You Have to Take Responsibility
It was only after reaching my hideout, secretly nestled deep in the forest on the Capital Outskirts, that I finally set the child down. The place was an old wooden cabin, but I’d layered it with strong concealment and security barriers, so its safety was guaranteed.
When I carefully laid her on the bed, Estelle immediately burrowed under the blankets and curled into a tight ball. Her brilliant sapphire-blue eyes watched me silently from the darkness.
“......”
A heavy silence filled the room. I stood by the bedside with my arms crossed and let out a deep internal sigh.
I ended up bringing her anyway.
This was insane, Black Jack. After years of surviving as a shrewd problem-solver in the back alleys, how could I pull a reckless stunt like this?
Estelle was the final boss and villainess destined to drag the future empire into ruin. In the original story her magic was so immense it couldn’t be controlled, and her personality was twisted beyond repair. Jealous of the saintess, she would commit every evil imaginable before being executed. To take a walking time bomb like her under my wing with my own two hands…
But no matter how I turned it over in my head, I couldn’t have left her in that underground prison. Count Edward was dead, yet it was obvious his remaining underlings or other black mages hungry for Estelle’s special power would come swarming.
The real problem was the price. It was far too heavy.
Me, taking care of a kid?
The absurdity of it made me laugh out loud. In this world I was an assassin who spent every day killing, erasing traces, and rolling through blood-soaked alleys. The only thing these hands had ever gripped was cold steel. How was I supposed to raise a child with hands like these?
I’d rather take another assassination contract. I didn’t have a shred of confidence in childcare.
While I was tearing at my hair in frustration, a sliver of memory from my past life in Korea flickered through my mind. It was something my little sister had chattered about while she stayed up all night reading rofan novels.
—Oppa, do you know the golden rule in parenting stories? Just give them tons of delicious food, play with them energetically so they don’t lose heart, and hug them warmly. That’s it! No matter how wounded they are, their hearts will open right up.
I never imagined the nonsense I’d brushed off back then would come back to me now. Give them good food and play with them, huh.
“……Haa.”
I let out a long sigh and walked to the window, adjusting my eyepatch. If I wanted to stop this child from becoming the villainess of the original story, I had to at least teach her the warmth of an ordinary human. That was the first request I had ever chosen for myself since falling into this insane world—a personal quest with no reward and no client.
“Guess I’ll give it a shot.”
Estelle’s days had always been nothing but darkness.
From the distant past where her memories began, the only world she had known was iron bars that sealed her in on all sides and a cold stone floor. The faint flickers of candlelight that sometimes slipped through the gaps were all she believed existed.
It was dark all day, cold, and her whole body hurt. The old man called Count Edward would visit her room at regular intervals and cast unpleasant spells on her. Every time the magic flowing through her veins twisted, Estelle would writhe across the floor in pain so intense she couldn’t breathe. The old man would watch her and laugh in a grotesque way.
All the adults around her had been terrifying. Beings who beat her, starved her, or stared with greedy eyes, desperate to steal something from her. So Estelle had come to believe that humans were simply cruel and frightening by nature.
But on the night Karman Castle reeked of blood, the man who took her away was strangely different.
“Eat.”
What he set on the table with a dull clack was steaming white soup, soft bread, and fruit jam that gave off a sweet scent.
Estelle held her breath with the blanket pulled over her head. The man, expressionless as always, placed the food down, then stepped back a few paces from the bed and leaned against the wall.
He always wore a black leather eyepatch that covered half his face. Maybe to hide gruesome scars from the back alleys. Yet Estelle could tell. Even with his eyes covered, the man’s gaze was fixed exactly on her. His movements made it clear he wasn’t blind. On the contrary, it felt like the eyes beneath the eyepatch were piercing straight through her, and her body trembled.
But the man never came closer. He didn’t yank her by the hair like the count, nor did he recite painful spells. He simply waited in silence until Estelle lowered her guard.
In the end the sweet smell proved too much. A loud growl erupted from Estelle’s stomach.
“......”
The man’s eyebrow twitched the tiniest bit. Estelle’s face burned with shame and fear and she hung her head.
She thought she would be punished. That she might be slapped for making noise.
What returned instead was a low, gentle voice.
“It won’t taste good once it gets cold. I won’t look until you’ve finished, so eat as you like.”
The man slowly turned his head toward the window, as if he truly had no interest in her. Estelle swallowed carefully and reached a cautious hand out from under the blanket. For the first time in her life, she put warm food into her mouth.
“……!”
It was so delicious her eyes stung with tears. Sweet, soft, a feeling that warmed every organ in her body. While she frantically emptied the soup and spread jam on the bread, the man never once turned to sneak a glance at her.
He was curt. He never offered a single kind word and had never smiled. He always spoke only what was necessary in a cold, stiff tone.
Yet strangely, his actions carried a hidden gentleness.
The man gave Estelle delicious food without holding back. Every meal brought meat, fresh vegetables, and sweet desserts that never ran out. That wasn’t all. Everything she was experiencing for the first time left Estelle confused.
A warm bed so fluffy that sinking into it felt like lying on clouds. Clothes that felt incredibly soft and clean against her skin instead of rough, coarse rags. And a safe room where neither danger nor pain existed.
Whenever the man entered the room, Estelle would secretly sniff the air. He smelled good—like the cool breeze of the forest mixed with a faintly bitter herbal scent. Whenever that fragrance filled the room, a strange sense of relief washed over her. Being beside this man made her feel as if no one could ever hurt her.
But at the same time she was afraid.
Why is he giving me these things?
The lessons the world had taught her were cruel. Nothing is free. Delicious food, a warm bed, clean clothes—they all meant that soon he would demand a matching, monstrous price.
At first Estelle thought exactly that. Just like Count Karman who had locked her away and tormented her, this man with the eyepatch must want something too. She believed he was showing kindness now only to exploit the unusual magic flowing inside her body.
So she waited for the day he would reveal his true colors and hurt her.
But one week passed, then two, and the man asked for nothing. If she left food behind he would only frown and say, “Eat more. That way you’ll gain weight.” If he saw her staring blankly at a strange flower blooming in the garden, he would pluck it and leave it by her bedside before disappearing.
Truly, as if he wanted nothing at all.
The moment she realized it, something twisted began to rise slowly from the deepest part of Estelle’s heart.
This was the first life she had ever tasted. Warmth, kindness, safety, fullness. If she had never known them, it would have been better. She would have lived her whole life in darkness believing it was normal and died that way.
But she had already seen the light. She had learned the unbearably sweet comfort this man gave her.
Lying in bed, watching the man’s back as he walked away, Estelle’s eyes sank deep.
I don’t want to let go.
I don’t want to lose this warmth, this pleasant scent, this massive wall that protects me. If the man ever changes his mind and tries to abandon me? If he throws me back into that cold underground prison?
Just thinking about it sent a chill through her as if her heart were being crushed. Absolutely not. That can’t happen. I can’t forgive someone who pulled me into the light only to push me back into darkness.
Since you were the one who saved me first, you have to take responsibility to the end.
An unknown desire took root inside Estelle’s chest. In the darkness, as she clutched the blanket, a strange red glow of magic flickered across her clear sapphire-blue eyes for a single instant.
“.........”
The blood-red light wavered as though it would swallow her sapphire eyes, then vanished like a lie.