episode_0010

Late at night, Cecilia checked the documents processed by the new lord with an angry look on her face. I did my best to catch the slightest mistake, but I couldn’t find even the most common spelling error. The only thing that was unusual was that the handwriting was a little shaky, as if he had a mild tremor.

However, I couldn’t figure it out just because the writing was shaky, and on the contrary, I was just tearing out my hair in anger at the fact that the work was done perfectly.

“How can you do something so bold and outrageous with that gentleman-like face!”

Cecilia remembered his emotionless face, as if nothing had happened, and bit her teeth.

“Our village was almost ruined because a nobleman who didn’t know how to do anything but collected taxes ran away…!”

She remembered her family who had died in the chaos when the lord ran away, and she slammed the table and looked at his signature with hatred.

“Those guys who didn’t even come when I needed them… Now they’re going to show off and call themselves lords…?”

She could never tolerate such outrage.

To prevent that, I tried to ignore him, gave him a place that a noble would hate, and even gave him a murderous amount of work to harass him, but he didn’t get angry at all.

Rather, he maintained a surprisingly personable attitude.

“Look at the essence? The place you are staying is not just a building, but a village? Talking loudly or saying something. On a subject I know nothing about…!!!”

“Then what do you know about that child that makes you say that?”

Talking to oneself is called talking to oneself because it is said to oneself. If you hear someone else’s voice while talking to yourself, it is no longer talking to yourself, it is a conversation.

When her self-talk suddenly turned into a conversation, Cecilia was startled and turned her head toward the unfamiliar voice.

“What, what…?”

“Here you go, you bitch.”

“What does the crow say…”

“Is there a law telling crows not to talk to people in a place full of human beings who behave in a way that is not human-like?”

The crow that had settled down by the window glared at Cecilia with eyes full of anger.

“I’ll ask again. What do you know about that kid that makes you talk like that?”

“It’s obvious. Because you will be a noble raised without anything lacking. The love of family, plenty of food, a warm place to sleep, and a safe environment where you don’t have to worry about death. You are a noble master who grew up like a flower in a greenhouse, surrounded by such things.”

“… That’s foolish. Everyone says their own wounds are the most painful, but it would be difficult to laugh at someone who has no healthy body part. That’s not something people do.”

“What does that mean…?”

“Seeing is more than hearing. Let’s see if you can say that even when you smell the blood leaking from that wound.”

As the crow flapped its wings, a strange black wind enveloped the room, and Cecilia was suddenly trapped in pitch-black darkness.

And when the darkness cleared, she woke up not in her room, but in the middle of an old-fashioned nobleman’s mansion.

“This is…”

She couldn’t understand what was happening, but she soon realized that it was some kind of genjutsu when she saw that the maids and butlers around her did not recognize her.

“I don’t know what they’re doing, but the effects of illusions don’t last long. I don’t know why it shows a place like this, but…!”

Soon she saw a child who looked exactly like the lord she had seen in the morning.

The deep eyes and slim face were the same as now, but unlike now, there was vitality in those eyes and skin. He was a so-called doll-like child.

The cute child was heading somewhere, holding a book as big as his arm. And the child stopped in front of a door and knocked on it with a fern-like object.

“Mother.”

The child called his mother and opened the door. Beyond the door was a newborn baby suffering from an unknown illness and a noble wife who cared for the baby with utmost care.

“What’s going on?”

“The tutor told me to tell my mother that I got a perfect score on the test today, so I came here.”

“You’re asking me to tell you something so trivial. Tell them that I am not free enough to report on such things one by one.”

“Yes, mother.”

“If you understand, quickly close the door and leave. You don’t know how harmful the cold wind is to your younger brother.”

“Sorry.”

Cecilia was able to intuit the expression on the child’s face as he turned around after closing the door. It was only the child’s own will that made it known that he had received a perfect score on the test. The tutor’s instructions were all lies, and the child wanted to boast that he had received a perfect score.

“Master, don’t worry too much about it. Madam, if the young lady’s illness is completely cured…”

“It’s okay, butler. It’s probably my fault for having such vain thoughts while my younger brother was sick.”

