Thank You For The Confinement, Grand Duke! - Chapter 15
Translator and Editor: Effe and Nabi
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Chapter 15
Roll, roll.
Could it be because I took a nap yesterday afternoon and had a good night’s sleep? Or was it because I have no worries anymore?
I couldn’t sleep.
Even when I woke up at five in the morning, my eyes were always heavy and tired, and I wanted to go back to sleep. However, even though now that the opportunity to sleep more has come, my eyes were wide awake…
Was this what they call ‘reverse psychology?
“Umm.”
Enfrise, he wouldn’t come today, right? I couldn’t go meet him either since I wouldn’t even know if he was awake right now.
Tambor might be awake, but I feel bad about disturbing her.
“Uuummm.”
Roll, roll.
This was the time when I should be able to read a book. The last time I tried drawing was in high school. Should I try getting some paper and watercolors? Or maybe there was some board game here?
Board games…
Would Enfrise know how to play board games? He probably knew how to play chess, right? I didn’t, though.
Well, I could learn. If he didn’t want to play, I could draw. Since I wasn’t trying to impress anyone, I could draw whatever I wanted. Still, if I was really bad at it… No, there were Picasso-like paintings, right? Let’s insist it was art.
“Good morning, miss. May I come in?”
“Please, come in!”
As I responded cheerfully to Tambor’s voice, the middle-aged maid, with a faint smile, entered the room.
“You’ve woken up early again today. Did you find the bedding comfortable?”
“Yes! It’s better than before.”
“His Grace has been worried about you.”
…Enfrise? I slept well yesterday, too, so why was he so concerned about it? If it were uncomfortable, I would’ve talked to him about it.
“It seems like the Grand Duke thinks too much.”
“…As you say, miss. He has spent too much time alone, so his mind has become active. It would be good if he could express it a bit more.”
Alone?
As a Grand Duke, he must be one of the most distinguished people after the Emperor… wouldn’t people be eager to talk to him? Was there something going on? Well, if he had gone through a trouble-free upbringing, he wouldn’t kidnap and imprison people just because he likes them.
Alone… Usually, in situations like this, there was some extraordinary power or a secret of birth that others didn’t have.
I wondered which it was.
“By the way, Lady Tambor.”
“Yes?”
“Could I meet the Grand Duke for a moment?”
Tambor’s eyes widened.
Could I do that…?
Oh, right. While she was confined, Chaperil did all sorts of things to get herself released, so it wasn’t that strange for Chaperil to want to meet Enfrise.
“I have something I’d like to ask.”
“May I inquire about what it is, Miss?”
Hmm, well, I guess it doesn’t matter.
“I’m alone, so I’m a bit bored. I was wondering if there’s something I could do.”
“I see… Do you have anything specific you’d like to do?”
Should I ask if there are any board games or something like that? It wouldn’t be too strange, considering she knew about his memory loss.
“Do you have any games or activities that we could do together?”
“Games… I’ll inquire with His Grace.”
I wondered if there were any games I knew. He surely wouldn’t have created a new game from scratch… At the very least, it would be nice if there were Othello.
“Thank you, Lady Tambor.”
“….”
Tambor, who had been looking at me for a moment, let out a faint chuckle. It didn’t feel like mockery, but it was a somewhat unfamiliar feeling.
“Why, why are you laughing?”
Did I get some drool near my lips? As I hastily wiped near my lips at the thought, she smiled and replied.
“It seems like you’re someone who expresses gratitude for everything.”
“Ah…”
Well, that was just a habit of mine.
My grandmother used to scold me, saying I was a girl who didn’t know how to say thank you when given something. Mostly, it was about food my younger brother ate, toys he played with, and snacks that ended up rotting in the refrigerator because he didn’t eat them. Occasionally, there were really spoiled things.
At first, while I used to thank her all the time, it stopped after I got food poisoning.
— Going to the hospital because you can’t digest that one thing? You’ve gotten weaker. Is that why you won’t even cook properly for our grandson?
I had eaten something rotten and got sick, it was my fault. Once I knew that, the food my grandmother gave me didn’t taste as sweet.
It wasn’t even happy, it was scary.
I thought about the scolding I would get if I ate this and got sick again.
Actually, I was used to being scolded, so it was fine, but she didn’t give me a private room in the hospital, and I ended up using the cheapest six-person room. At that time, there was a kid from the same class who had broken his arm while riding a bike, and he was in the same ward…
I wasn’t quite sure where to start, but for some reason, I felt embarrassed to show this side to that kid.
When I stopped saying thank you, my grandmother would say,
— Even allowing a girl to eat her fill is something to be grateful for. Back when I was your age, I had to work hard in the kitchen while starving.
