~Chapter 24~
“No, Your Grace! This is a misunderstanding! You’re misunderstanding everything!”
“What exactly is misunderstood?”
“I was just standing here when the Young Lady suddenly appeared out of nowhere—!”
“Appeared out of nowhere?”
“She— she just appeared and then…”
Both Count Siddew and Khalid turned to look at the ground.
There was a deep drag mark in the dirt — like someone had pulled a small child across the ground with force.
And at the end of that mark was exactly where Clover had been sitting moments ago.
Khalid tilted his head slightly.
“I’ll ask again. What exactly is the misunderstanding?”
“I swear, it wasn’t me! The Young Lady suddenly appeared like that! As if she’d been dragged all the way here from somewhere else!”
“Clover, is that true?”
The little girl trembled and buried her face deep into her father’s chest.
“Appa, I’m scared.”
“I know.”
At his signal, Claudian knights appeared from the shadows.
Realizing the situation was turning bad, Count Siddew quickly backed away in panic.
“Y-Your Grace! This is really a misunderstanding! It’s not me! Young Lady, please, tell him! Tell him I didn’t do anything!”
“Well, I did have something to investigate anyway. Perfect timing. Take him away.”
The knights immediately grabbed both of Siddew’s arms.
“Your Grace!”
But Khalid ignored his desperate shout. The Count was dragged off roughly until he disappeared from sight.
Khalid looked down at his little daughter still held in his arms.
Her face was filthy, as if she’d actually been dragged through dirt. Her new dress was so muddy it needed to be changed completely.
“Appa.”
Clover looked up at him with wide eyes.
“Da bad man went away?”
Her messy face was covered in dirt and dried grass.
“Yes.”
“He won’t come back?”
“No. You won’t see him again.”
Clover stared blankly at the spot where Count Siddew had been taken away.
“…That’s good.”
***
Clover actually knew Count Siddew.
Back when she was living at the Demper estate, she’d seen him a few times from afar.
He always acted nice and polite toward her — but his words told a different story.
“Hmph. The Duke acts like he dotes on her, but come on. Would a father really love a daughter who doesn’t even resemble him?
And she can’t even use the Storm’s power.”
“He said he’ll come for her when she turns ten? Ha. He’ll be lucky if he doesn’t just dump her for good.”
He was an awful man.
He and her aunt had worked together — both villains who hated Clover.
That’s why Clover always hated the days Count Siddew visited the Demper mansion. On those days, she’d never sneak into the garden. She’d hide in her room instead.
And now, seeing him again here… of all places!
And then—
“Uwah!”
[Clover!]
A black hand suddenly shot out from Count Siddew’s body and grabbed Clover’s ankle, dragging her straight toward him.
Clover gasped when she realized the unclear, shadowy hand was connected to the Count’s body.
It looked a bit like the smoky energy that came out of her father’s body sometimes — but this was different.
This one was far more violent, aggressive, and evil.
But—
“W-wait… the youngest Lady?”
Why was he acting like he didn’t know anything when he was the one who dragged her here?
And even stranger— her father didn’t seem to see the black hand at all.
He hadn’t reacted to it.
Could it be invisible to everyone but her?
The memory made Clover’s hair stand on end. Just thinking about that black hand again sent shivers down her spine.
And the moment it had grabbed her ankle— she felt something terrifying.
A kind of powerless, suffocating feeling she had never experienced before.
When her little trowel slipped out of her hand and she couldn’t even grab the grass for support… it was one of the saddest moments she’d ever felt.
Even sadder than when someone stole her cake.
Even worse than when the one big strawberry on top fell to the floor before she could eat it.
[Clover.]
Lucky floated in front of her, glowing faintly as he spoke gently.
[You should tell your father what you saw.]
“Mm…”
Clover had already been thinking the same thing.
Lucky once told her that when something bad happens to a child, it’s the guardian’s job to protect them.
And this definitely counted as “something bad.”
But how could she explain it?
A black hand came out of nowhere and dragged her?
And that hand was connected to Count Siddew’s body?
Clover’s small fingers tightened around her skirt.
‘What if Appa doesn’t believe me?’
No one else seemed to have seen it.
What if they call her a liar again?
That awful feeling from the Demper mansion slithered back into her heart like a snake, making her chest heavy.
[Clover!]
Lucky interrupted firmly.
[If he can’t believe you, then he can believe me. Your father will listen carefully — just like I always did, right?]
Golden light sparkled around Lucky’s body.
[Sweetheart, you have to tell him. This isn’t something you can hide. I think what came out of him was… ‘malice.’]
“Baby?”
[…Not baby… Ah, never mind. Just tell your father quickly, Clover.]
Just then—
Khalid’s and Clover’s eyes met.
His eyes were like golden sunlight — brighter and warmer than the real sun in the sky.
Clover stared, completely mesmerized, as Khalid gently pressed a handkerchief to her cheek.
Wipe, wipe.
Like he was handling something precious, he carefully cleaned the dirt from her face.
“Clover.”
“…Yes?”
“Can I ask what happened?”
“Yes.”
Clover nodded carefully, repeating Lucky’s words in her head.
Appa will listen to me calmly.
He won’t ignore me like the others did at Demper.
Then, Khalid murmured softly—
“I need to know what happened… so I can decide whether to cut that man in half, or fold him in half first.”
“!!”
Clover’s eyes widened in shock.
***
After hearing Clover’s story about the black hand, Khalid’s face turned grim.
‘Something like that grabbed her?’
Count Siddew’s power was known as the Power of the Gentle Wind — a minor branch of Claudian’s Wind Power.
There was no reason for something like a black hand to exist within that kind of ability.
But Clover didn’t seem like she was lying. And besides—
‘Those drag marks.’
And the dirt all over her body.
Those were real.
Someone had definitely dragged the child across the ground and dropped her in front of Siddew.
“Appa, you don’t believe me?”
Freshly washed and fluffy, Clover fidgeted nervously.
“I believe you.”
Khalid answered immediately, without a second of hesitation.
Clover’s small shoulders relaxed at once. She let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“Lucky said it’s like a baby,” she added seriously. “An’ said Appa needs to know.”
“…A baby?”
“Yesh. A-gi.”
“…”
A baby?
Khalid had raised four kids and could normally decode baby talk easily — but this one had him stumped.
Seeing his puzzled look, Clover frowned a little and tried to explain again.
“Agi, na-ppun ma-eum.”
“Na-ppun ma…” Khalid thought for a second. “Ah. You mean ak-ui — malice.”
“Yesh! A-gi!”
“Right. Agi.”
He chuckled and patted her head gently.
But the more he talked with her, the more one question grew in his mind.
Just what was Clover’s summoned being?
Summoned creatures usually grew alongside their master — which meant Clover’s should only have a four-year-old’s level of understanding.
But that golden four-leaf clover that followed her around every day?
It didn’t act like a child at all.
It spoke wisely, like someone who already knew all the world’s secrets.
‘What exactly is Clover’s summon…?’
