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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 3
Chapter Title: A Special Existence
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[Oh! I just remembered something.]
“What is it?”
[Hold on. I'll be right back.]
Leaving Lucian behind, she entered the mansion. She went straight up to the second floor and found the stairs leading to the attic.
Ria entered what used to be the eccentric painter's studio.
[Just as I thought, there's some stuff left.]
She gathered the parchment, pencils, and paints the artist had mainly used.
She had suggested drawing with Lucian before but never found the time to actually do it.
If he starts it as a hobby now, couldn't he learn professionally later on?
He seemed bright, and while his stamina was poor at first, he was quite good at physical tasks.
[If he ends up being good at drawing, too...!]
Ria went down to the garden, her heart swelling with anticipation without her even realizing it.
“Where did you go? Huh? What's all this?”
Ria placed the items on the mat and explained them one by one.
[You can put the parchment on this board and draw whatever you want.]
To demonstrate, she began to sketch a group of foxes sleeping huddled together.
It was her first time drawing, but it turned out better than she expected.
“Wow, it looks just like the foxes.”
Lucian seemed to think so too, marveling at it.
It was a rough sketch and a bit messy, but the form was clear enough to recognize.
[You don't have to draw what you see. You can draw anything you've imagined or wanted to draw. What do you think? Want to try?]
“Yes!”
Lucian immediately lay on the ground, kicking his feet toward the sky as he pondered what to draw.
His eyes roamed over this and that, then suddenly stopped on Ria.
[Why?]
“I want to draw you, Ria.”
[Huh? Me?]
“Just stay right there. I'll draw you beautifully.”
Lucian hunched over the parchment, his hand moving diligently.
He looked at the parchment, then at Ria, his head bobbing up and down.
It seemed like it would take a long time for him to finish.
Since things had turned out this way, Ria decided she might as well draw Lucian and picked up a pencil.
After about ten minutes, the rough sketch was done. She naturally prepared her paints and moved her hand without hesitation.
Verdant green hues became scattering blades of grass and leaves, a bright sky blue danced above them, and a rainbow of colors slowly filled in the form of the charming little child.
It looked as if Lucian might pop out of the drawing at any moment and call, “Ria!”
[Lucian, look at this. I did a pretty good job—]
She was lifting the drawing to show it off when she noticed Lucian had fallen asleep, facedown, still clutching the pencil.
Ria used magic to gently lift Lucian, then tidied up the mat and the art supplies.
Just then, the parchment Lucian had been using caught her eye.
A flinch—
[Don't tell me... this is me?]
Even trying to be generous, considering he was a child, she couldn't see it in a good light.
There was no nose, just two round circles for eyes, and while the mouth was smiling, it was a jumble of messy, overlapping lines that made it look downright eerie.
[He said he'd draw me beautifully, but he drew some kind of evil spirit.]
Whether it was because the pencil was blunt or because it had smudged on his hand as he drew, the entire parchment was covered in dark smudges. That made it look even more like a malevolent specter.
[Pfft, khuh...! Ahem! So last time wasn't just because he'd never held a pen before.]
Back when Lucian was going through his broccoli-hating phase, he had drawn something next to a picture she had made.
At first, she thought it was a flower, but when she asked later, he said he'd drawn the sun.
Lucian simply had no talent for drawing. She was almost embarrassed for ever worrying he might be a genius of the century.
[...But was he really being serious when he drew this?]
At first, it was just funny, but the thought that the evil spirit on the parchment was supposed to be her made it serious.
And to think he was always singing my praises about how pretty I was. Does he have a problem with his aesthetic sense?
Because of what he always said, I'd started to think I was actually quite pretty, but now I had my doubts.
[Hmph, to think he could draw something like this and sleep so soundly.]
Gently cradling Lucian in her arms, she carried him and the other things back into the mansion.
Ria tucked the picture she drew today and Lucian's drawing of the evil spirit (?) into a bookshelf.
Without her realizing it, the traces of Lucian were steadily accumulating.
* * *
“...And so, Dick was able to return safely to the arms of his family.”
[Wow! You finished the whole storybook today!]
It was story time, right before bed.
Tonight was a special night, as Lucian had read a storybook from beginning to end for the first time.
It's no easy feat to read a storybook when you've only been learning to read for about two months.
She gave him a round of enthusiastic applause and praise, but Lucian showed no reaction.
She expected him to get all puffed up and proud, but far from being happy, he looked downcast.
Ria stopped clapping and watched him carefully. Lucian's gaze was fixed on the storybook.
Specifically, on the illustration of a happy-looking family.
Only then did Ria understand what he was thinking about.
[...Do you want to go home?]
