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Episode 53: Hello and Goodbye (II)
He might not even know that I had already awakened, but being so obsessed with a non-awakened person…
Perhaps it was for two reasons.
First, I proposed an ‘unexpected negotiation’ in the middle and his plan fell through.
Obtaining something that was nearly lost will double the original pleasure.
The second was—
‘It must mean that he is desperate enough to cling to an non-awakened talent.’
I finished my calculations inside, and for the first time, I pretended to be meek.
Gerard let me out of his arms only after taking several long breaths, as if he was barely holding back.
“Then shall we go now?!”
“Yes, Prince.”
I lowered my eyebrows and tried to put on a gentle expression and smile.
Then I greeted Madam Mimosa and Julius in turn.
After exchanging soft farewells, I walked to the procession of black carriages.
‘It’s stretched to this point, Prince Axelferion’s eyes.’
But then Gerard said something unexpected.
“It must be unfamiliar since it’s your first trip, so you can ride in the same carriage as me.”
“……!”
‘What?! Who are you trying to ruin?’
How am I supposed to use the magic tool if we ride the same carriage?
‘No, why do you want to ride the same carriage as a commoner orphan?!’
He wouldn’t even think of me as a real daughter.
I looked at Gerard in amazement for a moment, but I realized as I looked at those softly curving eyes.
‘Ah… He doesn’t want to be separated from the spoils even for a second.’
It must be the same feeling I had when I hugged the treasure bag all morning, grinning.
With a calm face, I replied,
“Thank you, but it will cause a lot of strain for a commoner who is not formally registered to enter the palace in a carriage with the noble prince.”
“…….”
“Because I’m an orphan with no roots, even when I enter the palace, people will say that I’m acting against the law. In the future, I will stand out quite a bit in the Imperial Palace…”
With a refreshing smile, I continued.
“I don’t want to be a cause for commotion, being rebuked by the people from the beginning, Prince.”
‘Commotion.’
This was something that Gerard, who adopted me with bad intentions, would hate more than anyone else.
Even now, people were gossipping about the reason for the unmarried prince to adopt a daughter, so he wouldn’t want anything more to be said.
Unsurprisingly, Gerard agreed with me.
“…You’re right. Annette.”
“Thank you.”
“Then let us ride in separate carriages.”
Whoa.
I was relieved and quickly found a maid with an easy impression.
He wasn’t going to let me ride alone…
If I ride with a maid who was as soft as a pudding, it would be easier to escape—
“I will serve you.”
While I was thinking that, an old woman with a very strict and bitter impression appeared.
The woman with brown hair and eyes, who had her hair tightly tied to the extent she might experience hair loss, had a cold, expressionless face.
She looked exactly like an eagle.
‘Damn, damn it.’
“Yes.”
I smiled and calmly climbed into the carriage.
“I am Emmanuelle Borgier, who will be in charge of your education in the future.”
‘Is it true that I will get a teacher again?’
She looked even more merciless than the teachers of the Forest.
Teacher Borgier looked at me with astute eyes, then she blinked.
“The first thing to do is to remove the stain of an orphan who grew up in the Forest.”
“…….”
“It is difficult to learn the dignity of a high-quality imperial family member. In the future, I will not tolerate trickery or laziness.”
To tell an orphan to take off their stain.
If I had been a 12-year-old without a previous life, I would have been deeply hurt.
That woman seemed to have said those words with the intention to hurt.
“Yes! Well then, thank you, Madam Borgier.”
When I smiled brightly, not caring at all, I could see her startled.
‘Bye bye, in any case.’
But the question was how to shake off this stubborn eagle and escape…
It was a time when I was in deep contemplation.
Neighhh!
Finally, the loud cries of the horses were heard from the front, and the carriages began to move slowly from the front row.
Then, Madam Borgier knocked on the carriage’s door twice.
Perhaps it was a signal, since our carriage in the back row also started moving slowly.
“…….”
‘I’m really leaving the Forest.’
As I watched the moving scenery, I was sentimental.
I was sad about parting, but I felt relieved because I had accomplished everything I wanted to achieve before leaving.
It was bittersweet.
Without me, the children would live well now.
Still.
‘…Sislin.’
I really wanted to see his face for the last time.
In the end, I couldn’t even see his face and just went away.
‘Are you still sleeping?’
Koo–ook, without realizing it, I tightened the hand holding the bag and lowered my eyes.
Right then;
Bang–!
Suddenly, there was a roar from the side of the mansion.
“……?!”
I hurriedly stuck to the rear window of the carriage.
–Huh?
In the distance, a faint silhouette was running fiercely towards the carriage.
“Annette–!”
“Sislin!”
The boy’s forehead was covered in blood.
***
It was still early in the morning.
Sislin was looking out the window, checking the beds of Annette and Heinrich, who had not yet returned.
The boy was wrapped up in a bizarre feeling.
It was a foreboding that Heinrich’s warning and the incident at the incinerator were intertwined.
