A Child in the Luggage
Chloe examined the tailors lined up before her like students waiting for their homework to be checked.
Their ages ranged from mid-teens to early twenties. They all looked exhausted from the long journey, dark circles hanging beneath their eyes as if they might collapse at any moment. Yet the worry in their gazes was impossible to hide.
The eight young tailors studied the young lord standing before them with anxious expressions.
“What? Afraid you’ll work yourselves to the bone and never get paid?”
At Chloe’s blunt question, all eight heads drooped in unison, as if on cue.
Chloe had no intention of scolding them. If she had been in their position, she would have approached this place with the same heavy steps of worry. They had likely come to Grace Territory as a last resort, grasping at straws after finding nowhere else to work.
She would turn that straw into a golden rope.
After studying their weary, parched faces once more, Chloe turned to Handsome.
“You must be tired from the long journey. Rest well today and begin work tomorrow. I’d like to give you another day, but as you know, winter is fast approaching. If you don’t hurry, the children will suffer from the cold.”
She decided to let them rest first, knowing explanations would only breed disbelief.
Chloe smiled at the tailors awkwardly bowing their heads as they tried to read the atmosphere, then turned away.
Just then—
“Aaaah!”
The sudden scream made everyone nearby whip their heads toward the sound.
“What’s going on!”
The knights who had accompanied the wagons reacted first. They had arrived without incident, only to fear disaster striking at the very end.
“Th-there’s a corpse in that bag!”
“What?”
The coachman driving the carriage loaded with the tailors’ luggage pointed a trembling finger. Only then did one of the knights spot a small arm sticking out from between the large bags. He leapt onto the wagon.
All eyes focused on the half-open luggage.
The knight swept a sharp gaze over the tailors before spotting a girl staring at the bag with a face as pale as death. He signaled to a nearby knight, who forced the trembling girl to her knees. The knight on the wagon flung the half-open bag wide.
Thud!
The worn bag split open like a ripe watermelon at the slightest touch.
Instead of luggage, the body of a boy around five years old tumbled out. Or what they thought was a body.
The child who had fallen onto the bag blinked slowly, still half-asleep, then spotted the armed knight glaring down at him and burst into tears.
“Waaah! Big sister!”
The scrawny child had a remarkably strong voice.
As the boy cried, the girl who had been forced to her knees flattened herself against the ground and began to beg.
“Please, just this once, forgive me. I couldn’t leave my brother behind, even though I knew it wasn’t allowed… Please, show mercy.”
The girl clasped her hands together, trembling as if she had committed a mortal sin.
Chloe immediately understood the situation and ordered the dazed knight,
“Bring the child here.”
“Waaah! I’m sorry! Don’t scold my sister!”
Even in the midst of his tears, the boy worried about his sister first.
When the knight carried the child down from the wagon, the girl stopped crying and looked back and forth between her brother and the knight with frightened eyes.
“You come here too.”
Chloe gestured to the girl, whose face was streaked with tears as she lay on the ground.
She scrambled to her feet and rushed toward the knight holding her brother. The boy leaned forward, stretching both arms desperately toward his sister.
When the knight looked to Chloe for permission, she nodded.
The child was instantly in his sister’s arms. Terrified, he buried his face in her thin shoulder and sobbed, his body shaking.
The girl held him tightly and tried to soothe him.
“It’s all right. Big sister will protect you. It’s all right.”
Her voice trembled like a frightened lamb, far from reassuring.
“Your brother?”
Chloe asked as gently as possible. The two children clung to each other desperately, as if they had nothing left in the world but each other.
Her heart ached at the thought of how they must have lived in constant fear of being discovered on the journey here.
“I’m truly sorry. I never meant to deceive you, my lord. I’ll do anything you ask. Please, just let my brother stay with me.”
The girl bowed her head, tears dripping steadily as she pleaded.
“Understood.”
“Pardon?”
“I said I understand. So stop kneeling.”
The girl could only nod blankly, unable to believe Chloe’s response. She had no time to consider whether such behavior was proper. She clung desperately to the faint thread of hope that had suddenly appeared.
“Butler!”
“Yes, my lord.”
Handsome, who had been observing the situation nearby, answered promptly.
