Chapter 39
“Chloe?”
Klein asked in surprise as his sister suddenly burrowed into his arms.
“Wow! Big brother, Chloe wants to play!”
Aveline clung even tighter to Klein, trying hard to ignore the piercing sensation at the back of her head.
“So the princess’s name is Chloe.”
The familiar voice was heard again from behind.
It sounded like he was trying to hold back laughter, sending another chill down Aveline’s spine.
“Ah, this is the person.”
The head butler’s cheerful voice was heard from the side.
“The princess’s new teacher.”
Teacher?
Was there such a character in the original story?
No matter how much she wracked her brain, there was never a teacher for Chloe in “The Tyrant is a Siscon”.
Unless she meets a male lead candidate after entering the academy later.
“I am Theron Ribes, who will be teaching the princess.”
At the sudden revelation of the name, Aveline almost let out a scream that rose to her throat.
As soon as she turned her head slightly, her eyes met with the other person’s.
Seeing Aveline in the form of a young child, a light of amusement rose in Theron’s eyes.
Theron seemed to have tried to look like a teacher, wearing a monocle and carrying a thick book under his arm.
“Do we really need to greet you now?”
Klein asked with a displeased face.
He seemed unhappy about the interruption of his time with his sister.
“Weren’t you worried about the princess’s magic control problem until this morning? He’s an expert we found after searching the entire continent.”
Magic control?
The setting of “The Tyrant is a Siscon”, which she had momentarily forgotten while being coddled, came back to her.
Unlike the Listoria Empire where Aveline lived, in this novel’s world, people with magical powers were common.
Among them, power was divided based on how much magic one possessed.
Klein, befitting a tyrant, was the owner of a considerable amount of magic.
His sister Chloe also had magic, but because she was still a young child, she only had a very small amount.
Later, when she goes to the academy and meets the dark wizard male lead candidate, she experiences a magic outburst and awakens…
‘Does it mean there’s a different problem with Chloe’s magic if they sought a teacher for magic control?’
Could it be a change that occurred because she became Chloe?
She had read a few novels where the protagonist’s transmigration into a book changed the flow of the story.
‘But this is just a dream, right?’
A world she could leave anytime when she wakes up, not one where she stays in the book continuously.
The premise that the plot could be twisted just because she stayed for a moment was something she had never considered before.
“The royal magician said it wouldn’t be strange if the princess had a magic outburst at any time.”
The head butler gave Klein another meaningful look.
The handsome brown-haired man’s face showed displeasure again.
‘No. Don’t consider it.’
Aveline shook her head at Klein, signaling not to send her to Theron.
“I don’t want to send you either.”
Klein looked truly troubled.
However, he seemed to have steeled his resolve at the mention that his sister could be in danger.
“If you study well, I’ll give you a present.”
Finally, Klein put Aveline down.
“I will guide you to the room where the lesson will take place.”
After Klein left first, the head butler who remained alone wiped the sweat from his forehead and led the way.
While he had his back turned, there was a palpable tension between Aveline and Theron.
‘How did you get in?’
She had definitely put up a barrier last time.
Despite Aveline’s sharp gaze, Theron just smiled as if he knew nothing.
“If you keep looking like that, your neck will hurt.”
Theron spoke after they had been staring at each other for a while.
As he said, Aveline, in the body of a five-year-old child, had to look up at Theron much higher than usual.
“This room here!”
The head butler, who had gone far ahead, looked back at the two.
The door he stopped in front of was not too far from here.
“Shall we go in?”
Theron asked in a kind tone as if really dealing with a young princess. Of course, it didn’t suit him at all.
When Aveline stood still and refused to move, Theron tilted his head.
“I was told to use a gentle tone with young children…”
The nuance was as if he knew which novel Aveline was in and had studied in advance, sending another chill down her spine.
“Ah, to be kind at eye level.”
As if remembering what he had studied, Theron knelt on one knee in front of Aveline.
As he lowered his body, their eye levels roughly matched.
Aveline, who had never seen Theron’s face this closely before, was flustered.
‘What? Why is he so close?’
No matter how she looked, it was a handsome face she couldn’t get used to.
Although Aveline had Edward as her favorite in her heart, she couldn’t help but be affected by absolute beauty.
After staring into Aveline’s eyes for a while, Theron stretched both arms forward.
