Chapter 28
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Chapter 28
Claude regarded Amelia with an expression of clear displeasure as she looked at him.
Through the window beyond the child's shoulder, I could see Lucian's figure.
More precisely, Lucian with his forehead pressed flat against the window, staring through Amelia's back as if trying to bore holes into it.
"...Amelia."
"What is it?"
"Would you like it if I married the young lady of Rilprey?"
"Of course!"
"Then there's something you need to do for me."
"What is it?"
Her round eyes, which had been blinking like pearls, soon turned in the direction of Claude's gaze.
"Lucian?"
"Yes."
Claude gestured carefully toward Amelia. She brought her ear to his lips.
"Actually, you see...."
Claude whispered something into Amelia's ear with quite a serious expression.
Amelia's eyes sparkled like a raven discovering a jewel as she nodded.
* * *
Lucian sat crouched in one corner of the room. His already small frame appeared even tinier as he curled himself up as tightly as possible.
Lucian hugged his knees with both hands, his lips pouting out in a sulk.
"I hate Aunt."
Aunt had scolded me more than once or twice.
For breaking the necklace she treasured, or for ruining the laundry the maids had hung out to dry. I had been punished countless times for various other reasons.
Each time, I felt such sorrow.
I could barely understand the words that she was scolding me because she loved me, and she never easily comforted me when I cried so hard.
If anything, it would have been better if she had simply left me alone.
'Don't comfort Lucian until he apologizes first.'
'But... the young master is crying so sadly?'
'Leave him be until he stops on his own.'
She had even issued stern orders to the maids not to comfort my crying self.
I felt such sorrow. So very much sorrow.
Yet all the sadness until now paled in comparison to today.
'Would you like to come play at our house next week?'
Aunt had scolded me before, but she had never shown interest in any other child besides me.
But this time was different.
Not only did she show interest in Edwin, but she openly favored him.
'Lucian is still like a baby.'
And on top of that, she even said I was not very appealing.
"Aunt likes Edwin more than me."
The moment I spoke the words aloud, the sorrow swelled up even more intensely.
No, this was an emotion that could not be defined by the word "sadness" alone. It was sorrowful, shocking, infuriating, and unbearably disappointing.
"She's not Edwin's aunt. She's my aunt...."
Why did she favor Edwin over me?
My disappointment in my aunt and my jealousy of Edwin grew with each passing moment.
"What are you doing here alone?"
At the voice pouring down from above, I lifted my head from where it had been pressed to the ground.
"...Amelia."
The owner of that warm, sunlit voice was Amelia.
Her gentle smile lasted only a moment before Amelia's eyes widened as she gazed at me.
"Lucian, have you been crying?"
"No."
I roughly wiped my eyes with my sleeve. The tears that had been clinging to my eyelashes brushed away against the fabric.
"It looks like you have."
"I haven't. I don't have any tears."
Crying in front of my aunt or nanny was nothing to me. But strangely, I didn't want to cry in front of Amelia.
'Tears are something only babies shed.'
I wanted to look cool in front of Amelia.
...Even if my aunt seemed to see me as a baby.
My shoulders drooped.
Thinking of my aunt smiling at Edwin, my shoulders sagged again.
Amelia gazed at my unusually small shoulders and opened her mouth.
"You're upset, aren't you? Because it seems like Lucella favors Edwin over you."
At those words that struck the heart of the matter, my eyes and mouth widened. The expression on my face asked how she could possibly know that.
"There's a way to know everything."
"You really are amazing, Amelia. There's nothing you don't know."
Amelia, embarrassed by words that bordered on praise, cleared her throat and opened her mouth again.
"You don't need to be upset about it. Lucella loves you more than anyone in the world."
"No. My aunt loves Edwin more than me."
"That's not true."
"But...."
"Have you ever seen me say something wrong?"
"...."
At Amelia's firm voice, my lips, which had been moving busily, stopped.
I rolled my eyes around once, then shook my head.
"That's right. I only speak the truth. So believe me. Lucella loves and cherishes you more than anyone."
"Really?"
I wasn't doubting Amelia. I was simply confused. If she loves me more than anyone in the world, why does she make me cry?
"If you love me, why do you treat me like a baby?"
"That's because...."
Because you act like a child. An incorrigible troublemaker at that.
But I couldn't bring myself to say such things to Lucian's face, his eyes already reddened.
"When you first came here, you asked us if we were beggars, remember?"
As Amelia dredged up a memory I'd rather have buried, Lucian fidgeted with his clasped hands.
"I'm not scolding you, so stop looking so worried."
Amelia took Lucian's hands and gently unclenched them before continuing.
"You didn't mean it in a bad way."
"Of course not!"
Lucian nodded vigorously, as if afraid Amelia might misunderstand.
"Sister Lucella must feel the same way."
"Feel the same way about what?"
"Just like I didn't realize your true feelings, Sister's heart isn't what you think—you simply misunderstood her."
"That's confusing."
Lucian tilted his head, his brow furrowing. It was as if question marks were floating above his round little head.
"So what I'm saying is...."
Amelia opened her mouth to elaborate, but the sentence never came together.
Clever as Amelia was, she was only seven years old. What she was trying to explain now was far too complex for a child of seven to articulate.
"In simple terms, her words were one thing, but her heart was another. Like how you keep saying 'I hate Aunt,' but you don't actually hate me."
"H-how did you know that?"
"Because I can see right through you?"
Amelia planted her hands firmly on her hips.
Lucian stared at Amelia's confident face, then his gaze drifted toward Lucella in the distance.
'The same as me?'
Just as my words meant to draw closer had wounded Amelia's feelings, had I misunderstood Aunt's words too?
"...."
The tension drained from Lucian's tightly pressed lips.
Now that I thought about it, everything Amelia said seemed true.
Even when I cried and threw tantrums and got scolded, Lucella always held me in the end.
When I broke a plate playing around, she scolded me later. Lucella always checked first to see if I was hurt.
If she didn't love me, she wouldn't have cared whether I was injured or not.
"So? Now that you think about it, I'm right, aren't I?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Sister doesn't love Edwin more than anyone else. Lucella loves and worries about all the children here equally."
"Then why did you invite Edwin to our house?"
"Because I'm close with Edwin."
"But I'm not close with Edwin."
"You're close with me, though."
"...."
"My friends are your friends. Your friends are my friends. That's just how it is."
It was a convenient excuse, hastily offered. Yet Lucian's face began to flush bright red like a radish.
'Amelia said she's close with me.'
Amelia carried herself with maturity and a certain gravitas in all things. Perhaps because of this, she felt uniquely difficult to approach.
Unlike myself, who harbored feelings for her, I worried she might not consider me a true friend.
'Yet she said such a thing to me...!'
I felt so elated I might soar into the heavens.
"Lucian, what's wrong with you?"
Amelia's question caught me just as I was about to float away into the air. I quickly regained my senses and spoke urgently.
"Then can I call you Lia too?"
"Hm?"
"You only allow nicknames for people you're close to, right? I'm a 'close' friend of yours."
I deliberately emphasized the word 'close'. I could not afford to miss this opportunity to call Amelia by her nickname.
"Well...."
Thump-thump. My heartbeat thundered loudly. I waited for Amelia's answer, my trembling heart pounding behind my ribs.
At last.
"Yes."
"...!"
"Call me Lia."
The words I had so desperately longed to hear flowed from Amelia's lips.
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