“Sister is suspicious.”
“She asked me what I would do if she’s adopted? Asking something like that… It was her first time. Besides, wasn’t she a bit suspicious at the dinner table earlier?”
Of course, at the incinerator, Annette said it was all over, but…
“So, it’s all over now. I ended up staying in the Forest. How do you like it?”
‘Is it really all over? Annette.’
‘Then what does this dawn without you mean?’
“…….”
It was weird.
And when the morning finally came after that strange dawn, Sislin finally confirmed the identity of that bizarre feeling.
He first saw a procession of carriages bearing the imperial emblem rushing into the Forest.
And then, bang–!!!
Through the shield that completely imprisoned and blocked me.
“……!”
Sislin’s body moved before he understood the situation.
Suddenly, an aura exploded from his body. Boom! However, the shield made a roaring noise and, rather, used its power to attack him.
Red blood ran down his eyes and cheeks from the power that passed at his forehead.
But the boy didn’t care and compressed his power.
Boom!
The suppressors were shattered by the large amount of power, and the black force wobbled and shook like a tethered snake.
That moment when it hit the limit.
The shield shattered with a breaking sound that echoed through the sky.
No one expected it. Even Julius, who made this shield himself.
“……!!!”
In an instant, Sislin ran out like a beast with a broken leash.
“Annette–!”
“Sislin!”
From the last row of carriages leaving the mansion, Annette appeared.
‘Oh my god…!’
Seeing Sislin’s blood-stained face, Annette’s face turned white as well.
At that time, Madam Borgier, who was next to the girl, said;
“A special level 1 boy is following us. The escorts will prepare an attack to get the boy off. Get away from the window!”
“I-I beg your pardon?”
“We have prepared something for this situation as well.”
It seemed that I was not the only one who expected that the boys would not let go.
While I, surprised, looked out the window and checked the row in front, the escort wizard in the middle was concentrating on his magic power.
“……!”
I immediately ran to the back window.
“Sislin!”
After chasing fiercely, Sislin exclaimed.
“Annette, I’ll save you!”
“Oh, no……! Go back, Sislin.”
Suddenly, I saw the boy’s expression change.
“I will leave the Forest and live happily ever after! …Please go back!!!”
Sislin asked me with a confused look on his face.
“If I go back, will Annette come back?”
“…….”
I did not answer.
Because I couldn’t lie to that desperate face.
The silence enveloped the boy like a deep river.
For the few seconds where no answer came, the boy fell into a burning silence and seemed to wither away.
Then, bang!!!
Menacing magic power was shot at Sislin, and the boy who was running fiercely fell and rolled.
“Don’t…!”
I clung to Teacher Borgier
“I will convince him! Please, ask the wizard to stop attacking!”
“It’s just a threatening shot. If he keeps chasing us, the boy will get hurt.”
I hurriedly looked at Sislin again.
The boy rose.
So much blood was shed from his arms and forehead that had been scraped on the road, but it was as if he didn’t feel any pain.
He ran as fast as he could again.
His dark hair fluttered like waves, and the red eyes beneath it were still full of will.
Running until his lungs burst, he recalled his first meeting with Annette.
“…Hey there?”
“My name is Annette.”
He was nothing before he met her.
In the cave where he hid, it was–
It was the bottom of the world.
Filled with fear, he lived only breathing in darkness.
In a form that was neither human nor beast.
Annette was the only person who smiled and reached out to him for the first time.
“I will never leave you alone in that dark place again.”
Just as a life that hatched from an egg falls in love with the first thing it saw… Sislin learned to love naturally.
Not only that, but he learned a lot.
How to make friends.
How to live a humble life like a human being.
We dreamed, blew bubbles together, and at some point they held hands and walked side by side.
“We…”
“Let’s never break up and live happily ever after.”
He made a promise not to part.
He wanted to protect her.
Just as the girl protected him, Sislin wanted to protect her.
—To dedicate his life to the rest of her life.
“Sislin, stop, go back!”
But Annette was crying.
“Please, please…!!!”
Finally, the boy understood the situation clearly.
She was about to leave like a butterfly.
She was going to bloom among the flowers.
“Annette…”
Sislin stood tall.
Suddenly, the hot tears that fell wet the boy’s cheeks.
The carriage moved away in an instant, and then disappeared around the corner.
“Annette.”
The boy collapsed, choking up.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the window for a long time in the fast-moving carriage.
I couldn’t see Sislin, but the boy’s last expression remained in my eyes.
‘…Sislin, I’m sorry.’
But I truly believed.
He would soon become a member of the imperial family, and he would no longer waste his life hating Heinrich.
He would live happily in a noble place.
It would be a great happiness for me to watch it from afar.
Now the extra will leave.
The main characters would forget me forever and have their own happy ending.
We would never see each other again, but there was one thing I wished for.
“Don’t get sick, don’t cry, and be happy all the time.”
A wind blew like a cry.
“You must be fine, guys.”