May Every Wound Be Fatal - Chapter 24.1
After that, Cassian kept coming to the palace again and again.
The boy would hide his body deep inside the palace. It was because he believed the old maid’s words that if anyone found out he was alive, he would be killed. However, it was pointless.
“So this is where you were.”
“……!”
Cassian found the boy easily every time. It was because after the old maid died, the boy had not been able to wash properly, and the terrible stench could not be hidden. It was something the boy only realized much later.
Some days, Cassian came to the annex palace carrying food. On other days, he brought new clothes.
“Hey, I am here.”
Each time, the boy fled into a corner like a wounded animal, curling up his small body as tightly as he could.
“I told you, I am not going to hurt you.”
Cassian settled down a few steps away, then pushed the food and the new clothes toward the child. He would spend time there reading a book, and eventually the boy, unable to overcome his hunger, would slowly crawl out of the corner, glance around warily, grab the familiar bread, and then retreat back into the corner again.
Cassian turned around with a laugh.
“Honestly, the way you act is just like a kitten. Do you not think so, Noel?”
“…Your Highness.”
Noel, who had been silently guarding his back like a shadow, let out a small sigh.
Noel of the Briere count family was the prince’s knight and friend, and also the nephew of the deceased first queen. In other words, he was a cousin who was no different from a brother to the prince.
He found it unsettling both that the prince kept secretly going in and out of the annex palace, and that the king’s illegitimate son was plainly still alive.
Despite never having met anyone other than the old maid, the boy sensed that Noel disliked him. He also sensed that Cassian would not harm him.
Several days like that have passed.
The boy was still afraid of Cassian and felt awkward around him, but seeking human warmth was instinctive. At some point, without realizing it himself, he began to wait for the time Cassian would come.
Cassian noticed that the boy was waiting for him.
Now the child had grown bold enough to stick his head out and approach first, so Cassian, as though he had been waiting for this moment, hoisted the boy onto his back, fetched water from the channel, and scrubbed him clean.
“……!”
The boy did not even know how to scream. He simply trembled violently as his body went into convulsions.
Cassian laughed and brushed the child’s hair back with his hand.
“How is it, do you not feel refreshed?”
“…….”
The distance between them instantly became as awkward as it had been on the day they first met. Cassian threw his head back and laughed, while the boy, realizing that Cassian had not been trying to hurt him but to take care of him, only quietly furrowed his brows.
In response, Cassian pulled out something sweet from his pocket and handed it to the child. After staring at him with deeply suspicious eyes, the boy obediently took it, then moved back to keep his distance again.
At the taste he had never experienced before, the boy’s eyes widened.
For a moment, Cassian froze at the sight of the child’s eyes sparkling even more vividly blue than those of his father King Bailion and his half brother Tiberian.
After silently watching the child taste the sweetness for a while, he suddenly asked,
“What is your name?”
The boy looked at the upward curve of Cassian’s lips as he spoke, finding it strangely fascinating, and thought hard.
‘A name. What is my name?’
Having spent his entire life alone in the palace, the boy was in truth merely carrying on conversations through intuition and knew very little. The only words he knew how to say were things like he was hungry, he was hurt, he did not like that, and he liked this.
“What did the one who took care of you call you?”
The boy quietly shook his head, and Cassian muttered with a rather serious expression.
“Could he be a fool?”
“…Your Highness.”
“But Noel, who would say this child is seven years old? Come on, think about Tiberian, all plump like a piglet.”
Prince Tiberian was eight years old, yet he was a head taller than the boy and about three times as large in build. Bring this, I want that, he was so noisy that it was hard to believe.
“I would believe it even if you told me this child was five, or even four.”
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