“Mommy. Uu-uu?”
When Melody pointed at the empty room, demanding an explanation from Becky and Marie, the two only said the same thing as before.
“Young Master Jayden is sick, so Miss Viola will be late today.”
“I-if you’re scared to sleep alone, sh-shall we stay with you the whole time?”
The two of them answered kindly, but it only made her sadder.
They’d been supposed to come home early tonight and read a picture book together. Sniffle. Tears welled up.
Don’t know, don’t care. Bring Mommy…
Melody loved both Marie and Becky, but she still loved her mommy best of all.
“Uu-uu. Uu? Mommy.”
Melody begged them to bring Viola to her, but the two of them were firm.
“Miss Viola is very busy, so she’ll come once you’ve slept through the night.”
“Uu-uu-uu!”
Then I’ll go see her.
“Uu-uu?”
Can’t I go see her?
However desperately Melody asked, the maids couldn’t understand her.
“Now, now, let’s go to sleep. You grow up big and tall when you sleep.”
“Uu-uu-uu! Uu! Uu!”
This won’t do. I’ll go find her myself!
Just as she was about to bolt out the door, Becky hurriedly caught hold of Melody.
“Wait, Miss Melody! That’s in the main building, it’s far away. You might get lost on the way.”
“Uu. Uu-uu!”
I have a good sense of direction!
However hard Melody tried to make her case, nothing changed.
It was so sad. So, so sad.
“Now then, we’ll stay right here with you until you fall asleep tonight.”
Melody stopped sniffling and shot the maids a sulky look.
“Uu!”
I’ll sleep alone!
“Uu-uu!”
I hate Becky and Marie!
Then, as if giving up, she flopped face-down onto the bed and pulled the blanket over her head. She lay there quietly like that for a while.
“Sh-she’s asleep now, right?”
“She must be tired from all that crying. Let’s hurry and go.”
Whispering quietly, the two of them held their breath and slipped out of the room.
It was that very moment.
Now’s my chance!
In the darkness, Melody’s eyes gleamed like a cat’s.
The main building, they said. That’s where Mommy is!
Hopping down off the bed, Melody slipped stealthily out of the room.
Once outside, she hid behind a pillar and peeked her head out.
Perhaps because it was night, there were no maids standing guard in the corridor.
A naive child might have walked out boldly at a time like this, but…
Can’t let my guard down.
Hmph! I may look like this, but I’m a professional at running away!
It wasn’t for nothing that Melody had such a good sense of direction.
She’d escaped even that awful Temple, after all!
Melody nimbly darted from hiding spot to hiding spot, working her way onward.
Pat-pat-pat, tuck.
Without making a sound and without anyone catching her, Melody finally reached the main building and began racking her memory.
Marie and Becky had explained the layout of the residence to her once, and they’d definitely said Jayden or Bagel or whatever his name was lived on the third floor.
Mommy had to be there without a doubt.
Pit-pat-pit-pat.
After climbing the steep stairs with all her strength, she finally reached the third floor at last—
But the mood on the third floor was different from everywhere else. There was hardly anyone around, and it was eerily quiet.
“…Mommy?”
Melody called out for Viola, but her small voice only echoed faintly down the long corridor and faded away.
Where is she? Whimper…
She’d come all this way to see her.
They’d definitely said she’d be here.
Her disappointment lasted only a moment before Melody worked her short legs even harder than before.
Then, suddenly, she spotted light spilling out from a room at the end of the corridor.
There! Mommy’s in there!
And so, peeking through the gap of a door left slightly ajar—
Standing right in front of the door was a boy.
Hair that gleamed silver like the moon. Eyes the color of strawberry candy.
Melody felt a strange sense of familiarity.
…Duke Snacky, Mister?
He looked remarkably like that mister.
“Who are you?”
The boy looked at Melody with deeply wary eyes.
After Viola left, Jayden waited patiently for her to come back.
She’ll be right back, right? Viola always keeps her promises.
Normally, she always went back to her own room at night, but tonight was different—she’d stay with him.
Because she’d promised him.
…
The corners of his mouth twitched with pleasure.
