Chapter 14
“It’s only natural that the Second Wife said no. You’re only fourteen, after all. A fourteen-year-old should behave like one and stay quietly at home.”
Her voice dropped to a mumble as she added,
“Anyway, the only reason I brought up the Head of the Household back then was because of that. There’s no other way unless you appeal to someone higher up. And since it’s hard for you to even meet the Head of the Household… that’s why you should focus on the Nega family’s only son!”
I returned to the bedroom with Olga, who was chattering noisily at my side.
It couldn’t be helped.
If I couldn’t train outdoors, then I’d train indoors.
As I moved my body and worked up a sweat, my head felt clearer.
‘But… she said it’s hard for me to meet the Head of the Household? Even if I live in the annex, I’m still his granddaughter. Why would that be difficult?’
I finally understood what Olga meant around lunchtime.
A servant came with a message:
“By order of the Second Young Master: As punishment for leaving the estate without permission, you are now prohibited from stepping outside the annex unless you have his explicit approval.”
What the hell?
“Why me?”
I asked casually, and the servant lifted his chin with a smug expression, as if Roman’s authority was his own.
“It is the Second Young Master’s command.”
“This is the main residence. What am I supposed to do, drag my sick body back to the annex right now? Are you threatening me? A young lady of House Tusslena?”
As I listed things one by one and leaned in, the servant’s high-flying chin gradually began to lower.
“I-I was just delivering the Second Young Master’s order…”
“So you’re using that order as an excuse to threaten me, aren’t you?”
“Wha—! Th-That’s ridiculous! I merely passed along the command. If you disobey, that’s your responsibility—”
“I’ll go straight to Grandfather and tell him. That a servant yelled at me and tried to intimidate me.”
“……”
The servant’s face turned pale.
“T-The Head of the Household wouldn’t believe such a ridiculous claim…”
“We won’t know until I tell him.”
Perfect. I just found a great excuse to meet Grandfather.
I nodded toward Olga.
“Olga? Take me to Grandfather’s office. Right now!”
I marched off confidently, but when we arrived at the office, no matter how many times I knocked, there was no response from inside.
Frustrated, I flung the door open.
“Young Miss!”
Olga jumped, startled by my bold action.
‘Just as I thought. Empty.’
The Head of the Household’s office was just as grand and elegant as the drawing room.
Bookshelves lined with books and maps filled both walls, rare antiques and displays of whiskey lined the interior—this was clearly a room someone lived and worked in.
‘Should I go back?’
Technically, staying in an unoccupied room without permission was bad manners.
After a moment of hesitation, I called out to Olga, who was nervously fidgeting outside.
“I’ll wait for Grandfather here. Go back to the room, Olga.”
“B-But Young Miss! You can’t just stay in here like that—!”
Click.
Olga knocked several more times, but once I kept ignoring her, she eventually stopped.
Where had the Head of the Household gone?
‘Come to think of it… she said the Nega family’s heir was visiting. Maybe he’s with him?’
Given the unfamiliar uniforms mixed in at the training grounds, the visitors from the Nega family had likely already arrived.
If Grandfather personally greeted them, then the guest must be a near-certain heir to their family.
I cautiously began exploring the Head of the Household’s office.
It looked like he’d stepped out in the middle of work.
The desk was cluttered—thick books, rivaling history texts in size, lay open, and papers written in a foreign language were scattered across the surface.
‘Hieroglyphs?’
Why were there so many of them? And why so complicated?
The drawings he had copied onto multiple sheets were all the same.
Beneath one of them, the translated note read:
“Possessed by the strongest self.”
‘…Is this philosophy?’
When I shuffled through a few more sheets, I found an old notebook.
The hieroglyphs written inside were even longer and more complex.
As I stared blankly at it, I realized something—the sentence Grandfather had copied appeared right at the center of the notebook’s first paragraph.
‘It’s a translation.’
Even as the Head of one of the Four Great Houses—surely far too busy already—he was doing translation work himself.
That was unexpected.
“…Hmm.”
Maybe I could use this.
I gathered the book from the desk and made my way over to the sofa.
“Ugh… it’s heavy!”
There was a reason the thing was absurdly huge—it seemed to be a dictionary of those hieroglyphs.
And judging by the “Volume 1” printed on the spine, there were likely several more dictionaries of this size.
“Alright. Let’s read.”
Opening the first page, Rin began blindly memorizing the hieroglyphs written at the very beginning.
How much time had passed?
Click.
The owner of the office had returned.
“We’ll have the Phantom Knights stationed at the annex, just in case. If anything goes wrong—”
The Head of the Household was giving instructions to his aide when he spotted Rin.
Feeling a bit guilty, Rin jumped up and spoke first.
“Grandfather!”
“…Yana?”
Feeling just as guilty, Rin quickly ran up to him and flashed a big smile.
“I missed you, Grandfather! You weren’t here, so I was just having a look around.”
The Head of the Household, slightly startled, dismissed his aide and stepped inside.
Glancing around the room, he picked up the dictionary tossed on the sofa and scolded her sternly.
“Yana, it’s not proper to wander into someone’s room without permission. Be more careful next time.”
“I will.”
Rin answered obediently, and his expression softened a little.
Sitting on the sofa, he let out a deep sigh and rubbed his brow before gesturing to her.
“Come here, Yana. How are you feeling? Is anything still hurting?”
“I feel great.”
“That’s a relief. But it’s not like you to come find me like this… No, wait. Is there something you want to tell me?”
There was, but she had no intention of saying it.
If she brought up the unfair punishment Roman gave her…
‘Grandfather would just say it’s not his place to interfere.’
Saying she’d tell the Head of the Household had only been to scare the servant.
If Roman had even half a brain, he’d keep his distance for a while.
People with a lot to hide tend to get very cautious when things seem even slightly suspicious.
Rin gently tapped her grandfather’s tired-looking shoulder, then casually asked,
“Grandfather, I was wondering… Those drawings in the book earlier—what country’s hieroglyphs are they from?”
The Head of the Household, who had been silently enjoying her shoulder massage, let out a surprised laugh.
“You’re already able to recognize that?”
“It’s nothing. But… are you really studying that? You’ve got so much to do already. Isn’t it exhausting?”
“Learning never ends, Yana.”
With a small smile, he turned his gaze toward the desk.
“You seem interested. But even if you learned Gonradic, it likely wouldn’t be much use to you. Hmm… come to think of it, you’re about the right age to start formal lessons. Has your Second Uncle arranged for a tutor yet?”
“I haven’t had any lessons.”
Olga told her, so it must be true.
Yana didn’t have a tutor. Why?
Because a clever puppet loses its value as a puppet.
As Roman’s puppet, Yana didn’t need to learn anything.
The Head of the Household looked at her with a puzzled expression, slowly stroking his chin.
“Well, you did collapse after eating poison recently… I suppose recovery should come first.”
‘Recovery, my foot. They just don’t want to teach her.’
He really trusted Roman that much?
Roman must’ve spent years feeding him believable lies.
That’s why Rin needed to approach things more carefully now.
Even if she exposed Roman’s cruelty, the Head of the Household wouldn’t believe her right away.
The Second Son he knew wouldn’t do something like that.
‘Right now, taking Roman down isn’t the priority.’
She needed to build trust with the Head of the Household—
To make him turn his attention back to Yana.
To make him Yana’s ally.
If she could pull that off, Roman’s crimes would eventually reveal themselves.
“Don’t worry, Yana. Roman will find you a good teacher. But if you really want to learn hieroglyphs, I’d recommend ancient scripts over Gonradic…”
“I already memorized it.”
“…What did you say?”
