Chapter – 04
I was stuck in the hole and couldn’t move an inch.
Why is this happening?
I definitely got through earlier….
‘Could it be because I went in legs first?’
Belatedly, I tried to wriggle and pull my body out, but it wouldn’t budge.
‘What should I do?’
It hurts, and I’m scared.
The fact that my head was stuck out in a pitch-black hallway only doubled my fear.
‘No, maybe having my butt stuck out would have been scarier.’
You know, what you can’t see is usually scarier.
Sob.
Sniffling back my rising tears, I pondered.
‘Should I wake up Oppa?’
If I wake him up like this, he’ll probably tease me about it until we get out of prison….
But I have no choice.
I need to survive first, right?
Just as I was about to open my mouth to call him.
*Thump, thump.*
The sound of footsteps echoed through the empty hallway.
Even when I glanced sideways toward the sound, all I could see was pitch-black darkness.
Don’t tell me….
Haha. No way. Monsters and such, what kind of…
‘I’m scared. I’m really scared!’
What do I do, what do I do?
Now, even if I wanted to wake Oppa, I was too scared to make a sound.
*Sniffle, sniffle.*
Sniffling my tears and runny nose, I squeezed my eyes shut. All the while, the footsteps grew closer.
And the moment they came to a stop.
“…What’s this?”
“Gasp!”
At the voice that suddenly came from above my head, I swallowed a scream, gulping down air instead.
One second, two seconds, three seconds passed like that.
Exactly three seconds later, I flailed like an upturned rhinoceros beetle and begged.
“Pwease don’t eat me! I don’t taste good…!”
Sob sob. Don’t eat Melony!
* * *
A little while later.
I bit my lip.
‘I’m so embarrassed.’
I didn’t have the courage to look at the face of the person standing in front of me.
“Thank you for saving meee….”
What good impression!
I only left a foolish one.
*Ahem.* “Indeed. You certainly don’t look tasty… *Ahem*, I can see that now.”
At the voice full of laughter, I opened my eyes and saw Mr. Oliver’s face.
Huh? Wha—?
As I stood there dazed, blinking my eyes, he *yoink* pulled me out.
My body, which hadn’t budged an inch, came out with an almost insulting ease.
After setting me upright like he was pulling a weed, he covered his mouth with his hand and turned his head away.
‘Hey there. Your eyes are smiling.’
Your eyes are smiling way too much…!
I stood there pitifully, waiting for Mr. Oliver’s laughter to subside.
*Ahem.* “Sorry. It’s my first time seeing something like this.”
I suppose so.
It’s my first time too.
“By the way, do you live here too?”
“…Yesh, I do. My name is Melony. I’m the noo kid in the Bramsche.”
I nodded sullenly and then held up four fingers.
He might not understand me because of my poor pronunciation.
‘Huh? But his expression….’
Was it just my imagination, or did it harden slightly?
“I see. You’re saying you’re four years old.”
He muttered softly and then added something else.
“That’s strange. You look barely three years old on the outside.”
“Yesh?”
“Never mind. So, did you come in with your parents? Is the man in that room your parent?”
He pointed with his thumb toward Riki Oppa’s room.
“No. I don’t have pawentsh.”
“You don’t have them?”
“Yesh. I was abbandoned….”
Saying it out loud made me feel a bit gloomy.
Just a bit, a very tiny bit.
“…I mush be weally hated by my pawentsh. Right after I was born, they left me in a place where no one comes and went away, a place like a pwiseon….”
Oops, what am I saying now?
I lifted my head and gave a sheepish smile. I couldn’t create a needlessly gloomy atmosphere.
‘Besides, I really don’t mind.’
There were times when I was little that I missed my parents.
How silly.
Missing something I never even had.
But now I feel indifferent. The longing and resentment slowly faded, and I don’t have any particular feelings about it anymore.
The sudden wave of self-pity also faded after I rubbed my nose a few times.
That’s enough.
When it comes to life and survival, resenting and longing for parents who never existed isn’t helpful at all.
