🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 11
“……”
The boy felt as though something deep inside his chest were tightening.
It was similar to pain, yet not quite the same. An unfamiliar emotion he was experiencing for the first time in his life.
Why was this happening? What was this, exactly? His lips felt dry and cracked, his mouth parched.
Where was this anxiety coming from?
Even though it was his own feeling, he still couldn’t put a clear name to it.
As if sitting in front of an impossibly difficult exam paper, the boy remained frozen there for a long while.
Sniff.
I hastily wiped away the tears that had spilled without warning.
‘Why am I suddenly getting sentimental now? Is this really the time for that?’
Whether or not I had a home to go back to didn’t matter right now.
‘This isn’t the time to be slumped over! This place is a tiger’s den! A cliff thousands of feet high! Get a grip!’
It was just as I was bracing myself like that.
Whoosh—!
A harsh gust of wind blew in through the open window, and the heavy curtains billowed violently.
The cloud of old dust was bad enough, but an even bigger problem rolled right into view.
As the curtain fluttered aside, a boy was revealed, staring at me with a strangely blank expression.
“…Edmund?”
Why are you here?
Don’t tell me you were hiding behind the curtain the whole time?
Only then did I remember.
‘Ah, right. I gave him a copy of the library key.’
There was something important to Edmund in the library, and I wanted him to find it.
I’d also planned to deal with his education issues here.
So Edmund being here wasn’t strange at all—if anything, it was exactly what I’d wanted.
But of all times, I didn’t want to run into him now, when I was sniffling and crying!
‘Did he see me? He saw it, didn’t he? Please tell me he didn’t!’
No matter how much I panicked and denied reality, Edmund standing right in front of me didn’t disappear.
“……”
“……”
After a moment of indescribably awkward silence, Edmund moved first.
With an unreadable expression, the boy slowly walked toward me and held something out.
“Huh?”
It was a handkerchief.
The moment I took it without thinking, Edmund’s blunt voice stabbed at my ears.
“If your eyes swell up, you’ll look even uglier.”
“…What did you just say?!”
‘So he really did see me crying!’
The realization hit me hard, followed by a tangled mess of embarrassment and irritation.
‘Aaah! How humiliating! I showed a kid myself crying alone!’
And on top of that—
‘Why does this brat have to talk in such an irritating way?’
My feelings were complicated in every sense.
Then I realized the handkerchief Edmund had given me looked strangely familiar.
“Uh, wait… isn’t this the one I gave you back then?”
It looked exactly like the handkerchief I’d used to wrap the wound he’d gotten from Moretti.
And sure enough, my initials—“K.F.”—were embroidered on the corner.
I lifted my gaze in surprise.
“You still had this?”
I’d assumed he’d thrown it away right away.
At that, Edmund’s pale face flushed bright red.
“It’s not! It’s not yours!”
“What do you mean it’s not? My initials are right here!”
“I said it’s not, so it’s not!”
After shouting that, Edmund sharply turned his head away and stormed out of the library.
Bang!
The door slammed shut with a deafening noise, so loud that dust shook loose from the bookshelves.
Moments later, the sound of the boy’s retreating footsteps echoed down the hall.
Thud-thud-thud-thud—!!!
“……”
I stood there blankly, staring at the closed door.
Then, after a short while—
“Pfft.”
The gloom from moments ago vanished without a trace, and a small laugh slipped from my lips.
Edmund would probably get angry if he saw me laughing, but he wasn’t here, so it didn’t matter.
I lifted the handkerchief he’d left behind and covered my face. No one could see my expression anyway.
It smelled pleasantly clean, like freshly washed and dried fabric.
Realizing that made me laugh even more, and for quite some time, I laughed alone in the dust-covered library.
The boy ran without thinking.
Thud-thud-thud!
The sound of his worn, ill-fitting shoes pounding against the floor rang out chaotically.
Even louder was the pounding of his heart, beating against his ears like a drum.
Thump, thump, thump—!
The boy’s mind, as he ran, was filled with the image of only one person.
Cassia, crying alone.
Cassia, staring at him with wide eyes when she noticed him.
