*Edited

Ethan, who seemed to have sensed a tremendous gaze, raised his head and looked at Claude and Sarah. But Claude, who awkwardly averted his eyes, and Sarah, who smiled at Claude like that, were not looking at him.

‘It’s strange. Is it because it’s awkward……?’

Ethan, who clearly felt their gaze longing for something, shook his head. He looked at Claude once more, but the child, like him, was rolling his eyes, wondering if the first intimate meal was awkward. Sarah was also smiling, looking only at Claude’s back, to see if he was looking away.

Ethan picked up the tableware again, thinking it was too awkward. At the same time, Claude and Sarah’s persistent gaze turned back to him. Bread, stew, or salad? The victory or defeat of the bet depended on where the Duke’s hand touched first. Claude’s eyes were shining even though he was nervous. Perhaps because he succeeded in greeting his father in the morning, the child’s eyes shone with a desire to be praised this time.

“Ah!”

At that moment, a pitiful exclamation came from Claude. Unfortunately, the Duke chose salad as his first dish, just like Sarah had chosen.

“Fufu.”

Sarah’s soft laugh could be heard behind Claude’s back. Claude suddenly hated the salad and picked up the bread. He didn’t know if it was going down his throat or his nostrils.

‘I wanted to…… receive compliments from Father.’

The disappointment was even greater than the expectation. He thought he knew his father better than his nanny, Sarah. But he was saddened because he couldn’t guess his father’s appetite, which even Sarah could have guessed. Just as he didn’t know anything about his father, he probably didn’t know anything about him either.

Claude glanced at the Duke eating gracefully in front of him. The Duke didn’t even make eye contact with Claude except when he first greeted him in the morning.

‘After all, Father hates me.’

The excitement subsided in an instant. Claude drooped his shoulders and reached out helplessly. At that time, Claude’s elbow hit a glass cup next to the tableware.

Crash!

The glass cup that fell under the table with a sharp sound was shattered and broken.

“……!”

A loud noise erupted in the quiet dining room. Claude looked up in surprise. And when he made eye contact with the Duke looking at him, he couldn’t breathe properly. This was because he made a big mistake at the first meal with his father. Claude’s face grew pale.

‘Haiz.’

Sarah, who had been watching the whole scene, clicked her tongue in regret. When Sarah winked lightly, the servants quickly removed the glass that Claude had broken and poured water into a new glass. Still, Claude remained frozen and did nothing. Ethan looked at the child calmly to see if there was any injury, but in Claude’s eyes, it seemed as if his father was just reprimanding him. Sarah eventually pulled out the chair next to Claude and sat down.

“…… Countess Millen?”

When she sat down in her chair, which she had refused to eat a little while ago, Ethan called out to Sarah as if puzzled. Claude, who had been frozen by an unexpected mistake, also turned his creaky head to look at Sarah.

“Nanny?”

“I thought I’d like to eat something too.”

Sarah smiled calmly and looked at the father and son. It could be burdensome to receive the gaze of two men at once, but Sarah smiled once without showing any signs of discomfort and asked the Duke for understanding.

“Is it okay if I eat?”

“Ah, of course. Head Maid……”

Ethan nodded and tried to ask the head maid for Sarah’s meal but there was no need for that. As soon as Sarah sat down, the maid served her share of the meal as if she had been waiting to do that.

“Well, it looks like there’s nothing else to ask for.”

Besides that, the head maid was waiting with a tray full of food, just in case Sarah needed anything more. It was a sincerity that was not seen when only the two of them, Ethan and Claude, were having a meal. Ethan made eye contact with her and saw an embarrassed smile on the face of the head maid. She thought she couldn’t do anything to her savior who had helped her recover her lost expression.

“Then, thank you for the meal.”

Sarah lifted the tableware when simple but appetizing food was placed in front of her. Claude hesitated a little, then followed her and picked up his dishes.

‘And you said you hated it so much. You’re following me well.’