Lucian's shoulders flinched. After a moment of hesitation, he shook his head. But his face was a mask of longing.
Ria took the storybook from Lucian. Only then did he look back at her.
Lucian had never properly told her his story. She had thought it was premature, so she'd waited until now. But the time had come.
[Can you tell me how you ended up here, and why you were offered as a sacrifice as a fake prince?]
She spoke calmly so as not to startle the boy. Lucian blinked his large eyes and stared intently at me.
“...A fake prince?”
[Yes. I know everything, so you don't have to hide it.]
Even as she patted his back, Lucian's expression remained blank. Then, he shot up from his seat and looked down at me.
“I'm not a fake prince.”
[Huh?]
“I'm a real prince. I'm not an orphan.”
What was he talking about? She was sure that when he first came here, those humans...
Her confusion lasted only a moment before Ria suddenly recalled the cryptic words of those men.
‘But is there really a need to dress him up like that? He looks just like a royal...’
‘Shh. We just have to do as we're told. Don't get needlessly involved.’
Not only that, but there was a question that had always bothered her about Lucian.
The defining trait of the Imperial Family was their golden eyes. Lucian was clearly the owner of vivid golden eyes. There were no traces of magic or drugs. That meant his eyes were naturally gold.
[...Then it wasn't a disguise to make you look like royalty, was it?]
“Huh? What was?”
[Oh, no. It's just that I overheard the men who brought you here talking. At the time, they said...]
As Ria continued her explanation, Lucian's expression darkened, and he sat back down, pulling his knees to his chest.
[...Is there something going on?]
“I don't really know either. It's just, people suddenly started calling me an orphan.”
Though he was only eight, his expression was dark, unbefitting of his age.
“But to be honest, I'm not sure if I'm a real prince either.”
Lucian explained the life he had lived before coming here.
From birth until he arrived, he had lived in a shabby palace. A place that was a palace in name only, smaller and more run-down than the current mansion.
There, Lucian had grown up suffering from neglect that was tantamount to abuse.
‘Didn't I tell you not to call me unless it's something I need?’
‘You're all grown up now, you can do it on your own, right?’
‘Why do you keep making me come and go! Am I your friend?!’
Just hearing the verbal abuse Lucian recited from that place was enough to understand how he had been treated.
[But how did you find out you were a prince?]
“My father came to visit once.”
[Your father, you mean the Emperor?]
“Yes, he came on my fourth birthday. That was the first time I learned it was my birthday, that I was a prince, and that I had a family.”
Before that day, everyone had called Lucian by his name, not ‘Your Highness,’ and had treated him with disdain.
But after the Emperor's visit, they slowly corrected his title, and at some point, began using honorifics. Of course, their behavior hadn't changed.
It was a long time ago, but Lucian remembered the day he met the Emperor vividly.
Because the adults he feared and found most difficult were flustered before the Emperor, pressing their heads to the floor, unable to even lift their gazes.
He had the same white hair and golden eyes as himself.
The moment he saw the Emperor, Lucian knew instinctively that this was his father.
‘...Papa.’
The young Lucian had timidly tugged on the Emperor's trouser leg and spoken.
In response, the Emperor frowned and muttered.
‘...To think he's still alive.’
Hearing Lucian's story, Ria was dumbfounded. Is that what a father says? And to a child he's seeing for the first time?
Rage bubbled up inside her.
“That day, I asked my nanny who my father was, and if I had any other family besides my mother.”
[So what did she say?]
“She said my mother is alive and well, and that I have an older brother.”
That meant that only Lucian was neglected in a desolate palace while his brother lived surrounded by love and care.
It was completely incomprehensible. Why was only Lucian treated that way?
[Could it be that you have a different mother?]
“She said no. The Empress is my mother.”
That made even less sense. Why would a child born to the Empress not be treated like a prince and have to live in hiding?
“After seeing my father, I thought about it every night before bed. Tomorrow, my family will come to see me. Someday, they'll come to take me away...”
But that day never came.
Lucian was overcome with emotion and stopped mid-sentence, starting to sniffle. Ria clenched her fists and pulled him into an embrace.
“A week before I came here... people took me somewhere. It was a bigger and more splendid place than this. At that time, I thought my family was finally coming to get me. But, but it wasn't like that.”
They cut his unkempt hair, dressed him in fine, albeit large, clothes, and he tasted delicious things he'd never eaten before, but he never met the Emperor or anyone from the Imperial Family.
Instead, the people who dressed him up called him an orphan they'd picked up off the street.
“I'm not an orphan... I have a mom and dad, too...”
The pent-up feelings he had never been able to share with anyone burst forth.
“My nanny said I was a child who should have never been born. That my birth split the power... and that's why, that's why I'm not treated like a prince...”
