The Girl in the Alley

I took one more step into the darkness. The alley received no trace of even the faintest moonlight. The faint metallic scent of blood mixed with the stench of the gutter stabbed at my nose. That smell was sickeningly familiar.

The small, huddled shape shrank even deeper at the sound of my approach. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. It wasn’t simple pity. Something far stronger pulled at me—an inexplicable urge that I couldn’t just leave this child behind. I wanted to avoid it. Desperately. I didn’t want any more variables in my life.

“Ugh…”

But in the end, I was drawn in.

“Are you… okay? Are you hurt?”

My voice came out lower than usual. There was no answer. Instead, the small figure barely lifted an arm and waved it weakly in my direction, as if warning me not to come any closer. She kept her head bowed, trembling the entire time.

Wariness. The survival instinct carved into someone after years of being worn down by the world—I could feel it radiating from this tiny child.

I knelt on one knee and brought my ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes level with hers. Up close, I could see her frail build, her filthy clothes, and the countless scrapes and tears covering her. The fact that a child like this was lying alone in a place like this weighed heavily on my heart.

“Can’t you speak? Or do you just not want to answer?”

She shook her head. Just as I’d expected. Another complication added to my already messy situation.

“Can you hear me?”

She nodded slowly, carefully. So she could hear, at least. A faint spark of hope appeared—communication might be possible.

Suddenly, I remembered the small notebook I’d used to jot down the names of guests at the banquet. It was still in my pocket. Thank goodness.

“Can you… write with this?”

I pulled out a pen and the small leather ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠notebook and held them out to her. Her eyes flicked from the notebook to the pen, then back to my face. Her gaze was filled with suspicion and caution.

“I’m trying to help you. If you stay here like this, something bad will happen. You need to go somewhere safe.”

After a moment of hesitation, she slowly reached out and took the pen and notebook. With a trembling hand, she opened it and wrote a single short word.

Her handwriting was weak and shaky.

“Where does it hurt? Are you badly injured?”

Her gaze dropped downward. Only then did I notice the dark stain of blood seeping through the torn hem of her skirt. It looked quite serious.

“You’re bleeding a lot. Can you stand?”

She shook her head.

Her body was shivering faintly. Leaving her like this would be dangerous. Spending the night alone in this freezing alley would mean death. I couldn’t turn away. Just like the old me, I wasn’t the kind of person who could easily ignore a situation like this.

I imagined myself carrying this child back to the Heavenfield mansion in my banquet attire at this late hour. ‘You’re insane, Leo. Get a grip. Don’t you want to live a normal life? If you take her in, your life will become chaotic again. The fragile peace you’ve built will shatter completely.’

My head screamed at me to stop, but my heart had already made its decision. I didn’t know why. I just… I just wanted to do it. It felt like some unknown force was pulling me along a path that had been decided from the very beginning.

“I can’t leave you here like this. It’s okay. I’ll take you with me.”

I carefully reached for her arm to help her up, but she was so frail she nearly collapsed.

There was no other choice. In this moment, there was only one best option.

I gently lifted her into my arms. She was small and light, yet at the same time delicate and fragile. She flinched in surprise and clung tightly to my chest. In that instant, I caught the faint scent of flowers. It was strangely out of place in the dark alley—an odd, alien fragrance.

Cutting through the cold night air, I carried her toward the mansion. I avoided the main roads as much as possible, sticking only to narrow, shadowed paths. What if someone saw us? What if rumors spread? My plan to ‘live normally’ would fail before it even began.

But what could I do? It had already started. There was no regret. I simply had to keep moving forward.

Fortunately, most people were deep in sleep. When I reached the mansion, both the front and rear gates were guarded by soldiers. If they saw me carrying her inside, the entire estate would be buzzing by morning. I had expected as much. It was all too familiar.

Without hesitation, I approached the guard at the rear gate. He began to salute, then froze when he noticed the small figure in my arms.

“Sorry to startle you at this hour. This child is a guest I brought. I’ll handle it myself, so pretend you saw nothing. Understood?”

“…Y-yes, young master.”

At my single command, the guard’s face turned ashen. Even if I was the ‘useless young master’ of the Heavenfield family, he couldn’t disobey a direct order from a direct descendant of the ducal line. This one small use of my status was convenient.

As soon as I entered the mansion, the servants patrolling the corridors froze at the sight of me. Every single one of their gazes locked onto the girl in my arms. Ignoring their stares, I headed straight for the nearest empty guest room. Luckily, the room had been prepared for banquet guests who hadn’t yet left.

I carefully laid her on the bed. The moment she touched it, she let out a pained groan and began trembling violently. Her small hand still clutched tightly at my clothes. I gently pried her fingers loose, placed the notebook in her hand, and spoke.

“Wait just a moment. I’ll bring medicine and clean clothes. We need to treat your wounds.”

Her eyes were once again filled with anxiety and fear. Distrust and wariness. It was like looking at a miniature version of the world I had lived in.

“Don’t worry. I’m going to treat you. I’ll be right back, okay?”

I tried to soothe her as I turned to call for a maid—

“Leo? Where have you been at this hour?”

