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Chapter 28: You Are A Child Worthy Of Love
I stared at Ailette in a daze before getting the hang of myself. Ailette, sitting atop the bed, trembled from head to toe and whispered.
“Oh yeah. The bad curse doesn’t work on Sister, right? It must be nice to be a fairy, Sister.”
The bad curse?
‘So when she called for a ‘fairy’ in front of the estate earlier, she was talking about me.’
“Did your mom tell you that you had a bad curse, Ailette?”
“Yes, so I came here secretly without Mom or Stepdad knowing to come meet you, Fairy.”
Letting go of my hand, Ailette gathered her two hands as if to pray to a god.
“Sister. You’re a fairy, so can’t you get rid of my curse?”
Seeing her innocent eyes, I found myself lost for words.
“By curse… do you mean the poison?”
“…Yes.” Nodding her head, Ailette hesitatingly replied.
“Dad keeps taking my poison, I mean my blood, and selling it to other people, and I hate it so much.”
What? What did I just hear? My heart sank to the floor, but I quickly covered up my emotion so that Ailette wouldn’t see it. Ailette didn’t realize my change and kept speaking.
“Because in order to sell my poison… I have to keep bleeding. Then, I have to keep getting cut… And each time, it hurts so much.”
Was I really hearing things correctly?
“Since you’re a fairy, you can get rid of my curse, right?”
“Ailette.”
Ailette stared at me with wide eyes.
“Does your stepdad hit you?”
With a clear and innocent voice. “Yes.” She responded of hell.
“He doesn’t just hit me… He said he had no choice in order to sell the poison. We’re poor, you see. He said because we’re poor, he has no choice. And since my poison is basically like blood, it can’t be detected…”
My head started to ring at her absurd words. I gently grasped Ailette’s shoulders.
“Ailette, since when?”
I had to smile so that she wouldn’t be surprised, but it was difficult. At the trembling of my lips, Ailette tilted her head.
“Since a long time ago…”
When exactly had it begun? And was the Lapileon family truly unaware of this truth? My breathing became heavy. And right when I clenched my fist tightly. Knock knock. I heard the knocking sound in the bedroom that I’d ordered for no one to come into.
“Come in.”
“Your Highness.”
It was the butler. The butler looked back and forth between Ailette’s face, and mine, which was hardened with fury. After patting Ailette’s shoulders, I stood up from the bed and approached the butler.
“What is it?”
The butler whispered quietly, so Ailette couldn’t hear.
“His Excellency, Young Master Selphius, Sir Finneas, Miss Sercia, and lastly, Miss Gloria, have arrived and gathered.”
Already? Not to mention…
“Seci’s here?”
“Yes. She received a letter from His Excellency that the Young Lady had collapsed and came.”
I lightly nodded.
“I’ll come out soon. Tell them to wait just a moment.”
“Yes, understood.”
After bowing, the butler left the bedroom. I approached Ailette, whose head was still tilted. Before taking Ailette and revealing all of the truths, it would be best to talk with her so she wouldn’t be surprised.”
“Ailette.”
“Yes, Sister.”
“Everyone has gathered in the sitting room for you, Ailette.”
“Everyone?”
“Yeah. Theodore, Selfie, Sir Finneas, Seci, and Miss Gloria are all here.”
“T-To see me?”
“Yeah, and…”
I stroked her hair backwards and spoke as calmly as I could to not surprise her.
“It’s in order to figure out your problem.”
“M-My problem? Did… I do something wrong?”
Ailette tightly hugged the doll that was in her arms.
“Is it because… I came here thoughtlessly?”
“No.”
“T-Then…”
“Ailette.”
The child must have been afraid we’d chase her away again, for she paled instantly. I replied quickly before patting her shoulder.
“I’m thinking of not sending you back to your parents.”
At the phrase ‘parents’, her small and slender shoulders started trembling like a leaf.
“You must vaguely know, but no one in this world should treat you recklessly.”
Ailette’s red eyes were filled with fear and despair.
“Although your curse can bother you, it should never be a reason for other people to bother you. Never. In any situation.”
Even knowing her family’s actions were wrong, Ailette must have relied on them. Since adults were the only people a child, who wasn’t even reincarnated, could depend on. The child’s lips, which had turned gray, trembled. I reached out my hand and pulled the small child’s body into my arms.
“There’s no reason for you to be afraid. You are not a bad child. You are more lovely and cute than any child I’ve ever met before.”
In order not to be in pain through the long period of her abuse, the child must have cut away at herself. Saying that the bad was one herself, that it was her fault for being cursed for her parents not loving her. After holding the child in a warm embrace, I leaned slightly back and held her two cheeks in my hands gently.
“Although I may not be a real fairy, and am unable to release you from your curse, I’ll let you know one thing for sure.”
“…”
“You are a child worthy of love. And I will never let you go.”
“…”
“Your parents’ actions were wrong. I have no plans to send you back to that place.”
Ailette’s shoulders began shuddering. Her red eyes were filled with tears.
“I want to let everyone know about this. What do you think, Ailette?”
“I… I…”
Ailette gasped, taking a deep breath.
“I… was told I was a child who shouldn’t have been born.”
It was the child’s inner thoughts that she might be telling someone for the first time since birth.
“They told me Dad died because of me. Mom, mom cried a lot.”
Ailette dropped her head, and her tears started endlessly dropping onto the floor.
“They said that as long as I endure, Stepdad and Brother wouldn’t die.”
“You didn’t do anything.”
Ailette shut her mouth.
