What a cute child, no matter what he does.
And how smart he is, too. He’s never even seen a wolf, yet how does he imitate the sound of a wolf’s howl?
His wrist was bitten with a crunch. The skin was sucked into the moist mouth. Leaving his hand to Rose, Elijah looked at Igrit’s head sitting alone on the drawer.
“…”
Vampires have inherently high intelligence. Rose was also a child who, if taught one thing, would grasp not two or three, but all ten on his own. Having far superior learning ability compared to ordinary human children wasn’t particularly strange as a species trait.
But no matter how high the intelligence, could one know on their own things they’d never learned or seen before?
* * *
“February 26th.
Are you well, Master?
It seems the snow has mostly melted. Still, the weather remains cold and the sky is overcast.
Last night, I taught Rose chess. Perhaps because he’s smart, once I teach him, he picks it up well. Rose seemed very happy, perhaps because he finally had a game to immerse himself in. There are no toys for a young child to play with in this house, so we have no choice but to do things like this.
I’m having the same worries today. I should have made a decision before it got colder, but now that Rose has grown so much, I think I need to steel my resolve even now.
Master, I’m thinking of going down to the settlement tomorrow. I don’t think I can let Rose continue living naked any longer.
Rose lives in the cabin with nothing, wearing only one of my shirts. Perhaps because it’s cold, he doesn’t leave my side for even a moment, and even now he’s on my back.
I’m very nervous about going down to where people are after such a long time. Growing Rose needs more and more things, but I’m troubled because I have no money. Of course, I don’t have the courage to go down to the settlement right away, nor the ability to make money.
The world must have become even harsher, right? Just imagining it makes my heart tremble. I remember walking around the market holding your hand when I was young, Master. I think about how nice it would be if you were still by my side now.
Rose is urging me, so I’ll stop here. Anyway, we’re doing well.
I’ll write again tomorrow.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.”
“Who’s Master?”
A question came from behind him. Elijah, who had been moving his pen while occasionally warming his frozen hands over the firewood, turned his head slightly to look at Rose. It seemed he’d been looking down at the letter while on his back, as Rose reached out his hand and pointed to a part of the letter.
“Master.”
“Yeah.”
Now it seemed he didn’t just know ten things when taught one, but could read unfamiliar words well on his own.
“Who’s Master?”
“Um…”
When asked who Master is when Master is just Master, there was nothing to say. Elijah was terribly bad at explaining things. For him, dealing with Rose, who had become increasingly inquisitive, was sometimes a very difficult task.
“Master is… just Master.”
“Are you meeting today? Master.”
“No.”
Elijah began folding the letter.
“I write letters because I can’t meet him.”
Fortunately, no more questions came back. However, Rose couldn’t endure the short moment while Elijah folded the letter and began whining for another reason.
“Stop now. Let’s go to bed, okay? It’s hot.”
The small body on his back bounced up and down. In the end, Elijah had to stop folding the letter and unavoidably stand up from in front of the firewood.
Sitting on the table a bit away from the kitchen, he took Rose down from his back and held him properly in front. The plump cheeks had ripened bright red from the heat.
This was the problem in winter. Elijah was so weak to cold that he could barely leave the fire in the dead of winter, but Rose, perhaps still young, was particularly afraid of being in front of the fire. Occasionally, when firewood filled with moisture spewed out acrid smoke, he would shudder and nag at Elijah.
Once when he asked if he wasn’t cold, Rose said he was fine because he was warm when Elijah was there. Elijah explained ‘you need fire to maintain body temperature in the dead of winter in these mountains,’ but Rose didn’t seem to understand.
“I’ll go send the letter and come back, Rose. Stay here for a moment.”
Elijah, approaching the bed, peeled off the small body clinging to him. Arms warmed with cozy heat from being on Elijah’s back the whole time wrapped around Elijah’s neck.
“I’ll go with you too…”
A voice full of drowsiness resonated against his nape. With his lips buried in Elijah’s nape, Rose whined softly.
“I want to go with you too.”
He was already uneasy about leaving the young child and going, but still, the outside was too cold, so there was no choice.
“Let’s go when the weather gets warmer.”
“Then don’t go either, Elijah.”
“Hm?”
“Can’t you just… stay here with me?”
“…”
“You always leave me and go.”
It wasn’t like he was going far, but Rose sometimes said strange things.
“I’m not leaving you, I’m just going and coming back for a moment.”
“What if you don’t come back?”
“Hm?”
