Chapter 49 · The Child Outside the Window (1)

“…I apologize.”

Paeon apologized repeatedly as he wiped the table where the tea had spilled. His face and ears were still flushed red and wouldn’t fade. His skin was fair, so even a slight change in complexion showed immediately.

‘How did he manage to keep that hidden?’

It was the first time I had seen this reaction, and it was surprising.

So he really did like my mother. Well, I can’t know everything from just this… But seeing a reaction like this makes me want to tease him so badly~!

“Why awe you so supwised? Is it weally that shocking to ask if Mom wiked this tea?”

“…No, I just lost my grip for a moment… and made a mistake.”

“Huh? Papa’s gawp is that weak? Then how did you howd that heavy wongswowd?”

“…”

He couldn’t answer and just rolled his eyes. He looked so funny that I giggled and kept pressing for an answer.

“So did she wike it ow not? Huh?”

“…I do not know that either.”

“Why don’t you know?”

“How would I know that?”

Paeon’s voice grew agitated.

“Why awe you getting angwy?”

Perhaps he thought his reaction was excessive too, because he clamped his mouth shut and said nothing. After hesitating for a moment, he suddenly stood up.

“…I will be going now.”

“Weally?”

I was finally freed from night surveillance! Thank you, Risus tea!

The moment he left the room, I quickly stuffed the things I had prepared to give Leo into my backpack. Glancing nervously at the door in case Paeon changed his mind and came back, I cast portal magic about fifteen minutes later.

This was already the third time, but I still hadn’t gotten used to entering a portal that made eerie sounds and looked eerie too. I squeezed my eyes shut, focused on the complicated formula and the tower where Leo was confined, and stepped forward.

◇ ◆ ◇

Crash, tumble!

This time as well, I rolled out from slightly high in the air onto the cold stone floor. Boo hoo, couldn’t this damn portal open quietly at floor level? Well… I should be grateful it didn’t drop me from the ceiling.

Leo was standing by the opposite wall like a statue, eyes wide, staring at me. He looked scruffy, much like the first time I saw him.

“Weo!”

I smiled brightly and ran to him. It was nice to see him after so long. But he went pale as if I were some monster and shrank back hesitantly. What’s with that reaction? That hurts a little.

“…Why did you come?”

“Huh? I said I’d come back.”

“I clearly told you never to come again! You left without even listening.”

…Did you say that? Knowing his personality, I doubted he’d said anything cute and warm like ‘Please come back!’, but ‘never come again’ is a bit much, isn’t it?

“I just wanted to give you something, Weo…”

“You’re more selfish than I thought.”

When I trailed off hesitantly, he growled in a low voice.

“Have you thought about the fact that if you keep coming here, I could get caught?”

“…”

“And to lift the mana block so you can get back, I have to exhaust the mana I barely managed to gather!”

That was a fair point. The mana he used was truly a rare kind. To have it exhausted because of me would be infuriating for him.

But this guy was going to squander that precious mana wandering outside and end up caught! That incident didn’t have to happen exactly a few years later. He could be caught next time… I understood how suffocating it must be to be confined, but for his sake I had to make him stop.

“Fiwwst, don’t be angwy… wait a moment.”

I took out the food I had packed for him. It was a salmon sandwich I had smuggled from the temple’s great dining hall almost like a spy operation.

“This…”

But he violently slapped away the sandwich I held out. The sandwich fell helplessly and rolled on the floor.

“What awe you doing! What a waste…”

I picked up the ruined sandwich regretfully. His cold voice fell over my head.

“Get out.”

“…!”

He strode over, took out chalk, and quickly drew a magic circle. He seemed to be casting the block-release spell.

“No, look… I’m sorry for showing up so suddenly. But think about it. Me coming to you is much safer than you wandering outside.”

He silently recited the activation word. I could feel the blocked mana becoming usable.

“If you need anything, I’ll bwing it. Books, anything… And, and…”

I was about to say I’d keep him company, but swallowed it. Somehow it felt like it would wound his pride.

“Do you think I’m a beggar because I’m stuck here like this?”

“…That’s not what I meant…”

“I don’t need your clumsy pity. No matter how much of everything you bring me, you’re the princess of an enemy nation and the granddaughter of my enemy.”

“…”

I blankly chewed over those words. The princess of an enemy nation and the granddaughter of his enemy. I see. That’s how he thought of me.

But I didn’t think of Leo as the prince of an enemy nation or the son of my enemy. Perhaps because I had never directly experienced war, and I didn’t think of Santra as my country or love it.

This boy reminded me not of grand words like that, but of… my past, confined in a small cabin in the mountains and abused. Myself back then, hating the world, hating people, enduring painful days one by one.

