Chapter 11 …
‘Everyone said I should be separated from Uncle.’
Whenever Artea saw the people of the ducal household, that thought would sting her heart.
—Honestly, the nephew your brother left behind is just a burden.
—Miss Artea, really… you’re always clinging to him so annoyingly. You even get in the way of his work.
—Why do you think he goes out to subjugate monsters so often? Haha. Isn’t it because his niece is such a nuisance? Always underfoot.
It had been the same that day too.
I guess I’m a child no one needs.
With that thought, she climbed into the carriage, but when she opened her eyes, she was in an unfamiliar place.
‘Huh?’
The nanny who had been with her just moments before was nowhere to be seen.
All that was left with Artea was a doll—
a gift from an aunt whose face she had never even seen.
‘Sparkly?’
Just moments ago, it had seemed like a soft, warm light was radiating from the doll, wrapping around her. But when she blinked, it had vanished.
The light had been cozy and protective, almost like it was watching over her.
Artea tilted her head, then suddenly turned her gaze around.
‘Where am I?’
She had never seen this place before.
It was narrow, desolate, and even had dust rolling along the ground.
In one corner of the ceiling, a big spider was wriggling as it spun its web.
Maybe because it didn’t feel real, she wasn’t scared.
She suddenly remembered a story she had seen in a popular musical.
‘Cherrycherry climbed the bricks here!’
That had been so exciting.
She thought she could do it too.
“Hup-cha!”
Artea clenched the doll in her mouth and raised her tiny hands high.
She grabbed at the gaps between the bricks and slowly crawled up the wall like a little worm.
She had no idea that the smoky air filling the room was actually a powerful sleeping incense.
Nor did she realize that the reason she wasn’t affected was thanks to the protective magic on the doll gifted by her aunt.
And it was sheer luck that the kidnappers had used sleeping incense—if they’d used anything else, she wouldn’t have been left alone like this.
—The child’s gone!
Because of the sleeping incense, the kidnappers had only been guarding the outside of the room. When they opened the door and saw the empty room, they panicked.
They never imagined a child would be able to climb walls so well.
—Oh… is this a runaway?
Climbing down the window, Artea raised her little arms triumphantly, still unaware of what was happening to her.
—I’m not going to live with Uncle anymore!
She walked away from the place she had been trapped and disappeared down the road.
Covered in dust, her expensive clothes no longer stood out. She happened to board a freight wagon by chance, fell asleep, and when she opened her eyes, she was far, far away.
The wagon driver was shocked to see her and quickly called the security guards.
—Hey there, where should I take you?
But when Artea saw the guards, she only blinked her wide eyes.
‘Do I even have anywhere to go?’
She was hungry and tired.
The adventure had been fun, but only for a little while.
The rattling wagon was uncomfortable and smelled bad, and more than anything, her heart ached.
The young Artea didn’t even understand that what she was feeling was loneliness.
She just knew that she didn’t like this moment, that it was hard.
‘I want to wash up, lie down in a warm, soft bed!’
And in that moment, what came to mind was the doll she’d been clutching tightly this entire time.
Somehow, it really did feel like it was protecting her.
—I’m going to Aunt’s house.
Luckily, because the freight wagon passed near her aunt Bellona’s estate, the guards were able to bring Artea there safely.
But that was the end of her “grand adventure.”
Even after coming to her aunt’s house, nothing really changed.
She was still just a child—too small to be of any real help.
‘I’m not the main character, so I can’t save the world… I can’t help Aunt or Uncle either.’
The reason she’d thought of going to her aunt’s in the first place was because she suddenly remembered the person who had gifted her the doll she was hugging.
She hadn’t expected her aunt to treat her particularly kindly, but…
She thought that if she insisted they were aunt and niece, her aunt would let her stay by her side.
“When Artea gives Auntie a massage, Artea’s hands hurt.”
Strangely, her aunt kept being kind to her.
She was constantly afraid that, just like with Uncle, she would become someone unnecessary to her aunt too.
