Chapter 52 :

Chapter 52 - Foal

Tollin looked at the beggar child before him without hiding his discomfort.

Tollin had never liked street children much to begin with.

They were dirty, lied without hesitation, and were uncultured street vagrants. He was not in a position where he needed to make an effort to like them, and the fact that Duke Feedus had risked his life just to protect things like them also made them displeasing to him.

And on top of that, that hand!

Tollin sighed as he looked disapprovingly at the young duke’s hand, which was casually patting Seya’s grimy shoulder.

What is he going to do if he catches some disease?

Tollin opened his mouth, earnestly hoping that the black substance, which might have been dirty water, dust, or some unknown mixture of things, would not harm the young duke’s health in any way.

“You know why you were called here, don’t you? You must also know that children have been disappearing from the capital. If you know anything at all, it would be best to spill everything now.”

At his blunt voice, Seya flinched and trembled.

Tollin’s way of speaking, gaze, attitude—there was not a single thing about him that was unfamiliar.

It meant he was the very image of the kind of noble a child feared.

And that tension from the child traveled through her shoulder and reached the young duke exactly as it was.

“Don’t worry. Tollin may look a little fussy, but he is only trying to help you.”

“Fussy…! Fussy, you say, young duke…!”

It was a joke made with Seya and Mir, who had called Tollin a fussy old man during their previous meeting, in mind, but it was a great shock to Tollin.

Tollin’s sacrifice was quite effective, and the stiffness left Seya’s shoulders and face.

Seya looked for a moment at the young duke’s clean hand, which was still patting her shoulder, then slowly opened her mouth.

“….I don’t know….exactly when it started. Just from some day, kids started disappearing. Mir….I mean, my friend said it was since the building went up in the center of the capital....”

“Can you stake your life on what you just said?”

At the remark that it might have something to do with the Feedus family, Tollin reacted sharply.

“No, no. That’s not it…. I mean, they give out free food there. Really generously…. So there were quite a lot of kids who said they were going there to eat. But the kids who went there like that never came back. Almost….”

Frightened by Tollin’s intensity, Seya poured out what she knew like a rapid-fire cannon.

If it was true that children were disappearing, and if someone was using the ducal House of Feedus to carry something out…

Even if they were only street vagrants, a problem could arise.

How many people in this empire would dare, without fear, to use Feedus for their own purposes?

With a bad feeling, Tollin furrowed his brow and continued the interrogation.

“.…”

“You seemed quite firmly convinced that if you were caught, you would die. How are you so sure that the missing children died?”

At Tollin’s question, the blood drained from Seya’s face.

“….There were kids who came back. Exactly two….”

At the existence of survivors who might be important clues, Tollin leaned forward.

“You mean there were ones who returned alive? Did you find out who was behind it?”

“Alive…. Did they come back alive?”

Seya murmured blankly.

What other states could be used to describe a human life besides two?

Alive, or dead.

“They didn’t seem alive. Neither of them could do anything. Like dolls. Actually, they didn’t come back either. We picked them up. They had been thrown away in a garbage dump. Like some kind of scrap.”

“What do you mean by that?”

Seya’s blank eyes sank low, as if recalling that time.

“I brought one of them back, and Mir brought the other one back. We weren’t close, but they were kids we had eaten with and stuff. They had run off excitedly, saying they were going to eat free food…. But then they were thrown away in a garbage dump. Like some kind of scrap.”

The child’s clenched fists turned white.

“They couldn’t eat even when we gave them food, and they couldn’t drink even when we gave them water. Was it about a week later? Suddenly, they started vomiting blood. It felt like all the blood inside their bodies had come out. We even tried to scoop it back in….but Mir said it was no use. And then they died just like that.”

As Seya blankly turned over the faces of the dead kids she had tried so hard to forget, she came to her senses when she felt something warm touch her cheek.

The young duke’s hand was wiping her cheek.

Did something dirty get on it?

Seya hurriedly raised her hand and wiped her cheek, only then realizing that she had been shedding tears.

They had been especially healthy and quick on their feet.

So much so that she had thought that even if all the other kids died, those two might survive until they became adults.

She knew it was wise not to get attached to the kids she met on the streets, but still, she had thought it might be all right to get close to those two.

Because they did not seem like they would die.

Belatedly feeling as if something hot was surging up from her throat, Seya lowered her head.

The emotion that had burst once covered Seya uncontrollably.

The young duke stroked Seya’s back several times as she sobbed.

Plin, who had been quietly comforting Seya, raised his head.

The child’s straight gaze turned toward Tollin.

“Tollin. Seal off the building immediately and send people. If there is anyone even slightly suspicious, bring them all in. Do not kill them.”

At his firm command, Tollin nodded.

The loyal Tollin intended to follow his order with all his strength.

