* * *
Three days had passed since Yuti’s visit, and Sia hadn’t thrown up again.
It turned out he had vomited because his stomach couldn’t handle greasy food.
At first, he made such a fuss about not wanting porridge that I was genuinely concerned.
But ironically, when I finally gave it to him, he obediently ate it without any resistance.
Tonight’s dinner was porridge again, and Sia finished his bowl without complaint.
Now, he was curled up in bed, snoring softly after brushing his teeth.
Maybe it was because of the large bed, but his small frame looked even tinier as he lay there.
After checking on him, I stepped out of the room.
I wanted to wash up, but if I did it here, I’d probably wake him up.
So I asked one of the servants to show me a suitable guest room where I could bathe.
Once I was done, I put on the robe hanging in the bathroom, rubbing my damp hair with a towel while absentmindedly extending my senses toward the bedroom.
Two days ago, I had asked the master to track down Sia’s relatives.
I hoped we’d get results before I had to resort to looking for distant family members.
“…Bibi.”
A voice calling my name snapped me out of my thoughts.
My head jerked up.
What’s wrong?
My heart pounded in alarm, and despite knowing I shouldn’t overuse my abilities, I instinctively did.
Not that it mattered—I wasn’t planning to live long anyway.
A little overexertion wouldn’t kill me.
I teleported straight into the bedroom, where damp, pale blue-gray eyes met mine.
Sia’s pupils quivered slightly, as if he hadn’t expected me to actually come.
He didn’t trust me.
But I wasn’t offended.
If a child his age had already been sold off to a slave merchant, it only made sense.
Not being able to trust anyone—not adults, not friends, not even family—was the natural result of such an experience.
If you had a tongue that could deceive and hands that could manipulate, then you could never let your guard down around anyone.
I quietly watched as Sia swallowed dryly, then reached out my hand.
His gaze followed the motion as I slowly lowered my hand, making it easier for him to grab if he wanted.
“Sha.”
“…Why are you calling me?”
His reply was still sharp, yet oddly drained of energy.
“I want to touch you for a moment. If you’re okay with that, give me your hand.”
“You touched me just fine before.”
“And you hated it.”
I met his eyes, unwilling to add any more scars to my arms.
Sia lifted his small head slightly, staring at me in a daze.
His soft pink hair fluttered with each breath he took.
His personality might be no different from a street thug’s, but his appearance—honestly, it was as if the world had gathered every ounce of loveliness to craft him.
Like a flower that only blooms in spring.
Like a fairy that lives in a child’s dreams.
Like an illustration from a beautifully colored storybook.
A quiet, shallow breath slipped through his slightly parted pink lips.
Then, as if making up his mind, he pursed them shut and hesitantly placed his hand over mine.
“You came when I called you, so I’ll give you my hand. You said it yourself—if someone gives once, you have to give back at least once…”
Sia stammered, fumbling for words, before finishing his sentence.
Acknowledging his reasoning, I gave a slight nod and perched on the edge of the bed.
His eyes looked a little red—maybe from drowsiness.
Or maybe from something else.
Tears clung to the corners of his upturned eyes, glistening faintly.
I gently wiped them away as I observed him.
His small frame was drenched in cold sweat.
His body trembled intermittently.
A regular person might not have noticed at a glance, but I couldn’t not see it.
Watching him, memories of last night resurfaced—Sia sobbing as he searched for his parents.
‘I’ve been too indifferent.’
To me, parents were never a particularly welcome presence.
That’s why, even as I thought about finding a guardian for the child, I momentarily forgot just how significant parents were to a typical child.
For the boy, being sold to a slave merchant or being forcibly brought to the duke’s castle by knights was no different from losing his parents.
Sia’s small face fit easily in my palm.
I carefully adjusted my hand so as not to block his view and spoke.
“Sha, do you miss your parents?”
There was no response for a long time.
To give him time to gather his thoughts, I gently wiped away the tear droplets clinging to his delicate eyelashes and waited for his answer.
When he sniffled, I pulled out a handkerchief from my pocket and held it up to his nose.
“Blow your nose.”
“…Hmph.”
When he did as told, I lightly brushed my hand against his cheek as a form of praise.
Then, I remained seated, patiently waiting for his reply.
Finally, after what seemed like a long contemplation, Sia met my gaze with a conflicted expression and spoke.
“I miss them. But I know I’ll never see them again. You can’t see people once they’re dead. So I don’t want to think about it anymore, but… they keep appearing in my dreams.”
“Your parents do?”
