A Clumsy Rabbit and a Familiar Face
“Shall we play hide-and-seek?”
“Hide-and-seek?”
Lefonya’s eyes sparkled for an instant. Quickly catching herself, she tried to rein in her mounting excitement as she spoke.
“Ahem. You mean… um, where everyone except the seeker hides, and when they shout they’re ready, the seeker tries to find them?”
She recited the definition of hide-and-seek in a valiant effort to sound calm and composed. While she managed to smooth the eager expression from her face, her little body swayed from side to side in pure delight, completely giving her away.
Felence pressed his lips together to stifle a laugh and nodded.
“That’s right. The game where you hide and seek.”
Lefonya bounced lightly on her heels, rocking with anticipation.
It was a game she had desperately wanted to play as a child, but it had been utterly impossible to play alone.
There had been no one to search for her, and no one for her to find.
Nor could she have ever asked the children her age to join in. To the children there, Lefonya was never family or a friend—only a rival to be eliminated.
“I’d love to!”
Terrified that Felence might change his mind, Lefonya nodded vigorously. Blushing slightly at how loud her voice had been, she nonetheless tugged on his sleeve in eager haste.
“Then is it just the two of us? Who’s the seeker? When do we start?”
Felence cupped a hand over his mouth, holding back his chuckles.
“Just the two of us is a bit few, don’t you think?”
“Huh? R-really?”
Wasn’t hide-and-seek a game you could play with only two people? Feeling sheepish, Lefonya let go of his sleeve.
Smiling warmly, Felence took her small hand and surveyed the grounds. He called over Birdie and Becky, who were waiting at a distance, along with several knights who had been in the middle of training.
A lively group gathered in no time.
Among them stood the formidable knight—possessing the skill of a vice-commander—whom the Duke of Craitan had previously intended to assign as Lefonya’s personal escort.
‘Seeing him up close, he looks even bigger than he did before.’
While his height was comparable to Felence’s, his massive, hulking frame radiated an overwhelming sense of intimidation. What a relief that Felence had taken over as her escort; had this imposing knight been assigned to guard her, she would have lived in constant terror.
Lefonya stole a nervous glance up at him, only for their eyes to meet.
“My Lady.”
“H-huh?”
Lefonya flinched at the rumble of his deep voice.
“His Grace informed me that he intended to assign me as your personal escort, but the appointment was canceled.”
“Uh? Ah… y-yes, that’s right.”
“Did I displease you?”
Lefonya swallowed hard. Having weathered all manner of harsh trials since childhood, she rarely frightened easily, but feeling this intimidated simply by looking at someone was an experience she hadn’t had in years.
‘S-so scary.’
Lefonya shrank her shoulders inward. Noticing her distress, Felence stepped behind her and gently patted her tense shoulders, reassuring her without a word.
The moment she registered Felence’s presence at her back, the suffocating tension melted away.
‘Wait, did I just find comfort in that second-born troublemaker being here?’
While Lefonya was still reeling in disbelief at her own reaction, the knight held something out toward her.
“I prepared this for you, My Lady, but was unable to present it. I have carried it with me ever since, hoping to give it to you whenever we met.”
Delivered in a gruff voice and with a solemn, stony expression, what rested in the center of his massive palm was a tiny yarn rabbit doll, barely the size of a child’s palm.
“Because I carried it about for so long, it has become somewhat soiled. Forgive me.”
Just as he admitted, it was rather scruffy. Lefonya accepted the yarn rabbit doll in a daze.
It was unmistakably handmade rather than bought; loose strands of yarn poked out here and there, clumsy knots were exposed, and the weave was noticeably uneven.
“…Did you make this yourself, by any chance?”
The knight’s towering frame twitched.
“My skills remain unrefined. If you grant me another opportunity, next time I shall craft one so flawless you cannot tell it from a master’s work.”
Gasp, he really did make it!
Lefonya stared back and forth between the tiny knitted rabbit doll and the hulking knight in utter astonishment.
Felence chimed in with an amused chuckle.
“Sir Canwell. Didn’t you hear that you need permission before offering gifts to our little one?”
“I have not, My Lord.”
“Of course you haven't, I just made it up. From now on, I’m Ponya’s escort, so if you want to give her a present, ask me first.”
“Understood.”
“Don’t worry, Ponya. Sir Canwell might look like that, but he has an enormous soft spot for cute things. The moment he heard he might be assigned as your escort, he was probably so thrilled he started knitting that right away.”
Lefonya peeked at Sir Canwell, who gave a solemn nod of confirmation. Looking closely now, beneath his deadpan visage, there seemed to be a faint, gentle sparkle in his eyes.
“I-I’ll treasure it.”
Lefonya hugged the doll awkwardly to her chest. There were dolls in her bedroom, but she had never dared touch them, convinced they belonged strictly to the ‘real young lady’ and not to an imposter like herself.
‘Since this was given directly to me… it’s alright for me to keep it, right?’
She gently stroked the yarn rabbit doll nestled in her arms. At that sight, the corner of Sir Canwell’s stern mouth twitched ever so slightly.
Felence watched her with a fond smile.
“You never seemed to touch the dolls left in your room. Do you like this rabbit, Ponya?”
He had already noticed even that? Unable to confess that she avoided them because they belonged to the ‘real daughter,’ Lefonya simply nodded.
“Y-yeah.”
“This is the first time you’ve ever said you liked something.”
Was it?
Seeing her tilt her head in contemplation, Felence grinned with immense satisfaction.
“Right then. Shall we play hide-and-seek?”
As if she had been waiting for those very words, Lefonya’s eyes flashed with excitement. Felence raised his hand.
“I’ll be the seeker first.”
The fourth round of hide-and-seek was underway.
