9 - Can I Cry Now?
9
Then, the moment Ibi noticed the man's eyes were red-rimmed, she blurted out without realizing it,
"Did you cry?"
At Ibi's words, the man flinched and slowly stood up.
'He's tall.'
The unfamiliar man was tall.
He wasn't as bulky as the sailors who sometimes came to help at the Poorhouse, but Ibi felt an even greater sense of intimidation than she had then.
But she wasn't scared.
Ibi stared intently at the man, remembering that his eyes were red-rimmed.
Ibi knew when eyes looked like that. When you were so sad you wanted to cry, but you had to hold back the tears.
Holding the bouquet in one hand, Ibi rummaged through her pocket.
'Got it!'
In her pocket was the handkerchief she had received with her clothes during the day.
It was spotless and clean, with the Academy for the Gifted's crest embroidered in one corner. Just looking at it made her feel good, so she had carefully folded it and put it deep inside her pocket.
Brand new, never used.
Even though she had deliberately put it deep in her pocket, afraid of even touching it, Ibi handed it to the man without hesitation.
"......"
"......"
But the man just stared at the handkerchief Ibi offered without saying a word.
So, Ibi had to speak first.
"Use this."
"......"
Even though she told him to use it, the man still didn't move, just kept staring.
So, Ibi spoke again.
"I just got it today. It's clean!"
A long time ago, when she was working as a cleaner at the upper school, someone had fallen.
At that time, Ibi had the handkerchief Headmaster made for her and hurriedly took it out to wipe the blood from the wound.
But the other person brushed away the handkerchief Ibi offered, asking why she was offering something dirty from the Poorhouse.
Remembering that, Ibi quickly said again.
"I really haven't used it even once..."
A large hand grasped the handkerchief Ibi offered.
Perhaps because his hand was so large, it grasped not only the handkerchief but also Ibi's hand at once.
Then, he carefully took the handkerchief from Ibi's hand.
Ibi felt the warmth of the man's body temperature remaining on her hand and aimlessly clenched and unclenched her empty hand.
"Thank you."
The man replied briefly in a gruff voice.
It almost sounded like he was angry, but Ibi wasn't scared.
The man took the handkerchief, but he didn't wipe his eyes with it.
Instead, he looked back and forth between the handkerchief and Ibi before asking.
"But who are you?"
Clois was feeling bewildered as he looked at the small handkerchief in his hand.
He wondered who the daring person who had sneaked in here was, but it turned out to be such a young child.
Clois thought she looked about six years old at first glance, but then he realized that what the child was wearing was the Academy for the Gifted's uniform.
That meant she was at least seven years old.
The moment he realized that, Clois almost clicked his tongue.
Even if she was seven years old, the child was too small.
Unless she was sick, it meant she hadn't been eating well.
He wondered if she was sick, but the eyes looking at him were sparkling, and her movements didn't seem uncomfortable.
'Who on earth are her parents?'
Clois cursed the parents of the child he was seeing for the first time in his heart as he examined the child.
'But how is a child from the Academy for the Gifted here?'
There was no way to get to this side from the Academy for the Gifted.
If you tried to come through the forest, you would have to push through quite a bit of dense thicket, but the child's clothes were too neat to have come that way.
Besides, why was a child he had never seen before placing flowers on Lilian's grave?
Then, the child blinked and answered with a bright smile.
"I'm Ibi Elden."
Clois stared blankly at Ibi.
He had often imagined what Evevien would look like if she were alive, how she would smile, how she would speak, while looking at the always blurry illusion of Evevien.
But even when he saw girls of similar age, it was strangely difficult to imagine Evevien's appearance.
But the moment he saw this child's smile, Clois was certain.
If Evevien were alive, wouldn't she smile like this?
Then, he laughed at his own thoughts.
If that child were alive, she would have grown up as the only princess of this empire, receiving all the love and affection.
But to imagine Evevien's appearance in such a small and thin child.
Then, Clois realized that the name the child had said was the name he remembered.
Ibi Elden.
The child from the Poorhouse he had picked in a fit of anger.
Clois, realizing why the child was so small and thin, and why she was flustered when he didn't accept the handkerchief, saying it wasn't dirty, gripped the handkerchief Ibi had given him tightly.
Then Ibi said,
"But who are you, mister?"
Clois was suddenly speechless at the title he was hearing for the first time in his life.
Mister?
Then he realized that he had left the outer garment with decorations in the Imperial Palace before coming out.
To the child, he would look like an ordinary Imperial Palace employee wearing a plain shirt and pants.
Of course, if you looked closely, you could tell that his clothes were much more luxurious than others, but it wouldn't be easy to realize that he was the Emperor just from that.
'Of course, I don't intend to say I'm the Emperor.'
Regardless of whether she believed it or not, he was about to ask how she had gotten here from the Academy for the Gifted, but if he immediately said he was the Emperor, she would be surprised and it would be difficult to get a proper answer.
Then Ibi asked again.
"Are you someone who works at the Academy for the Gifted, mister?"
Clois, who was wondering who he should say he was, had a name flash through his mind the moment he heard Ibi's words.
Sian Roshen.
The professor who the State Affairs Minister had said was not currently at the academy. Clois decided to borrow his name for a while.
"I am Sian Roshen. A professor at the Academy for the Gifted."
Ibi's face brightened at the words "professor at the Academy for the Gifted." The fact that he was a professor, even if he was just someone from the same Academy for the Gifted, seemed to give her a sense of relief.
Then, a loud bell rang in the distance.
Ibi turned her head in surprise at the sound.
The Academy for the Gifted's guide said that a bell would ring to announce curfew.
When that sound was heard, the Academy for the Gifted's students had to return to their dormitories, no matter where they were or what they were doing.
"Oh, I have to go now! I have to go back!"
Ibi handed the bouquet she was holding to Clois and hurriedly picked up her bag that she had placed on the ground.
After hastily packing her bag, Ibi bowed politely to Clois as written in the guide and scurried away along the path through the thicket she had come from.
Clois, who had received the bouquet Ibi had given him, stared blankly at her disappearing figure.
There was a path like that there?
Just as he came to his senses and was about to call Ibi again, the child, who was quickly disappearing, turned around and waved with a smile.
"I'll see you again next time!"
The moment Clois saw Ibi trying to leave, he felt a stabbing pain in one corner of his chest.
He had to hold her back.
Clois's instincts were screaming that. Don't let her go. Bring her to his side quickly.
But his reason, which had lived as the Emperor for a long time, quickly stopped his instincts.
What would he do with her if he brought her back?
She was a child who had entered the Imperial Palace for the first time today.
She was still young and thought of Clois as just a professor at the Academy for the Gifted.
Wouldn't she be surprised and terrified if he brought her back now?
Clois's gaze, which had been looking at the path through the thicket that Ibi had used, turned to the bouquet in his hand.
It was a bouquet that was as clumsy as the wreath on Lilian's grave, but it had been carefully arranged.
She probably intended to put it on Evevien's grave.
But in the end, he had received it.
"Ha......"
Clois let out a long sigh and sat down heavily in front of the two graves.
Normally, there would be dry leaves rolling around here and there, but the tombstones and graves were clean without any of that.
Ibi must have cleaned it.
'Does she know whose graves these are?'
