Enough with Dying as an Extra chapter 21

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Sia, who was sitting on my lap, let out a gasp at the audacious remark, despite the speaker trembling in fear.

“Wow, what kind of—”

I could already guess what kind of words would come out of that pretty mouth, so I calmly covered it before he could finish.

Sia twisted his whole body in protest, scratching at the back of my hand.

He hadn’t dug his nails in, so it didn’t hurt.

I kept my hand in place and simply endured, and before long, Sia gave up and slumped against me.

I pressed down gently on his head, signaling him to stay still, then slowly tilted my head toward the desk.

Resting my chin on my hand, I stared silently at the man sitting across from me.

“…Well, do as you please. What’s your name?”

At my low voice, the man flinched and darted his eyes around.

Haen, who had brought him here under the pretense of introducing him to me, stood by the door, showing no intention of helping.

After checking Haen’s expression, the man somehow seemed to interpret his indifferent face as encouragement.

Straightening his shoulders with newfound confidence, he answered in a firm voice.

“Lejun. Lejun… Teian.”

Is there some kind of curse involving people with names that start with ‘Le’?

Why do I keep getting tangled up with them?

The thought popped into my head the moment I heard his name.

Careful not to let my expression betray my irritation, I ran my fingers over my lips.

Lejun… If it’s him, then he’s that side-branch noble mentioned in the ‘original story.’

The one who lived as the only son of a baron in some remote area, completely unaware of any ties to the Teian Duchy, until Haen found him and brought him here—where he would eventually become the Duke of Teian.

And later, meet his end at Haen’s hands after he descends into madness.

The last Duke of Teian.

“Lejun… Alright, do your best from now on.”

I gave a half-hearted nod and stroked Sia’s round head as he sat perched on my knee.

I didn’t care what kind of person Lejun was.

All I wanted was for my master to retrieve information on Sia before Lejun ascended to the position of duke.

“If you’re done talking, get out. I have work to do.”

With that, I lowered my gaze, cutting off eye contact with Lejun.

The pile of documents on my desk had grown so large that it now formed a small mountain.

If I wanted to finish quickly and have time to play with Sia, I had to get started.

I picked up my quill and flipped through the papers.

The presence that had been standing dumbfounded in front of me lingered for quite some time before finally disappearing.

I never once lifted my head.

Sometime after Lejun and Haen left the office—when I was about halfway through my paperwork—Sia suddenly spoke up.

“Vivi, do you have no ambition for the title of Duke?”

It was a rather out-of-the-blue question, considering he had been lazily munching on cookies, scattering crumbs all over my pants.

Since I had already raised my head, I took the opportunity to brush off the crumbs and wipe the bits clinging to the corners of his mouth.

Realizing a beat too late that he had been making a mess, Sia stuck out his tongue sheepishly.

I easily blocked his attempt to lick away the crumbs and wiped his mouth clean with a handkerchief.

The momentary satisfaction of seeing the usually grubby child suddenly looking neat was short-lived.

He tilted his head and kicked his socked feet in the air, an unmistakable look of expectation in his eyes.

It was as if I could hear him asking, ‘Why aren’t you answering yet?’

I let out a quiet chuckle at his blatant impatience and shrugged.

Leaning back in my chair, I tossed the quill onto the desk.

“I have no interest in that kind of thing.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah, completely serious. That’s why I’m desperately hoping that side-branch noble will quickly start pulling his weight so I can step down as Duke.”

At my deadpan reply, Sia tilted his head as if weighing my words.

Then, once he seemed convinced I wasn’t lying, he spoke in an oddly subdued voice.

“Hmm. Then, I’ll root for you, Vivi.”

I chuckled softly at his reaction, then gradually erased the smile from my face as I turned my gaze toward my master.

Since he had already been looking at me, our eyes met instantly.

His hazel eyes studied me intently, as if trying to read my thoughts.

I stared back at him for a long moment before curling my lips into a slow smile.

“Asis, how long did you say it would take to test whether he’s fit for the title of Duke?”

After a brief pause, my master responded in a firm, measured tone.