“Yeah. Over and over again… My mom and dad… the way they died at that man’s hands…”
‘They died? Were they murdered? Maybe this is the reason Hessia will later emerge as the villain and tear the empire apart.’
I decided that I should have Master investigate Sia’s parents as well.
When the time came to entrust him to a suitable guardian, I’d have to provide that information so they could address it properly.
As I pondered this, I wiped away another tear that had trickled down his face.
“Don’t cry. I may not be your parents, but I’m still here beside you. Why are you crying so much?”
“What kind of messed-up comfort is that? You’re nothing like my mom and dad. And I’m not crying because I want to! I hate crying in front of others, too! But for some reason, whenever I’m with you, the tears won’t stop.”
His voice wavered in frustration, and his expression crumpled into a miserable pout.
He seemed indignant at himself for crying, but then he suddenly narrowed his eyes at me.
Just as I instinctively sensed that something ridiculous was about to come out of his mouth, he blurted,
“Did you do something weird to me?! Like… put some kind of strange drug in my food?”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Your imagination is running wild… No, I didn’t.”
Sha, just what kind of adult do you think I am?
Despite my firm denial, he still eyed me with suspicion.
I sighed at the absurdity of it all, then, instead of arguing further, I hummed a lullaby to get him to sleep.
“…Do you think I’m some little kid who’ll just doze off the moment you start singing?”
“Should I stop, then?”
“No! Who told you to stop? Keep going.”
With a sulky expression, he stared at me for a moment before slowly drifting off to sleep.
Even after he had fallen asleep, I sat there for a long time, wiping away the faint sheen of cold sweat on his skin and humming softly.
Watching his peaceful face, as if he had grown up surrounded only by love, I unknowingly followed him into slumber.
Perhaps because my posture was uncomfortable, I hadn’t been asleep for long when a nightmare took hold of me.
Even knowing it was a dream, I struggled to wake from its grip.
When I finally managed to break free, I instinctively searched the empty space around me.
Only after spotting the child, sleeping soundly beside me, did I begin to calm down.
“Hah… The kinds of dreams I have…”
Muttering a sigh, I raised my trembling hand.
It was ironic—after comforting the boy from his nightmares, I ended up having one myself.
I pressed my cold hands against my face, taking slow breaths so as not to wake him.
The nightmare had dredged up memories from the time when an epidemic had swept through the territory, plunging everything into chaos.
One by one, I forced the distorted images in my mind to fade away.
Back then, Letiyan had harbored a mountain of resentment toward me.
As the successor of the De Winter family—the most influential vassal house in determining the next duke—Haen had disregarded Letiyan entirely and spent all his time with me.
When I began my formal studies, the difference in our abilities had started to show, little by little.
Letiyan, already burdened by the stress of falling behind, completely lost control.
In an act of madness, he set fire to the medicinal herbs essential for treating the disease—just to frame me for it.
No sane person would destroy precious medicine during an epidemic.
But Letiyan had carefully waited for the right moment, when no one was guarding the storage, to carry out his plan.
The herbs, which had once been abundant enough to supply the entire territory, were suddenly in critically short supply.
The poor suffered the most from this loss.
Haen’s mother, Countess De Winter, was not the type to sit idly by while the weak perished.
She tirelessly fought to save as many lives as possible—only to contract the disease herself and pass away, leaving Haen behind.
And, as always, Letiyan succeeded in shifting the blame onto me.
Not only did I bear the stigma of having burned the medicine, but I also became the man responsible for my friend’s mother’s death.
I hadn’t even been given the chance to properly defend myself before being locked away in the western annex.
Nearly a month passed before the epidemic was finally brought under control.
That was when the former duke decided to show me the ‘weight of my actions.’
He dragged me outside the estate and forced me to witness the devastation.
‘Look closely! This is the weight of your crime!’
‘F-Father, no… I didn’t do this. I-I didn’t…!’
‘Do you still not understand the gravity of what you’ve done? Even after seeing this horror with your own eyes, you still dare deny it?! You should be begging for forgiveness, and yet—! Ha! You truly are disgusting. If you weren’t my blood, I would have killed you on the spot…!’
With those words filled with loathing, he and his retainers abandoned me there.
The stench of burning corpses lingered in the air, thick and suffocating.
As I crouched on the ground, dry-heaving, Haen appeared.
His voice, dripping with venom, delivered the final blow.
That was the moment when we ceased being friends and became mortal enemies.
The nightmare ended there, but the unease remained.
Unable to settle down, I eventually left my bedroom.
I stood in the darkened hallway for a long while before I could finally regain my composure.
But of course, sleep never came again that night.
* * *
the parents wont be missed