Riersha hadn’t been especially curious about the matter to begin with, so she turned her attention to studying the boy carefully.
His hair was filthy with dust and grime, but it was unmistakably golden.
And his eyes — a vivid, piercing blue, clear even in the darkness.
Riersha tilted her head.
“Are you from the royal family?”
“…Pardon?”
“You’ve got blond hair and blue eyes.”
When Aska stared back at her blankly, Riersha pointed at the boy’s hair and then his eyes in turn, as if to say, look, right there.
It was true. This boy shared strikingly similar features with Adrian Declair.
In the same moment, Aska and Johannes exchanged a startled glance and looked down at the boy.
“In any case, we can’t all stay up in a tree forever. You two should come down.”
Sona said it plainly, watching Riersha crane her neck at an almost painful angle to look up at them.
Aska and Johannes decided there was nothing for it and climbed down from the tree.
“Hello.”
Riersha waved carefully at the boy once he was on the ground.
His sharp eyes swept the surroundings, alert and wary.
“I’m Riersha.”
“…”
“What’s your name?”
Not a single answer came, yet Riersha pressed on with her questions without faltering.
After a long silence, the boy opened his mouth at last, as though the words were being dragged out of him.
“…Isierd.”
“Do you have a last name?”
“…”
“Are you from the royal family?”
As Riersha’s blunt questions kept coming one after another, Isierd’s blue eyes sharpened again with hostility.
Blond hair and blue eyes were the things Isierd hated most.
The sight of them made his stomach turn with revulsion.
“Can I come closer?”
Riersha asked cautiously as she took a few small steps toward him, and Isierd flinched.
It’s habit. …I’m not doing it on purpose.
Riersha noticed the reaction with a keenness that surprised even herself.
Tensing when someone approached. Staying guarded. Watching constantly to figure out what the other person’s intentions were.
She knew this kind of response very well.
She had been exactly the same during the years she’d spent at the outer castle.
But where she and Isierd differed was this — rather than swallowing his fear down in silence, Isierd let it rise to the surface as aggression.
“It’s all right. No one here is going to hurt you.”
“…How am I supposed to believe that?”
“Because I’ll protect you. I promise.”
In that instant, Isierd’s blue eyes wavered — unmistakably thrown.
He looked as though he had no idea how to respond to something like that.
Kindness from another person was something he had never encountered in his life, and he flinched the way someone would if they had never been burned before and a flame touched them for the very first time.
And yet at the same time, he seemed to be quietly worrying — afraid that his slow reply might have offended Riersha in some way.
“Isierd, do you want to be friends with me?”
“…Friends?”
“Mm-hm.”
Riersha nodded.
“I don’t have any friends. Do you?”
“…I don’t have any either.”
“Then let’s be friends!”
Riersha’s face broke into a bright smile, as if this were the most natural thing in the world.
The conversation had stretched on longer than expected, and Aska glanced up at the sky. Dawn was beginning to break at the edges. They needed to bring the boy to the Young Duke’s office as soon as possible.
Word would have already reached Pernoa the moment they passed through the front gate.
“Lady Riersha, we really should be going now.”
“Already?”
“…Please, I’m begging you.”
Riersha felt a small pang of reluctance, but she had no choice and stepped aside.
She still didn’t know who this boy was, but one thing seemed certain — he was likely royalty.
The rest I can find out slowly, when there’s time.
She was just about to turn and leave without looking back.
Grrrumble.
A loud noise broke through the quiet.
She turned around in surprise, and Isierd’s stomach made the sound again.
Grrrumble—.
Riersha’s eyes went wide, and she looked at him steadily.
“Are you hungry?”
“…”
“Don’t tell me you haven’t eaten?”
Now that she looked more closely, Isierd was painfully thin. He had clearly gone without food for days.
Riersha stood still, unable to make herself take another step forward, and Sona let out a strained sigh.
“Lady Riersha, it’s almost daylight. Shall we go in?”
“Just a moment, Sona. He can eat first and then we can go, can’t he.”
“…Lady Riersha, please.”
Johannes pleaded with a pained expression. Even at this very moment, Pernoa would be waiting for them both.
But Riersha’s face scrunched in protest.
Leave a hungry child and drag him off just like that?
They had already brought him inside the ducal estate. It wasn’t as though he could run off on his own.
“But he’s hungry.”
“…”
“Come here, Isierd. Come with me. Let’s go, Sona.”
Riersha grabbed Isierd’s hand and pulled him forward.
Isierd, flustered, had nearly shaken her off — but he clenched his fist with everything he had and held himself still.
Riersha closed her fingers around his wrist and walked ahead, leading the way.
⁂
He really can eat.
Riersha had brought out as much food as could be managed at this early hour, yet Isierd was still putting one thing after another into his mouth without stopping.
She was beginning to worry he might make himself sick. She glanced sideways at Sona.
The look in her eyes said clearly: shouldn’t someone stop him?
“You should slow down now, Isierd.”
Sona understood the cue and spoke gently.
But Isierd seemed to hear nothing.
His pace didn’t ease at all, and the food kept disappearing. It was almost alarming to watch — how could all of that possibly fit inside him?
It was clear he had long since passed what his stomach could safely hold, and eventually Riersha reached out her hand to stop him.
“Isierd. That’s enough. What if you get sick?”
Thwack.
Isierd slapped her hand away from the plate in one sharp motion. Riersha pulled back in surprise, cradling her hand.
Sona’s expression shifted, eyes going cold.
“How dare you. After Lady Riersha’s kindness, the least you could do is be grateful—”
“No, I’m fine, Sona.”
Riersha shook her head, rubbing the back of her hand.
It stung, but when she’d seen Isierd freeze the moment after — startled by his own reaction, visibly shaken — she was certain it hadn’t been deliberate.
Riersha thought carefully about why.
By now it was plain that Isierd was full.
He had eaten far beyond what someone his age could comfortably manage.
Which meant—
“You don’t know when you’ll get to eat again, so you’re trying to fill yourself up now. Is that it?”
“…”
“I’m right, aren’t I?”
Isierd gave a small nod. His eyes never left the food. Riersha felt her chest tighten with something quiet and sad.
“They’ll feed you here. Every single meal.”
“…How am I supposed to believe that?”
Isierd shook his head. He couldn’t believe it.
Every adult in his life had been the same.
They would approach him with kindness at first, and then, once they’d confirmed he was of no use to them, they would turn away without a second thought.
Promises were never kept. Even the Emperor had left Isierd to be forgotten.
Then one day, a woman named Karla had appeared at the crumbling estate where he lived alone.
She told him that if he left the imperial palace, she would give him a better life than the one he had now.
It hadn’t been a terrible offer. Anything was better than being caged inside the imperial walls forever — he had wanted to go anywhere, just somewhere else.
He was sick to death of the way people looked at him like something to be stepped on.
If only he had been born somewhere ordinary, out in the world — he would never have been treated this way.
Isierd didn’t agonize over the decision for long. He accepted Karla’s offer.
But what had been waiting for him was a dark cellar, with no way of knowing when — or whether — food would ever come.
“I promise. They’ll never skip a single one.”
“I don’t believe things like that.”
“Then what would it take for you to believe me?”
Once again, Isierd’s eyes flickered with something uncertain.
No one had ever asked him that before.
What would it take for you to believe me?
