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Chapter 4
What suddenly popped out in front of me from the thick bushes with a boing was a tiny, adorable rabbit-like child.
And the moment I saw this rabbit-like child, I knew immediately. This child was the youngest of the Glayde Ducal House, Belkas Glayde.
His slightly curly silver-gray hair looked as if woven from silver threads, and his sparkling green eyes resembled a lush spring field. They were vivid enough to prove he carried the blood of the Glayde family.
So as I stared blankly at the suddenly-appearing little cutie, Belkas flinched when our eyes met, looking startled.
The sky-blue cardigan Belkas wore while crawling through the bushes had grass stuck all over it.
Without thinking, I moved a little closer to brush it off for him, but the moment I saw Belkas step back, I quickly stopped and retreated.
Seeing Belkas stare at me like a frightened little animal being chased by a hunter made me feel strangely guilty.
“Um… ah!”
The moment I opened my mouth to try speaking to him, a dizzying sensation washed over me and Sierra’s memories flowed into my head.
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‘Say hello. This will be your new mother from now on.’
After Vine’s voice rang out, three children stood before her. Sierra looked over their faces.
The children didn’t seem ready to accept a new mother they had only just met.
Or maybe not? One child was slightly different. Only the youngest, the tiniest one, looked at her with curious little eyes full of interest.
After exchanging brief greetings with the children and turning to leave, a tiny hand grabbed the hem of Sierra’s dress.
‘Thish… for you.’
With small sprout-like hands, the little child offered her several flowers. Any normal person would have accepted them with a smile, but instead, she looked down at the child with contempt and said:
‘A gift? Little one, this kind of thing is trash.’
It was the child’s first experience with rejection, and tears quickly welled up in his tiny eyes.
But Sierra simply acted annoyed and coldly walked away, leaving the hurt child standing alone in the hallway.
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That was Sierra’s memory from before I possessed this body.
The sudden flood of memories made me angry at Sierra. How could she say something like that to such a tiny child?
The little child still stood frozen like ice after seeing me.
Not knowing what other wounds Sierra may have inflicted on Belkas in the forgotten past, I couldn’t easily approach him and only stood there awkwardly.
“Um… little one?”
After hesitating for a moment, I cautiously spoke.
Belkas looked at me in shock.
“Don’t come closer! I… I hate you!”
Belkas squeezed his eyes shut and shouted that he hated me and didn’t want me near him before turning around and running away.
What if he fell while running like that?
Worried, I almost chased after him, but then hesitated.
I could roughly guess what the relationship between Sierra and Belkas had been like before I possessed this body. I was afraid that approaching him like this might only hurt him more.
Drip—
While I stood there conflicted, dark clouds gathered in the once-clear sky, and rain slowly began to fall.
“He’ll get soaked…”
The moment I imagined Belkas trembling from the cold in the rain, my body moved before my thoughts did.
Like Alice being lured along by the White Rabbit, I too found myself spellbound as I ran after the trail of the little silver rabbit.
Crash!
With a loud thud, Belkas, who had been running ahead, tripped over a stone and fell.
Startled, I hurried over to him.
“Little one!”
Since he had fallen onto the rain-soaked ground, Belkas was covered in mud from head to toe. He looked up at me with tearful eyes.
Then, when he noticed the blood running from his knee, his soft pale cheeks flushed red and he burst into tears.
“Hic… huuu… go away! You bad witch! I hate you! I said I hate you!”
He must have truly hated me. Even though his own hands became dirty, Belkas scooped up mud from the ground and threw it at me.
My clothes became filthy, but I didn’t care about that at all.
Right now, the only thing I could see was Belkas’s tear-stained face.
“Little one, I’m sorry… I’m sorry. I know you hate me. But it’s raining so hard, so just for a little while… could this good little boy forgive me just for a moment?”
I took a clean handkerchief from my arms and carefully wrapped it around Belkas’s bleeding knee.
Perhaps he didn’t dislike that, because Belkas simply watched quietly without stopping me.
Though tears—or maybe rainwater—continued to stream down his face.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier. After tying the handkerchief around Belkas’s knee, I searched for somewhere to shelter and spotted a glass greenhouse nearby.
“Little one, shall we stay over there until the rain stops? If you don’t want me there, then at least you can stay there. I’ll only take you that far and then leave.”
