Chapter 8

* * *

When Doah stepped out of the study, she regained her usual composure.

Once she decided on the direction to head, plans gradually fell into place in her mind.

She could just calmly walk out from here.

‘The problem is how to escape…,’ she thought, pondering ways to safely leave the territory while avoiding Kredel’s tracking.

However, no matter how many hypotheses she came up with, she couldn’t escape the image of being dragged to the Grand Duke’s estate, failing to evade Kredel’s pursuit.

Is there even a method like that?

‘At least I should be able to use magic.’

Ah!

As she was wracking her brain, suddenly a thought struck her.

‘Come to think of it, there was that!’

Doah smoothly veered onto a side path.

Bani had been using shortcuts, enabling her to reach her destination without encountering any servants.

As she emerged from the building, the sky had turned reddish with the approaching sunset.

‘About this location.’

Doah crouched down on the ground, absentmindedly pulling out the overgrown weeds that had flourished in the two years.

‘Why has it grown so much?’

Did she bring some kind of magic shovel with her?

Grumbling, she used her bare hands to pull out the roots of an unknown plant and dug up the soil.

How long did she do that?

After a while, a sparkling piece of jewelry emerged from the earth.

‘I found it!’

Doah brushed off the dirt and tightly gripped the jewel in her hand.

This was an artifact.

A gem capable of containing magic.

‘It was something Bunny stole from the garbage dump.’

To be precise, it was stolen from a gang of thieves.

Bunny was a talent that attracted the attention of thieves.

Quick on her feet, able to assess a new path in a short time for escape, and skilled at hiding.

Above all, her hands were faster than light.

Thanks to this, Bunny had to be raised like a dog by the owner of the most notorious gang of thieves in the garbage dump, the Dark Brotherhood, without any compensation.

‘And this artifact was secretly stolen by Bunny when she left the dump.’

In fact, the artifact itself was a very expensive item, but it wasn’t considered a treasure.

Anyone could get it if they had the money.

But Bunny knew that the owner of the Dark Brotherhood cherished it greatly.

He would put it on display and, whenever possible, tell stories like, ‘I stole this back in the days from the royal palace.’ Just to show off.

Stealing it was unnecessary.

Bunny really seemed to want revenge on the thieves.

‘Can I use this?’

Doah turned the finely crafted earring-shaped artifact around.

‘What’s this? Is it enchanted with some kind of magic?’

Just as she was puzzled by its purpose.

– Who is it?

Suddenly, a voice echoed in her mind.

Doah was so startled that she dropped the earring.

‘Message magic?’

It seemed like something nobles exchanged when they were separated from their lovers.

No wonder there was only one earring.

‘He said he stole it from the royal palace’

Doah felt uneasy for some reason.

Should she just bury it again?

‘It might be okay, considering that it might have been stolen during the war, and now the kingdom might be in ruins… and the fact that no one has been tracing it until now.’

After hesitating for a moment, she picked up the earring again.

“Um, hello?”

– Who are you?

It was a deliberately lowered voice on her end, but it was unmistakably the voice of a child, a voice that gave away its youth to anyone who heard it.

‘Nice voice.’

Doah had a random thought.

There’s a saying that the completion of physiognomy lies in the voice. Some say that you can hide your expression, but you can’t hide your voice.

‘A clear, pure, and clean voice with no trace of a harsh tone.’

Even though it was a child’s voice, the pronunciation was clear and neat, and the tone at the beginning and end was the same, creating a sense of stability.

With just two words, the voice had the power to capture attention and make people take notice.

That voice grabbed Doah’s interest.

“I’m Bunny.”

– … Bunny?

“No, my name.”

– …

Then, there was a silence that seemed to question how a person’s name could be Bunny.

Can you believe it? It’s not a name I came up with.

– Eight years.

After a long silence, the child on the other side spoke.

– I waited for eight years of my life, and the bunny is what I got after all this time…

As if he were a person.

‘Only eight years old.’

To call eight years a lifetime.

He was even two years younger than Bunny, a really young child.

– Why do you have this?

The child seemed quite angry.

However, unlike other children his age, he didn’t express his excitement in a lively manner.

With a voice that suppressed his emotions, calm and slow, he asked for the reason first.

Doah secretly admired him.

“Well, I just happened to come across it.”

– Happened to come across it.

He repeated what Doah had said.

– When?

“It was two years ago, but it had been wandering around long before that, having been stolen much earlier.”

She just gave an honest answer.

Anyway, he was a child she would never meet again in the future.

Even if he came to trace this earring, he wouldn’t be able to break through the sturdy walls of the cradle.

– How can I believe what you’re saying?

“Believe it or not, it’s your choice.”

