I Picked Up The Evil Duke’s Child - Chapter 3

Chapter 3
Translator : rielle <3
Proofreader : Helene
I was checking my face with a mirror I held in my hands.
Fortunately, Sertien was sitting in front of me, looking at the scenery outside the window happily without getting motion sickness.
‘It never ceases to amaze me.’
I thought to myself while looking in the mirror.
It was natural to be amazed because to me, this body looked completely foreign and everyone said it was beautiful.
Milky skin, long, wavy pink hair, and blue eyes that complemented my look.
Round eyes that gave off an amiable impression.
I was blankly looking at my appearance when suddenly, Sertien came next to me. He looked at me and said, 
“Mom, why do you keep looking in the mirror? Mom is really pretty, so there’s no need for you to look in a mirror.”
I lowered the mirror and looked back at Sertien.
To casually say such a thing… I fear for this child’s future.
Whose son is this anyway?
I looked closely at him, who laughed and wiggled ‘hehe’, joking around with a smile.
I think I understand why one of the knights said that Sertien and I looked alike.
Now that I see it, his eyes look a lot like mine.
Is this why the knight said we look alike?
“I like mom!”
I sighed a little when I saw Sertien, who kept turning me into a mother.
It’s not as if I can’t say no. 
It’s just that Sertien is such a lovely child, so it felt good to be called his mother.
I asked Sertien.
“By the way, is ‘Seri’ a nickname?”
“What’s a nickname?”
“Hmmm… In other words, it’s a cuter way to call someone…”
“I’m not sure, but mom always called me ‘Seri’!”
So it is a nickname.
Conversing with a child wasn’t usually hard work.
But in order to get a little more information about his parents, I tried to talk to him more.
“Seri, do you know your dad’s name?”
“Um… Um… What was it again?”
“What does your dad look like?”
I asked because it seemed like he didn’t remember the name, but his eyes twinkled at my question.
“Dad is very veeeeery handsome.”
“Really?”
“Yep! Dad has the same black hair as me, everybody says he’s handsome.”
Of course, the father of such a handsome child would be handsome as well.
“What about your mom?”
“Hmm? Mom looks like mom!”
 “…….”
I gave some thought to what Sertien was saying for some time.
Considering his behavior so far, I’ve concluded that his mom might look like me.
But if there’s someone who looks like me, then there’s no way I wouldn’t know…
Especially if it’s the wife of a palace official.
“Seri, how is your mom doing?”
“What are you saying? Mom’s here with me right now.”
“No, that’s not what I… then, what was I doing before we met again?”
I asked while reluctantly playing the part of his mother.
At my question, Sertien suddenly made a sad face, as if he recalled a bad memory.
How could a child make such a sad expression?
I could intuitively see what was going on with his biological mother.
“Mom… Dad and I didn’t like what was happening… You used to lie down all the time then you suddenly disappeared. Dad said you went to the moon.”
He seemed as if he would cry at any moment.
Feeling sorry for Sertien, I hugged him reflexively, he didn’t shed tears but instead, smiled.
“But I’m glad to see you again!”
Apparently, his mother is dead.
I felt sorry for him as he was still very young.
It was understandable that he followed me around, calling me his mom.
He must have missed her so much.
Although I couldn’t be his real mother, I thought I should take good care of him while we were together.
Anyway, I wondered how well I could take care of him when I had no experience in raising children.
I felt the carriage stop with a clatter.
Sertien, who was hugging me, looked out the window and shouted with twinkling eyes.
“Wow!”
I followed Sertien out of the window.
Before I knew it, we had arrived in the city of Reed.
Reed was a place where many people came and went, it was even more splendid than the capital, where the Imperial Palace was located.
It seemed more so because it was a port city.
Sertien jumped excitedly from the carriage. I didn’t even have time to stop him.
“We’ve arrived… Ah!”
“Thank you. I’ll call another carriage later, so you may return to the palace. Wait a minute, Seri!”
The coachman, who was trying to speak to me calmly, stopped because of Sertien. And I hurriedly replied, jumping out of the carriage and running after the child.