“Make arrangements for this child—no, what’s your name?”
“…Julia, my lord.”
Chloe had been speaking to Handsome when she paused to ask the girl’s name. Julia answered in a hoarse voice.
“And your brother?”
“Yujin.”
“Pretty names.”
Chloe smiled softly and gently stroked the back of the boy, who clung to his sister like a barnacle. The child, who had been hiding in the bag, smelled strongly of sweat and urine.
“Butler, prepare a separate room for Julia and Yujin to stay together. Wash the child and give him clean clothes. He’ll catch a cold at this rate.”
“Yes! Understood.”
Handsome, whose heart had ached at the sight of the two children, answered loudly with genuine joy, as if it were his own matter.
“Th-then, what about us…?”
“You’ll live here while you work. With your brother.”
“Sob… Thank you, my lord. Thank you so much!”
Julia sobbed, her shoulders shaking, unable to even wipe away her flowing tears.
The tailors followed the handsome butler with half-believing expressions.
The place they were led to was a room once used by the servants. Expecting around twenty people, ten rooms had been prepared in advance, so there was no shortage of space.
The tailors were quite satisfied with the clean, spacious rooms.
Each room had two beds on either side of an arched window, along with a chest of drawers for storing their belongings.
Though the furniture wasn’t new, it had been well-maintained and showed no signs of inconvenience.
With two people assigned to each room, the tailors paired up with those they had grown close to during the journey.
The oldest-looking tailor among them received a room alone, while Julia and Yujin were given a room to themselves thanks to Chloe’s consideration.
“Wow! Can I really sleep here?”
Yujin repeated the same question for the tenth time, still unable to believe the situation.
Julia smiled brightly and nodded for the tenth time without a hint of annoyance.
“Yes! You don’t have to hide anymore! We can live here now.”
She herself had pinched her cheeks several times, unable to believe their sudden stroke of luck. But each time, her cheeks stung, and before her eyes was her brother, freshly washed and dressed in new clothes, smiling brightly.
“These clothes are so nice. They’re so soft when you touch them.”
Chloe had given Yujin a few of the leftover clothes meant for the territory’s children. Yujin, who had never worn such colorful clothes before, didn’t know what to do with himself. At first, he walked around with his legs spread wide like a crab, afraid of wearing them out, making everyone laugh.
“Big sister, are you crying?”
Yujin, who had been staring at his sister, approached with surprised eyes and examined Julia’s face.
Julia quickly turned her head and wiped her tears with the back of her hand.
“No. I’m not crying.”
Julia answered with a bright smile, but contrary to her words, hot tears streamed down her cheeks once more.
“Big sister, don’t cry. Okay?”
Yujin’s large eyes, which had been shining with joy just moments ago, quickly filled with tears as well.
“Okay. I won’t cry. I won’t.”
Julia was realizing for the first time that one could cry from overwhelming happiness.
Julia was exceptionally skilled with her hands.
But her young age of fifteen, her status as an orphan, and the fact that she had a younger brother to care for had been major obstacles in finding work.
Yujin was well-behaved for a five-year-old, but his body was extremely weak, likely because he hadn’t been properly nourished as an infant. When his fever suddenly spiked, he would sometimes have convulsions, and Julia had lost count of the times she had to carry him on her back and rush to the physician mid-work. Employers who had initially been understanding grew openly displeased as the incidents repeated, and Julia was repeatedly dismissed without receiving even half of her wages.
The job advertisement she discovered after two days of fasting made her eyes light up.
Nowhere did it say that bringing family was allowed, but Grace was too far to leave her brother behind alone.
She had no one she could trust to look after him, and taking him to an orphanage was something she would rather die than do.
She sold her only winter coat and bought a large, worn suitcase, along with hardtack and a water pouch.
Fearing her brother might suffocate, she poked holes in the bag. Whenever the wagon stopped along the way, she secretly climbed up to check on him. Surprisingly, no one paid much attention, so later she even took him out of the bag and hid him among the luggage. Only when Grace Castle drew near did she put him back inside.
Julia felt as though everything she had gone through to get here was like a distant dream.
Above all, the fact that her brother would no longer be treated like luggage and could live safely and warmly filled her with happiness.
But their happiness was only just beginning.