Solea’s eccentric behavior continued in the days that followed.
A few days later, she called the painter again and this time had him include Duke Diego’s feet in the painting.
“Solea. Why feet of all things?”
“Because they support from the lowest place. I want to capture the path you’ve walked.”
Duke Diego nodded slowly with a solemn and serious face.
“I see there was such meaning behind it.”
A few days later, a beautifully styled painting of Duke Diego’s scarred feet and Gray’s feet was hung in the mansion.
Gray’s was a colorful painting, but Duke Diego’s was a black and white charcoal drawing with a rough touch.
Duke Diego asked Solea, who stood there with a satisfied expression.
“…Why is mine in black and white, Solea?”
“I tried to express the loneliness dulled by long years, the bitter pain, but also the lingering glory of the past, all in their raw emotion.”
Duke Diego nodded again, seemingly deeply impressed.
Solea’s answers were like those of an expert who had been dealing with customers for decades.
But Solea had never left the Duke’s mansion, so this strange sense of déjà vu must be an illusion.
Heyman shook his head briefly and touched his forehead.
Could it be that everything she said to me was sincere?
Feeling somewhat dizzy, Heyman stumbled to his room and sat in his study, pondering. There had to be some connection.
The reason for Solea’s sudden obsession with feet.
The way she beamed while shoving an erotic novel in his face.
Searching for the perfect, beautiful foot shape…?
Heyman’s fine pink eyebrows furrowed slightly.
After a few minutes, his eyes widened.
“…Is it a foot fetish!”
Heyman jumped up from his seat and pulled several books from the back of his study.
These were books containing cases of personality changes after major illnesses or the development of strange habits.
Heyman, who had been intensely studying the books without noticing the setting sun, seemed to reach a conclusion as he closed a book with a thud.
According to this book, if desires aren’t fulfilled, one might continue to exhibit abnormal behavior.
Heyman slowly took off his shoes and looked down.
They looked like ordinary feet.
“…Does this mean only I can stop it?”
A sinister desire that only I can stop.
Haha, well, this is something.
He felt as if he had been reborn as a hero destined to save the world.
“We can’t have my sister going out into society and trying to remove people’s shoes to look at their feet.”
Heyman used magic to temporarily hide the scars on his feet.
They looked clean, but with all the scars gone, unlike usual, they almost didn’t look like his own feet.
“No, Solea… said she wanted to remember the painful past.”
He removed the illusion magic covering the surface of his feet.
Now they looked like ‘perfect’ feet.
“It can’t be helped, for the sake of the family.”
As if making a great sacrifice, Heyman put his shoes back on with a stern face.
Then he headed towards Solea’s room.
But Solea wasn’t there, so he had to ask Marcilla, the head maid passing through the corridor.
“Marcilla. Where is Solea?”
“Oh, young master. The young lady is at the training grounds with young master Gray to build up her basic physical strength.”
“…With that weak body?”
“Yes, but she said she wanted to become healthy somehow. She seems to regret the time she spent lying in bed. Isn’t it wonderful!”
Leaving Marcilla’s bright smile behind, Heyman quickly headed to the training grounds behind the mansion.
It was a good mindset to want to live a healthy life after recovering from a major illness.
After all, if one remains sickly and complaining, it only gives people something to gossip about.
‘How can the sole heir of Bergo be so weak?’
Before losing her memories, Solea seemed to lock away her heart, not communicating with others as if she didn’t want to hear such talk, but it was unavoidable.
As other nobles said, everyone except Solea was fake.
It was only natural to swear loyalty to the Bergo ducal family for the grace of raising and protecting an adopted child.
Heyman smirked as he watched Solea fighting and shouting with Gray at the training grounds.
She really was exercising, wearing comfortable pants and a long shirt. This quirky sister must truly love her siblings.
“But I’m only loyal to you, the young Duke, for the sake of the family.”
After muttering to himself, Heyman approached them.
Here, Solea. The ‘perfect foot’ you wanted.
He walked over with a bit of anticipation, but they paid no attention to Heyman.
The two were in the midst of a heated argument.
“Why don’t you ever listen to me! With your current condition, simple stretching and walking for 30 minutes a day is best!”
“You lazy fool! How long will it take to build muscle that way!”
“What if you get muscle pain again!”
“The Duke will call a physician!”
“Physicians treat muscle pain, not torn muscles, you lunatic!”
“Calling your brother a lunatic again! Do you think you’re so sane?”
“What, you brat?”
As if intending to throw Solea, Gray lunged at her, and Solea quickly ran away.
In less than a few seconds, the weak Solea was caught and forced to stretch by Gray.
