The Unfortunate Girl and the Unfortunate Boy
Once upon a time.
There was a girl.
A girl who carried the misfortune of the entire world on her small shoulders.
She had no family.
Her father ran off with another woman when she was four.
Her mother was beaten to death by a customer while working at a brothel when she was six.
And her younger brother—the last of her blood—starved to death when she was seven.
Because of that, the girl was always alone.
With nowhere to lean on, she had to fight fiercely just to survive.
To get even a single piece of moldy bread, she had to beat down other children in the same wretched situation.
On streets teeming with crime and poverty, the girl struggled desperately to stay alive.
“Sister… I’m hungry…”
She still remembered the warmth of her little brother’s hand, clutching hers tightly until his final moment.
She remembered her own helpless figure, having nothing but muddy water to feed that frail child.
The world was vile, cruel, and filthy.
During the day, she had to fight among starving wolves to claim even a scrap of food.
At night, she had to flee with a pounding heart from slave traders who kidnapped pretty children.
The girl clung to life with ferocious tenacity.
She used every means possible to protect herself.
But the world still refused to let her live.
“......”
One winter, harsher and colder than any before, the girl finally collapsed.
In a back alley filled with biting frost, death was blooming around her.
She blinked sleepy eyes and gazed up at the endlessly blue sky.
Above her head, pure white snowflakes danced like a blessing.
It was as if the whole world was mocking her miserable end.
The girl quietly closed her eyes.
A hot streak traced itself across her freezing cheek.
If she stayed lying here, she would either freeze to death or be kidnapped by slave traders. One or the other.
It was a fitting conclusion for a life that had been nothing but mud.
The girl let go of the will to live that she had stubbornly clung to all this time.
She just wanted it to end.
She was too exhausted to stand up and fight the world again.
Her body, stiffened by hunger and cold, no longer obeyed her.
She had no confidence she could survive this deep season of ice.
The girl thought to herself:
I will die here.
At the very bottom of this filthy misfortune.
On the ugly side of this world.
I will die hating everything.
I will close my eyes while cursing the entire world.
That was what she repeated inside her heart.
But.
Why was it?
Even though she had made that calm resolution, the girl’s tears refused to stop.
No—they only grew more sorrowful as time passed.
In her blurring vision, the girl desperately rolled her eyes.
She moved her gaze with frantic urgency, searching desperately for someone.
Who?
Even she didn’t know.
She simply kept rolling her eyes with all her might.
The girl was dreaming an impossible dream.
She was holding onto the faint hope that something would appear to save her.
Even after living through such cruel misfortune, she was daring to dream a hope far beyond her station.
But a wish was only a wish.
Naturally, no one appeared before the girl.
She knew it too.
The time had come to let go of her lingering attachments.
That there was no place in this world where she could stand.
“Over there……”
She had definitely thought that.
“Are you… still alive…?”
Until someone spoke to her.
“......?”
“You really are alive…!”
When the girl opened her eyes, what entered her vision was a boy who looked about her age.
A face where coldness and cuteness coexisted.
A bearing that carried grace despite his young age.
And hair and eyes of a black color she had never seen before in her life.
Though clearly black, the boy’s hair and eyes gave off a faint, mysterious glow.
The girl stared at the boy as if entranced.
In return, the boy smiled gently at her.
It was a wonderful smile.
It was also an expression no one had ever shown her in her short life.
“Look at all these wounds…! W-what should I do?! For now, at least wear this!”
With a soft flutter, a warm presence covered her body.
It was the scarf that had been wrapped around the boy’s neck just moments ago.
The girl froze for an instant at the unfamiliar sensation of another person’s body heat.
The boy paid it no mind and held out his hand to her.
“You don’t seem to have anywhere to go… Come with me. I’ll help you warm up.”
“......”
The girl hesitated for a moment, staring at the boy’s cheeks flushed red from the cold.
Then, with a trembling hand, she timidly grabbed the sleeve of his clothes.
The boy smiled warmly at her once more.
He lifted the collapsed girl into his arms and stood up.
“My name is Raiden. What’s yours?”
At the question, the girl shook her head slowly.
Having been born at the bottom and lived at the bottom, she had no name.
Seeing her reaction, the boy nodded as if he understood.
“You don’t have a name……”
“......”
“Hmm… Then what should I call you…?”
The boy pondered for a moment before opening his mouth again.
“How about… Rachel?”
“......?”
“That’ll be your name. You’ll be staying at our mansion for at least this winter, so you’ll need one.”
A boy who suddenly gave her a name.
The girl felt puzzled by his actions.
“Is that… okay…?”
Even so, she didn’t think the name was bad.
-Nod…
When the girl quietly nodded, the boy smiled as if relieved.
“Let’s go, Rachel. From today on, you’re my family.”
Saying that, the boy began to walk.
Still held in his arms, the girl left the streets behind.
And so, the girl met the person who would save her life.
“Hehe… That’s how I met the young master. I think I had just turned nine?”
“Yeah… I was eight at the time, so it was exactly ten years ago…”
Rachel sat behind me, slowly running her hands through my hair.
