CH 61

“Carl.”

Carl, who had been by her side after seeing Tiny Kid collapsing and came running in surprise, raised his head.

“Stay by your younger sister.”

“What about Father?”

To think that he’s leaving Tiny Kid’s side at times like this, Carl doesn’t understand and tilted his head.

“I.”

For the last time glancing at Baby’s figure again and then getting up from his seat, the Duke turned his body around and opened his mouth.

“I’ll go underground for a while and come back.”

His golden eyes sank coldly.

***

Between the time the Duke’s Castle was put on emergency alert and right before the war. 

Inside her consciousness which had become hazy after a fever, Beatty dreamed.

Kyaakeke.

The laugh of a child who was innocently delighted.

Haha hoho.

The laugh of an adult who smiled sweetly.

As if the letters had moved, the artificial sound was the limit of what a child’s imagination could conjure. Dreaming about a scene that had never even once been seen before.

A sweet and warm fosterer.

A child who was being loved by them.

For Beatty, those were fantasies she had only seen in a storybook.

‘It must be great.’

Beatty thought unconsciously as she saw the child in her fantasy being held in the parent’s arms.

Beatty had never even once been a ‘such’ child.

Young age was just another weakness.

Even if it may be because of the factor that a child can be dealt with easier, the reason called ‘being a child’ had never once protected her.

Nevertheless.

‘Dad and Mom…… No, it doesn’t even have to be Mom.’

Even though she knew that it was fake.

The family inside the story.

‘If I’m together with my family….’

Because it looked so warm that she couldn’t help but admire it secretly.

‘A child like that must be happy, right?’

Happiness. What does that feel like?

At the feeling that seemed like a cloud that was impossible to grasp by hand even in a dream, Beatty tilted her head.

Some voice was heard as if giving the answer to her curiosity.

“Baby.”

The moment when Beatty thought it was the closest thing to the thing she thought to be called happiness.

The warm hand which wrapped around her head cozily like a cumulus that came down from heaven….

In Beatty’s ear, the gentle voice from her memory which was buried lowly as she was now being brought up at that moment.

“Tail Fur.”

Contrary to what she thought, a curt, blunt, and clear voice was heard somewhere.

“Wake up quickly. …Beatty.”

***

Gasp!

Beatty, who had just come to her senses, blinked as if she had escaped from drowning.

‘…This place is?’

It was not the ceiling of the room where she usually opened her eyes.

Looking back at the vague sight of where this place was, a boy who had a crooked expression came into Beatty’s eyes.

“…Older Brother?”

When she glanced down, she could see Older Brother’s hand which was holding her hand tightly over the blanket.

‘Was he holding onto it this entire time?’

At the unexpected sweet care, Beatty’s cheeks were dyed red. 

Of course, that ticklish feeling was immediately broken by Older Brother’s next words.

“Red eyes.”

“Yes?”

Poke.

The cold fingers touched her eyes which were dyed red.

“Turns out you’re not a squirrel, but a rabbit.”

“Yeess?”

“A crybaby rabbit.”

“…I’m not a crybaby, though.”

At the quarrel which was started as soon as she woke up, the gratitude she had for a moment towards Older Brother has swept away like a low tide. 

Beatty said as she narrowed her eyes.

“Not sure about that.”

The smirk on his face was annoying.

Why was he making fun of someone who just opened their eyes?

As she was thinking that it was really mean, Beatty glared at him with her own big and sharp raised eyes.

“…?”

Just why do I like it?

It was Older Brother who had no idea when obviously she glared at him with a firm expression of intention, but when he looked at her in the eyes he smiled pleasantly.

Receiving a strange look from Beatty, Carl thought.

‘She’s a bit better now.’

The skin that was blistering redly after pressing down her tears was now dying down.

How can a living thing be so delicate like this, Carl kept at Beatty’s side all the time while fumbling with the Tiny Kid’s hand which was fascinating.

That’s why he could see it. What she was so sad about, Tail Fur who made a sad face even while sleeping.

Why does she have that face, and just where did she get abused again without realizing it herself?

He didn’t like it, so he called her ‘Beatty’ and woke her up.

Making fun of Tail Fur who couldn’t get to her senses after waking up, saying that she was a crybaby, was because he didn’t like how that little thing had her eyes drooping down with a heavy expression. It didn’t look good on her. 

‘Yes, this is better.’

Rather, it was good to see the tail of her eyes that went up to glare at him, who teases her.

Of course, seeing her responding to the ridiculous teasing at best with a glare that doesn’t even give a scar.

‘A dagger? A mace? Ah, is a mace going to be heavy for Tiny Kid?’

Although later he’ll have to teach her again Aslan’s way of how to deal with a bastard who’s picking a quarrel.

He could see that Tiny Kid’s hard-peaked eyes had already loosened back. And the glancing with awkward look….

‘Hm.’

Ignoring the twitching little finger in his hand, Carl rather held Beatty’s hand tight as if telling her to see as he spoke up.

“Tail Fur.”

Seeing the pebble-like black eyes fixed on him, Carl asked.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Yes?”

“That the Capital bastards tormented you.”

