After watching the child fast asleep for a while, Rutus lifted him gently and carried him back to his own room.
The child, who had fallen asleep as dawn broke, spent the entire day in deep slumber and only awoke in the late afternoon, yawning as he opened his eyes.
By that time, the sun had already passed overhead, and more time had gone by.
– Adi, now that you’re awake, shall we wash up and have a meal?
“……”
– Adi?
“Ahh! What’s this?!”
The child, who had been staring blankly at the long sunlight streaming in through the window, suddenly sat up straight. Startled, Ellie widened her eyes and looked at the child.
“I… I fell asleep?”
Ellie, unable to add any words to the dazed expression on the child’s face that looked so out of place right after shouting, hesitated for a moment before answering.
– Yeah, you just fell asleep right in the middle of talking?
“……”
A few seconds passed in silence.
The child stretched out the two hands that had been resting on his knees and pulled back the blanket.
He moved his legs to get out of bed, so she assumed he would head to the bathroom.
– …Adi?
Ellie called out when she saw the child moving towards the bedroom door instead of the bathroom.
The child didn’t respond and simply reached for the doorknob of Rutus’s room, but…
Click.
“……”
Click, click.
The door, which had been locked in the meantime, couldn’t be opened again.
Hiing. The child turned the doorknob a few more times as if unable to believe it, and then opened his mouth with his shoulders slumped. He looked utterly dejected.
“I had something I wanted to say…!”
I messed up… Ellie, who had been watching the sequence of events blankly from behind the dejected child, asked. It was a question asking why he was like that.
“I wanted to ask to plant flowers together…”
– Suddenly, flowers? …Where?
“Last time… when I was reading a fairy tale book with Mommy. I saw them, and a lot of time has passed, but no one has fixed it…”
Listening to the child, Ellie opened her mouth slightly and nodded. Now that she listened to him, she thought she knew where he was talking about.
It was the place she’d found when she went down to the garden after the child asked her to ‘capture a fairy’ when the flower bloomed while they were staying in the attic of the annex.
‘Has it been left unattended all this time?’
Ellie tilted her head for a moment and then blinked, speaking up.
– But Daddy is busy during the day, so he can’t play with you, Adi. Even if you go now, it’ll be hard for him to join.
“Then…Then I can…skip dinner.”
– No, Mommy won’t allow that. You skipped both breakfast and lunch, so you need to eat dinner.
Ellie’s firm refusal made the child lower his head. Seeing the child look so pitiful made Ellie’s heart soften.
“……”
“M-Mommy…The flowwers…”
As the child looked up at her with sparkling eyes, Ellie pressed one hand to her forehead.
Indeed, though the number of servants had noticeably decreased, it was strange for something unsightly to be left unattended for such a long time.
Especially considering it was in the very front row of the flowerbed, even if it was the annex. Hmm…
‘It definitely looked like it would be finished with just one more day of work.’
It didn’t seem like the manpower shortage was so severe that they couldn’t fix even that much.
If it had reached that level, there should have been problems both inside and outside the mansion. But, since there didn’t appear to be any such signs, they were likely intentionally leaving it alone.
Ellie, suspecting that there must be some reason for their hesitation to act, let out a deep sigh.
‘I’ve lost, fine….’
Lowering the hand she had on her forehead, Ellie leaned forward to meet the child’s eye level and spoke.
– Then, instead, ask the servant if it’s okay to tend to the flowerbed. Planting flowers requires several supplies, and you won’t know if they can bring them right away unless you ask.
“Mm-hmm, okay.”
– …And Adi. Although we’re the ones who hired them, that doesn’t mean you should be unreasonable. They have their own way of doing things.
“……”
– Don’t throw a tantrum just because you don’t get the answer you want, okay?”
“Okay….”
– It might be that they’re just leaving it alone because it’s actually more dangerous than it looks… Anyway, even if the servant brings the supplies and Daddy agrees to go with you, once the sun sets, you have to come back for dinner. Promise?”
“Promise…”
Out of concern, Ellie recited all the precautions one by one, then linked pinkies with the child to seal the promise before straightening her bent posture.
To be honest, this approach came from the assumption that all those conditions wouldn’t likely align anyway.
‘Unless it’s a trowel or a watering can, it’s unlikely that they’d have seedlings on hand that they don’t plant regularly, and besides, Rutus would probably say she’s too busy at this time.’
Even if he managed to persuade him well, there was little time left until dinner, so the child wouldn’t have much time to plant the flowers anyway.
As soon as Ellie finished speaking, the child hurried to get ready and left the room to call for a servant.
And then…
Knock, knock.
About thirty minutes later, the child stood in front of Rutus’s door, holding a trowel in one hand and a watering can in the other, and knocked on the door.
‘Wait… did this actually work?’
Looking down at the child’s small, round head, Ellie furrowed her brow and tilted her head in puzzlement.
