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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: The Snow Queen
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Before long, it was time to arrive in the Lutemia Republic.
I hadn't been able to meet Anita again during the journey.
'She should just ditch that junk heap of a car and stay in the official residence.'
It was frustrating that an outsider like me couldn't intervene since that junk heap was the kid's dad.
I had gone out to the deck and was reading a Media newspaper someone had left behind when my eyes widened in shock.
"Isn't this the book Eugene was reading?"
Eugene had told me it was about a white-haired monster that ate children.
"......Who gave him a book like that?"
The tutor Hayden's glances toward me every now and then had seemed suspicious, but I decided not to jump to conclusions.
There were so many books that he might have given it without knowing.
First things first—I needed to confirm.
"Brigadier General, do you know about the Snow Queen book?"
I returned to the cabin and asked Masera.
"It's a book the Federation has designated as banned."
Masera answered like a walking dictionary.
"The law was strengthened three days ago to investigate anyone even possessing it, so I absolutely won't buy one."
"I'm not asking you to buy it...... Do you know where the investigations happen?"
Wouldn't that put Masera in danger too?
"I'll handle the investigation."
Did that mean Masera would investigate himself?
For now, I needed to check if the book was still in Eugene's room. They might have disposed of it after the law changed.
We had finally returned to the official residence.
"Puek!"
Unlike the relatively warm Media, Lutemia was freezing cold.
"Did you have a safe trip?"
"Dalia!"
I was so glad to see Dalia waiting to greet me that I pulled her into a hug.
After her, I hugged the apprentice servants waiting their turn, and just as I opened my arms for the next one, I locked eyes with Diego, Masera's aide.
"Uh......"
"I'll pass."
Diego backed away, glancing at his Confucian-man Masera.
I handed out souvenirs from Media to the servants, then spotted Eugene hiding where he could still see everything and called out to him.
"Eugene, I got you a train!"
"Hic."
The startled Eugene scampered off and slipped into his room.
I headed to Eugene's room with the train toy in hand.
"If you lay down the tracks, it goes chugga-chugga. It'll be fun, right? Doesn't that pique your interest?"
Eugene turned his head away pretentiously, acting uninterested, but I could see his light green eyes fixed on the train toy in my hand.
"I'll set up the tracks for you."
As I opened the box and started assembling, Eugene had sidled up right next to me before I knew it.
Watching with keen interest, Eugene pointed at one of the parts and said,
"That's the gate that comes down before the train arrives."
"Oh, you know a lot about trains?"
"Yeah. I used to ride them a lot with Mom and Dad......"
Eugene clamped his mouth shut after mentioning his parents for the first time.
I didn't pry or urge him on.
"Come to think of it, it didn't snow in Media, did it? No scary Snow Queen there either."
Instead, I smoothly shifted to another topic to bring up the book naturally.
"Who gave you the Snow Queen book? Can I borrow it? I want to read it too."
"Teacher Hayden gave it to me. You can borrow it."
Eugene, in high spirits from the train, readily agreed.
What was that tutor thinking, giving him a banned book?
The moment I pulled out the book that had been inserted backward on the shelf to examine it, there was a knock, and Hayden entered.
He looked at me displeased and said,
"It's lesson time. Please leave."
"Yes."
Hayden glared sharply at me as I shrugged and replied.
"What are you thinking, approaching Eugene like this?"
"I want to get close to him. Am I not allowed?"
"Do you truly intend to take responsibility for a child who's not even your own flesh and blood? I'm worried he'll face discrimination and isolation in the future."
"You don't know me well. Why worry about things that haven't happened yet?"
Hayden, stumped by my barrage of questions, pointed at Eugene, who looked dejected.
"Eugene is always anxious that he'll be kicked out of the residence because of you."
"Why would he think that when I haven't done anything? Isn't there someone else planting that anxiety in him?"
Hayden placed a hand on his hip and lifted his chin.
"Who knows? Someone could be bullying him behind his back without anyone knowing."
"If we're going with baseless logic like that, I could just as easily suspect you of doing it from behind the scenes."