“Artea, aren’t you tired? Should Uncle carry you on his back?”
She couldn’t understand Uncle either.
She was sure he hated her. That’s why she had left before he could throw her away.
—If you’re not with me, I’ll cry!
—I’m going to live with both of you!
Why did they keep staying by the side of someone like her, who was fickle and unnecessary?
‘I want to grow up quickly.’
She wished she could just wake up one morning and suddenly be big.
An adult who could help—someone they would say they couldn’t live without.
Artea soon started acting strangely and fell asleep early.
She’d cried a lot today, so it was understandable she was exhausted.
After returning from a visit to Artea’s nanny, I met eyes with Erios, who had Artea asleep on his back.
“Good work. Sorry.”
“No, I’m her uncle too.”
Thankfully, Erios had stayed to calm her down.
The nanny and the other servants hadn’t been able to soothe her at all.
“Has Artea always been this anxious?”
“Hmm.”
“Then how could you leave her behind and go monster hunting when she’s struggling this much?”
“She’s never liked being apart from me, but it was never this bad before.”
Erios’s expression darkened.
“Maybe… the fact that I left after she fell asleep without saying goodbye was the trigger this time.”
“…”
“Whatever the reason, it’s my fault for not handling it better.”
Yeah. Whatever it is, it probably is your fault.
I barely managed to swallow that thought and let out a sigh.
I was hardly in any position to scold him when I hadn’t taken care of my niece either.
“For Artea’s sake, monster subjugation is important, but still—”
“Don’t say anything weird. If you hadn’t gone, more people would have died, and then Artea would have been in even greater danger.”
He was blaming himself too much, so I offered a bit of comfort.
It seemed like Artea’s pent-up anxiety had finally erupted this time.
“I should’ve visited her more often, at least to show my face.”
“You had your hands tied back then. I never even thought of it that way. I just assumed that because you never married and you always hated children, you didn’t care about your niece.”
“When my parentless niece showed up saying she’d run away, could I really turn her away?”
“For someone who says that, you sure seem to care about her a lot.”
Erios’s eyes softened.
In the dim night, the magical lamps cast a flickering yellow glow over his face.
For a moment, I felt something strange and turned my head away sharply.
“Bellona, I can’t believe you’re capable of thinking about others like this—”
“What the hell do you think I am?”
Thankfully, hearing Erios’s next words calmed me down immediately.
Ugh, talking about things like this any longer would only foul my mood.
With Artea asleep, my thoughts drifted to what I’d asked her on the days when she’d seemed calmer than usual over the past few days.
“Anyway, enough pointless talk. About what I asked Artea—”
“Yeah?”
“She said she woke up in a strange place and decided to go to her aunt’s.”
“So the initial ‘leaving’ wasn’t her own decision… that matches what the duke’s employees said. They claimed she hadn’t shown any signs of wanting to leave, and then she was suddenly gone.”
I should look deeper into that.
“The protective magic on her doll had been broken, which means…”
“Something must have happened to Artea?”
Erios immediately caught my meaning.
“So it wasn’t just a coincidence that she left the ducal house.”
She had been so bold when she came to her aunt’s, but…
Even though she smiled brightly, Artea often seemed deeply anxious underneath.
Am I raising her worse than Erios did?
What will I do if I have to leave again?
I was unsettled by those thoughts—but that didn’t matter now.
The priority was to catch whoever caused this situation.
“The butler told me that the nanny wasn’t close to Artea at all and that it’s suspicious she lost her right under her nose. But, well…”
“You talked to the butler?”
Erios looked genuinely puzzled at that.
“He’s not the kind of person to speak up first.”
“…”
“You might’ve found it strange when he confronted you the first time you met him, but even then, I thought it was out of character.”
“So you’re saying he’s been unusually proactive since Artea disappeared?”
Maybe it was just because of the seriousness of the incident, but…
I couldn’t shake off a certain uneasy feeling.