He’d always been lonely at night. And now someone would stay with him. Even more, that someone was Viola—Jayden fidgeted with his fingers, secretly delighted.
But his joy didn’t last long.
Something kept prickling at a corner of his chest.
…Will she hate me if she finds out I lied?
He’d kept whining to Viola that his heart was racing, that he felt uneasy, but the truth was, Jayden’s body was no different from usual. No—if anything, it would be more accurate to say it had gotten better.
The skin that had ached like a bad fever had stopped hurting at all after he took the medicine.
But Jayden had deliberately pretended to be unwell.
Of course, it wasn’t as though he’d meant to deceive Viola from the very start.
When the medicine had first started to work, his heart really had been pounding so loudly that it made him tense up again and again.
Just as Viola had said, it had settled down completely after a while, but Jayden had deliberately hidden that.
Because if he said he was still not feeling well, it seemed like Viola would stay by his side.
Being with Viola made Jayden so, so happy.
So much so that he’d even felt proud of himself for lying so well.
But once Viola stepped out of the room, the conscience he’d been struggling to ignore began to prick at him, over and over.
…I don’t know. It’s not like I really lied.
Is there such a thing as a fake lie, then? one might well ask.
Either way, all Jayden had actually said was that he felt uneasy.
And it was also true that he’d been on edge, afraid Viola would leave once she’d finished teaching him the treatment.
Jayden tried hard to console himself that this wasn’t really lying. But when he thought of Viola’s face, purely worried about him, it didn’t sit right no matter how he told himself otherwise.
What do I do… Should I just be honest now, before it’s too late?
He didn’t know what to do and was picking at the poor blanket for no reason when—
He heard a sound of movement outside.
Viola?
Jayden headed for the door hopefully, but listening more closely, the footsteps sounded somehow different. Smaller, lighter…
A young maid, maybe?
No, that couldn’t be. Jayden didn’t allow servants onto this floor except during hours he’d approved.
Because of his sharp senses, even the smallest presence bothered him. Viola was one of the very few exceptions.
Then who on earth…
“Who are you?”
But the face he saw through the gap in the door was nothing Jayden could ever have imagined.
The boy muttered, thoroughly stunned:
“…Did Viola shrink?”
Hair as sweet-looking as pink cotton candy, eyes like new sprouts in spring—everything about her was the very image of Viola.
What is this? Did she take some strange medicine by mistake and turn younger? Is that why she’s taking so long to come back?
Confused by this situation he’d never encountered before, he was still puzzling over it when the girl, seeming to have understood what he’d said, suddenly began to fume.
“Uu-uu. Uu-uu! Uu!”
Who do you think you are, calling my mommy’s name like that!
Judging by her scrunched-up face, she was clearly angry at him, but it was hard to make out what she was saying.
Whether the child threw a tantrum or not, Jayden only studied the girl’s face closely.
Viola doesn’t get mad like some old witch. This one isn’t Viola.
Looking her over from every angle, she did seem to be a different person after all.
She looked remarkably similar, but unlike gentle-looking Viola, this one had a slightly sharper look about her.
Hm, her eyes tilted up a little at the corners, kind of like His Grace’s. Though His Grace was obviously far scarier than her.
Ah! Come to think of it.
Only then did one fact flash through his mind.
He’d heard once that Viola had a young daughter.
So this is her!
The reason Viola always rushed home every night!
Thinking of her as a rival (of sorts), his shoulders naturally squared themselves.
Jayden watched the child with wary eyes.
She looked to be at most four years old. Compared to him, a full six years old, she was still quite a bit younger.
But… why did she seem so hard to handle?
Jayden, who’d never once been overpowered by anyone’s presence, not even adults, let alone children his own age, felt some strange energy coming from the girl.
…Holy power?
As a Dragonblood, Jayden could sense holy power. But holy power this strong—could she be a Saintess?
But even so…
Why isn’t she scared? I’m a Dragonblood.
No—was it just that she wasn’t scared?
She was even stamping her feet and throwing a tantrum at him.
“What on earth is this kid…?”
