The Kids Have Changed - Chapter 2

“Carol’s father is the one who will take care of me…”

In the novel, Sharon was taken in by Duke Gratoni, her maternal uncle, after the deaths of her parents.

“What am I to do? How do I keep myself alive? It might be faster for me to just die right now.” It was just talk though. I knew that I shouldn’t. I had told myself that I would not be so low-spirited any further.

I looked at the mirror again. “At least I’m pretty. Almost too much so.” I touched my reflection, and saw Carol’s face in my mind.

Thinking about it, that gloomy girl grew up to be so crooked because of her environment. Her parents, the Duke and Duchess Gratoni, each had their own lover. They neglected their only daughter, and they only took in Sharon because of what society may say about them if they had not. Furthermore, even Carol’s fiance, the prince, would cheat on her, casting her aside for someone else.

But right now, Carol was only eight. The last one hadn’t happened yet.

“Alright!” I’d raise Carol to be a proper and kind young lady.

Sharon of the novel had died because of Carol. Naively, she gave her wholehearted trust to her best friend, and the evil Carol abused Sharon’s trust. Carol would give Sharon a teacup to give to the heroine, but the gift was secretly laced with poison. In the end, Sharon was sent to the guillotine alongside Carol for being part of the plot, as the prince was not a fool.

I could prevent all of this by raising Carol up properly. Then, even if the prince falls in love with someone else, I wouldn’t die. And there would be other benefits, too. For example, Carol may not end up falling in love with the prince in the first place. Or, the prince may decide to return Carol’s love—

Huh. That’s actually a good plan. Carol can grow up to be the sort of woman that the prince can fall in love with. She wouldn’t harm anybody, then, and I wouldn’t be mixed up in all that mess. We would all be alive.

Suddenly, I felt confident. I spent ten years teaching the most fearsome beings in the universe, that being middle and high school students. With my skill, teaching one little girl can barely be called work.

“Hahahahaha…” Since I’ve taken over this life, I may as well live well!

Though… Where did the real Sharon go? Would she hate the direction I’m leading her life?

No. I’m making sure that she’ll live past twenty. The real Sharon should be grateful, I rationalized. First, I just had to live.

Chapter 1. Consideration of the main characters

“So, you are Sharon,” said Duke Gratoni, my maternal uncle. He looked me over and then turned away.

Honestly, what a dreary person.

“And did you say you are Madame DeJoue?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Take good care of this child. I will be her guardian in name until the child comes of age. Should you need an attorney, you can use my personal attorney or acquire one yourself.”

“Sir? Do you mean that I should handle Lady Sharon’s affairs myself?”

At Madame DeJoue’s words, Duke Gratoni’s eyes coldly scanned over me. “My obligation to my younger sister ends with me being her child’s guardian,” he said.

I couldn’t believe my—Sharon’s—mother had a family like this. It seemed that the only person I could trust was myself.

With that, the Duke left. Madame DeJoue saw him off to his carriage. I was still speechless.

“It appears that your uncle is a very busy man,” Madame DeJoue said.

Sure. Not too busy to have an affair, though. I couldn’t understand how someone so cold could have a passionate fling on the side.

Madame DeJoue tried to comfort me some more, but she soon had to go to take care of our luggage.

After lunch, we got into a carriage to leave for the Duke’s house.

I felt worried. If the Duke acted like that, how much worse would be his child?

***

Carol was exactly as I had expected: ignorant, discourteous, and self-occupied. After staring at me for a long time, she extended her hand, as if she expected me to kiss it.

“Excuse me, my lady, but she is not one of your maids. This is Lady Sharon, your cousin.”

“Does it matter? In any case, my father got her from Count Atrina,” said Carol stubbornly.

Got her? As if I was a pet, or some groceries that he picked up? This kid really had no manners. Carol stuck out the back of her hand toward me again. I sighed.

The way she put her hand out, wanting me to worship her and taking my respect for granted, was just as defiant and self-righteous as the girls I used to teach. Her eyes reflected her twisted heart, and I felt annoyed. It wouldn’t be so strange if I was rude to her, considering this body was 8 years old. But before I could say anything, Madame DeJoue suggested, “Let’s try to greet her nicely.”

Fine. I was 35-years-old anyway, and I could act maturely. I placed my right hand above my heart and said, “It is a pleasure to meet you for the first time.” I tipped my head slightly forward.

Of course, my voice did not reflect any pleasure. Considering the dark future of the child in front of me, and the death that she may lead me to, it was difficult to be happy.

“How sincere,” muttered Madame DeJoue, sotto voce.

I really did try, though.

As Carol and I continued to face off, Carol’s tutor came in between us. “Lady Sharon seems very mature. Lady Carol, won’t you follow directions as well? Can you try to greet her as we practiced?”

Carol ignored her tutor. She turned around and ran up the stairs to the second floor.

