#Episode 63
***
Two years later, Laurus was chosen as a court painter, but Lucy suddenly disappeared, leaving Laurus in a pit of sorrow. The only thing that kept him going was the presence of Oliver, whom he had whimsically taken under his care.
<Until Lady Lucy returns, I will be your sword, my lord.>
Oliver, who had served as Laurus’s loyal servant for two years, knelt before the grief-stricken Laurus, placing his dagger on Laurus’s thigh as he spoke.
<I will eliminate any enemies for you, my lord. So please, focus solely on your art… When Lady Lucy returns, you should have a magnificent painting ready to show her.>
Since then, during the day, Oliver devoted himself to serving Laurus, and at night, he took on the role that Lucy had once played—silencing critics and eliminating Count Renfield’s political rivals, as well as others who sought to undermine the painter Laurus.
With Oliver’s relentless encouragement, Laurus eventually found the strength to pick up his brush again.
Reflecting on those days, Laurus poured himself a glass of wine.
“If not for Oliver, I wouldn’t have survived till now… Oliver is like a child to me. If he hadn’t refused, I would have adopted him long ago.”
Oliver’s sacrifices, along with the memories of Lucy they shared, gave Laurus great comfort.
Decades passed, but Lucy never returned. Still, Laurus found solace in being able to clearly recall their memories together.
Had Laurus been alone, he might have doubted his own experiences with Lucy, wondering if it was all just a hallucination, and possibly would have gone mad. A bitter smile crossed his lips.
“You still see Oliver as a child, don’t you?”
At Laurus’s words, Vasha smiled. Laurus chuckled in return and handed Vasha a glass of wine.
“Yes, he is. Even if Oliver were my age, I’d still see him as young… though I may not live that long.”
“You’ve got maybe twenty years left at most.”
“Haha, that’s easy for you to say, Lady Vasha, being of the night-blooded lineage. Living to seventy-five is already a long life for a human, and it’s all thanks to Oliver’s devoted care.”
Laurus laughed heartily, looking refreshed, though Vasha found it hard to understand. In the world Vasha came from, people often lived well past eighty and were desperate to cling to life even longer.
Gazing thoughtfully at Laurus’s wrinkled face, Vasha asked casually,
“What is it like to watch a human grow old?”
Vasha tilted her wine glass, and in the shifting surface of the wine, she imagined seeing young Todd’s face.
“Oliver may be younger than you, but he’s no child.”
A ‘child’ is something not yet fully grown, but Oliver had long since matured and was now nearly on the brink of old age.
“Yet you still treat him like a child. Is it because you watched him grow up? Because you still remember when he was a boy?”
“…I take it you’ve never had any close ties with humans before, Lady Vasha?”
“Who knows. Perhaps, but if I did, I don’t remember.”
Vasha shrugged lightly, yet Laurus’s gaze remained deeply serious.
“Are you worried about your future with Todd?”
“………”
Laurus had accurately guessed what even Vasha herself hadn’t fully acknowledged. Though Vasha wanted to deny it wasn’t worry, she couldn’t bring herself to speak.
“If this is the first time you’ve watched a human grow, I hesitate to say anything. Each person experiences something new differently…”
Laurus chuckled.
“If I recklessly share my thoughts, my careless words might cloud your view or instill prejudice in you. I hope to avoid that.”
When someone tells you an apple is too sour before you taste it, you unconsciously assume it’ll be sour.
While you might later find it’s not as sour as expected, that initial bias can stop you from even trying it.
Information can seem to broaden our choices, but biased information can sometimes force decisions.
If Vasha had the opportunity to hear multiple perspectives, it might have been different, but given Vasha’s circumstances, Laurus’s advice would be her only guide. Laurus was worried about that.
“And especially when it’s a unique relationship, others’ words often become meaningless. I’ve experienced that too.”
“You did?”
“I never imagined I’d suddenly have to raise a thirteen-year-old assassin. I asked around.”
Back then, Oliver was overly reserved and mature, always observing others and rarely expressing himself. Laurus, who’d grown up as the eldest son of a noble family and left his lineage to follow his own passions, found it hard to understand someone like Oliver.
“Everyone knew I was asking because of Oliver. So, they’d tell me it was meaningless to invest so much in a servant. They’d recount countless stories of servants who eventually betrayed their masters.”
Others would even claim that since he was raising a poor child, Oliver should naturally feel respect and gratitude toward Laurus.
Some thought Laurus must be interested in charity work and sought to extract donations from him.
The opinions of others were entirely useless.
No matter how well they knew the situation, others were still just outsiders. Those who aren’t directly involved can never fully understand.
If it was hard enough for others to comprehend the bond between Laurus and Oliver, what more could they grasp about the connection between a vampire like Vasha and her familiar, the Van Drake, Todd?
“It feels awkward boasting about age in front of you, Lady Vasha, but there’s something I’ve gained in my brief life… This is just an old man’s concern.”
“Hmmm….”
Vasha made a groaning sound, seemingly halfway between understanding and confusion.
Laurus didn’t push her. Lucy, too, had found relationships with humans strange.
Lucy had often marveled at Laurus’s actions and emotions, expressing how difficult it was to comprehend humans.
In his younger days, Laurus had taken Lucy’s words at face value.
Vampires and humans, he believed, were fundamentally different beings; it only made sense that Menorah like Lucy couldn’t grasp the emotions of mortals.
Looking back now, Laurus thought Lucy was simply unaccustomed. Had there been enough time and opportunity, perhaps Lucy could have understood Laurus.
And Laurus, as well…
But dwelling on it was pointless; it was all in the past. Laurus interrupted his deepening thoughts.
In any case, Vasha and Todd would be different from them. Tied together by the [Binding Contract] they would continue to share time together, with ample opportunities to understand each other.
So there was no point in bringing up his own life, which he considered a failure.
A bitter smile crossed Laurus’s face.
“As Todd grows, consider the emotions you feel along the way, Lady Vasha. And if, after all that, you still don’t have answers… then I’ll always be here as someone you can discuss it with.”
Then, as if to break the serious atmosphere, Laurus winked playfully and added,
“Raising a little Van Drake may not compare, but raising a little assassin to adulthood was no easy task either.”
“…You said you probably wouldn’t live another twenty years.”
“Haha, but it’ll only take about ten years for Todd to mature. I think I can manage another ten years or so.”
“Thank you.”
Vasha, sensing that Laurus was deliberately trying to lift her spirits, expressed his gratitude.
Laurus squinted his wrinkled eyes with a smile as he raised his wine glass. Vasha lifted her own, and they clinked together.
Clink.
The sound of the glass resonated sharply through the room.
After taking a sip, Vasha looked out the window, shrugged, and asked in a half-defeated tone,
“That training of his… if I tried to stop it, he’d probably go wild, wouldn’t he?”
“Absolutely. It’s better to allow it and keep him within your sight. If you forbid him, he’ll just do it in secret.”
“Ugh… Raising a kid is hard… I don’t know how humans keep doing it.”
Vasha grumbled, shaking her head, while Laurus laughed heartily.
