TTMLPTWW ~ Chapter 92

Duke Rukanosa’s residence.

Makia, having gone to Helene’s room, was eating the cookies she had prepared.

Helene, who was brushing her hair while looking in the mirror, asked, “Capitano, do you know what happened between the Brigadier General and Count Vicente’s couple? Aside from the fact that he was an adopted son, even Lady Eleanor wouldn’t say it herself.”

“I have no idea.”

Makia shook his head, wearing the unique smile he wore when lying.

‘It’s obvious what happened. She’s a Princess who has lived without knowing what real tragedy is, so it’s understandable that she can’t guess.’

Approaching Helene, he brushed her silver-gold hair for her and whispered, “Princess, aren’t you curious about my past?”

Makia’s eyes fell on Helene’s slender shoulder. After confirming that her shoulder flinched slightly, he stared at her reflected in the mirror again.

“You wouldn’t tell me anyway.”

Without even telling me your name.

At her faltering voice, Makia nodded.

“That’s right. Instead, I’ll tell you the story of a boy. It probably won’t be much different from the Brigadier General’s past. That boy is also a war orphan.”

He would often tell her various stories, like a minstrel who came every night.

The conversation with him was interesting, and Helene, who had no one else to talk to in the house, found herself waiting for him.

Intrigued, Helene tilted her chin as if telling him to continue.

The comb brushing her hair touched her white neck as if aiming a knife. Makia lowered his gaze and continued.

“There’s an Esatain boy who got caught in a bombing while fleeing with his mother. His mother died in the hospital, but why do you think that is?”

“Oh, dear. Was she badly injured in the bombing?”

Makia smiled brightly.

“Wrong. It’s because she couldn’t pay the hospital bill.”

Long ago, at a Rutemian national hospital.

“I heard he fell from the second floor while running away? At first, they took him to amusement parks and treated him like their own son, but why would they do this…”

“They lost their son in the bombing and adopted him, but as time went on, they must have felt that he was different from their real son.”

“Since they say they won’t be punished, this child will be branded as a troublemaker and returned to the accommodation facility.”

While the nurses were whispering, the Esatain boy left his mother’s hospital room and headed for the hallway.

And he saw a platinum-blonde boy of his age lying in the bed in the next room, where the door was open.

His whole body was covered in wounds, bandages, and band-aids.

Yesterday, the Esatain boy had seen a middle-aged man with a large scar on his face carrying the boy and rushing in. Not knowing the full story, he only recognized him as a boy of his age who had a father.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

The Esatain boy touched the platinum-blonde hair of the boy, who was breathing heavily without consciousness.

“Your father will be here soon, right?”

He kept paying attention to this boy because his father’s hair color was similar. And he was also bored because he didn’t have any friends his age.

The Esatain boy was caught in a bombing while coming to Rutemia with his mother to meet his father.

Now, his mother was seriously injured in the bombing and unconscious.

The boy was guarding the hospital room alone, waiting for his father to come.

Before the bombing, in front of the bridge leading to the border, his mother had repeatedly told the boy.

“From now on, you are Makia. When you arrive in Rutemia, you must never say that you are an Imperial. Never tell them your real name or about our family.”

The Esatain boy, who became ‘Makia’, only answered that he didn’t know when the nurse asked about his father.

Then, a few days later, the boy in the next room woke up.

Makia, hoping to make a friend, went to see him right away.

“Hello.”

The boy with a band-aid on his cheek and an eye patch on one eye looked at him.

Even though his eyes were hazy, they were as beautiful as jewels with two colors mixed together. It was like an iridescent snake whose color changed depending on the angle.

“My name is Makia. I like you, do you want to be friends?”

Despite Makia’s kindness, the boy with the eye patch did not answer. The patient card on the bedside read ‘Masera Guise’.

Makia looked at the boy’s bandaged leg and asked again.

“When will you be able to play soccer?”

No answer came back to Makia’s chatter. The young Makia only thought that he was a shy friend.

So he visited him every day.

The first word he heard after all that effort was ‘Get lost.’

“He’s a friend who is very sick in body and mind. He can’t trust people.”

The nurse comforted the depressed Makia.

“Nurse, why does the heart get sick?”

The innocent boy soon learned the answer to the question firsthand.

The accounting clerk in the cashier’s office called Makia and said this.

“The hospital bill is overdue, so further treatment is impossible. I can’t just volunteer for free, trusting your word that your father will come to pay.”

Mikia was betrayed for the first time by the world he believed to be good.

Eventually, his mother passed away shortly after, and a modest funeral was held with the help of a nearby church.

Before leaving the hospital after being decided to enter the accommodation facility, Makia asked Masera.

“Your dad pays for you, right? He carried you to the hospital.”

Masera, who still had scars, stared at Makia.

“That person is a gardener. I don’t have parents.”

“Really? Well, that’s common. I guess I’m like that too. Seeing that my father isn’t coming.”

Makia, who spoke cheerfully, handed him an apple he had stolen from the next room.

“Goodbye. I’m leaving here now.”

Masera bit into the apple, a farewell gift, and said.

“You have an Imperial accent.”

“It’s because I’m from an Imperial colony.”

Makia lied.

Masera, who was staring at him, slowly lowered his eyes.

“Goodbye. I hope you grow up safely on your own.”

It was the first and last conversation between the two children.

They met again at the accommodation facility later, but they didn’t acknowledge each other.

As if pretending not to know each other’s misfortune that they had accidentally witnessed.

“The gardener who ran to the hospital carrying the child is me.”

Milchenko said, listing only the facts, excluding all personal opinions and emotions.

Cynthia, who heard the whole story, recalled what Masera had said when she first came to the official residence and saw Eugene slapping her hand.

“I raised him to be rude.”

“Does that mean you don’t discipline him?”

“I don’t know how. All the methods I know are harsh.”

Cynthia, who now realized the meaning, clenched her hands until her knuckles turned white.

Milchenko, seeing her coldly sunken expression, took off his hat. The hideous scar on his face was clearly revealed.

“Not everyone becomes a monster just because they have scars.”

It meant that he wanted her to treat him as usual, as she had seen him so far.

After Milchenko left, Cynthia covered her head in anguish.

“To think you’ve been secretly saving money to go to school without my knowledge, who allowed you to do that? You better give it back right now!”

In Cynthia’s original memories, which were shattered and floating around, the violence inflicted by her father flashed through her mind.

Even though it was just a memory, her whole body trembled and her chest felt constricted.

How much more would the person who actually experienced it feel?

“Even the affection you gave me at first was a lie. I was just a replacement for your dead son.”

‘I’m also a liar who deceives him.’

At first, she just thought that she could be forgiven if she made a lot of money and helped him.

But gradually that thought faded, and now that she had heard the past story, it had completely changed.

Masera would not forgive them even if they brought billions of dollars.

“However, if you continue to deceive me with lies that will be exposed anyway.”

She seemed to understand why his expression on the day of the engagement ceremony felt not anger but betrayal and sadness as he pointed a gun at her.

“So, never get caught by me.”

That the words were not a warning but a request not to turn him into a monster.

‘Is this not where I belong?’

The desire to stay here with everyone was just greed.

‘Even if it’s only while I’m here, I’ll do what I can.’

Cynthia put on her usual smile again like a mask.

The next day, the situation of Vicente family, who had been shamelessly enjoying luxury, changed overnight.