Chapter 6
“David, my precious first baby. Let’s make one promise.”
“Hm? What promise?”
“When you grow up, promise me you’ll protect your little sibling safely. Mom might have to leave soon, and when that time comes, you’ll be the only one left for your sibling. You have to protect your sibling. Then your sibling will grow strong and protect you too.”
“Mom, leave? Where are you going? No! Don’t go leaving David behind!”
The mother, her face pale and thin, weakly rubbed her heavily pregnant belly.
The five-year-old child threw a tantrum, begging her not to leave.
David smiled sadly, digging through the fragments of his deeply buried past. His mother must have already sensed it — with her frail, weakened body, it was nearly impossible for her to safely give birth to the second child.
Clack clack.
David rode Ruby to a small forest on the island’s east side. Ruby, familiar with the forest path, skillfully avoided thorn bushes, pushed through undergrowth, and crossed a little stream.
Almost there. David loosened his grip on the reins and looked up. Beyond a low hill, the destination came into view.
A cabin surrounded by a sharp fence to keep wild animals away.
David tied Ruby to a post and opened the gate.
Through the door, he saw a young blonde girl—maybe fifteen or sixteen. She was sitting on a straw mat in the sunny courtyard, deeply absorbed in a book, unaware of his presence.
David walked quickly into her line of sight and waved.
“Mel, how have you been?”
He clenched both fists, palms down, stretched his arms forward to chest level, then lowered them slightly—a sign in sign language asking how she was.
The girl’s face brightened when she noticed him. She put her book down and stood up. David smiled and spread his arms wide. The girl hopped like a mountain hare and threw herself into David’s embrace.
In his broad arms, the girl looked up at David with clear eyes.
Their eyes warmly met in the air between them.
David patted her shoulder a few times and nodded slightly.
The girl smiled, her eyes folding at the corners. Her glossy blonde hair shimmered like a ripe wheat field at harvest. Her eyes, narrow and crescent-shaped, held a pure amethyst hue.
David gazed fondly into her eyes.
‘Even though our eyes are the same color, mine feel suffocating the longer I look… but Melania, your eyes are so clear and pure, they wash away my fatigue each time I see them.’
Soon, Melania noticed something different on David’s face.
Taking a step back as if wanting to say something, she extended her index fingers from both fists, bent them slightly, and slid the bent parts down both cheeks.
[Your face looks gaunt, David. Did something happen?]
Melania asked worriedly in sign language.
“No, no, nothing happened.”
David forced a bright smile. He clenched his right fist but extended his pinky finger twice to his chin—a sign meaning “I’m okay.”
[No, you look like you haven’t eaten properly for days. Oh! You have a wound here on your cheek!]
Melania blinked her big eyes and tapped his cheek. David quickly covered the injured cheek with his hand.
“It’s nothing. Here, is this the book you mentioned? ‘Finding the Fish That Left the Sea,’ right?”
David tried to avoid the question and offered her a wrapped package. Melania quickly untied the string and unwrapped it. When the awaited book appeared, her violet eyes sparkled with joy.
‘Thank you.’
A lovely smile formed on the girl’s small lips.
“Where’s the nanny? Are you alone?”
[She went out for sewing work and won’t be back until lunchtime. Come inside quickly. I’ll put a bandage on your wound.]
Melania motioned toward the cabin. Her beckoning looked like a puppy wagging its tail at its owner, making David smile.
Inside the small living room was an old desk cluttered with books. The most noticeable was a thick, heavy sign language textbook with a red leather cover, stained and worn around the edges. In one corner was an embossed letter “A,” and beside it was a tall pile of papers, apparently copies made from the textbook.
“Mel, why are you copying the sign language book?”
David asked, adding signs.
[There are quite a few deaf families in the village where nanny goes for sewing work lately. I thought it would be good if they could learn sign language too.]
Melania signed and mouthed the words enthusiastically.
“That’s hard work. But do you really have to copy it by hand?”
[Yes, so I can keep reviewing it. This expensive book was brought by “Red Sister,” and the more people who learn from it, the more it’s worth it.]
“Red Sister” was a woman who once brought the textbook to the forest cabin where Melania had been hiding as a child. David asked who she was several times, but Melania only shook her head. The woman was a hunter injured in the forest who stayed briefly for treatment, but her name and identity were unknown.
David also learned sign language from that worn textbook.
