The Villainess Is Shy In Receiving Affection

“But why are you here so early in the morning?”

“Why do you even ask? You told me that the Duke’s Young Master would teach me how to write a letter.”

“You came here to learn about it?”

“Of course.
I promised you that I would write a letter as soon as possible.
If a future knight doesn’t keep his word, then I would be in trouble.”

He bragged slightly, saying, ‘This is also my Master’s teaching.’

“What do we do?”

Melody, however, seemed to be feeling troubled as she fiddled with the tip of her hair.

“Young Master did say that yesterday, but he was busy from last night until this evening.
I think he is going to send something to the academy today.”

So he told her that he would stay in his room until evening, because he had to finish everything before the carriage for mail arrived.

“Uh, is that so?”

But even after hearing her words, Isaiah did not seem to be too troubled.

“I don’t care.
Today is my day off anyway.
Then, Mel and I can play until evening like this.
Let’s catch up on things.”

Contrary to what she feared, he seemed to like it that Claude was busy.
It wasn’t really a problem for Melody because she doesn’t have any classes today….

“Oh… will you be in trouble? Is Mel busy too?”

“Uh, I’m alright, but the Young Master is really busy.
You might have to wait for quite a while.
He might be too busy and won’t be able to teach you today.”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It’s alright even though he might not be able to teach you?”

“So what? I can just stay with Mel.”

He smiled as he gently tickled the tip of Melody’s nose with the foxtail.
Melody squealed and laughed then ran away a few steps because it was tickling her.
Indeed, Isaiah and Melody played from morning until evening without getting bored at all back in their hometown.

Waiting for Claude would end up not being boring at all.

“Keke, alright.
Then let’s….”

Stay here together, is what she was going to say but the door of the reception room opened without a knock.

Turning around in surprise, Claude was standing over there while panting a little bit.
Looking at the dark circles under his eyes, he clearly had barely slept due to his busy work for the academy.

“Young Master?”

Melody looked at Claude in surprise.
He took a deep breath as he looked around the reception room – as if he was looking for something.
He immediately sighed in great relief.

That’s a relief, he muttered.
Melody thought about what he could be worried about.
When she remembered his character setting, she could easily come up with the answer.

“Lady Loretta didn’t come here.”

Claud must have been worried that the rude Isaiah and Loretta met, seeing that he had thrown away his busy work and rushed to the reception room.

Claude nodded in reply as if what Melody had said was right.

“That’s really… a relief.”

“But you don’t have to be so wary of Isaiah.
He was once the smartest kid in our village.
He won’t do much harm to her.”

Isaiah received a lot of higher education since he was young.
Of course, he was forced by his mother, the doctor.
There was a time when he was expected to be a ‘child who would become a future genius doctor’.
Melody naturally thought that Isaiah must be piled up with a lot of learning inside with various liberal arts and other knowledge taught by the doctor.

“Um, he was?”

Claude’s answer, however, seemed to not completely agree with Melody’s explanation very much.

As Melody stared intently at his slightly amused eyes, Claude moved his blue irises away from her and pointed to something sideways, as if telling her that there was a ‘reason for disagreeing with her’.

Melody turned around and followed to where he was pointing at.
She saw Isaiah at the end of his gaze licking the melted sugar left on the bottom of the teacup.
His eyes were twinkling with his tongue out, and his whole face was buried in the small teacup.
(T/N: uhm Isaiah… eww)

“…”

Melody couldn’t make any excuses about him and just stared at him.

Isaiah only removed the teacup from his face after he had finished off the remaining sugar in the cup – with a satisfied smile on his lips that were covered with sugar granules.
The interior of the teacup he had just put down was particularly shiny.
If anyone would look at it, they would even say that ‘It’s a very clean cup’.

Staring at that surprising figure, the voice of the grandpa butler came from behind Claude and Melody.

“Young Master, Miss Melody.
Miss Loretta wonders if it’s alright to meet the guest today.”

Only now was Melody able to understand why Claude had run to meet them a while ago.
She would have done the same as him.
Loretta now was at a time when she learned manners by imitating those people around her.
She shouldn’t see Isaiah’s bizarre behavior.

“No!”

“No!”

Claude and Melody shouted at the same time.

It was great that the two of them had perfectly matched thoughts, but there was one bad thing.

Loretta was already running down the stairs and into the room when she heard the loud shouts of the two of them.
She blinked her big eyes a few times, then started crying.

