The warm afternoon sunlight poured fully through the transparent glass window.
In the light dyed entirely golden, Lionel slowly turned the pages of his book.
Today, Lionel was not sitting at his usual desk but was sitting across from the child, reading a book.
It was simply a whim without reason.
The child sitting close by, unlike usual, could not concentrate on her book at all.
The gaze that touched Lionel’s face was stinging.
The eyes that reached his forehead stole over his eyelashes, the bridge of his nose, and his lips before finally falling away.
At the blatant gaze, Lionel furrowed his brow and let out a small sigh so the child could not hear.
“I’d appreciate it if you stopped looking. It’s a little distracting.”
Lionel raised his head and, the moment he met the child’s eyes, smiled brightly.
“S-sorry. Y-Young Master.”
The child apologized so quietly it was barely audible, then lowered her gaze to the rune textbook she had been reading.
But only the frequency decreased; the child’s furtive glances continued.
Judging by how she pretended to look elsewhere while secretly peeking at him, as if she thought the other person would not notice, it was absurd.
‘Does she really think it’s not obvious? I can see right through to what’s in that head of hers.’
He had seen quite a few children his age who liked him, but this situation was a first.
Usually they would send subtle glances or try to strike up a conversation to gain Lionel’s interest, not stare so blatantly.
Lionel simply let it be. It was such a transparent trick that it was merely ridiculous.
Knock, knock, knock.
“Come in.”
A maid entered, placed a plate of snacks and a glass of milk before Lionel and the child respectively, and withdrew.
On the plate were a few kinds of fresh fruit and sweet muffins generously filled with nuts.
Whether the maid brought out snacks or not, Lionel’s gaze did not leave his book.
Since he did not particularly like sweets, he had little interest in the snacks.
Lionel, who had been absorbed in his book for a while, suddenly felt something was off.
The gaze that had been continuously touching him had disappeared.
‘When was she staring so intently, and why did she suddenly look away?’
At the sudden question, Lionel raised his head.
The child’s green eyes, which had been peeking at him, were now fixed on the snack plate.
Her eyes, stuck to the plate, would not come off.
The child’s throat bobbed greatly, and the sound of her swallowing was loud.
It was so thunderous that it was strange Lionel had not noticed until now.
The child desperately wanted the snack but only stared at the plate as if to bore a hole through it, not daring to reach out.
Lionel could not understand the child’s behavior.
“What are you doing? Not eating?”
Only then did the child tear her eyes from the plate and look at him.
Regret dripped from her eyes.
“I-I’m not supposed to eat before the Y-Young Master does……”
“So you mean you haven’t eaten a single time until now?”
The child carefully nodded.
It had already been several weeks since the child started coming here.
In that time, Lionel had never once touched the snack plate.
‘She could have just eaten secretly. How foolish.’
Lionel, subtly furrowing his brow so the child would not notice, lifted the milk, took a sip, and set the glass down on the table with a sound.
“There. Satisfied? Go ahead and eat.”
The small face that had always been cowed unexpectedly bloomed brightly.
The child gripped the muffin tightly with her small hand and took a bite.
Her green eyes went wide.
“It-it’s delicious……!”
The child devoured the food greedily.
One cheek puffed out round like a squirrel storing winter food.
She demolished the muffin in an instant, popped fruit into her mouth and chewed, and gulped down the milk noisily.
The child’s mouth area became thoroughly messy with food crumbs.
‘Dirty.’
Her table manners were a complete mess.
Lionel clicked his tongue and twisted one eyebrow.
The child’s heated gaze no longer reached Lionel.
Things had turned out as he wanted, yet an inexplicable discomfort bloomed within Lionel.
It was a feeling that pricked like a very small thorn, and Lionel ignored it at once.
***
Again.
Father had once again failed to appear at the dinner banquet he was supposed to have with Lionel.
Since Mother passed away, the time Lionel spent with Father had rapidly decreased.
No, he could hardly even see Father’s face.
After that day, Father had no leisure.
He was always busy.
He frequently stayed at the townhouse in the capital, and even when he was at the Eduard estate, he spent his time building connections with influential figures or immersing himself in work.
He seemed to try to make time for Lionel, but that was all.
Breaking promises like today was commonplace.
To Father, Lionel was always an afterthought.
The butler asked Lionel, who sat glumly.
