Chapter 8

“That’s…….” Cesar parted his lips with a sullen face.

At the same time, Siegfried shook his head. “Everyone, don’t think too negatively.”

“Siegfried.”

“Besides, the health of that child is not a problem we can solve right away,” Siegfried continued calmly. “Wouldn’t it be better to think about what we can do for that child first, rather than being depressed and concluding that she is terminally ill?”

“That’s……. that’s right.”

“You are right.”

Cesar and Kirios nodded side by side.

While he was at it, Siegfried added, “I think we should change this child’s living environment first.”

“I agree. I could never imagine letting such a young kid live in a room like that garbage dump,” Kirios murmured discontentedly.

“Living in a place like that can make you sick. Eh?”

“Come to think of it, the doorknob that fell on the floor earlier,” Cesar also spoke as if he had just remembered. “It was definitely a structure to lock the door from the outside, right?”

When they visited Tatiana’s room earlier, they found a doorknob lying on the floor. As the door was smashed in the aftermath of the battle, the doorknob seemed to have fallen off.

“Then the demons forced that little kid to be locked in that beggar-like room?” Kirios burst into a rage. “If the door hadn’t been broken, that kid might have dried up and died in that room!”

“Be quiet, Kirios. What if the child wakes up?”

At Siegfried’s scolding, Kirios, who was aghast, closed his mouth in dissatisfaction.

That went on for a while.

“Ahh……”

Tatiana wrinkled her brows and let out a small groan of pain.

The startled Kirios quickly asked Cesar a question. “Why is she like this? What’s wrong with her that she is suffering so much?”

“It’s because her fever is rising.” After replying like that, Cesar winked at Kirios and continued, “Kirios, go get some water. I need clean towels, too, and it would be nice to have a fever reducer.”

“Do you just naturally have to pamper people?”

“I have to take care of the child, so I can’t help it.”

“…….” Kirios, speechless, stared at Cesar.

But Cesar just shrugged his shoulders casually.

“Ha, really. With that wagging tongue I bet you’d even be able to talk your way out of drowning.”

Despite scolding him with his mouth, Kirios eventually rose to his feet.

“I’m coming with you,” Siegfried said as he followed Kirios. Before closing the door, Siegfried glanced back.

The child’s bloodless face was particularly striking.

“……..”

Siegfried quietly closed the door, while suppressing his troubled heart.

The child’s figure disappeared beyond the door.

***

The two headed to the laundry room.

Siegfried, who was packing a clean towel, unconsciously fell into a short thought.

‘Come to think of it, Tatiana came here. ‘

He could still see Tatiana wandering around the laundry room, scurrying like a squirrel. She picked things up one by one with her tiny hands and lifted her heels to get out the items in the cupboard.

After that, the sight of her looking back at him with the eyes of a surprised rabbit kept lingering in his mind.

“……..”

Siegfried was deeply distraught.

But then.

“Hey.”

A subdued voice called Siegfried.

It was Kirios.

“Why are you calling me?”

“You know. I.”

Even with his open-minded personality, he hesitated for a long time.

Kirios finally murmured with a sigh, “……I kept being mean to the kid.”

“……..”

Siegfried stared at Kirios as if encouraging him to say more.

“Honestly, I still have doubts about her.” As if to protest against the silence, Kirios’s voice began to become bitter. “Someone mixed race between human and demons? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

“Kirios.”

“Besides, how can you trust a child you met in the demon castle? If she is up to something…….!”

Kirios, who rarely spoke at such lengths, soon dropped his shoulders.

“Still.”

“…….”

“Still, I mean.”

Kirios asked the question with difficulty. “Did I…..was I being too mean to the kid?”

“Yes.” Without a moment’s hesitation, Siegfried nodded.

Kirios raised his voice furiously, shouting, “Hey, you……!”

“Then what answer did you want me to give you?” Siegfried tilted his head. “Kirios, it’s because you are worried about her.”

“……..”

Kirios, who was stabbed by his directness that got straight to the point, clamped his mouth tightly like a seashell.

“If you’re going to care so much in the first place, I don’t understand why you’re so mad at a child.”

“….That’s.”

Kirios stiffened his shoulders.