“Loretta… cawnt?”

“…!”

It must have made Claude embarrassed to have made his little sister cry with his own words, so he immediately started running over to her at a loss at what to do.
He spit out one word after another pathetically, just like a usual ‘fool for his younger sister’.

Like these things: Awww! My cute and lovable little sister! What can you possibly not do in this mansion! This brother of yours will listen to everything you say as much as how many times your tears fall!!

Melody was only a step away and heard the whole thing.
At that time, Isaiah had just come out of the hallway and poked Melody’s waist with his elbow, pointing at her crucial point.

“Your Young Master looks like he’s ruined by those baby habits, man.”

That was a pretty good point even if it was coming from Isaiah, who was also acting just as pathetic just now.
So, Melody couldn’t really argue with him.

 

* * *

 

With Loretta’s appearance, Claude and Isaiah’s interests matched for the first time.
Isaiah wanted to learn how to write letters quickly, while Claude wanted him to leave the mansion quickly.
The common word ‘quickly’ made them act quite hastily, and soon ‘Claude’s Writing Class’ was opened.

The friendly teacher Claude explained the basic form of a letter inquiring of one’s health and gave a few suitable examples.
Fortunately, Isaiah proved himself to have once been called ‘the smartest kids in the village’.
He easily understood the knowledge and know-hows Teacher Claude imparted.
Additionally, it wasn’t long after that before he started writing a letter by himself.

Scritch, scritch.
As the sound of Isaiah’s pen writing on his paper echoed, Claude handed a pretty piece of stationery in front of Melody, along with the words, ‘Why don’t you also write, Miss Melody?’

“I should?”

“Yes.
You have to actually try something to get it perfect.”

Melody glanced at the white paper he held out.
She usually never paid any attention to how wide the blank paper was, since she just had to transcribe characters into a book or record things and write them down.

But this is for a letter.
She was told to fill it up with her own words from beginning to end, so Melody thought that it was quite difficult for her.

“Don’t think that this is too hard.”

Was he aware of her feelings? Claude smiled and held the paper a little closer.

“It’s alright if you don’t fill this paper completely.
You can leave the empty space to the reader’s imagination.”

Melody still had a troubled face even after his encouragement.

“Miss Melody, do you not like the stationery by any chance? Shall I ask for something else?”

“No, it’s not that.”

Melody took the piece of paper he had given her and answered him with some awkward words.

“I can’t decide who to use it for.”

He faintly smiled at her honest answer – as if there was nothing for her to worry about.

“It’s pretty easy to decide.”

“Easy?”

“That’s right.”

He turned and opened a small drawer in the desk.
The ink bottle inside it rattled and shook.

“Think of a few things you went through.”

He picked out a bottle of ink and lifted it gently under the light pouring from the window.
It’s like he was checking the color.

Melody thought hard about what she had been through these days as she watched him carefully choosing the ink.
As such, what happened after she arrived at the Duke’s varied.

“Didn’t anyone help you during that time?”

He asked, then picked up another bottle of ink and checked the color.

The thing I received was… help.

“There are so many people who have helped me.”

“Then think about the most recent of them.”

Claude placed the bottle of ink he had been struggling to choose in between in front of Melody and Loretta.
‘I actually saved this one because the color is pretty,’ he told them with a smile.

“The most recent?”

“Yes, the most recent, Miss Melody.”

He cut off his sentence at an awkward part, then slightly leaned over the desk and stared at Melody’s face.

“I’m sure they’re very close.”

It seems that he wanted to convey something else from his perspective after she witnessed him emphasizing and repeating words accompanied by a meaningful look.

“Isn’t there anyone who helped you?”

“Oh….”

Melody looked down at Claude’s face and hesitated for a moment.
He waited for Melody’s answer without blinking an eye.

“Are you talking about someone close to me?”

“Yes, close – very close.”

He repeated the word ‘close’ when she asked him again.
That seems to be a great hint – someone close to Melody.

“Ah!”

To put it simply, it wasn’t that difficult to decide who to write her first letter to, as per Claude’s advice.

“Why did I even worry about such a simple problem?”

“Right?”

He straightened his bent back with a grin.

“Of course, I should use it for Miss Loretta!”

(T/N: The moment of truth! Hahaha now I wanted to see an illustration of a speechless Claude who can’t believe Melody would use her first letter to his younger sister instead of him lmao)
(E/N: He was so confident but he underestimated how much Melody adores Loretta lol)