Chapter 7
“Have you seen Mehen lately?”
Strangers’ favors are strange.
“Looks like Mojiri’s been up to something again.”
“What? What did she do?”
“I don’t know, they don’t talk to us, so I’m just making assumptions.”
So the atmosphere was rather relaxed.
“I’m sure she’s just knocked herself out or something. She’s just trying to get attention.”
She’s not.
She fell down and she was locked up, but she was not doing it for attention. They frame people.
That’s unfair.
“You’re only doing it because you haven’t learnt anything. Why can’t you understand why Mojiri is the way she is?”
“It’s because she has no roots. She doesn’t know her mother’s lineage. She just a Halbern bloodline, barely passing for a human.”
She’s really saying anything with her mouth open.
A stream of bullshit.
“I feel sorry for Mehen.”
“Yes, a child is a child to a young man who should be in love and married.”
“What a sin, Mehen.”
“The crime of serving the Grand Duke?”
The chuckling voice fades away.
“I can hear you.”
Can’t you see I left the window open?
It was clear that he was protesting to be heard.
The owner is a child.
She’s also fragile and insignificant. What kind of power can such a child have?
“They say that even you chew when you can’t see.”
You seem to be getting more and more noticeable. Is it your mood?
‘Well, as long as you don’t touch me directly, I don’t mind.’
You’re more used to hostility than favor, perhaps because of your previous life.
“She’s being arrogant again.”
“Is she pouting because she’s the only one getting praised?”
“That’s not a skill, she’s just putting it on to look good.”
“It’s all because his mum pays her to come here. She’s some kind of rare genius.”
It wasn’t so bad when she was practicing in the corner of the practice room, listening to these comments.
Usually you make friends when you practice together or wait in the waiting room, but she was stuck with her mum 24/7, so she didn’t get the chance.
‘She must have hated it when I looked away,’ I thought.
“Do you see them as friends? They’re all just your competition.”
“I’m alone here again.”
She used to being alone.
So, it’s okay.
“Peace is like a river to me.”
***
“…”
“…”
“…”
“…Here, Mehen?”
Uni, Arellin’s health maid, smiled picturesquely at Mehen, who had been standing there for hours.
‘If you’re going to come in, come in, or at least get out of the way.’
Mehen had been standing there for hours, glaring at the closed door.
It was so ferocious that every passing servant, butler, and maid fled in terror.
‘But I must go in, Sir Mehen!’
It was time for Arellin to take her medicine.
Arellin’s medicine is surrounded by mystery: who sends it, where it comes from.
The temple, the steeple, the medical association, they could not name her illness or even cure her symptoms, but not this medicine, which had been delivered to her since she was a baby.
“Give up. Not today.”
“We can take it tomorrow. Let’s not mess with it and walk away.”
“Look at the look on Mehen’s face…”
“Who the hell are you dipping today?”
Yuni whimpered in agony.
Mehen, meanwhile, stared at the firmly closed door, oblivious to what was happening around him, his mind flooded with thoughts.
To be honest, he doesn’t know why he came here.
The next thing he knew, he was standing in front of Arellin’s door.
At any other time, he would have just walked in, made a quick visit, and left.
“I’ll be quiet.”
If it weren’t for the memory.
“…”
The hand on the doorknob stops as if it’s been grabbed by the ankle.
“It’s okay, I don’t care.”
The antique door of the old manor house felt hard, as if it were the entrance to a dungeon that prevented entry.
Still, he couldn’t bring himself to turn around and go back.
This was how Mehen had come to stand like a totem in front of Arellin’s door, unable to get out.
“Ha, shit.”
Cringe!
The maids and butlers, who had been on the edge of their seats at the outburst of profanity, took notice and quickly disappeared.
Mehen was still too preoccupied with the child on the other side of the door to realize what had happened
Arellin.
Arellin Sigrida Halbern.
His lord’s daughter, raised by him from a very young age.
Raising a child unprepared, uninformed, and haphazardly was akin to being on a hell train.
Crazy, confusing.
He doesn’t know what’s what.
A mess, a jumble, a blur.
Even after he formed a childminding group and took Arelin into his care completely, he couldn’t get his mind off it.
But was it all bad?
“Meh!”
When other children learned to say mum or dad, Arellin called Mehen’s name.
The first word Arellin said when she was born. Mehen.
He was never able to describe what he felt then. It was the first time he ever felt… that kind of emotion in his life.
“Damn you, Valar.”
Mehen cursed his lord and archduke of Halbern under his breath.
“This is why I didn’t want to give you any kind of loyalty.
He’d tried to keep his distance, reminding himself that he was only a temporary protector, nothing more.
He would have to step aside once the Archduke of Halbern was back in his place. The only ones who would be troubled and tired if they got attached were Arellin and Mehen.
That’s where I drew the line.
“Mehen…”
He avoided even that look.
He had failed.
It felt like an epic failure.
He knew that love doesn’t stick around because you don’t want it.
