It seemed this trip would end like this. The physician’s death was sufficiently suspicious, but in reality, there was no answer. All clues for tracking the vampire had been completely severed.
“Lord Kalian, let’s go now.”
Bailey considered it a stroke of great fortune that Kalian had finally stopped clinging to this hopeless matter. Rather than wasting time on such meaningless work, it would be far more productive to collect relics buried in the old magic towers and decide on a new thesis topic.
Kalian, who had left the farm, looked up to the east with eyes full of regret. Two mountain ridges stood tall, wrapping white clouds around their waists and supporting the sky.
“…”
Despite not obtaining a single decisive piece of evidence, he felt as if he’d missed something right under his nose.
“Haah…”
He ultimately couldn’t meet that handsome genius mage again, and he couldn’t find any clues about the vampire either, so it was a completely failed trip. Sighing so deeply the ground might cave in, he draped his arm over Bailey’s shoulder and moved his reluctant steps.
“Farewell, mages.”
Gillie, who had kindly waved his hand until they completely left his farm, finally turned toward the river carrying a water bucket. His gaze suddenly landed on something.
“Ah.”
He set down the water bucket and hurriedly ran into the middle of the river. When he returned, a small paper boat was in his hand.
“I must be lucky today.”
He wiped the moisture on the bottom of the boat with his clothes and carefully tucked it into his inner pocket.
Chapter 3
「August 13th.
Are you well, Master?
I haven’t been feeling well these past few days, so my letters were short. Today is also quite sunny. I need to repair the ceiling before the rainy season, but these days Rose causes mischief the moment I take my eyes off him, so it’s not easy.
Today marks two years since Rose came to me. As his activity has increased, so has his mischief, but he’s still growing up healthy and well.
Yesterday evening, while playing alone in front of the house, his hair got tangled in a tree branch, so I eventually had to cut some of it. He wasn’t hurt, but he must have been very startled because he cried all evening.
At night, he whined all along that his legs hurt again, but fortunately today he seems to be in a good moo—」
—Elijah! Elijah!
At the scream that suddenly burst out, Elijah flinched in surprise and dropped his pen. What kind of accident did he cause this time… Elijah hurriedly went outside the cabin.
He heard a wailing loud enough to make the forest echo. Thanks to that, Elijah could easily find where Rose was. He looked up in shock.
“Rose, how did you get up there?”
“I don’t know! I-I just went up…”
Rose’s way of speaking was always like that. He did nothing wrong, but Igrit’s head fell off by itself, or his hair got tangled in a tree branch by itself, or he just somehow ended up on top of a tree that even adults would have difficulty climbing—that sort of thing.
Rose was almost at the very top of a fir tree that soared so high it made one’s heart sink just looking up at it.
He hugged the tree with a terrified face. The branch his small body was standing on wasn’t very thick, so it seemed precarious, as if it would break with just a little weight.
“Don’t move. Stay still, Rose.”
Though similar incidents had happened occasionally, this was the first time he’d climbed to such a high place like today.
Because of the leaves densely filling the branches extending in all directions, Elijah couldn’t even see Rose’s face properly from below. He could only occasionally see the silver-white curls disheveled and fluttering in the wind.
‘What should I do…’
Just looking up at him made Elijah’s heart tremble. He had no idea how this had happened. Certainly, before Elijah started writing his letter, Rose had been below the tree. How he climbed up there in that short time was a mystery.
He first circled around the tree to gauge whether he could climb up. The branches extending here and there in the middle looked too weak to support Elijah’s adult body.
There was absolutely no way to climb up, and he didn’t have the confidence to safely catch Rose if he made him jump down either.
“Rose, try to remember well how you climbed up… You can come back down the same way you went up.”
“I don’t knowww… I didn’t climb up…”
Perhaps frightened by the idea that he had to come down by himself, Rose whimpered even louder. As the child began crying from a height his hands couldn’t reach, Elijah became even more anxious.
“First…, first grab that branch next to you. You don’t need to come all the way down. Just come down a little. Just a little bit…”
Kyaak! With a shrill scream, the branch Rose’s foot had stepped on broke and fell below. Rose’s right foot, which no longer had anywhere to support it, dangled helplessly in the air.
Elijah silently clutched his heart and watched the scene. At this rate, he felt like he might faint before Rose.
“Rose, don’t move!”