“What if Elijah doesn’t come back? Then what do I do?”
“…”
In the end, Elijah carried Rose on his back again. He felt guilty for no reason despite committing no crime. Ha, really… It’s just in front of the house. Anyone listening would think he was really going far away.
These days his back ached from constantly having the child strapped to it. The only time Elijah’s back was empty was when he lay down in bed to sleep. Even that was because Rose slept sprawled on Elijah’s chest, so instead of his back being empty, he was giving up the front.
“You hate being apart even for that moment? Who do you take after to be this timid?”
“I’m doing this because I’m worried about Elijah.”
An utterly serious answer came from behind. Rose, who lowered his voice even though there was no one eavesdropping, whispered in Elijah’s ear.
“What if you go out alone and meet a scary wolf?”
“There are no wolves.”
“Then there might be bears.”
Elijah laughed weakly. It was really a cute stubbornness. Whether knowing his heart or not, a boastful voice came from behind.
“I’m small now, but when I grow bigger, I can beat wolves and bears too.”
It seemed Rose had recently become fixated on beasts he’d never even seen. The other day he kept imitating wolves and bears, and one time he couldn’t fall asleep for quite a while, asking ‘what will we do if a scary beast enters our house?’
“I told you there’s nothing like that in this forest.”
“There is, Elijah.”
“How do you know that?”
“I just know everything originally.”
I just know everything originally. Those words didn’t sound like mere cute boasting. In fact, Rose knew a surprising amount for how long he’d lived. Sometimes things he’d never even learned.
“…Do you know what wolves look like?”
“Of course I know.”
The soft lips touching his ear moved, then fell away. And then suddenly his nape was bitten hard.
“Ah.”
For a moment, Elijah thought his heart froze. It was partly due to the sharp pain that dug into his nape without warning, but Rose’s action just gave him chills for no reason.
“Don’t bite suddenly, you startled me…”
“Hehe.”
A laugh full of playfulness was heard. It was a voice so clear and transparent that not a single trace of malice could be found.
“You’re a scaredy-cat… Elijah is.”
Short arms tightly wrapped around Elijah’s neck.
“So I have to protect you. Right?”
Not “I’ll protect you,” either. Elijah swallowed his absurd laughter inwardly.
It was a tone like he was demanding while strangling his neck. You can’t go anywhere without me. You’re timid so I have to protect you. It was as if he was brainwashing him that it had to be that way.
As if those tiny hands could protect him well… Even while thinking such thoughts, Elijah answered blankly.
“…Yeah, Rose will protect me.”
The sound of fine-grained snow being crunched underfoot slowly wandered through the quiet forest. Rose, who had been fiddling with Elijah’s hair, seemed to have fallen asleep in the meantime, as even breathing could be heard from behind.
It was always like this. Rose would chatter on and on in a bright voice with no trace of sleepiness, then suddenly fall asleep in just a few seconds. If he’d known it would be like this, he should have just put him to sleep and gone out alone.
Lukewarm breath puffed over the wound that had just been pierced. Perhaps catching a slight chill from the cold day, goosebumps rose faintly on the nape of his neck.
Short legs sticking out between his arms dangled in the air. Elijah hid the small feet frozen from the cold inside the blanket as he floated the paper boat on the partially frozen river.
When he goes down to the settlement, he should buy winter gear first.
* * *
The warm spring breeze pushed away the cold dawn air.
Elijah roughly measured Rose’s body length with his hand span, then firmly covered him with the blanket. Today he sent the letter to the river earlier than other days.
Already March, it was finally the day of the decisive battle. Elijah would go down to the settlement today. For that, he’d prepared his mind for several weeks over and over, and a few days ago he’d also picked plenty of mushrooms to sell at the market.
If he sold all of these, would he get enough money to buy what he needed? Before Master passed away, with a single 1 krone coin, the two of them could buy quite a lot, but he didn’t know how the world had changed now.
Haah… He let out a deep sigh. It trembled as if dozens of bees had taken up residence in his stomach.
He’d gotten through winter with just one shirt anyway, so wouldn’t it be okay? The child rolled through snow all the time but never once caught a cold, so were clothes really necessary…? He was growing by leaps and bounds anyway, so clothes would quickly become too small…
How many months had he postponed with such suddenly surging conflicts?
‘Still, I have to go.’
The scared, trembling heart kept making him hesitate about going out. Elijah, who clenched both fists tightly, took a big breath and gathered his energy with a gasp.