When he looked into those empty, hollow eyes that no longer craved affection or anything else, that seemed to have let go of everything, he was overcome with an emotion he didn’t know how to describe.
“Get a hold of me, you damned lord.”
Already, all the comms in the manor were scrambling to connect to the northern castle.
“Your daughter needs you now!”
Mehen couldn’t turn the doorknob after all.
***
Crown Prince Pession was in a very good mood today.
He woke up early, had an easy morning training session, and ate an unusually good meal.
The reason?
Because today was the day.
The collection meeting!
“Your Highness, we have some friends here.”
“Yes, I’ll be right there!”
Pession always loved playing with his friends, but this day was especially eagerly anticipated.
‘Are they coming today?’
Pession, who had cleaned up after Graham and found out that Arellin was well enough to go for a walk, entered the room with unusually high spirits.
“Hello, everyone!”
Every child in the room turned to look at Pession in unison.
And then a moment.
“Huh?!”
Pession’s eyes widened in surprise.
‘Nothing.’
Arellin wasn’t there.
***
Arellin was taking her medication at that point.
“Ughh.”
Pills to stop her erratic seizures and outbursts, to restore a little bit of her disease-ravaged body.
She’s been taking it since she was a baby, and it doesn’t cure her condition, but it keeps it from getting worse, so she takes it even when she doesn’t want to.
‘Without it, I’d get really sick.’
She is glad she has this medicine.
But it tastes worse today, but she guess it’s just her mood.
“But where’s Uni?”
She glanced up.
She asked, looking at the strange maid standing in front of her.
“What?”
Uni, the health maid, was usually in charge of her medication.
The maid who brought me her medication was a stranger, if not a stranger to her, because she rarely sees her outside of the nursery.
Maybe it was the atmosphere in the mansion, maybe it was the power relations, she doesn’t know, but that’s what Mehen did.
“Uh, well.”
The maid flinched, as if my question had taken her by surprise.
“Uni said she had to go to a meeting, so I came to her place.”
“A meeting?”
“Yes, yes…”
She felt oddly long-winded, but what the heck.
It’s not like this hadn’t happened before.
“I’m done.”
She must have taken her medication, she thought, and let her go. She was strangely relieved, but she had nothing to point to, so she left her alone.
Before she left, the maid cautiously asked her.
“Do you happen to know what’s been bothering Mehen lately?”
“Mehen?”
Why are you asking me that?
“What did Mehen do?”
“I don’t know what it is, but he’s in a really bad mood and everyone is looking at him and shaking.”
She can’t believe it.
She hasn’t seen Mehen’s face in a while, what happened?
“I don’t know.”
“Oh, I see.”
The maid backed away shakily.
By the way, this maid…
‘You’re the one who always talks about me.’
She’s calling her Mojiri and other derogatory names.
She didn’t even feel like being sarcastic, so she motioned for her to leave.
He made an unpleasant face at my dismissive gesture, but left without a word.
The room is quiet again.
“Good.”
She was left alone.
***
“I want to quit.”
He always wanted it badly, but today he was desperate to quit.
The reason was simple.
“Graham, you weren’t lying to me, were you?”
“Graham, I trusted you, and I’m disappointed.”
“Graham, is that all you can do?”
The crown prince, who had left his boyhood friend’s meeting earlier than usual, demanded to see him upon his return.
Whoever he’d learnt from, he had a knack for it.
“Well, I’ve been assured, it’s not my fault, not by a long shot, anyway.”
The disbelieving stares made Graham feel sick.
What had he done wrong?
How much time had he spent drying his blood before he wrote to the Duke of Halbern again and got a reply?
Sighing, Graham suddenly realized that his son-in-law had gone quiet.
The cause, as usual, was Crown Prince Pession.
‘His silence makes me more uneasy.’
The news that Princess Arellin had not yet recovered.
The crown prince looked grave.
‘Is it because of me?’
He couldn’t believe that a human could be so fragile, but this was Arellin.
‘If it’s Arellin, it’s possible.’
Arellin is weaker than a kitten.
‘Then I won’t see you again.’
He wishes he could.
Pession didn’t know exactly why, but he missed Arellin. Suddenly, he remembered the Arellin he had seen at Halbern Manor.
She was looking out the window, alone.
“Should I stay and wait…”
He tapped his foot, feeling an ominous sense of impending boredom.
“Wait.”
Graham sensed an ominous future.
“Your Highness?”
“You don’t have to wait.”
“What?”
“If Arellin can’t come, can’t I go?”
Wistful, a word with a nice ring to it.
He was ‘friends’ with Arellin, after all! Eureka! The crown prince’s eyes lit up.
“Let’s go!”
“What?!”
“Get ready, let’s go! If Arellin can’t come, I’ll go! Yes, that’s how it was supposed to be!”
“What?! What? Excuse me, Your Highness?”
“Come on, let’s go, Graham!”
The crown prince sprinted.
Graham was tormented.
“Wait, Your Highness?”
