Chapter 254
Chapter: 254
-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Translator: penny
>Chapter: 254
>Chapter Title: Attic Room (3)
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Orden led Seongjin to a small attic room at the top of the expanded count's mansion.
"Her Highness the Princess spent most of her time here during her childhood."
At Orden's explanation, Seongjin silently looked around the room.
Rough wooden floors that were broken in places, shabby walls that weren't even properly finished.
Dim light filtered narrowly through a small skylight covered in a layer of dust, and a faint smell like dry early autumn sunlight emanated from the small bed strewn with scattered straw.
'...She spent most of her time here? No way this was where Sis lived, right?'
Was the chilling premonition just his imagination?
Then Seongjin noticed small scribbles written here and there on the walls. They were words in clumsy, round handwriting that looked like a child's.
"...These are Sis's?"
"Yes, Your Highness."
As expected, Sis had shown talent in calligraphy even as a child. Her handwriting was still elegant beyond compare, even if her other handiwork was a mess.
Seongjin traced the words with his fingers, immersed in a strange sentiment. They were words a child would learn first, ones even Seongjin could easily read.
Mom, Dad, family, Bell, Mom, Dad....
-Reading books with my family has been my longtime dream.
Suddenly, the face of Amelia smiling happily as she read him a fairy tale came to mind.
But among them, a few unrecognizable words caught his eye. When he asked what they were since he couldn't read them at all, Orden nodded.
"It's not Imperial tongue, Your Highness. That's Brittany language."
"Oh?"
"Yes."
Words meaning church, angel, cabin, things like that, Orden explained.
"Her Highness the Princess is exceptionally brilliant, so she must have shown that talent from childhood. She deciphered the Brittany language on her own without any lessons."
...Without any lessons?
Seongjin widened his eyes at the subtly odd explanation, and Orden gave a wry smile, realizing it.
"Yes, to my knowledge, no one ever taught the young Princess the Brittany language. She never had a tutor here. If the meanings of those words had been something else, she might have been branded a witch."
Who would dare call the Princess of the Holy Empire a witch?
Seongjin's face hardened. The attic they were shown to was one thing, but he had a feeling the truth he'd learn next wouldn't be pleasant.
"I asked Your Highness here because there's something I wanted to show you before deciding what to do with it."
With that, Orden bent down and groped under the small bed. He pried up a wooden plank hidden deep inside and carefully pulled something out from within.
Finally, he stood and held out a small wooden box to Seongjin.
"These are treasures the Princess hid away as a child. No one in this mansion knows about them except me. Not even the servants."
Seongjin's eyebrows twitched upward.
"Sis told you alone?"
"No. I just happened to discover it while spending time here now and then when I was in the mansion. The kind of place a little girl would hide things."
Seongjin took the box Orden offered. It was covered in thick dust with crooked seams, looking more like trash than a treasure box.
Creak.
The lid opened with a puff of dust, revealing contents as shabby as the box itself.
A clump of dried straw, a ragged scrap of cloth, a small white seashell, and a small pendant broken in half.
"These are treasures...."
Seongjin unwittingly drew in a sharp breath. Even for a naive child ignorant of the world, these didn't seem like things one would cherish as treasures.
The seashell or pendant might be one thing, but straw?
"Ah, that's a doll. She said this part was the head and these were the legs."
It seemed the straw bundled in several strands was meant to be the doll's limbs.
"She even gave it a proper name. Bell... I think it was Belluna."
Seongjin couldn't hide his dismay, but Orden's eyes gazing at the straw held an uncharacteristically gentle light.
As if even these small memories with Amelia were precious to him.
"So, what is it you want to ask me after showing me this?"
At Seongjin's question, Orden nodded.
"I've always wanted to give this box to the Princess someday. Since they were treasures she cherished as a child. But on the other hand, I was afraid."
"Afraid?"
"Yes."
Orden's eyes darkened as he answered.
"That the Princess, who is living happily now, might see the box and recall her unhappy childhood memories, and suffer for it."
* * *
Orden first learned of Amelia around the age of ten, when he had just begun his squire training.
Every time he practiced swordsmanship in the garden, a pale face would sometimes peek out from the attic window.
"......?"
A pale, expressionless little face, with long disheveled hair hanging down—it was a girl.
She looked so much like a ghost at first glance, but even as a child, Orden didn't find the girl scary at all.
Despite her grubby appearance, the girl seemed as pretty as a fairy.
"There's a fairy living in the attic of this mansion."
"Huh?"
"A pretty girl fairy."
It was only natural that young Orden would blurt out such a story.
He was so curious about the girl's identity and wanted to tell everyone about his little fairy.
The problem was that the person he told happened to be his younger brother Emit.
"What kind of nonsense is that?"
Emit, who had been swinging his sword beside him, made a bizarre face.
"Are you insane? Why are you talking in your sleep during the day?"
"...You wanna get hit?"
Orden snapped at Emit for dismissing his story.
The cheeky younger brother jumped back dramatically.
"You're still a greenhorn, brother! A kid! Everyone fawns over you as the eldest genius, but I'm way more heir material than my idiot brother!"
"Shut your mouth, Emit. Before I beat you senseless."
"Hmph! Try it! You think I'd let you?"
Emit stuck out his tongue mockingly, then scurried off to their grandmother in the garden.