Then he clapped his hands twice and showed his palms to Aveline again.
“Come here.”
At the same time, Aveline’s face scrunched up.
Isn’t this closer to dealing with a puppy than a young child?
“Come here.”
Theron spoke firmly.
“No!”
Finally unable to bear it, a grumpy voice burst out of Aveline’s mouth.
Normally, she wouldn’t have been able to express her dissatisfaction so openly in front of Theron, but being in Chloe’s form somehow gave her an inexplicable confidence.
She now understood what it meant when protagonists who transmigrated into parenting stories had their mental age lowered along with their physical age.
She felt more emotional than usual and kept wanting to throw tantrums and be stubborn.
“You’re quite a stubborn princess, aren’t you?”
Theron suddenly picked up Aveline as if he had no choice.
“Eek! Let go!”
Suddenly finding herself in Theron’s arms, Aveline was startled and struggled, but even that was quickly subdued.
“You’ll get hurt if you fall.”
In an instant, her eye level rose.
‘Was he this tall?’
Perhaps because she was in a child’s body, Theron’s eye level felt incredibly high. She had a fleeting feeling that it might even be higher than Klein’s.
As the surprised Aveline squirmed, Theron adjusted his hold once.
Surprisingly, it became much more comfortable to be held.
“I’m glad you seem comfortable.”
Theron chuckled lowly and moved in one breath to where the head butler was standing.
“Then I’ll come back after the lesson is over!”
As Aveline and Theron entered the room, the head butler quickly disappeared.
‘No, don’t go!’
Aveline cried out desperately in her mind, but the head butler had already vanished.
Thump.
As the door closed, only a quiet silence remained.
Her eyes met with Theron’s, who was still holding her.
‘Oh no.’
In his arms, the face-to-face distance was less than a span.
“Even this young appearance is quite cute.”
Theron spoke after a breathtaking eye contact.
“P-put me down!”
As Aveline, who had come to her senses, stomped her feet, Theron burst into laughter and let her go.
As soon as her feet touched the ground, Aveline scampered away and hid her body behind the sofa in the middle of the room.
“My, you like hide-and-seek, don’t you?”
Theron reacted as if he found Aveline’s behavior amusing.
“I didn’t know. Well, we did play hide-and-seek for a while thanks to the barrier you put up.”
Aveline’s ears perked up at the mention that the barrier had been effective.
“But I don’t particularly like hide-and-seek.”
However, the following words were frightening.
“Still, it was interesting. I didn’t expect you to be able to use my magic to that extent in such a short time. Your learning speed was quite impressive.”
Aveline, crouched behind the sofa, heard Theron’s footsteps getting closer and closer.
In sync with that, Aveline’s small heart pounded heavily.
‘This is too much tension for a five-year-old’s body to handle.’
Aveline, covering her small head with her chubby arms, swallowed hard.
‘Wait. Why am I hiding? What did I do wrong?’
Thinking about it, she had no reason to avoid Theron.
Although she had absorbed his magic and used it to put up a barrier, it was Theron who had invaded someone else’s dream on his own.
‘Okay. Let’s be confident.’
Aveline, having made up her mind, raised her crouched body.
Even as she did so, the footsteps were getting closer.
The leisurely footsteps, seemingly taking their time, were even more irritating.
“Stop!”
Aveline raised her heels and urgently poked her face out between the sofa’s backrest.
“Don’t come any closer.”
Aveline, whose tongue and speech had become as short as her shrunken body, warned with as much dignity as she could muster.
Theron, who had come right up to the sofa, really stopped and stood without coming any closer.
Slightly relieved at this, Aveline continued speaking.
“Explain everything about what’s going on.”
What were magic control and outburst, and why had Theron suddenly appeared as a teacher when he wasn’t in the original story?
“Alright.”
Theron nodded.
This easily?
As Aveline tilted her head in confusion at the unexpected response, Theron closed the distance in an instant.
Theron sat on the sofa and looked down at Aveline, who had poked her head out between the backrest, with interested eyes.
As she met his suspiciously shining blue eyes, an ominous premonition flashed through Aveline’s mind.
“I’ll answer what you’re curious about. In return, please grant one of my requests.”
Theron’s long finger pointed at Aveline.
More precisely, somewhere on her face.
