Carren fell silent for a moment.

Solemnly, his reaction implied that he hadn’t expected anyone to point that out in this situation.

Leciel broke the silence once more towards Carren.

“A man does not speak in two words with one mouth.”

As if questioning whether he had forgotten their agreement, Leciel gave Carren a subtly pressuring look.

“…I know, Les… sie.”

Why was something as trivial as an nickname so important to be painstakingly pointed out?

Especially in this situation.

Carren found it absurd.

It was embarrassing for him to call her Lessie in front of his father.

If he was the father who particularly liked her and wished for him to become closer to her, even the simple act of calling her by name surely had significance.

Carren’s predictions were accurate.

Before he knew it, Kael was amazed by Carren’s behavior of even creating a nickname <Lessie> for Leciel.

Although he thought Leciel, who had captivated his heart, could become close with Carren, he hadn’t expected it to happen so quickly.

He seemed to have underestimated Leciel.

Moreover, just a moment ago, Carren had even caught Leciel, who seemed to be falling, faster than himself.

The original Carren wouldn’t have cared whether she did or didn’t.

During the short period of time, Leciel seemed to have captured some of his son’s interest.

Meanwhile, Leciel smiled satisfactorily as if she simply liked being addressed properly by Carren.

She could have simply let it go, but she believed that every relationship started with a nickname.

She wondered if by calling each other by their first names affectionately, they might become closer.

The most distinct and vivid line that could be drawn between people was through nicknames.

“Well then, let’s go inside.”

Carren said indifferently, as if nothing had happened, while putting Leciel down.

He felt that if he wasted too much time, his father might say something unnecessary.

Kael understood Carren’s intentions, but he merely chuckled and said nothing else.

Rather than saying something to his frog-like son, he knew that pretending not to notice was more helpful for the two to become closer.

Soon after, Kael naturally held Leciel’s hand and entered the shop.

“Welcome.”

The owner greeted politely, surprised by the elegantly dressed guest rarely seen here.

“I’ve come to buy clothes for a girl.”

“Is the girl you’re referring to this child?”

“Yes.”

The owner gave a subtle expression upon Kael’s answer, who was holding Leciel’s hand.

Unlike Kael and Carren, who looked like nobles at first glance, the girl looked very shabby.

Although her cloak seemed quite luxurious, her untidy hair and worn-out shoes suggested otherwise.

A dress for such a girl…

From her appearance, she didn’t seem to be his daughter.

With a moment of doubt, the owner quickly composed herself, not wanting to miss out on such a rare customer.

“Do you have a particular design in mind?”

“Well…”

Kael seemed lost, not knowing what to choose for a girl’s dress.

Quietly, Carren called out to him.

“Father.”

“Why?”

“Isn’t the opinion of the person in question the most important?”

Carren said this knowing that if it were his father, he would have simply asked for a dress that suited the girl or was the most popular.

“Well, that’s true. Kid, what kind of dress do you like?”

“I like dresses with lots of jewels!”

Leciel immediately replied without hesitation to Kael’s question.

“I didn’t know you like jewels.”

“Who doesn’t like jewels?”

Jewelries were great. Of course, cash was better.

But since they were here to buy a dress, they couldn’t ask for cash.

“I don’t particularly like them.”

There was no reason to like something expensive and useless.

“Because you’re rich, that’s why. I’m not, so I like jewels.”

“Why?”

“Because they’re money?”

“You don’t need to worry about money.”

With her background, she would be swimming in money once she entered the Grand Duke house.

According to the contract, from the moment she entered the house, she would receive a monthly salary ten times that of ordinary attendants.

That alone was a significant amount of money.

The Grand Duchy was generous with its employees, so those who worked there received salaries that could not be compared with those of other noble families.

Ten times that amount should suffice for her needs.

“You never know what will happen. So, you should start saving money for retirement in advance.”

Although Grand Duke Kael had promised to be her guardian until she became an adult, if things continued as in the original story, the family would collapse before then.

And if the family collapsed, she would have to live out the rest of her life with the money she had saved, which meant she would have to save as much money as possible.

She would need money to buy a house and so on.

Of course, she was trying to prevent things from going as in the original story, but you never knew with people.

The more money, the better.

“… do you know that you’re only ten years old?”

It was too early to start preparing for retirement.

Kael looked somewhat puzzled.

