Chapter 6
Daniel quickly scanned the room visible behind me. Even though he knew the baby wouldn’t be visible, my body stiffened with tension.
Not sensing anything unusual, Daniel withdrew obediently.
“If you see anything later, report it to the Knights immediately.”
I nodded my head docilely at Daniel’s words. When Daniel gestured, the knights standing behind him also left the cabin. I watched as they melded into the Winter Forest backdrop before closing the door. After securing the lock tightly, I turned around. I was about to go straight to the baby when a sudden voice burst through.
— Please!
My body froze at the screaming cry. The voice was familiar, but I still wasn’t used to it appearing so abruptly.
— Leave me alone!
It was because I had just faced Daniel. Because I had seen those commanding, intimidating blue eyes. Those eyes made me remember the imperial palace.
Usually, if I just continued with my tasks, the voice would quiet down. I didn’t chase away the terrified voice but headed straight for the baby. With each step I took, the voice gradually became fainter.
Perhaps because it was near the stove, both of the baby’s cheeks were flushed red. When I brushed them with my finger, I could feel the warm heat. My touch must have been cold, as the baby whimpered slightly and half-opened its eyes.
With each slow blink, the baby’s thick, long black eyelashes cast shadows on its cheeks. Between those lashes, purple eyes moved little by little. When the baby, who had been looking around aimlessly, spotted me, it moved its small, pale hand.
The baby, not fully awake, reached its hand toward me. Its hand wiggled in the air. Whenever the baby woke up and couldn’t see me, it would immediately cry loudly, but when it found me, it would reach out like this. I slowly picked up the baby. The familiar weight and body heat poured over me.
“Where did you come from, little one?”
Despite my question, the baby just fiddled with my hand as if it were a toy and smiled. At that sight, my tense body gradually relaxed. I smiled along with the baby and wiggled my fingers. The baby seemed to find even the slightest movement of my fingers amusing, giggling and enjoying it.
“What exactly are you?”
What are you, that those men are looking for you? Only then did the baby look up at me, taking its gaze off my fingers. Those large eyes turned toward me. As if it understood my words, it tilted its head as if to say it didn’t understand what I meant. That sight made me laugh.
“When will you start talking?”
When I poked the baby’s cheek with my finger, its attention shifted back to my finger.
* * *
Knock, knock, knock. There was a knocking sound at regular intervals. I slightly lifted the window curtain to check outside and saw Pini carrying a large bag. I pulled Pini in before there was even time to greet each other at the door. Only after securely locking the door did I exchange greetings with Pini.
“It’s been a while, Arden.”
Pini, who used an old-fashioned voice program, had an awkward intonation compared to modern robots. Perhaps to avoid eye contact, Pini was wearing a large raincoat and even boots.
“Thank you for coming, Pini.”
“It’s fine.”
It would take two to three days to travel from where Pini lived to here. It was a long-distance journey requiring both train and steam airship. Although as a robot, Pini would be fine in terms of physical endurance, I still wasn’t comfortable with it.
Unlike today’s robots that have round silhouettes similar to humans, Pini had a square face and angular body. The size was also small, only reaching about my chest.
“Sit down first. We’ll check your condition while we’re at it.”
“Thank you.”
Pini nodded and headed for the sofa. After putting down the bag and sitting on the sofa, Pini looked around and then fixed its gaze on one spot. It was the cradle where the baby was sleeping.
“So there really is a baby.”
“Did you think I was lying?”
“I couldn’t believe it.”
Pini looked back and forth between me and the baby with curious eyes.
Pini was a household robot made by Plin, my guardian and protector. Having known me almost as long as Plin had, it was understandable that Pini would find it strange that I was taking care of a baby.
After Plin died, Pini stayed alone to manage Plin’s house, and even after I was expelled from the palace and banished to the Winter Forest, it still guarded that place. Even knowing that neither Plin nor I would ever return, Pini continued its duties.
I neither understood why Pini was still guarding that house nor had I ever asked, but I thought it was probably close to inertia.
“Doesn’t it have a name?”
“No.”
“You could give it one.”
“When I don’t even know what will happen in the future.”
Besides, it’s hard to even call it human. I didn’t bother to say the latter part out loud.
“I bought everything Arden asked for. Cheese, carrots, spinach, and ground beef.”
Pini took items out of the bag one by one and placed them on the table. I checked them briefly with my eyes and then brought a toolbox and sat next to Pini. Pini took off the raincoat with practiced ease and turned around to show its back.
“Still there?”
I asked while unscrewing the bolts on Pini’s back. With a small flashlight in my mouth, I checked inside Pini, looking for dust accumulation or aged parts, when Pini spoke.
“About the Knights? There were none on the way to the cabin, but they’re in the village. Winterishe Village.”
As long as the Knights were in the village, I needed to be careful with all my actions, which meant I needed someone to move on my behalf. Pini was the most suitable.
After Daniel left, I immediately wrote a letter and went down to the village to ask for it to be sent. Despite my sudden letter asking for groceries and to check the atmosphere in the village, Pini had willingly come.
While I was lost in thought for a moment, a crying sound came from the cradle.
At the baby’s sudden cry, I quickly approached the cradle and held the baby in my arms. Perhaps because it had just woken up from sleep, its body was warmer than usual. Holding the pleasantly warm body, I habitually rubbed my cheek against the baby’s head. Soft black hair brushed against my cheek.
As I slowly rocked the body, I waved a wooden toy in front of the baby’s eyes, and soon the baby stopped whimpering and reached for the toy.
