Chapter 14

chapter 14

She didn’t hear a single laugh. He didn’t make fun of her as she expected. She felt a little uncomfortable with his hands on her shoulders. She wasn’t sure if this was his way of comforting her.

“Don’t you find it ridiculous?”(Yurina)

“Why would that be ridiculous?”

“Because I was scared of some measly dream.”

“Why?”

He frowned so much his eyebrows furrowed with a face saying he couldn’t comprehend her reason. Somehow, she felt like she was being unreasonable to him because of his reaction. She shrank back without her realizing.

She was so bewildered with what was happening. It seems like her worries and pain were all spilling out in front of Raynard.

“A scary thing is still scary no matter what it is. Even I’m scared to die. And I think I would be frightened too if I suddenly saw the man whom I only saw in my dreams.”

Raynard mumbled as he buried his face in Yurina’s shoulder.

“But still, I don’t think you should meet with him again ’cause I don’t like it. No, don’t ever meet with him again.”

Raynard’s voice was rather stern. However, rather than his voice, Yurina was more concerned about what he said. It wasn’t such a big deal, but she felt like she found the answer in his words.

‘Come to think of it, there’s really nothing to be afraid of.’

You need to clap your hand to make a sound. So, even if ‘Yurina’ and Curtis were lovers in the original novel, this won’t happen this time as long as she doesn’t care about him.

It’s just as Raynard said, all she has to do is not to meet Curtis from now on. As long as she doesn’t open her heart to him, their relationship won’t ever develop to become lovers.

Naturally, there won’t be a fight for the Empress’ seat with Lydia. If Yurina won’t have a confrontation against her, then ‘Charrion’, who was always beside her, won’t die at his hands.

‘Maybe it is a good thing that he doesn’t know,’

Yurina relaxed her expression then ruffled Raynard’s hair. Raynard, now with his bird nest of a hair, smiled to Yurina.

“Are you feeling better now?”

“Mhm.”

“Thank goodness.”

He gave a sigh of relief and rubbed his face against Yurina’s shoulder. Yurina pushed his head saying it was heavy, but he pretended he didn’t hear anything and continued to hugging her and rubbing his cheeks on her shoulder.

Raynard was trying to resist his heavily falling eyelids. But no matter how hard he tried, his sleepiness was prevailing. His tutor’s voice was gradually becoming faint and distant.

‘I must not fall asleep!’

He quickly shook his head and clapped his cheeks with both hands.

When the tutor heard the clapping sound across the drawing room, he stopped and closed the book that he was reading out loud.

“I guess you must be tired around this hour. Should we take a short break then?”

He might be strict, but he was rather generous towards Raynard who always gave his best.

“Thanks… Hoam.”

In order to hide his unsightly yawn, Raynard lowered his head as he covered his mouth with his hand.

Back then, he didn’t have to care about whoever sees his yawn. But now it’s different. Now, he understands that courtesy begins with trivial things like this.

Besides that, he no longer carelessly lies down in front of people, he doesn’t make a sound when he eats, and he can write his own name himself. Well compared to the younger Yurina, his handwriting was rather crooked, but it was readable enough.

After living in the mansion for a month, several things have changed. If Yurina had never brought him with her, he would surely still be living a meaningless life.

The tutor left the drawing room saying that they still had some business to do so Raynard could take a break and relax. All alone, Raynard flopped down on the table. Although the desk was hard, he felt like he was lying down on a very soft bed. Soon after, he wiped away the tears that formed in his eyes.

‘So sleepy.’

Unlike his life when he was living in the orphanage where he could play and sleep whenever he wanted, his life in the mansion follows a routine.

It’s hard to have a regular routine. After spending the whole day just trying to keep up with the lessons he has never learned before, this made him very exhausted. He was both physically and mentally fatigued.

“If you eat something sweet, it’ll help ease your weary mind.”

Raynard jolted upwards and straightened his back as soon as he heard a voice. It was the maid, Betsy, bringing along a cup of sweet hot chocolate and placing it in front of him while giving him a small sweet smile. Raynard was thankful to her for being very considerate of him.

“You are welcome, this is my job after all.”

The 20-year-old Betsy beamed at Raynard. Strangely, looking at the small and young Raynard reminded her of her little brother who she has left in her hometown.

His hair color, eyes, and even his personality—none of these resembled her brother but she can remember him crying to her saying ‘Sister, sister’ begging her not to leave him behind.

So that’s it. Maybe that’s the reason why Betsy wants to take care of Raynard of her own will even without the orders from Yurina.

Raynard who was vigilant and sensitive even to the smallest courtesy showed to him began to open up his heart little by little to the people of the mansion.

“Go on and help yourself.”

Raynard looked awkwardly up at Betsy and held the cup with both of his hands. He was able to sort out the people between those who liked him and those who didn’t.

When he first arrived here, he was so cautious that people had to walk on eggshells around him, but there were no signs of dislike towards him.

As soon as Betsy appears in front of him, she has always given him a warm smile and thoroughly attended to him as to not do anything he dislikes.

