12 - The Youngest is Hiding a Lot
12
“Wow, Father’s here too!”
Void carefully lifted the card with the gold border.
Uncle’s face when he saw that was quite a sight…
“If you liked it that much, why didn’t you buy it earlier?”
I asked casually, and Void turned his head.
“This is only sold in the capital for a limited time, okay? You can’t get it in the North.”
“You could have written a letter to the Duke and asked him to buy it for you.”
“There’s no way I could say something like that…”
His white cheeks flushed slightly.
“I said I’d become a great knight, but if I said I wanted something like this… it’s too childish… disappointing…”
He mumbled, making it hard to hear.
“Huh?”
“It’s nothing!”
Void quickly organized the cards and stood up.
“Anyway, thanks for this. It’s not like I really like these kinds of games, though.”
Liar.
“Since it’s a gift from my younger sibling, I have no choice but to accept it!”
Void puffed out his chest and stood in front of me.
“Is there anything you want in return? Tell me.”
“Um, I want some alone time right now.”
“Alone time? Of course, I can give you that.”
Void stroked my head with a seemingly dignified face.
“Then play this card game with me tomorrow.”
“If I say I don’t want to…”
Snap, a sharp glare returned.
Of course, it wasn’t threatening at all, so I just laughed it off.
“I will, I will.”
At that moment, Void stared at me intently.
“But the way you’re smiling…”
“Huh?”
“It’s like… that.”
A strange light flickered in his innocent purple eyes.
“A girl…?”
I froze.
“Well, of course not, but…”
What’s with this kid’s intuition?
I was so flustered that I kicked Void out right then and there.
\ \ \
The next morning.
I woke up refreshed. It felt like I had slept on a cloud.
“Haaah. I slept so well.”
“Seems like it.”
“Ah, you scared me.”
Leviathan Uncle was sprawled on the fancy room’s sofa like a pile of old laundry.
“What are you doing there? From the morning.”
“Not morning, afternoon.”
“Huh?”
Afternoon? I slept that long!
I hurriedly went to the window to check the sun.
“……”
The sun was just rising in the east.
“Ah, what! Why are you lying!”
Uncle chuckled like a bum from the neighborhood.
He was wearing comfortable Tunic clothes. The completion of fashion is, of course, the face, but he shines even when he wears anything like that.
‘As expected, looks do everything.’
I stretched my unkempt silver hair reflected in the mirror for no reason.
“What are you doing?”
“Nothing.”
“Wear slippers. Your feet are cold.”
“Yes.”
I slipped my feet into the small slippers that Uncle casually handed me.
Uncle was juggling an apple, throwing it into the air and catching it.
“Aren’t you busy? Isn’t the Duke, who has returned after a long time, supposed to be busy and stuff?”
“Well… I am busy.”
Whoosh, a nimble hand snatched the apple and placed it on the table. The amethyst eyes in his sharp gaze stared right through me.
“You look fine.”
“……?”
I tilted my head, not understanding.
Uncle lightly got up and turned his back. Feeling like he would disappear any moment, I asked a little urgently.
“Where are you going?”
“To work.”
“Breakfast?”
“……? The chef will bring it?”
“No, I mean Uncle’s meal…”
Uncle raised his eyebrows. A look of slight trouble flashed across his face.
“Ah, I’m busy for the time being, so it’ll be hard to eat together.”
Judging by the dark circles under his eyes, it seemed like he wasn’t lying about being busy.
“You can eat with Void. Don’t you want to?”
“No, it’s not that.”
“Let’s eat together when I’m done being busy.”
“Okay.”
“If there’s anyone bothering you, write down their name.”
Uncle smiled brightly as he faced the morning sun.
It was a wicked smile closer to a villain than a hero.
“I’ll make them cry their eyes out.”
\ \ \
“Lord.”
As the butler approached, Leviathan, who was leisurely walking down the hallway, raised his eyes.
“Would you like to inspect the castle walls first? Or should we go to the Rezhilus Mountains outpost? You still need to look over the Knights’ affairs, and you should also review the financial documents.”
The territory’s work that had been neglected was piling up.
“Documents first.”
Leviathan thought for a moment and chose to lock himself in his office.
The butler raised his eyebrows as if surprised.
“You always delegated reading the documents.”
“……”
He didn’t answer.
He couldn’t easily say that he didn’t want to leave Rubian’s side. It felt like those words didn’t suit him.
‘Was she okay last night?’
