ITMLWKM 4

Chapter 4.

Carsian Raumdisell, a boy who had just turned ten, sat in a warehouse that still clearly showed signs of rats. Or rather, since he’d been living there for a week or two now, it was his room.

He sat on a rusty chair and pulled something out from under a moldy cloth.

It was letter paper.

Carsian ran his fingers over the damp sheet and muttered,

“Weird. I was supposed to be able to contact him anytime with this paper…”

The paper in his hand was coated with a special liquid—a magic potion that let you use sirens, the ones who lured sailors with their beautiful songs, as messenger birds. With siren letter paper, you could send messages to the inland from anywhere on the open sea.

The only problem was the price. It cost a fortune, so not just anyone could use it. Count Raumdisell had spent a huge sum on it both to let people know he was still alive and to reassure his only son.

Knowing that, Carsian’s number-one treasure was this letter paper. He skimmed through the replies his father had sent.

“The last one was three months ago…”

In the weak light that was worse than a lantern, his face suddenly turned ashen. Once three months had passed since Count Raumdisell set sail, the replies stopped coming.

“Is it that my letters aren’t getting through, or did something… actually happen to Father…?”

Carsian wiped his darkened face with a rough hand.

“I hope it’s the first one… I really hope so…”

For the past six months, the marquis—his father’s close friend who was currently looking after him—had been blunt but reasonably kind. But the moment people’s interest faded, he flipped like a switch.

‘Even if people’s attention has died down, we can’t just get rid of him all of a sudden.’

‘What a complete nuisance!’

‘Young master of a count? More like young master of a frozen corpse! Put him to work in the stables! He should at least earn his keep!’

At first the shock had made him seriously ill, but people adapt. He was used to it now. There was one thing, though, that never got easier no matter how much time passed.

‘You stupid brat! Still don’t realize your father’s dead!’

That curse—that his father must already be dead.

Carsian wiped the corners of his eyes that had grown damp without him noticing.

“No. Father isn’t dead. He will come back. He has to.”

He clenched his teeth hard, trying to calm the fear. He wanted to see his father as soon as possible and pour out all the loneliness he’d been holding in.

Then, out of nowhere, a voice echoed in his head.

‘I’m stopping.’

It was Latia. At the same time her pretty face appeared clearly—wheat-blonde hair and calm purple eyes. In his mind she spoke with her small, neat lips.

‘You already noticed, didn’t you? That this family never really accepted me as one of their own.’

She was right. Carsian already knew the situation Latia was in.

“A bastard child…”

The servants didn’t even try to hide that Latia was the child of a dead maid and the family’s unwanted burden.

‘They badmouthed her right in front of me all the time.’

When was that? Recently, he thought.

On his way to clean the stables, Carsian had overheard the marchioness whispering to Latia.

‘A servant ignored you? As your mother I can’t just stand by and watch that.’

‘Sniff… and they didn’t even take the basting pins out of my dress.’

‘Good heavens, are you hurt? I’m so worried.’

‘Really? You’re truly worried about me?’

‘Of course. I’m your mother.’

Carsian had listened to the strange conversation with growing suspicion.

‘Weird. I heard it was the marchioness herself who told the servants to ignore Latia even more, and who ordered them to put her in a dress with the pins still in it.’

Since his room was right next to the ingredient storage, he often overheard the servants’ idle chatter.

Reyshina had told Latia she would give her someone to take out her anger on for what the servants had done. And that someone was Carsian. She also promised cookies every time Latia bullied him, saying it was to celebrate her growing up.

Even to young Carsian it sounded ridiculous, but Latia, who was even younger, never noticed anything strange.

‘She just got happy from Mother’s praise.’

Even to Carsian, who didn’t know her well, Latia clearly starved for her parents’ affection.

‘That’s why she couldn’t tell right from wrong and freely bullied me just because the marchioness said she’d love her for it. And she didn’t show a single bit of guilt…’

But then, out of nowhere, she stopped bullying him.

‘Susan said that kind of thing isn’t real love.’

And she had said it with a faint, guilty smile.

“The look on her face back then was so mature it was hard to believe it was the same person… Ah, no.”