“It’s better to start preparing for retirement as soon as possible.”

“Even so, there’s no need.”

He had no intention of cutting off support for Leciel even after she became an adult, and even if retirement planning was necessary, he would take care of it.

“Anyway.”

Unable to tell Kael what she knew about the original story, Leciel casually muttered.

“Well, whatever the reason, there’s no reason to refuse what you want.”

Even if she just liked jewelry because it was pretty, he could afford to pile them up like mountains.

With the Grand Duchy’s wealth, he could easily handle that much.

So, it wasn’t a big deal to buy a dress adorned with lots of jewels.

After a while, Kael asked the owner to bring dresses focused on ones with lots of jewels.

A few moments later, an employee brought out several dresses.

“Is there one you like?”

“Yes, I like them all.”

So much so that it was hard to choose just one.

Especially since this was the first time she had seen proper clothes.

Just looking at them made Leciel like all the dresses before her.

Of course, what she liked most was the jewels on the dresses.

“In that case, buy them all.”

“All of them?”

“Yes.”

It was only five dresses.

Considering that Leciel didn’t have a single proper dress, that wasn’t enough.

So, Kael asked the owner to bring more dresses.

He didn’t know how long they would be here, so it was better to buy plenty of dresses to avoid running out.

The employee brought more dresses, and Kael said he would buy all of them.

At first, Carren didn’t say much about Kael’s decision, but as it repeated several times, he couldn’t help but try to stop him.

Leciel also seemed burdened by Kael’s decision.

Even if he promised to support Leciel with everything she needed until she became an adult, this was too much.

“We’ll return to the capital soon, so we don’t need to buy so many at once.”

At this rate, the carriage would be full of dresses when they returned to the capital.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Kael tilted his head as if he didn’t understand.

“Bringing all that up to the capital would be a chore in itself.”

Although the transportation of the dresses was the employees’ job, it would slow down the carriage.

“Why bring them up? We can buy new dresses when we get to the capital.”

The dresses bought here were temporary and meant to be worn during their stay at the villa.

Because this place was far from the capital, the quality of the dresses themselves was lower than those sold in the capital.

It was unsatisfactory for Kael, who wanted to give Leciel only the best.

“Then, we don’t need to buy so many, do we?”

“Yes, but you seem to have bought quite a lot without my permission, so let’s end it here.”

Kael said this regretfully.

“It wasn’t quite a lot?”

If they bought a little more, there would be no dresses left in the shop.

‘Well, there’s no way around it.’

Seeing Kael bought and still seem dissatisfied, Carren shook his head slightly.

If Leciel said she wanted a doll later, he might end up buying an entire doll shop.

He didn’t think it was to this extent when he was younger.

But he didn’t feel jealous at all.

Carren was glad that Kael didn’t do this for him.

If he had, he would have been annoyed and told him to stop being so obsessed with money.

“But… uncle, are you just going to leave all of that here and go?”

“We might come back here again.”

“But what about all that left behind?”

“You’ll have more dresses when we get to the capital.”

“Still.”

Those were expensive clothes, not just a few pennies.

Moreover, she was in her growth spurt, and when enough time passed, she wouldn’t be able to wear them again.

Even if they bought more dresses when they got to the capital, considering the jewels on the dresses, it was too wasteful.

Sensing Leciel’s feelings, Kael spoke up.

“If you want, you can take some with you.”

“Great!”

It would be nice to take all of them, but there were so many dresses.

Still, taking some would be better than leaving them all behind.

“Then, for now, why don’t you choose one to wear right away?”

“Well, since you bought it, uncle, please choose for me.”

“I think this one will suit you.”

After pondering for a while, Kael chose a cute dress with yellow lace and ribbons.

“Your… taste is…”

Although she was only ten years old, as someone who was mentally older, she felt a bit overwhelmed by his choice.

But she was the one who asked Kael to choose a dress for her first. And Kael didn’t seem to have any intention of choosing another dress.

Leciel, unable to help, decided to wear the dress Kael had chosen.

Soon, Leciel was guided by a store employee and headed to the locker room to change clothes.

The employee also went inside the locker room with Leciel to help her change.

In the meantime, Kael quietly waited for Leciel to come out with Carren.

He was looking forward to seeing how cute Leciel would look in the dress he chose.

But that was then.

“Stop moving!”

Leciel’s voice rang out from beyond the dressing room.