“Hullo! Grandfather Family Head. I’m Bunny, 4 years old.”
*Bow.*
Bunny, who had bowed with her arms held straight out like a bird about to take flight, scrambled up and stood straight.
After her greeting, Bunny walked over with a prim look and hopped firmly onto the sofa opposite Ludbrid Yudia. Her method of climbing up—using both arms to haul herself onto the seat—was practiced and efficient. She sat quietly, hands on her knees, gazing at Ludbrid with clear, round eyes.
Ludbrid Yudia, who had been watching her with a stiff expression, quietly reached out as if possessed. When Bunny tilted her head at his extended hand, she soon grinned and leaned her head into his touch.
After stroking the hair that had naturally settled into his palm, Ludbrid Yudia gave a loud, forced cough.
“So, you’re Bunny.”
“Yeshh.”
“You summoned an egg this time.”
Speaking with gravity, Ludbrid Yudia slid a plate of cookies toward her. It was a small, calculated preparation made because a child was coming. Of course, had the other candidates—who had been interviewed under immense pressure—witnessed this, they would have gasped, clutched their necks, and collapsed from sheer indignation.
*‘Is that all? I heard she got scolded tremendously last time just for eating a cookie on the table without permission.’*
Recalling the whispers of the other children, Bunny’s eyes widened.
*‘This is a test! A trap!’*
Having successfully identified the danger, Bunny let out a sharp, “Hmph.” *Bunny isn’t a baby fish that gets caught in things like this.*
In truth, for Ludbrid Yudia, it was a snack offered with purely sincere intentions. The reason was simple: favoritism. She was cute. Her chubby cheeks, her lively speech, and her boldness—stubbornly following her own path despite the biased gazes of others—were intoxicating.
He had never revealed this soft side to the world, having lived as the successor to the dukedom and then as the Duke himself, but he couldn’t help but turn his gaze toward this pure, harmless creature that had rolled into his icy estate.
Besides, this was an official interview.
“Do you not like the cookies?” Ludbrid Yudia asked, watching the girl who refused to touch them.
“Won’t you show me?”
“Yes!”
Bunny answered vigorously, hopped down, and wriggled as she took off her rabbit bag to set it beside her. Burrowing her face into the bag as if to climb inside, she fished around before carefully pulling something out.
“It’s a Heugyeomryong egg.”
“Heugyeom… what?”
“A baby Heugyeomryong will be born from here.”
Bunny puffed out her chest. Luriel had told her that Bunny would summon something great, so surely a dragon would emerge. And if she had a Heugyeomryong, Bunny could do anything without fear. Then, her daddy would be proud. He would be so moved he’d pet her and go all mushy, perhaps even saying, ‘I shall gift everything from here to there to my daughter.’
*‘Bunny, use Daddy wickedly.’*
“Let me take a look.”
“Yes!”
The moment Bunny placed the egg on the table with a cheeky grin, something went wrong.
“Uhh…?”
The egg—no, the quail egg—floated into the air and dropped suddenly onto the ring on Ludbrid Yudia’s finger.
*Crack—*
“…….”
“…….”
The shiny blue jewel on his ring crumbled into dust, instantly absorbed by the quail egg.
*Whoosh.*
The egg grew just a little bit larger.
Bunny’s jaw dropped. *Gasp, the egg broke the ring?! Bunny needs to get a hundred on this interview!*
*Rumble, boom!*
Thunder struck over Bunny’s head. She looked at Ludbrid with trembling eyes. He sat with a stiff, frozen face, his gaze cold and narrowed.
*‘It has a will of its own…. Is this thing alive?’*
A ferocious glare—or so it felt from Bunny’s perspective—made it seem as though he would break her Heugyeomryong egg at any second. Anger radiated from every part of him; his blue pupils flashed like a monster’s.
Trembling, Bunny hurriedly fished out the money she had brought to buy sweet potatoes and placed it on the table. Ludbrid’s gaze drifted to the cloth pouch, his expression shifting to confusion.
“I, I’m sorry our egg is still a baby……. It’s a good baby that doesn’t bite anyone usually… it must have been hungry…….”
Bunny swallowed hard and pushed the pouch toward him.
“Ca, can Bunny buy it… with this……?”
She stuttered, remembering how Luriel had apologized and paid for the chocolate Bunny had thoughtlessly eaten at the market.
“You want to buy this? This is a ring with a holy stone.”
*Is it not enough? What do I do?*
“If I bring an elephant, I can give you more…….”
Ludbrid paused, staring into Bunny’s teary eyes.
“Is it not enough……?”
Ludbrid quietly took off the gold ring with the shattered holy stone and placed it in Bunny’s hand.
“No, even after buying it, this much remains.”
It was the moment a platinum gold ring set with a holy stone, which would fetch tens of millions of Lostro at auction, was sold for a mere 1,500 Lostro.
*Ahem. Ahem. Ahem!*
Ludbrid Yudia coughed repeatedly, rubbed his face with his calloused hand, and managed to compose himself.
“…Right. Anyway, about the interview.”
“Yes!”
“As for your exam results and ranking…….”
Ludbrid paused, flipping through the documents. He stared at the score sheet filled with zeros, then gazed at Bunny with slightly shaken eyes. Naturally, her ranking was dead last. Seeing Bunny’s eyes crumble and well up with tears at the mention of the ‘exam,’ he quietly closed the file.
“Hmm. You’re doing well.”
“Bunny… is doing well……?”
“Yes. Among children under 10, Bunny is in 1st place.”
He spoke calmly. It wasn’t a lie; the Mansion of Trials only admitted branch family children aged 10 and over, so she technically was 1st among the younger set.
“Bunny is number one?”
At Bunny’s wide-eyed expression, Ludbrid pretended to flip through the papers aimlessly and nodded.
“Yes. It says here that you are working hard.”
Not a word of that was actually written in the report—which contained only cold scores and evaluations—but Ludbrid Yudia, a man who despised fluff in his reports, decided to make an exception.
“Now, tell me what you want to become when you grow up.”
“Bunny wants to be a huge Great Demon King!”
“…Hm?”
*Oh no.*
*This is a den of villainous humans! Bunny will be crushed to powder.*
“…I want to become a very powerful Great Mage!”
Bunny quickly exerted her wits. Ludbrid Yudia paused. It was no wonder; not a single human with a trace of ‘magic’ had been born in the Yudia family since its founding.
“…I see. You want to become a Great Mage.”
“Yes!”
“Ahem. By any chance, are you not interested in becoming a High Priest or a Saintess……?”
“A High Priest or a Saintess?”
“Yes. They are the most distinguished and highest-ranking people in the Yudia family who serve God most closely.”
Bunny blinked, then smiled as widely as she possibly could. Those were dreams she could never achieve—for starters, she would be turned into powder. Seeing her bright smile, Ludbrid Yudia faltered.
“Yes. Bunny likes Great Mages!”
Since she originally intended to become a Great Demon King, she couldn’t possibly become the leader of the bad humans. If any other child had said such things, they would have been scolded or subjected to a long lecture.
“I see.”
“. . . You can do it. The Archmage.”
Unable to ignore those clear, guileless eyes, Ludbrid Yudia nodded. It was an absurd notion, the kind that would make anyone else scoff at the sheer ridiculousness of it.
*Scratch, scratch.*
[Future ambition: Archmage]
And so, for the first time since the founding of the Judia Dukedom, that strange, outlandish title was inscribed in the counseling log.