I pointed toward the greenhouse and held out my hand.
Belkas hesitated for a moment before finally taking it.
“…My nanny said you shouldn’t follow bad people.”
Belkas spoke in a slightly pouty tone while holding my hand.
I looked at him and smiled gently.
“That’s right. You shouldn’t follow bad people. But just for now, please understand. Can you walk?”
“No, my leg huuurts too much.”
Seeing Belkas tear up again, likely remembering his fall, I instinctively lifted him into my arms.
“W-what are you doing?! Put me down!”
“Little one, I’m sorry for startling you. I’ll carry you just until we get there, okay?”
“I… I hate it! Put me down!”
I didn’t want to do something Belkas hated if possible, but the pouring rain left no time to waste.
As I held him tightly so he wouldn’t get wet, Belkas struggled for a moment before eventually burying his face in my arms.
After walking quickly for a short while, we finally reached the greenhouse.
Thankfully, whether because of magic or something else, the temperature inside the greenhouse adjusted automatically, making it much warmer than outside.
I wrung the water from my outer robe and wrapped it around Belkas.
Children naturally had weaker immune systems than adults, so worried he might catch a cold, I bundled him up tightly in my clothes.
Belkas glared at me irritably as if he felt stuffy.
“Don’t do tha’! Y-you witch!”
Even while calling me a witch, he stuttered adorably, making him look nothing but cute to me.
As I gently brushed the dirt from his hair, I said:
“Okay, got it. I won’t do anything you dislike. If it’s uncomfortable being with me, I’ll leave first. I’ll tell another adult… but can you stay alone for a little while?”
Belkas didn’t answer.
I guess he really hated being in the same space as me.
Just the fact that he came all the way here with someone he disliked so much already made me grateful to him.
So I stood up, grabbed the greenhouse door handle, and gave Belkas a small wave.
“It was nice meeting you, cute little one.”
Just as I was about to step outside—
RUMBLE— CRASH!
Thunder roared through the sky.
Even I jumped in surprise for a moment, so how frightened must Belkas be?
I quickly turned around and saw that, somehow, Belkas had already come close and was tightly clutching the back of my dress.
“Don’t go… please don’t go…”
The tearful little murmur ringing in my ears made my body freeze.
RUMBLE— CRASH!
Thunder sounded again and lightning flashed brightly.
Startled, Belkas buried his face into my dress.
Caught off guard by his sudden action, I froze for a moment before turning fully toward him and hugging him tightly.
“It’s okay, little one.”
“…I’m not ‘little one.’ I’m Belkas.”
Apparently he really disliked being called that, because Belkas mumbled while burying his face against my shoulder.
For some reason, my shoulder felt damp, but I simply lifted Belkas and sat down on a chair inside the greenhouse.
Wrapped up in my outer robe, Belkas looked just like a little matryoshka doll, making me let out a small laugh without realizing it.
Belkas lifted his head and looked at me.
“Why ah you waughing?”
Perhaps because his pronunciation was still clumsy, some sounds slipped adorably from his speech.
As I gently combed through his silver-gray hair with my fingers, I answered:
“Because Belkas is too cute.”
“I’m not cute…”
Embarrassed by my answer, Belkas buried his face in my shoulder again to avoid my gaze.
I patted his back softly and carefully asked:
“Belkas… you really hate me a lot, don’t you?”
For a moment, silence filled the air.
After hesitating a bit, the child finally spoke.
“I don’t hate you… Does Witch Lady hate me?”
Caught completely off guard by the unexpected question, I stammered in reply.
“Me? Hate you? Not at all! I like you. Auntie likes Belkas very, very much.”
Belkas looked at me suspiciously after hearing my flustered answer.
Because of Sierra’s past actions, it seemed my words didn’t easily reach him.
Wondering how I could make him understand better, I looked straight into his eyes and quietly spoke word by word.
“I like Belkas, but I didn’t know how to express it, so I was clumsy and ended up hurting you a lot. If I ever made your heart hurt before… I’m sorry.”
I truly meant it.
“Belkas is lovable just by existing… So could kind Belkas forgive Auntie?”
How could anyone possibly hate such a lovable little child?
Just thinking about how Sierra abused children like this in the original story made my blood boil.
I might not be able to heal all the wounds the children received from Sierra over the past six months, but I wanted to do whatever I could.
