The next day.
Aisha woke up early in the morning. But the spot beside her was empty, as it seemed Luzbel had already gone out to work.
“You called, Madam?”
“Yeah. What about Jeron?”
“He woke up, but he’s being quiet.”
“Really?”
As soon as she woke up, Aisha looked for Jeron and headed to where the child was, with only a shawl draped over her shoulders.
As if expecting this, Mika had naturally gone to check on Jeron’s condition first.
“You’ve arrived.”
Flora also greeted Aisha familiarly.
“Is he okay?”
“Yes.”
Jeron, who was surprisingly subdued, felt like the calm before a storm.
After waking up, he had been doing nothing, just staring blankly at the ceiling as if lost in thought.
The servants couldn’t relax for even a moment, afraid something might happen.
“…”
When Aisha entered, Jeron’s gaze followed her briefly, but only for an instant.
Then he went back to staring blankly into empty space, and his condition looked serious.
“…Jeri.”
She grew anxious, wondering if he might return to how he was before, or if his condition had worsened even more.
But Aisha carefully hid those feelings and slowly approached Jeron.
“Did you sleep well?”
She asked an ordinary, everyday question, as if checking in.
She didn’t ask if he was okay, or if he was in pain at all.
Aisha met Jeron’s eyes and sat down in front of him.
“…”
“I’m sorry.”
Seeing his strangely hollow eyes, the apology slipped out on its own.
It was a gaze far too heartbreaking for a young child to have.
“…For what?”
What was Jeron thinking?
She had kept worrying right up until she fell asleep last night about why he had caused such a scene.
She could only guess that something among his memories with the nanny had been triggered.
In the end, it was probably because Aisha and Luzbel had failed to properly take care of Jeron that the child ended up with trauma.
“…I’m sorry I was so late.”
“…”
Jeron didn’t say anything.
Ever since finding Jeron again, it felt like all she had done was apologize.
And it was true that there had been plenty to apologize for. Even though it wasn’t something she herself had done, she didn’t feel resentful about apologizing.
She just hoped that even if Jeron was slow, he would gradually open his heart and get better.
Even if it took a long time, as long as there was hope that things would improve, she was willing to stay by his side for as long as it took.
She didn’t know.
She was just a character in a novel, so why did her heart ache this much?
But for now, she decided to follow where these feelings led.
With that resolve, Aisha pulled Jeron into her arms and gently patted him.
There were no more apologies, no comfort, no excuses, no words at all.
They simply shared warmth.
***
It was strange.
He had thought he would never trust again, that he didn’t want to open his heart.
But at some point, Aisha seemed to have seeped into Jeron.
No, this affection he was receiving for the first time had become precious to him.
Everything felt unfamiliar and awkward the first time.
But that was also why it was so deeply addictive.
It was warmth and affection he had never once received in his life.
“…I don’t like it.”
“Huh?”
“I think I don’t like sour food.”
“…Is that so?”
And so, the feelings he had been determined never to speak of began to spill out.
“What I ate every day was sour food. It tasted different from what I ate yesterday, but just eating something sour brought back the memories. That it had been like that until recently…”
He was beaten by the nanny and forced to work with scabs still crusted over his skin.
Back then, he didn’t even know it was unjust.
He had lived in the cabin since he was born, and the nanny had always been by his side.
The nanny always whispered like a demon.
‘You have real parents, but they abandoned you, and because of that, I had to take you in.’
A burden that was nothing but a nuisance to both his real parents and to her.
She would say she had wished he would just die, but that he had stubbornly survived, trapping her here, and every day she poured out cruel verbal abuse and violence.
The nanny always seemed soaked in madness.
Perhaps because he had lived like that since he was very young, he never even thought it was unfair. He just thought that he was a useless burden, someone who should never have been born.
Of course his parents had abandoned him.
He always listened to what the nanny said and accepted it as natural.
And then.
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
The parents who were supposed to have abandoned him came to find him of their own accord.
They looked at the nanny with cold eyes.
The nanny lay flat on the ground, more flustered than ever before.
From that point on, everything was turned upside down.
Jeron was moved from the cabin to the main estate.
Why?
Nothing made sense. Wasn’t that so?
Now, even if they acted warm toward him, all the time they had ignored him without a second thought still remained clearly etched in Jeron’s heart.
Disgusting.
Maybe they came looking for him again because he had finally become useful.
What use could someone who was nothing more than a burden possibly have?
So he stayed on guard.
He caused scenes, hoping they would hurry up and abandon him again.
But even so, Aisha kept approaching him.
“I’m sorry I didn’t realize.”
Hearing apologies over and over was tiring.
Did Aisha feel guilty toward him?
The moment that thought crossed his mind, a different reply came instead.
“Thank you for telling me.”
Aisha was really selfish.
Just yesterday, he had thought he was afraid to open his heart, and he still felt that way.
But if she kept approaching him like this, then someone like him, with no immunity to kindness, would inevitably grow weaker little by little.
