<Chapter 10>

Kailas remembered the day he was abandoned at the Valerio Ducal Estate with haunting clarity.

The twelfth day of April.

It was an unseasonably hot day for spring.

Throughout dinner, his mother wore a deeply troubled expression. Well, she had been crying nearly every day, saying Lillian was sick, so that part felt familiar.

What wasn’t familiar… was the nanny.

After dinner, she handed Kailas a warm mug of hot chocolate. Normally, she never let him have any because she said it would ruin his teeth.

Even when he said he didn’t want it because it was too hot outside, the nanny forced the steaming drink into his hands.

She insisted he had to drink it so he could fall asleep early.

“If you keep whining, I’ll tell your mother!”

The threat of tattling scared him enough that he gulped it down, even though he didn’t want to.

And then… he fell into a deep sleep.

When he came to, he was already at the ducal estate. His eyelids felt unbearably heavy, so much that he couldn’t open them.

But he didn’t need to see. He knew it instantly.

This was the Valerio estate.

There was no bed this big back at his family home.

“Please take care of Kail, Chet.”

In the haze of sleep, he faintly heard his mother sobbing. Until then, she had always cried in secret, muffling her sobs.

Was something wrong with Lillian?

Kailas was too scared to open his eyes. Then, he heard his mother whispering to someone.

“If only I had been a little stronger… sob… then I could’ve taken care of Kail too…”

“This isn’t your fault, sister-in-law. Don’t say that. This was the best decision for everyone. Kail must not see Lily. At least not… until…”

His uncle.

As soon as he realized who she was talking to, Kailas knew for certain this was the ducal estate.

‘But what are they talking about?’

Kailas’s eyelids twitched. The adults were having an important conversation.

He wanted to know more.

But he couldn’t stay awake.

Sleep washed over him like a crashing wave.

He shouldn’t have drunk that hot chocolate.

The next morning, when Kailas woke up, he was alone in the ducal estate.

His uncle came to see him, and with a cold voice, said:

His mother and Lillian had gone to the Imperial Palace. And Kailas would be staying here for a while.

Kailas didn’t ask anything else. His uncle wore the same pained expression as his mother.

The only person left he could ask… was the nanny. But every word out of her mouth was a thorn.

“Why were you the only one left behind, you ask? Why do you think, young master? Because you’re a bad child. They couldn’t handle you anymore, so they left you here. If you behave well, they’ll come back to get you. Understand?”

Really?

Am I that hopeless?

No… I’m not.

I tried… I really tried to be good. I’m not bad enough for Mother to abandon me.

Though her words pierced him, Kailas tried to be good.

Even if it hurt, even if it felt unfair, even when the loneliness crept in and made him want to cry. He didn’t throw tantrums or whine like a spoiled brat. He listened, followed orders.

Because if he did, then maybe… he could live with his mother and Lillian again.

But.

One day passed. Then two. A week. Then half a month. A whole month.

Even as the seasons changed…

His mother and Lillian never came back for him.

Not even his uncle came to see him. He left Kailas in a huge, dark room… and turned away.

‘I’m lonely.’

That was when Kailas truly understood what it meant to be “lonely.”

I’m lonely. So lonely.

No matter how much he cried out, no one came.

No one held him.

No one patted his back and said it was okay.

The boy curled his small, thin body in that enormous room… and cried silently.

Eventually, even tears became exhausting.

That’s when a stiff-looking man showed up. A supposedly important figure and head of some grand association. He was Kailas’s first private tutor.

“Young Master Kailas speaks less than other children his age. He’s uncooperative. Difficult to handle.”

Who are you to say that to me?

I already know I’m the kind of kid even Mother had to abandon.

But why stab at my wounds like that?

I don’t need a tutor.

Go away.

Kailas exploded in fury, unleashing every kind of magic he knew. The man fled in a panic.

It happened again and again.

Tutors sided with the nanny and never listened to Kailas.

They all said the same thing.

That he was a troublemaker. A problem child.

Too much work. Too hard to deal with.

Kailas was furious.

At first, he was angry at his mother, at Lillian, at his uncle. But now… now, he was angry at himself.

Maybe the nanny was right all along.

Even Mother and Uncle said it. That I must never be with Lillian.

Is it because I’m so awful that they had to separate me from my sister?

Because I’m terrible… monstrous…

And that’s why… everyone…

“Everyone hates me.”

“No, they don’t!”

As Kailas muttered with his head hanging low, a bright and clear voice rang in his ears. At the same time, warm arms wrapped around him.

“It’s not your fault, young master!”

Kailas blinked in a daze and looked up.

“Really…?”

A woman with bright beige hair and clear skin smiled down at him, nodding sweetly.

“Of course!”

Tears welled up in the boy’s green eyes as he looked at her, Yurenia.

For the first time…

Someone stood on his side before even truly meeting him.

Marlenda had once again accompanied a new tutor, complaining about him the whole time.

But this woman reacted differently than all the others.

“Marlenda. Should you really say things like that? What if the young master hears you and gets hurt?”

Teacher Yurenia didn’t join in the bashing.

Not that it made Kailas immediately trust her. His heart was already twisted into knots.

So he splashed milk on her and yelled.

But even then, Teacher Yurenia didn’t get mad. She reassured him instead.

“You don’t have to believe me. But it’s true. Even if you fire me right now, Duke Chester won’t hear a thing about what happened today. So please don’t worry.”

He was stunned. He thought all adults hated him.

“You didn’t do anything wrong, so you don’t have to apologize to me.”

Teacher Yurenia was different. Teacher Yurenia was…

‘Like an angel.’

Like the angels painted on the cathedral walls. A beautiful angel surrounded by cherubs.

Kailas quietly hugged Yurenia, burying his face in her neck.

He loved how her hand gently and steadily patted his back.

“…Teacher Yurenia.”

“Yes, Young Master Kail?”

“What if… what if I make you sick, too?”

“What do you mean?”

“Lily’s sick ‘cause of me. So maybe you’ll get sick ‘cause of me too…”

“What?”

“Who said that to you?!”

Just as Kailas whispered, curling his back and speaking so faintly, the slightly ajar door swung wide open.

And in stormed a man with a twisted expression, Duke Chester.

* * *

“Who the hell said something so ridiculous?!”

Chester shouted in disbelief. His sudden entrance made the boy in Yurenia’s arms flinch.

“Who? Who told you that nonsense?!”

His eyes blazed like fire. He dropped to one knee to look directly at the boy huddling against Yurenia.

“Answer me, Kailas!”

“……”

“Kailas Valerio!”

Chester’s booming voice made the boy’s small frame tremble. Kailas clung to Yurenia, desperately avoiding his uncle’s gaze.

“Kail, speak!”

When the boy only turned away, Chester grew more frustrated and shouted.

But the intimidation only frightened Kailas more. As she felt her tunic grow damp from the boy in her arms, Yurenia set her jaw.

‘This can’t go on.’

She tightened one arm around the boy in a firm embrace, then raised her other hand and extended it toward Duke Chester.
 

<To be continued>

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