A cold voice. When I turned around, my father, Duke Ricardo, was standing there. He was still in his banquet attire, but his icy golden eyes were already fixed on the ‘unfamiliar guest’ lying on the bed. Beside him stood my mother, her face etched with worry.

My mother’s gaze passed over my anxiously trembling form and landed on the girl on the bed. ‘Damn it. This is a complete disaster.’

“I was on my way back from reporting to His Majesty about the banquet. But what is all this?”

A cold expression flashed across Duke Ricardo’s face. The girl’s terrified eyes met mine. She was still shaking uncontrollably. In the suffocating silence, I desperately searched for the right words.

My father’s golden eyes bored into me like they could pierce straight through. My mother’s face showed clear surprise mixed with deep anxiety for her son. The girl on the bed curled up even tighter, trembling harder than before.

“Father, on my way back from the banquet late at night, I found this child collapsed ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠in an alley.”

My voice was calmer than usual. I instinctively knew that emotional appeals wouldn’t work right now. I had to get through this with logic and justification alone.

“She was bleeding heavily from her leg. If I had left her there, she would have been found as an unnecessary corpse. I judged that it would be better for me to handle it personally than to allow unsavory rumors to spread near the Heavenfield mansion.”

I laid out the most logical, practical reasons I could think of. Even if I seemed useless, I had to show that I wouldn’t bring harm to the family. My father’s tightly pressed lips twisted into a mocking sneer. His eyes were filled with contempt, as if to say, How pathetic.

“Handle it? So this is what you call handling it—dragging such filthy refuse into the mansion, Leonardo?”

His voice was low and icy, drilling into my ears. Rage surged inside me… but I suppressed it. This man—my father—had not a shred of mercy. To him, the family’s reputation came before human lives.

“You’re always like this. If you’re going to live, you might as well sit quietly and at least earn your keep, but instead your very existence brings shame upon our house. The fact that you are my son is nothing but a curse to me.”

His words were always like this—sharp as a blade, cruelly carving out my weakest points. The small shoulders of the girl huddled on the bed trembled even harder. His murderous tone must have terrified her as well.

“Dear, that’s enough. In front of the child…”

My mother quietly took hold of my father’s arm. Her voice was calm but carried firm resolve. Her gaze shifted toward the girl curled up on the bed. The pity in the look she gave me felt like another layer of humiliation. That sympathy only made me feel more pathetic, and it disgusted me.

My father roughly shook off her hand and added coldly,

“Whose fault do you think this mess is? Tomorrow morning, remove this filth from the mansion at once. It must never appear before my eyes again and tarnish our family name.”

With that, he spat out the words and turned on his heel, leaving the room without another word. As if speaking to me any further wasn’t even worth his time. The attendants who followed him couldn’t completely hide the mix of awe and burning curiosity in their eyes.

Soon their footsteps faded, and only the girl, my mother, and I remained in the room.

My mother approached the bed and placed her hand on the girl’s forehead. The child flinched in surprise, but my mother’s touch was incredibly gentle.

“She has a bit of a fever. I’ll have the head maid call for a physician and prepare warm water and food.”

She turned to look at me. Her eyes still held worry, along with a searching quality.

“Leo, what on earth were you thinking…”

In the end, she couldn’t finish her sentence and simply let out a short sigh. That sigh carried both a question of incomprehension and deep pity for me. Then, as if she had made up her mind, she turned and left the room. She was probably going to summon the physician and arrange for what was needed.

Only then could I let out a deep breath. It felt as if all the weight of the world had been crushing my shoulders and suddenly vanished. The frustration that had been trapped deep in my chest burst out at once.

Now the real ordeal was about to begin.

Once again, only the girl and I remained in the room. In the silence, her hand holding the notebook trembled violently. I approached her carefully and gently covered the hand that wasn’t holding the notebook. It was still ice-cold.

“It’s okay. I’ll take care of everything. No one will hurt you.”

When I looked at the notebook, I saw a new line written in tiny letters beneath the previous words.

I nodded. I could feel her anxiety completely. To a child who couldn’t speak a single word, the terror of this unfamiliar mansion must have been overwhelming.

I placed the pen I’d taken from my pocket into her hand and held out the notebook.

“What’s your name?”

I took the pen again and wrote clearly on the notebook.

Yua. For some reason, the name lingered on my tongue. When I wrote “Yua,” her eyes fixed on the notebook. Her gaze was filled with emotions too subtle to describe in the language of this world—faint bewilderment, vague curiosity, and the tiniest fragment of light.

I hoped this child’s life would be different from mine. I hoped she wouldn’t be forgotten because no one ever called her by name. Even after enduring all that humiliation, I thought perhaps she could become the reason I continued to live in this world.

A single tear welled up in her eye. But it was a silent tear. She was still trembling, but it no longer seemed to be solely from fear.

“From now on, you’re Yua. Understand? It’s okay. Everything is going to be alright…”

That was when the door to the guest room burst open. The head maid rushed in, followed closely by the physician. Several medicine bottles clinked inside his bag. The girl shrank back again, clearly terrified. I took her small hand once more and blinked slowly at her, trying to reassure her.

‘Alright. Since it’s come to this… I have to do my best.’

I made that vow to myself. Even if I was the stain on this family, as my father had said, at least for this child, I could become a new beginning.

…Such a reckless hope bloomed inside me.