She was different from Mrs. Lauren who openly expressed her disgusts towards him.

‘Mrs. Lauren’

Whenever he recalls the name of the person he hates the most, his mood plummets.

Raynard sipped the sweet hot chocolate to improve his mood then asked Betsy a question.

“Where did Yurina go?”

Betsy glanced at the empty seat beside Raynard before answering,

“My Lady went to visit Dave.”

“Really?”

“Do you feel lonely that My Lady isn’t here?”

“No, not really,” he fidgeted and gulped down the moderately hot chocolate.

Betsy gave a soft giggle and bowed to say her farewell then left the room.

Raynard sighed, putting the finished cup down on the table.

Even though he was trying not to, his eyes kept going back to the vacant seat beside him.

He said told Betsy that he wasn’t lonely, but on the contrary, he indeed felt empty.

‘Why aren’t you here?’

Yurina attended classes with him for a week as consideration of him being cautious to strangers. However, a few days ago, Yurina decided to look for any records that might seem to have any relation to his crimson eyes and has been frequently spending more time with Dave to the point that she never shows up in class anymore.

Well even if it wasn’t for those records, she had already learned everything that was taught in class and thus there’s no need to attend them anymore. Even so, Raynard still felt a little disappointed with Yurina.

He was sick of hearing her reasoning of finding out the truth of his red eyes was for his sake.

‘I don’t even care if you don’t find anything about it, so why would you?’

It’s much better for her to attend classes and just sit right next to him at this moment. What he really needs right now is not the authenticity of his blessed red eyes, but Yurina herself— the only person who embraced him in his moment of misery after being hurt by Mrs. Lauren.

—I like your eyes, Ray.

If the whole world would accuse him of being cursed for his eyes, it meant nothing to him as long as Yurina says she likes them.

Just thinking about Yurina smiling while staring him directly in the eyes, Raynard felt bit ticklish and unconsciously scratched his neck that was getting hot.

“Well, shall we resume our lesson?”

Raynard was startled by the sudden entrance of his tutor and dropped his hands that was scratching his neck and grabbed the quill pen.

‘I have to do my best.’ He will hold back his sleepiness as he takes this class, this is all to show her just how much he has practiced writing to the point that his fingers and wrists were in pain.

He will definitely do his best even without her by his side.

While Raynard was giving his all to study hard, Yurina, on the other hand, while researching was pondering and holding back her screams as she tried to calmly compare the words written in the old book and Dave’s handwritten words.

‘I found it.’ She compared each letter one by one while tracing it with her finger countless times and the end results were the same. She couldn’t comprehend what the sentence said, but she has finally found an ancient word that could be translated as ‘red eyes.’

Yurina quickly grabbed the book and dashed towards the lab where Dave was in.

“My Lady?”

Dave was so surprised at the sound of the door slamming open that he rose from his seat. Yurina leaned over and breathed a sigh of relief.

“Dave, Dave!”

Yurina gave him the old book before he could even ask her if she was okay.

“Please translate this!”

Dave looked carefully at the sentence she pointed to. Yurina quietly waited beside him. After Dave read the whole page where the sentence Yurina pointed at, he smiled and gently patted her head.

“You did well, My Lady.”

Yurina hastened him without holding back for his praise.

“Why? Why? What does it say? Did you find a record that we wanted?”

Dave lead Yurina, who was tugging at his arm, to sit next to him and spread the book open. Then he interpreted each word in the sentence that Yurina pointed to while tracing it with his finger.

“According to this page, the Great Wizard William was said to have had red eyes. Some have claimed that his eyes are cursed, calling them similar to those of a beast. However, Xenon Atris, who studied about William for 5 or 6 years, claimed that his eyes were the source of his mana. Before the unification of the lands, he was established in the southern part of the Empire based on the founding myths of the Denique Kingdom.”

Whether it was difficult for Dave to decipher the book or not, he continued to explain things slowly one by one as usual. Yurina paid close attention to every word he said.

“This is the founding myth of the Denique Kingdom. The first king, King Alexander Denique, was a man with crimson eyes, calling himself as the ‘Son of the Goddess’ and claiming his crimson eyes to be blessed by the Goddess herself. Alexander I, founder of the Denique Kingdom, was called a ‘Beatus’ and with the blessing of the Goddess on his crimson eyes, he was referred to as a living god.”

After reading everything up to this point, Dave expressed his amazement.

“I’ve never heard of this story before. If you haven’t found it, I wouldn’t have known.”

He muttered in a tone to express his praise to Yurina, but she just shrugged her shoulders calmly.

“Please read the contents after that.”

“Ah, of course.”

Dave adjusted his glasses and frowned as he focused on reading the ancient language.

“He was really referred to as the son of the Goddess. Although other scholars agree that his crimson eyes were the result of the Goddess’ blessing, there was no doubt that Alexander and the greatest wizards of all time, called ‘Beatus’, can only be found in the Denique Kingdom.

She rubbed the word ‘Beatus’ which was related to those eyes and smiled.

‘I really did it.’