As if comforting him, Siegfried calmly continued, “I understand your doubts. Because I don’t fully trust her either. But.”

“Siegfried, I……”

“She’s a child who’s only four years old.”

At those words, Kirios felt as if he had been hit on the head.

Siegfried added, “She also took great care of us.”

She had.

A mixed race between demons and humans, and the first place they met was the Demon Castle. Before all the suspicious circumstances, Tatiana was just Tatiana. She did no harm to anyone; she seemed not even capable of doing so.

A four-year-old child with a lovely smile.

“If she is doing anything, we can stop her.” Siegfried smiled brightly. “We are capable of that. So, why don’t you relax a bit too?”

“………”

Kirios was pursing his lips tight.

Siegfried, who had tapped him on the shoulder, soon put on a straight face.

“Stop worrying about that and move quickly. Don’t you think Cesar’s nagging will be tremendous if you return late?”

***

The cool water moistened my forehead.

‘I feel good. ‘

A smile was drawn on my lips. Someone was carefully wiping my forehead with a wet towel. While I was infatuated with that cold yet soft touch, a thought occurred to me.

‘Wait, but who’s taking care of me?’

There’s no one to take care of me!

At that moment, I came to my senses as if I had been splashed with cold water.

I opened my eyes wide.

The first thing that came into view was a colorful canopy ceiling with gold thread patterns.

Surprised, I sprang to my feet.

“Where am I……?!”

“Oh, are you awake?”

A gentle handsome man with silver hair who was sitting next to me, smiled softly.

“Ce, Cesar……?”

“Yes, it’s me. How are you feeling?”

“Uh…….”

I blinked blankly.

“I think I’m good as new.”

It was true.

My body felt light.

The balance of my body, which had been disturbed by the oversupply of the demonic energy, had returned to its proper place.

All the symptoms like the tingling as if the heart was being pricked with a needle, or the feeling of heaviness as if a ball of iron were hung from my limbs, had disappeared.

But then.

A handsome young man with red hair suddenly poked his head into the room. It was Kirios.

“Hey, kid! Are you okay?”

“Oh god!” Surprised, I flinched.

Regardless of that, Kirios poured out his words without pause. “No, in the first place. Why were you just living in that shabby room?”

“Huh?”

“You know, since we wiped out the demons, it wouldn’t matter if you occupied a good room. Living in such a place makes you sick……!”

At the same time, Siegfried bluntly rebuked him.

“Kirios, the child must be surprised. How long has it been since she woke up and you’re already getting on her nerves?”

“What? Why do I surprise her?”

Siegfried turned to me, not hearing Kirios’s protest.

“But Kirios’s words are not without reason. Why did you stay in that old room?”

I blinked and laughed awkwardly.

“Well, I didn’t think……”

“Why can’t you think about that?” Kirios snapped back and was annoyed at once.

I hurriedly lowered my head to conceal my expression, mumbling, “Well, I know…. I’m a fool.”

Actually, it wasn’t that I didn’t think about moving rooms. But.

‘I didn’t have the courage to do that.’

Maybe it’s because I lived my whole life in the darkest shade of the world. Occupying a brightly lit and comfortable room didn’t seem like something I was allowed to do.

The nightmare I had earlier still lingered in my head.

‘What if the demons who harassed me come back? What if I get caught using their bedroom?’

I clenched my fists tightly. If they came back, it wouldn’t end with just being scolded.

They may starve me, or beat me….

“Why are you a fool?”

I raised my head at the sudden voice I heard.

Kirios was looking down at me with his arms crossed.

“That’s right, why are you so self-deprecating?”

“I agree with Kirios on this.”

Cesar and Siegfried also helped one by one.

After that–

Siegfried coughed briefly and then opened his mouth.

“Anyway, so what I mean,” Siegfried began, bending down and looking straight at me. “Don’t get me wrong, I want you to hear me out. You are a child closer to a human than a demon, right?”

Nod.

When I nodded instead of answering, Siegfried continued.

“So, I thought it would be difficult for you to survive here alone.”

“Yes….”

“I think a child like you needs a better environment to grow up.”

Uh, could this be?

I opened my eyes wide.

Siegfried asked calmly, “Why don’t you come with us?”