Chapter 35
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org
Chapter 35
"I'm sorry. It's become a habit from doing this with Lucian. I didn't mean to."
Whenever Lucian fell ill, I would check his fever this way. Each time, he would burrow into my embrace, saying my forehead felt cool.
Small children might enjoy it, but it was certainly a bit awkward to do with an adult.
"Not at all."
Fortunately, Claude understood graciously.
In the meantime, the Physician handed Claude water and a fever-reducing medicine.
"I believe it would be best if you returned to your room and rested."
Claude swallowed the medicine with water while shaking his head.
"That's impossible. Amelia would worry."
"If you don't rest, something serious could happen. Please take it easy at least until your fever subsides."
"Then I'll rest over there for about an hour."
Claude's finger pointed toward the simple cot in the corner of the Physician's Office.
"An hour should be enough for the fever to come down."
"It's an effective medicine, so the fever will subside quickly, but... I have another appointment scheduled. Since it was a prior commitment, I'm afraid I won't be able to stay and care for you."
The Physician spoke with an apologetic expression.
"That's fine. I'm just going to rest my eyes for a bit—there's no need for nursing care. However, I will need someone to wake me in an hour..."
Claude trailed off and looked toward me.
"If it's not too much trouble, would you be willing to help, Miss?"
"Of course."
I nodded readily.
"I'll stay right here beside you."
"That's not really necessary..."
"But what if your fever rises while no one's watching? That would be terrible."
"Thank you, Miss."
Claude bowed his head respectfully toward me before being guided by the Physician onto the cot.
"Have the maids in the Playroom know that I'll return in about an hour."
"Understood."
After relaying the message to the Physician, I sat in the chair beside the bed.
"Then I'll take my leave now."
Claude and I nodded toward the Physician as he put on his outer coat.
Click.
Finally, the door closed, and only Claude and I remained in the Physician's Office.
* * *
Behind his closed eyelids, his eyes darted rapidly back and forth.
Claude was pretending to sleep while barely suppressing the urge to open his eyes.
As a patient, I had to at least appear sick, didn't I?
'Pretending to sleep is unbearably uncomfortable.'
Claude kept his eyes shut and tried to remain as still as possible.
But knowing that Lucella was watching him, he found it impossible to stay calm.
From the start, I had feigned that my wound had reopened and exaggerated my illness—all of it was for Lucella's sake.
I wanted to be alone with her.
Every fuss I made while clutching at a wound that didn't even hurt was merely a pretext to create moments where we could be together.
Not only was my wound perfectly fine, but when she discovered it had healed completely, I was momentarily flustered—but then.
'Fortunately, the sudden fever allowed me to escape that crisis.'
My normal body temperature spiked rapidly the instant her hand touched me.
Especially when our foreheads pressed together—I thought I might stop breathing entirely.
Because of that, I ended up taking an unnecessary fever reducer, but luckily it meant I could be alone with her, so I considered it a blessing in disguise.
'An unexpected windfall.'
Simply walking side by side was satisfying enough, but to have our foreheads touch and then spend an entire hour together—it was more than I could have hoped for.
Though I had to endure the disappointment of pretending to sleep, Claude was nonetheless happy.
Because.
"Duke, are you feeling alright?"
"...."
"It seems you've fallen asleep."
I had monopolized Lucella's attention entirely.
"Has your fever gone down?"
Lucella gently brushed back my bangs and placed her hand on my forehead. Her cool touch, slightly cooler than most, seeped through my skin.
"...."
I found myself swallowing hard several times, my throat burning inexplicably.
"It has gone down."
I had experienced this before, after all. This time, my face didn't flush as it had earlier. Judging by Lucella's reaction, my temperature hadn't risen either.
"Thank goodness."
A sigh of relief escaped Lucella's lips, brushing lightly against my lower lashes. At that ticklish contact, I involuntarily twitched my nose.
"Are you having pleasant dreams?"
Her soft laughter tickled my ear.
How beautiful must her face be as she smiles at me?
Should I simply open my eyes and pretend to have just awakened?
But then I wouldn't be able to see her smile like this....
While I deliberated dozens of times whether to open my eyes, I heard Lucella shift her position.
The sound of curtains being drawn, pages of a book spread across my lap being turned, strands of hair being tucked behind her ear....
As my vision was blocked, my hearing became all the more acute. My ears followed only her movements.
How beautiful must her face be, bathed in sunlight? What expression must she be wearing as she reads?
'This won't do.'
I cannot keep my eyes closed while she is right before me.
