Chapter 12
On the way back home, Winter kept glancing at Medilliane.
Her expression had been gloomy ever since they left the merchant’s guild.
Winter had thought it would be good for Hanta and Medilliane to get along in advance, since they’d be seeing each other a lot in the future, but it seemed that hadn’t been the best idea.
That grim, fierce-looking face seemed to have had the opposite effect.
“May.”
“…Yes?”
“Did something happen while I wasn’t around?”
When Winter asked casually, Medilliane, who had been staring at the ground and sighing deeply, lifted her eyes.
She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head.
“It’s nothing.”
Looking at her sullen face that clearly held a story, she said it was nothing.
Winter wasn’t the type to just accept something like that.
“Nothing? I can see your lips are tightly pressed together right now.”
“I-I’m not biting them!”
Medilliane, who habitually bit her lower lip, shouted and quickly pushed out her lips.
Winter burst into laughter at the ridiculous sight.
Even Medilliane couldn’t help but let out a silly smile after that.
A moment later, as the laughter subsided, Medilliane muttered very quietly.
“It’s just… because I’m too weak.”
There was someone who had been lingering in Medilliane’s mind.
It was Hanta, whose massive figure could fill the alley.
Seeing someone who could easily overpower people who merely clung to him and bit at him with one hand was truly shocking.
After that, Medilliane felt powerless. Even though she had asked her lady for fencing lessons and trained every day without fail, she still couldn’t match him.
“I promised myself I’d become stronger… but I’m still far from enough…”
Medilliane let out another deep sigh.
Winter forced herself to suppress a smile. What could a mere nine-year-old child possibly be worrying about so much?
On top of that, Winter knew that in the next ten years, unless she wasn’t the original heroine of the story, Medilliane would grow into a formidable force that no one would dare to challenge.
Knowing that future so clearly, Winter gently patted Medilliane’s shoulder to comfort her.
“Don’t be so down, May. You’re already doing more than well enough.”
“But I’m so scared.”
“Hmm, you don’t have to be scared like that. Actually, today too, our secret gua—”
“No, I don’t mind getting hurt. I’m used to pain.”
For once, Medilliane didn’t even listen to Winter’s words and shook her head.
The expression she wore while claiming to be used to pain was unusually calm for her age.
“But you’re not like that, my lady.”
“Huh…?”
Winter couldn’t look away from Medilliane’s face as she suddenly lifted her head.
It was only then that Winter realized where the fear in her large, trembling eyes came from.
“I… I’m scared that you might get hurt because of me, and there’s nothing I can do…”
“…May.”
“I’m scared that you might die.”
Winter’s heart dropped. She didn’t know what to say. Her mind went blank, unable to form a single word.
Winter would die soon. That was already determined. She hadn’t dared to wish to live.
It was only then that Winter realized she was the only one ready to accept her own death.
Though it was far in the future, would she even be able to persuade Medilliane then?
A vague fear washed over her.
“I will become stronger.”
It was Medilliane who broke Winter’s thoughts.
Her eyes shone brightly, resembling the red glow of the sunset, as she pushed aside her fear.
“And I will protect my lady.”
At that moment, Winter fell in love once again.
Yes, this was who Medilliane truly was.
Tilting her head slightly, Winter smiled faintly.
“Good. I’ll be counting on it.”
Winter noticed the bright blue bruise on Medilliane’s forehead, a result of rushing to protect her.
She pressed her lips softly against it and whispered.
“Protect me, May.”
Medilliane, staring blankly, quickly nodded.
“Yes, yes! I will! I promise, I will!”
The sunset hid the flushed cheeks of the two children, which was fortunate.
Because she had escaped silently from the duke’s mansion, Winter received a severe scolding from Duke Vladimir.
Her health was already poor, and she had gone about the capital recklessly, without servants in tow.
Rumors about the black-haired child who had suddenly appeared in the capital without warning had already spread, so Winter couldn’t even claim it wasn’t her. She could only humbly accept reality.