Leviathan spent the night in Rubian’s bedroom.
After arriving at the castle and taking care of urgent matters, it was already dawn. When he quietly went to check on her, he saw her sleeping peacefully, breathing softly.
‘I knew she was good at adapting, but.’
Leviathan swallowed a laugh.
She was a child who slept well anywhere. She wasn’t picky about food, and she didn’t whine much.
She seemed to like taking baths… but even if the situation wasn’t favorable, she didn’t pester.
Rubian slept well last night.
That fact gave Leviathan a sense of stability.
Throughout the journey from the capital to the Duchy Castle. The child couldn’t sleep well.
“Don’t go… that way…”
“That place… no…”
He was so anxious seeing her tossing and turning, sweating profusely, wondering what kind of dreams she was having.
She looked so pitiful that even the stiff knights, including Leon, were worried all night.
‘What kind of nightmare are you wandering through?’
Leviathan’s eyes darkened.
Rubian didn’t even seem to realize that she was having nightmares.
In the morning, she would wake up smiling and go about her business as usual.
He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.
However, Leviathan’s heart was heavy when he saw Rubian like that.
‘Is she still dreaming about the village being attacked?’
But the mumbling she occasionally uttered in her sleep had a strange aspect to it.
“I… I need to do more…”
“I’ll go… I…”
What was it that the child had to do in that village?
Leviathan’s brow furrowed severely.
‘She said she was the child of a healer.’
Rubian was reluctant to talk about her past. Leviathan was cautious, fearing that he might touch on the child’s painful memories.
‘Should I wait until Rosetta returns?’
In the first place, he was a rough and clumsy person.
He had no idea why Rubian followed him, considering how flawed he was.
‘And Void, too…’
He sighed.
It hadn’t been long since he started making eye contact and talking with Void. Leviathan was drawn in by Void’s unique sociability.
Even then, it was still awkward. It was even worse with the eldest son in the South.
‘Difficult.’
He didn’t know where to start.
“Ah, Your Excellency. A letter has arrived from Rosetta.”
“From Rose?”
Leviathan accepted the letter.
It was the reply to the question he had sent in advance from the capital, asking if he could take in Rubian, and it had finally arrived.
The simple affirmation was laughable.
After losing her child in the carriage accident, Rose began to actively care for lost children.
However, she couldn’t adopt all the children, so she started by sponsoring them in small ways.
Then she met Liam and Void. Both of them were children that Rose had taken in proactively.
Leviathan didn’t strongly oppose or greatly approve, but simply watched silently.
So, for him to suddenly bring Rubian.
She could have asked him all sorts of questions.
‘She’s saying she’ll ask when she gets back.’
He understood his wife’s intentions and chuckled.
“Hmm?”
There was a postscript in a place covered by a finger.
The carefulness was felt from the handwriting. Leviathan’s eyes darkened.
He buried the dead child with his own hands.
He remembered everything as if it were yesterday, how much it rained that day, and how cold the small thing in his hands was.
“……Ah.”
His mood plummeted. The surrounding air began to fluctuate ominously.
This isn’t good.
He tried hard to calm himself.
He roughly shook his head and deliberately erased the thoughts.
“When is Rose coming back?”
“She said it will take about a month.”
“I see.”
He started walking again.
He walked down the hallway, bathed in the sunlight coming through the large windows.
He recalled Rubian’s smooth face when she had just woken up.
He laughed as he remembered her tugging at her silver hair as if she didn’t like it.
‘What a temper.’
The Duchy Castle servants were talking about Rubian’s sparkling hair all day long.
How lovely and mysterious it was. Murmur, murmur.
Leviathan thought the child’s blue eyes were the prettiest, but well. Her hair was also quite beautiful.
‘Beautiful, pretty, for a boy.’
Words he didn’t often use in his life came out without him realizing it when he thought of Rubian. So, he laughed again…
Suddenly.
“What’s wrong, Lord?”
The butler asked, seeing Leviathan suddenly stop walking.
He was seized by a strange sense of unease.
“Not morning, afternoon.”
“Huh?”
It was a joke he made without thinking.
“Ah, what! Why are you lying!”
Rubian didn’t look at the clock but ran to the window.
As if doing so was ingrained in her.
She was familiar with reading the direction of the sun or moon to estimate the time.
‘Like a soldier tearing through the battlefield…’
In that moment, it felt like an unknown tidal wave was engulfing him.