As soon as the child left the room, he immediately grabbed a passing servant and asked him directly.
[Can I plant flowers in the annex flowerbed?]
[Yes?]
[Mom… I mean, m… I was told to ask for permission because I can’t just do it on my own.]
[Ah……]
[….]
[……Well, could you wait for a moment?]
[Yeah.]
After a brief pause in the conversation, the servant who had gone somewhere returned with an answer that shocked Ellie.
The type of flower planted in that flowerbed wasn’t hard to find, nor was it expensive, so they had been regularly stocking it.
It just so happened that they had recently bought new ones two days ago, so they were still fresh.
[However, even if we have the seedlings, it was the Duke himself who stopped the flowerbed work… Since it’s not under our jurisdiction, we’d need to check with him separately.]
[Then I’ll go do that myself. I don’t have much time! Where’s Daddy working?]
[That would be his study… Oh, but today he’s in his bedroom.]
For that reason…
Knock, knock, knock!
Watching the child knock on the door again after getting no response, Ellie closed her eyes tightly.
She couldn’t understand why, of all days, he had to have a day off today, when he was normally so busy.
Had he really worked so hard at night just to rest during the day?
‘…If he was going to do that, he could have at least played with the child for a bit in the early morning.’
Since he was clearing his entire schedule for the day anyway, spending an hour or two with the child wouldn’t have been an issue.
With that thought, feeling a bit disappointed, Ellie mumbled quietly enough that the child wouldn’t notice.
“Somehow, I thought it was strange there was no one at the training grounds today, That’s why…”
“Hey, hey, be quiet! I told you I have to be careful today…!”
Ellie turned her head at the voices coming from outside the window. The maids carrying laundry were just passing by below.
Almost at the same moment, Rutus opened the bedroom door and looked down at the child, then spoke.
“…Isn’t it snack time?”
“Yeah… but I woke up late, so I came right away.”
“…Sorry if you came all this way for nothing, but I’m not planning to go outside today. If you came to join me for tea time―”
“I’m going to the annex flower bed to plant flowers. Come with me, Daddy…”
Before Rutus even finished speaking.
The child, looking up at Rutus, held up the trowel and spoke. With drooping eyebrows and lips sticking into a pout, Rutus was at a loss for words as he looked down at the child.
A while passed like that.
“Please come with me…”
“…….”
The door quietly closed right in front of the child’s nose.
With it came the instruction to summon a servant to prepare indoor clothes for him to change into.
* * *
“Daddy, water.”
“……”
The child, sitting on the handkerchief that Rutus had laid out, spoke up. Judging by the fact that he had put down the trowel he was holding, it seemed he was finished planting.
Next to the flowers that were neatly lined up in a row, the child’s traces were marked.
Now, there was no longer a feeling of emptiness.
Instead, a hint of clumsiness could be seen in the irregularity of the haphazardly planted flowers.
Finding it somewhat both cute and not bad in its own way, Ellie couldn’t help but smile.
“All done!”
The child took the watering can that was handed over to him in silence and dampened the soil, then jumped up from his seat, unable to hide his sense of pride. His hands and face were completely covered in dirt.
Rutus, who had been gazing somewhere with a troubled expression the entire time the child was planting flowers, lowered his gaze briefly to look at the child’s dirt-streaked face, then took something out from his pocket.
“Dadd-, mph… Ah, wait a minute, Da-! mph, kyaahh!”
“Be quiet. If you do that, it will go into your mouth.”
“Okay… Then please, mph…do it a little gentler…”
I thought you’d already taken out a handkerchief earlier.
Ellie blinked at the sight of Rutus holding a new handkerchief and wiping the child’s face.
It seemed he hadn’t just brought one handkerchief.
‘Well, there are many things to wipe when being with a child.’
Could he possibly have brought more? Elie, sending a curious glance, only came to her senses after Rutus wiped the child’s face and sprinkled water to wash his hands.
It was the moment when his face, which had been looking subtly dazed since dawn, reached a point of hesitation.
“……”
“Daddy?”
Only when the child’s damp hand had nearly dried did Rutus lower himself to look at the child and ask,
“I have somewhere I need to go now.”
“……”
“…Will you come with me?”
The child’s answer was practically a given, as he was always waiting for any opportunities to stay with him just a little longer.
The child nodded, and as Rutus carefully took hold of one of his small hands, he firmly held on in return.
After a moment of hesitation, Rutus started walking.
Contrary to Ellie’s expectation that he would take them to a carriage for an outing or lead them back into the main house, his steps took him toward the small path behind the annex.
‘Where on earth is he going—’
As Ellie frowned, wondering why he would be heading deeper into the grounds at this hour with the setting sun overhead, her expression suddenly froze.
<Ellie Ratcliffe – 753.10.14 ~ 774.09.01>
It was at the same moment she found a tombstone with her own name neatly engraved on it.
* * * *
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