The baby burst into clear laughter with sound. Watching the baby giggle, Elijah laughed along. The small mouth that had been sucking the finger spread to the side with a smile, and a cute dimple formed in the pale cheek.
“…I should name you Rose. Because you’re pretty.”
The prettiest person Elijah had seen in his life was ‘Rose.’ So the only name he knew that would suit a pretty baby was also ‘Rose.’
“Rose.”
Giggle. Along with clear laughter, a hand smaller than Elijah’s palm approached before his eyes. Elijah pressed his cheek against that hand. Red eyes quietly examined his face.
It was really strange. The baby surely still didn’t know where its own eyes, nose, and mouth were attached, yet somehow Elijah felt as if it saw through all his thoughts.
Why did the parents abandon such a pretty baby? Ah, vampires tear through human wombs to come out, didn’t they say? Perhaps the person who abandoned this baby didn’t make an easy decision either.
Unable to kill the baby with their own hands, but unable to keep raising it either, so they abandoned it deep in these mountains hoping it would die on its own.
“I won’t abandon you.”
Elijah whispered quietly toward it. It was a promise he couldn’t guarantee he could keep, but so what? It wouldn’t understand anyway.
Then the baby reached out its hand and grabbed Elijah’s finger. The left index finger, tattered with wounds, was soon sucked into its mouth. The baby was at the peak of its appetite.
* * *
“September 1st.
Are you well, Master?
The rainy season has ended and it’s a bright day for once. I am doing fine.
Rose is also doing well.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.”
“September 21st.
Are you well, Master?
The wind has become cool and the autumn leaves are starting to turn. I am doing fine.
Except for being startled when Rose fell off the bed. I definitely laid him down well on the inside, but I don’t know when he rolled over—a disaster happened while I was distracted for a moment.
He hit the floor face-first and got a nosebleed. Fortunately, it doesn’t seem like any bones were broken. Instead, Rose kept crying so I had trouble soothing him.
Anyway, except for that incident, we are doing well as always.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.”
“October 2nd.
Are you well, Master?
Autumn rain is falling.
I think Rose has started speaking. I don’t know what he’s saying so earnestly, but it’s really cute. To keep hearing this cute chatter even when he grows up, I’ll have to teach him language, but I don’t know if I can teach him well.
I’m reading books to him in my own way, but Rose doesn’t seem to be listening at all.
Anyway, we are doing well as always.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.”
“December 1st.
Are you well, Master?
It’s a day with strong winds. Rose and I are doing well today as well.
Yesterday evening, Rose walked ten steps without falling even once for the first time. Just a few days ago, he had trouble even standing and would often plop down, so this is really amazing.
I think it’s natural since he’s a different species from humans, but on the other hand, I feel proud that the child grows well on his own even without my efforts.
If he continues to grow well like now, I’ll have nothing more to wish for.
I’ll write again tomorrow.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.”
“January 8th.
Are you well, Master?
The snow that had been falling for several days has finally stopped. These days, parts of the river freeze so the letters often get stuck midway.
Rose is pretty and cute today as well. Yesterday evening, he used a sentence for the first time. ‘Elijah wake up.’ If Rose hadn’t woken me, I would have burned the pot again.
They say it’s a species with high intelligence originally, but how does he learn to speak when I’ve never properly taught him?
It’s really amazing. If you were alive, Master, you would have made it a very interesting research subject.
Rose has clearly grown taller, visible to the naked eye. I’m sure it seems like he just barely started walking a few weeks ago, but now he runs around.
I don’t know how much ordinary human babies grow, but it’s definitely a fast pace. At this rate, he’ll become an adult within a few years.
I’ve been having many thoughts these days. Anyway, as you can see, Rose and I are doing well.
I’ll write again tomorrow.
—From your inadequate disciple, Elijah.”
“Elijah!”
Elijah gasped in surprise, seeing Rose rolling over almost tumbling through the snowfield piled up to his knees.
“Rose, I told you not to go outside.”
He quickly ran over and picked Rose up. He was now too heavy to lift up in one go. Rose, who had started walking in just a few months, no longer wanted to stay quietly in one place.
“You don’t even have shoes…”
Elijah held the two small feet that had frozen solid in one hand and shared his warmth. In this cold winter, all Rose wore was one of Elijah’s shirts. Even that was too big and worn to barely function as clothing.
