IBTPEOTMLC 04

Chapter 4

“So she’s the child Baron Abid took in?”

“Yes. The only white-haired, green-eyed girl who regularly visits the temple is Miss Coco.”

People said she was deeply devout and walked all the way there every day to pray out of gratitude toward Baron and Baroness Abid for taking her in.

Jeffrey ground his teeth.

Coco had left like that, and someone else had shown up afterward, but honestly, the person who truly helped him had been the guard who arrived later.

That girl had simply gotten lost herself and happened to find Jeffrey. There was no way she could have actually helped. If anything, she had only gotten in the way by stopping him from doing anything dangerous.

The girl’s worried scolding hadn’t entered Jeffrey’s ears at all.

That girl who blatantly ran away.

Because of a child named Coco.

“She actually ignored me?”

The armrest Jeffrey was gripping cracked before crumbling apart.

The silent butler Kirk cleared his throat and tried to calm him.

“From what I can tell, it was actually quite a wise decision.”

“Ignoring me was?”

His sharply raised eyes became even fiercer. Kirk almost laughed at how perfectly he resembled the Duke of Fraser, but he suppressed it and continued relaying the information he had uncovered.

“It seems Miss Coco was the one who called the guards.”

Jeffrey’s reaction lagged for a moment at the unexpected revelation.

“…What?”

“Miss Roserussell arrived later, but—ah, Miss Roserussell is the daughter of Marquis Greenty.”

“I know who she is. Stop interrupting and continue.”

At Jeffrey’s irritated tone, Kirk resumed speaking.

“If Miss Coco hadn’t called the guards, then a directionless young master such as yourself would likely have remained trapped there until dawn, when the workers arrived. Since she herself didn’t know the way out, she appears to have fetched the guards instead of going herself.”

Apparently, the nearby guard who had been lazily patrolling the area had been about to leave. Had they been even slightly later, Jeffrey would have been stuck there until morning.

Since the area was so deserted, if any vagrants had appeared, then Roserussell might have been in danger—even if his young master himself would have been fine.

Kirk still couldn’t understand why the daughter of Marquis Greenty had been wandering there alone without even a knight escort and happened upon Jeffrey.

Surely she had been assigned bodyguards. Perhaps she had slipped away from them just like his young master.

Even so, unlike Jeffrey, she had no combat ability to rely on. It had been an incredibly reckless act.

‘Still, thanks to meeting the young master, she wasn’t harmed.’

Of course, unlike Roserussell, there were children who never even had the option of bringing knights with them.

‘Children who cannot have knights accompany them. Miss Coco, for example—and many others.’

Coco wandered alone because, unlike her own devotion toward Baron and Baroness Abid, the couple themselves showed absolutely no interest in the girl.

Outwardly, she belonged to a noble household, yet she was treated worse than a servant. That fact was publicly known.

‘Poor child. And yet she still walks all that way every single day to pray for those indifferent guardians of hers. What a kindhearted girl.’

The butler silently pitied the unfortunate child.

Children like that had no choice but to become cautious in order to protect themselves. That was how Butler Kirk interpreted Coco’s actions.

But Jeffrey still felt no sympathy whatsoever.

He had swallowed his pride and openly admitted he was lost while asking for help—so how could she coldly pretend not to notice him? Honestly, if she had at least admitted she didn’t know the way either and gone to fetch someone, that would have been different.

“I warned you not to sneak out alone. How exactly did you shake off the knights?”

“You think I’d tell you?”

Jeffrey’s skills were never the issue, but because he possessed a truly terrible sense of direction, once he got lost, he could never find his way back without help.

That was why he was always accompanied by knights. But the Fraser ducal family had inherited extraordinary speed and overwhelming physical ability for generations—the kind that made people feel as if someone had vanished right before their eyes.

Among them, Jeffrey had inherited the ducal bloodline especially strongly. So despite his terrible sense of direction, he frequently shook everyone off with his abilities before disappearing on his own like this.

“Ah, and His Grace asked me to deliver a message.”

“Father did?”

“He said that if you shake off your knights and get lost again like this, then His Grace himself will personally take on the role of your guide.”

Jeffrey stared silently at the butler before smirking.

“Then I just need to make sure I don’t get lost.”

“……”

If only that were actually easy.

Kirk swallowed those words and sighed internally.

How was it possible for events to unfold exactly as His Grace predicted every single time?

The Duke wanted Jeffrey to grow strong and resilient—just as he himself had, and just as his own father had before him.

So he allowed Jeffrey a surprising amount of freedom, so long as he didn’t get hurt. Unfortunately, the heir of the ducal house happened to have one very serious flaw: an atrocious sense of direction.

“That still doesn’t justify your actions.”

