Ch#61
Ibi looked around while hugging the toy to her chest.
“Professor?”
Because she was holding the toy tightly with both hands, she couldn't grab his clothes.
So when people rushed past, she got swept along to the side alley.
Fortunately, it wasn't far away, so she thought she could meet Professor Sian again if she returned to where they had been standing just moments ago.
But when she went back to that spot, he was nowhere to be seen.
The startled Ibi looked around her surroundings.
But no matter how much she scanned the passing crowd, she couldn't spot him.
“Professor!”
Ibi called out loudly for him.
Then, the people passing by looked at her with curious glances, wondering what was going on.
‘Where did he go?’
It had happened in an instant. It hadn't even been 30 seconds since she had stepped aside and come back….
‘He must still be nearby.’
Ibi stepped back one more pace, positioning herself between the shops to watch the passersby.
Just moments ago, she had been in a good mood after winning the prize.
The shops decorated for the festival sparkled, and watching the people had been fun.
But now, the still-gleaming shops and the laughing crowds seemed scary, having nothing to do with her anxiety.
‘It's okay.’
Ibi bit her lip tightly and thought.
‘The Director taught me what to do if I get lost or separated from my group.’
She had said not to move from the spot where you lost them.
No matter how anxious or scared you felt, stay put and wait. Then they could come find you.
By now, Professor Sian must have noticed she was missing. He'd come back soon.
So….
‘I just have to endure the fear a little longer.’
Ibi hugged the toy to her chest and stood there waiting for him.
* * *
“Already heading back?”
Duke Kailun looked disappointed at Arcel's announcement that he wanted to return earlier than planned.
“Is there some unfinished business?”
Duke Kailun knew his son's temperament well.
Arcel was remarkably calm and rational for his young age.
He always moved according to plan, and disruptions were rare.
“Your personality doesn't take after you or me. Where on earth did we pick up our son?”
“He looks just like you, so what nonsense is that.”
Recalling how his wife had poked his side for saying something unnecessary, Duke Kailun looked at Arcel with concern.
“If you're rushing back to study, I won't call you for dinner tonight, so relax in your room….”
“It's not that. I'm studying plenty as it is, so there's no need to rush.”
Duke Kailun inwardly clicked his tongue, wondering how his 13-year-old son had ended up with such a dull personality.
‘Now that I think about it, his personality takes after His Majesty from childhood.’
That might be why he was the first name mentioned whenever talk of the emperor's adopted son came up.
“Then why are you in such a hurry?”
“Well….”
Seeing Arcel trail off, the duke looked at his son as if to say nothing ever surprised him anymore.
It was the first time Arcel had hesitated like this before answering.
“If it's hard to say, you don't have to. It's normal for someone your age to have a secret or two from your parents.”
“No, it's not that.”
As Arcel responded with a horrified expression, the duke chuckled and called for the butler to prepare the carriage.
“If your mind's already there, what good is holding you back? I'll be waiting for your next outing day.”
Arcel bowed gratefully to his father, who asked no more questions, then packed the items he had prepared into his bag and boarded the carriage.
Once the carriage set off, he looked at the bag beside him.
Yeongjae Academy already had everything he needed.
The only things he had specially packed were books from his study.
Books he had already read—and ones no one else had even touched.
‘She seemed to like travelogues. And basic theory textbooks too.’
They were polar opposites. But Arcel liked both.
‘Ibi seemed to like both too.’
Ibi Alden.
Arcel recalled the little girl who had waved goodbye to him, telling him to take care.
At first, he had only paid attention because His Majesty had chosen her.
So when Ruska nagged him into meeting her again, he had found it a bit annoying.
Yet he couldn't ignore her. She kept sticking in his mind.
That was why, when he learned Airin Terrins and the other girls were bullying her, he said nothing despite knowing he and Ruska were being used.
He thought that just attending classes and meals together would make things better.
Then a question suddenly arose: Would he have done this much for anyone else?
Arcel looked at his bag again.
The moment he arrived home, he had gone straight to his study and spent the whole day selecting books.
The most interesting and best ones from what he had read.
‘I wonder if she'll like them.’
He vividly remembered how her face lit up every time Professor Males showed her a new book.
If even those stodgy math books made Ibi happy, she would surely love the ones he brought even more.
Her round green eyes would crinkle softly, her small face filling with smiles.
He wished she could always smile like that….
“……!”
At that moment, Arcel, who had been gazing at the festival crowd-choked street, abruptly stood up.
‘Just now….’
He thought he had seen Ibi.
Standing by a food stall with a tearful face, wearing not her Yeongjae Academy uniform but the shabby clothes from the first day he saw her.
Arcel nearly ordered the carriage stopped but leaned out to look again.
But the carriage had already passed, and the spot where he thought he saw Ibi was now obscured by the crowd.
“Was it a mistake?”
Thinking about it, Ibi couldn't possibly be out here. She was supposed to stay at Yeongjae Academy. Besides, students under 10 couldn't go out without a guardian.
Who would have brought her out?
‘Professor Males said he'd be going home too, so no one to take her out.’
So what he saw must have been a hallucination.
Even so, Arcel kept leaning out, staring behind them.
For some reason, the nagging unease wouldn't fade.
* * *
“M-Mom… sob….”
Ibi watched the boy sitting in the chair next to her, crying as he called for his mom.
The boy, about Ibi's age, had been shedding tears nonstop since they arrived here.
Ibi looked at the sign attached to the front of the chair.
[Lost Child Shelter]
After losing Professor Sian, Ibi had stood in that spot for 30 minutes straight. But he never appeared.
She was considering going back to Yeongjae Academy alone when some people who had been circling nearby approached her.
Ibi was wary of them.
She had heard that after the war, there were many who kidnapped orphaned children and sold them off.
Even at the Orphanage, the Director would worry endlessly and search all day if a child went missing.
“Did you lose your parents?”
“No, I….”
“Don't lie. We saw you standing alone.”
The rough-looking man grabbed her hand as he spoke.
The moment Ibi tried to cry for help, the man shouted first.
“Hey, security! We've got a lost child here!”
Security officers patrolling nearby rushed over, and after waving goodbye with a ‘We'll make sure you get back home safe to your parents,’ the man left.
And that's how she ended up here.
The security officers gave warm cocoa to the crying children who arrived and reassured them they'd be home soon.
Just as they said, the families came for the other children one by one.
The kids would drop their cocoa and run sobbing into their parents' arms.
Ibi watched quietly.
A little later, the boy who had been sitting next to her was also picked up by his family.
As he walked away holding his mom and dad's hands, Ibi curled up smaller.
‘Everyone has their mom and dad come get them.’
But she had no parents. So who would come for her?
Ibi buried her face in her knees. No tears came.
Crying wouldn't change anything; it would just make her more miserable.
No one comforted you when you cried from hardship. If you didn't get hit for being annoying, you were lucky.
She had known that since she was little.
‘I'll go back alone.’
Professor Sian must have gone ahead.
So she just needed to tell the security officers she was a Yeongjae Academy student and ask them to take her back.
They'd do it right away. So….
‘I'll stay here just a little longer….’
It was the moment Ibi hugged her wooden doll tighter and curled up even more.
“Ibi!”
Suddenly, her body floated up.
Lifting her head, she saw Clois standing before her, his face drenched in sweat.