As a result, Winter was placed under house arrest for a while. The secret guard and the knights’ surveillance became even stricter.
The amusing part was that Medilliane had received an award.
Apparently, she had taken initiative in a dangerous situation to protect her lady.
Thanks to Duke Vladimir, who believed awards had to be material, Medilliane suddenly became wealthy overnight.
By “wealthy,” of course, it was all relative to Medilliane.
Winter watched her with a satisfied smile, having already forgotten that she herself was under house arrest.
“This is all thanks to me, hehe.”
Winter muttered to herself as she leisurely walked through the duke’s mansion.
Technically, someone else should have received the award as well—Hanta, who had saved them.
“Hmm…?”
Speaking of whom, as they passed the rose garden, Winter suddenly stopped.
There was a flash of hair poking out from the rarely frequented wall of the garden.
The short hair gleamed a faded copper color in the sunlight, looking familiar.
Winter glanced at the knights trailing from afar and quickly slipped through the little hole they had used last time.
“Sir! What are you doing here?”
“U-uaaagh!”
A man, peering over the wall as if hypnotized, screamed in shock.
Gripping his pounding chest, he frowned when he looked down.
“What…? That cheeky child again?”
It was Hanta, whom she was seeing for the second day in a row.
Winter wore a wicked smile. Alison must have kept her promise.
She had asked that it remain a secret for now that she was the heir of the Duke Vladimir household.
Hanta had no idea who the child in front of him really was.
He probably thought she was just a strange, arrogant little kid treating his precious young lord like a dog.
“How… how did you know I was here?”
“I can see everything.”
When Winter pointed to the hair peeking over the wall, Hanta instinctively shrank his neck.
Seeing that pitiful sight, Winter crossed her arms and gave him a warning.
“If you came to kidnap May, you’d better be ready to lose a wrist. Got it?”
Hanta flinched as if his legs had gone numb and stepped back.
“What are you talking about! I… I just came to check if that cute little child wasn’t being mistreated here while growing up!”
“Does May look like she’s being mistreated?”
“Well… uh…”
Hanta hesitated at Winter’s question. He remembered Medilliane yesterday.
She had been hit by those ridiculous thugs called the Wyvern gang, but her clothes were still fine, her nutrition seemed okay, and aside from her injuries, her face was smooth and pretty.
“Well, so…”
Seeing that no one was actually mistreating Medilliane, Hanta faltered.
Winter pouted her lips.
“The real person who mistreated her is someone else.”
Hanta’s expression immediately turned grim.
“Who?”
Winter shrugged.
“They already lost their wrist, so they’ll never be able to again.”
“What?”
“I handled it… ugh.”
Winter continued nonchalantly, but suddenly a sharp pain made her frown.
The pain spread instantly from her chest through her entire body.
Seeing Winter clutch her chest and unable to breathe properly, Hanta’s eyes widened.
“C-child… what’s happening! Suddenly, what’s going on?”
Unfortunately, Winter didn’t have the strength to answer. She collapsed to the ground and soon began coughing up blood.
Even though she had taken the medicine prescribed by Aisel, she had never coughed up blood before.
By now, Winter realized something was very wrong.
“Ins-inside…”
“What? What did you say?”
Winter struggled to move her lips, but collapsed forward. Hanta, who caught her, turned pale.
“Is there no one here? Someone… someone who knows this child?!”
At that moment, Hanta’s eyes landed on the wall. He assumed that the child living with Medilliane must be a member of the Duke Vladimir household.
Without time to think further, Hanta swiftly lifted Winter and leapt over the wall of the duke’s mansion.
“Hey! Is anyone here?! Does anyone know this child?!”
The sight of the large man suddenly appearing in the duke’s garden, holding a bloodied little lady, triggered an alarm across the mansion.
The duke’s personal physician and Aisel were called in to provide emergency care for the unconscious Winter. And Hanta…
“…Huh? Wh-why am I suddenly…?”
“Come over here immediately!”
Winter was locked in the underground prison of the duke’s mansion.
