Chapter 02
A large carriage had stopped in front of Maybel, though she didn’t know when it had arrived.
When she lifted her head, her eyes met the man inside the carriage.
With elegant silver hair that looked like it had been dusted with crushed pearls and red eyes, he looked just like a prince from a fairy tale.
‘This person is….’
If she wasn’t mistaken, he really was a prince.
Maybel immediately recognized him.
Archduke Sigmund Esclid.
Sophia’s childhood friend—and the sub male lead of this novel.
‘But just now… what did that sub male lead call me?’
She wanted to ask, but her heart was beating so fast that she couldn’t speak.
It was instinctive fear.
‘If I heard wrong….’
She was afraid to confirm that her existence was still unknown to the outside world.
As Maybel just stood there looking up with tears in her eyes, Sigmund tilted his head and asked again.
“Maybel… or am I mistaken?”
She didn’t hear wrong. She heard it clearly!
Maybel’s tear-filled eyes sparkled.
‘That’s my name!’
At that moment, an indescribable joy rose from deep inside her chest.
Her lips trembling, Maybel asked—
“C-can you… see me?”
“…What?”
Sigmund asked back, confused.
That was the answer.
They were talking right now!
“I mean… c-can you see me?!”
At her repeated question, Sigmund frowned slightly, not understanding, then answered—
“I can see you. Very clearly.”
“Ah….”
In that moment, it felt like a heavy layer of anxiety that had been clinging to her whole body was finally peeled away.
And Sigmund was still looking at her.
For the past eight years, whenever anyone accidentally met her eyes, they would quickly turn away as if they had seen something they shouldn’t.
This was the first time someone had looked at her for so long.
Meeting his red eyes made her feel warm and ticklish.
She felt alive.
‘So this is what it feels like… to exist in this world.’
The emotions rising from deep inside touched her tears.
A tear that had been hanging in her large eyes finally fell.
That was the beginning.
“Hic… sniff….”
Holding her breath, her face turning red, Maybel suddenly burst into tears.
“Hey—hey! What’s wrong?!”
Clatter!
Startled, Sigmund quickly got down from the carriage.
He looked confused, not knowing why the child was crying.
Still, he carefully reached out and gently patted her shoulders as she cried silently.
The man who held the highest status in the Greenhurst Empire—second only to the royal family—was now kneeling on one knee on the ground.
“Hic… hic….”
“You’ll get hurt like that.”
Sigmund gently took her hands away from her face.
The small hands were completely torn and rough.
Looking at them for a moment, he asked carefully—
“Maybel… that’s right, isn’t it?”
To have someone call her name… it felt this good.
To receive an answer, to have a conversation—it felt this happy!
With tears still on her face, Maybel smiled brightly and shouted with all her strength—
“Yes! Yes! I’m Maybel!”
I’m here.
I’m alive.
After the storm of emotions passed and she calmed down, her reason returned.
‘Ah… that was a bit embarrassing….’
She had cried so suddenly—he must have been surprised.
Maybel glanced at Sigmund, who had put her into the carriage.
Sitting across from her and looking out the window in thought, he looked as handsome as expected of the sub male lead.
His soft silver hair moved gently with the wind, along with his long eyelashes and gentle eyes.
He was the perfect gentle beauty—and on top of that, the youngest aura user and the greatest authority in alchemy.
If Caesar was the typical regretful male lead who treated the female lead badly, then Sigmund was the devoted one-sided-love sub male lead.
‘I didn’t expect to meet him like this.’
The reason why Sigmund Esclid was passing by the Ashilonia ducal estate was explained in the novel.
He was so deeply in love with Sophia that he would even write research papers for her.
After Sophia disappeared, he would pass by the estate every two or three months on purpose.
Just in case she had returned.
Just in case he could hear any news about her.
It seemed today was that day.
‘Seeing him in real life… he looks even more pitiful. Sophia must be….’
Huh?
As she thought about where Sophia might be, Maybel’s eyes suddenly widened.