That’s why he told him to absolutely not go outside. Elijah quickly took off his cloak and wrapped it tightly around Rose’s body. Come to think of it, he hadn’t written something important in his letter. His concern about Rose’s clothes. He had so many other things to write that he forgot.
“Not cold.”
Rose, who stretched his short arms outside the cloak, whined as he wrapped his arms around Elijah’s neck. As the coldly chilled arms touched his nape, Elijah inevitably trembled slightly from the cold.
“Not cold? When your hands and feet are this cold?”
“Elijah is warm.”
“I’m too cold…, Rose.”
“Cold?”
Rose touched Elijah’s cheek. It was a hand with lower body temperature than Elijah’s. He seemed to be trying to share warmth following Elijah’s example in his own way, but instead, the warmth on Elijah’s cheek was absorbed by the small hand.
Rose laughed with a giggling sound. The plump, pale cheeks bulged out on both sides. Thin, silver-white curly hair flew in the wind. When he brushed aside the hair that kept poking his eyes with his hand, eyes beautifully curved like half-moons were revealed.
His hair and skin were all pure white like snow, so his uniquely red eyes and lips were features that caught the gaze. The long eyelashes that fluttered down every time he blinked, and the small lips that moved, were just like looking at a fairy from a fairy tale.
Elijah flipped the cloak over his head and wrapped the back of his head. The light head settled on Elijah’s shoulder with a thud.
The breath that puffed against his nape was ticklish. Scraping the tender skin with small front teeth, Rose murmured.
“Elijah…, hungry.”
“Let’s go in quickly.”
Elijah, who pushed away the snow piled in front of the door with his foot, entered the house.
* * *
So creepy.
Igrit was afraid of Rose, who started walking and talking on his own without anyone teaching him. Well, it was an abnormal phenomenon by anyone’s standards.
However, Elijah didn’t want to think such things about such a pretty child. Since he grew well on his own without him having to do anything, it even made him feel proud.
“Elijah, Elijah. This came off.”
Rose, who was sitting on the bed, shook something toward Elijah in the kitchen while bouncing his body. Igrit’s body with the head fallen off was held in his hand.
Perhaps the biggest reason Igrit disliked Rose was precisely this. Elijah approached and sat next to Rose.
“Rose, did you pull Igrit’s head again?”
“No… It just came off.”
White cotton was sticking out from the spot where the head had completely left. Pushing that cotton back into the stuffed body with his small hands, Rose looked at Elijah.
“It just came off by itself.”
Eyes like large marbles rolled left and right, gauging the other’s reaction. Elijah sighed and took out adhesive from the drawer. The adhesive made from plant starch had already hardened uselessly because the lid was open for some reason.
Even if he tried to make it again, he couldn’t obtain the materials in this winter.
“Elijah…, are you angry?”
A small hand covered Elijah’s hand as he fiddled with Igrit’s head with a dejected heart.
“Are you angry because of me?”
Hm? A cute face entered the vision of Elijah with his head lowered. Rose, lying with his head on Elijah’s thigh, looked up at him. Elijah stroked his cheek and shook his head.
“No. I’m not angry.”
“Are you sad that Igrit died?”
“Igrit didn’t die. I just need to reattach the head.”
“Then how does it die?”
“Hm?”
Rose reached out his hand and stroked Elijah’s hair. He took a handful of the long brown hair that came down to his waist and twisted it around his fingers, held it like a brush and tickled the back of Elijah’s hand, and asked with an innocent face.
“Are you going to attach the head?”
“Of course.”
Elijah, who placed Igrit’s head on the drawer beside the bed, gently stroked Rose’s eyes.
“Igrit is our friend. You can’t take the head off next time. Understand?”
“…”
Rose, who grabbed Elijah’s hand stroking his cheek and earlobe with both hands, curved his eyes and smiled bashfully.
“Elijah, I’m hungry.”
“Okay.”
He gently scratched the back of Elijah’s hand with his tooth tip as if asking for permission. A soft tongue licked across the boundary between the back of his hand and wrist.
“Rose, don’t play around. It tickles.”
Rose, who scrunched up his small nose bridge, made a grrr sound and chomped on the back of his hand. The fangs that protruded slightly below the lips were lovely. Elijah let out a chuckle and gently stroked the scrunched nose bridge with his fingertip.
“What were you imitating?”
“Wolf.”
“Oh my, how scary.”
At those words, Rose giggled.
