Chapter 6

Ether could be taught by the tutors the imperial family sent over, but Iberin—being a fully grown adult—couldn't really learn from them without losing face.

There was no telling what kind of gossip they'd spread once they got back to the capital.

So even though Rotte's family had fallen, the fact that she came from noble blood and knew etiquette made her the natural choice for help.

"Lift your chin a little more!"

Rotte was an extremely strict teacher.

Normally she was the picture of a perfect lady's maid, but when she was teaching Iberin, she seemed to forget she was a maid at all and went at it without mercy.

Honestly, if she planned to stay at the Lecashe Grand Ducal Estate forever, neither etiquette nor the imperial language would matter all that much, but Ether would eventually grow up and meet the female lead, so he needed at least the basics.

There was no such thing as a clueless idiot second male lead. In the original novel, Ether's etiquette was described as flawless, and his mind was depicted as brilliant.

She didn't know for sure, but the tutors the imperial family sent over would probably keel over the moment they saw her Ether.

"Is it really hard…?"

"I-I'm fine."

"Roteee…can't she rest a little…?"

"She cannot."

It was brutal, but Rotte said that her body seemed to remember things, so she was picking it up quickly.

Whenever Iberin struggled, Ether would come along to watch the etiquette lessons and fidget anxiously beside her.

Still, having Ether watching from the sidelines gave Iberin more strength.

If Iberin so much as winced, Ether would whimper like he was the one in pain and trail after her wherever she went.

"Young master, would you like to step outside for a moment?"

"I'll stay still…"

When Rotte finally lost patience and prescribed banishment, only then would he go quiet and sit obediently in a corner.

After an hour of etiquette lessons, the moment Ether loved second only to mealtimes finally arrived.

"Imperial languaaage~"

Learning the imperial language.

The children's workbook had arrived not long ago, and they were starting with letter writing.

Etiquette was something the body remembered, so she'd picked it up quickly, but the imperial language was different.

For Iberin, it was a language she was seeing for the first time in her life, so the pace was painfully slow.

Yesterday she'd had a dictation test on simple words she'd memorized, and she'd gotten two more wrong than Ether.

"Hehe, my lady, don't worry too much, Ether will teach you!"

Ether said it excitedly.

"Yeah, Mommy's counting on you, Ether."

"Hehe."

During etiquette lessons there was nothing he could do but watch, so being able to help out during imperial language lessons seemed to make him happy.

"Lady Iberin, surely you're not about to lose to Master Ether in dictation again today?"

Iberin, who'd been smiling at Ether with a carefree expression, froze guiltily.

"I'll teach you even harder than yesterday."

"Ugh. Rotteee…"

Couldn't you let it slide just once? The words crawled all the way up her throat, but Rotte gave no quarter.

"Master Ether, if you do better than Lady Iberin in dictation today, I'll grant you one wish."

"What? Then go easy on her in etiquette class!"

"If you do well in dictation."

She was even good at handling Ether.

"Ugh, what kind of deal is that!"

Iberin protested instantly, but Rotte's expression turned cool.

"Don't tell me you're not confident?"

"……"

"Surely not. A fully grown adult like yourself, however much memory you may have lost."

Faced with Rotte's why so nervous? look, Iberin could only hang her head.

Honestly, languages weren't her strong suit and she wasn't confident, but she couldn't admit that in front of her own son.

Then again, when she thought about it, this whole setup had no downside for her.

Ether's wish was just for Rotte to ease up on her etiquette lessons.

I'm losing on purpose!

Iberin had neither conscience nor pride.

Rotte probably hadn't seen that coming.

Still, she figured she should know how to read and write at least some of the imperial language to be a mother her son wouldn't be embarrassed by, so she gave it her best.

She'd planned to deliberately get one or so wrong, but Ether was the genius the original novel made him out to be.

"Defeated yet again."

"Do you really have to rub it in?"

She hadn't expected the test to involve combining yesterday's words with today's to make simple sentences.

True to her Korean roots, Iberin was only good at rote learning, not anything active—and so she lost.

"Hehe, go easy on my lady's etiquette class, Rotteee…"

"Understood. In exchange, I'll have to push harder in imperial language lessons."

Ether tried to switch positions and said that wasn't fair, that she should go easy on both, but Rotte was unmoved.

"A mother who's less skilled at etiquette than her own son, and can't even read or write the imperial language. Is that really alright?"

She might as well have broken Iberin's bones with that one.

"It's fine for Ether…"

Of course, Ether said he was happy with Iberin just as she was, but a small child couldn't out-argue an adult.

"Even if you're fine with it, Master Ether, what will you do if other people look down on the lady of the house?"

"…W-well, that… Ether will protect her."

"How?"

"Just… well. We'll be together every day…"

"Soon I plan to bring in tutors for your education, Master Ether. What if those tutors look down on her?"

"…Hngh. Ether doesn't need tutors!"

"Lady Iberin said you do need them."

Ether finally seemed to run out of arguments and looked ready to cry, and Iberin had no choice but to step in.

