Drawing Manga in a Romance Fantasy

Chapter 169

“Nooo!!! The girl is too pitiful!!!”

After reading The Little Match Girl, Ada clung to Rupert, sobbing uncontrollably, and even bit into his neck.

But unlike before, when Ada’s tantrums were amusing, Rupert felt genuine fear this time.

‘This isn’t just a tantrum anymore!’

Back when she had read The Little Mermaid and pitied the mermaid, Ada had only pummeled his back with her tiny fists.

This time, however, the intensity was on another level—enough to make Rupert wonder if he’d survive the next ten years and ever achieve the title of honorary duke.

Desperate to calm her down, he had to think fast.

“Ada, you can’t cry.”

“Why not?”

“Because Santa Claus doesn’t give presents to kids who cry.”

“Santa Claus?”

Rupert quickly spun a tale about Santa Claus, adapting it to fit this world.

“He’s an old man who rides a sleigh pulled by a red-nosed reindeer and delivers presents.”

“Wow!!!”

“But he only gives presents to kids who’ve been good all year.”

“Ada’s good!”

“Right, you’re a good girl, so you can’t bite or hit your brother! And you can’t cry, okay?”

“Okay!”

Thanks to Santa, Rupert managed to escape disaster.

Of course, this also meant he’d have to dress up Marquis Bradley as Santa Claus later and deliver presents to Ada—but it seemed like a worthwhile plan for his adorable little sister.

What Rupert didn’t know was that Ada had taken his words very seriously and was now deep in thought.

“Raschu, what about my friends? They’re all crybabies. What if they don’t get any presents?”

“Woof!”

Ada was certain she’d get presents since she was good and had stopped crying.

But she worried about the children who looked up to her, especially the orphans living in the church.

Unlike her, they were timid and weak, often bullied by kids from neighboring villages.

Remembering their tearful faces made Ada’s heart ache.

If Santa really didn’t give presents to kids who cried, Ada couldn’t bear the thought of her friends being left out.

So she made up her mind—she would become Santa Claus herself.

“What do you want for a present?”
“Boss! I want the Thousand Puzzle Necklace from The King of Cards!”
“I wanted the hero’s sword from Van Helsing…”

Without hesitation, Ada rode Raschu down to the village and visited each child, asking about the presents they wanted.

Then she marched straight to Krune’s workshop.

“You want me to make all this?”

“Yup!”

Ada handed Krune a list filled with names and gift requests.

‘Most of these are just toys.’

Krune figured he could make them easily using leftover materials or items stored in the workshop.

“Fine. Since our little lady asked, I’ll make them for free.”

“No! Ada’s going to pay for them herself!”

“What? It’s still Rupert’s money, isn’t it?”

“No way! Ada’s going to use the money she earned herself!”

Ada then showed Krune a drawing she had made.

“Is this… a sleigh?”

Despite Ada’s crooked lines and childlike doodles, Krune managed to recognize the sled in her picture.

He wondered how Ada, who had never seen a sleigh, even knew about them.

But what puzzled him more was the strange animal pulling the sled.

Most of the sketch was abstract, but the animal’s nose had a large red dot, making it stand out.

“You want me to make this too?”

“Yup!”

Krune couldn’t help but think how much Ada resembled Rupert, treating requests like orders she’d already prepaid.

Sleighs weren’t particularly difficult to make—he had built some before—so Krune agreed.

Ada’s excitement had her bouncing around the workshop.

When Ada insisted on paying, Krune humored her and set the price at 5 silver coins, thinking she could cover it with her pocket money from the marquis.

But to Krune’s surprise, Ada took the price seriously and began running around to earn the money herself.

“Buy my matches!”

“Ada, are you short on allowance? Why are you suddenly selling matches?”

“No! It’s a secret!”

Ada bought a large batch of matches from the village shop and started hawking them to everyone she met—from the mansion staff to the workshop employees.

Ada often mimicked fairy tale characters, but this time, instead of giving the matches away, she sold them at inflated prices.

Even Rupert, suspicious of her behavior, couldn’t get her to explain and was brushed off with a firm “It’s a secret.”

Everyone else found her antics adorable and bought matches, thinking of it as giving pocket money to a child.

Before long, Ada had far surpassed her original 5-silver goal.