Telling lies to an eight-year-old whom she wouldn’t even meet again—what would be the benefit?

“You said you waited for eight years.”

For a moment, Doah almost burst into laughter instead of speaking.

‘Eight years of his life…’

Isn’t it just too cute?

Although it was almost uncomfortable, she forced herself to suppress a laugh.

“I know how cruel it is to wait without any certainty.”

– …

“I guess you need to find another way to communicate, rather than this.”

That was all Doah could say.

There was nothing more she could do.

Even if she wanted to return the earring, Doah was trapped in this castle.

That’s when he spoke.

– Wait? I waited…

The child, who seemed almost about to cut off his testimony, slowly and hesitantly uttered words, groping through his memories.

– … I did wait. I wanted to hear what you would say.

Contrary to his rough expression, his voice lacked any emotion.

– I thought you were ignoring my contact… but you never had it from the beginning.

If it was eight years ago, it was after the war had ended.

The fact that he hadn’t looked for the item even after the era of peace meant one of two things.

Either he was dead, or he didn’t bother looking.

That’s why the owner of the gang could steal items from the royal palace and still be intact.

– Perhaps they don’t consider it worth finding my mother and me. No, maybe they just forgot our existence. So…

Judging by the reaction, it seemed more likely to be the latter.

‘I wonder if they know who the other person is.’

Just by listening to the words, she felt like she was sinking into a deep and dark swamp.

The resentment felt so deeply rooted.

Corrupted, rotting, dangerous hatred that had turned into something sinister.

Wearing a half-split earring-shaped artifact symbolized a kind of proof. In the case of the testimony magic, it represented a proof of love that said, ‘Even if our bodies are far apart, our hearts are together.’

But if the person who gave the proof had lost contact until the child turned eight…

In reality, the meaning was clear.

‘Did his father have an affair?’

Abandoning his wife and child?

It was all speculation based on conversations, but if it were true, he would be a despicable person who would never be seen again in the world.

– That’s enough. Now…

The child’s words trailed off.

Even though they weren’t facing each other, the suppressed voice, shaky tone, and interrupted breath revealed explicit emotions.

Anger, hatred, despair, resentment…

– Because he’s not here.

Resignation.

Considering the young age, why would an eight-year-old show such a reaction?

The child didn’t act like a typical child, seeming overly mature, as if they had never harbored hope before.

Doah couldn’t immediately cut off the testimony.

There was something heavy in her heart.

It felt as if she were revisiting her own childhood before meeting her grandmother.

Doah bit her lip.

She wanted to offer comforting words to the child.

But…

– That’s enough. My nose is stuffy.

Doah forcefully swallowed down the empathy she felt.

‘He’s different from the orphaned me. He has a mother. So, it’s okay.’

She didn’t have the luxury to care about her arrival.

Originally, she had no room to spare for the circumstances of a child whose identity was unknown.

“Then, I’ll end it here.”

Doha quickly said.

She thought it would be better not to mix words again because it only bothered her.

However.

―Wait.

The child grabbed her.

Unlike the usual hurried manner of swallowing her emotions, there was an overt desperation in the voice.

―…Don’t end it.

The end of the sentence was trembling slightly.

‘Ah.’

Doha realized belatedly.

‘He was actually anxious.’

Wanting to cling and ask what’s wrong but never having had such an experience. Not knowing how to handle it. Pretending to be nonchalant.

In reality, this was her true feelings.

It was natural.

She had been betrayed in her lifetime of waiting, so it couldn’t be nothing.

‘What should I do…’

She wanted to break away fiercely.

It looked like there was a complicated family situation.

But Doha had always been like this.

She couldn’t just pass by those in difficult situations.

“Why, what’s wrong?”

―……

“Speak. I’m listening.”

The boy couldn’t give any answer.

Maybe he didn’t think Doha would really comply with his request.

During the longest silence so far, she waited silently without saying anything.

―The earring… don’t throw it away.

But with that statement, the testimony was abruptly cut off.

‘What’s going on.’

Did she really end it?

It was so absurd that words didn’t come out.

Hey, what’s the matter.

‘After all the trouble I went through.’

She just said what she wanted to say and cut it off.

Doha stared at the earring as if it could become that child.

And as she lifted a plant that had been uprooted while digging the ground, she sighed.

The artifact she had secretly hoped for was utterly useless.

The message magic was nothing more than a voice phone that could only speak to one person.

It was too much of a liability to include in Doah’s escape plan.

‘Maybe I should just seal it up forever.’

I was struggling with the urge to bury it in the road.

“Hey, troublemaker.”

Suddenly, I heard a familiar voice behind me.

“What the hell are you doing here?”