“…At the earliest, two weeks. At most, around two months.”

“If things continue at this rate, it’ll definitely take the full two months—or Haen will just go looking for another candidate. Maybe I should help speed things up a bit. What do you think, Asis? Should I help? If so, I might need your assistance, too.”

“If what you seek lies within that position, then aiding him would be the right decision. And you needn’t worry about adding to my workload, Vivisian. You’ve been handling things so well that I hardly have anything to do.”

“That’s good to hear.”

I nodded in satisfaction and smiled.

I could feel a gaze on me from below, but I ignored it with all my might.

If I met his eyes now, my resolve would waver.

Instead of looking at Sia, I reached out and tickled his chin.

“Oh, right. How’s that request I made coming along?”

I asked the question as casually as one might ask about the weather.

There had only been two things I had ever asked my master to do.

The first was to deliver a message to my former butler.

The second was to find Sia’s family.

The first had long been taken care of, so there was no doubt I was referring to the latter.

Catching onto my meaning, my master replied concisely.

“It should be finished within two weeks.”

“In that case, I’ll have to make sure Lejun becomes the Duke within those two weeks.”

So that I could send Sia back to where he belonged.

Humming softly, I murmured the words to myself.

Sia blinked up at me, his small face full of question marks, while my master furrowed his brows as if sensing something off.

I saw it all, yet I only smiled.

Eventually, they would understand what I meant.

Perhaps my plan was selfish and contradictory, but I wished they wouldn’t figure it out too soon.

With that thought, I gently stroked Sia’s soft cheek.

✽ ✽ ✽

As time passed, I came to an unfortunate realization.

The goal of making whatever his name is—Lejun? Lejan?—the Duke within two weeks was… rather absurd.

It was like trying to make an academically hopeless student the valedictorian of an elite academy.

In other words, it was an utterly ridiculous dream.

But that didn’t mean it was impossible.

A dirty trick, sure, but if one were to bribe the professors or arrange for a proxy to take the exams, it could be done.

And so, my plan shifted toward something similar.

I had originally considered bribing the elders of the Duchy, but after finding Lejun, I no longer had the time or patience to persuade those sharpening their knives against me.

So, naturally, I turned to the ‘proxy exam’ method.

Only, instead of hiring someone else to do it—

I decided to take the test for him myself.

There were plenty of people who thought I was threatening him.

Even when I was just sitting quietly, I could hear worried voices asking Lejun if the Duke was intimidating him.

“If the Duke is giving you a hard time, please let us know.”

“No, it’s not that bad, but…”

Honestly, I couldn’t even say it was unfair.

It was true that Lejun, who had been tormented by me every night, had grown noticeably thinner.

It was also true that the brightness in his face had faded

And to be fair, I had my reasons.

Even from our first conversation, it was clear that Lejun was, to put it nicely, extremely free-spirited and unbound by formalities.

…To put it bluntly, he was the absolute worst type of person to turn into a Duke in just two weeks.

He knew nothing about etiquette, didn’t think things through, and lived only in the moment.

He had no sense of the future and valued himself far above others to the point of helplessness.

If I had even half the affection for this territory that I had for Sia, I would have foamed at the mouth and shouted, “That bastard is absolutely out of the question!”

Trying to shape him into someone remotely useful was an arduous task.

So difficult, in fact, that for the first time since leaving prison, I finally understood Haen—the man who, in the future, would succumb to madness and kill Lejun.

“I think I finally understand why Haen, in his madness, chose to kill the heir he had worked so hard to find. That damn heir had an innate talent for driving people insane. The fact that Haen served under him for three whole years is astonishing.”

That was the thought I had most often while training Lejun.

Every day, I battled the urge to either strangle him or kill myself.

The only thing that kept me going was my determination to give Sia a family.

And so, exactly seventeen days later, the elders declared that Lejun would be appointed Duke.

“Vivisian Teian. A suitable successor has been found, so you must now step down from your position.”

And on that very day, the Master discovered Sia’s true family.

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Translator: Schedule for posting advance chapter is friday or saturday.

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