However, he did not bother to say aloud that deep in his heart, there was a voice whispering that it would be a useless act.

After the questioning stopped, Seya, with eyes so swollen they would not open properly, diligently stuffed the sweet desserts the young duke handed her into her mouth.

Seya was certain that even if her eyes had been fine, she probably would not have known what it was she was putting into her mouth.

Seya was right.

The child did not know that the refreshing, sweet, and soft thing melting away on the tip of her tongue was lemon custard cream, nor did she know that the slightly sticky, soft, and sweet thing she picked up next was a cake made from bread soaked full of honey.

But one thing was certain.

This moment was so, so happy.

The young duke observed Seya, who was rather ravenously emptying the dessert plate, as if looking at a fascinating creature.

Since his family had many people who used their bodies, he had seen quite a few people with large appetites, but this was the first time he had seen someone eat dessert so happily and quickly.

“There is plenty, so eat slowly. You may eat as much as you like.”

“Goodness, young master. Your generosity is as excellent as your character!”

Overwhelmed by great emotion, Seya let go of her tension and raised her thumb.

Of course, soon after, she quickly realized who was in front of her and meekly lowered her thumb again.

But when she tucked even her thumb in, Seya simply became a person thrusting a fist in front of the young duke, and she hurriedly lowered her hand.

Finding that quite amusing, the young duke burst into laughter.

When the young duke’s mood did not seem offended at all, Seya gained courage and quietly opened her mouth again.

“Um… Young master, by any chance….may I take this with me?”

The young duke stopped laughing and turned his gaze to the plate the child timidly pointed at with her finger.

It was a cake that had not yet had honey poured over it.

Since she had taken only one bite and put it down, he had thought it did not suit her taste.

“As much as you like. If you want, I can have new ones made for you. It is originally a food eaten by pouring honey over it, so if you want, I will tell them in advance to soak it generously in honey.”

It was a suggestion meant for Seya, who liked sweet things, but Seya shook her head vigorously.

“No, no! I like it as it is! He doesn’t really like sweet things.”

Only then did the young duke realize that the child had left the food not because it did not suit her taste, nor because she wanted to save it to eat later.

“It seems that the child named Mir does not like sweet things very much.”

Seya nodded.

“Yes, that’s what he said. If it is something this soft and just moderately sweet, he would eat it really well too…”

The young duke looked at Seya silently for a moment, then gave an order to the maid carrying food beside him.

“Make ten more of these and prepare them so the child can take them. Put in plenty of honey as well.”

At the words that he would give her ten more of this expensive-looking thing, Seya’s eyes widened.

“Uh, um…”

“I will have them pack honey too, so make sure to eat it with Mir. There must be other children besides Mir as well.”

Seya, who had never developed the shame to refuse something being given to her, carefully nodded.

Then she sneakily gauged the mood and once again buried her head into the dessert placed before her, beginning to inhale it.

The young duke observed that sight again and felt his heart grow comfortable.

The storm-like conversation with Tollin, the academy, the Tinas ritual, and the matter of Prince Dito felt like things from long ago.

How strange.

‘It is probably because the child in front of me is a much better child than I had thought.’

The young duke glanced at the cake still keeping its place at the corner of the table, untouched by Seya’s mouth, and raised the corners of his lips.

The young duke also roughly knew what street vagrants were called by the world.

It was not as if he had so little contact with nobles that he did not know they called them the trash of the streets among themselves.

But they were people his father had protected at the risk of his life.

People called him a foolish madman.

They said that, for the sake of mere trash like that, he had risked his life, a lunatic and madman unlike any other in the world who had betrayed god.

No matter how much Tollin protected the young duke from people’s malice, he could not block rumors that rode on sound.

And it was also true that it had hurt the young duke’s heart.

But the young child before his eyes, who was called trash of the streets, knew how to shed tears for friends who had died unjustly, and even while hungry, knew how to think of a friend.

Even during their last meeting, the child had clearly shown the will to risk her life in place of her friend.

Was that not enough to make her an excellent person rarely seen?

The fact that Seya was such a child, the fact that someone his father had saved with his life was this kind of person, made Plin Feedus very happy.

* * *

Seeing that, it felt as if she could endure any amount of discomfort.

But Tollin was not the kind of person who took such personal circumstances into account.

By lightly pushing Seya’s back, he efficiently conveyed that she should stop talking nonsense and get into the carriage.

Being helplessly pushed forward by a force that was not strong, Seya looked with a miserable heart at Jack’s face, which seemed delighted to death.

So, that bearded man wasn’t just a servant, but a noble knight?

Recalling her own behavior, in which she had committed every kind of rudeness imaginable until now, Seya shoved her heavy body into the carriage.

Carrying Seya’s heavy heart, the carriage ran lightly.

