VDBO 34

Chapter 34

I followed Mr. Schwalt out of curiosity, wondering what he was doing, and that was how I ended up in the back area of the auction house. There, I discovered three children who had been secretly hidden away by someone connected to the auction house.

All of them were locked inside iron cages. In the middle of that bitter, freezing cold, they were wearing clothes you would only wear in summer—short-sleeved shirts and trousers so worn out they dangled loosely above their ankles. They didn’t even have shoes.

“Why are those big brothers like that?”

Even if you wore thick clothes, a hat, and a fur scarf, it was still unbearably cold, your breath coming out in white puffs. And yet—

“It seems there are adults here doing bad things.”

His tone was gentle, but it was clear that Mr. Schwalt was angry. After all, although he stood at the very center of evil, he was not the kind of person who would commit something so vile.

“Can’t you save them, Mr. Schwalt? They look like they’re freezing to death.”

“Should I?”

“Yes. I’d like that. Please save them.”

“Hm?”

Mr. Schwalt raised an eyebrow, as if asking whether there was anything else I wanted.

“You don’t have to buy me a present today.”

I answered carefully, after agonizing over it for a very long time. For me, this was giving up something incredibly big.

No matter how ignorant I might have been of the world, I still knew that saving those children would not be easy.

“You’re really going to give it up? Are you sure?”

Mr. Schwalt asked in surprise.

I wavered for a moment, but soon calmed my shaking heart and nodded.

“Yes. It’s okay if we can save those big brothers.”

Mr. Schwalt smiled as he gently patted my hat. Not long after, just as I had asked, he rescued all three children from their cages.

And I still received presents. Mountains of them, in fact—because, he said, I had made a wonderful decision.

Of the three, two had only minor injuries and seemed able to walk without much trouble. But one had been badly hurt and was burning up with fever, looking as though he might die at any moment.

So the two were sent to a facility where they could be protected, and the sickest one came home with us to receive treatment.

For about three months—brief as it was—it felt as though I had gained an older brother.

After he recovered, Mr. Schwalt said he would help him find his original home…

And after that, I was alone again. I wasn’t particularly lonely, but I did feel a little regret that I no longer had someone to play pretend with.

“Why are you smiling? I asked why you changed your name.”

And now—this moment. I had failed to continue pretending not to know.

The name I remembered was Jess. Whether it was his real name or not, it was the one he had taught me.

“If I am to serve you, miss, I must erase my past.”

“…You could’ve just said you wouldn’t do it. Why come here after erasing your past for something so dangerous?”

“It was my choice.”

“To repay a debt or something? I didn’t save you so you’d come back to repay me.”

And the one who truly saved him wasn’t even me—it was Mr. Schwalt. All I did was ask him to save them.

Ian still had the corners of his mouth lifted. Since I had always seen him expressionless, it only felt awkward now.

“You didn’t go back home?”

I had naturally assumed that he had.

When I was young, I thought of Mr. Schwalt as a superman who could do anything, so I believed he must have found Ian’s home and taken him back there.

“There was no need to return.”

I listened quietly, then nodded as realization dawned.

“I guess so… If it had been a place you should return to, you wouldn’t have been locked up there in the first place. Then did you stay in touch with Mr. Schwalt?”

Ian said that with Mr. Schwalt’s help, he had found a place to stay and received proper training at a mercenary academy. That was when contact with Mr. Schwalt had ended.

After completing all the training at the academy, Ian had gone to find Mr. Schwalt again on his own.

He said neither of us had known at the time, but if he hadn’t been rescued that day, he would have been sold as a slave to another country.

Not even within the empire, but to a foreign land.

It was fortunate that I had seen him that day. But now, thinking that his life might be endangered because of me, I couldn’t help but think that perhaps saving him had been a mistake.

It had been a bond born of a child’s curiosity. A bond that should have ended as soon as it touched.

“…This is your last chance. I can’t back down anymore.”

“I understand.”

“Do you know what I’m capable of? What I’m thinking?”