“She’s still your benefactor.”

“She glanced at me and then ran off!”

“She didn’t run off—she went to get help—”

Jeffrey shot him such a sharp glare that Kirk quietly closed his mouth.

Apparently, his young master still couldn’t get over the fury of being ignored for the first time in his life.

Today, I had come farther out than usual.

I’d steadily saved up money over the years, and now carriage fare was something I could comfortably afford.

“It was definitely around here…”

This place lay near the Cursed Forest.

As ominous rumors suggested, the area itself felt dangerous, but as long as no one entered the forest proper, it was considered safe.

No one really knew anything about the Cursed Forest itself, but the temple forbade entry, so people avoided it as much as possible.

Aside from the occasional villagers who came to gather wild herbs.

Since few people came here, it was actually the perfect place for collecting edible plants.

As long as you didn’t cross the boundary into the forest, there wasn’t really any danger. Even the temple didn’t prohibit people from approaching nearby.

‘What matters right now isn’t that.’

“Are you really sure it’s here? It might be good for gathering herbs, but there’s no way land prices would rise here. There’s no chance this area will ever be developed.”

[Don’t trust me?! Have I ever lied to you? Just follow me, Coco! I’m telling you, this will help you again!]

Oried was an arrogant spirit who loved bragging about himself, but deep down he was surprisingly kind.

[After all the time we’ve spent together, you still don’t know? I’m incredibly useful! I can protect you and fulfill every one of your desires.]

“Desires,” huh.

Wasn’t that kind of dangerous for a spirit to say?

I silently retorted in my head, but I still ended up smiling.

For the first time in a while, I recalled when I had first met Oried.

Back then, during the carriage accident, I had been on the verge of death.

I’d been thrown from the carriage and smashed my head against a rock. Blood poured from the wound, and strength drained from my body until I could barely breathe.

Even now, the memories of that day remained blurry in places, but Oried had vividly described the situation to me many times.

He said my blood had seeped into the earth.

Drawn by my astonishingly high affinity, Oried had appeared there.

At the time—something I only knew now from Oried’s stories—I had apparently been desperately searching for someone even while dying.

“…No. I can’t die and leave that child behind alone.”

“Please… save me…”

Oried said he could feel the overwhelming desperation in my voice.

That was what moved him.

But from my perspective, things had been different.

Though I didn’t clearly remember our first meeting, I remembered his first words perfectly.

He had said:

[Do you need me?]

—with an infuriatingly smug grin.

Naturally, I’d mistaken him for some demon who came to devour my soul while I was dying.

I mean, really. Who says something like that to someone bleeding out on the ground while smiling playfully?

I’d snapped at him back then too, and Oried had sulked, saying that was just his personality.

In any case, there was no way I was going to immediately accept his offer under those circumstances. Thinking he was a demon, I rejected him.

Oried later said he’d been completely flustered.

Eventually, he resorted to half-threatening me.

He said he felt like I was truly going to die otherwise.

[I’m a spirit of the earth! I’m not anything suspicious!]

“…Demons always say… cough…”

Even while dying, I had argued with him, and Oried grumbled that even if I fell into water, only my mouth would stay afloat.

When I kept refusing, Oried finally played his trump card.

[Don’t you want to find that child?! You do, don’t you? I’ll help you!]

I glanced sideways at Oried as he walked beside me.

Ever since then, whenever I hesitated, he had always pushed me forward.

Of course, Oried didn’t actually know anything about my past with that child. If he did, he would’ve already told me everything.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.

He could only sense my emotions at the time and understand, after spending years beside me, what exactly I was striving toward.

And whenever Oried spoke, his words always moved me.

I could never leave that child alone.

Even if I couldn’t remember, I knew one thing with certainty:

We had once been everything to each other.

Lost in thoughts of that child, I realized Oried must have been reminiscing too, because he interrupted my thoughts and muttered:

[You were unbelievably stubborn for someone dying.]

“If you hadn’t spoken so obnoxiously, I would’ve made the contract immediately.”

[…]

Apparently unable to deny it, Oried fell silent.

Then, clearly trying to show he was sulking, he muttered:

[Still, thanks to me, you earned money and got closer to your goals. You survived dealing with all those shady people because of me too.]

I humored his grumbling with half-hearted agreement.

Honestly, without Oried, I might never have earned money in this unknown novel world at all—let alone gotten any closer to that child.

Thanks to how well real estate investment worked here, the earth spirit Oried had become one of the greatest blessings in my life.

“Still… thank you.”

At my sincere reply, Oried immediately brightened.

[Then trust me this time too! I’m serious—this will really help you, Coco.]

I didn’t argue further.

Because Oried had never once failed to stand on my side.