“Ouch! Don’t tear my side!”
“I said your side needs to be flexible!”
“…Solea, here is your perfect foot.”
He called out in a slightly small voice, but it seemed to fall on deaf ears.
“Don’t press my head down!”
“Bend your waist more!”
“Anne spent over 30 minutes doing my hair this morning! You have a habit of treating others’ efforts like dirt. Rich kids, I swear.”
“Are you really crazy?”
“You’re the one who started it~”
Solea teased with a deliberately annoying lisp, ran away again, and Gray chased after her. Unable to hold back, Heyman called out loudly to them.
He came to show his foot but was treated as if he were invisible.
“What are you doing, losing your dignity like this!”
He had never shouted at Solea like this before.
She used to walk around so dejectedly that showing a bit of magic and a faint smile was the best he could do.
That too only on days when Heyman’s whims allowed it.
Anyway, if it were the old Solea, she would have hung her head and kept her mouth shut when Heyman shouted.
But the problem was that Solea had changed.
“Oh dear, our princess is angry. Because of you.”
“…Did you just call Heyman a princess? How far gone are you? Do you need medication, or did you skip the medication you need?”
“Mind your own business.”
The two continued their sharp exchange, seemingly oblivious to Heyman’s furrowed brow.
In just a few days, they had become so close that anyone would think they had been in sync since birth.
“Princess is a bit much. Even our empire’s princess is bold and impressive.”
“You’re right. I was wrong. Then should I just call you Wanda?”
“Prince is prince. What’s Wanda?”
“You have to say Wanda to make it obvious you’re teasing.”
Gray looked at Solea with a face of newfound amazement.
“You’re truly a novel lunatic.”
Heyman didn’t want to stay here any longer.
He wanted to quickly resolve Solea’s foot fetish, which had become abnormal after losing her memory.
With a solemn resolve, Heyman approached Solea and said.
“If you need my foot, I’ll show it to you.”
“Really?”
The playful tone from earlier disappeared, and Solea’s voice was filled with nothing but anticipation.
Solea smiled brightly, a smile he had never seen before.
“Show me.”
Gray, standing behind Solea, interjected somewhat gruffly.
“Hey. You said my foot was pretty too. You said you’d love the past of my foot.”
The pink Wanda spoke with a leisurely victor’s smile.
“Your foot wasn’t ‘completely and perfectly’ beautiful, was it? Regardless of the past, the shape of the foot varies.”
The triumphant demeanor was so annoyingly smug that Gray sneered, pulling down his lower lip.
“Sure, sure~ Whatever you say, Wanda~”
It was a technique learned from Solea.
No matter how much Gray, with his ugly feet, tried to provoke him, Heyman didn’t feel much damage.
After all, I am the owner of the ‘perfect’ foot.
With a full smile, Heyman took off his shoes.
Here, Solea. This is ‘perfection.’
He subtly used magic to create a halo behind his foot.
This is all for the family.
Solea needs to come to her senses quickly for the family’s honor.
But contrary to Heyman’s expectations, Solea’s reaction was somewhat indifferent.
“Hmm… This is a bit… problematic.”
“W-what is?”
“Heyman. Did your feet gain weight by any chance?”
“What?”
“When I saw them before, the veins were more visible, the shape was sharper, and the arch was more pronounced. Ah, this is.”
She even shook her head at the end of her sentence.
Heyman, shocked as if hit on the head with a mace, blinked rapidly and grabbed Solea’s shoulders.
“You said my feet were pretty! You said my feet were the prettiest! You said it was a shame you couldn’t capture them in a painting!”
Solea deliberately stretched her lips wide and furrowed her brows.
It was an expression commonly seen in the 21st century (e.g., “We apologize, customer. We’re out of stock.”) when one wasn’t sorry at all.
“I’m afraid, Mr. Heyman, you cannot come with us.”
Gray, already acting like a knight, removed Heyman’s hands from Solea’s shoulders.
“Rich farmer prince. Why don’t you go back to your room and wash your feet? You’ve stepped on the grass.”
“Hey! Gray! Let go! Why my feet! My feet were fine just a few days ago, how could they suddenly gain weight?”
Solea, who was returning to the mansion doing a two-step with Gray, turned back with a grin.
“Then try writing practice with a fountain pen between your toes. Building fine motor skills might help.”
After saying this, Solea linked arms with Gray again and entered the mansion dramatically, doing the cha-cha-cha.
“Those lunatics. They became friends and now they’re crazy in pairs. They’ve lost it. They’re out of their minds.”
But at this moment, the craziest one was himself, mentally searching for a fountain pen size that would fit between his toes.
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