"Ether, don't cry. Mommy will work hard too…"

Of course, what came out of her mouth and what she was thinking were two very different things.

I hate studying so muuuch….

---

Making a child do nothing but study wasn't good parenting either.

Apparently, the standard here was to give children things like puzzles and drawing for play, but Iberin firmly believed that kids needed to run around to be happy.

And Iberin happened to know plenty of good games.

Ether's latest obsession was a game called "{Mugunghwa Flower Has Bloomed}(#dtc5s0ej2vng)."

It wasn't fun with just the two of them, so she'd called in a few of the servants to join, and to her surprise, it turned out to be a hit.

The servants had been baffled at first—what's she scheming now?—but after a few days they were so into it that they actually bickered over who got to play.

Rotte couldn't watch anymore and suggested they settle it with ladder lotteries, but the problem was: with that many people, how long would it take to draw and pick the slips?

When she suggested splitting into teams, Iberin stopped her. Instead, she taught everyone a method of settling disputes called "Rock, Paper, Scissors."

The whole thing snowballed, and before each play session the servants now held tournaments to crown the day's champion. The biggest surprise of all was that Rotte—who seemed to be running the show—never missed a tournament and had even made the winners' list two days in a row.

"Let's decide who's 'it' with rock-paper-scissors."

"Alright, let's go!"

—Rock, paper, scissors!

"Aaagh!"

"Lady Iberin is it!"

It seemed even rock-paper-scissors had become a game in its own right.

Still, looking at the cheerful faces of the servants and Ether, Iberin's mood lifted too, and she threw herself into playing along.

"I'm going to catch every last one of you."

"There's no way you'll get us!"

A starting line was drawn, and Iberin turned to face a large tree.

"Mu~~~gunghwa"

The moment she called it out slow and loud, she heard everyone start scrambling, and Iberin's voice picked up speed.

"Flower has bloomed!"

She'd finished the whole phrase in about a second.

The instant she turned around, she spotted Ether frozen in an awkward half-step on his short little legs.

"Hweeeng."

His eyes met hers, and he stared at her with the most pleading look.

Wobble—

Ether's tiny frame finally toppled.

"Ether~ come here~"

No mercy, no exceptions.

He came over with a pout, but he seemed perfectly happy to take Iberin's hand, breaking into a hehe the moment their fingers linked.

"Ugh, so cute."

"Hehe."

The cuteness was so intense it nearly stopped her breathing.

After that, Rotte and Simons got caught one after another.

When there were only about two players left, Colin grabbed the link between Iberin's and Ether's hands and bolted.

Still just a small child, Ether couldn't run very fast, and Iberin matching his pace meant they lost everyone.

"Master Ether, hurry, get inside this line! You can do it!"

"Just a little more!"

"Whoaaaa!"

Everyone rooted for Ether as one.

Ether stomped the ground with all his might, and Iberin pretended to fume as if she'd just barely missed catching him.

It was world-class acting.

Ether shrieked with breathless, delighted laughter.

"Ether escaped…!"

"Well done. Marvelous work."

"Lady Iberin is it again."

In the end, Iberin spent the whole day as 'it.'

In fact, the first person to lose rock-paper-scissors staying 'it' for the whole game wasn't unusual—it had happened plenty of times before.

The game was for Ether, after all, so she'd been letting him have his fun.

---

Iberin felt relieved, watching Ether settle more and more into daily life.

There were more days he smiled, and she'd been feeding him well, so his cheeks had filled out into the kind of pudge that looked just right.

He still treated the word Mom like something forbidden and barely ever let it slip out, but Iberin was satisfied even so.

Because everything seemed to be getting better.

That was the night, after she'd let herself relax into that thought.

Iberin had been up late reviewing the imperial language.

She'd taken Rotte's verbal beatings, sure, but constantly losing to a son half her age wasn't a great look either, so she was putting in the effort.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been buried in vocabulary when—

A faint sound came from the next room.

At first, Iberin thought she'd imagined it.

But the steady, muffled sound kept going. Thinking maybe Ether had woken up, she went over to check and knocked on the door.

Knock knock—

There was no response from inside, but she wanted to make sure he was sleeping alright, so she opened the door and stepped in.

Until she saw him in the darkened room, clutching his knees and shaking violently, Iberin had been moving with a light heart.

"Ether!"

Startled, Iberin rushed over. Ether flinched, then opened both arms and threw himself into her.

"What's wrong."

He'd clearly been crying—his whole face was soaked.

"Mmh."

Ether couldn't get any words out, just kept burrowing into her.

His whole body was damp, so it looked like he'd had a nightmare. Iberin stroked and patted the tiny body again and again.

"Did you have a scary dream?"

She asked gently.

"Uuh, ugh."

A choked sob escaped him.

Iberin kept soothing him with it's okay, it's okay.

Telling him it was just a nightmare, that she'd take away every mean dream that bothered him.

After trembling for a long while, Ether slowly opened his mouth.

"In, in the dream…you weren't there."

"Hm?"

"My kind lady…she wasn't there…and I was sad, and scared, and what if when I opened my eyes she wasn't there…"