Lucian stopped talking and clamped his mouth shut. Tears welled in his eyes.
“Was I... was I really not supposed to be born?”
His contorted expression revealed the wounds he had suppressed and tried so hard to hide.
It was like a wound that had long since festered and burst, one that needed immediate treatment, yet he had been left alone with no one to heal him and no knowledge of how to do it himself.
Sniffle, sniffle.
Ria placed a hand on Lucian's back and patted it gently.
[I don't know why you had to hear such things or why you were abandoned by people, but I'm truly happy you came here.]
Golden eyes, shimmering with tears, looked up at Ria.
[You asked me before, right? If I was lonely by myself for 300 years. I thought I wasn't, but I guess that wasn't true.]
Living with Lucian, she had come to realize it. She could never go back to how things were before she met him.
She had learned with every fiber of her being how happy a life shared with someone could be, and what a great blessing Lucian was to her.
[You may not be to others, but you are a special person to me. You're the only human who can see me. So don't even think about things like you shouldn't have been born, or that you're bad luck. The one by your side now is me.]
“...Am I really special?”
[Yes. To me, you're more special than anyone.]
“Heh, heheh...”
Lucian smiled shyly, and the tears that had been precariously perched on his eyelids finally fell. It was such a sad sight that she wiped his eyes.
Though it must have felt strange, with no body heat to speak of, Lucian rubbed his face against her mana-infused hand as if it were the most pleasant thing in the world.
“I used to be jealous of the family in the storybook, but I'm not anymore.”
[Why is that?]
“Because you're by my side, Ria. You're my family.”
Family. It was a word that didn't suit a ghost at all, but she didn't want to break the mood.
[That's right. I'll always be by your side.]
And so, she found herself making an impossible promise. How could she, bound to the mansion, always be by Lucian's side?
When he came of age, he would have to leave. It wasn't that she would kick him out, but he couldn't spend his entire life here with a ghost.
But if she were free, and if she could stay by Lucian's side forever...
She wanted to watch him live happily, fall in love, marry, have children, and grow old until the day he died.
It was a future she knew was unrealistic, yet it was so sweet that she desperately wanted it to come true.
* * *
“Thanks again for today!”
“Not at all. It's my job.”
It had been three months since Lucian arrived at the haunted mansion. Today was the monthly supply delivery day.
James, who had fled in such a hurry on the first day that it seemed he would never return, had come to deliver supplies in the second month, and again today.
‘On a day like this, I just make the delivery, my work is done, and I get extra pay.’
At first, he had been scared because of all the rumors, but it turned out there was no easier job. He'd even told a white lie about having no choice but to go, worried someone else might snatch up this cushy post.
Not that anyone was volunteering to come here anyway.
‘And more than anything, I can't get the kid out of my mind.’
After his errand on the first day, something felt off, so he had asked the Head Chamberlain about Lucian.
‘There was a child there. Who is he?’
‘I believe I told you to watch your mouth.’
‘Of course, I haven't told anyone! It's just that the boy there looks exactly like the Crown Prince...’
Seeing James stammer, the Head Chamberlain spoke with a look of resignation.
‘...He's an orphan brought in to be a sacrifice.’
‘An orphan? But, he clearly looked like royalty...’
‘There are things you shouldn't know. Don't try to dig too deep. If you happen to speak of the child to anyone else...!’
The Head Chamberlain's expression as he drew a finger across his throat was as sharp as a blade.
‘That will be the end for both you and me. Do you understand?’
The Head Chamberlain's words hadn't been a threat; they were sincere. His face had been quite pale as he whispered to him.
James was more careful about keeping his mouth shut, but he couldn't shake his interest in Lucian.
He ended up digging for information related to the haunted mansion behind the Head Chamberlain's back. As a result, he learned that a ritual had recently been performed to appease the ghost of the mansion.
He tried to find the people who had participated in the ritual, but for some reason, they had all quit their jobs, so he couldn't find out more.
Still, hearing that a sacrifice had been made, it seemed likely that the child who was dressed as royalty was the offering.
‘The poor thing.’
Even if he was an orphan, James couldn't help but feel pity for Lucian, left all alone in that large mansion.
But he was in no position to just take Lucian from the mansion, struggling as he was to make ends meet. Besides, the Head Chamberlain had explicitly ordered him not to let the child out of the mansion under any circumstances.
So he figured the least he could do was deliver ample supplies, but...
“You seem a little taller than last time.”
Why did Lucian's complexion look better every time he saw him? The first time, he had been so scrawny he looked like he'd fall over at the slightest touch.
Now, he seemed taller, had filled out nicely, and his body had grown sturdy, a fact that was evident in the way his clothes fit.