Of course, the current me hadn’t come to love the world or people. But objectively, I was in a better situation than this boy. Precious safety, precarious enough to crumble at any moment, earned after nine regressions.

Anyway, seeing this boy who reminded me of my past in such a terrible situation made my heart uncomfortable.

“What are you doing? Aren’t you going to leave right now?”

“…All wight.”

Under his cold, oppressive manner, I had no choice but to stand. He crossed his arms and watched me cast portal magic. No—‘glared’ was the better word.

‘At this rate, I’ll never even get to bring up the herb of life.’

Just before entering the portal, I dumped everything in my backpack onto the floor. He cried out in surprise, demanding what I was doing, but I quickly ran into the portal.

“I’ll come again!”

Along with those words.

I heard him shouting something behind me, but I didn’t need to hear it to know what it was.

‘If you thought I’d give up this easily, you were badly mistaken.’

◇ ◆ ◇

Long after the portal had vanished, Basileo stood for a while staring at the spot where it had been.

That girl had come again. The girl he had been sure would never come back.

Portal magic was dangerous and difficult. It wasn’t something to use just to visit a hostage of an enemy nation trapped in a tower. And even less for bringing mere food and odds and ends.

He had thought that far from coming back, he’d be lucky if she didn’t go tattling to people. After she left, he didn’t know how long he had regretted it and clutched his head. He shouldn’t have let her go like that. There was no way she would keep her mouth shut.

Father had always said not to trust anyone. That there was no one in this world to trust but yourself, and that royalty especially had to engrave that deep in their bones. And yet he had simply listened to the words of the one person he should least have trusted! He was disgusted by his own weakness.

He had spent the whole day staring at the door with the withered heart of a prisoner awaiting execution. Soon Santra’s knights and mages would come bursting in. They would finally even block the unknown mana he possessed. He would never leave this tower, and all his plans would be ruined.

“Weo!”

But the situation he had imagined did not happen. Instead, that small white girl tumbled out of thin air.

‘…But after hearing that, she won’t come again.’

He reviewed whether he had been sufficiently vicious. The moment he recalled those emerald eyes that had wavered greatly when he told her to get out, his chest ached with a sharp pang.

‘…Why am I like this?’

It was the first time in four years he had faced another person.

For four years, the only beings that had existed in the same space as him were the servants who came to deliver old clothes and meager meals. And even with them, he had never had a proper conversation. He often talked to himself, afraid he would forget how to speak.

He spent most of the day reading, but sometimes he watched people beyond the window. They were so far away they looked like finger puppets. They were mostly court knights, but sometimes he also saw a small white-haired girl.

That girl was always with others. Sometimes a blond knight, sometimes several women who looked like priestesses, sometimes boy knights with red hair and light brown hair.

He couldn’t see her expression, but she was clearly smiling. Her movements were light and fluttering like a bird. She was a very out-of-place existence in this palace. Servants walked hunched over and scurrying, and royalty and knights walked with dignity and precision. Somehow his eyes kept drifting to that child. At first it was just curiosity.

Judging by her attire, was she affiliated with the temple? But would a temple child that small be accompanied by knights? Then was she royalty?

Either way, it was none of his concern. But every time he looked at the window, he found himself unconsciously checking whether she was there, and on days he spotted her, he would follow the direction she moved and trace it with his finger on the window.

Strangely… spotting her made him feel good, and on days he didn’t, he felt drained. Eventually he even memorized the times she appeared.

After watching her for years like that, he suddenly became curious about her face. The next time he used portal magic, should he take just a quick look? Because of his appearance, even if he ran into her, she might just think he was a palace servant.

‘I’ve lost my mind.’

He snapped to his senses. He was appalled that he had even briefly thought such a thing.

‘…She’s a person of Santra, in the end.’

Hatred boiled up again. He must not forget that his father’s grave injury, his mother’s death, the trampling of the royal capital, and the deaths of countless people were all their doing. That he could no longer distinguish yesterday from today or tomorrow, repeating the same day here, was all because of them.

He glared at the girl beyond the window as if he could kill her.

‘When Father regains his strength… and the prepared day comes… when that day comes, that child will feel this pain too.’

He would make her suffer ten times, twenty times the pain he was enduring.

‘Santra will surely fall.’

When that day came, Father would give the signal. He would receive it, use portal magic to escape this tower, and join the invasion. This foolish, arrogant country would never realize what mistake they had made.

He no longer waited for that girl at the window. He endured each day waiting only for the day Santra would fall.

But what kind of joke of the gods was this? The girl he had resolved never to see again suddenly appeared before his eyes. As if by magic.

It was definitely her. She wasn’t the size of a finger like he always saw her, but he knew. Long, fluffy white hair, and skin so white it seemed to glow. The moment she raised her face, his whole body froze.