“Young Master. Shall I bring out your meal?”
“Yes. Please do.”
In the vast dining room, Lionel was the only one eating the soup served as the appetizer.
Lionel had to continue his meal with empty chairs for company.
At first, disliking eating alone, he had sometimes invited the butler or attendants to sit before him and eat together.
But they had balked, saying it went against propriety.
A quiet stillness swallowed Lionel.
In the terrible silence, only the sound of Lionel’s knife cutting food echoed like an unpleasant noise.
The tender steak the chef had prepared with care felt hard as a stone.
After a few bites, Lionel felt suffocated and finally set down his knife.
“You’re not eating more?”
The butler attending Lionel’s meal urged him to eat more with a worried face.
He did not want to meet the pitying gaze looking down at him.
He also hated the huge dining room that made his solitude so starkly clear.
‘I should have just gone up to my room to eat.’
Lionel regretted it, but what was done could not be undone.
“I have no appetite.”
“Then shall I have something else brought out, Young Master?”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll end today’s meal here.”
Wiping his mouth with a napkin, Lionel left the dining room.
It seemed tonight would again be a long, terribly lonely night.
***
The pencil lead snapped with a crack.
The broken lead rolled and rolled until it stopped before Lionel, who sat across from the child.
The hesitating child soon set down her pencil.
Her gentle, puppy-like face turned sullen.
She could have just asked to borrow a pencil sharpener, but the child only moved her lips for a long while, frozen in place.
Her pitiful fidgeting was irritating.
Lionel set down the book he was reading and went to the desk.
His eye caught a fountain pen stuck in the pen holder on the desk, unused.
The fountain pen was very ornate and luxurious.
Its ivory body was engraved with the blue vine flowers native to Eduard, and the edges were piped with platinum.
At the tip of the pen cap, a large green diamond radiated a beautiful light.
It was so flashy that it did not suit Lionel’s taste, so he had never used it.
Come to think of it, the green diamond might suit the child’s eyes quite well.
Lionel picked up the fountain pen and ink and held them out to the child.
“Use this.”
The child’s already large eyes grew so wide they could not possibly get bigger.
Her eyes, taking up half of her tiny face, looked as if they might roll out at any moment.
“Th-thank you. Y-Young Master.”
The child fiddled with the fountain pen for a long while.
She traced the ivory-engraved pattern with her fingertips, opened the pen cap, and examined the silver, delicately shining nib.
But that was all.
After admiring the fountain pen for a while, the child set it down on the desk.
Lionel opened his mouth with a puzzled face.
“You’re not going to use it?”
“I-I heard that ink, once you use it, c-can’t be erased.”
‘What does that have to do with anything?’
Lionel could not understand what the child was saying at all.
“So?”
“I-I don’t have money to buy p-paper. I have to write in the book with pencil so I can erase and rewrite……”
The child fidgeted with her hands and blushed.
‘Annoying. Are all commoners this pitiful?’
Lionel suppressed the irritation rising in him and rummaged through the desk drawer, finding a bundle of paper.
A habitually fake smile hung on Lionel’s lips as he held out the paper to the child.
“Use this too.”
“Th-thank you.”
The child, receiving the paper, looked very happy.
She rubbed the smooth surface of the paper, held it up to the light, and then took the fountain pen in hand.
The child wrote letters on the paper.
With each letter she wrote, exclamations poured from her mouth.
“W-wow, it r-really writes so smoothly.”
The child, having let out a big exclamation without realizing, glanced hesitantly at Lionel and then lowered her gaze again.
Crooked rune formulas filled the paper.
What was so special about a mere fountain pen? She was making a fuss over nothing.
When playtime ended and it was time to go back, the child returned the remaining paper and the fountain pen to Lionel.
“Th-thank you for lending these to me, Young Master. I-I used them well.”
Lionel shook his head and pressed the fountain pen and bundle of paper back into the child’s hands.
They were things he would not use anyway, and they had already been touched by someone else’s hands.
He would never use them again.
“Take them. They’re yours now.”
The child looked down at the fountain pen for a moment and shook her head.
Her refusal was quite firm.
“I-it’s all right.”
“Why? Because you don’t like it?”
A bitter smile rose on Lionel’s lips.
A gaze wounded by the rejection of his goodwill turned toward the child.
