Chapter 13
Caught?
"Then, I'll be back. It won't take even an hour."
"That's right, Heath is nearby, so don't worry and wait. Little Captain!"
Gillianna and Vernon waved as they boarded the carriage towards the lodging.
The coachman, who didn't notice the child timidly peeking out with only her eyes through the curtained window, looked at them strangely.
Gillianna had urgently left due to a matter at home, and Vernon had also gone out to buy groceries for dinner.
Both were busy, so they asked Heath, who was left behind, to look after the child, but the boy seemed to be engrossed in a book in the corner of the lodging's training ground, not even showing his face.
Nia was left alone for a short while.
The child slowly looked around the quiet lodging after they left.
A dollhouse, a rocking horse, wooden blocks, a toy box that hadn't been opened yet, and so on.
Nia was still unfamiliar with the new toys she had only been looking at for days.
Nia, not even knowing where to look, rolled her eyes and looked at the clothes she was wearing.
A very fine dress with a small sky-blue ribbon.
The child fiddled with the small ribbon on the dress.
It was still an unfamiliar, luxurious dress, but there was one thing that piqued the child's interest.
-Rustle, rustle.
The texture of the ribbon was crisp, and Nia thought it was like the rustling of sparkling fairy wings, and she giggled softly.
The child stood still, touching the ribbon, and as if something pleasant came to mind, she headed straight to the bedroom.
Then, struggling, she climbed onto the bed and looked at the pillows lined up side by side.
Then, she buried her face in one of the pillows and rubbed it.
"This is Nia's."
No one asked, but Nia mumbled as if talking to someone, then looked at the remaining pillow and shyly raised the corners of her small mouth.
Afraid of being caught, the child quickly rearranged the blankets and jumped down, then headed to the bathroom.
Nia, arriving at the bathroom with her small steps, stared intently at the two toothbrushes lined up side by side.
Then, she picked up her small toothbrush and pretended to brush her teeth while looking in the mirror.
"This is also Nia's. And this one..."
She muffled her laughter at her own actions and carefully placed it back next to Lucia's toothbrush.
"Lucia's."
The child rested her chin on the sink and looked at the large toothbrush next to her own, cheerfully raising the corners of her mouth.
And then,
"Hello, my name is Nia. Lucia gave it to me. Lucia is..."
The child, who had been laughing aimlessly, babbled while looking in the mirror, but couldn't finish her sentence and her cheeks turned red.
Then, she burst into laughter again and babbled her name again.
The child seemed to like the new name Lucia had given her.
She couldn't possibly feel attached to the names given in order at the orphanage, and Nia, knowing about the existence of the next Annie after she left, was happy to have her own name.
And for some reason, Nia didn't express whether she liked or disliked things in front of others, but the child found great happiness in secretly looking at the items that were a set with her mother among the many gifts Leon sent.
That spotless appearance was the innocent playfulness of a five-year-old, different from when she was with people.
The child, full of energy in her scurrying steps, headed somewhere else again.
The window in the kitchen.
Nia, with the sunlight shining down, barely managed to pull the small, dried-up piece of cloth in front of her by standing on her tiptoes.
Then, holding the piece of cloth tightly, she went to the bathroom and wet it.
The child, holding the damp piece of cloth, headed to the living room and widened her eyes as she looked at the traces there.
From Nia's perspective, who hadn't been able to do her job for a while due to Vernon and Gillianna's interference, the moment when no one was home was the perfect moment.
Imagining the best child she had thought of, the child began to diligently wipe the floor.
The glass of the display case, under the sofa, under the table, and so on.
The small child began to wipe everything, scurrying around so much that sweat formed on her forehead.
At this time, when the blowing wind cooled the child's forehead, Nia inadvertently raised her head, closed her eyes leisurely, and smelled the wind.
And when she opened her eyes, she saw a plate dangerously placed on the open window, the origin of the blowing wind.
It was what Gillianna had left to throw away the cracked plate.
Nia stared intently at the plate,
"...Plates are in the kitchen!"
As if she was going to organize it, she put the plate in her hand by standing on her tiptoes.
-Bang.
But suddenly, Nia was startled by the sound of someone coming in.
Had Gillianna and Vernon already come back?
The person who opened the door and came in was Heath.
And the boy's dry eyes went to something in Nia's hand.
The child slowly looked down at her hand at the boy's gaze.
"......!"
As expected, a broken plate.
Although it was the same space, the temperature of the two people was a stark contrast of despair and indifference.
"This, Nia... Nia, not, not Nia..."
Heath's indifferent gaze was one that didn't have the kindness to listen to Nia's words.
"It's broken. The plate...! What to do, Nia will be kicked out now...! Hwaaaaang...!"
The child began to ramble and shed tears.
"......"
Heath, who was watching it, vaguely thought that if he could kick her out as the child said, he would.
But Lucia wasn't the kind of person who would kick a child out just because she broke a plate, so he had no choice but to give up that thought.
Then, at that moment.
Divine Power emanating from the body of the crying child.
Heath's eyes changed when he saw that shining Divine Power.
Strong and immense Divine Power that didn't match her age, and black hair, no matter how he thought about it, it was the condition of the Saintess that not only the temple but also the entire continent was looking for with red eyes.
If someone had noticed this, they might have kissed the Saintess's feet with reverence.
But Heath was different.
Heath, who had turned cold, was only filled with the thought that he could get rid of this child from Lucia's side if he just left her in front of the temple.
