Chapter 26
It seemed that Callisto, who had been looking at his younger sibling as if he had finally finished steeling himself, slowly opened his mouth.
“We didn’t have anything prepared for after running away. So we couldn’t go.”
“Huh?”
“I heard that our appearance is uncommon. If that’s true, it probably means we’d be easy to catch once we went outside.”
It wasn’t wrong, so I nodded. In the past, the twins had attempted to run away several times.
Of course, whether because of their distinctive appearance or because their destination was already known, they were always caught quickly, and not once had they succeeded in running away.
‘Maybe it’d be different once they grow a little more….’
On top of that, right now the twins had no abilities whatsoever.
There was no chance, at present, of them becoming masters of extraordinary swordsmanship or awakening some special power.
That familiar trope—discovering an inheritance left by their parents, or meeting some incredible benefactor who helps them—those things were absolutely not going to happen at this point in time.
‘Even so, the reason I helped them go out… maybe it was because of my naïve thought that the twins might somehow survive. I also wanted to earn their trust.’
A bitter taste filled my mouth.
Realizing that they were powerless, that if someone grabbed them they would be dragged back again—those weren’t pleasant realizations.
Even so, perhaps because they had tasted hope, their expressions were far better than before.
There was a huge difference between having no hope at all and seeing hope, even if you couldn’t leave right away.
“Oh, I see.”
“What’s with that expression? Why are you making a face like that?”
Noticing the bitterness on my face from all these thoughts, Bern reproached me.
“Huh? Was my expression strange?”
“Yeah. I mean… yeah. It was really strange.”
I touched my face for a moment. Watching that, Bern puffed out his lips.
“So don’t make that kind of face.”
“Uh… okay, got it.”
“Well… it’s not exactly because of that. I talked it over with my brother, and you don’t seem like a bad kid. And your dad seems to keep an eye on us consistently.”
Since it wasn’t wrong, I nodded and looked at the twins.
“I see.”
“Anyway, that’s how it is. So we’re going to stay here for a while longer. Thanks to you, we know where we’d need to go if we were to leave.”
“Mmm… but you said Dad seems to care about you—did he come to see you?”
In the past, Dad had almost deliberately avoided visiting the twins.
In truth, because I’d caused such a scene, he’d barely been able to visit at all. So the twins also didn’t have a very good impression of Dad.
To them, the person who first kidnapped and imprisoned them, and the father who kept them confined here, were essentially the same person.
So hearing that Dad cared about them—
I had no choice but to ask.
“Huh?”
“Yeah. He came by sometimes, but last night he came very late and got angry at the door. Quietly angry, though.”
It was so unexpected that I couldn’t help tilting my head.
“What do you mean? He got angry?”
“What do you think? Literally that. We were startled, thinking he’d found out that we went out.”
“But that wasn’t it.”
As if they were reflections of each other in a mirror, the twins raised their arms at the same time and scratched their chins.
“He wasn’t angry at us.”
“He got angry? Dad did?”
“Yeah. It was well past midnight… We were lying in bed pretending to sleep, and he came inside and checked the dishes.”
“We heard clatter-clatter for quite a while, and then a sigh.”
“And then he went outside and got angry.”
The twins, speaking one sentence at a time like beads strung together, poured out more and more stories as if a floodgate had opened.
It was completely different from how they usually answered only briefly or talked only about what they wanted to say. Perhaps they’d grown more comfortable, because they even told me things I hadn’t asked about.
“Because of that, there was meat in the morning, and lots of tasty food.”
“Yeah, it’s been a while since we ate that well.”
Watching the twins scratch their heads, I smiled without realizing it.
The twins who had been confined.
The twins who had suffered emotional abuse.
But even so, they were still just children. No matter that they were destined to become villains lurking in the shadows—right now, they were children.
Just seeing how happy they were over eating meat of all things.
“You’ll keep getting good food from now on.”
Once again, I felt that Dad was paying quite a bit of attention. I was glad I’d told him after all.
“That’s good, but… well, it’s fine. Honestly, it wasn’t like we couldn’t eat before.”
“Yeah. It was edible.”
“But still, no. You have to eat the same things I do. And from now on, you’ll have breakfast with me.”
At my words, both of them turned to look at me at the same time.
“With you?”
“Why?”
Bern and Callisto asked one after the other.
“Well, because we’re family?”
“Oh.”
“…….”
As always, Bern answered right away, while Callisto replied a beat later—their reactions were quite different again.
“Wow, then there must be a lot of delicious food there?”
“There is! You lay out tons of food on this huge table and pick whatever you want. You can eat more of what you like, and if there’s something you want, they make it right away and bring it to you.”
“That’s the best.”
Just the thought of eating good food seemed to brighten their faces.
‘Right. From now on, all they need to do is eat lots of good food. As long as there’s no one getting in the way.’
As that thought crossed my mind, I remembered the attendant who used to stand guard in front of this room.
“Oh, right—didn’t an attendant with really slanted eyes come in and glare at you or anything?”
“Ah, that guy who always stared at us from behind when he brought food.”
“The one who tried to talk to us through the food, like he was fishing for information.”
Sure enough, perhaps because they’d opened their hearts, the twins—who last time acted like they’d never say a word—now voiced their complaints.
I appreciated them telling me, but what was this about?
“He stared at you from behind when he brought food, and even tried to pry information out of you? That’s so underhanded. Why didn’t you say anything!”
I felt sorry for the twins, imagining that they’d gone through an even harder time than I’d thought.
“……Because we didn’t think there was anyone we could trust.”
At that honest answer, I let out a small sigh.
“Yeah… that makes sense.”
“Of course, that doesn’t mean you’re someone we can absolutely trust either.”
Watching them shake their head, I puffed out my cheeks.
“Yeah, yeah. I know. Of course I know.”
“But still… it’s not like we don’t trust you at all.”
Perhaps bothered by my expression, Bern shifted his arm slightly and nudged me.
“Yeah, yeah. If you trust someone just because of this much, you’d trust anyone. It’s right not to trust. Absolutely right.”
I responded awkwardly, half in agreement. Honestly, I couldn’t help feeling hurt.
I’d done my best, yet it felt like I was still someone they couldn’t trust.
“But not right now. Right now, we trust you a lot.”
“Mm-hmm. That’s good, then.”
A strange atmosphere flowed between us for a moment. A suffocating silence that felt like it might never end.
Unable to bear it, Callisto—who had been glancing back and forth between Bern and me—leaned slightly toward the window.
“But from today on, I don’t see him at all. That voice, that smell he had—it’s gone.”
He wrinkled his nose, like someone with keen, almost animalistic senses.
“I see.”
“And after that, everyone here seems to be treating us really well. I don’t know how long it’ll last, though….”
Only then did I finally understand the cause of the strange feeling I’d had since coming to this room today.
‘So that’s why.’
The reason the maids standing outside the room had been especially polite was probably because Dad had come by.
‘In the past, Dad had never made a fuss at the servants.’
I also hadn’t known what kind of treatment I was receiving here, so aside from whining, I’d never properly told Dad about these things.
Dad, too, thought I was doing well.
Instead, the servants had the audacity to point out my faults to Dad whenever I complained.
Dad had been busy placating me, and gradually I became a sensitive, ill-tempered, unpleasant child.
I didn’t even know why Dad treated me so well—everything I wanted had always been granted.
