CH 24

“What? Why would I?”

Beatty asked back in surprise.

“Ah, hahaha. You’re right.”

Beatty looked strangely at the boy, who first threw random words and was calmly smiling, and then she focused again on trimming the Tuberosum that was in her hand.

“… Right, ‘you’ have no reason to do that.”

The boy muttered in a voice that couldn’t be heard by such a girl.

Rustle.

After she finished trimming, Beatty raised her head.

‘Take out the stems separately and…. Ah! I also have to boil water.’

Some are put in a pot that was soaked in water and was put on top of the fire, and some are thrown into a fireplace and curled up.

‘I can’t burn them all, so go towards the burning ashes….’

After all that effort, she confirmed that the Tuberosums she had dipped in were ripe.

One steamed Tuberosum was taken out and it was wrapped in a pile of cloth to prevent her hand from burning.

“It looks like lizard skin on the outside.”

The boy said while looking at the rough Tuberosum’s skin.

‘The Devil’s Seed’. Was it called that?”

Among the many bad names of Tuberosum, the boy picked out one while he tilted his head. And, to him, Beatty taught how to eat Tuberosum.

“…. So, if you eat this stem first, it’ll be okay.”

Beatty holds out the stem to explain.

“Ah.”

And like that, the boy ate it directly from Beatty’s hand.

‘I was going to hand it over to him….’

Beatty, who somehow became awkward, turned her gaze for no reason.

“Because I think it’s all cooked, I’ll give you this one first.”

To demonstrate how to eat it, Beatty peeled a thin outer skin and showed the white content of the Tuberosum, where steam came up.

“To know the inside of the Devil’s Seed is an angel’s color, interesting.”

“…Weren’t you hungry?”

Beatty handed over a half-peeled Tuberosum to the boy’s mouth as if she was asking him to stop talking nonsense and just eat.

“….”

The boy opened his eyes wide in surprise, and soon began to munch and eat what came into his mouth without a word.

She was proud to see him eating it well, and also felt bitter to eat Tuberosum without anything to be dipped into.

Beatty grumbled for no reason while flipping the Tuberosum.

“It’s supposed to have salt or sugar…. Aren’t you thirsty?”

“….”

“No, I mean, if you were that hungry, we should’ve eaten together before….”

Munch. Munch.

As the Tuberosum was rapidly decreasing, instead of answering, Beatty’s busily moved her hands that were handling the fire.

‘Ah, this is enough.’

Even though it was burnt black on the outside, but if the burnt parts were shaken off and cutted off to make it easier to eat….

“There’s also a grilled Tuberosum!”

With a joyful voice, this time Beatty held out the golden brown Tuberosum.

***

Step. Step. Step.

Looking at Beatty who is somewhat so busy wandering around with the spirit of exploring in the small cabin.

Pfft.

A burst of natural laughter spread across the boy’s mouth.

‘She’s still working hard, I see.’

How skillful is she going to move that small hand?

With a soft smile, the boy’s eyes headed to Beatty.

It’s still small and slightly unexpected, so he can’t take his eyes off it.

Press.

Just like a habit when she’s concentrating, biting her lips and furrowing her eyebrows were just as he remembered.

‘Those eyes, too.’

Although it is not directed to him now.

Black eyes like the night sky, the only one that fully captures him, which makes him feel comfortable when he faces her.

Earlier, when his eyes met with hers for a moment, he almost brought it up without realizing it himself.

I am that….

He also forgot about the thing that, it wouldn’t look like he was covering his eyes with an eye patch to her.

‘Oh my. When the one who promised to not say it was myself.’

Smirk.

The boy forced a laugh.

‘How pathetic.’

The bitter laughter as he laughed at himself.

“Huh?”

Before the girl looked back, he immediately rubbed it off so that she wouldn’t see it.

***

‘Ah, the rain had stopped.’

Beatty looked out the window.

Before she knew it, the falling rain stopped, and the dark sky gradually became bright.

She stared blankly at a ray of light shining from on top of the tree, but then she heard a sound from a distance.

—!

You—!

‘Huh? What is that sound?’

Beatty was tilting her head, but the boy stood up from his seat and reached out his hand.

“Should we go out?”

Click.

As soon as he opened the cabin door, the incomprehensible sound became clearer.

“Young Miss!”

“Young Miss Beatty!”

At the familiar sound, Beatty’s eyes grew bigger.

“Oh!”

‘They came to find me!’

Her slightly worried face suddenly brightened up.

“Here! I’m right here!”

Wouldn’t it be the first time she had answered in such a loud voice?

