Episode 3: The Child Who Already Has an Adult’s Eyes
My fingers fidgeted nervously, scratching at the corner of the candy wrapper.
“Then after a few days of preparation, we’ll run a detailed examination. Miss, during that time, you must not strain yourself. I recommend staying in bed as much as possible…”
While he was giving me his instructions, he suddenly seemed to remember that I was just a curious child.
“If you feel short of breath, you must sit and rest. And always keep Azelta with you.”
I nodded.
“Okay.”
He continued lecturing me for quite a while before leaving the room. Whew, doctors’ nagging really was scary. — Click.
As soon as the door shut, I climbed off the shield— no, the candy I had been sitting on. Azelta smiled gently.
“Will you have some?”
“Yeah!”
I was dying to know whether I could eat it. Happy that the doctor was gone, I nodded vigorously. Azelta opened a drawer and took something out.
“Um… Azelta?”
Still smiling, what she held was… a hammer.
*
“Urgh!”
Azelta wiped Naisia’s mouth as she threw up, unable to believe what she was seeing.
It was just a piece of candy.
Yet that single candy caused an enormous shock to the frail little Naisia’s body. Her pink hair trembled weakly. She emptied her stomach, even though she hadn’t eaten anything else.
“I don’t… want candy for a while.”
She spoke weakly, visibly disappointed. A sick child—who still didn’t whine or throw a tantrum—made Azelta’s heart ache.
“It would be best to eat porridge for a while and focus on recovering your health.”
Azelta held Naisia’s small, cold hand. Her tiny shoulders drooped, and Azelta felt her chest tighten painfully.
“Only porridge…?”
“Yes.”
At that, Naisia’s gaze lowered even further. Without thinking, Azelta spoke.
“I’ll make sure you won’t have only porridge.”
“Huh?”
Those round eyes snapped up at her.
“I’ll talk to the cooks. I’ll have them make delicious things too.”
Azelta hadn’t meant to say it aloud. Even she, not a doctor, could tell how weak Naisia’s digestion was—every food would need to be chosen carefully. But she couldn’t just keep feeding her bland porridge.
If so, how were they any different from that detestable Levoir barony?
Not knowing that the Levoir household gave worse than unthinkable food, Azelta’s sense of justice ignited.
“I’ll go speak to the kitchen!”
She rolled up her sleeves. A maid in the hallway, Maré, gasped.
“Lady Azelta?”
“Please watch over the young miss. I’ll be back.”
She looked like a soldier marching to war.
— Click.
A short while after Azelta left—
— Bang! Crack!
A dangerous sound came from the room.
Azelta rushed back, breath caught in her throat.
“Miss!”
She came face-to-face with Naisia… holding the hammer.
“What are you—”
Azelta had stored that dangerous tool on a high shelf. How did the girl even reach it?
But more importantly—
“Are you hurt?”
Naisia simply smiled. Her cheeks looked flushed, full of life.
“A gift!”
She held out pieces of candy, now neatly split like pizza slices.
Azelta couldn’t breathe.
Those bright brown eyes… the tiny hand holding out candy…
And in her other hand, she was still gripping the hammer.
It was all Azelta could do to keep her from dropping it on her foot. Without realizing it, she grabbed Naisia’s hands.
“Hold it like this.”
Azelta set the candy aside and corrected the grip.
“If you don’t hold it properly, you might break your foot.”
Naisia blinked… then beamed.
“Thank you!”
Azelta stared, stunned.
What—did she just teach the young lady how to use a hammer?
“…Thank you for the candy.”
She hurried to pick up the piece. Naisia smiled brightly.
“Mm! Enjoy!”
She had been forbidden to eat it herself—yet she smashed it apart to share it.
Azelta hugged the candy to her chest, overwhelmed.
Naisia tilted her head innocently.
A kind maid… learning to wield a hammer.
The stack of pillows she built to reach it had been worth it.
Pretty adults deserved gifts, after all.
And judging by Azelta hiding the candy in her apron pocket, the gift had landed successfully.
*
Asili de Levoir.
The Levoir barony’s first daughter. Twenty years old.
Duke Iter read the information Azelta had gathered.
“…..”
It was a mistake—unlike him. He assumed the barony would behave with common decency. When the proposal came, he hadn’t cared whether the bride was a baron’s daughter or anyone else. No sane bride would want to live near the Sea of Mist anyway.
So he had agreed easily.
Per imperial law, marriage contracts are signed after the wedding. Only documents bearing family crests had been exchanged. He assumed the missing bride’s name was merely following custom.
“She’s five.”
A five-year-old bride?
Common sense said the bride should have been Asili, age twenty.
Instead, they sent a child.
He had been deceived.
He held the contract to the flame.
As it burned, he thought of the girl who now bore his family name—
Naisia von Iter.
“An adopted daughter…”
He hadn’t planned on adopting anyone.
But sending her back was impossible.
The bruises on her wrist were clear signs of abuse.
The way she flinched when he examined the wounds—defensive, afraid, conditioned.
He could simply punish the Levoir barony for deceiving him.
He could demand a territorial duel and restore his honor.
Yet… he didn’t want to.
He couldn’t pull his gaze away from her trembling eyes.
From the tiny child who could barely stand.
She was fragile—yet her eyes weren’t.
Those eyes were too aware. Too old.
The same kind of eyes he once had.
He had fought his way up from an illegitimate son to a duke.
Rejected. Unwanted.
He buried the part of himself that had wanted help, because no one ever came for him.
Naisia was the same.
“She said she’d even accept being a maid…”
That was how desperately she wanted to escape.
A five-year-old child… already with an adult’s eyes.
A child who set thorns around herself like a hedgehog.
A child who pulled him toward her in a moment of impulse.
“I wanted to give her a gift. Did she like it?”
He wondered if she understood that he was on her side.
A knock.
“Your Grace, Doctor Delpiro here.”
The doctor reported her condition.
“Her heart is severely weakened. As if something has been constricting it.”
And then—
“It seems she has had many belongings taken from her. When I entered, she was holding a shield.”
“A shield?”
“Colorful. Shiny. Looked like a toy.”
Ah.
“Was it wrapped in paper by any chance?”
“…Yes. I wondered why someone would wrap a shield in pape—… oh.”
The doctor paled.
The duke stared.
“Continue.”
The doctor swallowed.
“She hid it desperately. Children who have had things taken from them often behave this way.”
Naisia had guarded the candy as though her life depended on it.
Just like he once had.
The duke closed his eyes.
“Bring Azelta.”
For a child who guards her only possession with her life—
You show her that from now on…
she will never have to lose anything again.
