Chapter 12
For a moment I don’t even know what possessed me to run toward the children.
At first I was absolutely sure I should run away.
This awkward scene wasn’t meant for me but for the original heroine, Ji Eun-ha. I told myself I shouldn’t intervene and that I had no place there.
Those two children who suddenly appeared in front of Rixion Luhanes and me were one of the main episodes that cause Ji Eun-ha’s saintly powers to surface and deepen her relationship with the original male lead, Rixion. In the original story it was one of the scenes where Rixion is helplessly drawn in by Ji Eun-ha’s gentle, kind heart as she alone tries to protect those kids from a crowd that mercilessly hates and despises children who carry a disease.
I remember that emotional line well — how this episode tied into Rixion Luhanes’s past.
Through those kids, Rixion would confront his own past. Through Ji Eun-ha he would feel as if the wounded child inside him could be healed, and slowly grow more deeply attached to her.
I remembered every beat of that development. So no matter how much pity or concern I felt for those children, I convinced myself there was nothing I could do.
There was nothing I could do here — not until Ji Eun-ha appeared.
Whether by instinct or by logic, I steeled myself not to step onto that stage.
Even if Ji Eun-ha wasn’t here and I couldn’t help those children, I didn’t want to stand in for her. I didn’t want to steal her role.
So shamefully I tried to run away, leaving those poor kids behind.
No matter how badly I wanted to help them, I told myself I mustn’t, because I didn’t want to take Ji Eun-ha’s place.
I kept using that excuse and backing away — until I saw the insults and curses raining down on the children, rotten fruit and trash thrown at them, glancing off their bodies. Until I saw the way they cowered with fear and tried, with tiny arms, to hold each other somehow.
After that, everything in my head went fuzzy. I can’t remember clearly what possessed me to tear off my dress, cover my mouth and nose, grab Rixion Luhanes’s clothing, and run to the kids.
When I came to my senses, I had already taken Ji Eun-ha’s place. After that, I honestly don’t remember much.
“Think later — save the children first.” I moved frantically with that in my head.
I was prepared to take a few stones to the body, but luckily nothing else was thrown at the exact moment I jumped in.
Maybe everyone was so stunned that a noblewoman in a dress had intervened that they froze and stayed back, stammering.
Fortunately, the children only flinched for a moment. They didn’t flinch from my touch or resist; they stayed still and meekly allowed me to be near them. I caught a brief exchange of anxious glances between them, but there was no time to dwell on that.
Right then my only thought was to pull the children away from those fiendish people and protect them.
Above all, I could feel the children’s bodies blazing hot even through their clothes. Panic rose in me.
What surprised me in that moment was Rixion Luhanes.
“Elizabeth Christener!”
That sociopathic psychopath suddenly stepped forward, and as if to try to protect me, moved to pull the children away.
“Miss Christener, we should—”
“Hey! Don’t come closer! It’s dangerous.”
Startled to see Rixion reach toward us, I shouted at him hastily.
I had my mouth and nose covered, and seeing him approaching without any precautions made my brows knit in instinctive displeasure. He couldn’t possibly be ignorant of the children’s condition; what was he doing coming at us so recklessly?
I glanced at him like a bothersome obstacle, then looked back at the children. In a gentle, soothing voice meant to calm their frozen fear, I spoke.
“Can you walk? To the carriage over there. Carefully, get up. I— I absolutely won’t hurt you, so don’t worry.”
Bundled in oversized clothes, the children helped each other up slowly, kept watch with anxious eyes, and then began to follow my movements and walk.
Rixion’s eyes, which had stopped him in his tracks earlier, twisted into a displeased expression.
“Miss.”
“Why?”
As he reached out as if to stop us, I pushed his hand away with an involuntary, irritated flick, like brushing aside a nuisance.
I startled myself with the gesture and paused, frowning.
This wasn’t someone you could treat so casually, but this was not the time to be picky.
“If you have something to say, say it later. Later.”
“……”
He didn’t seem willing to step back so easily. Rixion Luhanes let out a short breath and lightly grabbed my wrist, pulling me away so that I was finally kept at a distance from the children.
“We should take them to the physician immediately.”
Before I could say anything, he volunteered to help.
His domineering attitude and the way he snatched my wrist offended me and made me angry.
Still, I was secretly surprised by his offer to bring the children to the physician — it made him look different in my eyes, in a somewhat better way.
But aside from any slightly more favorable thoughts about Rixion, I was troubled.
I knew bringing the children to the physician would be pointless.
“No. The physician won’t help.”
I shook my head quickly and fell into thought.
If Ji Eun-ha had been here, with her holy power she could have healed those children right on the spot. That was exactly how it played out in the original story.
But Ji Eun-ha didn’t exist in this world now. Even if the children were taken to the temple, the priests’ holy power wouldn’t be able to cure them.
The only thing that could cure the plague called the “Red Rat” was Ji Eun-ha’s unique power.
And even if a cure existed, I wasn’t sure the temple would use holy power to heal slum children in the first place.
“They will take them by force even if we say no.”
“No, I’m telling you the physician won’t help.”
When Rixion tried to pull me toward his side again, I resisted with equal force and answered irritably.
Everyone in this land knew only a little about the Red Rat; no cure or medicine existed. Even if later it turned out who deliberately spread the disease and what the cure was, that was far in the future.
For now, even a child would know there was nothing to be done to heal those kids.
So when he suggested, without a plan, that we take them to the physician, I frowned and shot back.
“Even if you take them to the physician, they can’t cure them. You know that.”
I moved again to go to the children, but Rixion tightened his grip on my wrist and wouldn’t let go.
He had more strength than I expected. Even when I pulled hard, he didn’t budge — he was the first person I’d encountered who didn’t move when I made up my mind to break free.
I was inwardly flustered but kept my face calm. When I looked up at him with a scowl that said “What are you doing?”, he exhaled shortly and answered.
“I meant that I would take Miss Christener away.”
“Excuse me? Why take me? Those children need treatment, not me.”
My words made his brow furrow even more. He looked as if my cluelessness was driving him mad.
“These children are infected. Step away at once. It’s a disease that has already killed more than half of the residents in the Exclusion District.”
“I know that.”
I raised an eyebrow as if incredulous he would think I didn’t know. Then I twisted my captured wrist free and, irritated, said:
“I’m fine, so you’re the one who should back off. Cover your mouth and nose — it spreads through respiration.”
Rixion said nothing further. His hard blue eyes fixed on me with a look that clearly meant he couldn’t understand my behavior.
Why was he acting like this all of a sudden? I wondered, but there was no time to think about that.
Before he could say anything more to stop me, I took the initiative.
I hurried to the children, pushed them toward the carriage I had come in, and shouted at him.
“I’ll take care of them, so please go on your way.”
I also gestured for Lady Rachel, who hovered hesitantly, to stay away, and loaded the children into the carriage.
After getting the hesitant, watchful children into the carriage, I was about to step in myself when a hand shot out and blocked my path.
I turned to look at the owner of the hand I was getting used to.
