Chapter 7

Chapter 7

After taking a bath with refreshing, warm water, my normal body temperature seems to have returned. Getting wet in the rain and taking a bath sobered me up. Then, a trembling hand caught my eye.

“Ah… Should I see a doctor first?”

Indeed, I may have to get treatment for my severe alcoholism.

* * *

After waking up at dawn and opening the window I looked outside. The rain has decreased a lot and now there was only a drizzle, but it felt good just to see the rain in Acrab, where the weather had been clear for a long time. Of course, I was the only one who knew that, but whatever.

I finally escaped from that terrible magic!

I liked the fresh air of the dusky dawn. A clear mind and a light body, not the stale state of depression I felt every morning. I felt like I was going to fly, so I hummed and changed into light clothes and left the mansion. 

I was going to take care of the things I had organized while taking a bath last night. I didn’t know when hard working Kaichen would come back, so I had to move from dawn to take care of things and then wait calmly for him to come to the mansion. Like that, I arrived on the bridge over the stream that I wanted to jump into someday. The drizzling rain bothered me, but it was not to the point where I’d use an umbrella. 

It was still before dawn, but I could see Angel between houses carrying heavy newspapers on his back and delivering them diligently. Delivering on rainy days was harder than usual. Angel had to work hard to prevent the newspapers from getting wet. After the early morning delivery is over, he’ll be running around all morning shouting to people to buy the rest of the newspapers and flyers.

Angel was a young boy under the age of ten, but he lost his parents early and was the head of the household with two younger siblings. Without an adult to rely on, Angel worked hard to earn a small sum of money so that his brothers wouldn’t starve to death. That was delivering newspapers.

Usually, at times like this, there are many cases of people being in despair because they do not receive proper wages, but fortunately, the newspaper that Angel worked for was a decent establishment and paid well. I guess it’s just that if he didn’t sell all the newspapers they wouldn’t give him even a penny, since they only give you wages for the newspapers you sold. The problem was the grim situation of Angel’s family, who could barely eat meals with that small sum of money.

Angel’s skinny, sickly yellowish face, as if he would soon die of starvation, was pitiful. The reason I found about Angel’s situation inside the repeating time, was an interest that arose out of loneliness, but I couldn’t turn a blind eye to it any longer. He truly was pitiful.

“Miss! What brings you here so early in the morning when the gambling house hasn’t even opened yet…?”

I take it back. I take back what I said of him being pitiful.

“Do you think I only go to gambling house every day?”

“What? Wasn’t it like that?”

Crap! That’s right. Dalia really went to the gambling house as if she were going to work! I evaded the answer with an awkward silence, and looked at Angel, who was hungry and low in energy, rushing forward and bowing deeply to say hello.

Doing dishes in the restaurant’s kitchen from the evening, this small boy’s eyes were hollow, his cheeks were sunken and cheekbones were protruding. It seemed that he gave his share of food to his younger siblings.

Actually, I once gave him freshly baked bread because I felt sorry for him, but he didn’t eat it right away, he put it in his arms, and said that he wanted to go home and give it to his younger siblings. Angel, a boy as pure as a true angel, with his extremely saintly and nice heart was too dazzling for a dirty adult like me. 

“…Here, take this.”

“What?”

I checked all the assets of Count Alshine, but there wasn’t much left. I sighed at the very small and insignificant amount, but I didn’t hesitate to give two gold coins to Angel. While it was true that I didn’t want such a good boy to starve to death, I was also repaying him because he was a child who constantly talked to me for a hundred years when he saw me.

‘Oh? Miss! Are you going to the gambling house today too?’

‘Good morning, miss! You are on your way to the gambling house, right?’

‘You’re leaving late today, miss! Isn’t the gambling house over there?’

Fresh memories came to mind, but it looks like this d*mn boy only talked to me about gambling houses… It was disgraceful, but only a few people approached the drunkard, gambling-addict of a Countess and still respectfully called her “Miss” as in the past. Everyone pitied the lady who lost her parents overnight and became a Countess, but they got tired with her antics and soon, they didn’t expect anything from her.

“Ah, lady… What kind of money is this? I… I can’t do anything dangerous!” Looking at the two gold coins, the Angel shook its head, recalling the most dangerous thing he could do.

I grabbed Angel’s hand roughly to hide my shaking hands, which were asking for alcohol since last night. 

“It’s not anything dangerous. I heard that you clean people’s houses in the afternoon. I’m giving it to you because I want you to come to my house and clean it for me.” I said casually and forced two gold coins into the child’s hands. Angel opened his eyes wide and looked rudely at me. He seemed to think that I was crazy.

“The garden is full of weeds. This is money for cleaning the garden. If you help me clean the mansion, I’ll give you more money.”

“…Ah, my lady…What’s wrong with you? Do you have a deadly disease because you drank too much alcohol?”

“…….”

What do you mean by deadly disease?! Why is my newfound kindness leading to such an extreme thought? 

Stroking Angel’s messy and shaggy hair with my trembling hands I said, “Don’t say useless things. What is a little boy like you so suspicious of? I just wanted to clean up my dirty house.”