And Cassia, smiling gently while holding the handkerchief.
“Uh, wait… isn’t this the one I gave you back then?”
“You still had this?”
Only after hearing those words did the boy realize he’d essentially returned the handkerchief Cassia had given him.
No—he only then realized that he’d even held out a handkerchief to a crying girl at all.
Before he could think, before he could speak, his hand had moved on its own.
As he ran wildly, a maid carrying laundry nearly collided with him.
“Ah! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Her tone and expression were blatantly rude.
Soon after, the boy was grabbed by Paul, a footman who had been searching for him.
Harsh, impolite words poured from the mouths of Paul and the other servants.
“Where on earth have you been hiding? His Grace told you how many times not to—!”
“We’ll be reporting today’s incident to His Grace as well.”
“Return to your bedroom at once!”
It was not an attitude that mere employees should ever show toward a young duke.
But both Edmund and they were all too familiar with this situation.
They weren’t attendants serving Edmund—they were guards watching him.
‘Looks like I was out of sight too long, so the watchdogs came looking.’
“Be more careful from now on. Do you have any idea how much trouble this causes us?”
“…I get it.”
Surrounded by the servants, Edmund obediently returned to his bedroom.
There was no need to invite unnecessary suspicion.
The inexplicable excitement and fluttering in his chest from earlier cooled instantly when faced with reality.
Yet as he returned to the ever-watchful eyes, the boy realized one thing.
His pocket was empty. The handkerchief Cassia had given him had always been there, but now it was gone.
‘It’s fine. I was going to return it someday anyway.’
That was why he’d washed it himself, dried it, and always kept it with him.
The item had simply returned to its owner.
And yet, despite that, the absence of that single handkerchief from its usual place left him feeling strangely hollow and unsettled.
After the day Edmund gave me the handkerchief,
surprisingly, his attitude didn’t change all that much.
‘I didn’t expect it to.’
Well… maybe it did change a little.
Whoosh—thud-thud-thud!
Tap-tap-tap-tap—!!!
Whenever he so much as ran into me, Edmund would bolt away at full speed.
‘What is his problem?’
It was confusing—no, downright baffling.
‘I’m the one who showed an embarrassing side of myself. Why is he acting like that?’
He avoided me so thoroughly that he even tried not to open the door during mealtimes.
So what did I do?
“Break the doorknob.”
“Yes, my lady.”
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I had the servants smash the doorknob and barged in, along with a meal trolley that was definitely not poisoned.
It was also a good chance to play the role of the wicked duke’s henchman in front of the servants and maids.
“You think avoiding me like this will let you skip meals?”
“……”
“Hurry up and eat. Every last bite. His Grace will worry.”
Edmund turned his head away, his face bright red.
From his ears down to the nape of his neck, everything was flushed crimson, as if he might burst into flames if touched.
‘What on earth is he so angry about?’
Because of all the eyes around us, we couldn’t have a deeper conversation during meals.
Edmund also finished eating faster than usual, shoveling food into his mouth before dismissing me.
“…I’m done eating, okay? Now go.”
He, of all people, should know best that today’s meal wasn’t poisoned.
What is his deal, seriously?
‘Well, I guess he’s at that stormy age.’
The time when you want to rebel over nothing more than a leaf rolling by.
All I could do was sigh.
‘Dealing with a sensitive teenager is really exhausting.’
I finally managed to properly corner Edmund in the library.
He’d been nowhere to be seen, so I checked just in case—and noticed the bookshelves were arranged differently than usual.
As I looked around, I quickly figured out where he was.
‘Gotcha. Hiding behind the curtain again!’
That spot was incredibly dusty, though. Guess he has strong lungs.
This time, I didn’t make the mistake of charging in like before.
‘Teenagers in their turbulent phase are more sensitive than kittens.’
So I decided on a slower, more indirect approach.
‘Besides, there was something I meant to do anyway.’
I brushed the dust off the table, sat down, opened a book, and muttered loudly enough to be heard.
“All right. Since no one’s here, I should review what I learned at the academy so I don’t forget.”
The shadow crouched behind the curtain visibly flinched.
I barely managed to suppress a smirk.
