“Ah… My head.”
After arriving at the mansion, Wilhazelle woke up and clutched her sore head.
‘Why does my head hurt so much? Could Chaser have hit me on the head while I was asleep?’
It was quite possible. Lizelle opened her eyes and glared at him.
“Let’s go.”
Chaser, unaware he was being blamed, got out of the carriage first and held the door. Wilhazelle snorted at him and got off the carriage.
“Lizelle! Wah!”
As they got off the carriage and were about to walk into the mansion, the door flew open and Raphel came running out, crying.
“Don’t run! You’ll get hurt!”
An employee was chasing after him.
Wilhazelle, staring blankly at the scene before her, moved toward Raphel as he ran at her.
“Raphel, if you run you’ll fall!”
Raphel continued crying and running toward her. In tears, he reached her and clung to her legs tightly.
“Sniff, sniff…”
She held onto Raphel, patting his small back.
“Raphel what’s wrong? Don’t cry.”
Lizelle’s voice trembled at the end, as if her heart was breaking.
“Huh, don’t leave me, please don’t leave me alone… Sniff.”
Raphel hugged Lizelle’s neck tightly and continued to cry. She hugged him even tighter, understanding how he felt at the moment.
“No way. I’d never Leave Raphel alone. Don’t cry, okay?”
Her worries had become reality. She wanted to arrive before Raphel woke up and found her missing. It seemed she had delayed too much.
“As soon as he woke up and saw Lady Wilhazelle was not here, he began to cry… Even when we told him she would be back soon, he didn’t stop crying…”
The employees who had been chasing after him bowed apologetically.
“No, it’s alright. Duke, I’ll go in first.”
Lizelle reassured the workers that it was alright and excused herself to Chaser. When Chaser nodded, Wilhazelle hurried into the mansion, holding the crying Raphel.
“I apologize for causing a commotion, Duke.”
“Has the child been crying for long?”
“He’s been crying since he woke up, so about five minutes I think.”
“If anything else happens, report it right away.”
“Yes. Alright.”
She ran into the house with the child, looking like a perfect guardian, but he still was unable to trust her. Chaser gave the workers orders and entered that mansion.
***
“Look at this Raphel.”
Lizelle returned to the room and sat Raphel down on the bed, taking out the snow globe she had purchased from the market.
“Sniff, sniff.”
“Look at this. What did I buy for Raphel~?”
As he gradually stopped crying, Raphel looked at the box still wrapped in paper Lizelle was holding.
Lizelle stroked Lapel’s tear-stained cheek and placed the wrapped box in his small hands.
“Shall we open it?”
“Yeah…”
Raphel answered in a voice that was still full of tears and started tearing open the wrapping paper together with Lizelle. When all the paper was removed, a star appeared in front of his eyes. He stopped crying completely and looked at the star inside the globe with bright eyes. Wilhazelle smiled proudly at Raphel’s reaction.
“Ta-da! Do you want to see it light up?”
She pressed the switch under the globe and a yellow light came on inside the star.
“Wow…!”
The stars that decorated the night sky were now in Raphel’s hands. Lizelle really gave him a star.
“I got a star! Lizelle got me a star!”
Raphel, who was holding the star securely in his arms, jumped up and down. He seemed to be in a much better mood and filled with excitement.
“Now from today on, this will be Raphel’s star.”
Lizelle patted Raphel’s head. She was laughing along with him, but hidden behind her laughter was worry. She was already worried about how she would leave him in a month after seeing him cry and make such a fuss after only a short absence.
After the cold days he had been stuck in the dump were overlaid with warmth after meeting her, Raphel misunderstood what was going on. What if I leave and he goes back to the terrible dump.
“Raphel, you don’t need to go back to the dump anymore. Your home is here.”
Raphel, who had been staring intently at the star, slowly lifted his gaze. Lizelle’s expression was firm, as if she would never tell him a lie.
***
A while ago.
Raphel, who was regaining his senses after waking, did not feel the familiar warmth he had grown accustomed to. He began to look around the room calling Lizelle’s name.
But there was no answer from anywhere.
For a moment, he became frightened. He was scared that he was alone again, that he’d have to go back to that scary, narrow, nasty place. He’d suffered a serious accident, and though he was able to communicate, he had lost all of his memories from before that accident. He had to recognize and remember everything anew, and the first thing he encountered when he came to his senses was the scene of a garbage dump with a terrible stench.
He wanted to leave that place, but he couldn’t. That was the only place he knew.
Then, one day, he met Wilhazelle and was given the name ‘Raphelion’.
