6
Chapter 6
'Bel, Belinda was watching me.'
Since when?
Toma's warning echoed eerily in Leo's pale ear.
"If that woman has her eyes on you, you'll be watched all day. If you make even one mistake, you're toast."
Everything, everything was over.
Leo, with a blank face, hugged the ruined blanket and trudged towards Belinda's room.
'Am I going back to the orphanage like this?'
But if I go there, I won't even have a name to be called.
His steps grew heavy.
He thought someone would need him if he went to a new place, but he ended up ruining everything with his own hands.
Leo buried his face in the blanket and swallowed his sobs, then knocked on Belinda's door.
"Belinda?"
He knocked several times, but the room was silent.
Leo carefully opened the door and stepped inside.
The room, without a single light, was dyed crimson by the sunset coming through the window.
"Belinda, I brought the blanket."
Leo, cautiously looking around, belatedly discovered Belinda asleep on the bed.
Hesitating, the boy tiptoed closer to the huge bed and was momentarily speechless.
His master was so noble and beautiful that he couldn't believe Toma's words.
It was when he was absentmindedly staring at Belinda, completely lost in thought.
The thick eyelashes cast a rich shadow, then soon the amethyst-like purple eyes were revealed.
"……."
"……."
Blink, blink. Their eyes met.
"Miss Belinda eventually had the servant who stared at her banished and left to die. It was because he dared to look directly at the face of a noble, I think?"
"So don't even think about making eye contact. Got it? If you make a mistake, you're toast, your head will be chopped off."
"Hic."
A hiccup leaked from Leo's mouth.
He tried to stop the hiccups by covering his mouth, but his hands trembled and the hiccups wouldn't stop.
Belinda groggily raised her upper body. A gaze colder than the north wind turned to Leo.
"Acorn mouse."
"Y-yes, yes! Hic."
Belinda's expression grew increasingly fierce as she looked at the hiccupping child like a broken squeaky toy.
Soon, a chilling smile that made his hair stand on end appeared on her lips.
"I suppose I'll have to cut off your head."
Thud. Leo's thoughts stopped.
Toma's words echoed beyond Belinda's voice.
"Your head will be chopped off."
"Head……."
"Chopped……."
"C-c-c-hic, h-h-head, head?"
Leo's complexion turned from pale to blue.
Belinda pointed to a chair with her perfectly manicured fingertips.
"Sit in that chair."
Leo couldn't even think of running away and staggered to the chair.
Adults hate children who cry and whine.
So Leo bit his lip and clenched his fists to hold back his tears, but it was no use.
The child's large, tearful eyes turned to Belinda, reflected in the vanity mirror.
She was looking for something in the drawer of the side table.
Finally, Belinda turned around with a pair of bright blue scissors in her hand.
"I'll cut off your head with this."
Her lips curled up sharply once more, turning into something demonic.
And when the scissor blades clicked together, making a gruesome sound.
"I di-didn't, I didn't do it on purpose, Belinda. Waaah, I won't, I won't look at Belinda again. Please don't cut it off, waaaah."
Leo, so startled that even his hiccups stopped, burst into tears.
* * *
A cool autumn breeze blew in through the open window.
I hurriedly closed the window and pulled the blanket up to Leo's neck.
Seeing Leo breathing raggedly with a feverish flush, my heart burned black.
It was this evening that Leo suddenly collapsed, crying when I said I would trim his hair.
"Ah, it seems that he has been stressed by the recent change in environment. Also, he doesn't seem to have been sleeping properly……."
The doctor, flustered by my fierce expression, placed a few potions on the table, saying they would help restore his energy, and then quickly ran away.
"Status window."
As I muttered that, a faintly glowing Status window appeared in the dark room without a single light.
[Name: Acorn mouse]
[Age: 9 years]
[Intelligence: 1/100]
[Stamina: 2/100]
[Divinity: 1/100]
[Magical Power: 1/100]
Perhaps because I was a temporary guardian, the information I could check was terribly less than when I was Ophelia, but it was enough to check Leo's health.