I let out another smile and puffed out my chest.
“Anywaysh, I’m your sunbae in Bramsche! If there’s anything you don’t know, you can ask me! If you can’t shleep, I can even shing you a lullaby….”
“That’s enough, go inside and sleep.”
“Okaay.”
He’s surprisingly firm.
‘I should retreat for today.’
It’s not good to be too clingy from the first day. Besides, I’m sleepy.
A child’s body needs more sleep than an adult’s, you know.
Yawn.
I let out a small yawn and bowed clumsily.
“Good night. See you tomowwow, new Uncle.”
“Uncle…?”
Ignoring his dazed mutter, I tottered toward my room.
Gosh. I need to sleep right away.
Tomorrow’s sun will rise tomorrow.
* * *
After the child went into her room.
The man who had similarly returned to his own room covered his mouth tightly.
“Pfft.”
Even so, he couldn’t hold back all the laughter that leaked out.
“Hahaha.”
A short burst of laughter escaped his throat.
The image of the young child with cotton-candy-like white hair floated in his mind.
‘Where do you find a kid like that?’
You have no idea how absurd it was to find a head peeking out from a room.
“Pwease don’t eat me! I don’t taste good…!”
And then she begged, saying she wasn’t tasty.
‘Even a skinny, malnourished monster probably wouldn’t want to eat her.’
As the image of her thin limbs and hollow cheeks came to mind, the smile disappeared from Oliver’s face.
His expression, now devoid of the smile, was utterly cold.
It even felt somewhat ruthless.
‘A four-year-old orphan, abandoned right after birth.’
The child had stated indifferently that she was abandoned.
Her voice had trembled, but she didn’t cry like she did when she begged not to be eaten.
It was peculiar.
Don’t most children cry when they talk about such things?
“…A unique little kid.”
Come to think of it, she was unusual from the start.
Remembering how she grinned when our eyes met in the dining hall.
‘It shouldn’t be possible.’
No matter how much he wore a smile, most children would burst into tears if they made eye contact with him.
Prey and predator.
The overwhelming difference in power.
It was due to the instinctive fear that came from that.
Occasionally, even among adults, there were those whose legs would shake.
But this child had smiled.
Instead of crying or avoiding his gaze, she had flashed a cheeky grin.
It was his first time having such an experience, so it felt quite fresh—.
‘…No. Thinking about it, it’s not the first time.’
The smile vanished from the laughing man’s face.
His sunken eyes traced back through memories of the past.
‘There was one before.’
A person who had flashed a bright smile the first time their eyes met.
“…Ha.”
Letting out a light, empty laugh, the man swept his hand down his dry face.
The face revealed again maintained its usual composure.
“By the way, I’m suddenly curious about their faces.”
The parents of that unique little kid, that is.
I’d like to see what their faces look like.
Should I look into it?
‘Well, I’ll think about that later.’
*Crack.*
Oliver, lightly rolling his neck which was stiff with fatigue, reached his hand toward the wall.
“First, shall I take care of something else?”
Following his murmured words, a line was drawn *shhh* across the wall.
The line gradually widened, becoming a hole.
Oliver thrust his arm into it.
And.
“Guh?!”
He pulled someone out from within.
*Clatter, bang.*
The person made a racket as they tumbled onto the floor.
The one who appeared, rolling on the floor, was Riki.
‘What is this? What’s happening!’
Riki, just awakened from sleep, hurriedly looked around at the sudden disaster.
Then, spotting Oliver standing before him, he flinched and froze.
“My. And I threw you out quite politely, too.”
Wasn’t ‘politeness’ out the window the moment he was thrown?
But instead of saying that, Riki kept his mouth shut.
It was because Oliver wasn’t someone he could dare say such things to.
Oliver approached Riki with a languid smile.
With each step he took, Riki’s shoulders flinched repeatedly.
He repeated in his mind, over and over, pleading for him not to come any closer—.
“You, know who I am, right?”
Finally, a long hand came to rest on his trembling shoulders.
