WDYEHM 15

Chapter 15

Cliff’s day started early in the morning.

After finishing simple sword training, Cliff bathed and then went to his office to handle documents.

Cliff, who was now 20 years old, had already spent four years as the official heir of the Weekend Duke family. But even before that, he had long helped the Duke of Weekend with documents, so not much had changed.

Cliff had a simple breakfast with lukewarm tea.

While continuing his work, Cliff put down his pen for a moment. He looked over his desk, but the document he needed was nowhere to be found.

As he reached to pull the bell rope, he realized he had not stood up from his chair since morning, and it was already close to afternoon.

Thinking it wouldn’t be bad to move a little, he decided to go to the archive himself.

After making his decision, Cliff left his office and headed to the archive.

“D-Duke, welcome.”

Ignoring the awkward greeting of the librarian, Cliff stood in front of the section where the materials he needed were kept.

After finally finding what he needed, Cliff was about to leave.

But sensing someone’s presence, he stopped again at the spot where he had taken the book. Lowering his head slightly, he could see the shelf on the other side.

There, he saw Orte sitting on the window frame.

Orte looked like she had fallen asleep while reading, her eyes gently closed with the book still open.

“Cliff.”

A soft whisper was heard.

“Cliff, you really like books. When I was young, I hated reading the most.”

A warm hand stroked his head.

“I think I now understand what he meant when he said you don’t need to worry.”

That hand moved down to his cheek.

His cheek, which had been swollen red from being hit for holding onto the hem of the Duchess of Weekend’s dress, no longer hurt as warmth spread through it.

“See? It doesn’t hurt anymore, right?”

“Yes.”

A small laugh was heard.

“Cliff, I’m very proud of how mature you are. But it’s okay to act spoiled sometimes.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

That woman was kind.

Even the Duke of Weekend, who used to always argue with Cliff’s real mother, began to smile more.

But as the woman smiled more often, the Duke gradually became sensitive again.

The woman liked sunlight.

On days when the weather was still cold, she would sit on the window frame in the archive, where the sunlight was strongest, and fall asleep.

But Cliff was afraid of that.

Because once she fell asleep, sometimes she wouldn’t wake up no matter how much he tried to wake her.

“…!”

Coming back to his senses, Cliff quickly stepped forward and grabbed Orte’s wrist, pulling her down.

“Ah!”

Orte let out a small cry as she fell from the window frame. She frowned from the sharp pain and raised her head.

She saw Cliff breathing heavily.

“…Young master?”

“Never.”

Cliff spoke in a trembling voice.

“Never show yourself like that in front of me again.”

Orte stared blankly at his back as he turned and walked away after saying that.

Orte lifted her utensils but stopped at the pain in her wrist.

Through her sleeve, a clear bruise could be seen on her wrist.

Orte tried to recall what had happened.

Unlike usual, she had been reading in the archive, and then she fell asleep. Then suddenly Cliff appeared and pulled her.

As she fell to the floor, not only her wrist but also her knee had been bruised, and it throbbed whenever she moved.

Orte did not feel confused or question his behavior, but the continued pain bothered her.

Cliff had been more sensitive than usual.

“Ah.”

Orte suddenly stopped cutting the meat.

“Is something uncomfortable…?”

A servant carefully asked.

Since that day, at least the servants working in the dining room treated Orte very respectfully. Orte shook her head at the servant who was watching her carefully.

Because she had realized why Cliff acted that way.

‘It’s the memorial day.’

There were only a few days left until the Saint’s memorial day.

That day was also Orte’s birthday, but she had never once looked forward to her own birthday.

When the memorial day came, the Duke of Weekend, Cliff, and Ellen all became sensitive, so Orte always stayed in her room all day to avoid being seen.

She often couldn’t even ask a maid for simple food and ended up starving.

Staying in her room would be the same this time.

‘I don’t want to be seen.’

Before, it was because she was afraid of upsetting them, but now it was because she was tired and wanted to avoid them.

There was one more bad thing for Orte—the memorial day and Ellen’s birthday were not far apart.

About ten days after the memorial day, a month later, it would be Ellen’s eighteenth birthday.

The mansion would be noisy for a while, and with all three of them being sensitive, it was the worst situation.

She let out a sigh.

At that moment, the dining room door suddenly opened.

“Hey, parasite!”

It was Ellen.

Behind him, Colin followed, sweating heavily. Ellen was wearing hunting clothes.

“Have you seen the white deer?”

“No.”

“You haven’t? It’s big and white. You really didn’t see it?”

“Young master, there’s no way the lady would have seen it. It would be faster to go back to the hunting grounds and look for it.”

“Hey, are you saying the white deer broke its own shackles and escaped the stable?”

Ellen shouted angrily at Colin.

Orte quietly finished her meal and stood up.

“I’ve never seen the white deer.”

It was surprising that Casey hadn’t told Ellen. And it was also unexpected that Ellen noticed so late.

“If you keep asking me, it will only waste time, young master.”

“…Right. I’m the idiot for asking a parasite.”

Ellen turned around sharply.

Normally, Ellen wouldn’t even come to see Orte. But seeing him come like this, it was clear he was more sensitive than usual.

Thinking she might run into the Duke of Weekend as well, Orte didn’t stay and quickly returned to her room. Through the window, Ellen’s irritated voice could still be heard.

“So noisy…”

No matter how tightly she closed the window, the sound still came in. Just like that, Orte felt tired, realizing there was no place in the Weekend Duke family where she could truly rest.

Orte tried to avoid meeting them as much as possible, but things did not go as she wished.

That evening, Orte was called by the Duke of Weekend through the butler and went to his office.

“Go for purification.”

“When?”

“Tomorrow. Ellen will go with you.”

Since she was ten years old, Orte had often gone with them for purification. Even though her divine power was small, it was still effective, so this was something she liked.

Because when they went for purification, they didn’t hate Orte as much as usual.

‘They were just using me, but I still liked it.’

It was just a foolish past.

“Yes. I’ll go.”

Orte answered obediently and returned to her room.

Then, early in the morning, she woke up to the noise of preparations for the purification trip.

Orte wore a comfortable dress brought by Sef and put on a thick robe. As she walked down the hall stairs, she saw Cliff, who had come to see Ellen off.

“Don’t cause trouble.”

“Brother, I’m not a kid.”

Orte passed them and headed to the carriage.

The carriage door closed, and soon they departed.

After traveling for several hours, they arrived at a place where the black land had just begun to form.

It had not yet spread to nearby villages, and since it was discovered early, the Weekend Duke family moved directly to purify it quietly.

The black land looked normal on the outside, but all living things there became corrupted and turned into monsters. Because of this, if it was not purified early, the damage would be very large, so it had to succeed in one attempt.

Fortunately, this time it was found early, and it could be purified with holy water.

Rather than removing all the black land, they had to find and eliminate the host.

The host was the cause of the corruption, and once it was removed, the land would return to normal.

The thing needed to remove the host was divine power.

“Ha, do we really need that parasite?”

Ellen muttered while looking at the carriage Orte was in.