Chapter 11

The girl stared at me blankly for a moment, then opened her dry lips. A slightly raspy voice flowed out from within.

“Did you eat anything?”

“Huh? No? Not yet today.”

The girl reached out a hand to me. I was so unfamiliar with the situation that I just stared at her blankly for a long time. She kept her hand extended and said,

“Take it.”

Like a trained dog, I reflexively grabbed her hand.

The place she led me to by the hand was a house tucked away in a corner of the city. As the door opened, a cozy and clean interior came into view.

“Where is this?”

“My house.”

“Your house?! Huh, huh?! Is it okay for me to come in? If a grown-up finds me, I’m going to get in trouble!”

Having realized the fact that if a vagrant like me entered a proper house, the adults would try to kill me, I was stiff with fear and couldn’t settle down.

“It’s okay.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. And from today, you live here.”

“Huh?”

Just like that, I suddenly had a comfortable nest. Even if I had dreamt it, this was more realistic than reality, so I stood there, dazed, for quite a while. But the girl didn’t let me stay lost in thought for long.

“Come here.”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to teach you how to wash.”

“Uh, oh,” I stammered, only to be suddenly stripped naked by the girl and scrubbed thoroughly. From that day on, I began to learn how to live like a human from her.

Not just how to wash, but how to clean, do laundry, comb my hair, go grocery shopping, and cook.

How to wash vegetables and fruits before eating, how to make my bed in the morning.

Everything was unknown to me and full of things I couldn’t adapt to, so sometimes I didn’t want to do it. But even so, the girl would hold onto me and teach me all of it, step by step. As if emphasizing that this was how one had to live.

And when I had mastered it all, the girl vanished somewhere, leaving only me behind in that house. I waited for the girl in that house for quite a long time, not even knowing I had been abandoned.

Then one day, I faced a menacing man who came looking for the place, and I ended up in a fierce battle to protect the house, but the process of that is, well, not important.

I only came to know that the man was the head of the organization mentioned in the rumors—the one whose wife had hanged herself—and that in truth, the dead woman was not his wife but his lover; that the woman was the girl’s mother; that the girl’s name was Iel… and finally, the vague whereabouts of the girl who had suddenly disappeared.

There were also facts I didn’t know at the time but realized on my own once I grew up a little more. The girl probably didn’t even remember someone like me. She had never told me her name, nor had she felt the need to ask for mine. Of course, I didn’t even have a name back then, anyway.

Regardless, I remember feeling incredibly sad when I realized these facts.

She was pretty, but for me, it was a situation where I couldn’t help but be blinded by the first kindness I had ever felt in my life. Above all, she was the benefactor who allowed me to live like a human.

That didn’t mean I had particularly longed for the girl. I couldn’t have dared to, anyway.

It was definitely that way while the girl was there, but after she vanished, I couldn’t even understand my own heart.

It felt as if the young heart that simply wanted to stare at the girl who twinkled like a star had died a little. Enough that the world felt especially darker because that star had disappeared.

I didn’t expect to be welcomed the moment I opened the door. Since it was still a time when Iel would be at the inn, I intended to take a nap and wake up by the time she returned. I opened the door with the light thought of saving my stamina so I could hold her and enjoy our nightly activities after such a long time.

But, they say there’s such a thing as a sense of unease. As soon as I entered the empty house, I felt something wasn’t quite right.

I opened the curtains and looked quietly around the interior, where the light was streaming in. The house, neatly organized just as it was before I left, caught my eye, but the unease didn’t fade. I inhaled the air that felt a bit stuffy, and then I discovered the paper on the table.

I took the letter that had been held down by the flower vase and unfolded it. As I read slowly, I paused for a moment at the part about the disposition of this house and scratched my head for no reason.

To summarize the various bits of information, she basically said she was leaving in a hurry and couldn’t pay attention to it, so I should handle it myself, and she told me where the relevant documents were. It also meant that I could take it if I wanted it.

A house… A house. Yeah, a house.

“Ah.”

My neck is aching.

I massaged the back of my neck to calm myself, then let my arms hang limp. I wondered how many days it had been left unattended, for the house felt exceptionally cold. Standing in the middle of it, I tried to think about what to do and how, but everything felt hopeless.

I never imagined I would be dumped like this, no matter what.

Looking at the state of the house, it didn’t look like she had packed her luggage. It meant she had left as if just stepping out for a simple outing. If so, it meant there was a party that could sufficiently procure what was needed while traveling.

Also, however urgent it was, the fact that she left behind not only her belongings but even her money meant that money wasn’t an issue for her to begin with. I could infer that she had been sufficiently well-off from the start. Furthermore, I realized that she must have returned to her original, wealthy status by now.

And I had thought she’d gone through all sorts of trials after her marriage and had finally fallen to the very bottom. I had thought I needed to protect her, but it seems that was a misunderstanding. To think this life was just a disguise.

“Ha…”

Finding her whereabouts wasn’t the problem, but what came after? Could I make her return to me?

Conversation? Hah, don’t make me laugh.

I no longer have any intention of appealing to her with emotional arguments like “betrayal” or whatever, acting naively. I had felt enough while living together that she wasn’t the type to be swayed by such things, and above all, look at this situation. She was the one who told me she loved me and then dumped me callously.

No, wait, what is this all about?

Without realizing it, I huffed in excitement for a moment, then looked around the house once more.

By the way.

She gives me a house every single time.

I was peering into the crudely drawn map inside my notebook. On that map, the places I had stayed during that time were checked off.

“Ha…”

There’s no point in thinking about it. I squeezed my eyes shut and closed the notebook.

Suddenly, I heard a knock. When I said to come in, a maid bowed lightly at the door and approached.

“Countess, a letter has arrived.”

I took the letter from the tray the maid was holding and checked the wax seal. It was from my family home, the Melas family. Looking at the feminine handwriting on the envelope, it seemed to be Anne. Well, she was the only one in that house who would bother writing me a letter.

I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter.

It was content containing a slight complaint about why I hadn’t shown my face at my parents’ home despite having come to the capital in such a long time.

I understood her disappointment, but I had intentionally not gone. Because of the master’s existence, if I gave the impression that the current me and she were close, my parents’ family could be in danger.

Even without that, with the connection of it being my parents’ home, there was no need to add more fuel to the fire.

When I was a drifter, I could just breeze away and that was it, but with a settled life, there were so many things to pay attention to when sorting out one’s surroundings, which was a headache.

I folded the letter roughly and put it in a drawer.

My effort to not be further involved with my parents’ family, especially Anne, went up in smoke because of the master who took over the power faster than expected.

Now, insisting that they wanted to check the durability to see how far the Count’s body—which they now held full control over—could go, they insisted on going to the hunting party they were invited to this time.

It was a party for couples, and in name, the Count and I were a married couple. We had never lived like a married couple, but at least, that was the case. So, if the master went, I had no choice but to go. My stepmother, Anne, would also be at that party.

I wasn’t worried that the master wouldn’t be able to mimic the Count’s outward social skills. He only acted out in front of me; in front of other humans, he acted like the Count quite convincingly. Since even the mansion servants I saw every day were fooled, he wouldn’t be doubted anywhere else.

In fact, it wasn’t that the mansion servants felt absolutely no sense of unease. They had told me a few times that the Count seemed exceptionally energetic lately. However, they seemed to misunderstand it as being thanks to my arrival here. Absurdly enough.

The Count had never drained me emotionally, even when he was a normal human.

“…Ignorant humans who can only see what is visible to the eyes.”

Hm? Wait. What did I just say?

I immediately clamped my hand over my mouth tightly.