Chapter 064

As I watched the child, who seemed much healthier than before, curiosity about how the child’s mother was doing welled up inside me.

“Sir Paul, what is the current condition of this child’s mother?”

“Well, she has shown some improvement, but she is one of the more severely affected individuals, so her recovery is slower than others.”

Paul’s expression was somber as he spoke about the child’s mother.

Having seen the child’s mother myself, I had somewhat expected this response.

“Let’s go check on her directly.”

Since I had come to see how the situation in the street had changed, including the child’s mother, I hurriedly stood up.

“It was nice meeting you.”

After receiving Paul’s report, I said goodbye to the child in front of me as I prepared to examine the street more thoroughly.

“Then please follow me.”

After that, I began to survey the street with Evan while listening to Paul’s report.

It was mealtime, so each person had a knight helping them eat, and I could see some people exchanging a few words with the knights.

As Paul had said, the situation looked much better than before.

As I busily moved around the street, listening to Paul’s report and chatting, an hour had quickly passed.

‘Have I walked too much…?’

For some reason, my ankle had been feeling sore for a while, and my pace was gradually slowing down.

In front of me, Paul was energetically laying out a blueprint for the future direction of Delling Street, seemingly unfazed by fatigue.

Just then, as I thought I would need to stretch my legs once we returned to the castle,

“Stop being foolish.”

Evan, who had been quietly following me while surveying the street, suddenly pulled on my wrist and halted my steps.

“E-Evan?”

“Let’s rest a bit before we go. It looks like the captain of the guard is calling someone over there. It’s best to go check it out.”

Evan, who had seated me on a nearby chair, pointed toward a distant area and spoke to Paul.

Turning my head in the direction he pointed, I saw that, just as Evan said, a guard was looking this way with an expression that suggested he had something to say.

“Yes. I’ll be back quickly!”

After Paul left, Evan turned to me with a frown, as if he had been waiting, and began to scold me.

“Shouldn’t you know your own condition best?”

“Why are you getting angry again…?”

Not knowing what had upset him this time, I replied somewhat defiantly, and I could see his eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

Then, slowly bending down in front of me while seated…

“Ah! What are you doing!”

He suddenly grabbed my ankle, which had been feeling numb and painful.

As the pain shot through me like lightning from my toes, I jerked my body in surprise, and I could see one side of Evan’s mouth lift in a smirk.

“Ugh… It hurts!”

He held onto my struggling ankle to prevent me from escaping and began to gently massage the indented heel area.

“Stay still. If you keep moving, it will tighten up and be harder to relieve later. Do all women’s shoes have to be this uncomfortable?”

While Evan looked discontentedly at the shoes I was wearing, his hands continued to massage my leg.

However, hearing his words, I couldn’t help but feel a bit wronged.

The shoes he had criticized for being uncomfortable were actually low-heeled shoes that women typically wore comfortably.

So, it wasn’t the shoes; it was purely a matter of my stamina.

“Th-that’s enough now. It doesn’t hurt at all, so you can stop.”

“Who said I’d keep doing it? It seems loose enough now, so just rotate your ankle for a minute.”

At my plea for him to stop, Evan shrugged off his seat and plopped down beside me without hesitation.

It was hard to adapt to the gap between him trembling and blushing when I tried to hold his hand, yet casually touching my body like this.

“Evan, are you going to carry me back to the castle like last time?”

So, I tried to act a bit cute with him.

“Your two feet are perfectly fine, so walk. Is your stamina really that low?”

The result was merciless.

He was incredibly resolute in situations like this.

“I didn’t ask to be carried because my feet hurt.”

When my grumbling came out, and I didn’t hear a response from Evan, I turned my head to the side.

He was making a sulky face, fixing his gaze somewhere in the distance.

His desperate attempt to pretend he hadn’t heard me was both absurd and amusing, so I let out a light chuckle.

“Hmm?”

As I took in the scenery of the street, I noticed a small figure hiding in the corner.

It seemed like they were trying to hide, but their clumsy attempt to conceal just their body behind the wall drew my attention even more.

I watched as the light brown hair kept appearing and disappearing between the wall.

As I was observing, Evan, who was watching the same scene, spoke up.

“That little one seems to have better stamina than you. They’re keeping up without getting tired.”

“Evan, did you know that child was following us?”

I was surprised to hear that they had been following us from the beginning, thinking it was just a chance encounter.

“I heard footsteps.”

“You can hear that too?”

“The more open the space, the more sensitive I become to presence. By the way, what will you do about it?”

Evan pointed to where the child was and asked.

As I watched the child peeking out and looking this way, I got up from my seat and approached the direction of the child.

When I got closer, the startled child seemed unsure of what to do, busy turning their head this way and that.

“Hello. Nice to see you again?”

I greeted the child again, matching their eye level.

“Did you follow me from over there earlier?”

At my question, the child initially shook their head absentmindedly but soon seemed to feel guilty about lying and nodded instead.

“Did you have something you wanted to say?”

For my second question, the child seemed to ponder deeply before shaking their head in response.

‘So, did they just come after me because they were happy to see me?’

I looked down at the child and fell into thought for a moment.

No matter how often the guards patrolled, it was dangerous for the child to be alone on the roadside for a long time.

“I’ll take you home.”

I reached out my hand toward the child and waited briefly until a small, soft hand carefully grasped my index and middle fingers.

“What’s your name?”

Since I couldn’t keep calling the child “little one” or “kid,” I asked for their name.

But no matter how long I waited, the child just stared at my face without showing any signs of speaking.

Then it suddenly struck me that I hadn’t heard the child’s voice from the moment we first met until now.

‘Can he not speak?’

As I continued to look at the child who still wouldn’t open their mouth, I fell into a moment of contemplation.

If the child truly couldn’t speak, then asking further questions might hurt them.

“My name is Dahlia. Can we take you to where your mom is? Even if you live here, it’s dangerous for a child to be alone.”

Instead of asking for the child’s name, I continued the conversation by telling the child my name.

Upon hearing my words that I would take them to where their mom was, the child seemed to think for a moment before quietly nodding their head once.

“Alright, then let’s go! Evan, come over here too.”

Holding the child’s hand and rising to my feet, I waved at Evan, who was standing behind us.

“Why are you going somewhere when your legs hurt? Just sit here and rest; I’ll take them there.”

“Huh?”

Evan, who had been quietly watching me and the child, approached and lightly picked the child up.

Then, seeming displeased about something, he furrowed his brows and spoke to the child.

“Why are you so light? Have you been eating properly?”

The child, suddenly lifted high into the air by Evan, looked at him with wide, round eyes.