Chapter 113: After Dinner
After Rachel had eaten her fill, she sat contentedly at her kids’ table and chair, which was much taller than a regular chair. She swung her legs with satisfaction.
She thought she had eaten the fastest because she practically wolfed down her food, but when she finally put down her fork and looked around with a toothpick in her mouth, she was surprised to see that Armand and Evelia had already finished their dinner. Even their plates and utensils had been taken away by the servants.
Armand didn’t eat much, so of course he finished quickly. Just a few bites and his healthy meal was gone.
Of course, that amount of food wasn’t nearly enough to fill him up. But later, when it was time to take his medicine with water, the medicine would be enough to make him feel full.
As for Evelia, her eating speed had been trained back at the House of Nightingales. As a top assassin, even something as simple as eating had to be done with skill and precision.
Not only did her moves in battle need to be fast and accurate, but even during meals she had to be the same way, steadily picking up the food, delivering it to her mouth with perfect aim, and then taking firm bites and swallowing it. She barely chewed at all and just swallowed everything, but because of her professional training, even when she ate so fast, she made no sound while chewing.
“......”
Thinking about how she had just stuffed her face in front of everyone, Rachel now felt a little embarrassed and shy. She had been smugly holding a toothpick just a moment ago, but now she lowered her head, quietly took it out of her mouth, and dropped it on her plate with a soft ding, wishing she could disappear into the floor.
‘It was just dinner, why did I have to be so messy about it…! It’s not like I’ll never get to eat again. It was just food!’
Now that she was full, Rachel fell into what people call a “wise man’s time”, that moment of regret after doing something silly.
She even patted her little round belly, which had bulged from eating too much, and thought to herself, ‘Good thing I have an alchemic body… I don’t have to worry about gaining weight.’
But even so, eating too much at once could still lead to indigestion...
After being hungry for so long, suddenly eating a lot could easily cause stomach discomfort. It wasn’t a serious problem, but it could still be pretty uncomfortable.
So—
“Dad, can you take me for a walk?” Rachel asked Armand.
That’s right, she asked only Armand.
Rachel didn’t ask Evelia to come with them. She just wanted to know if Armand could take her out for a short walk to help her digest. Honestly, if Evelia came along, Rachel felt like she might actually get indigestion instead.
“Go out?” Armand glanced out the window. “You want to take a walk? It’s getting late, so I can’t take you far. But if it’s okay with you, we can walk around the garden.”
“Okay! Dad, let’s go!”
Rachel raised both arms like she was waiting to be picked up. Armand gave a helpless smile, stood up, and started walking toward her.
But before he could reach her, a pink blur rushed in and scooped Rachel up faster than him.
It was obvious who it was. It was Evelia, who had just been sitting across from Rachel.
Evelia thought that she can’t let her cling to Mr. Armand like that again.
The moment Rachel raised her hands, that sentence popped into Evelia’s mind, along with a loud mental alarm.
“Eve, do you want to come with us too?”
“......”
Evelia had originally planned to take Rachel away by herself. But after hearing Armand’s invitation, she paused mid-step, looked at him thoughtfully, and after hesitating for a few seconds, nodded.
“Yes, Mr. Armand.”
Technically, she should’ve left with Rachel right away to be safe. But for some reason… she agreed to Armand’s invitation.
By now, Evelia had already walked around Armand’s estate so many times she’d lost count. During work, she rarely left the place, and her special duties meant she had to know every detail of the estate. So for her, this place was almost as familiar as the House of Nightingales.
Although she had spent much more time at the House of Nightingales, for Evelia, this estate was the second longest place she had ever stayed, after that “home” she could barely even remember anymore.
Time had passed so quickly. She had already been "Evelia" for quite a long while now. Even though she had gotten used to this identity and was familiar with her current life, even though she had become used to staying by Armand’s side, deep down, she still knew this was all just a fleeting dream.
Being around the Second Prince and being around Armand gave two completely different feelings. While both of them were technically her “masters,” Armand never gave off that suffocating and oppressive aura.
Anyone would prefer being in a relaxed environment, and Evelia was no exception.
Even though the Second Prince had made her someone too afraid to run away, that didn’t mean she had never thought about it.
She was just too scared of what would happen if she did.
After a bird with broken wings has once tasted the sky, would it really be content to break its wings again and stay on the ground forever?
“Eve.”
“—Ah.”
Before she knew it, Evelia found herself standing in front of her own room.
“I was planning to walk around the garden with you both, but you seemed pretty eager to come back,” Armand said with a small smile, like a bird in a hurry to return to its nest.
He had originally planned to take both Evelia and Rachel on a little walk to help them digest after dinner. But seeing Evelia silently heading straight back to her dorm, he didn’t say much. He just quietly followed alongside her.
“Master Armand, Miss Evelia, we’ve already moved the child’s bed over. Miss Evelia, please open the door so we can place the bed inside.”
Not long after Evelia returned to herself, she saw the old butler standing in front of her room. Beside him were a few strong young men standing next to a small wooden bed.
“To make it easier for you to take care of Rachel,” Armand explained, “I asked the old butler to bring over a little bed. We’ll just put it here for now. But if it’s not comfortable, there are still empty rooms in the main building—”
“There’s no need to move to the main building, Mr. Armand,” Evelia shook her head. “This is fine.”
The main building was a bit farther away from her dorm. Although she couldn’t constantly keep an eye on Armand from here, at the same time, anything that happened on her end wouldn’t easily reach Armand either.
Moving into the main building might make it easier to monitor her, but Evelia didn’t want Armand to have his eyes on her all the time.
Even though she was always careful not to expose herself, she couldn’t be completely sure that she wouldn’t slip up during this long assignment. So keeping some distance like this actually felt safer.
With a soft click, Evelia opened the dormitory door. The old butler waved his hand, signaling the young men to help set up and secure the wooden bed. While they were working, the old butler even took a moment to playfully chat with the Rachel in Evelia’s arms.
After all, he was the one who had actually picked this child up. And besides, old people tend to like children, so the old butler was naturally interested in Rachel.
Rachel felt the same way. A kind, elderly grandpa figure naturally made people feel safe. Even though there was a big age gap between them, the butler’s face had such a kind and gentle look that Rachel didn’t mind spending time with someone way “younger” than her.
“Little one, your name is Rachel, right?” the old butler asked with a cheerful smile.
“Yes, I’m Rachel! That’s my name,” she answered proudly.
The two of them kept chatting back and forth. Eventually, the old butler, just joking around, asked like he was playing with a child.
“So, who do you like more, your dad or your mom?”
“Of course, I like my da—”
Rachel almost answered without thinking. After all, when you compared the two, Armand had clearly treated her much more kindly.
But before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her stomach. Evelia had pressed hard on her full belly, like she was trying to squeeze the food right out of her.
“...I-I like my mom!”
For the sake of survival, Rachel had no choice but to give an answer she didn’t really mean.