# Chapter 18
I had brought materials about pregnancy and childbirth as well, but I couldn’t guarantee we’d cover everything today. I didn’t want to drag out sex education, but understanding was more important.
“Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“No.”
“Which part don’t you understand?”
“From beginning to end.”
“You should have said so earlier.”
“Arden always makes things complicated.”
Rite’s words were shocking. Did that mean he often didn’t understand our conversations? I thought we communicated well.
Whether I was shocked or not, Rite stared at the picture for a while, then looked up with a serious face and said:
“I don’t have this stuff coming out.”
Rite pointed at the ejaculate drawn in the picture. Every single question was making me flustered. Still, this wasn’t entirely unexpected, so I managed to answer calmly.
“That’s because you’re still young. That’s why Cal said only adults have sex.”
“But why does it feel good?”
“The ‘stimulation for ejaculation’ I mentioned earlier creates pleasure.”
“Pleasure?”
“It means it feels good.”
Rite stared at the picture again. Then he looked me up and down and asked, where is this thing on the body? Somehow his gaze made me feel awkward, so I lowered my head, pretending to look at the materials as I answered.
“The groin. Between your legs.”
“Oh.”
Rite nodded as if he finally understood. I was about to move on to female reproductive organs when Rite asked another question.
“Then show me, Arden.”
“What?”
“This. You said adults can do it. Show me how it’s done.”
Blood rushed to my face, and I felt a hot flush. I felt flustered and embarrassed, as if I was being teased. I shook my head and answered firmly.
“That’s not something you show to others.”
“Why? You said it feels good.”
“This is a very personal area… It’s common sense and basic manners to keep it private.”
“You can’t show me either?”
“This is something only married couples can see.”
Again with the married couple thing. Rite muttered as if grumbling. The way he looked at me suggested he was quite upset.
“Then who will Arden marry?”
“I probably won’t. I’ll likely stay alone like this.”
“Why alone? You’re with me.”
“Ah. That’s true.”
I said with a smile, but Rite didn’t smile back. Instead, he continued to look at me with a sullen expression.
“Then which is closer, a married couple or care… whatever that was?”
“Caregiver?”
“Yeah.”
Between a married couple and a parent-child relationship, which is closer? A married couple can end with divorce, but there’s no such procedure for parent-child relationships.
But my relationship with Plin was difficult to describe as intimate or close. He was my closest person, and we didn’t have bad feelings toward each other, but our relationship was more plain and dry.
Then what about Rite and me? As I pondered this while looking at Rite, he immediately sat up straight and looked at me. He seemed tense.
Why be so tense about this? But I understood how he felt.
I too once wished to be important to Plin. I wanted him to acknowledge my usefulness and not send me back to the orphanage.
Finding Rite’s appearance both pitiful and cute, I smiled and gave my answer.
“The caregiver is probably closer. I think.”
At my answer, Rite’s expression immediately brightened. It was cute how his face revealed exactly what he was thinking, but this time I barely maintained my expression. If I smiled again, I might hurt Rite’s feelings.
“So you and I are the closest?”
“I guess so.”
I imagined the child would brighten up excitedly at my answer, but for some reason, Rite was subdued. Seeing his reddened cheeks and twitching lips, he seemed to be feeling shy.
I immediately reached out my hand, wanting to stroke the child’s head. It had become a natural habit. I liked the feeling of soft hair threading between my fingers and the friction under my palm.
“So you don’t have to worry.”
“…”
“Because you’re a significant person to me.”
I ruffled the child’s hair with a bit more force. Rite looked up at me, blinking blankly. Thinking he might not have understood what I meant, I said it again.
“You’re important to me.”
Even so, Rite just kept looking at me without any particular reaction. I couldn’t tell what the child was thinking, but he didn’t seem upset or uncomfortable, so I just shrugged.
“That’s the end of today’s lesson. You can go play now.”
Saying that, I organized the lesson materials and left the child’s room. I thought he would immediately run out of his room and climb up to the treehouse, but that day, Rite spent the whole day in his small room.
At first, he hated it so much, but now the time he spent alone in his own space was gradually increasing.
* * *
It happened in an instant. I was walking through the village with Rite. In a good mood, Rite pulled my hand and walked almost at a running pace, and I was walking quickly, led by him.
