of the ripest fruits he had picked, wiped it on his clothes, and held it out.

 

Elysia, who received the fruit, looked up at the tree where Har had been climbing a while ago and said with admiration.

 

“I think Har has really good athleticism. You’ll be a knight when ypu grow up.”

 

“A knight?”

 

“Yeah. I think we’ll get along really well. If Har grows up and becomes a real knight, please serve as my bodyguard. I’ll pay you well!”

 

As she heard Elysia saying the same thing to her to Har, Lulien smiled involuntarily.

 

She thought all the noble children were arrogant and selfish, but Elysia wasn’t like that at all.

 

If she grew up like this, Lulien thought it would be fine to work for her.

 

Har also seemed to have similar thoughts to Lulien. He was silent for a moment and then nodded.

 

 

He was blunt, but it was a definite answer.

 

Har also had his own stubbornness, so if he didn’t like it, he would refuse even if he had a knife in his throat.

 

Elysia also smiled brightly whether she was aware of that fact.

 

“Great. I’ll try too. So that later when I grow up, you guys will want to work with me. So let’s keep going together. Yes?”

 

Although they knew it was the words of a seven-year-old child, they couldn’t refuse. In fact, they didn’t want to say no.

 

“Okay.”

 

“Uh.”

 

Lulien ans Har nodded their heads as if possessed by something.

 

Perhaps they were possessed by the bright, positive energy emanating from Elysia.

 

But after that day Elysia did not appear at the nursery anymore.

 

***

 

“She’s not coming today.”

 

Gluing her doll’s eyeballs together, Lulien glanced towards the door.

 

Seeing that Har continued to glance at the door, it seemed that he was also waiting for Elysia.

 

It had been five days since Elysia had not come to the nursery.

 

At first, she thought that she never knew what was going to happen, so the director, who wouldn’t let them work, started to put the children to work after two days.

 

It was not long before the orphanage returned to its original state.

 

The smiles that had bloomed for a moment on the children’s faces disappeared, and the nursery was filled with somber air.

 

It was surprising, Lulien thought, that the absence of a girl could change the mood so much.

 

Still, she was uneasy, and on the third day, the director, who had someone to check the Marquis’s residence, acted more aggressively than before.

 

She did things that she had never done before.

 

To deal with the rush of work, the children had to work from waking up in the morning until going to bed without being able to rest.

 

If the children showed even the slightest bit of longing for Elysia, the director would swear and scold them ferociously.

 

She said, “Wait a hundred days and see if that girl comes back. Wake up and get your job done!”

 

However, Lulien and Har could not agree with the director’s words.

 

If it was Elysia they had seen so far, she wasn’t a child who would easily change her mind, and she wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye.

 

When Har had an errand to run, he thought that he had to go to the Camelia house and meet Elysia, and then Lulien, who was working, made a mistake she didn’t normally make.

 

She had an eyeball attached to the doll’s forehead.

 

It was already too late to fix. And the sharp eyes of the director did not miss the mistake of Lulien.

 

“Lulien!”

 

The moment her own name was sharply called out, Lulien sighed deeply and stood up from her seat.

 

“I’m sorry, Director.”

 

Lulien bowed her head deeply and apologized, but the director didn’t seem to want to let it go. The director, who ran like a tiger, raised the three-eyed doll and began to harass her.

 

“Are you conscious or not? Do you know how much this doll costs?”

 

Then don’t make the little kids work.

 

For a brief moment, Lulien bowed her head and listened to the nagging in one ear and let it out through her other ear.

 

It was true that she made a mistake, but above all, the director’s eyes looked unusual these days.

 

It was because she was trying to figure out whether it was because of her and Har that Elysia came to the orphanage every day.

 

But after a while, Lulien forgot and lifted her head.

 

The words she couldn’t bear to hear came out of the director’s mouth.

 

“You’re being reckless without knowing your subject, but these days, you hang out with the aristocratic girl, and that’ll all you see. Did you think that immature girl would even take you away?”

 

“…”

 

“From the beginning, you and that guy were just disposable toys for that girl. You think you’re her friend?”

 

At the poisonous words, Lulien clenched her hands.

 

Why? She had heard words worse than this dozens or even hundreds of times, even then, she endured them well, but at this moment, she was terribly angry.

 

Lulien’s fern-like fists were clenched and her body trembled.

 

Even though she knew she shouldn’t respond, she couldn’t hold back her anger boiling from the inside and opened her little mouth.