Carsian muttered without thinking, then quickly shook his head and clutched his stomach, which had been growling for a while now.

“See? This is how it ended up.”

He gave a bitter smile as he remembered what the maid had said.

‘Young Lady Latia said you’re to go without food for the whole day.’

Since when did they listen so well to the bastard Latia’s words? The maid had spoken as if there was nothing she could do and then fled.

“Look at that. The second I didn’t play along with her whim, she went right back to normal.”

He knew she bullied him because of the marchioness, but from the victim’s side those words were just an excuse. Carsian clutched his empty, aching stomach and slumped over the desk.

“Father… I miss you.”

A damp voice slipped out like a sigh. Then someone knocked. Startled, Carsian jumped without meaning to.

‘Who could it be at this hour? No one ever comes looking for me.’

He waited warily. The person on the other side revealed themselves.

“Hey, it’s me. Latia.”

Even though the voice was soft and quiet, Carsian was more shocked than before.

‘Latia? At this hour… why…’

Curiosity flickered for a second—what scheme was this?—but there was only one thing he could say.

“Get lost.”

He expected her either to leave or to throw a tantrum. The answer that came back was neither.

“Just open the door for a second.”

“Why should I?”

“I… brought a little food.”

The hesitant way she said it made Carsian whip his head toward the door. His wide red eyes wavered for a moment, but he quickly steeled himself and turned away again.

“You’re the one who told them not to give me food in the first place. What’s this sudden change of heart?”

He spoke as if he already knew everything and wasn’t going to fall for it. This time she really jumped.

“That’s not true! I never said that! It’s all a lie. I… I got punished by Mother because I stopped bullying you.”

“Punished?”

“Yeah. Both me and you.”

The fumbling explanation filled Carsian’s face with confusion.

“I… went hungry all day too. So, um, Susan secretly brought some food at night. And then she said you were hungry as well.”

That was why she had brought it to share, Latia mumbled.

Carsian couldn’t believe it.

‘What the hell is she plotting?’

What was going through that pretty head to make her change overnight like this?

Only a week ago Latia had been bullying him while craving her mother’s love. Now she was ignoring that same mother’s punishment and coming to share food.

‘Ha. Flipping their attitude as easy as turning over a hand… is that just a family trait here?’

He deliberately thought the cruelest thoughts, but before he knew it he was standing up and walking toward the door.

‘It’s definitely not because of her gloomy voice.’

It was because his stomach had gone past growling and into actual pain, he told himself again.

‘Well… at least it probably isn’t poisoned.’

Even if public interest had died down, the marquis family still cared about appearances and couldn’t just throw him out. And outside the house the marquis still played the polite, cultured noble.

‘So he wouldn’t want the negative attention that would come if I suddenly died under suspicious circumstances.’

With that thought, Carsian slowly opened the door.

* * *

Honestly, I was a little surprised. I hadn’t expected Carsian to open the door this easily.

I had already braced myself for a full stream of curses and even the suspicion of “Did you put poison in it?” But Carsian cracked the door open and just eyed the food I was holding with a grumpy look. He sighed like he couldn’t believe that was all I’d brought, but he didn’t say anything else.

I felt relieved and was about to hand him the bread and soup when—

“Haaah, I’m so sleepy. It’s this quiet and I’m supposed to be patrolling… what’s the point…”

A servant’s voice came from around the corner, doing the night rounds.

“Hup.”

I sucked in a sharp breath without meaning to and glanced down the hallway where the footsteps were getting closer. Right now I was being punished with starvation for not bullying Carsian. If anyone caught me holding food, tomorrow’s punishment would definitely be worse.

And on top of that I was currently sharing food with him!

“Young lady, you have to hide!”

Susan whispered urgently. At that moment Carsian opened the door wider and stepped aside.

“Come in.”

“…Huh?”

My eyes went round with surprise.

I had only planned to hand over the food and leave. Come in?

“You’re being punished, right? It’ll be bad if you get caught.”

Or was that a lie too? Carsian’s face turned fierce in an instant.

“It’s not a lie! It’s true!”

I quickly shook my head and slipped into the shed-like room with Susan. Carsian shut the door before the servant rounded the corner.