Carl, who hadn’t taken his gaze off Beatty, didn’t miss Beatty’s eyes opening wide at his words.

‘That… you came down here because of those things…’

At first, he thought that she ran away from home.

Since it was something that an eight-year-old kid of the Aslan Family can know enough about, he passed over it as if it was nothing, but actually, it’s not that.

In the report which was handed over by Ather, while they were out on the battlefield, there was densely written the cruel treatment that Beatty received in the Capital.

‘It is said that the room which she used together with Mother was taken away, as she was ignored even by the employees, and everything that was sent from the Family was stolen.’

That’s why this younger sister who was weak and smaller than a bundle of tail fur, ran away.

From that distant Capital to the territory.

While she trembled in fear alone as she came down the road which would feel far away like the Continent’s end, with Tiny Kid’s little steps.

“You should’ve told me.”

If so, he would have brought her the necks of those who wronged her right away, though.

Honestly, the boy couldn’t express his regret, which he had never felt before, and so he instead said it as a disappointment.

“Did you say I was tormented?”

The girl asked back with an expression of complete ignorance.

“You….”

Tilting her head, Beatty looked puzzled, as if nothing really came to her mind about it.

‘It doesn’t look like she’s trying to hide it, though.’

On the face of her really not knowing it, Carl briefly questioned whether the investigation was wrong.

“I heard that the maid of the Capital mansion scolded you, though?”

It’s not even standing against her, but to think that a mere employee dared to ‘admonish’ the princess of the Aslan Family.

What’s even worse, there wasn’t even a good reason for it.

‘What did it say again, that she was cleaning and Tiny Kid was in the way?’

That’s why she dragged the kid out of bed and threw her out, was it that?

It sure was fortunate because Beatty was an agile squirrel, but if she was an ordinary human child, she might have broken in one place.

‘So then there should be nothing to say even if I break her the same, right.’

He surely should find the employees who had participated in such torment at that time until the last one and break them up in the same way.

Carl thought without even a point of hesitation.

When the little Tiny Kid was smaller than right now, all the bastards who dared gave menace to her would not even be short of their broken limbs.

“Uh… about that.”

Just why is Older Brother suddenly asking this kind of thing?

It’s an obvious fact that he knows even if he doesn’t check it out, just hearing it from her mouth.

Beatty felt as if a rustling and a cracking sound are coming from the inside as she opened her mouth.

“Since people don’t like a half… don’t like small shapeshifter animals that don’t look like a shapeshifter?”

The sharp voices which are directed at Beatty were like sharp bites.

That they’re doing this because it’s all her fault.

A noble who isn’t like a noble. A shapeshifter which wasn’t like a shapeshifter. Since with her place as a Half where all was ambiguous, they acted like she was a special child.

One that was not good to look at. One that made them be in a bad mood. One that was dreadful to even just see. 

In the piercing voices like that, there were reasons all filling in it.

“…But there was nothing that was enough to be called a torment.”

Beatty nodded as she went over her memory.

‘I’ve never been through a particularly huge matter.’

Eyes that held no warmth.

A mouth that was filled with ridicule.

Beatty, who had been familiar with such things since the childhood she remembers, didn’t think that what she had been through was such a big matter.

“In a house which has a roof, I got free food. And I’ve also never been hit with a thick whip.”

She wasn’t being starved all the time, and she also didn’t get hit, well at least hard enough that broke her bones anywhere.

It was just that she sometimes felt a throbbing pain in her chest.

They said that for a fortunate child who was enjoying a life where she doesn’t have to work hard and without any worry, it was a luxury to think like that.

Although she doesn’t know what ‘fortunate’ is, as it didn’t come out in the book.

Seeing the maid, who frowned together behind Aunt, pointing at her while saying it, it looked like the ‘fortunate child’ was probably her.

‘I guess maybe that thing called fortunate isn’t particularly something happy.’

Carl, who was listening still to Beatty’s words, wrinkled his forehead as he said as if growling.

“Did those things say it like that? That, because of that it’s not torment?”

“Uhm.”

To be precise, they said that she had to be thankful for it, but somehow she was reluctant to tell it in detail to Older Brother, whose face was frowning hard.

“From now on, just answer my questions.”

At Young Sister’s appearance as if the general standard was twisted, from having only strange bastards around her all those times, Carl held back his insides which were boiling again as he said.

“Was there a person who looks after you from your side?”

“Looking after? Cleaning the mansion, that’s applicabl….”

“No. I’m asking you if was there an exclusive person who took care of you, like the maids who are assigned here.”

“Uhm. No.”

“Did the meals always come out on time?”

“…Uh, no.”

In fact, only cold food was left at a time when she couldn’t figure it out.

“I heard that they also took away all the clothes which were sent to you, and you only wear one set of clothes. Is that right?”

“…That’s right.”

“And you have never gotten a proper teacher, too?”

“…Yes.”

“Who took care of you when you were sick like right now?”

At the repeated continuous questions, Beatty who went over her memory and answered blinked.

“Nobody.”

Beatty replied with a slightly sunken voice.

Strangely, the more she answered Older Brother’s question, the more she felt the surface inside which was dry in a brimful deep place was being filled up.