(!Warning!) Stress: 90/100
The Star of the Hero is under extreme stress.
Sufficient rest and recuperation are required.
I stared at it blankly, then buried my face in my hands.
This is the worst. I didn't know the kid was in this state.
It felt like it was all my fault.
No, it is my fault.
The reason Leo is so stressed must be me.
I should have been more careful with my actions.
I should have worked harder to find a way to raise the Synchronization rate.
I should have found something else for Leo to do so that he wouldn't clash with me.
As I bit my lip and replayed my regrets,
"……yo."
Leo, who had been unconscious, mumbled something.
I hurriedly knelt on the floor and leaned towards the child.
"Leo! Are you awake?"
I asked that, then groped around my mouth with a strange sense of incongruity.
Didn't I just speak normally?
I hurriedly checked the Synchronization rate, but the number remained unchanged.
"Then why……."
The reason was soon revealed.
"Hic, I'm sorry, Teacher."
"……Leo?"
Leo wasn't awake, he was sleep talking.
Since the sleeping child couldn't hear me, he was free to speak.
'He might be surprised if he sees me, but still…….'
Just as I was about to reach out to wake Leo.
The words that flowed out from between the child's pale lips echoed in the quiet room.
"……Mom."
I woke up as if splashed with cold water.
At that moment, I realized something that was so obvious but I hadn't noticed.
Leo needs a family, a guardian.
When playing the game, Leo didn't need a mother.
From the moment the game started, the child already had a guardian named Ophelia.
But the Leo in front of me now was just a nine-year-old child who had no one to trust and rely on but me.
'How foolish. What have I been thinking until now?'
I thought my role was to stay by the protagonist's side for half a year so that the main story wouldn't be twisted, and then send him to Ophelia.
No, I was actually scared.
I was afraid that if I got involved, I would die like in the game.
I was furious at my own complacency.
I bit my lower lip hard and held Leo's small hand tightly.
The child's hand was as small and fragile as a baby bird's heart, but at the same time, it was so hot and rough that I choked up.
"I'm sorry for being such a bad adult."
Yes, this is no longer a game.
The child in front of me now is not a child full of potential to become a hero, but just an ordinary nine-year-old who misses his parents.
Just an ordinary child who calls for his mother in his sleep.
How could I not know that feeling?
Me, of all people.
I held the child's hand tightly in both of mine and whispered as if praying.
"No matter what happens in the future, I will protect you."
Until you meet a real guardian who will raise you well.
I was convinced that that was my role after being possessed by Belinda.
How long had it been?
The faint dawn light illuminating the outside of the window faintly illuminated Leo's face, which had become much more peaceful.
His sleeping face was so lovely and heartbreaking that I kissed Leo's round forehead and whispered.
"Sweet dreams, Leo."
And I got up before the child woke up.
My body was heavy from not sleeping properly, but my head was clear.
I quietly stood in front of the servant bell.
When I thought about it calmly, there was something strange.
On the first day, Leo was unfamiliar with the suddenly changed environment, but he wasn't so scared that he avoided my gaze.
Although my tone was harsh, I treated him carefully in my own way, but he suddenly became afraid of me without any particular reason.
'Maybe there's someone who's been stirring up trouble.'
Even if that's not the case, it doesn't matter.
It would be good to let the people in the mansion know how much I care about Leo on this occasion.
It was the middle of the night, but I pulled the servant bell like crazy. The insane ringing sound echoing in the distance was faintly audible to my ears.
After a while, I heard someone trudging down the hallway and standing in front of the door.
"Haaam, Miss, what's wrong, hic!"
Inside the dark room without a single light.
The maid, who came in with a face that couldn't hide her annoyance, gasped when she saw me sitting blankly in the darkness without turning on a single light.
"You."
"Y-yes, yes."
"Summon the butler."
"B-but the time is……."
"Do I."
Thud.
The sound of my index fingernail tapping sharply on the armrest of the chair was chilling.
"Have to say the same thing twice?"
The maid's face turned pale.
Perhaps my eyes were as fierce as the real Belinda's right now.
