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Chapter 42
“Oh, hello! Sir! The banquet hall was so hot that I just stepped out for some fresh air!”
“Is that so? By any chance, did you see a dark-skinned boy around here? A Randel kid.”
“Huh? A Randelian? What do you mean?”
“The auction today… Never mind. This isn’t something to tell a young child. At any rate, you didn’t see anyone?”
“No. I’ve been taking a walk for a while, but no one came to the rear garden.”
“Alright. I see. Don’t stay out too long, go inside. What would people say if a girl was wandering around alone in the dark rear garden? Living and sleeping by the grace of the Troser family, you should at least refrain from doing things that bring trouble upon the family.”
“Of course. I’ll be careful.”
Pandora smiled like an innocent child at the guard who turned away, clicking his tongue in displeasure. Soon, she heard the sound of the guard, who had finally moved far away, conversing with the man from earlier.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, Pandora took the boy’s hand and led him to her room through the mansion’s back door. Thanks to all the servants gathering for the banquet, moving around while avoiding people’s eyes was easy.
Pandora’s room was in the highest, most secluded attic of the mansion.
A cold, cramped room that wouldn’t even be used as a storage closet. Even as she hid the boy, Pandora felt embarrassed to show him her shabby room.
“Hide here, and once all the guests leave the day after tomorrow, run away then.”
The boy looked around the room, walking on eggshells, and nodded silently.
She had worried about what to do if he couldn’t understand the Imperial language, but fortunately, he seemed to understand it fluently.
“What’s your name?”
“Eugene.”
“Okay, Eugene. I’m Pandora.”
Eugene, the red-eyed boy, was a child of few words. Glancing at Pandora with vigilant eyes, he huddled as close to the corner of the wall as possible.
Pandora pulled out a stubby candle from under her bed, put it inside a glass cup, and lit a match.
Because the people of the Troser family wouldn’t give her a single candle, let alone a lamp, Pandora had stolen and collected candles that were almost entirely burnt down.
‘They don’t even give me candles claiming they’re a waste, yet the dress they handed down for the banquet is made of high-grade silk.’
Contradictions didn’t get any worse than this.
Then again, if the child they sponsored showed up dressed in rags and looking filthy, how much would people gossip about the Troser family’s hypocrisy?
Pandora placed the glass cup, its surface warmed up, in front of Eugene and sat on the floor across from him.
The pretty, honey-colored beeswax candle burned softly inside the glass cup. The light reflected and flickered inside Eugene’s eyes as well.
His cheeks twitching as if he were about to burst into tears made it obvious to anyone that he had a painful story, but Pandora didn’t bother asking.
She simply sat facing him quietly, looking only at the candlelight.
“You’re hungry, right?”
Then, she lightly broke the ice in a casual tone. Eugene nodded thoughtlessly before suddenly flinching, pulling his neck back, and shaking his shaggy hair violently from side to side in refusal.
Pandora stared blankly at the boy, who was smaller and skinnier than her, before standing up. Startled, Eugene flinched once more. His red eyes were filled with fear.
He seemed terrified that Pandora might be going to turn him in just like this.
“Actually, I haven’t had dinner yet either.”
She spoke to soothe Eugene, but it wasn’t a lie. Work had finished late because of that fellow Gabe, so she had been starving all evening.
“I’ll go get something to eat. As soon as I step out, lock the door immediately. But just in case someone bursts in, hide under the bed while I’m gone.”
Leaving behind Eugene, who huddled back while treading carefully, Pandora left the room.
And instead of the kitchen bustling with preparations and carrying of banquet food, she snuck into the small kitchen attached to the servants’ quarters. Thanks to everyone gathering at the main kitchen and banquet hall, the servants’ kitchen was completely empty.
Pandora proficiently rummaged through the cupboard and oven. Finding bread and hard cookies that servants had hidden to eat later, she wrapped them tightly in cloth, hid them inside her skirt, and filled a water bottle to the brim.
Then, after pondering for a moment, she stole a tube of ointment from the kitchen maids’ room.
Because it was a precious item the maids—who often hurt their hands while cooking—had begged Mrs. Troser for, she was terrified of the aftereffects and how severely she would be scolded if caught. Nevertheless, Pandora hid the ointment inside her skirt and swiftly slipped away.
Returning to her room, Pandora knocked softly on the door.
“It’s me. Pandora.”
Then, after a moment, the locked door opened, and Eugene peeked his small face out.
“Did anyone come?”
He shook his head side to side.
Pandora went inside, locked the door again, and sat on the floor. The candle’s wick had burnt out before she knew it, and the flame was extinguished. Pandora set down the water bottle, pulled out another hidden candle stub, lit it again, and lifted her skirt.
Startled, Eugene covered his face and turned around.