* * *

“…Um, wouldn’t it be better if I just ran there instead? I’m a lot faster than I look.”

Seya clung to Tollin rather desperately.

Tollin was not exactly a comfortable person to make this kind of appeal to, but Jack’s face, smiling more brightly than anything inside the carriage and waving his hand at her—

“Wow~ We can go quietly this time, right? This time, you won’t have hidden anything weird again, will you?”

Jack jokingly glanced at Seya’s sleeve as he spoke.

“N-No, sir. At that time, I must have lost my mind for a moment. I am truly sorry. I committed a crime worthy of death.”

Seya lowered her head as much as possible, took an extremely servile posture, and spat out words of apology.

Seya might have been simple, but she was not foolish.

Even if she had met a noble like the young duke, who was strangely softhearted and unusual, she did not carelessly judge that Jack would also be like that.

The one who was instead flustered by this was Jack.

He had only meant to tease her a little, and had not had the slightest intention of making her shrink like that.

The reaction Jack had expected was some rude remark about an old man holding a grudge, or at least her grumbling while being a little intimidated—not such a servile appearance that could not even be compared to before.

“Hey, brat. Just speak like you did before… No, wait. Not exactly like before. You just need to be about half as rude as you were before.”

Jack corrected only half of his mistake, thinking he had nearly made a huge mistake.

Jack felt like he was dying.

When he said he would ride in the same carriage as the child, he had only had the lighthearted intention of teasing her timid face.

But seeing the child before him with her face turned pale and pressed into the corner of the carriage made his heart feel not just uncomfortable, but almost painful.

“Brat. I’m not angry at all. So there’s no need to be that scared.”

At his fourth repetition of this explanation, Seya finally raised her head slightly and looked at Jack.

“…Really?”

At Seya finally meeting his eyes, Jack’s face brightened.

“Of course! If I had intended to punish you in the first place, I would have revealed my status from the beginning.”

Perhaps thinking that made sense too, Seya glanced at Jack once, then pulled her body slightly out from the corner where she had been uncomfortably crammed.

“I really was sorry back then. I thought I was really going to die, so I did that.”

At Seya’s answer, Jack narrowed his eyes.

“You little thing, if you thought you were going to die, shouldn’t you have avoided acting even more like that? You just didn’t like me, did you?”

“…That’s not it.”

Seya answered sullenly and cast her gaze out the window.

“…At first, I did it to save Jill and Jin, and after that, I just felt strange.”

“What do you mean, you felt strange?”

Jack asked back.

“Because I thought you were on the same side as the people who killed my friends. Judging by what you did, you didn’t seem like a bad person, but then I wondered why you killed us like that, and if someone that good was trying to catch and kill us, maybe we really were that much trash… So, I think I just wanted you to be a bad person, mister.”

After rambling on, Seya could not meet Jack’s eyes and looked out the window.

Because Jack shut his mouth just like that, there was no more conversation between them.

The carriage gradually drew closer to the shantytown where Seya and the children lived.

“If we go a little farther, there will be an alley. You have to stop around there. The carriage can’t go any deeper inside.”

Seya, who had been looking at the scenery outside the window, spoke.

Jack, who had been silent all along, also opened his mouth.

“Brat, what did you say your name was?”

“Seya.”

Though puzzled by the sudden question, Seya answered honestly.

“Good, Seya. Listen carefully. You are quite—no, extremely—ill-mannered. You are one of the rudest brats I have ever seen.”

“….So your anger still hasn’t gone away after all, has it? I’ll just take a few hits, so please get it out of your system…”

“That’s not it!”

Jack quickly cut off Seya, who was making the suggestion with a fairly serious face.

“Despite that, do you know why I no longer blame you?”

When Jack asked, Seya rolled her eyes for a moment.

“Because the young master ordered you not to?”

At the sharper answer than expected, Jack cleared his throat.

“Of course, the young duke did tell me not to punish you separately. But even if there had been no such order, I had no intention of pressing you, hitting you….or anything like that.”

Jack, utterly unused to affectionate words or compliments, could not endure the embarrassment rising in him and deliberately turned his gaze out the carriage window.

“I like you. I like that you are faster on your feet than most people, and I like that you have guts. And more than anything, I like that personality of yours, that can accept danger for the sake of your comrades. Of course, I do think you need to fix that quick temper of yours that makes you act like a mad foal…”

Creak.

As Jack suppressed his embarrassment and continued speaking, he quickly turned his head at the cold wind striking his cheek, accompanied by the sound of wood scraping.

What waited for him was only the empty backrest of the carriage and the carriage door swaying along with the movement of the running carriage.

“You really are a completely mad foal! Stop the carriage at once!”

Jack ordered the coachman and leapt out of the carriage.