“There’s no way you would’ve killed your dad, Ailette. Since you would’ve been sad that your dad left your side as well.”
Ailette wiped her eyes with her tiny hand.
“You didn’t do it, Ailette.”
“…Sister.”
Ailette outstretched her tiny hand and grabbed my pointer finger. When she lifted her head, clear and clean tears dripped from her red eyes down her chin.
“I-I miss Dad, Sister.”
Ailette, who was biting her trembling lips, seemed to be unable to hold it in anymore, for she started sobbing loudly. The sound of the child’s loud sobs filled the bedroom.
“I didn’t kill Dad… And Stepdad hitting me hurts so much, and getting sliced by a knife here hurts so much.”
Ailette pointed at her arm and cried. The words that it wasn’t she who had killed her father caused the dam of tears she’d been holding in to finally burst.
“So Sister… Help me so I don’t hurt anymore. Since you’re the Fairy… Hic.”
I hugged Ailette, who was sobbing hard enough that her eyes were swollen, tightly into my arms. The child tightly held onto my back and dug into my embrace.
“Aillette, I’ll promise this to you.”
I coldly stared toward the direction of the bedroom door.
“I won’t let you be hurt. I’ll protect you.”
“H-Heuk.”
“Will it be okay if I tell everyone the hardships you went through, Ailette?”
At my question, Ailette wiped at her continuously falling tears and nodded her head. I lifted the pretty child tightly in my arms and stood up. Then, I left the bedroom and walked toward the sitting room, where everyone was gathered. I could feel her holding onto my neck with her tiny hands, as if she might fall. I flexed my arms and held Ailette closer to me. The long hallway felt strangely short. When I neared the sitting room, I could hear a boisterous, happy conversation.
“Sasha!”
When I went in, Sercia, who knew nothing, approached me with a bright smile.
“I heard Ailette woke… Sasha, what’s wrong? Did something happen?”
“I have something to say to everyone.”
Sercia, who had been smiling brightly, must have been surprised at my exprsesion, for her face hardened immediately. I didn’t need to look in the mirror to know what kind of expression I must be donning.
‘It must be an expression of wanting to kill someone.’
This was the second time I’d felt the desire to kill someone like this since I’d regressed. If Ailette’s parents were in front of me, I’d probably hit them in the face with my fist right away, forget appearances.
“Pershati.”
At Sercia’s words, the lighthearted atmosphere quickly sank into silence. Theodore got up and approached me after seeing my twisted face.
“Ailette? Ailette. Why are you crying? What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
It seemed Finneas was surprised to see Ailette crying in my arms.
“Enough.”
An aged voice filled the sitting room. It was a woman with white hair. She stared at me while holding a cane with the Lapileon family’s seal engraved on it.
“The Grand Duchess says she has something to say, so let’s listen.”
It was the rumored Gloria. I bowed my head in greeting at her dominating atmosphere. Then, I sat on the sofa. Everyone stared at Ailette and me with a surprised and worried expression before sitting.
“This is what Ailette has experienced.”
I began Ailette’s story… When I finished my explanation, the sitting room was filled with shock and fear. Nobody could easily speak.
“So.”
The first to open their mouth was Sercia. Sercia spoke with a chilly expression.
“So you’re saying that because our poison can be used as a tool to murder without being detected, they kept selling Ailette’s blood at an expensive price?”
Sercia scoffed with a dumbfounded expression. Seeing that must have been scary, for Ailette flinched back in fear. Finneas comforted Ailette and elbowed Sercia lightly.
“Ailette, can you show me the skin on your arm that kept getting hurt?”
“…Yes.”
Finneas, who saw the scar on Ailette’s skin, frowned. Then, he gently put on some salve that could get rid of scars.
“Is that why when you first found Ailette, you asked me not to contact her parents?”
“Yes. Her condition was so strange, but I didn’t want to say anything yet because I wasn’t sure.”
“Who would think that this kind of deed would happen to a child of the Lapileon family.”
The armrest of the chair that Theodore was sitting on crumbled along with a crash. Everyone was silent, with expressions of deep pondering. They were probably thinking of what they each could do for Ailette. And right then. Knock knock. A knocking sound filled the silence of the sitting room. The butler entered through the door.
“I apologize for bothering, but there is a guest that needs to be announced.”
A guest that needs to be announced?
“Lady Ailette’s birth mother, Miss Melin has come to find the Young Lady.”
Shatter. In shock, Ailette dropped the teacup that she had been staring at in fascination onto the ground. The teacup, which had fallen on the marble floor, broke into pieces.
“S-Sister…”
Her mom must have been more scary than the pieces of glass on the ground, for Ailette walked without hesitation and hid in my arms. Ailette’s feet, which had stepped on the glass pieces, started dripping blood. Surprised, Finneas quickly lifted Ailette and put her on the sofa. Then, he opened his medicine bag, removing the glass pieces and putting on a salve before wrapping her feet with bandages.
‘Who? Who dared to come looking for who?’
My teeth unwittingly grinded together. Selphius, who saw my expression, asked the butler.
“Nobody let her know, so how did she come?”
“Because she received a letter letting her know about His Excellency’s marriage… She suspected Ailette must have come after seeing that.”
“Alone? Or two people?”
I asked while sneering.
“Miss Melin and a man. Two people came.”
So that man must be her stepdad. I burst out laughing. Since Ailette was here, I couldn’t lie that she wasn’t. Nor did I want to hide her forever. I sat on the sofa and patted Ailette, who looked worried, on the back. Then, I spoke sharply to the butler.
“Bring them here immediately.”