Unbothered, Pandora pulled out all the bread, cookies, and ointment hidden inside her skirt and laid them down. She then tore the bread in half and offered it to Eugene.
“You can eat it. It’s okay.”
Pandora fed Eugene the bread and water, then briefly finished her own late meal as well. Skinny to the point where his bones were gaunt, Eugene hesitated at first, then greedily gulped down the bread and devoured even the hard cookies in an instant.
Pandora occasionally handed him water from the side to adjust his pace so he wouldn’t choke from eating too fast.
After the food was completely gone, Eugene belatedly started reading the room. Realizing he had eaten far too much compared to Pandora, who had eaten only a handful the size of a baby’s fist, he looked anxious.
“Could you show me your hands for a moment?”
Eugene rolled his eyes around hesitantly before holding out his hands. His small palms and thin wrists were covered in red scrape marks. They were traces of him struggling and forcibly tearing off the ropes binding his hands to escape.
“Both hands.”
“…”
Pandora had already noticed ever since she held the boy’s hands in the darkness of the rear garden.
After lightly washing the wounds with the remaining water, she meticulously applied the stolen ointment.
Whether his hands stung, Eugene kept flinching and eventually shed a prickle of tears, but he endured it tightly without letting out a single groan. He didn’t even say it hurt.
“Are there any other hurt places?”
When Eugene shook his head, Pandora hid the ointment in the bag under her bed.
The worn-out bag she had brought along ever since she first came to the Troser family contained clothes and shoes she wore as a child, letters from her parents collected on every birthday, a doll her father had crafted himself, as well as stubby candle ends, pencil stubs, and a small notebook stolen from this place. Now, the stolen ointment was added to it.
Pandora looked out the window. By now, it was far too late to return to the banquet.
Once the adults’ night passed and the banquet ended at dawn, there would be a summons from Mrs. Troser.
Having let down his guard a little, Eugene began to nod off.
His body, which had been stretched taut with tension all throughout the time he was captured and while escaping, had finally found a small place to rest.
Pandora covered Eugene with a blanket, took off her uncomfortable dress, and changed into an ordinary gray dress. Whenever she was called to Mrs. Troser’s room, she always had to wear inconspicuous gray clothes.
If she went wearing the rags she usually wore while working, Mrs. Troser would get angry, asking what if others saw her in that state; if she went wearing the dress she had received from her, she would be berated as a young child already full of vanity and obsessing over expensive things.
So the choice she settled on was plain, neat gray clothing.
[“Dull and gloomy—it suits you perfectly.”]
Pandora sat alone on the bed and waited with open eyes for dawn to arrive.
Summoned to Mrs. Troser’s room at dawn, Pandora was only given permission to leave when morning broke.
“Pandora. Do you know how much trouble we were put through because of you?”
As Pandora exited Mrs. Troser’s room, Sarah’s maid, who happened to be passing through the hallway, spoke with sharp, narrowed eyes.
“Amy even got her face hurt by an object the Young Lady threw.”
“…I’m sorry.”
“Is saying you’re sorry all there is to it? Why do you upset the Young Lady every single time and put us in trouble? Don’t tell me you’re doing it on purpose?”
Pandora’s head bowed even deeper.
“…I am sorry.”
“No, I’m asking you for the reason why you did it! Talking to you really feels like talking to a wall! It’s frustrating to death, really!”
Pandora muttered that she was sorry once more. Because if she spoke the truth, it would turn into badmouthing the Troser family.
Word spreading among the talkative maids would happen in an instant, and then the one who would have a harder time was Pandora.
“Ugh! So annoying! The Young Lady is really furious this time! She says she doesn’t even want to see the sight of your face for the time being, so stay out of her way on your own!“
Glaring displeased at Pandora, who bowed her head politely, the maid vanished. Pandora stood leaning against the wall, then limped toward her room.
The servants who ran into Pandora coming and going turned their heads away, pretending not to see her, or cast sharp gazes.
Her shoulders slumped, but Pandora steadfastly kept walking.
[“Out of pity for you, an orphan, I cherished you like Sarah’s own sister, yet you always make my daughter cry.”] [“A selfish and wicked child like you ought to receive proper punishment for it. Don’t you think so?”]
Mrs. Troser’s elegant voice kept echoing in her ears like tinnitus. Because the soles of her feet hurt, her speed in climbing the stairs kept slowing down.
Barely reaching her room, Pandora stood in front of the door, hesitating. Then, without stepping into the room, she flopped down and sat.
Her face must have been a mess with tears and a runny nose, and she didn’t want to frighten the boy Eugene, who was already fearful enough as it was.
“Pandora?”
She heard Eugene’s whispering voice. Pandora promptly fled back down the stairs.
