The Villain’S Daughter-In-Law Is Inherently Powerful [EN]: Chapter 51

“We’ve arrived!”

Bright sunlight poured down on the vast training grounds.

But lucky for us, there’s a very old ancestral tree here!

I dashed towards the shade generously provided by the long, drooping branches of the tree, and Dante reluctantly followed.

“This is the training ground. You’re having a picnic here?”

“Yep! We can do anything. Come on, let’s sit here!”

“Haa… Move over.”

Dante sighed, clearly not thrilled with the location, but he obediently spread out the picnic mat.

He grumbles, but he always does what I want.

“Wait a second.”

Just as I was about to sit, Dante stopped me, unbuttoning his jacket. Then, he laid his jacket on top of the mat.

“Sit here.”

“It’s your jacket. I can just sit on the mat.”

“Still, the ground is hard. And the picnic mat is just cloth, but this has silk in it.”

“Hmm, but…”

“Dad said a wife should always sit on something better. And at school, they said a lady shouldn’t sit on cold things.”

Ah. So, he’s telling me to sit on something better.

‘Is this chivalry?’

I’m grateful and touched.

I sat neatly on Dante’s jacket and then glanced at the dirt ground of the training field.

Ian will be here soon.

“So, what are we doing here now?”

Dante, who has probably never been on a picnic before, asked with a pout. I confidently put my hands on my hips.

“Here! Now!”

What should we do?

“Uh… enjoying leisure. It’s an essential activity for children in a busy modern society.”

Even to my ears, it sounded like nonsense, but Dante nodded surprisingly seriously. Whew.

“Wow, the weather is nice.”

The blue sky seen from under the shade was stunningly beautiful.

I tilted my head back to admire the shapes of the clouds, pointing and shouting at each one.

“That’s a rabbit cloud. That’s a tomato cloud.”

“Why are you doing that?”

“Huh?”

“Just because a cloud looks like a rabbit doesn’t mean it is a rabbit.”

Dante looked back at me with genuine bewilderment.

I was momentarily speechless, but I quickly found something to say.

“I-It’s fun!”

“That’s fun?”

“Yeah! What do the academy kids do for fun that they don’t even know this?”

Was I acting too childish? But I am a child.

A little embarrassed, I rubbed my cheek as an apology, and Dante, who had been silent, opened his mouth.

“Then that’s a snake cloud.”

“Right! That’s a suspension bridge cloud!”

I giggled because he was trying to match my mood, even if awkwardly.

I hugged Dante tightly and stretched his soft cheeks.

“Aww, you’re so cute.”

“I’m not cute, I’m cool.”

“Yeah, cute and cool Dante.”

“Hmph.”

He’s just awkward at dealing with people, but he’s a good kid. I hope Ian recognizes Dante’s good qualities.

“But Dante. What did you really do for fun at the academy?”

“The academy isn’t a place to have fun.”

“Uh… but you still play with your friends, right?”

Surely the kids said about Dante….

“Yes. Dante was very playful.”

“But he doesn’t try to hang out with anyone these days. Is he going through puberty!”

That’s what they said.

It seems like he used to laugh a lot and joke around.

“Just… we played normal things like ball games, obstacle courses, or wrestling.”

“There’s something weird mixed in there?”

“Obstacle courses are the most fun. It’s a game where you put obstacles in a wide open space and jump over them. Want to try… no, never mind.”

Dante, who seemed a little excited, spoke faster but stopped when he saw me.

“Why! Don’t ignore me! I… I might be able to do it too!”

You’re making me feel resentful.

But to be honest, I wasn’t confident.

I don’t really like exercising.

“The academy kids play dangerous games.”

“It’s not dangerous. It’s fun.”

“C-Cloud imagining is fun too!”

What am I even saying?

I don’t argue like this when I talk to Ian, but when I talk to Dante, I feel like I become a little kid.

‘I am a kid… but my mental age seems to be becoming a kid too.’

I couldn’t help but be so happy when Ian appeared from the other side of the training ground.

“Ian! I’m here!”

“Florin? This place is dangerous, what’s going on? It’s nice to see you, though.”

Today, Ian was wearing a loose white shirt and well-fitted caramel-colored pants.

The pouring spring sunlight landed on his reddish hair, working magic to make his already kind face even kinder.

I ran to Ian, who was happy to see me, and held his hand tightly.

“I wanted to see Ian! Let’s have a picnic together when the training is over!”

“Shall we? It must have been heavy. You brought all that?”

“Dante carried it.”

“That’s a relief.”

Ian smiled and stroked my hair.