She used to say that.
At first, she only said it, but later, the backscratcher also came with a flying slap. Frightened, I ended up adding ‘thank you’ as a habit.
That was all.
“To someone who knows how to be grateful for the little things, everything in the world looks beautiful. It’s a very good thing.”
Saying that, she bowed and left. She probably went to see Enfrise.
“….”
I thought alone in the now silent room.
She was someone who smiled easily. It was probably not me who found everything in the world beautiful, though undoubtedly her.
…If my mom was someone like Lady Tambor, would I have been able to smile a little more?
As I recall, my mom was always exhausted. When she came home, she couldn’t even talk to me and would collapse on the bed without even taking a shower. Then, I would gently take off my mom’s outerwear or socks.
My grandmother would click her tongue as she watched my mom collapse and fall asleep. She said what was so proud about women who only cared about going outside and not caring about housework.
That was how the conversation went.
Once in a while, there were moments when we shared a meal or spent time together. About once every six months, my mom would take a vacation and take my younger brother and me to an amusement park or to the city to buy things we needed.
My younger brother, who was always given everything by my grandmother, still found it insufficient and enthusiastically swiped my mom’s credit card.
I, for the most part, stayed by my mom’s side. Buying something didn’t make much sense since it would either be taken away by my grandmother or result in a scolding, and because I usually couldn’t have a proper conversation with my mom.
My mom would sit me down and then start complaining about work or my grandmother. There were hardly any complaints about my dad. This was because the time my mom and dad spent together was even shorter than the time I spent with both of them.
— Why on earth is your grandmother like that? Even though I’m in a meeting, she keeps calling and sending strange texts… If she just waited a little, I would have contacted her again on my own.
I wanted to have a brighter conversation.
While there were plenty of things I wanted to complain about, I didn’t want to make my mom feel worse, and I hoped that she could muster some strength despite her exhaustion. So, I talked about the good things, like stories about delicious food or times when I received awards at school.
However, my mom said to me, who was trying to be positive,
— Mom really envies you. I lived my life doing what I wanted when I was your age. Why did I end up like this? If it’s going to be like this, I’d rather get divorced and live alone.
My mom spoke and continued with her complaints.
Perhaps if she had been a bit less busy, she might have smiled more often.
If there had been a little more time for the family to gather, if my dad had paid a bit more attention to my mom, or if my grandmother had bothered my mom a bit less…
…No, in reality.
If I hadn’t been there, my mom might have smiled more often.
— We were on the verge of a mutual divorce, but when you entered the picture, everything stopped. We should have just divorced back then.
Even though I tried to console my mom somehow, as a kid, there wasn’t much I could do. I could only listen to her stories. If I could have done something more, would my mom have been as affectionate towards me as Tambor was?
Lost in such thoughts, I stared blankly into space for a long time.
“I heard you were looking for me.”
Enfrise, holding something, sat at the table.
‘It’s here! It’s the game!’
Seeing it, I greeted him energetically in my heart and rushed towards him in one stride.
“Good morning, Your Grace.”
“…Good morning.”
“Thanks to you changing my bedding. I slept well in my bed yesterday.”
“I see.”
He replied without much interest, but there was a slight softening around his lips. What a difficult-to-understand man.
“What’s this?”
I picked up the familiar game board. It wasn’t Othello since the pieces were red and blue instead of the usual white and black. Well, it was fine as long as the rules were somewhat similar.
“It’s called Reversi. Would you like to play?”
“Yes!”
As long as the game rules were somewhat similar, I felt confident about the game. After all, I had a record of 1432 games played and 1003 wins in mobile Othello!
Watching me, who was so excited and couldn’t sit still, Enfrise furrowed his brow slightly.
“Do you know how to play this game?”
“No, it’s my first time seeing it. You’re not going to teach me, Your Grace?”
I widened my eyes and gazed straight into Enfrise’s eyes. It was a rule not to avoid eye contact when lying.
Seeing that, Enfrise turned his head abruptly as he smiled softly.
Why did I keep having doubts when I knew I couldn’t win even if I stared at him? Well, maybe it was just a habit, like a tick.
“Let’s start with the red piece. You can place a piece anywhere on the game board, but you can’t place it in the four corners.”
Right, if you occupied those, it was almost a guaranteed win.
“After placing the red piece, the blue piece can only be placed in one of the adjacent squares, either vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. And you continue like this…”
Oh, wait, if you play like that, wouldn’t the red piece win automatically? After placing the first piece and then turning over the blue piece that followed, it was game over.
In the meanwhile, as I pondered this, a sudden smile crept onto Enfrise’s lips.
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