This Three-Year-Old Is A Villainess - Chapter 136
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I was crouching in the corridor, resting my chin on my knees.
‘I really have nowhere to go.’
Deianira told me she would pick me up at five. There was still plenty of time until then.
‘I should have brought a book with me.’
Because of all the stuff I packed was for Alexis, that annoying guy, there was no room for even a single book for me.
The instructors, dressed like prisoners, kept glancing at me.
Even though it’s a training facility pretending to be a prison, maybe I was being too obvious.
A child dressed as a prisoner stopped when he saw me.
“Oh? It’s that lady.”
He was the child who was with the chief—the man in guard attire I just talked with—when I first came to the Egret Training Facility.
The child crouched down in front of me.
Looking at him up close, he seemed incredibly young.
He appeared to be about Alexis’s age.
“Who?”
When I asked, the boy grinned.
“I’m a squire.”
A squire was someone who runs errands by a knight’s side while learning the sword.
‘Isn’t he too young, though?’
“Bwut youw a baby.”
The boy laughed, curling his lips as if saying who are you calling a baby.
“I’m a prodigy. Call me Luca.”
“Hewwo.”
“Are you waiting for the chief?”
I shook my head no.
“Really?”
“Awesis towd me to go, so I waitin’ fow toiym to pass.” (Alexis told me to go, so I’m waiting for time to pass.)
“Wow, you must be really bored. Do you know how to play chess?”
I nodded.
Luca got up with a smile.
“Come with me. I have a chess set in my room.”
Luca looked around.
“Anyone else wanna come?”
Then, boys’ faces popped out from behind a corner.
“Damn, I’m dying of envy. I wanted to talk to her.”
“She’s a noble lady but talks to kids like us.”
“Hey, we’re going to be knights too.”
“The older brothers say once you serve the knights here, you’re set for life.”
The boys chattered among themselves, unable to approach me.
I looked up at Luca.
“I dun wike it if is uncomfy.” (I don’t like it if it’s uncomfortable.)
“Why would anyone be uncomfortable? Who wouldn’t want to be around such a cute lady?”
Luca leaned in slightly and grinned at me.
‘He’s really easy to talk to.’
He has a knack for making people feel comfortable.
With a cat-like face and eyes that slightly lift at the corners, he’s the type that would be popular when he grows up.
“Would you mind if those kids came over?”
“Is owkay.”
Luca nodded at the boys.
“She says it’s okay.”
The boys hesitantly approached.
I quickly got up.
I walked down the corridor with Luca and four boys.
“Wow…”
“Wow…”
The boys kept staring at me, and I felt a bit embarrassed.
Luca chuckled, covering his mouth with his fist.
“It’s because they’ve never seen a noble lady before.”
“Squi-uh awso?” (You’re also squires?)
Squires stay at noble mansions doing errands for knights.
“We’re all orphans. We lived at the Boucherz orphanage, but it burned down and we had nowhere to go.”
“…”
“The knights here took us in.”
“…”
“I don’t know if we can really become knights, though.”
Luca shrugged.
Luca’s room was close by.
He offered me a chair on one side of the table and brought over the chess set.
A wooden chessboard and pieces he had carved himself.
One of the boys told me,
“Luca made these. He’s really good with his hands. He even sharpens all our pencils.”
It seemed like the boys really looked up to Luca.
Luca ruffled a boy’s hair. His smile was refreshingly cheerful.
‘Ah, if such kids were reborn in Korea, they’d probably become idols.’
The image of Han Ji-hyuk I had imagined as an idol disappeared from my mind.
We started playing chess.
Luca was excellent. Should I say he has a broad view?
I thought chess was a privilege of the nobility, but maybe that was a prejudice.
‘He could probably even match Joshua, the best chess player at the duke’s castle.’
I pondered long on my turn.
‘If I place it here, the queen will be captured, and over there is the rook…’
Time ticked away steadily.
As my turn neared its end, I reluctantly moved my queen back to protect it.
But right after moving, I groaned, “Ugh.”
‘I’ve placed it in a position where it could be captured by a knight.’
Luca, being good at chess, would likely seize such an opening immediately.
Seeing defeat becoming inevitable, my expression fell.
But then, Luca moved a bishop instead of the knight.
‘Huh?’
Did he not notice?
No, he had glanced at the knight briefly earlier.
Luca squinted one eye as if in regret.
“Ah, I could have captured that with the knight.”
‘He’s going easy on me.’
It seemed clear why everyone followed Luca so well.
As we continued our game of chess,
“Ow!”
I yelped as I touched a chess piece.
Perhaps a splinter had pricked my finger; it stung sharply.
Luca quickly pushed the chessboard aside and came over to me.
“Let me see—”
Just then,
“Erylotte.”
A familiar voice came from the doorway.
Turning my head, I saw Alexis.
“Are you hurt?”
“…Jus a wittow.” (Just a little.)
“May I look?”
Though he had told me to go earlier, what good would it do to fuss at such a young one? I nodded.
“…Owkay.”
Alexis carefully spread my hand open.
“No blood. We’ll apply some medicine when we get back.”
“…”
“Let’s go. I’ll walk you to the front.”
