“……What? What do you mean by that?”
Yevgenia felt a strong sense of unease from Joshua’s grin as he tugged at the corners of his mouth.
With trembling eyes, Yevgenia looked at Joshua.
“Wait a moment.”
The boy suddenly stood up confidently and dashed off somewhere.
“Sherry, wait a moment……”
“Ugh, shushu? Sherry’s sleepy……”
“Yeah, sorry. Just a moment.”
Joshua soothed his twin sister and pulled something out from under the pillow Selmia was resting her head on.
“Found it.”
He came straight over to Yevgenia holding it.
“Give me your hand. Hurry.”
Still dazed, she stretched out both hands toward the boy.
Then Joshua emptied the handful of things he had tightly clenched into Yevgenia’s palms.
“Take these. I’ll give you everything.”
Her hands were filled with something hard.
Yevgenia looked down at them a moment late, tilting her head in confusion as she muttered,
“What on earth is this? Hah……! Young master!”
Her eyes trembled.
She swallowed nervously several times before managing to say,
“Where did you get all these?”
Judging from Joshua’s proud smile, as if interpreting her lowered voice as greed, he said,
“Want them, don’t you? You want to have them, right?”
What the boy brought were three jewels: a brooch, a pendant, and a red stone ring.
“Young master……”
Yevgenia’s heart dropped.
Unaware of her feelings, Joshua puffed out his chest toward her.
“If you become our protector, these will be yours. Consider it payment.”
The boy kept boasting proudly.
“I secretly took only the biggest stones from mother’s jewels. The other servants would be so disappointed if they found out.”
The marquis and his wife were dead. So for the twins, the brooch and pendant were like their parents’ heirlooms.
‘Those two, I shouldn’t accept.’
For them, these were precious keepsakes.
Moreover, both were set with a fleur-de-lis (⚜), the symbol of the Careiton marquis family.
Though a common emblem, selling them would be treated as stolen goods and cause serious trouble.
‘Joshua’s still young; he probably didn’t think that far. Then the last one is……’
Yevgenia’s heart sank deeply as she checked the last item—the ring.
She knew well what it was.
‘A fake ring.’
It was purchased by the kind marquise from a jeweler who swindled her.
Though it looked like a jewel, it was merely colored glass. But since its shape was quite elegant and the color radiant, they hadn’t disposed of it, planning to let Selmia use it for play.
‘I can’t even tell him it’s fake.’
Yevgenia tightly shut her eyes.
‘What should I do?’
As if reading her hesitation too well, Joshua added urgently,
“I’m not asking you to promise to take care of us for life. Just……”
His voice weakened.
“Take us out of here and bring us to the Eisa Empire. If you do that, all these jewels are yours.”
His voice gradually turned desperate, begging.
Finally, he lowered his head again.
“We just need to get to the Herace dukedom of the Eisa Empire. The late duchess was our great-aunt. So just to the dukedom…… Please, Yevgenia. I beg you.”
A great-aunt, huh. It meant the twins’ situation was so bad they had no choice but to rely on such a distant relative.
Yevgenia bit her lower lip hard.
‘I want to pretend I don’t know.’
Because she wanted to live.
But her conscience as an adult pricked painfully.
Her mind kept repeating, ‘What should I do,’ but her heart was already decided.
‘These kids don’t have to hit rock bottom to take revenge, do they?’
What if they could take revenge by eating well, sleeping well, and growing well?
If revenge progressed that way, they could even rise back into the ranks of the original story.
“You promised, didn’t you……. to be our protector.”
Joshua’s voice started trembling with tears.
At that moment, Yevgenia felt a crushing burden of conscience she couldn’t fully express.
‘I’m the one who gave this child false hope.’
Though she hadn’t intended it…
Feeling as if she had unintentionally hurt him, she didn’t know what to say.
Biting her lower lip nervously, after a long moment, Yevgenia seemed to make up her mind and spoke.
“Young master.”
“……”
“Please keep these.”
Yevgenia held out the jewels Joshua gave her.
Thinking it was a refusal, Joshua’s face immediately twisted in frustration.
Judging he could no longer plead, the boy grabbed the items Yevgenia offered back with trembling hands.
Brooch in his right hand, pendant in his left. As he reached for the ring, Yevgenia clenched her fist, withholding the fake jewel.
“……Yevgenia?”
Joshua looked at her oddly, but she smiled slyly with narrowed eyes.
“I think just this ring is enough for me.”
“……!”
Joshua’s face, which had been clouded with gloom, instantly brightened.
Still just a child.
Yevgenia couldn’t bear to see despair flicker on his face again.
That was her last shred of conscience as an adult.
‘Even if I sell it, I wouldn’t gain anything…’
If keeping this made Joshua feel reassured, she could pretend not to know it was fake as many times as needed.
“I’ll take you just to the Herace dukedom, then help you find a new protector.”
To soothe her anxiety, unlike Eileen, she reminded herself she wouldn’t take full responsibility for the twins.
Although deciding to help made her feel lighter, Yevgenia composed herself and said,
“But young master, is that a promise?”
She raised her pinky finger with a mock stern expression.
“I’ll really take you only to the Herace dukedom. Understand?”
“……Yes!”
Joshua looked up at her with tear-filled eyes and linked his pinky with hers.
Yevgenia wanted to leave the Careiton marquis house immediately, but Joshua wanted to stop by their room briefly.
“Let’s write a contract, Yevgenia.”
He carefully scraped hardened ink from the pen nib and deliberately wrote something on paper.
Watching the boy quietly, Yevgenia suddenly asked,
“Young master, why me, of all people? There were other servants.”
“Do I need a reason?”
“Of course.”
Joshua hesitated, then sighed deeply at Yevgenia’s firm tone before speaking.
“You hated us less than the others.”
“What? Me?”
Surprised, Yevgenia asked again, and Joshua nodded seriously.
“The other maids openly bullied me and Sherry. But you……”
Joshua hesitated briefly before continuing.
“You brought us food every day.”
That was the only reason.
Yevgenia felt even more conflicted.
“I’m the one who stole Miss Selmia’s things.”
“I know. But someone who gives food is a good person……”
While exchanging words, Joshua seemed to have finished writing.
He stepped forward and handed the paper to Yevgenia.
“Read it.”
“Okay.”
She obediently picked up the paper, planning to just agree, but upon reading, her brows furrowed deeply.
Without looking away from the paper, she asked with a displeased voice,
“Do you really have to write down something like this?”
“Yevgenia tends to be indecisive, so I want to make things clear.”
Joshua answered sharply.
‘Ah! Kids can be so picky!’
Muttering complaints, Yevgenia reread the contract Joshua had written in uneven handwriting.
She had to take Joshua and Selmia to the Herace dukedom in the Eisa Empire and help them meet a new protector.
Since she received the jeweled ring as payment from Joshua, she had to pay a penalty of one million gold coins if she broke the contract.
“One million gold coins……”
Wasn’t that penalty way too harsh for a fake ring?
‘This is totally an unfair contract.’
Yevgenia complained.
“Young master, the penalty is too high.”
Joshua glared at her and said,
“Why are you worrying about the penalty already? Yevgenia, are you thinking of abandoning us halfway?”
“No, no, I’ll sign it, yes. I’ll sign now.”
Yevgenia shook her head but wrote her name at the bottom.
Only then did Joshua smile satisfactorily.
“Well done. I’ll keep this. I’ll throw it away when we reach the Herace dukedom.”
“Okay……”
Muttering hopelessly, Yevgenia suddenly seemed to remember something and said,
“Well then, I have a condition too.”
