58 - Can I Cry Now?
Episode 58
Clois also thought the Imperial Palace was unusually quiet since morning.
He was known for working day and night, but that didn't mean he would keep his ministers tied up on holidays for no reason.
"Even so, it's much quieter than usual."
The head chamberlain, who was pouring tea, replied to Clois's murmur.
"It seems many people haven't entered the palace because it's the Seasonal Festival period."
"Ah, is it already that time?"
The Seasonal Festival was a short festival in the capital that took place when the seasons changed.
The festival that transitioned from autumn to winter was the most representative, so the festival when transitioning from spring to summer, like now, was held on a relatively smaller scale.
That was probably why he had forgotten about it.
'Then there must be many children from the Academy for the Gifted who are out.'
He remembered that Seraphina had reported in a new document a few days ago that it was the children's first official outing period since entering the academy.
Was it because he recognized the children's absence?
Even though he couldn't hear any sounds, the Imperial Palace seemed even quieter.
Clois, who was sitting alone drinking tea, said he would go for a walk and headed to Lilian and Evevien's graves.
As always, the head chamberlain couldn't say he would accompany the Emperor on his walk and simply bowed his head.
Clois, who had passed through the guards and entered, smiled bitterly as he looked at the graves bathed in sunlight.
Perhaps because the weather was getting warmer, the trees around the tombstones were blooming with large and small flowers.
It was such a beautiful scene that no one would think of this place as a grave if there were no tombstones.
After tidying up the weeds around the area, Ibi suddenly came to his mind, and he approached the bushes where the child always appeared.
'It should be around here.'
His face soon hardened as he examined the bushes.
It was strange. There was clearly a path in the bushes that a small animal could pass through without any problems when Ibi returned.
But now, as if to say he was mistaken, the path in the bushes was completely blocked, and there was no trace of it.
'Surely, she went back and forth twice, didn't she?'
But the bushes were so densely overgrown that not even a squirrel could get through, let alone a child.
"This is, really..."
In fact, he was thinking of blocking the bushes.
Clois was bothered by the fact that Ibi kept coming here.
It wasn't because it was Lilian's grave.
'Evevien's grave is here too.'
The second time she came, Ibi briefly pointed to a small tombstone during their conversation and asked who was buried there.
He couldn't bring himself to say that his daughter was there. If he did, Ibi would find out whose grave this was, and the fact that he was the Emperor would be revealed.
But more than that...
'I just couldn't bring myself to say it.'
He hated the thought of saying that a child the same age as her was buried here, more than death itself.
Clois was confused as to where his feelings originated from.
Was it because he didn't want to show a young child the grave of someone their age?
Or was it because he didn't want to show his daughter, who was lying in the cold ground, his smiling and chatting with another child?
'Why?'
Clois himself was aware that he was being unusually lenient and taking extra care of Ibi.
Instead of scolding the child who had entered here, he sent her back as she was, and even sent her a gift.
Moreover, he gave her a fake identity so that she could continue to meet him, and now he had even prepared a professor's office.
'So this is what everyone was trying so hard to do.'
Clois understood the nobles' desire to push their young children in front of him at all costs.
She was just a girl the same age. The color of her eyes was the same as Lilian's... just that kind of child.
'If she were even a little different, I wouldn't have gone this far, would I?'
Clois imagined Ibi with different hair and eye colors.
But even if that child had different colors, she would still be pitiful.
She reached out her arms to him without any wariness and hugged him, smiling brightly.
When he saw that, he couldn't help but want to do anything for her.
He turned his head and looked towards the Academy for the Gifted.
Since it was the weekend and the Seasonal Festival was overlapping, there wouldn't be many children left at the Academy for the Gifted.
'Ibi will probably be staying.'
Elam City was far away.
Moreover, it would be difficult for the director of the Poorhouse to move for just one child.
Clois was lost in thought, thinking of Ibi, who would be alone in the dormitory.
'I should tell Seraphina to speed up the opening of the Academy for the Gifted library. And I should also have her plan other things that the children who are staying on the weekends won't find boring or tedious.'
Then he remembered what Seraphina had reported.
"As you requested, we have prepared Professor Sian Roshen's office. All the people who have offices there are often on external business trips, so even if Professor Sian's appearance isn't seen often, it doesn't seem like it would raise any suspicion."
She also said that she had prepared it similarly to Clois's office, so he should visit it sometimes.
'What exactly did she do?'
He was curious about his room that he hadn't seen.
'Should I go and take a look for a while?'
Normally, he wouldn't even think about going.
The children didn't know him well, but some of the professors knew his face.
But today was a day when most of them were out, wasn't it?
After hesitating for a while, he looked towards the Academy for the Gifted as if he had made up his mind.
\ \ *
It was as Clois thought.
After returning to his residence and changing into plain clothes that he sometimes wore when going out to the capital, he headed to the Academy for the Gifted using a secluded path.
Occasionally, an employee of the Academy for the Gifted passed by him, but they didn't recognize who he was and simply gave him a perfunctory greeting before passing by.
He walked towards the professor's office with a more relaxed mind.
The inside of the Academy for the Gifted was even quieter than he had thought.
'It's too quiet.'
No wonder the remaining children would feel lonely.
'Well, everyone will be out of their minds on the next outing.'
Clois recalled the academic schedule of the Academy for the Gifted.
Everyone was excited to go out this time, but it wouldn't be easy to go out next time.
Because there would be an exam around that time.
'That's why everyone stayed in the dormitory crying.'
Clois also attended the Academy for the Gifted when he was young.
His mother sent him there to consolidate his power in advance, so he met children from noble families of the same age.
Duke Keilen and Marquis Ragselb of today were all friends and subordinates he had met back then.
'Come to think of it, Arcel and Ruska treated Ibi well, didn't they?'
Ibi chattered to Clois about how she was doing at the Academy for the Gifted these days.
She talked about her friend Irene the most, but she also talked about the two boys quite a bit.
'Come to think of it, when was the last time I saw those two children?'
They were children that Lilian cherished very much. So he was also close to them.
But after he became Emperor, he could count the number of times he had seen their faces on one hand.
Even then, it was just receiving greetings when he met them at large banquets, and there was no warm conversation or anything like that.
'I should call them separately later.'
Since he was going to choose an heir anyway, it would be one of the two children.
So it wouldn't be bad to meet them often from now on and see how they have grown in the meantime.
'Should I give them one of the Imperial family's villas during the summer vacation?'
Then he thought that those children might take care of Ibi and go together.
In the meantime, he arrived at the professor's office.
Creak.
He opened the door and went inside, and he was surprised to see the interior decorated in a style similar to his office.
Then, he ran his hand over his face as he looked at the books filling the bookshelf.
"Is the setting a foreign language professor?"
If so, he should have only put up one of the four foreign languages he mainly used, but why did he put them all up like this?
'It's not like I can't do it.'
While he was wondering if he should study the things he hadn't used for a long time again to pretend to be a professor in front of Ibi, he saw a piece of paper on the desk.
"Huh?"
It was a large, round child's handwriting that he could recognize at a glance.
"Hello, Professor Sian..."
[Hello, Professor Sian. This is Ibi Elden. I came because I was contacted that Professor's room is here, but Professor wasn't here, so I'm leaving a letter. Goodbye. (I only looked at the books without touching them. Really.) I'll come again!]
At the end of the letter was a slightly distorted rabbit drawing.
Clois's eyes curved softly at the drawing.
She had visited here before him.
'How long was she waiting?'
He felt a pang of regret when he thought of her waiting for him here for a long time before leaving.
"She'll come again."
When will that be?
