My Dear Grand Duke on a Leash - Chapter 52

Chapter 26.2 — Best Bridesmaid (6)

“Huh? Shushu! Where have you been?”

As the lark settled comfortably on Riette’s index finger, Cain’s face turned as pale as a blank sheet of paper. He was all too familiar with that unique color.

“Why do you keep wandering around? What are you going to do if you keep wandering around and come across a hawk? From now on, stay inside.”

Riette, who had no idea what was happening, simply scolded her precious lark gently as if soothing it. After gently stroking his forehead with her index finger, she reached her hand towards the cage.

‘I should replace this cage once sister’s wedding is over.’

She didn’t want to see what Narkissis gave her.

Thud.

As a strange sound was heard, a long, black shadow loomed over Riette’s upper body as she glanced down at Shushu.

Turning her head, she sank into her bed, frightened.

“Kkyaak!”

On the windowsill, there was Cain.

A few leaves seemed to have stuck to his hair and uniform as if he had come over from a tree in that short span of time. At the same time, Riette held Shushu tightly in her arms, shielding him with her hand as she faced the man in front of her.

Her startled heart raced.

“Grand Duke…? How did you get from there to here… climbing up on a tree? In that gap?”

“That lark. Where did you get it?”

“Uh… it was given by His Highness Narkissis in a cage…”

“His Highness had that bird with him?”

“Yes, that’s right. Ah!”

Riette’s eyes lit up as if she had realized something.

“Do you know Shushu? Could it be that Shushu was originally a bird raised by the Grand Duke?”

Narkissis had originally gifted two birds along with the cage. One was a wheat-colored lark, and the other was a black lark. Given that cunning man’s nature, it was highly probable that he had stolen something from the Grand Duchy of Acheron and sent it to her.

Shushu was undoubtedly a very rare lark just by looking at the color of his feathers.

“It’s not a bird I used to raise…”

“Pprik!”

Shushu, who had been fluttering incessantly inside the glove, finally slipped through the gap in Riette’s hand. His tiny head poked out through the space between her thumb and fingers, and his beak pointed towards Cain.

And then…

“Eeek!”

In the blink of an eye, the weight seemed to suddenly settle on her arm as if a stone had landed on her arm, causing her body to sink downward and stumble as she subconsciously embraced it in her arms.

“Brother!”

A cheerful cry was heard right from within her embrace.

….?

Her comprehension couldn’t keep up with the situation. Riette struggled to regain her balance while looking down at her heavy arm.

There was a forehead. A round forehead covered with curly black hair, neatly arched eyebrows that were long and elegantly shaped, and soft cheeks that puffed out like dumplings. Short, stubby arms extending out in front of her, with hands resembling maple leaves.
[ T/N: Just in case anyone is confused, it’s not like an idiom, but this refers to small hands with narrow palms or short, thick, and chubby fingers. It was given this name because it resembles a maple leaf. ]

The green irises seemed to enlarge, almost popping out.

….!

It was a person.

A very young boy who appeared to be around four or five years old. In the place where there had been only a lark the size of a hand just a moment ago, there was now a young boy…

“What, what in the world is this…?”

Whether he heard her muttering or not, the child suddenly raised his head. His large eyes and round nose occupied half of his face. Apart from his curly hair, he looked remarkably like the young Grand Duke Acheron.

The child smiled brightly at Riette.

”Did the Princess bring my brother?”

….

“Uuuaaaak!”

“Princess!”

Her legs gave way. As Riette collapsed onto the bed with the child whose identity remained a mystery, Cain urgently leaned towards her.

The ceiling came into view.

˚ ･: * ✧ * :･ ˚

“It’s not a dream…”

Riette, with a cold towel on her forehead, lay deeply buried in the bed, lost in thought. Staring at the ceiling, she creakily turned her head to look to the side.

Next to the bed, the Grand Duke and the young boy were sitting side by side on a stool.

The child was roughly around five or six years old, and he seemed like a miniaturized version of Cain. The boy, wearing her nightgown and a pair of bloomers that had yet to be fastened, pouted with his chubby lips. It seemed he wasn’t particularly pleased with the fact that he, a respectable young man, was dressed in a lace-trimmed women’s nightgown.

Riette turned her head back to the ceiling. Her headache was dancing around her temples.

“This is the… weakness of the Grand Duchy of Acheron…”

Naturally, she hadn’t expected to find out like this.

Who could have even imagined it in the first place?

Political maneuvers, terrorism—those were things that happened in the realm of reality, right? To be blunt, what she was experiencing now could have been something that someone else, at some point in history, had gone through, even if it weren’t her.

Yet a lark turning into a person…?

And not just that, but had he originally been a person, then turned into a lark and now back into a person again? And…

“…This child is the Grand Duke’s five-year-old youngest brother, Aeacus Acheron?”

“Ugh, it’s Ian!”

When Ian raised one hand triumphantly and stood up from the stool, Riette’s flushed face was reflected in his large, shining eyes like a mirror.

“Princess, give me a hug! The Princess brought my brother?”

Ian grinned brightly, his face bearing a striking resemblance to Cain.

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