#28

“Who is it?”

Leonia asked, picturing the baby beast hiding behind the door.

But no answer came.

Instead, there was only a stifled giggle.

Well, well—Leonia narrowed her eyes.

“Who dares play a prank on the next Duke?”

She opened the door with a stern voice, but no one stood in front of her.

Instead, she pretended not to notice the little lump beneath her, breathing quietly and wriggling in place.

“That’s strange...”

Is this place haunted? Leonia muttered seriously as she closed the door.

And when she turned around—

“Grr!”

The baby beast, who had somehow gotten behind her, pounced and clung to her leg.

“Grr, grraaah!”

Belleani let out a fearsome growl and clutched Leonia’s pants with her little fingers, all tensed up.

“Oh my gosh, you startled me!”

At Leonia’s dramatic yelp, Belleani’s eyes sparkled. Her lips curled into a wide grin, showing off her small, white teeth.

“Lea caught you! Hunted you!”

“When did ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) you even sneak in? You scared your sister!”

Belleani puffed up with pride at her successful hunt. The hair on her crown bounced with extra shine.

“But where’s your nanny?”

The puffed-up baby beast averted her eyes.

“...Ugh, you little rascal.”

Leonia picked Belleani up in her arms.

Surprised, Belleani’s eyes widened as she let out a startled “Uwaaa!”

Then she burst into giggles.

“Connie.”

Leonia rang a bell and explained the situation when Connie arrived.

“As I suspected, you were here.”

“Everyone’s been looking for Lea, haven’t they?”

“Master said there wouldn’t be any real trouble, so I guessed she’d be with you.”

“Tell her nanny not to worry and to take a rest. I’ll give this one a proper scolding.”

“Understood.”

After Connie left, Leonia set Belleani down on the sofa she’d been sitting on earlier.

“When you want to go out and play, you have to tell your nanny.”

“No! That’s boring!”

Belleani declared boldly.

“I can practically hear Mom’s heart burning with worry from here.”

Leonia let out a hollow chuckle. There was no denying the blood of the Voreoti line.

“Well then, how about a kiss from your sister?”

Leonia pulled Belleani into a tight hug and showered her with kisses on the cheek.

“Kyaaa!”

“Lea’s cheeks are so soft, I might just eat you up!”

“Haha! Ahahaha!”

As Belleani burst into wild laughter, she swung her little fists.

“Stop it!”

She hissed like a kitten, her brows tightening in a prim expression.

“Bad sister!”

“What a temper you have.”

Just like Dad, Leonia thought with a dramatically offended expression.

“Sister, say sorry to Lea!”

The baby beast put her hands on her hips and commanded sternly.

“I apologize.”

Leonia bowed her head.

“If you do it again, spankie time!”

“Yes, understood.”

“Grown-ups shouldn’t do that!”

Though her crisp pronunciation made her sound unbearably cute, Leonia feigned intimidation.

“But I’m not a grown-up yet?”

“Still, sister’s not a baby.”

Lea is a baby, but sister is not.

Having delivered her final and very firm judgment, Belleani snorted through her nose.

‘That part’s just like Mom.’

Leonia chuckled softly.

“Sister.”

Then, Belleani pointed to the drawings scattered on the table.

“Pretty mister?”

She used her chubby finger to point at the man in the picture.

“...Yeah.”

The image brought back a problem Leonia had momentarily forgotten. She explained the drawing.

“It’s a picture of the pretty mister trapped in a birdcage.”

In the drawing, Scandia sat on a swing inside a large birdcage, his neck and wrists bound by thick black leather straps and cuffs.

“Oooh.”

Belleani nodded solemnly, not understanding but deeply engrossed.

Her gaze at the drawing was serious, almost profound.

“Belleani Voreoti.”

Leonia lowered her voice.

Belleani, who was about to scribble with a pencil, flinched.

“You have a very important mission.”

“Mission!”

The baby beast stood at attention.

She mimicked the knights when they received an order from Ferio.

“You’re a very smart and cute baby, right?”

“Yup!”

She nodded not once, not twice, but three times to affirm that she was indeed that baby.

“Then, among these—”

Leonia quietly pulled the sharp pencil away and laid out three of her earlier drawings.

“Pick the one that suits the pretty mister best.”

“What’s that?”

Belleani asked in awkward formal speech.

“A gift for the pretty mister.”

“Gift!”

“Also known as a restraint.”

“Kyuuu!”

Only now did Leonia understand why her father wanted to shackle her mother.

“So pretty! Lea wants one too!”

“You want to wear one?”

“Uuuuh-uh, I’ll give it to my doll!”

Leonia smiled brightly.