Wearing an expression of grave seriousness, Lefonya sprinted forward, cradling the little yarn rabbit doll securely against her chest.
Pitter-patter, pitter-patter.
The adorable rhythm of her small feet kicking up from the path echoed through the air. Watching her dash past with a streak of dirt smudged on her cheek, scanning her surroundings with utmost vigilance, the watching maids and knights melted into puddles of adoration.
“Our young lady is truly pouring her entire heart and soul into hiding.”
“That’s where she was found last time, though. She’ll get caught again if she hides there. How precious.”
“Ah, I just want to tuck her away and hide her myself.”
Sensing their gazes, Lefonya whipped her head around. Meeting the eyes of the swooning servants and knights, she raised a stern, tiny index finger.
Then, she pressed it firmly against her lips.
“Shh.”
At her adorable gesture demanding their silence, everyone clapped their hands over their mouths and nodded enthusiastically.
Naturally, Lefonya was far too absorbed in the high-stakes game to pay their reactions any mind.
‘Caught three times already!’
Four rounds played, and she had been discovered in every single one.
A crushing, humiliating defeat.
For Lefonya, who had spent her formative years masking her presence from watchful eyes, shaking off pursuing knight orders, and surviving entirely in the shadows, getting caught three times in a row was a devastating blow to her pride.
‘There are just too few places to hide here.’
Biting her lip, Lefonya tapped her tiny fist against the unforgiving dirt path in frustration.
Because the game had started in the center of the gardens, the only available hiding spots were flower beds or behind trimmed shrubs. Sir Canwell had hidden by leaping high into the branches of a towering tree, and the maids had blended in by pretending to be on duty, but Lefonya could do neither.
‘If I had my original body, I could easily scale trees! And I’m brilliant at disguises, too!’
Of course, had she possessed her true body rather than this five-year-old form, she would never have been running around playing hide-and-seek with everyone in the first place.
‘Where on earth should I hide?’
Fiercely determined not to be found this time, Lefonya snapped her head around, searching for an escape route.
Her eyes landed on the estate’s annex.
‘Can I go all the way over there?’
Well, nobody had explicitly forbidden it, right?
Her hesitation was brief. Evading the line of sight of Felence, who was currently counting down, Lefonya scampered on swift little feet straight toward the annex.
Slipping past everyone’s notice, she quietly eased the annex door open and stepped inside.
Click.
Back when she was prowling the estate searching for the family heirloom, she had reached the threshold of this building once before. But seeing the thick coat of settled dust indicating that nobody ever visited, she had turned back. After all, if Duke Craitan had frequent reason to come here, the dust would never have remained undisturbed.
‘Since nobody comes here, not even Felence will be able to track me down.’
Smiling inwardly in smug triumph, Lefonya ventured deeper into the annex.
As she progressed down the corridor, the heavy, stale scent of dust saturated with humidity drifted through the air. The familiar, musty odor of old mold and long-settled neglect hung thick all around her.
It was unmistakably a place abandoned by human presence for many years.
‘Why do they leave this building untouched without maintaining it at all?’
Without a single candle lit, she had to rely entirely on the pale sunlight filtering through the tall, narrow windows to survey her surroundings.
‘It’s furnished with remarkably fine things, though.’
From the lush carpets underfoot to the crystal chandeliers, the imported building materials, and the decorative ornaments—everything was of the highest caliber. Even the architectural layout showed unmistakable signs of extraordinary craftsmanship and expense.
‘What was this place used for?’
Having forgotten all about hide-and-seek, Lefonya tilted her head in curiosity and slowly began ascending the grand staircase before her.
It was dim, but to Lefonya—who had endured brutal conditioning navigating pitch-black subterranean chambers while evading predatory beasts—a little shadow was nothing.
Her small feet padded up the steps. As she climbed past the landing, a massive portrait hanging dead center captured her entire gaze.
Lefonya lifted her chin.
In this forgotten annex where time itself seemed frozen, this single portrait alone was immaculate, free of even a single speck of dust.
“This is…”
“It is a family portrait painted when Her Ladyship was with child.”
Lefonya whipped her head toward the voice. Standing on the stairs above, descending with a dry cloth and a lit candle in hand, was the duchy's butler.
“It has been some time, My Lady.”
Lefonya bowed her head in a formal greeting, her sharp eyes assessing the butler with quiet scrutiny.
She had been certain that no living soul frequented this building, yet here was the head butler tending to it.
‘What was the butler doing here? And what is that dry cloth for?’
The butler offered a faint, gentle smile and stepped down beside her.
As the candlelight drew near, warmth washed over the scene, and the portrait that had been obscured in murky shadows leaped into vivid, brilliant clarity.
Lefonya followed the glow, lifting her gaze to take in the painting.
There was a young Habelian as a child, and a mischievously grinning Felence. Beside them stood the Duke of Craitan in his younger years, carrying a soft, tender smile.
And at the center of the composition sat a woman.
‘That person…’
Lefonya caught her breath, staring dumbfounded at the woman’s face. Luscious, wavy platinum-blonde hair and vivid ruby-red eyes that gleamed like cut jewels seized her vision entirely.
“Laila Craitan.”
The butler’s quiet voice broke the silence.
‘Laila?’
It was an intensely familiar name. It was the very name the Duke of Craitan had whispered the first moment he laid eyes on Lefonya.
“She was the mistress of this estate, the mother of the two young masters, and the late Duchess who was His Grace’s one and only love.”
Even as the butler’s words registered, Lefonya found herself incapable of uttering a single sound.
‘She… looks just like me.’
Laila Craitan.
The face of the late Duchess, the former lady of this great house, bore a terrifying, undeniable resemblance to her own.