I’d been secretly timing it, and now I sprang up from my seat.
Then the performance began.
“Oh, right!”
“Huh? What?”
“Now that I think about it, I left something behind. Young Master, I’m sorry, but would it be all right if I stepped out for a moment?”
Only yesterday, Jayden had whined a little, telling me not to go whenever I said I was leaving.
But at this moment, he lit up visibly, like someone who’d spotted an unexpected opportunity.
“Oh! Go ahead!”
“Thank you. I’ll be back in ten minutes, so you need to take your medicine in the meantime!”
“Okay!”
A lively answer. His cheerful voice was nice to hear, but right now, it wasn’t all that welcome.
This makes me nervous…
But I didn’t bother letting it show; I simply went outside.
And so, ten minutes later.
After making sure enough time had passed, I went back into Jayden’s bedroom.
“Young Master. You’ve taken all your medicine, right?”
“Yeah, I took it.”
Jayden subtly avoided my eyes and spoke in a sulkier voice than usual.
Paying it no mind, I went over and sat down right in front of him.
That brought us more or less to eye level.
“How was it? Tasty, right? Whatever else I’m bad at, I’m really good at making strawberry flavor. I’m confident about that one, hehe.”
“Yeah, it was… pretty good!”
His tone was oddly awkward. The ends of his words dropped off faintly.
Just a little more of a nudge should do it.
“Really?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Would you tell me exactly what was good about it? I’d like to keep it in mind for next time.”
I deliberately pushed my face closer to Jayden and blinked my eyes wide. At the same time, I put on a look of eager anticipation.
Jayden’s red eyes shook as if there’d been an earthquake.
“Uh… well, it’s like…”
“Ye-es.”
“Maybe because it was strawberry? It was really good. Sweet and… You could just make it the same way next time?”
Stumbling over his words so slightly it hardly showed, Jayden answered earnestly. Someone who didn’t know better might have let it go, but he couldn’t fool me.
Gotcha, you little rascal!
“You must have really liked the strawberry flavor.”
“Uh-huh, yeah.”
“But that’s strange. What I gave you wasn’t strawberry—it was grape.”
Once the truth finally came out, the calm Jayden had been struggling to keep up crumbled.
“…Huh? What are you talking about?”
“That candy. It was grape.”
When I stressed it again with a serious face, Jayden belatedly grasped the situation and began trying to cover it up.
“Oh, right. Right! It was grape! I don’t eat candy much, so I must’ve gotten mixed up.”
Hmm. I studied Jayden with suspicious eyes.
“You’ve already been found out. And you’re still going to play it that way?”
“N-no. I really did eat it.”
He’d been lying so smoothly a moment ago. But by now it seemed hard for him to keep his composure, because his voice was shaking.
But I decided not to scold him for it. I had plenty of other evidence anyway.
I took the candy I’d put in my pocket and popped it straight into my mouth.
Jayden jumped in alarm and grabbed my hand.
“Wh-what? You said that was my medicine! Are you allowed to eat it?”
Jayden stamped his feet, as if worried it might do me harm.
It certainly would have been a problem if this really were Jayden’s medicine.
It had been specially made for his Dragonblood constitution, so it might have made me sick.
But there was nothing to worry about right now.
Because this had never been medicine in the first place.
“It’s fine. This is actually just candy.”
Jayden seemed confused, unable to understand why I’d told such a lie.
“There never was any candy-shaped medicine. This is a candy that’s a specialty of Heiron village.”
Even as I spoke clearly and deliberately, I slowly let the candy melt in my mouth. Being a candy for children, it filled my mouth with a sweet grape flavor.
Mm. That should be enough by now, right?
Peek. I stuck my tongue all the way out.
“And when you eat this…”
“Huh?”
Having suddenly been stuck out at by me, Jayden tilted his head as if trying to figure out what was going on—then jumped in surprise. As though he’d finally spotted the difference.
“Huh? What! Why is your tongue blue?”
“As you can see, this is a candy that turns your tongue blue when you eat it.”
Ah…
Jayden let out a groan.
“So how about you right now, Young Master?”
The plump little tongue peeking through the gap in his lips was, far from blue, bright pink. I was motioning for him to explain when—
“I-I just…”
Jayden’s lips moved as if he were trying to come up with some excuse, then went still. A flicker of sadness passed through his red eyes.
Then fat tears dropped straight from his big eyes.
“Young Master, are you crying?”
Startled, I got up and closed the distance between us.
“I-I’m not crying! Sob.“
I hadn’t meant to make him cry.
This was a brave child who hadn’t cried even when he was in so much pain.
When I came closer, Jayden flinched and roughly wiped his eyes with his arm.
“D-don’t come near me. Don’t look at my face!”
Like a wounded kitten hissing, the boy bristled all over and jerked his head away.
“Hic. I’m, pathetic, aren’t I? Crying over something like this.”
His face was red with wounded pride and he was huffing angrily, but tears were spilling down his pale cheeks all the same.
Somehow that hurt my heart even more, and I carefully reached out.
“No, you’re not. Young Master, wait a moment. Look at me.”
“No! Go away. You’re disappointed in me too, Viola!”
Jayden curled up as if to avoid my touch.
“…I’m a Dragonblood. Dragonbloods, hic, aren’t supposed to get sick.”
The child, unable to contain his feelings, was gasping for breath. His badly reddened eyes were heartbreaking.
“Someone like me is just a pathetic idiot. So…”
“You’re not pathetic at all. Our young master is so kind and so clever.”
“You’re just, hic, lying anyway!”
But whatever I said didn’t seem to reach Jayden.
What this small child, bristling with thorns to protect himself, needed wasn’t words; it was warmth.
I pulled Jayden into a tight hug.
“…!”
In my arms, the small back went stiff.
“Let go of me…!”
Jayden struggled as if trying to get free, but I held him even tighter.
His pitiful resistance soon died down.
Sniffle, sniffle. With his face buried in my shoulder, Jayden mumbled in a choked voice.
“…I lied. Because I don’t want to depend on stuff like medicine.”
Because I’m a Dragonblood, and I have to be strong. I have to overcome it on my own, without things like that…
His voice grew wetter as he added it.
“What’s wrong with depending on medicine? Is that a bad thing?”
Even as I patted the child’s back without stopping, I still couldn’t understand.
Why would a child this young think like this? This wasn’t even dependence; it was just ordinary treatment.
It was hard to tell where on earth this aversion came from.
“Th-they said that’s something only weak runts do…”
“…”
“But, hic… I’m already a runt. If I get weak too, then…”
Jayden pressed his lips together and couldn’t go on.
His small shoulders were trembling, as if he were trying somehow to swallow the sobs about to burst out.
“Hng, mmp.”
The boy scrubbed roughly at his eyes with his sleeve.
He rubbed so hard that his pale skin turned red, but the cruel tears wouldn’t stop and kept on falling.
“I won’t cry. I-I’m not crying. Hic.“
Hic. But no matter how hard he held his breath, hiccuping sobs kept slipping out against his will.
…
I quietly looked down at Jayden.
Ordinarily, I would have comforted him warmly and slowly listened to what was in his heart.
I would have gently told him it wasn’t true, that it was all right.
But at this moment, I couldn’t hold it in. Unlike myself, my expression went hard as stone. My clenched fists tightened on their own.
Haa. I took a deep breath and struggled to calm my anger.
“Who—who on earth told you something like that, Young Master?”