"Grandma! Look at Brother Orden! He's been saying stupid stuff. He claims there's a fairy in the attic!"
Having caught a good opportunity, Emit excitedly buried himself in their grandmother's skirts and chattered away.
"Emit! Stop that! Grandma, it's not like that...."
"What nonsense is this, Orden? Ghosts maybe, but fairies don't exist in this world. You must have seen things."
"......?"
"Stop with the useless talk and get back to training. Before I tell your father you boys are slacking."
The grandmother cut their conversation short decisively without asking details. Orden still couldn't forget the bloodshot eyes that coldly glared at him then.
For the next few days, for some reason, Orden couldn't see the girl in the attic anymore.
'She really was a fairy. Did she disappear from the world because I told people and it jinxed it?'
Such wistful thoughts crossed his mind.
But the next day, the girl appeared at the attic window again—her pretty face, which he had praised, now marred with bruises.
Only then did Orden realize the girl wasn't some fairy, but a real person living in the attic.
As time passed, Orden gradually learned about the girl's circumstances.
Her name was Amelia, and she was a distant blood relative of his. After her mother died early, with nowhere to go, his grandfather the frontier count had brought her here.
The servants hushed up about her because of the gag order from Orden's grandmother, the then Countess Sigmundt.
The countess, hating her husband's bastard child, had sent her away like a prisoner to a villa in the snowy mountains, and loathed her only blood relative just as much.
As a result, everyone treated Amelia like she didn't exist, locking her in the attic. They even skipped her meals regularly.
One night, unable to bear watching the girl waste away, Orden sneaked her out of the attic and took her to the kitchen.
The girl hesitated but followed him, clutching a bundle of straw in her small hands.
"Amel, what's that? Why are you carrying around trash like that?"
"...Bell."
Perhaps because she rarely spoke, her voice sounded a bit clumsy.
Even so, Orden thought Amel's voice was as pretty as a small bird chirping. Emit would have teased him mercilessly if he knew.
"It's not trash. It's my doll."
"Right. Bell? Did you name it? Pretty name."
But her unexpected answer to his casual question stunned him.
"Daddy...."
"Huh?"
"Daddy named it."
Orden was at a loss for words.
But Amel, you said you don't have a daddy. Grandma's always cursing your mom.
Saying the bastard gave birth to another bastard out there. Nothing dirtier or more vulgar.
Of course, young Orden had enough sense not to say that aloud.
"Sit here, Amel."
Rummaging through the pantry, Orden found some dry bread and a small piece of cheese, handing them to Amelia with water as best he could.
He sat across the table and quietly watched her eat. As she chewed demurely, he thought she really did look like a fairy.
Having let down her guard, Amelia soon opened up to Orden with various stories.
"...So I kept watching. Swordsmanship looked fun."
"Yeah? I see. Aren't you bored alone in your room?"
"It's okay. I write letters in my room every day."
The girl nodded maturely, then lifted her clear gray eyes, gazing dreamily into space.
"And if I wait just a little, Daddy will come pick me up soon."
"Who said that? Daddy told you?"
Orden, feeling pity thinking the lonely girl was just dreaming, asked, but Amel shook her head.
"No, the sister with the black veil said so."
A sister with a black veil? It sounded highly suspicious.
"Who's that?"
"I don't know exactly."
Having somewhat succeeded in chatting with Amel, Orden safely returned her to the attic after the meal. That night, he went to bed in a very happy mood.
But the next day, the girl's figure vanished from the window again. Worried, Orden cautiously knocked on the attic door, but no response came from inside.
Knock knock knock.
"Amel? Everything okay? You alright?"
Then suddenly, a maid appeared behind him and spoke coldly. She was a young maid serving his grandmother.
"That wench won't be moving for a while, young master. Her leg's broken."
...What?
As Orden's face paled, the maid continued with a twisted smile.
"They say she sneaked into the kitchen like a thieving cat last night. Shouldn't we make sure bad things like that can't move at all to set them straight?"
Was it the grandmother herself, who occasionally laid hands on Amel, or the servants acting on her orders?
Either way, one thing was clear.
'Everything I'm doing, everything for Amel, is harming her!'
The boy realized his limits and the reality. No matter how he struggled, things went as the adults willed.
Orden completely gave up approaching Amel. Perhaps that's what the grandmother truly intended.
'I'm sorry, Amel....'
Amel reappeared at the attic window soon after, but Orden tried hard to ignore her.
Even Amel, who would look at him sadly when their eyes met by chance, soon adapted to his neglect and became expressionless again.
Then, three years later, it happened.
Someone claiming to be Amel's father truly appeared in Sigmundt territory.
"You've hidden the child well all this time."
Pushing through the pale-faced people, an extraordinary man in white priestly robes strode boldly into the count's mansion, accompanied by a group of armed holy knights.
-His Holiness the Holy Emperor, that wench's—surely not....
It was hard to believe, but amid the murmurs, Orden was certain. Just as the girl had said, her father had come.
Having observed Amel so often, Orden immediately saw the resemblance in the man's face to hers.
That man was the one who had given her those clear gray eyes.
"Daddy...!"
And the man facing the girl curled his lips into a chilling smile.
That was the day Orden first learned a person's smile could be so terrifying.