She had a clue about where Sophia was!
‘Couldn’t I sell that information to Sigmund?’
She was already worried she might get kidnapped while wandering alone without a guardian—
Maybel tightly grabbed the carriage seat.
‘Let’s just ask him to take me nearby.’
“E-excuse me, mister!”
“…Mister?”
At her voice breaking the silence, Sigmund slowly turned his head.
His eyebrow twitched slightly, but Maybel was too focused on what to say to notice.
“You came to find my mom, right?”
“…What?”
“I know where my mom is. I’ll tell you—but only to you.”
“……”
“B-but… I need to go somewhere far.”
“……”
“I’ll tell you something important, so could you take me there? Or just lend me the carriage—I can go alone!”
“Why? Your home is here.”
“Ah… well….”
After thinking for a moment about how to explain it, Maybel answered honestly.
“I ran away from home.”
“…Hmm?”
Did I hear that wrong?
Sigmund scratched his ear and asked again—
“Why are you going far away?”
“Because I ran away!”
But Maybel gave the same answer again.
For a moment, Sigmund felt his mind go blank.
Maybel still looked thin and weak, her hollow red eyes wide like a rabbit’s.
‘Now that I think about it….’
In truth, putting Maybel into the carriage had been an impulsive decision.
He was worried she might collapse while crying silently.
And after bringing her inside…
As expected, she looked like a child who had not been cared for.
Her tear-stained face was dirty, and her small, thin body made her look much younger than her age.
Her worn dress and shoes didn’t suit a duke’s daughter at all.
Even just looking at her torn, bleeding hands was enough.
‘It seems no one took care of her after Sophia disappeared. Not even her father, Caesar.’
Sigmund thought of Caesar.
As Sophia’s childhood friend, he knew him well.
‘I thought he wouldn’t neglect a child since he had such a miserable childhood himself….’
As Sigmund’s expression darkened, something caught his eye—small hands fidgeting.
“Mister, I’m not lying. I really know.”
Tap, tap.
Even as her torn skin split more and started bleeding, Maybel kept moving her hands.
“Stop. That’s enough.”
Sigmund grabbed her hands.
They were rough and so thin that he could feel the bones.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Ah, yes. I know. I can feel it stinging.”
“Then you should have stopped.”
As he wrapped her fingers with a handkerchief, he asked—
“It hurts.”
“Oh, I’m fine. I actually like it.”
“…What?”
“Pain and bleeding mean I’m alive!”
At her bright answer, Sigmund’s expression stiffened.
‘What is this…?’
The more he talked to her, the heavier his chest felt and the more his head ached.
After rubbing his face, he spoke in a low voice.
“For now, let’s go home.”
“Home? But I ran away.”
Was he trying to take her back to the estate?
Startled, Maybel slowly stood up.
Sigmund gently placed a hand on her shoulder, as if to reassure her.
“Not your home. My home.”
“Your home…? Why would I go there?”
“Because it seems like you have a lot to tell me.”
“Huh? No, I was going somewhere—”
But before she could finish, Sigmund knocked on the carriage wall.
Clatter.
The stopped wheels began to move.
Seeing the Ashilonia estate getting farther away through the window, Maybel’s eyes widened.
Her small mouth opened and closed before she shouted—
“W-wait! This—this is kidnapping!”
“I’m impressed you know that word.”
“Hey! I want to get off!”
“It’s dangerous to stand in a moving carriage. Sit down.”
“Then stop it!”
“It will stop when we arrive, whether you like it or not.”
He answered her—but it felt like they weren’t understanding each other at all!
‘Isn’t he supposed to be the kind sub male lead?! Is this out of character?!’
Kidnapping a child and acting this shameless about it?!
But while Maybel was in chaos, Sigmund remained calm.
“It’ll take a while, so get some sleep.”
And so, Maybel was kidnapped by the sub male lead she thought was kind—and tasted the bitter failure of her plan.
“Want a cookie? Or chocolate?”
It was a slightly sweet kind of failure.