“Don’t give her any food,” she commanded. “She didn’t greet me properly, and it’ll be a waste to feed her.”

“My lady!” admonished her tutor.

What a nice young lady she is. Treating one’s cousin this poorly is a talent in itself. If Carol acted like this in front of her mother, she would be hit—but all things considered, this wasn’t too nasty. The Carol that I had read about was kind to Sharon, who was her first friend. She just didn’t learn any sense because everyone gave into her demands right away.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to eat?”

Carol turned around at my weighted question.

“What are you talking about?”

I had thrown a small stone to disturb the girl’s indifferent surface. With a sweet voice, I said, “Think about it. If I don’t eat, won’t you have to eat alone?”

I could see that my words got to her. I smiled victoriously as I saw her face, still full of baby fat, become confused.

Ever since she was young, Carol ate by herself at an empty table. The loneliness left a scar on her, and I knew how to affect  it. In my head, I had already organized my tactics to win her over and labelled them from 1 to 100. Right now, it was all about eliciting a reaction.

Her dark green eyes wavered. “What… What about it?”

I threw a second stone at the still-too-proud Carol. “I’ll eat with you.”

When I saw Carol wavering even more, I threw the final stone. “I can even cut your meat for you.”

“Madame Berna wouldn’t approve,” Carol said. “She says I have to do it myself.”

In a normal case, if a child is having difficulties cutting meat during a meal, an adult will help her. They would say, ‘Next time, you have to do it yourself! But I’ll do it for you this time.’ It’s an affectionate and loving promise that isn’t meant to be kept—they would keep helping as long as the child needed help. But Carol didn’t have parents, or any adults in her life, that would do that for her.

No wonder Carol ended up the way she did.

Madame Berna was the name of Carol’s private tutor. She was an unimportant character in the novel, so I didn’t remember her name until now. In the novel, Madame Berna had raised Carol like a sharp knife.

“Of course she would say that. She’s not a noble. But between us nobles, it doesn’t matter if I help you a little. I can cut steak really well, and I’ll do it for you until you become good at it. How does that sound?”

In other words, if she stopped being rude to me, I would do something for her that she hadn’t even known she wanted.

Well, this wasn’t enough to sway her yet.

“Mm. Then, we can read a storybook while eating fruit sorbet. Wouldn’t that be fun?”

“Madame Berna says we shouldn’t read while we eat…”

I stepped closer to Carol. Since she was a little shorter than me, I had to lean in to be face-to-face with her.

Madame Berna and Madame DeJoue flinched. They probably thought I was going to pull her hair. Honestly, these people…

I whispered to Carol, “It’s fine if we do it secretly.”

As a former academy teacher, I knew how much the word ‘secret’ appealed to young children. Carol looked shaken at my words. ‘Are you going to come over to my side now?’

I straightened my back and met Carol’s eyes. I crossed my arms. “So, what are you going to do? Will you continue to be mean?” I said this as if I didn’t care either way.

Carol squinted up at me, and I saw her lips quiver.

“…I’m hungry now,” she said.

It worked! I knew that it would. I let myself loosen my fist, which I had clenched sometime during the conversation. Right now, Carol was only a child, not a villain. It wasn’t too late to change her nature.

“Good. Let’s go eat. Madame Berna, could you prepare a meal for us now?”

“…Yes,” said Madame Berna. Her eyes were wide open. It was clear that she was surprised that I managed to win over the ill-natured Carol. Despite being a noble’s daughter, she’s still a child. Not realizing that fact was where Madame Berna had gone astray before.

***

From then, my life began to revolve around Carol. Carol was curious about me, and she didn’t want to leave my side. Now, we were in the study.

“What are you doing?” she asked.

Doesn’t she have eyes? I was clearly reading a book. Realistically, her question was a sign that she wanted me to play with her.

“I’m reading a book. You should read something, too.”

As I didn’t play into her whims, Carol tried again.

“What book is it? Why is it so thick?”

Luckily, I could read and write the language of this country. I lifted up my book to show Carol the title, ‘The Empire Today.’ The book was full of information that wasn’t in the novel, specifically history intermixed with personal opinions, so I was enjoying it a lot.

Hhmph. Wasn’t this judgment way too subjective?

As I turned my attention to the book again, Carol shook me and began to talk. “How are you reading this? It’s too difficult. Sharon, do you understand all of it?”

“Of course,” I said.

“How?”

“Because I’m more grown up than you.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” protested Carol. “Your birthday comes after mine, and we’re the same age!”

If I was really eight years old, that would make sense. However, Carol didn’t know that I had the soul of a 35-year-old woman. I put aside ‘The Empire Today’ and picked out a book that I thought Carol might like.

I had previously asked Madame DeJoue to bring all the children’s books from the Atrina household. Fortunately, the Duke allowed it, so the study was filled with child-appropriate books. And, today, I had succeeded in dragging Carol to the study.