Chapter 188
“…….”
The child, left alone in the room, couldn’t take their eyes off the spot where Yulia and Airien had been, even after they disappeared.
The child’s hands, awkwardly touching the still-tingling back of their head, felt very unnatural.
“Name.”
“…….”
“None?”
“…….”
“Then from now on, your name will be Gaettong…”
“…Jien.”
Hmm, so you can speak after all.
It seemed the child didn’t like the name Gaettong; it was the first time they’d heard the child’s voice.
“Jien?”
The child nodded.
When Ceres asked, the child nodded—but their next reaction was strange.
Jien, subtly watching Ceres’ expression, hesitated and stepped back. Their fists were tightly clenched, and the tension radiating from them was palpable.
“……?”
Ceres raised an eyebrow in confusion at the child’s behavior. Why suddenly so scared?
“Why?”
Am I scary? Ceres scratched her cheek.
‘Well, that’s possible.’
She had always been a bit incompatible with children. Maybe her expressions were too stiff, so they found her intimidating.
‘Hmm?’
But the child’s reaction seemed excessive. They weren’t trembling enough for me to be intimidating, were they?
The child was shaking all over, as if they had done something terribly wrong.
“You…”
Flinch.
Ceres’ expression stiffened slightly as she spoke again, and the child immediately flinched.
“…….”
Ceres didn’t speak for a while. In fact, she couldn’t. How could she say anything to someone trembling like that?
She didn’t make any other movement. She just silently observed the child until they calmed down.
“……?”
After a while, the child slowly lifted their head and gave her a puzzled look. Only then did Ceres speak.
“What’s going on?”
Why are you trembling like that?
“……?”
The child stared back at her with an even more bewildered expression.
“What are you scared of?”
“…….”
The child remained silent, hesitating to answer. Ceres waited patiently again, letting the child speak first.
After another long moment:
“Why……”
A small voice came from the child.
“Why… aren’t you hitting me?”
“…What?”
Ceres didn’t immediately understand the child. Did they really just ask why she wasn’t hitting them?
“I—I spoke… so why……”
…What kind of strange logic is this?
“So.”
Ceres, holding back the confusion in her head, slowly spoke again.
“Did you think… I was going to hit you?”
“Because I spoke.”
“…….”
The child’s firm answer left Ceres speechless once more. It was like getting hit in the head with something heavy.
‘Because I spoke…?’
“…If you speak, you get hit?”
“……? Because I spoke.”
When Ceres repeated the question, the child tilted their head as if they couldn’t understand why it was even a question.
“Sorry, I’ll be a little rude.”
Ceres’ expression darkened as she lifted the child’s shirt. The child flinched slightly, accustomed to it, but didn’t resist. That only made Ceres feel even more conflicted.
“…Damn…”
She almost cursed, but caught herself, realizing the child was right there.
The child’s body, revealed under the shirt, was covered in wounds. Hardly any part of them was unscathed.
Is this… the body of a ten-year-old?
“Haah.”
Ceres finally let out a long, uncontrollable sigh. The child flinched again at the sound.
Though they didn’t understand the situation, they seemed to think Ceres had made them angry again. Fear filled the child’s eyes once more.
Meeting that gaze, an even deeper sigh escaped Ceres.
“So that’s why, I guess.”
“You really didn’t know?”
“No. The child kept insisting on washing themselves…”
Hearing the situation, the butler Colin clicked his tongue repeatedly. When the child had returned home yesterday, he had guided them to the room and prepared fresh clothes and water for bathing.
He tried to help them bathe, but the child refused to take off their clothes. When asked if they could wash themselves, they nodded, and Colin quietly left.
“Perhaps they didn’t want to show their body’s wounds.”
“Not that they didn’t want to, but that they shouldn’t show them.”
“Pardon?”
Colin tilted his head. It was hard for him to immediately understand Ceres’ meaning.
‘Why do you get hit if you speak?’
‘…That bastard.’
‘…….’
“Damn…”
Ceres muttered a small curse, recalling the conversation from yesterday.
The child had been living in an orphanage. And the director would strike Jien every time they spoke.
The reason was simple:
‘They were annoying.’
What a lunatic.
“The hands and face were clean.”
Only the areas covered by clothes were wounded. That meant the director didn’t want others to see the child’s injuries.
It seems highly likely the director had instilled in the child the idea that showing their wounds to anyone was forbidden. Just as they had instilled that speaking would result in punishment. That’s why the child had refused to undress in front of the butler.
‘I heard Yulia also hated having her hands touched.’
“Sis! That guy’s mean! I tried to put a pen in his hand to teach him letters, but he angrily pushed it away! So I hit him.”
“You hit him too?”
“Yeah!”
“…Then that’s settled.”
“Yeah!”
That day, an angry Yulia had run over, whining and scolding.
‘Next time, if you do it again, I’ll hit you even harder.’
…Go back again? She doesn’t say she won’t deal with it.
Anyway, the reason the child, who normally reacted sharply to even slight contact from Yulia, hadn’t resisted Ceres was simple:
‘It must be because of the contract.’
The child likely believed that, holding the blood contract, Ceres now occupied the director’s position in their absence.
‘That’s why they didn’t refuse to have their wounds checked.’
They knew refusal would immediately lead to punishment.
‘They must think I will naturally punish everything, like the director.’
As Ceres pieced together the situation, she felt increasingly disgusted. Was it because the child held the Artia ring? She felt more invested than she expected.
It felt like our Artia had gone somewhere and returned covered in wounds… maybe I’m overthinking.
“The child?”
“They had a snack, and Yulia also wanted some.”
Hearing they were together, Ceres headed there. She wondered if the two would start fighting again like last time.
Clang!
“……?”
On her way, Ceres heard the sound of something breaking and quickened her pace. Were they fighting and throwing things?
“Yuli…?”
When she entered the living room, the first thing she saw was the two children standing up. Broken pieces of a plate were scattered under them.
“Oh, it’s dangerous. Come this way.”
Colin hurriedly moved the children aside and began cleaning the floor.
“What happened?”
It didn’t look like they were fighting.
“Well… Kamangie…”
“Kamangie?”
Even without hearing the whole story, Ceres understood the situation just from the word “Kamangie.”
This kid probably tried to steal the snack and ended up smashing the plate.
“…Why is that one doing that?”
Ceres’ gaze turned to the corner of the room, where Kamangie lay face down on the floor, covering their face with their short arms.
