CH 5

“Hurry!”

“…”

It seemed that the child was growing in a strange direction by herself, perhaps because his older sister was so busy that she had no time to catch her breath.

The little peanut-like thing kept crying and falling asleep for two months at the Duke’s Residence, that’s why he didn’t pay any attention to her after that.

A few days ago, she came here out of the blue, appeared in front of his eyes, and was scratching his nerves.

“Uncle, hurry up.”

He can’t hit that puppy poop.

The sight of her crying out of breath with swollen eyes and never letting go of his arms at his sister’s funeral was gone, and I was embarrassed at the same time as I thought that it was fortunate that it had disappeared.

Even the servants avoided making eye contact with him, yet her staring straight at him with his sister’s eyes wide open made him stunned.

“Uncle, I told you to stick your finger here.”

Kassel, unable to overcome his niece’s urging, had to call a servant to stamp the documents that didn’t work.

He even smeared his hands with red ink because his fingerprint must be included.

‘How on earth did you educate your child?’

Six years ago, one day, she suddenly disappeared, causing people to go around, and then suddenly brought back her child after two years.

The child, whom he thought was a newborn baby, was already a year old.

His sister didn’t tell him who the father was, though she was already dead.

Even so, she said that she would become a mother who wouldn’t be ashamed of her child…

‘How could she leave this little thing alone?’

She pretended to be the only one who was smart in the world.

“Uncle!”

“…”

“Uncle Kassel!”

How often a child who was less than half his body called him.

“Don’t call me for nothing.”

His sore ears.

“Huuuhh? Why?”

Her kumquat-like round eyes looked up at him, full of curiosity.

It felt like his face was transparently reflected there as she didn’t have any dirt on her even the slightest.

That’s why it feels more nerve-wracking.

“Just don’t call me more than once a day. Don’t even look for me.”

Then her round eyes shook as if she was in shock.

Yet that was only for a moment.

“Uncle, Uncle, Uncle, Uncle, Uncle, Uncle, Uncle! Hehe.”

That child called him quickly and her breath caught up to her chin, then while panting, she also giggled and laughed as if she had never done that.

[Kassel, look. Isn’t my daughter really lovely?]

[Little Brother, could there be a lovelier creature than my daughter in this world?]

[You will find out later when you have children. You won’t be the center of your own life then. Even so, you will want to give it all.]

[No, even if you spend just one day with Aika, you will think that way.]

[My poor little brother, do you even have a lover?]

It’s really… freaking annoying.

Kassel jumped up from his seat, unable to contain his emotions.

Surprised, he left his niece alone as she was trying to hurriedly wake up to follow him, and Kassel left the room.

***

“Ugh, Uncle has a bad personality.”

I was sitting in a daze on the bed because of Uncle, who had suddenly left.

Unlike before, I couldn’t even keep up with the shockingly terrifying aura.

But he won’t go out, right? Because he promised.

I jumped out of bed, believing that Uncle wouldn’t leave.

“…Gasp!”

However, my steps toward the door had to stop after a while.

Because my eyes flashed and my vision began to change.

This is the second time I have seen the future while being awake, rather than through a dream after falling asleep, so I stopped breathing without realizing it.

“No…”

The landscape changed rapidly, as if a picture was drawn by making dots with a brush dipped in paint.

And in the middle of that landscape was Uncle.

Uncle, with a nervous look on his face, had brought a huge black horse out of the stable and was preparing to mount it.

Then, the horse that was running vigorously suddenly collapsed and Uncle fell to the ground.

I’ve already blocked it once, yet Uncle is in danger again?

“No way!”

It seems that Uncle isn’t allowed to leave the house at all for today.

Otherwise, only Uncle would be in such danger.

At least that’s what I thought.

I left behind Uncle’s threat not to call him more than once a day and not to look for him, and I went straight to look for him.

***

“Uncle, where are you?”

“Where is Uncle?”

I inquired and asked servants passing by to find out where he was.

They said he was already at the stable.

It was too fast for him to be at the stable already.

What I just saw was a very near future.

Fearing I would be late, I ran like lightning to the stable.

Why is Uncle’s place so wide, I wonder

Grandpa’s house has three large buildings, but everything could be solved just by staying inside the middle mansion.

Even though the structure here wasn’t the same, it was too different.

To get from my room–the guest room, to be exact–to Uncle’s room, I had to cross the middle outer hallway.

“Did you see Uncle?”

I asked everyone I saw.

Uncle’s house was very large, and the small buildings were scattered all over the place like stars, that’s why the distance to the stable was considerable.

I was out of breath, yet I didn’t stop and ran for a while until I reached the stable.

“Uncle… Where are you?”

The stable was very spacious, allowing five horses to rest comfortably.

More than ten pillars the size of a human torso stood to support the roof, and rice straw was piled up to the ceiling inside and outside the stable.

The long stable had the front and rear doors open, thus it didn’t even smell bad.

I was able to find him sooner than I thought.

In the distance, I spotted the stable keeper bringing a horse and putting it in the saddle.

Fortunately, Uncle hadn’t ridden the horse yet.

“Huft, Uncle!”

I barely endured my body staggering from the hasty stop as I called out to him loudly.

Undoubtedly, his face, the moment he found me at the entrance of the stable, was as distorted as before.

“You, I told you not to look for me…”

I ran to him in a hurry and hugged by his long legs.

It was so hot that my forehead was sweating after running hard, but I thought that if I didn’t hold on to Uncle, he would stride out on his long legs again.

“Uncle, you promised not to go out. Liar!”

Then he made an absurd face.

“I didn’t go out. I said I’d ride a horse at house, who lied.”

“But…”

“What’s the big deal? Won’t you let me go?”

“Hnnnngggg.”

I caught my breath and shook my head while holding Uncle’s leg.

Suddenly, something cried out, neeeiigh!

I turned my head in surprise.

At the end of my gaze, a horse much bigger than Uncle was looking down at me.

Flinch.

Huh, it’s so big.

It was the same as the one I saw in the vision, but it was blacker and grander, perhaps because I saw it too closely.

Still, I took a slight step back behind Uncle without letting go of his legs.

But why did the horse sit down?

Come to think of it, in the fantasy, the horse was in great pain for some reason.

‘Did it get hurt?’

I hugged Uncle’s leg tightly and stared intently, my eyes running backwards from the horse’s tail to its legs and head.

Fortunately, Uncle didn’t pull me apart or throw me.

He seemed ready to ride the horse again, whether I hugged him or not.

It was clear that he didn’t even hear what I was saying.

“Huh?”

After looking around for a while, I felt that the horse was a little strange.

“Why, else.”

“Uncle, does a horse always hold one foot up?”

“What a nonsense.”

The right hind leg, which the horse had gently lifted, was trembling.

However, even it almost touched the ground, so if one didn’t look closely, it seemed to be standing tall.

It might have been because of its unshakable body with bumpy muscles.

Was it because it was in pain?

“Horse, is your foot in pain?”

I let go of Uncle’s leg and slipped forward, reaching for the horse’s foot.

However before I could touch it, the horse vigorously cried again and raised its front feet high.

It was so big that it was as if a giant horse statue were falling on me.

It was a flash.

“Miss, be careful!”

At the same time as the stable keeper’s cry, I was seized with tremendous force.