Raphel recovered with her help, but that didn’t mean that he was completely healed. The child had only two memories. The loneliness of being alone in the dump and the warmth of being held in Wilhazelle’s embrace.
So, when Raphel was alone, he naturally thought of the dump.
There were many people in this spacious and magnificent mansion, but Raphel was afraid that without Lizelle, they would send him back to the dump.
“From now on, you will never be alone like you were then. I promise.”
To him, Lizelle’s promise was like a gift from God.
It was a promise that he would never again be alone.
That meant there would be no more fearful nights filled with razor sharp winds and the cries of ferocious beasts.
“Yes!”
Raphel smiled happily as he looked at Wilhazelle. Warmth spread throughout her body. Wilhazelle hugged Raphel tightly without saying a word. She realized it clearly today. They would have to prepare for separation little by little. Otherwise, Raphel wouldn’t be able to accept being apart.
***
“I checked and it appears that the woman who brought the child to the Duke is also staying there.”
“And the child?”
“From what I heard, he has black hair and red eyes…”
The man, who knew he had made a mistake, quietly watched the reaction of his employer. The request he had been given had gone wrong. They staged a carriage accident and killed the Duke and Duchess, but lost the child. Even the child was supposed to be eliminated. It was confirmed that the child had fallen into the river, but the body was never found.
When his employer asked him to find the body, he searched everywhere, even the river, but in the end, he couldn’t find it.
Then, out of nowhere, the Baron’s daughter found the child and took him to the Duke’s house…
Tap, tap, tap.
Long fingers tapped the table. It was a steady, slow movement, as if he was counting in his head.
“S-sorry.”
He was terrified.
When his employer got angry, all anyone was able to do was kneel down and pray. He was anxious, as if walking on thin ice that could break apart at any moment. Even without saying a word, he felt like he was being suffocated by the pressure coming from his employer.
“Woman?”
“Ah, yes! Her name is Wilhazelle Frosier, Baron Frosier’s daughter.”
Wilhazelle Frosier.
Wasn’t she that vane woman who loved to live in luxury?
The employer, who was touching his chin with his fingertips as if thinking deeply about something, looked directly at the man at his feet.
“What should I do?”
He flinched and trembled like a tree.
“Don’t be like that. Do you think I’m a terrible person?”
The employer seemed to find the situation amusing and burst out laughing.
“S-sorry, I didn’t mean it that way…”
The man lowered his head even more, reflecting on his actions.
A blood chilling atmosphere began to build. The employer took off the half mask that covered his face. The sapphire encrusted mask fell to the floor. The man opened his eyes wide in surprise, because his employer had never revealed his face before. He was always shrouded in mystery, so why did he suddenly reveal his identity? Fear rushed over him.
“You’re unable to handle your tasks properly, which is why things have gotten to this point.”
Sigh.
When the employer got up from his seat, the old chair made an unpleasant sound. The employer walked past the man, footsteps quiet.
“Hazen.”
“Sir, what is your order?”
The man in black who appeared instantly at his employer’s call, was kneeling on one knee.
“Take care of it.”
Merciless words flowed from his mouth. He had a callous tone that showed no emotion and no mercy.
“Yes.”
The man in black pulled out the knife he was wearing at his waist and walked toward the other kneeling man.
“Please, please don’t do this! Please!”
Even though the man was screaming in a loud voice, the employer left the place without even blinking.
“You shouldn’t have failed.”
The employer climbed the stairs, yawning slightly, as if he was bored. He was going to take care of the man in the end anyways, It didn’t matter if her revealed his identity, so he took off the annoying mask. He also knew that the Duke’s family was secretly investigating the carriage accident.
The reason he hadn’t made any moves until now, was because he though the job had already been handled. They wouldn’t be able to find the culprit without any evidence. However, the child they had thought was dead, was still alive. If he didn’t handle the situation cleanly this time, he might be caught at any moment.
“Hah.”
He had deliberately used a new guild who could be eliminated at any time, but that had been the wrong choice. He never thought this would happen.
His eyes, which had been clear, distorted. After leaving the underground and coming up to the surface, the employer looked into the distance at the most luxurious mansion in the empire, next to the imperial palace. The place, which he could only watch from afar, seemed so distant and blurry he wouldn’t be able to grasp it.
“Master, it is finished.”
Hazen emerged after completing his task and stood next to his master.
“I need to obtain a magic orb.”
He couldn’t let this go. He needed to move, now.
“Yes. I will prepare one.”
The man frowned and pursed his lips, eyes were filled with anger and jealousy as he looked at the Duke’s mansion.
