chapter 09
“You crazy…! How could you give up your own priority rights?!”
“What are we supposed to tell the head of the family now?! You useless bastard! Ugh!”
I looked out the window. The arrogant thugs were being dragged away. Apparently, Schuloitz’s signature carried more authority than I expected—after all, he was still a direct descendant of the Procyon family, at least legally. Things were moving much faster than I had anticipated.
‘Our knights really have foul mouths.’
Even the guards dragging the thugs away were being ruthless. Just a few days ago, they didn’t care when Schuloitz was being beaten in the middle of the street. Now they were acting like righteous heroes.
Well, that’s how law enforcement works in a slum like this. When a powerful noble appears, they move however that noble wants. The fake family name I’m using is also pretty high-ranking, so if those thugs are taken to the capital, they’ll be heavily punished.
‘All the witnesses are from the Lefebvre family too.’
I figured if things go well, those thugs could even get a life sentence. Or at the very least, a massive fine. Thinking about Schuloitz’s stepmother, who used to secretly poison him, getting caught up in this made me feel a bit smug.
“Young Lady.”
I turned away from the window when Venus called out to me.
“We quickly cleaned up a place for you to stay. Is it okay?”
“Mm-hmm. It’s good.”
The house, which used to belong to the previous protector of this district, was now mine. The knights had cleared it out in a hurry, so except for the essential furniture, there was nothing inside—but at least it was clean.
I’d gone through a lot of effort to get here. First, I wrote a very persuasive letter to my mother. Thankfully, she gave me permission to stay a bit longer.
Feeling proud, I entered the bedroom and lay down on the floor.
“Young Lady?”
I was trying to check under the bed, but Venus suddenly lifted me up with a puzzled expression.
“What are you doing, Young Lady?”
“I thought… maybe there’s another corpse…”
Venus’s eyes widened, and she let out a long sigh.
“I’m sorry, so please stop doing things like this, Young Lady. If you get in trouble, I’ll be punished. And we’ve already checked everything. No corpses.”
“You mustn’t get punished.”
Well, since Venus said there were no corpses, I decided to trust her. I only relaxed after she lifted the bed herself and showed me underneath.
Feeling better, I went to check the punishment report for those thugs.
‘So they’re just going to throw those guys away, huh.’
As the new protector of this district, I dipped my pen in ink and signed the report—but the ink splattered all over my hand. While I was scrubbing it off with the handkerchief Venus had left nearby, I heard a knock at the door.
When the door opened, I blinked in surprise.
“Young Lady!”
It was the maids. Now that I was staying longer, they had sent the maids from the mansion. I jumped up and hugged them.
“Young Lady!”
“I missed you…!”
The maids fussed over me happily at first, but their expressions soon turned sour.
“My goodness, what were the knights thinking with their terrible sense of style?”
“They made you wear a cloak like it’s an apron!”
“This necklace—did they use it as a hair tie? Were they blind?”
As soon as they arrived, the maids began criticizing the knights’ fashion choices and started fixing me up right away. I asked them just to be sure:
“Do I… smell bad?”
“No, not at all. You’re a Lefebvre, after all. But soaking in medicinal baths all the time must get boring. You’ve used up all the bath bombs we gave you, right?”
“Mm-hmm. A week ago.”
The maids loved making bath bombs for me. Being surrounded by that familiar scent again made me feel happy. After they tied my hair up with a ribbon, I hummed as I went off to see Schuloitz.
“…Huh?”
The knight in charge of looking after Schuloitz today was standing far away, making an X sign with his arms. I frowned.
A man wearing black clothes and five blue ribbons was standing in front of Schuloitz.
‘That’s the guy who delivers death notices.’
“Then…”
The man handed something to Schuloitz, took off his hat to bow politely, then left. I slowly walked over.
“Schuloitz.”
He looked up in my direction.
“That man…?”
“My grandmother passed away.”
“…Oh.”
“She was pretty old.”
Honestly, I had guessed it might happen. The only person who would bother to send Schuloitz a death notice after he was cast out by his family was probably his maternal grandmother. She had cared about him enough to prepare a house like this for him.
The problem is…
I noticed that the obituary Schloitz was holding had two names on it.
I hesitated for a moment before speaking.
“There’s… another page… on the back… Schloitz.”
Schloitz still couldn’t see well. Of course, he couldn’t read the writing. Like a child reading something aloud for someone, I gently took the paper from his hand and slowly read the name.
It was the name of Schloitz’s mother.
“Looks like… the news… came late…? It says… she passed away… a year ago….”
“I see.”
His voice was calm.
That was it. Schloitz didn’t react any further. He simply folded the obituary neatly and placed it in his room. He didn’t look shocked or sad. Well, in the original story, it wasn’t like he had any close bond with his mother….
All he ever got was brainwashing, really. Always told: That family is yours. You are the true heir.
“I’ll… come again tomorrow… Sleep well… Schloitz.”
As usual, I ate dinner and returned to my room. Thanks to the maids, the room was cozier than when the knights had handled it. Normally, I would’ve buried my face in my favorite soft blanket, but I wasn’t in the mood.