It felt strangely awkward to see the usually energetic and cheerful Rachel acting so gently.
Every time her slender fingers touched me, a warm sense of stability enveloped my entire body.
It felt like melting.
I thought I finally understood why Ariel always purred whenever I stroked her.
“For the ten years after that… I really lived a life like a dream.”
“......”
“The first soft bed I ever had, the warm food, the cozy nest, and the kind people.”
Rachel lowered her hands from my head, then turned my body so that we were facing each other.
Her brown eyes held not even the slightest tremor.
That gaze, which looked at me completely, represented the girl’s true heart.
“You probably don’t know, young master. What the hand you reached out to me back then……”
The girl smiled brightly and tightly held the boy’s hand.
Just like the boy had done for the girl ten years ago.
“…meant to my life.”
Rachel smiled brightly, blooming pure white innocence on her lips.
I, who had been staring blankly at the scene, bit my lip hard.
If I let my guard down even a little, ugly emotions would come pouring out.
“I know.”
It was strange.
I thought I had grown numb to sadness.
Yet tears that hadn’t fallen even in terrible loneliness, depression, or misfortune were now threatening to burst.
“That you are a good person, young master.”
Why were they trying to come out now?
I clenched my eyes with all my strength, struggling to keep my face from twisting.
But sadly—
“You’re not a bad person, young master.”
At the sound of her voice, I finally broke down.
A lukewarm streak ran down my cold cheek.
Along with it came an unbearably ugly sob from my throat.
The well of tears that had been pooling in solitude began to gush out violently, like a broken dam.
“Ugh… Hic, ugh…”
The girl had told me.
That I wasn’t bad.
Perhaps those were the words both I and Raiden had wanted to hear most all this time.
It’s all because of me.
If I hadn’t existed.
Everyone could have been happy…
Self-loathing deeply rooted in our hearts.
Because we hated ourselves more than anyone else in the world, we had lived believing every misfortune around us was our fault.
“Cry comfortably. You don’t have to hold it in.”
Yet Rachel, you say those words as if they’re the most natural thing in the world.
You instantly deny the guilt we’ve carried our entire lives.
“I don’t know how much strength my few words can give you, but please remember this one thing.”
Rachel gently lifted her hand and wiped away the tears staining my cheeks.
The incredibly grateful warmth melted my frozen skin.
The girl whispered softly into my ear.
“That I am always on your side, young master.”
Even if you treat me harshly.
Even if you leave without a word.
Even if the whole world hates you.
“I promise I will always stay by your side.”
Rachel said this with her usual innocent, bright smile.
Faced with that radiant smile, I couldn’t stop crying.
I kept shedding tears until I eventually fell asleep from exhaustion.
Rachel quietly looked down at her young master, who had fallen into a deep sleep.
-Hoo… Hoo…
The boy, exhausted from crying, let out thin breaths with his eyes closed.
The girl carefully reached out and stroked his cheek.
His eyes were red and swollen.
Seeing that, Rachel felt her heart ache.
“......Poor thing.”
The girl knew the whole truth.
Why the once-brilliant boy had fallen into corruption.
What kind of mindset had made him wear the mask of a scoundrel.
That every night he secretly locked himself in his mother’s study and shed tears.
Everything.
“......”
The girl’s vision grew faintly blurry.
Thanks to the boy, she had learned what warmth was.
Thanks to the boy, she had learned how to live together with others.
Thanks to the boy, she had been able to shake off misfortune.
Thanks to the boy, she had come to love the world she once hated.
“Young master…”
Watching the person who had saved her now drowning in misfortune was not a pleasant sight.
The pain in her chest grew so intense that Rachel had to clutch her heart with her other hand.
She didn’t want him to hurt.
She didn’t want the boy who had saved her to be hated.
Rachel… do you hate me too?
When the boy had asked that question moments ago, it felt like a thorn had been driven into her heart.
The boy usually never showed his pain no matter how hard things got.
Yet he had been driven to the point of asking her directly.
The girl whispered to herself inside.
No, young master.
I don’t hate you.
Ever since the day you saved me, I decided to live only for you.
I have respected you and followed you.
And……
I love you deeply from the bottom of my heart.
A single teardrop fell onto the back of the girl’s hand.
To harbor such impure feelings toward the one she served—it was a moment that made her doubt her qualifications as a maid.
But it was okay.
Because this feeling was one she would keep tightly hidden for the rest of her life.
It was an emotion she would bury deep in the corner of her heart so no one would ever notice.
Rachel knew.
If there was a woman who could make the young master happy, it could not be her.
She was a weed of misfortune who had grown up eating happiness at his side.
No matter how far she had come from her days in the gutter, the brand of misfortune still remained in her heart.
There was no way someone like her could make the young master happy.
Rachel did not covet the young master’s love.
She simply wished for him to become truly happy.
That was why she wiped away her flowing tears and firmly clasped her hands together.
And then she prayed.
That someone would save the young master.
That someone would reach out to the young master as he struggled in misfortune.
That someone would make the young master happy.
The girl who had once been unfortunate prayed for the unfortunate boy.