'I want to see her.'
My patience exhausted, Claude finally opened his eyes.
"...Oh."
Lucella filled his blue gaze entirely.
More precisely, it was the sight of her, eyes gently closed, lost in peaceful slumber.
Claude raised himself slightly and gazed at the book she was reading. The tome, densely packed with minuscule characters, looked tedious even at a glance.
The weather was pleasant, and she had already eaten. It was the perfect condition to succumb to postprandial drowsiness.
"Quite the soporific read, I must say."
Claude let out a soft chuckle and carefully rose from his seat so as not to disturb her slumber. He then gently draped his jacket over Lucella's shoulders.
'Watching her sleep isn't so bad, either.
A faint smile bloomed across Claude's face as he settled into the seat across from Lucella, resting his chin in his hand.
* * *
The five children were enjoying themselves in the Playroom, left behind as the two adults departed for the Physician's Office.
Unlike Rona and Lua, who played with toys and giggled merrily, Edwin's face bore no smile. Even when he managed to grin, it lasted only a fleeting moment before his expression returned to one of utter indifference.
"Edwin, what's wrong? Not having fun?"
At Amelia's question, Edwin—who had been staring blankly at the floor—lifted his head.
"Huh? No, it's not that."
"Then why are you acting like that?"
"It's just...."
Edwin merely fidgeted with his fingers, unable to bring himself to speak.
It was Lucian who poked him in the ribs.
"Stop that and just tell us already."
It was Amelia, of all people, who was curious. For Lucian, this was something he absolutely had to know.
"It's nothing much...."
"If it's nothing much, why are you hiding it!"
Lucian became a master of logic only in moments like these.
"Come on, tell us."
"Well...."
Pressed by Lucian, Edwin reluctantly opened his mouth.
"It's just that when we go back to the Orphanage after playing like this, I think I'll feel lonely...."
"Why would you feel lonely? There are plenty of friends at the Orphanage."
"The Orphanage is different from here...."
Paradoxically, the Orphanage was lonely precisely because there were too many children.
Though Lucella had transformed the Orphanage's environment, not everything had changed.
The children still operated under the old system. They were too busy securing their own portions to yield to others or look after those around them.
For someone as introverted as Edwin, with few words to spare, being pushed to the margins was inevitable.
Of course, the Orphanage teachers were kind. But not as kind as Amelia.
The teachers, occupied with so many children, could not devote their full attention to any one individual.
Edwin needed someone who would pour their care into him the way Amelia and Lucella did.
Someone who would gently look after him—someone isolated and left alone.
"Don't you two feel that way?"
Edwin lifted his head and gazed at Rona and Lua, seated across from him.
Since they all lived in the same Orphanage, he thought the two girls must harbor similar feelings.
"I'm not sure."
But Rona's answer was not what he expected. Lua, sitting beside her sister, shook her head in agreement.
"Why?"
Edwin asked in disbelief.
Even the lively children who played in the Playground would whimper quietly about their loneliness when dark night fell.
"Because I have Lua."
Rona embraced Lua's round shoulders as she spoke.
"I don't have a mother or father, but I have a sister. That's why I'm not lonely at all."
Lua adored her Sister dearly. Though drowsiness overwhelmed her and her head bobbed with sleep, she refused to close her eyes until Rona lay down beside her. The two sisters, lying side by side, drifted into slumber with their hands clasped tightly together.
"I'm not lonely because I have my Sister too."
Rona cared tenderly for Lua, who was two years her junior. When Lua whimpered about hunger, she offered her own snacks; when the child fell while running and cried, Rona helped her up and brushed the dirt from her knees.
This was precisely why the sisters were not easily adopted.
Rona and Lua refused to be separated from each other. No matter what, they wanted to be adopted together to the same place.
Adopting two children simultaneously was no simple matter, and their adoptions had been cancelled several times.
Even when the long-awaited opportunity vanished, the sisters never let go of each other.
It was something no teacher or friend could do.
"We are family."
It was possible only because they were family.
They would raise their voices in quarrels and bicker, yet by the next day, they would draw close again as if nothing had happened.
"Family...."
Edwin quietly murmured the word.
Now that he had heard what the sisters said, he understood.
I needed family.
Like Claude, who was a steadfast shelter for Amelia; like Lucella, who embraced Lucian despite their daily bickering.
A warm home, delicious meals, people who smiled at me with tenderness.
"...I wish I had family too."
Now I finally understood why my heart felt hollow even with Amelia and abundant delicious food.
Family. I needed family.
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org