I smiled back and returned to my seat, but as expected, Dante was tilting his head with a very sulky expression.

“Well, let’s see how good you are.”

“Ian is very strong? You’ll be surprised?”

“Hmph.”

Dante scoffed and sat down with his arms on his knees, staring intently at Ian.

Still, unlike his attitude of trying to treat Ian as nothing special, his eyes look quite complicated.

“Everyone’s gathered here.”

“Huh, Father?”

But Ian’s training partner who appeared next was… none other than Father.

I’ve never heard of him receiving individual training from Father?!

* * *

“A national treasure faceeeeeee!”

An hour later.

I was grabbing Ian’s sweat-soaked face and screaming.

“What should I do! Are you training like this every day?!

You’re bruised!

“Tch. It’s not that big of a deal.”

Dante grumbled from the side.

I glared at Dante and gently rubbed a boiled egg around Ian’s eyes.

“It’s okay. I was careless at the end. You can ask for magic to heal it.”

“But… it hurts now.”

“With this pain, I might not be careless next time.”

Ian said kindly, holding my hand.

“You can stop rubbing now. Aren’t you hungry? Let’s eat.”

“Okay.”

Ian and Father’s sparring looked no different from a real battle to my eyes. It was so dazzling that my eyes were spinning later.

Dante wasn’t dizzy and kept staring at their exchanges, but when Ian got hit in the forehead with a wooden sword at the end, he looked dumbfounded.

“Life is precious, Ian.”

“Sparring with Uncle is the fastest way to get stronger. It’s okay.”

I handed Ian a crab sandwich and offered a sandwich to Dante, just in case he got jealous.

“Here, it’s a grilled chicken sandwich.”

So, we all sat around on the picnic mat with a sandwich in our hands.

My sandwich had strawberry jam on one side and plenty of potato salad inside.

“Delicious!”

I’m happy.

As my stepmother said, a situation where we are together ‘unavoidably’ was created.

‘But really, they don’t hate being in the same place that much.’

If they hated and resented each other, Dante would have stormed out, but he didn’t.

Even if he’s being picky, being together is what matters.

“Florin’s is a potato sandwich. Can I have a bite?”

“Huh? Yeah! Here’s a new one.”

All the sandwiches were packed in two pieces.

Father took the one with avocado, and we ate one of the remaining three types each, so they’re all left.

But before I could rummage through the basket, Ian bit into the one I was holding.

It was the one I was eating!

“Ah, there’s a new one. Isn’t it dirty, with my saliva on it?”

“Dirty? Not at all.”

Ian mumbled, wiping the sauce from his mouth with his thumb and licking it off.

I was a little flustered, but well, it’s not like Ian took a lot.

“You little fox.”

That’s when it happened.

Dante crushed his poor sandwich and spat out a word.

It seemed like he was talking to Ian….

“I want to eat yours too.”

“What? You have your sandwich… oh, you don’t.”

There was a sandwich, but it’s crushed. So badly that you can’t eat it.

I sighed and just put my sandwich in Dante’s mouth.

“Eat, eat.”

Why is he so obsessed with what people eat?

“I’ll just eat a snack.”

“Idaet orem iekmon.” (I ate more)”

“What?”

“I ate more.”

So childish…….

I glanced at Dante with a bitter look as he shrugged his shoulders at Ian as if to show off, and I just took out a sweet meringue cookie.

“Ah, but the weather is so nice.”

There was no paradise like emptying a sweet lemon-flavored meringue into my mouth and crunching it.

I shared the meringue with Ian and Dante, and thankfully, Dante didn’t insist on eating more this time.

Because there wasn’t much meringue.

“Hey, Ian.”

“Yeah, Florin.”

“Should I call you Ian Oppa [older brother in Korean]?”

I wondered if Dante would call him Hyung [older brother in Korean] if I called him Oppa first. That thought suddenly popped into my head, so I threw it out there.

“!”

But just then, Ian, who was drinking water, started coughing like crazy.

“A-Are you okay?”

“Will you call me again?”

“Uh… Ian Oppa… ?”

Oh my god.

I thought that a smile blooming like a flower on someone’s face was just a poetic description, but it wasn’t.

“Yes, baby.”

Ian looked at me with a truly bright face and answered in a voice dripping with honey.

He must have liked being called Oppa so much.

“What’s with the Oppa.”

Dante grumbled from the side, but Ian looked only at me as if he couldn’t hear anything.

‘It’s a little hot.’

Was it because the spring sun was too strong?

I wiggled my toes in my shoes and picked up the last meringue cookie and put it in my mouth.

It was very, very sweet.