Chapter 20

One day, about a week after Cain and Ilvaleno started dedicating their post-dinner time to embroidery practice, Dian came into the room.

"Big brother! Please play with me!"

She held an illustrated book, a stuffed animal, and a small blackboard in her small arms, fully prepared to play.

"Dian, weren't you practicing embroidery with Mother?"

Cain put down the embroidery frame he had been working on, ran to Dian, and knelt down. He stroked her head and hugged her along with her toys, sniffing the top of her head.

"Embroidery is boring..."

When Dian said this with a sad face, Cain tilted his head in surprise.

At first, Dian had enjoyed learning embroidery from her mother, Elise. As a duchess, Elise was busy during the day and rarely had time for Dian. They often spent meal times and tea times together, but Cain was usually there, and sometimes her father joined as well.

However, during the time Elise supervised her embroidery practice, Dian could have her all to herself. Dian was enthusiastic and eager to get praise from her mother.

But then...

"Embroidery is boring?"

"You said we would draw on the fabric, but all you talk about is straight lines. Mother lied."

(Hey, aren't these puffed cheeks super cute? Isn't she a real angel? Even when she's angry, isn't she a treasure of humanity?)

Cain turned to her with this expression, and Ilvaleno responded by turning his head away, as if to say, (Listen to her seriously.)

"Dian, Mother didn't lie. Come here."

"Big brother?"

Cain stood up, took Dian's hand, and led her to the low table. He picked up a piece of fabric from the pile of practiced embroidery and showed it to her.

"Look, this is what Big Brother embroidered. Can you guess what it is?"

It was a piece where he had practiced basic stitches and curved stitching. Only the outline was visible, but it formed a picture.

"A rabbit with short ears!"

"No, that's a bear... Ow!"

"That's right! A rabbit with short ears!"

Actually, it was a bear. Ilvaleno, who was about to say it was a bear, was crouching behind, holding his nose, but Cain ignored him. If Dian said it was a rabbit, then it was a rabbit.

"And this one is a rabbit with long ears!"

"A rabbit!"

Dian had a favorite illustrated book called "Why Are Rabbits' Ears Long?" The story began with a rabbit with short ears, which eventually grew long. Dian had referred to the bear embroidery as the rabbit from the beginning of the story.

"Did Big Brother do this embroidery?"

"Yes. Look at this one."

"Ah! Stop it!!"

Cain took another piece of fabric from the table and showed it to Dian. It depicted a butterfly flying, drawn with thick chain stitches.

"A butterfly!"

"That's right! A butterfly. You figured it out. Dian is so smart and knowledgeable. This was done by Ilvaleno."

"By Il?"

While being petted by Cain, Dian looked up at Ilvaleno with wide eyes. Ilvaleno, feeling guilty, averted his gaze and mumbled, "Yes, but..."

By the way, the reason Ilvaleno is called "Il" is that when he returned to the mansion as a servant, he was told not to be called "Il-ni-sama," but Dian couldn't pronounce it and called him "Ilvaleno." Since her mother, Elise, also called him "Il," Dian ended up calling him that too.

"See, Big Brother and Ilvaleno can draw on fabric. Why don't you try drawing with thread and needle, Dian?"

"I will! Dian will draw!"

"Great! What will Dian draw? A rabbit? A bear?"

"A rabbit!"

"Alright! A rabbit it is!"

Cain moved the bookstand from the seat and had Dian sit on the sofa. He took a piece of white fabric and placed it on the table, then gave Dian a colored pencil.

"First, draw a rabbit on this fabric."

"Okay."

Dian happily drew while humming a tune. Cain, sitting next to her, removed his own fabric from the frame.

When Dian proudly showed him her work, "I'm done!" Cain took the fabric, placed it in the embroidery frame, and handed it back to her.

"You've been practicing straight stitching with Mother, right? This time, you'll follow the lines Dian drew and stitch along them."

"Follow the lines? Not just straight lines?"

"You don't have to be straight. It's okay if you go off the lines. Let's try it, okay?"

"Okay!"

Dian held the needle in her small hand and started stitching. To prevent her from pricking her fingers, Cain occasionally guided her hands holding the frame and the needle. Watching her earnest effort, Cain almost cried out in admiration, arching his back dramatically.

The rabbit, already skewed in the drawing, became even more endearing with the wobbly running stitches. Cain added a bow tie to the rabbit's chest, and Ilvaleno scattered small flowers in the gaps. Dian looked at the embroidery frame, now a collaborative work titled "The Stylish Rabbit in the Flower Field," with a delighted smile.

"Dian's drawing became a real picture..."

The rabbit was quite skewed, but Dian seemed moved, looking at it from different angles, holding it up to look from below, and laughing at the messy back.

"Mother didn't lie, did she?"

When Cain leaned in to ask, Dian nodded and smiled.

"I'll show Mother!"

With that, Dian left the room with the embroidery frame.

Cain and Ilvaleno looked at the open door.

"The embroidery frame was taken. Should we go to bed now?"

"…Yeah. We've been practicing late into the night…"

Cain let Ilvaleno help him change into his nightclothes (as part of his training as a servant to dress his master) and got into bed. Ilvaleno's room was a servant's room connected to Cain's, but he usually went back to his own room through the hallway. The door between the rooms was hidden to look like a regular wall, used only in emergencies. Now, however, he returned through the hallway.

There was still a month and a half until the embroidery event.