Time to show the results of my simulated argument practice.
For now, I decided not to confront him about giving Eugene the banned book. He might create a smokescreen if he knew I was onto him.
But then—
Eugene suddenly jumped up from his seat, came over, and gave me a light push with both hands.
"Go."
His voice was choked with tears rising in his throat.
"Get out quick. Teacher is the person I like."
"You don't like me?"
"I said I don't. Stop paying attention to me. Take the train too."
Seeing the child say this with a face on the verge of tears filled me with pity.
His true feelings seemed different. Was there some circumstance he couldn't speak of?
"Got it, Eugene. Sorry."
I turned away with a wistful smile.
Hayden flashed a victorious smile as I left the room like a defeated soldier.
'I'll retreat for now.'
Standing in the hallway, I pulled out the book I'd hidden in my coat with a determined gaze.
It was the banned book Snow Queen.
'I'll tell Masera everything and make sure that meddling troublemaker gets what's coming.'
Then I noticed a notebook stuck behind the book. It looked like a workbook.
He must have grabbed it in a hurry and it got caught. What do kids learn these days?
"......"
As I looked through the workbook, I felt puzzled.
"Isn't this...... like, 5-year-old level?"
Eugene wasn't dumb, so this was odd.
After Cynthia left, Hayden's cold eyes alternated between the train on the floor and Eugene.
'It'll be trouble if Eugene gets close to that woman. She's weirdly perceptive.'
In the past, he had been a collaborator and traitor who informed on Esat people to the empire's forces, an enemy nation.
After the empire fell, he hid his identity and infiltrated here as a tutor. Working in an officer's home would draw less suspicion, after all.
He had passed the strict background check easily because Eugene, who didn't open up to others, had chosen him.
Of course, the fact that Hayden knew Eugene's mother was Esat played a big role.
In the end, he was staying here by using Eugene.
"We agreed you wouldn't get close to that woman. You're swayed by something as trivial as a toy?"
"But......"
"I told you she's just pretending to be nice to win you over before kicking you out."
Eugene wanted to say that Cynthia didn't seem bad and he wanted to get along with her.
"And you were talking to that Esat officer recently. What if she finds out your secret?"
The secret was that Eugene's mother was Esat.
"That was because I said mean things first, and Cynthia sis said to apologize......"
"It's suspicious to even have contact with an Esat person."
Hayden resolved to properly crush the child who had started voicing his own opinions lately.
"People pretend not to, but they really hate Esat people deep down. Even that Cynthia woman gets shunned for looking like one."
"I've seen people hate Cynthia sis at first but end up liking her a lot."
Sighing as he looked around, Hayden realized the Snow Queen book was gone.
He had hidden banned books in Eugene's room to frame Masera as an imperial spy later.
'I hid it so no one would notice. Who took it?'
Then he recalled Cynthia leaving with her coat pulled unnaturally tight.
That damned wench stole it!
Hayden grimaced, rubbing his face dryly and making a scary expression.
"You think you're still the young master? If you keep disobeying, I'll have no choice but to tell the Brigadier General that your mother was a criminal who committed a crime and fled."
Under Hayden's threat, Eugene looked down at his toes with a cowed face.
"Sorry. I won't anymore. Don't hate me."
From Eugene's perspective, Hayden was the only one who knew the truth yet didn't hate him.
"Just do as I say from now on, and you won't be abandoned."
At an age where judgment was hard and he'd already experienced it, it was natural for Eugene to feel anxious.
'Do I have to resent and hate Mom?'
Eugene's light green eyes gradually deepened to turquoise.
Before coming to the residence, days had been a constant string of hiding and fleeing with his parents.
Recalling the quiet gray world, Eugene slowly closed his eyes.
"Dad. What crime did Mom commit?"
"Eugene, Mom didn't do anything wrong. The world's the one that's wrong."
A child's mind couldn't comprehend it. Not even now.
Beyond his closed eyes in the darkness, moments of walking hand-in-hand with Mom and Dad flashed by.
'I just... want to see Mom and Dad.'