Despite still having tears welled up in its eyes, it smiled, revealing small lower teeth.
“What on earth is that?”
Pini asked, pointing a finger at the baby.
“What do you mean? It’s a baby.”
At my answer, Pini shook its head. Not that.
“The wooden piece in the baby’s hand.”
“A teddy bear.”
“Oh my goodness.”
“Why…?”
“How is that a teddy bear?”
Pini covered its mouth with one hand, as if truly appalled. The wooden piece in the baby’s hand was indeed a teddy bear. A teddy bear that came after 3 days of numerous failed attempts.
“Just in case, I also bought baby toys. Looks like I did the right thing.”
“Why bother? I can make them myself.”
Ignoring my words, Pini took out a duck figure from the bag. The soft duck made a squeaking sound when pressed. The baby turned its head at the sound.
“Do you like it?”
With a nervous heart, I watched the baby’s reaction. It was a strange sense of competition. As Pini approached, repeatedly pressing the duck, the baby’s lips quivered.
Ah, it’s about to cry. Just as I thought that, tears welled up in the baby’s eyes again. Pini hurriedly hid the duck behind its back, but the baby finally burst into tears.
“Ah, Arden!”
Pini looked at me in panic. Even when I waved the teddy bear in front of the baby again, the crying didn’t stop easily.
While gently rocking the baby to soothe it, Pini carefully opened its mouth.
“Arden, sorry to bother you when you’re busy, but what is this?”
“What now?”
“Horns just grew on the baby’s head.”
Following Pini’s finger, I turned my gaze to the child’s head. It was fine just a moment ago, but in that brief interval, horns had sprouted again.
Pini tilted its square face slightly and looked at the baby. Before I could explain anything, Pini came to a conclusion.
“So the rumors were true.”
“Rumors?”
“That a monster was born in the palace.”
Palace. My heart sank heavily at the unexpected word. I had thought the baby might be from a noble family, but could it possibly be from the imperial family? Not everyone born in the palace was royalty, but if the child was of the Emperor’s bloodline, the knights dispatched to the forest would make sense.
Organizing my complicated thoughts, I put the now quiet baby to sleep and, after checking everything inside Pini’s head cover, sat on the sofa.
“So, you’re saying this child is royalty?”
I asked, pressing my brow in fatigue. Pini emphasized several times that it wasn’t accurate information before finally speaking.
“First of all, this is information I heard from a tavern employee. They overheard knights talking while drunk. That a monster was born in the palace. There are many stories about how it happened.”
“Tell me all of them.”
“The first thing I heard was that the Empress fell in love with a monster and conceived a monster’s child.”
I naturally recalled the Empress from my memory. A small woman with a face that always seemed frightened. She didn’t seem like someone who would do such a thing.
“What else?”
“There’s also talk that it’s punishment for waging too many wars. That the goddess Artalis placed a monster in the Empress’s womb.”
“The Empress didn’t start the wars, so why put it in her womb?”
“It’s just baseless rumors anyway.”
Pini told me a few other rumors as well. All of them were absurd stories, like the Empress was actually a monster pretending to be human.
If there was something slightly concerning, it was the Empress’s appearance. She had black hair and blue eyes. They weren’t purple, but dark blue could certainly appear purplish depending on the circumstances.
But that alone wasn’t enough evidence to conclude the Empress was the baby’s birth mother.
“So they abandoned the born monster in the forest?”
“The palace astrologer made a prophecy.”
“A prophecy?”
“That the monster would someday kill the Emperor and devour this country.”
Pini pointed at the baby sleeping in the cradle while saying this. Adding, this is also just a rumor.
I joined in looking at the baby. The baby’s clothes fluttered. With each exhale, the scales on its arms appeared and disappeared repeatedly.
“To summarize… for whatever reason, this baby appeared in the palace.”
“…”
“The astrologer prophesied that this baby would become a traitor.”
“So they abandoned the baby in this Winter Forest. And Arden picked it up.”
Pini summarized it simply, but there was still an unresolved question. If that was true, wouldn’t there be a more definitive method?
“Then they could have killed it right after birth.”
“I thought so too. I looked into that point as well, but there was no specific mention. Maybe they couldn’t kill it directly because it was a monster sent by the gods.”
“That’s absurd.”
“It’s all just rumors, so nothing is certain.”
Pini emphasized once more that rumors were just rumors.
That baby might be a prince. And one destined to become a traitor.
Only then did I realize how dangerous a situation I had gotten myself into. The knights’ actions were too suspicious to dismiss everything as nonsense.
“So they abandoned the baby in the Winter Forest, and now they’ve sent knights to find the baby again?”
“More precisely, they seem to have been ordered to find the monster’s corpse.”
“Corpse?”
“Since they abandoned the baby in the Winter Forest, they assumed it would die, and they want to confirm that. I heard there was a knight asking villagers if they had seen a baby’s corpse.”
After finishing, Pini watched my reaction. It seemed there was something more Pini wanted to say.
“What are you planning to do now, Arden?”
Pini didn’t ask specifically what I was going to do, but I knew exactly what it meant.
“What else? If I picked it up, I should take at least minimal responsibility.”
“Are you sure? We don’t know what kind of monster that baby will grow into.”
“…”
“The Knights might come looking again.”
I couldn’t answer Pini’s words. Pini left without waiting for my answer. Once again, it was just the baby and me. In the cabin, there was only the sound of burning firewood and the faint sound of wind beyond the door.