‘Ah, if by any chance he’s going down from the mountain range, I have to ask him to go togeth—’

Because she shouted hard, her cheeks became red hot, and Beatty tried to look back at the boy who was behind her.

Tuk.

“Huh?”

However, before that, a hand touched her head.

“Then, I’ll get going.”

She could feel the touch of his hand carefully covering the top of her hair. 

It was never strong, but the power that gently descended as if he was leaving a mark had definitely hit the spot.

“Stay healthy, Lady.”

The next moment, the boy’s presence disappeared.

“What do— Oh?”

She already couldn’t find the boy’s figure in the place she looked back on.

‘Where did he go?’

Beatty looked around in a hurry, but there was no trace of the boy anywhere near, as well as in the cabin where they had been until just now.

“Young Miss! I found the Young Miss!”

Even until the Duke’s Castle people, who only heard the shouted voice, arrived.

And like that, the mysterious boy hid himself from Beatty’s eyes as if she had never met him.

***

People were seen gathering at the little girl from all over the mountain range.

On a tall tree far from the cabin.

A boy settled himself down in a street outside a person’s sight, which is difficult for ordinary people to look up at, and muttered oddly.

“Beatty?”

It was a name he hadn’t heard.

At the fact that there was something the girl didn’t tell him, he felt empty for a moment.

‘No, but I hid my identity, too.’

Of course, there was a reason for that, but anyway, it would be ridiculous for him to be disappointed since he was also the same, had hidden something from her.

“But, for her to be called Young Miss… she wasn’t a maid’s child?”

This was also a fact that he didn’t know.

Come to think of it, his Little Star had never said directly that she was a maid’s child.

(t/n: I’m sorry but please let me fangirl for a moment TT … OMGOMGOMGOMG HE REFERRED BEATTY AS ‘HIS LITTLE STAR’ TT.TT but u still have a one loooooong way boy :” u have to pass through her daddy, big bro, and all the duchy people :” fighting!)

He just guessed by looking at the girl’s clothes and what was in the corner room which was usually used by servants.

‘Besides, that guy….’

Glance.

His gaze turned to the black-haired boy who was running at a terrifying speed.

The lion boy had an anxious expression on his face, which hadn’t been made even on the battlefield, and became a relief look only when he had seen the girl in person.

It’s his first time seeing his friend looking like that, it was eye-catching in the boy’s eyes.

“So, she’s the Young Miss who is looked after in Aslan.”

The boy’s gaze turned to the girl again, and made an amusing expression.

“I’ll need to investigate it.”

He wondered what kind of person the Little Star he cherished is.

(t/n: IM SORRY BUT ‘the Little Star he cherished’ TT PLZ OMG IM SCREAMING TT)

The boy was muttering with a little anxiety and excitement, and felt something strange even though he had hid all his energy.

‘What the heck.’

Avoiding Carl’s gaze who was about to raise his head his way, this time, he really left.

***

“Tail Fur!”

Carl, who was searching for a different direction of the mountain range, heard the sound and came at once.

“Older Brother?”

Surrounded by all kinds of blankets by the Duke’s Castle people, Beatty turned her head.

“You! Give me that magical beast bastard.”

Carl’s fiery gaze headed at the squirrel magical beast which was disguised as a scarf on Beatty’s neck.

“Ah!”

Beatty hurriedly wrapped around the Snowstorm Squirrel with both hands.

“Remove your hands. Take that off.”

“N-no, don’t do it.”

‘I mean, I need him so that I can talk to the self-proclaimed Squirrel Constellation!’

Recalling the strange existence that disappeared after cutting off his words at the most important part, Beatty desperately defended the Snowstorm Squirrel.

“Uhm, that, he didn’t do it because he had some bad intentions and—”

Beatty tried hard to make up an excuse, but when she looked at her older brother’s grumpy face, it didn’t seem to have worked.

Still, she tried to make things up with all her heart, but at that moment.

‘Huh?’

Dizzy—

Beatty stopped talking because she felt strange.

‘I’m dizzy….’

A white circle gradually spread throughout her sight. Somehow, the people in front of her stumbled.

“—!”

Finally, with her older brother’s expression who looked urgent, Beatty lost consciousness.

***

“What?”

Carl asked back as if he had heard a ridiculous sound.

“What does that mean?”

In front of him, the family doctor who had been urgently called was sweating.

“I-it’s as what I told you.”

The Young Master’s gaze, saying, “Isn’t he a quack?” was painfully inserted.

No wonder, because the cause of her sickness that the family doctor said, as he looked at Beatty, was something that Carl’s common sense could never understand.

“You’re saying that she’s sick because she got rained on?”

It’s not even some kind of arrow.

Rain, namely, she’s lying down because she got hit by water droplets.