“Well, then I’ll help you, Mel.”
The siblings sat side by side at the desk, copying the sign language book. It was cumbersome to copy the text and draw the illustrations, but as the piles of paper grew, their pride grew too.
Growl.
Melania’s stomach growled. She hadn’t eaten yet either.
“You’re hungry. I’ll prepare a meal quickly.”
David put down his quill and went to the kitchen. He made a stew with rabbit meat, eggplant, and paprika and served it to Melania.
Melania chewed the tough meat carefully. Her appetite had improved recently, and she was already as tall as his shoulders.
Looking at her curly blonde hair, David thought of one person.
King Madilof.
His father was the one who passed on Melania’s brilliant golden hair.
Melania.
Strictly speaking, she was the princess of Dvorca—she inherited Madilof’s hair and Nadia’s eyes.
But no one except David and the nanny knew her true identity.
Melania herself didn’t know her birth.
She only knew the man who came to care for her in the forest every few days—David—was her guardian.
Melania vaguely guessed he was a close relative, like an older brother, based on their shared purple eyes.
David had not yet told his little sister the secret of her birth.
Officially, Melania was a stillborn child.
“David, protect your sibling. If this child is a girl, and if she looks like me… it will be hard for her to endure this world alone. So, be a strong older brother to her.”
His mother’s last words echoed in David’s ears. Even after more than fifteen years, her frail voice still squeezed his heart painfully.
Nadia bled heavily during childbirth and nearly died. Her body, slowly fading, barely delivered the baby in her womb. Exhausted to the last breath, she died as soon as the umbilical cord was cut.
Though the bloody childbirth was over, no baby cries were heard anywhere.
A newborn baby not crying means…
The doctor and midwife trembled and reported the deaths to the king. Upon hearing this, King Madilof flew into a rage, drew his sword, and cut the throats of the two.
The king, covered in blood, embraced the dead concubine and wailed. He pointed at the small silent bundle and ordered:
“Burn that at once. It is the seed of death that devoured its own mother.”
The nanny, who had stayed by Nadia’s side, quickly took the baby and ran outside. The king’s furious eyes seemed able to turn the baby to black ashes just with a glance.
As the nanny approached the brazier in the concubine’s backyard holding the dead baby…
A small movement stirred in her arms.
They thought the baby was dead because there was no cry, but it was alive.
The baby was born with a disability preventing it from crying.
How could she throw a living baby into the fire? So she risked her life and brought the baby back before the king.
“Kill it. Before I throw it into the fire myself.”
The king ordered without even looking at the baby.
But the nanny refused. She could not betray her dear Nadia’s last wishes. Instead, she caught a big rat and threw it into the fire, burning it. She took the unrecognizable remains and showed them to the king. The king motioned her away, unwilling even to look.
The nanny secretly raised the baby away from the king.
With her husband Emil, a gamekeeper, in a remote cabin deep in the northern forest of Yorka.
Melania. The hidden princess of the forest.
David only found out about his little sister five years ago. When the front lines advanced northward toward Yorka and the palace prepared to evacuate, the nanny revealed the truth.
They must take the prince’s only sister, Melania, with them.
Among the six princes of Dvorca, David was the last to flee for this reason. If the fifth prince, Bruno, hadn’t kept the secret of a confidential escape route by boat, David might have been captured by the enemy in the port city of Bedeff.
As David reflected on the past, Melania had already finished her meal.
Feeling hungry now, David stopped mid-motion as he served the food.
‘Mel, I want to protect you above all else. Even if the time comes when I must throw my body into the mud.’
If he could keep the pure smile of his little sister, it didn’t matter if his poor body lay on the dirt. Fulfilling his dying mother’s last wish was first.
His hard life as a knight was sustained by his responsibility and protective instinct toward Melania.
He had to take responsibility for the only family left. He wanted to. The salary he earned from the knight order was enough to support Melania and the nanny. The amount he could save was small, but still.
There was no job on Paton Island that paid better than a knight of the lord’s castle. If he endured a few more years, he could steadily save for Melania’s marriage dowry.
[David, eat quickly. The stew’s getting cold.]
Seeing Melania’s worried gesture, David steeled his will.
Just a little longer, Melania. I’ll prepare your settlement money by the time you become an adult.
By then, we’ll find a way to escape this island and live freely.
Somewhere no one knows us.
But to do that…
Can I abandon myself?