Sertien was so fast that I wondered where all that energy came from.
Luckily, he stopped the moment I felt like I had missed something.
“What’s that?”
I turned my head toward the direction he was pointing at.
I said as I looked at the lighthouse in the distance,
“That’s a lighthouse.”
“A lighthouse?”
“Yeah. It’s dark at night, so it’s shining light.”
“Wow, that’s amazing! What about this?”
I had to find Ered, but Sertien dragged me somewhere, asking ‘What is this? What’s that?’ to everything.
It must have been his first time coming to such a crowded city.
I barely even managed to calm him down.
“Seri… we’ll come here again later. I have a place to go right now.”
“Hm? Okie!”
He seemed to be a good listener.
Sertien nodded and answered, then followed me amicably.
This made me more curious about who his father was.
“Does Seri go out to play a lot?”
“Yes? Oh, Dad is always busy. So it’s hard to play.”
He must have been quite a high-ranking official to bring the child to the palace, but in this country, high-ranking officials were always busy doing their work.
He’s still young, but his mother is dead and his father is busy.
Anyway, this time, I looked around, holding Sertien’s hand tightly to prevent him from wandering around.
How can I find Ered in this complex city?
In fact, there was a way to visit the Knights’ headquarters protecting the city and ask for help, but I decided to quit because I thought it would only get worse if I visited them.
I didn’t think it would help much in the first place. It would be faster to find an information dealer I know well.
And if I go to the Knights’ headquarters in this state….
“Mom?”
I’m sure they’ll have another strange misunderstanding again, seeing how Sertien calls me his mother.
It was only a matter of time before I’d be rumored to be a married woman throughout the Empire.
‘I’m just gonna quietly find and drag him to the palace…’
Lithia made her own conclusions about her future actions and tried to take Sertien with her, but Sertien, who was supposedly next to her, was gone.
“Seri?”
I’ve heard it’s hard to watch over a child, but I didn’t expect him to disappear so quickly once I looked away.
“Seri! Where are you?”
People kept looking back at me, who was singing ‘Sertien’ through the crowd.
People were interested in me even if I stayed still because of this body’s striking appearance, but I could feel the attention as I shouted.
‘Where the hell did he go?’
It wasn’t that I was particularly concerned about getting attention, but I wasn’t the type of person who wanted to be noticed, so I looked around to find Sertien as quickly as possible.
I was quite confident in finding people.
It wasn’t long before I found the back of a child with familiar black hair among the many people.
Thinking that I was lucky to quickly find Sertien, I tried to call him.
But I realized shortly afterward that Sertien was not alone.
For some reason, there were people gathered around him.
I felt something had happened, so I forcibly entered the crowd and got as close to him as possible.
“No, it’s because you keep interrupting our business.”
It was a very pompous voice.
There was a group of people who looked like back alley gangsters gathered.
There was an elderly grandfather in front of him, who seemed to have fallen victim to that gang.
“I’ve never done that. I’ve been doing business here for ten years. Weren’t you the ones who came out of nowhere and made it difficult for my business?”
“Hey, old man, We’ve explained it over and over again. We bought this land a while ago.”
 “It sounds like you’re threatening to forcefully sell the land that was originally mine using a gang.”
“Well said, old man. And if you don’t want to end up like the previous ones, you’d better close your business right away.”
As soon as the conversation was finished, a man who appeared to be his subordinate stepped up and kicked the grandfather.
The old man fell and the screams of people were heard.
These cases often happened in such a crowded city.
A gang taking over the city,
And gradually expands its influence as it takes control of the surrounding commercial districts.
This was quite a problem and the country was trying to prevent it somehow.
Perhaps the Knights’ Headquarters here are also struggling with this issue.
I was thinking about what to do because I thought I might interfere with the plan of the Knights here for no reason, but Sertien, who was next to me, suddenly shouted in a loud voice and intervened.
“What are you doing!?”
‘What are you doing!?’ I felt like fainting when I saw Sertien run and shield the old man.