Ethan quietly followed Sarah’s actions and looked at Claude, who was eating with persistent eyes. It was reported that Claude had violently rejected Sarah at their first meeting. But after facing Sarah, Claude seemed to like her more than he thought.

“Um, the food is excellent. I think I’ll want to eat it every day from now on?”

At that time, Claude quietly pointed out the error of what she had said before.

“It’s against etiquette for the superiors to eat with the subordinates, Nanny.”

“That outrageous etiquette, let me try it once!”

“……”

Claude was at a loss for words at her too-dignified declaration.

“The etiquette was not originally established from the beginning. When people’s ways of acting gathered and accumulated and became a rule, the name ”etiquette” came to be.”

“That’s right.”

Ethan quietly responded. Sarah smiled at the Duke as if she was grateful, and then continued to look at Claude again.

“So in Ambrosia, if I, as the nanny, eat together and set an example for dining etiquette over and over again, and that becomes a rule, wouldn’t that become the breakfast etiquette for the Ducal House of Ambrosia?”

“Is it?”

“But that doesn’t mean I’m going to eat lunch, dinner, and even late-night snacks like this.”

Claude finally nodded his head at the very plausible remark.

“Are the magicians originally as smooth as Countess?”

To Ethan’s question, Sarah shrugged her shoulders as if he had misunderstood everything.

“Most of those old-fashioned geezers are the ones who have cobwebs in their mouths.”

“Oh, I guess they don’t talk much.”

“Of course. In the magic tower, you can’t hear anything except the explosion sounds from the lab where the experiment failed.”

When the story of the magic tower came out, the Duke’s eyes glistened with a strange light. Pretending not to be interested, he lifted a glass and took a sip of water to examine Sarah’s expression.

At the same time, Sarah was smiling and whispering to Claude, who looked at her curiously as he listened to her own story. Watching Sarah serve the meat from her own plate of beef stew to Claude’s plate, the Duke replied languidly.

“I really want to hear about that.”

“Your taste is so…… unique, Your Grace. If you want, I can show you here right now.”

“I’ll politely refuse. I can’t have you blown away the door of my precious mansion once again.”

“Oh my.”

Claude chewed on the meat Sarah gave him while listening to the conversation between the two. Sarah just whispered that he could grow tall like his father if he ate well while handing over the meat.

‘Nanny is not afraid of Father?’

Claude was amazed at the sight of Sarah laughing at the Duke and joking around. Come to think of it, it seemed to be the first time he had heard his father’s voice for such a long time. Somehow, when he was with the nanny, the time he spent with his father did not feel so difficult.

Claude’s spoon, which he had been using to pick up the meat, collided with the plate with a cracking sound. He had already eaten all the meat Sarah had given him.

“Ah.”

At that time, when he was smacking his lips out of regret, a large piece of meat was placed on Claude’s plate. He looked up to see if Sarah had given him another piece, it was Ethan, no one else, was transferring the meat from his plate onto Claude’s plate.

“Don’t worry, I won’t dare to charge Count Millen for the door.”

He continued the conversation with Sarah without looking at Claude. However, Claude stared blankly at his father, feeling his heart beating fast. Somehow, he felt like he couldn’t eat the meat on the plate easily. He felt like he wanted to take it somewhere and hide it. So far, he had received a lot from his father as his father bought everything he needed, but a few bite-sized pieces of meat seemed more valuable than anything else in the world.

“Then I’ll appreciate your favor.”

Sarah pretended not to be watching the Duke’s actions. She felt very happy. The Duke must have unconsciously imitated her actions of giving Claude meat. But at least Sarah could see that the Duke, who had not been interested in Claude throughout the meal, was actually paying a lot of attention.

‘As expected, in the Duke’s heart, Claude is also very important.’

In fact, Claude was not the Duke’s biological son, so even if he was not affectionate to Claude, there was nothing she could do about it. However, the Duke seemed to care about Claude a little more than Sarah expected. He didn’t seem to realize it himself yet, and he didn’t even know how to deal with it.