It was a critical situation. Elijah frantically looked around. He belatedly discovered the ladder used for repairing the roof and brought it, but it was woefully insufficient to reach where Rose was.
“I-I’m coming, wait.”
Though he spoke bravely, Elijah was just as scared. The ladder held in his trembling hands shook from side to side along with him. Even though he was still on the ground, he felt dizzy and queasy as if he were at that very top.
Even now his legs were stiff and wouldn’t move—could he really climb up there…
Just as Elijah barely placed his trembling foot on the ladder, Rose began moving his body on his own. He probably thought that if he stepped down on the branches a couple of times and descended just a little, the ladder would reach.
However, the problem was that his legs were too short. Elijah, unable to take his eyes off Rose’s movements, froze watching the foot smaller than his own palm desperately flailing through the air trying to step on a branch.
When Rose’s toes barely reached, the thick branch he’d been supporting his body on made a cracking sound and gave way.
“Rose…!”
The small body that Elijah had cherished so dearly fell rapidly, bouncing here and there against the branches jutting out in the middle. Kyaaaak! Birds flew away startled by Rose’s long scream.
Elijah reflexively reached out his hand. A faint green glow formed in his hand. Soon the light, crawling up through the air like smoke, enveloped Rose’s body. In the instant the falling speed slowed slightly, Rose’s hand touched Elijah’s fingertips.
“Kyaa!”
His body dropped swiftly into Elijah’s arms. Elijah’s breath, having fallen onto the grass, rose and fell rapidly. The small body, embraced so tightly it might be crushed lest he let go, trembled.
Elijah thought his heart had stopped. Though his back was stabbed by a sharp rock, the relief at safely catching Rose was greater, so he didn’t feel the pain. He hurriedly checked Rose’s face. Though it was a mess, wet with tears and snot, fortunately there didn’t seem to be any injuries.
“Are you okay?”
Unable to answer, Rose just gasped while gripping Elijah’s collar tightly. When he rolled up the shirt and pants torn in places to check, fortunately there was indeed not a single wound—everything was clean.
“Haah…”
Only then did a long sigh burst out. Adjusting the child who was out of his mind from shock in his arms, Elijah sat leaning his back against the tree. With a sense of exhaustion as if all the blood had drained from his entire body, he felt like he’d rather just faint.
He tightly held the small body that was trembling and stroked his back.
“It’s okay now, it’s okay…, Rose.”
“Elijah…”
Sniffle, Rose rubbed his face against Elijah’s nape, wiping away tears and snot. His small shoulders heaved intermittently. Wiping away the tears still remaining around his eyes with his thumb, Elijah asked gently,
“Why did you climb up there again? You promised you wouldn’t climb up again.”
“…”
The corners of Rose’s mouth drooped downward. Tears dripped from his distorted eyes. As Elijah wiped those tears again, he hurriedly said,
“I’m not trying to scold you. I’m just asking because I’m curious about the reason.”
“It…, it flew away, there, and got caught…”
Rose held out the red satin ribbon in his hand. It was the hair tie that should have been obediently tied in his hair.
Rose’s hair was fine and curly, so if it wasn’t neatly arranged and tied, it would tangle quickly. However, the person himself found tying his hair cumbersome, so he would pull it out right away.
Yesterday too, while going around with disheveled hair like that, his hair got thoroughly tangled in a tree branch, and today because of the hair tie caught on a branch, this disaster happened again.
“It just flew away by itself… I didn’t do it.”
When Elijah sighed, Rose quickly made excuses. However, Elijah wasn’t foolish enough to believe Rose’s excuses as they were. He’d actually witnessed Rose pulling out his hair tie by himself several times while playing alone.
It was the same when he removed Igrit’s head before. At times when he thought Elijah wasn’t watching, he’d tear off the head and throw it away, then when Elijah actually asked, he’d play dumb as if he knew nothing about it.
“…It’s okay. As long as you’re not hurt.”
However, Elijah let himself be fooled every time. Because even that way of playing dumb was lovable and cute. It was just a very trivial lie anyway, and he didn’t want to scold Rose over such a thing and make him gloomy.
“So, sooo…”
Sniffle, Rose, swallowing his tears, whined.
“Don’t leave me alone next time…”
Rose, wrapping his legs around Elijah’s body and pulling his neck close with both arms, clung to him.