They really were daughters of a yandere.

While the second daughter of the Northern yandere picked out restraints, the eldest daughter leaned against the sofa, blankly watching her.

Her rapid muttering of incomprehensible words was cute—but the restraints Belleani held, for neck, hands, and feet, were not.

‘This isn’t because of my prenatal care.’

Sometimes, when Belleani showed these odd tendencies, Ferio would resent his wife and eldest daughter.

‘Who reads those kinds of novels and looks at those drawings during prenatal care?’

Those novels were gay fiction.

Those drawings were muscular-on-muscular erotica.

But Varia and Leonia, who’d pushed for their “extreme prenatal education,” didn’t think that was strange at all.

“Hmmm...”

Belleani stuck out her lips as she seriously debated which restraint would suit Scandia best.

She truly was Ferio’s daughter.

‘I knew it from the womb.’

Belleani had been an unusual baby even before she was born.

‘Of course, I’m still the scariest one.’

Leonia gave a self-deprecating smile.

It was true.

Sometimes, even she was frightened of herself.

There were moments when the obsession and madness lurking deep inside made her shudder.

Am I really this blindly in love?

To possess such a fatal weakness as the next master of the North...

If Ferio heard this, he would’ve clicked his tongue and said, “Where the hell did you pick up something that strange?”

Even Varia, who fully supported her daughter’s taste, would’ve hesitated and said, “Ah, that might be a bit...”

But Leonia was truly worried and afraid.

I was too hasty.

Just seeing Scandia with another woman had turned her mind completely blank.

The only reason she hadn’t stormed in, hurled the woman out, and torn Scandia’s tendons was thanks to her self-control.

It was probably that girl.

The cousin who had impersonated the princess in Scandia’s place because of his noble features.

She’d seen her a few times at the Academy—even exchanged nods more than once. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

It was only after she’d stormed back to the northern estate that she remembered who the girl was.

Still, what rubbed her the wrong way—

She pretended to be the princess in Scandia’s place...

She was embarrassed by her own pettiness, but that aside, just the fact that the girl knew a past of Scandia that Leonia didn’t made her a target of dislike.

“......”

While Leonia was sinking into self-loathing—

“Sister!”

Belleani held up the restraint she’d chosen.

“This one!”

What the baby beast carefully picked was a plain black restraint with no decorations.

At the end of it, a long iron chain coiled like a snake.

“Give this to the pretty mister!”

“Lea, your taste is excellent.”

Belleani didn’t know what it meant, but she smiled brightly, knowing she was being praised.

“Keep it classic, always.”

Sometimes the most basic tools, focused on pure function, were superior to flashy ones.

“Sister, can I color it?”

“Except this one.”

Leonia readily handed over the rest of her drawings to her sister.

With crayons in both hands, Belleani colored the pictures with pretty shades.

The black and pink in her hands slowly filled in the image of Scandia in the birdcage.

She has a good sense of color.

Leonia let out a soft laugh.

“Our Lea, who taught you to draw this well?”

“Sister!”

Watching her little sister focus all her attention on coloring the exposed chest under the open shirt, Leonia was reminded once more that family really is everything.

“Sister.”

Lying on the sofa with her eyes closed, Leonia cracked one eye open.

Over Belleani’s round bobbing cheeks as she leaned forward, the little voice reached her.

“When’s the pretty mister coming?”

“You’ve got your sister here—why do you keep asking for him?”

“Because he’s pretty!”

“You really are my sister.”

Leonia sat up and planted a kiss on her sister’s head.

“I want to see him too...”

***

But Scandia never came to the North.

“......”

As a result, Leonia’s mood had grown sharp enough to not just split the Northern Mountains in two—but grind them to dust.

You’re not coming?

It had already been well over a week since their parting.

Still, Leonia had tried to be generous. She had been a bit rash herself.

But Scandia didn’t come. He didn’t even send a message.

“Don’t go near the young lady today.”

Even before morning training, Mono warned the knights of the Gladiago Order.

Even without that warning, the wise Gladiago knights had already given up any thought of approaching their mistress—wounded in love.

Leonia was in a truly savage mood.

Even the knights kept their distance—let alone the regular staff, who flinched and avoided her quietly.

She had already destroyed three sofas in fits of temper.

Her icy expression practically screamed cross me and die, causing some newly hired servants to burst into tears on the spot.

Even Connie and Mia, who had cared for Leonia for years, were now treading carefully around her.

“Look at that temper.”

Having heard of the staff’s troubles, Ferio finally stepped in.

He summoned Leonia to the office.

“This is exactly why I wonder how I could ever hand this seat over to you.”