Could it really be genuine?
Amid suspicion, doubts bloomed.
Again and again.
***
It really was trauma.
Hearing that he had eaten spoiled food every day made Aisha’s stomach churn, and she tried her best for the sake of the unsettled Jeron.
Perhaps because of that, Jeron also naturally began to assimilate to Aisha.
Since the day he had spoken his true feelings, it felt like he had opened his heart a little.
“Jeri! Look at this!”
“…”
“It’s so pretty, right? Let’s take good care of this together from now on.”
She had read somewhere that it was good for children to touch things with their own hands and grow them.
The ducal estate had a wide garden, and Aisha decided to grow plants together with Jeron.
What to grow, from start to finish, she chose everything together with Jeron.
They decided to start with the plant said to be the easiest to grow.
Surprisingly, there were cacti here as well.
Knowing that cacti were easy to grow, Aisha asked Jeron’s opinion and chose one together with him.
They were expensive, ornamental plants with prices set arbitrarily.
Still, the Ducal House’s budget was more than ample, so getting one was hardly difficult.
“They say that if you take good care of this too, it blooms once a year.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. Do you want to plant it yourself, Jeron?”
“…Yeah.”
He chose the soil, dug into the ground with a small trowel, and didn’t even care about getting his clothes dirty.
That way, they filled an entire flower bed.
“You planted it well. That’s amazing, Jeron.”
Aisha clapped her hands in delight, and for the first time that day, Jeron smiled freely.
***
Cacti didn’t need frequent watering, but they decided to write a cactus growth journal together every day.
“It looks like it’s grown a little today.”
“Yeah. It really has.”
Jeron nodded happily.
“Do you want to draw it too?”
“Draw?”
“Yeah. I think it would be nice to draw how it grows too.”
“Yeah. I want to draw.”
A maid quickly brought paper and colored pencils, and Jeron sat at the tea table, drawing diligently.
Aisha did the same.
Today, Luzbel joined them as well.
After meals, during his short rest time, Luzbel would sometimes take part in activities like this too.
“You draw well, Beli!”
“Thank you. You’re an excellent artist as well, Isha.”
“…Me?”
“Yes, of course. Shall we frame them and hang them up once they’re finished?”
“Don’t you dare.”
If that happened, she might die of embarrassment.
In her opinion, her drawings were worse than an elementary schooler’s.
On the contrary, Jeron, who claimed this was the first time he had ever drawn, was far more skilled.
Aisha couldn’t even manage color combinations, so the cactus was gradually turning into a poop-brown color.
“You draw well, Isha.”
“Huh? Jeri, you draw better though?”
“No. Like he said, it feels like a drawing that should be framed. It has sense.”
“Really?”
Aisha tilted her head.
She wondered if the aesthetic sense here was just a bit different.
“Mmm. When you’re done, can you give it to me?”
“Why wouldn’t I? Of course you can have it.”
It was the first time he had ever asked her to give him something, and Aisha was so moved she looked ready to hand it over right away.
“I wanted it too…”
Luzbel muttered gloomily.
“Should I draw another one?”
“Really?”
If her drawing skills were supposedly that good, there was no reason she couldn’t draw one more.
Aisha immediately grew smug and said,
“Ah. The world of art is a bit difficult, but if you want one, I guess I could do one more…”
“Thank you.”
“Of course I can do this much for you, Beli.”
The three of them were, in their own way, quite cheerful.
So much so that servants who had been in the ducal estate for a long time were sometimes surprised when they saw them.
***
After drawing together and looking at the cactus, they also made cookies in the kitchen and spent a lot of time together.
“Hehe.”
Perhaps thanks to those efforts, the previously unstable Jeron seemed to gradually calm down.
Naturally, his range of activities kept expanding, and at some point, even staying in the ducal estate began to feel stifling, so she occasionally went out for walks in the village with Jeron.
No matter how large the estate was, doing the same thing every day did get boring.
More than anything, she wanted Jeron to see and hear more of the world.
He was a child who had lived in near isolation from the world while staying in the cabin.
“Isha.”
Of course, wherever Aisha went, Luzbel followed as if it were only natural.
Aisha, too, accepted Luzbel’s presence as something she was used to.
“Yes?”
She gradually became someone who smiled more and more.
The servants of the ducal estate all liked the gentle and kind Aisha.
“You look pretty today.”
Day by day, she seemed to bloom more brightly.
“Thank you!”
Naturally, the nobles who had been keeping a close eye on Valencia, the Empire’s one and only Ducal House, also noticed that change.
Luzbel had lived in seclusion after his marriage.
The same went for Aisha, needless to say.
But word had begun to spread, even reaching the Capital, that they were slowly showing themselves again.
Above all, the sudden invitation of a psychological counselor became quite a noisy topic of controversy in high society.
If Aisha had heard it, she probably would have thought, ‘People really make an issue out of everything.’
