Chapter 074
“What do you mean by strange?”
The fact that her hesitation led to a statement about the child being strange was puzzling.
I looked at her with a puzzled expression.
“Right after the child disappeared, I was too flustered to notice, but now that I think about it, the room where Aires was could not be exited.”
Nora’s story went like this:
The window in the room where Aires was located was designed so that the child could not open it alone, and when they checked after the child disappeared, the window was still locked.
Moreover, even if the child had escaped through the door, there was only one passage leading outside from the room’s location, and there were at least a dozen people gathered there for maintenance work today.
“No matter how I think about it, it seems strange that the child could go outside without being noticed by anyone.”
Nora thought it might be her misunderstanding, but she decided it would be better to inform me.
“…In fact, that’s not the only strange thing.”
“What else is there?”
Nora reported that since the child arrived at the castle, the servants had been experiencing peculiar occurrences.
“The servants took turns caring for the child, but strangely, none of them could remember exactly what they did while spending time with him.”
They all clearly remembered taking care of the child, but not a single person could recall what they had actually done.
Nora, feeling something was off after caring for the child, had asked the maids one by one to find out this fact.
“Not being able to remember….”
That was indeed strange.
It wasn’t just one or two; all those who had cared for the child experienced the same phenomenon.
“The child himself is very quiet, but there’s something unsettling about him.”
Nora added that it might be her anxiety, but it wouldn’t hurt to learn more about the child.
“Thank you for letting me know, Nora.”
“Yes. Then I’ll take my leave now.”
After sending Nora off, I returned to my room, my face troubled as I fell into deep thought.
“Aires does have some differences compared to other children his age, but… I’ve never thought of that as strange.”
He just seemed like a young child who had lost a lot due to the war.
However, considering Nora’s words and the fact that he had been inside the castle yet still managed to evade Joy’s magic, there were definitely unsettling aspects that couldn’t be overlooked.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
At the same time.
“Mr., if you don’t dry the child’s hair properly, he’ll catch a cold!”
The freshly washed child, now dry and fluffy, was dozing off between Evan’s legs.
As Evan covered Aires’s head with a towel to dry his hair, he frowned at the annoying voice that had been bothering him for a while.
Joy was busy chattering away while doing everything himself.
It was unclear how things had come to this.
“Oh, the little one is asleep now.”
While watching the sleeping child’s face, Joy quietly asked Evan, who was sitting next to her.
“But about this little one… are you really not acquainted with him, Mr.?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, but seeing you two side by side, you look more alike.”
Joy’s hand moved back and forth between Evan and Aires’s faces.
With the slightly upturned eyes and the rare ash-gray irises all gathered together, anyone who didn’t know them might easily mistake them for family.
“How long do you plan to keep saying such nonsense? If you keep rambling on like that, I might make you regret having such a loose tongue.”
“Oh! I’m terrified; I’m about to faint!”
Joy, who had been grumbling about not being able to say anything, glanced around for a moment before bringing up a different topic.
“It seems like you don’t really like children, Mr.? The customer seems to like them, though.”
At Joy’s words, Evan’s gaze shifted from the child to him.
“I see you talk about such personal matters even with your employer?”
His eyes held a fierce look, as if one wrong word could lead to serious trouble, but Joy didn’t seem overly affected.
In fact, he provoked Evan with a rather indifferent attitude.
“Well, I think we’re close enough to talk about such things now?”
At that, a chilling silence filled the room, lowering the temperature instantly.
“Umm.”
Just then, the child, who had been resting his head on Evan’s thigh, stirred and mumbled in his sleep, breaking the tension between the two.
“Mr., I understand if you’re feeling jealous that I’ve gotten close to the customer, but really, it’s not like that, so don’t misunderstand.”
Holding the child, Joy spoke to Evan with a benevolent smile.
His demeanor suggested that he was stepping back, causing a twitch at the corner of Evan’s mouth.
Slowly rising from his seat, Evan scanned Joy from head to toe before smirking with one corner of his mouth raised.
“Well, there should be something to misunderstand in order to have a misunderstanding.”
It was clearly a provocative attitude.
Joy, having fallen for Evan’s light provocation, inhaled sharply, pointing an accusatory finger at him.
“What was that look just now? Seriously, if the customer was my sibling! If she brought someone like you home, I would never allow it even if dirt got in my eyes! Absolutely opposed!”
“Ha! I’m glad we’re both fortunate to avoid becoming family with someone like you who only talks a lot.”
With that, Evan brushed past the fuming Joy and headed for the entrance.
It was the moment when Dahlia’s hope for these two to grow even a little closer shattered into pieces.
“Hmph. Finally left, huh?”
Watching Evan leave the tower, Joy let out a quiet sigh as he departed.
“Does the customer really not know how much her husband looks down on me?”
Perhaps it was because he had been under Evan’s fierce gaze for so long.
Noticing goosebumps rising on his arms, Joy shivered and took a deep breath to clear the air around him.
“Indeed, the title of war hero is no empty phrase.”
No matter who he faced, he maintained the same confident demeanor, but whenever he met Evan’s sharp gaze, he couldn’t help but feel chills creeping up his neck.
Fidgeting with his neck, Joy turned his attention to the peacefully sleeping child.
“By the way, what should I do about this little one…?”
He bent down to observe Aires more closely.
The child, who should naturally possess internal magical power like any human, seemed devoid of it.
Joy gently placed his fingertip on the child’s forehead.
“Wow. What is this…?”
After staying in that position for a while, Joy muttered in a dazed voice.
“What kind of story does this little one have to carry such a spell?”
The entire body of the child was surrounded by top-tier concealment magic, preventing any magical influence.
What was even more astonishing was that there weren’t just one or two of these spells; dozens were tangled all over the child’s body.
It was as if the magic was determined to ensure that the child’s existence would never be discovered, and Joy clicked his tongue in exasperation.
“To maintain this level of magic, one couldn’t possibly stay sane.”
The magic surrounding the child was not a one-time spell but a permanent one.
To put it simply, it meant that as long as the caster did not retract the spell, it required constant expenditure of their own power to be maintained.
So, who could possibly cast such an absurd spell…?
“Where have you and your mother been, anyway?”
The woman currently in the infirmary of the castle, Aires’s mother, was undoubtedly the one who cast the spell on the child.
Having thought that far, Joy slumped down helplessly in front of the peacefully sleeping child and let out a deep sigh.
“The customer too. Why are there only people around here who seem like they shouldn’t be left alone?”
Joy, who had planned to stay here for just a month before moving on to a neighboring small kingdom, couldn’t help but chuckle at his current situation of still being here.
He couldn’t get entangled with these people any longer.
His instincts were screaming constantly in his mind.
midori
thanks! lolol evan being upset! OH MYYYY, the author hinted it again! that Joy is her missing older brother!! the kid…i mean, they are probably the same race, him and evan…or ACTUALLY related? the child’s mystery deepenssss