“You may use me however you like.”

Even when we played pretend, he used to do everything I told him to… I never imagined that wouldn’t change even now. The only difference was that back then, we spoke casually.

“I’m going to stop my mother. If I can’t, I’ll run far away instead.”

“……”

“So if it really becomes dangerous, leave on your own. I can’t do anything else for you.”

“You don’t need to worry.”

He answered without a single moment of hesitation. He could have at least paused. It felt like no matter what I said, his response would be the same.

I thought I had warned him enough. I straightened my back from where I had been sunk into the sofa and stood up.

“Someone from Iskar will be coming soon.”

“What should I do?”

“For now, answer Mr. Schwalt the same way you always have if he asks. He’s quite perceptive.”

When the maid comes, we’ll think about it again then.

Saying that, I decided to rest my eyes for a bit until evening, before Mr. Schwalt and Mother returned, hoping to bring my fever down.

As scheduled, Mother appeared only after darkness had completely fallen.

All the servants withdrew, leaving only Mother, Mr. Schwalt, and me together. She didn’t get angry or make a fuss—she simply looked at me as if checking on my condition.

Somehow, Mother felt more intimidating than Mr. Schwalt. Her gaze prickled against my skin.

“I’m sorry for making you worry, Mother.”

In the end, I was the one who spoke first, fidgeting with the hem of my dress.

“There’s nothing for you to apologize for.”

Beside me, Mr. Schwalt looked apologetic instead.

“You seem to have grown quite close to the Second Prince.”

At last, her tightly sealed red lips parted.

“…I suppose we have.”

“Don’t get too close.”

Her firm voice, close to a warning, made me lift my head sharply.

“B-But…”

“I’m telling you to just familiarize yourself with him at an appropriate level. It’s an ability you can only use on one person anyway, and it’ll only make things troublesome for you.”

I pressed my lips together briefly, then smiled faintly.

“I’ll do that, Mother. I just thought it might be fun to hold both of them in my hands. They say the Empress dotes on her two sons.”

“There’s no point wasting effort on something we’re going to get rid of anyway.”

“You mean the Second Prince?”

“Why are you so surprised? It’s not like this is new.”

“Oh, I just thought you’d already made a decision.”

“It was decided from the beginning.”

It was decided?

I had assumed Mother was watching for now, deciding which of the two would take the bigger hit.

When I stared at her, Mother met my gaze. Her eyes were simmering with fury.

“He was never meant to survive.”

I suppressed my curiosity, but this time I couldn’t let it go.

“What do you mean by that? Does it have anything to do with what I told Mr. Schwalt before—about nearly dying when I was young?”

Perhaps it meant that a missed chance to kill him was being reclaimed now.

“He survived by stealing what belonged to someone else. Of course he must pay the price.”

Even so, Mother’s answer remained cryptic. Stealing what belonged to someone else.

At first, I thought it meant she had been robbed of the Emperor by the Empress.

The villain’s backstory was barely shown in the original work, but there were words that hinted at such a thing. Naturally, I had assumed Mother’s revenge stemmed from unrequited love for the Emperor.

But looking at her now, the texture of her emotions felt different. There was anger, but no longing, no tenderness, no affection. She didn’t look like someone who wanted the Emperor back at all.

Instead, I felt something deeper—something more primal—an unknown contempt and rage.

“Do you like the Second Prince that much?”

Mother’s voice cut in while I was lost in thought.

Startled, I lifted my head.

“Me?”

“Whenever the Second Prince comes up, you seem to talk longer than usual.”

“Is that so? Since he resembles the Empress, I guess I unconsciously thought he’d be more useful. If he’s useless, we should just cut him off.”

Mother’s gaze settled. I smiled in relief.

So from the beginning, she had no intention of letting Valerie live. She seemed to hate him just as much as the Emperor… though that was probably just my imagination.

“We’re going to join hands with Radike.”

“Radike? You mean Marquis Radike?”

“That’s right.”

“But isn’t he close to the Empress’s family? I thought they were particularly close.”