“Rite, slow down. You might get—”
You might get hurt. Just as I was about to say that, my body collided with a passerby. The impact caused the metal covering my earlobe to fall off.
My heart sank for a moment, but thanks to the earring securely pierced through my earlobe, it didn’t completely fall to the ground. My fingertips trembled slightly. Even though it was nothing, whenever a situation similar to the past occurred, I felt my heart shrinking.
Feeling a strange sensation as if everything around me had gone quiet, I grabbed the metal hanging from my ear and was about to put it back in its original position.
That’s when I heard an unclear voice. It seemed like two people were saying something, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.
When I turned my head while fixing the metal to my earlobe, Rite was rushing at someone.
A loud sound clearly pierced my ears. It was the kind of noise made when something was being struck forcefully. From that moment, all the sounds in the world became clear to my ears.
“Kyaak!”
People’s screams and murmurs. And Rite’s rough breathing. In front of Rite was a middle-aged man with a familiar face, clutching his abdomen and curling up.
“Kuhek, kuk, heuk.”
The sight of Rite standing still in front of the man who was choking and unable to breathe was incredibly strange. The image of a child with a small back looking down at the man.
From my position, I couldn’t see Rite’s expression.
“What was that just now? Did that kid hit him?”
Rite hit someone? The voice from beside me snapped me back to reality. Ignoring the commotion around, Rite looked down at the man and said:
“You speak as if you know Arden well.”
Better than me. The back view of Rite muttering those words looked unfamiliar.
“Someone please…”
The man asked for help from people while lying on the ground. Seeing that, I hurriedly approached him.
As I approached the man, other people just watched us from a distance. Relieved by this fact, I examined his condition and realized he was someone who had always looked at me with disdain.
It wasn’t anything special. It was a natural reaction to dislike someone who had been exiled as a traitor.
Maybe because it was a village that had developed while turning a blind eye to illegalities, the people of Winterishe were particularly indifferent to crime and illegality, but such people weren’t completely absent.
“Are you alright?”
When I extended my hand, the man immediately grabbed onto my arm. Seeing this, Rite took a step forward. Seeing the man flinch, I stopped Rite.
“Rite, don’t.”
Only then did I see Rite’s face, which was somehow different from usual. It was such a cold impression that I couldn’t believe it was Rite.
He wasn’t the little squirrel-like child who climbed up and down the treehouse. Rite’s expression was filled with anger and vigilance, enough to remind me of a monster fighting for territory.
What was different? My gaze frantically searched Rite’s face and locked onto his purple irises.
“W-what the hell is this kid?”
The man who got up holding my arm yelled loudly. Reflexively turning my gaze, I saw the excited man glaring at Rite.
“Hitting people? Are you in your right mind?”
Despite coughing incessantly, the man stubbornly spat out words. Unable to grasp the situation between the excited man and Rite, I turned my gaze back to the child. There was one thing that caught my attention.
The first thing I checked was Rite’s pupils. They were round with nothing unusual about them. Clearly, just a moment ago… they had been vertically slit. Just like a beast’s eyes.
“This is why I said we shouldn’t let outsiders in carelessly, I’ve said countless times…”
The man didn’t care about his continuous coughing. He pointed his finger at Rite with veins popping on his neck, and then that arrow moved right in front of my face.
“Hey, this is your son, isn’t it?”
“…”
“That’s why they say blood doesn’t lie. When they sent a traitor like you here, I was so against it! Call the Knights right now. Tell them to take you back too, and throw this young thug in prison as well!”
“…I’m taking care of him, but he’s not my child.”
I felt Rite’s gaze, which had been glaring at the man, fix on me. My head cooled. Rite didn’t deserve to hear such words.
“He’s not a child who inherited my blood. He’s not the child of a traitor.”
“Is that important right now? You raised the kid wrong, so this young punk is already beating people…”
Whether Rite made some movement, the man flinched and looked cautiously. I stood in front of Rite without looking at him.
“You’re right, I’ve raised him poorly.”
When I lowered my head, my vision was filled with the old stone ground and the man’s shoes. I stared intently at the man’s shoes and continued.
“This is my first time raising a child, so I made mistakes. It’s my fault for not taking proper care.”
I heard Rite quietly calling my name, but I pretended not to hear. Rite’s voice sounded surprised, and perhaps also betrayed.