Of course…
“Schloitz is strong.”
He’s strong and tough. And in the original story too, there was never any mention of him having trauma from childhood.
But the way Schloitz spoke today… his voice was too calm for me to just trust that stupid original story.
I suddenly sat up. I couldn’t fall asleep. It felt similar to the day I unknowingly lay on a corpse. Though this time, it was a different kind of sadness.
“Young miss? Where are you going?”
“I want… to go to Schloitz’s… house.”
“Oh. Just a moment.”
The maids seemed to already know everything about this ‘Schloitz’ person. I thought they’d say no, but they let me go easily.
“You don’t usually ask to go anywhere,” one of them said.
Was that true?
Anyway, I was relieved. I left quickly with Dylan. Why Dylan? Because Venus was too eye-catching. Sure, Dylan also looked like someone who could break the internet with his looks, but Venus… he was something else. He looked like a living sculpture. His parents really named him well.
Though even that beauty won’t last beyond a few years.
Since knights usually looked too bulky and noticeable, I just took Dylan with me and moved quietly. The dark blue cloak the maids gave me shimmered with silver and looked elegant.
The slums were dark, but that didn’t matter. All the thugs around here knew I was a noble trying to fix the orphanage, so no one dared bother me. After walking briskly, I arrived at Schloitz’s house.
Phew.
I’d gotten a key long ago, with his permission to enter in case of emergencies.
And this definitely counts as an emergency!
I quietly opened the door.
“Dylan… stay here.”
“Huh? Y-Yes, young miss.”
“Shh.”
“Shh.”
I crept inside. The house was dark, but the moonlight through the window helped me see.
…He threw all the food away?
The knights had already gotten rid of the poisoned food, but after that, Schloitz had been collecting long-lasting food in the pantry. I’d always wondered why. I thought maybe he was training for survival in the military or something. But… maybe not?
I walked past the trash bin where the food had been dumped.
The lights were off. I was going to leave if he was sleeping, thinking that would be better for him…
But—
“……”
Schloitz wasn’t asleep. He was sitting on the bed, face buried in his knees.
“…Schloitz.”
He didn’t flinch or lift his head. He must’ve heard me come in.
“…Why are you here?”
I hesitated, then said,
“When… you have… a scary dream… right?”
That came out weird.
Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to find him like this. I was flustered. I sat on the edge of the bed and reached out. After a moment of hesitation, I gently held his hand, which had fallen to his side. It was cold.
Normally, his hands were warm.
“…Don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying.”
“Okay then… I take it back… Just cry.”
Schloitz slowly raised his head. In the shadows, I could see a faint smile on his face.
“Sometimes, I don’t understand what you say.”
“Sorry….”
“That’s not what I meant.”
“I know.”
I looked down at his cold hand and asked,
“…Why were you… saving food?”
Honestly, if he hadn’t been doing that, he might not have gotten beaten up so badly by those thugs. I thought he might have a hoarding problem or something. But now, all the food was thrown away.
“To eat later.”
“Why? They… kept bringing… more food…”
Even though it was poisoned, they brought fresh food every time. So why…?
“My grandmother.”
He spoke quietly.
“She said my mother would come here.”
My heart sank.
“She said we’d live together here.”
“……”
“So that’s why. My mother… couldn’t skip meals because of her medication.”
Slowly, I started to understand.
His grandmother must’ve told him that his mother would come live with him one day.
That’s why there were so many rooms in the house.
Schloitz believed her. So he saved food. The thugs—paid off by his stepmother—only brought him single portions.
So he ate the old food himself, saving the fresh ones for his mother. I already knew from the doctor that he showed mild signs of malnutrition.
Damn it…
I nearly swore out loud. I was so angry that my eyes turned red. His father—how could he do this to his own child, all for some so-called “great love”?
And to make things worse, Schloitz’s mother had already died a year ago. He didn’t even know. This child had been saving food, waiting for her. He wasn’t blind to the smell of rotting food—but he didn’t care. He was waiting for her.
Even when he spoke to his closest comrades years later, he would only say that his childhood was “a little hard.” I bit my lip.
Are you going to keep making your monologues this cold and distant and leave me feeling like this?
Schloitz reached out and touched my cheek. His cold hand felt strangely cool.
He blinked slowly and asked,
“Your face is really warm… Are you sick?”
“I’m… not sick. Just… mad.”
He looked at me quietly and asked,
“Why are you angry?”
“Because… you’re not….”
“…It’s okay.”
I suddenly pulled him into a hug. Why did this small boy have to suffer such a cruel fate? So what if he became a national hero and the youngest general? In the end, he died alone. Thinking of that made my chest ache. I wrapped my arms around his small shoulders and whispered,
“It’s okay… to cry. Schloitz.”
“I’m not crying.”
“Babies… cry when they… want to.”
“…Who are you calling a baby.”
“Actually… even grown-ups… can cry… if they want to.”
“……”
Schloitz slowly leaned into me, pressing his tearful face to my shoulder. I kept holding that little boy in my arms for a long time after that.