The child was walking in the garden with his butler.

Meanwhile, the child saw a flower blooming on a crape myrtle tree, stopped and asked a question to the butler.

“Deacon. Does your younger brother like flowers like that too?”

The butler, who realized the intention of the question, smiled vaguely and answered intelligently.

“Even if you are just a newborn, wouldn’t you like pretty flowers? Would you like this old man to pick one for you?”

“No. I’d like to pick the first gift myself. And I feel a little empty with just flowers.”

The butler smiled and gave the child a ride on a wooden horse and helped the child pick the flower branches himself.

The child cut off flower branches, attached them to drawing paper using glue, and began drawing.

The small flower branch became a tree on a small piece of drawing paper, and the child drew other family members around it, including his younger brother who was completely cured of the disease and himself. The painting was so wonderful that it could hardly be said to have been drawn by a child.

The child, who had been drawing all night, secretly went to his younger brother’s room while his mother was sleeping. He then left the picture he had drawn next to his brother’s cradle and left the room. The picture contained the child’s wish for his younger brother to get better.

And early in the morning, the child woke up to the sound of a commotion and ran to the room where his younger brother was, following the people.

Pollen entered the body of my younger brother, who had a weak immune system, and his body temperature suddenly rose due to an allergic reaction.

After hearing the news from the doctor, the child’s mother, who was staring at the picture next to the cradle, approached the child. It was obvious where the pollen came from.

“Mother, this is…”

Sigh.

The sound of flesh clashing against flesh filled the room.

“Madam! How far can you go…!”

“Deacon. Be quiet.”

The child’s mother stared at the child with colder eyes than ever.

“You know what your mistake is, right?”

“Yes.”

The child threw his drawing into the fire pit with an expressionless face without even touching his bright red cheeks.

“We will make sure something like this never happens again.”

“Okay. All you need to know is ”

“Then let’s go out.”

The eyes of the child who said that lost their vitality, even if just a little.

The child, with lively eyes instead of tears, headed outside with red cheeks. The deacon who saw the incident rushed over and tried to comfort the child, but it was no use.

“Master. It’s because your wife is so excited, so don’t pay too much attention to it. If you know that you didn’t do it with bad intentions…”

“Deacon. Intention doesn’t matter. I almost killed my younger brother, and my mother gave him appropriate corporal punishment. That’s just it.”

“Master…”

“Please dispose of the paints and drawing tools in my room. It’s obvious that my mother will be angry when she sees it.”

The child who loved drawing never drew again.

“Master, no matter how sad it is…”

“Deacon. I want to be alone for a while.”

The butler silently respected the child’s words, and the child walked into the garden without a word.

Then the child silently hid behind a tree, squatted down, and put his face between his knees.

That was when my bad habit of running away into the darkness between my knees started.

“I…”

The child did not finish the sentence and just stared into the darkness between his knees without saying a word.

In this way, the child established a dark and dull self in that small darkness.

Cecilia unconsciously approached the child and tried to stroke his head. But the moment she stretched out her hand, the black wind surrounding her disappeared.

“What the hell is happening now…”

“Did it just look like a warm greenhouse to you? Did it just look like a flower to you?”

Cecilia couldn’t say anything. Because what she saw was not a warm greenhouse but a cold snowy field.

“… If this is truly the nobleman’s pain, I should apologize. But that doesn’t mean I’ll acknowledge him. You can’t acknowledge him just by looking at his cross-section.”

“Okay. That’s your freedom. Just know this.”

The crow calmly revealed his secret.

“Now that is just a small thorn among the things stuck in that child.”

Then, without saying a word, Cecilia put down the document she was holding to catch his pod.

“Who are you to know such a secret? I don’t think it’s an ordinary crow.”

“I am just a bird who hopes that the child does not get sick. Because it was my fault that the child became the way he is now.”

Just like that, the crow flew out the window with a slightly sad look in its eyes.

After returning home, the crow straightened the hair of Raoul, who was sleeping while leaning on an uncomfortable chair.

“… A trembling idiot.”

The crow stayed by his lonely side until the morning sun rose. Don’t let mere country bugs disturb his sleep.