.
.
.
The child disappears.
That meant that he could live a happy life with Lucia, roaming around the empire as before.
After finishing his thoughts, Heath raised his hand without hesitation.
It was to open a portal to send the child to the temple.
But then, the Divine Power wandering around the child's body began to fluctuate uneasily.
As if reflecting the anxiety of the child crying out loud, the movement changed in seconds.
The movement, which seemed like a rampage was about to begin soon, made Heath's eyes dizzy.
Perhaps if this was mana, it would have been aggressive and destroyed the surroundings, but the harmless Divine Power did not have any effect on the surroundings.
However, seeing the anxious movement that made his eyes dizzy, he was only reminded of his past.
Heath was the son of a worthless con man.
His father traveled around each village selling medicine, and when the rumor spread to the capital, he hid in a village in the deep mountains.
But Monsters appeared in that small village, and his father took advantage of this opportunity to use his wizard son to collect money for protection.
Even young Heath was afraid of even seeing Monsters, but he was still happy.
The reason was that he had made a friend in the first village he had settled in.
But that joy was short-lived, and a Monster that the young wizard couldn't handle attacked, and young Heath was seriously injured.
Even so, people pushed the sick Heath to the terrifying Monster, and that was the same for his family, his father, and his friends.
That harshness broke the mind of a 10-year-old child and caused his magic power to rampage.
Just like the Divine Power moving erratically in front of his eyes now.
Will this child be like that too?
The screams and the monsters' roars at that time.
Heath, who remembered the fluctuation of that magic power, was not unfamiliar with Nia's rampaging power.
Heath quietly calmed the violently fluctuating Divine Power with his magic power.
Then, the child, whose body suddenly stabilized, stopped crying and looked at the boy.
Heath thought that this blank face would look like his own face at that time after Lucia had eliminated the rampage, and he sighed softly.
"...You, don't you want to be here?"
Heath said, looking at Nia.
Nia, covered in tears and snot, sobbed again and answered Heath's words after a long time.
"...Yes..."
A small but definite answer.
He watched for a while and then put the plate back together with magic.
"...Wow!"
The child was surprised for a moment, but first, she carefully placed the received plate on the table. Vowing not to touch it carelessly again.
"Doing things like this makes you stand out. It's better to live normally. You too."
You too.
That word probably referred to himself.
The reason why Heath, who has tremendous magic power as much as Nia's tremendous Divine Power, hides most of his abilities and chooses manufacturing and is not in the wizard division.
It was because he wanted to be by Lucia's side, but to be exact, it was because he couldn't trust the greed of people other than her.
Heath thought that this child that Lucia had picked up was no different.
"Normal...? What is that?"
Nia asked about the word that stood out the most to her among Heath's words.
"I don't know."
"......"
Nia was sulky.
Heath, who was looking at such Nia, thought again about the word normal that he had inadvertently uttered.
Then, he remembered the friend in the first village he had made.
He was the person who came to mind first when it came to normal, even though he had pushed himself to his death.
Heath traced back the memories with that friend.
"...He laughed a lot. He ate well. He had a lot of friends."
The reason why his memories can remain intact as memories is probably thanks to the current Lucia and his royal guard colleagues.
"Friend...?"
Just as Nia was about to chew on his mumbling sound, someone opened the door of the lodging.
As expected, Gillianna, who said she would be back soon, was there.
But she wasn't alone.
A small child hugged in Gillianna's arms.
The red-haired child, who came down from her arms, blinked her clear eyes and boldly scanned the inside as if it were her territory.
"Hmm. It seems livable here."
*
In front of the Imperial Palace Central Library, nobles dressed for outings gathered in groups of three or five and whispered.
"Look over there. I can't believe it."
"That's right, I heard she asked for childcare books!"
"Oh my god... It seems it was true that she has a child...!"
When Lucia turned around at their whispers, they all pretended not to know and scattered, sweating.
Like their words, she was on her way out of the library, borrowing childcare books since she had come to the Imperial Palace.
'It's been a while. These gazes too.'
Lucia, who had been living in the mountains until a few days ago, looked around as she was reminded of her younger days when she experienced those who avoided her.
Eyes full of fear, yet unable to take their eyes off her as if they were curious, and small lips busy conveying words.
To be honest, seeing him looking exactly the same as he did in his youth before the regression evoked a sense of wonder rather than disappointment.
Then, she noticed a crowd of people gathered a short distance away from her.
Lucia guessed who might be among them.
Light and darkness.
Someone from the world of light, so different from her own, must be among those people.
And, as she expected, a man emerged from the crowd and walked towards her with quick steps.
He seemed to be enveloped in light, without a single speck of dust on him.
"Lucia. I see you've come to borrow a book."
Leon Luwins was suspicious, even in the way he pretended to be relaxed and act as if they had met by chance, after rushing over as if he was running a race.
Lucia simply nodded without replying.
Then, Leon's eyes, which had been busily scanning the book in her hand, darkened.
"Ah, a parenting book... I see."
The picture of a child on the cover made it obvious that it was a parenting book, and he seemed to realize that she had a child only then.
Lucia, seeing him standing there silently, turned to leave, holding the book again.
Suddenly, he shouted urgently, as if flustered.
"...Ah! Th-there! That book...!"
When Lucia turned around, she saw his face flushed as he stared at the back cover of the book.