“Woof!”

With Raschu already fitted with a red nose decoration like a reindeer, Ada imagined herself riding her sleigh through the village, delivering presents to her friends.

And once Krune finished building the sleigh, her plan to become Santa Claus would finally be complete.

*****

“Master Krune, did you teach the golem anything?”

“Teach it? I only know how to make them—I have no idea how to do that.”

Zinnia, who spent weekdays assisting with lectures and research at the academy, had been squeezing in time on weekends to work on the new golem.

Krune had already completed the frame, leaving only the magical enhancements and programming to Zinnia.

But as she inspected the nearly finished golem, her expression grew serious.

“It shouldn’t be capable of learning on its own…”

The final stage of the golem’s creation involved programming it to recognize human speech and perform tasks that could assist Rupert’s work.

However—

“Please give me a name.”

The golem, which shouldn’t have been able to speak or move without training, had just spoken naturally to Zinnia.

Confused, she quickly deactivated it to investigate.

“There’s nothing wrong with my design or Krune’s assembly…”

After a thorough examination, Zinnia could find no flaws. Everything matched the original plans perfectly.

“Has anyone besides Krune been in here recently?”

“No way! I lock this place tight with a dwarven lock whenever I’m not here.”

Krune’s voice boomed with confidence, and Zinnia recalled how he’d bragged about his intricate lock before.

Just from the look of it, the mechanism was so complex that bypassing it without damage seemed impossible.

‘What in the world is going on?’

Krune didn’t seem to share her sense of alarm and even looked pleased, as if the golem’s spontaneous learning were a happy accident.

But Zinnia couldn’t afford to be so optimistic.

If the golem she’d created had somehow developed beyond her control, it posed a serious risk.

Despite installing multiple safety mechanisms, unpredictable anomalies like this one could render all precautions useless.

“For now, we’ll have to monitor it closely.”

“Understood. I’ll make sure no one gets in.”

Satisfied with the temporary plan, Zinnia prepared to return to the academy, only to be stopped by a frantic voice.

“Zinnia!”

“Rupert?”

“Do you have a moment? I need to discuss something urgently…”

Hoping to leave quietly and keep the golem’s development a secret from Rupert, Zinnia hesitated. But the desperate look on his face made her sigh and agree.

“What’s going on?”

“Is there… is there magic that can make it snow?”

“…What?”

To her disbelief, Rupert’s urgent request was for a spell to make snow fall.

*****

“Why is our Santa Ada sprawled on the floor?”

It was the weekend, and Rupert had just returned home after a quick meeting with Esteban at the Yuren Trading Company.

Normally, Ada would come sprinting the moment she heard his footsteps, throwing herself into his arms. But today, there was no sign of her.

Concerned, Rupert went searching and found Ada in her room.

She was dressed in the Santa outfit the workshop staff had made for her, but instead of sitting on her bed, she was lying face-down on the floor.

“Ada… isn’t Santa anymore.”

Her dejected voice made Rupert wonder what on earth had happened.

Ada was always bursting with energy—sometimes a little too much—so seeing her this downcast left Rupert feeling uneasy.

“What happened? Tell me.”

Rupert helped Ada sit up and gently asked her what was wrong. She sniffled and clung to him.

“Rupert… the sled won’t run!”

“Sled?”

Rupert had no idea what she was talking about, but as she kept mumbling about the sled, he finally calmed her down enough to get the full story.

Then he went straight to Krune.

“Krune, what’s going on with Ada?”

“Well…”

Just as Rupert suspected, Krune had something to do with it.

—She asked me to build her a sled, so I did! But sleds only work in snowy northern regions, right? I just told her she wouldn’t be able to use it here in the south because there’s no snow…

“…Ah. So this is my fault?”

It all made sense now.

Ada, who had taken Rupert’s Santa story to heart, had been dreaming of riding a sleigh through the snow.

But hearing that she couldn’t use it without snow had completely crushed her.

Rupert couldn’t help but sigh.

‘If this were just a matter of money, I could figure something out…’

But making it snow in Somerset, a southern territory with mild winters, was another story entirely—even for Rupert.

As he wandered through the mansion’s garden, racking his brain for a solution, something caught his eye.

“Oh, Zinnia?”

He spotted Zinnia just as she was about to leave the estate.