TGBAP 14

[Ah! Right, there was that.]

“What is it?”

[Wait a moment. I’ll be right back.]

Leaving Lucian behind, I went into the mansion. Then I went straight up to the second floor and found the stairs leading to the attic.

The place Ria went into was the studio the eccentric painter used.

[As I thought, there’s still some left.]

She gathered up the parchment, pencils, paints, and the like that the painter mainly used.

She’d told Lucian before that they should draw, but they hadn’t been able to because time didn’t work out.

If he starts it as a hobby like this, wouldn’t he be able to learn it professionally later?

From what she could tell, his mind is sharp, and while his stamina was poor at first, he’s actually quite good at physical work, too.

[If he ends up being good at drawing too……!]

Without realizing it, Ria swelled with anticipation as she went down to the garden.

“Where did you go? Huh? What is this?”

Ria put the items down on the mat and explained them one by one.

[You put the parchment on this board and draw whatever you want.]

To demonstrate first, she began drawing the foxes huddled together asleep.

It was her first time drawing, but she did better than she expected.

“Wow, it’s exactly like the foxes.”

Since it looked that way to Lucian too, he kept exclaiming in admiration.

It was only a rough sketch, so it was messy, but it was enough to recognize the shapes.

[You don’t even have to draw what you see—just draw whatever you imagined before, or whatever you want to draw, however you like. How about it? Want to try?]

“Yes!”

Lucian lay down on the ground right away, kicking his feet up toward the sky as he agonized over what to draw.

As he looked around at this and that, he suddenly looked at Ria and hesitated.

[Why?]

“I’ll draw you, Ria.”

[Huh? Me?]

“Stay right there. I’ll draw you prettily.”

Lucian buried his nose in the parchment and moved his hand busily.

He looked at the parchment, then at Ria, then lowered his head, then raised it, repeating over and over.

It looked like it would take a long time to finish it all.

Since it had come to this, Ria figured she might as well draw Lucian too, and picked up a pencil.

After about ten minutes, the rough sketch was finished. Naturally, she prepared the paints and moved her hand without hesitation.

Greenish, lush colors became scattered blades of grass and leaves, and a bright sky-blue danced above them, while paints of all kinds of colors slowly filled the cute child in with color.

It felt like Lucian might pop right out any moment and call, Ria!

[Lucian, look at this. I drew it pretty well—….]

Just as she lifted the painting to show off, she discovered Lucian, still holding the pencil, sprawled over asleep.

Using magic, Ria carefully lifted Lucian up and tidied the mat and all the things.

Then the parchment Lucian had been using caught her eye.

Flinch—

[This can’t be…… me, right?]

Even if she tried to be generous because he was a child, she couldn’t be generous.

There was no nose, only round eyes, and the mouth was in the shape of a smile, but so many lines overlapped messily that it was only eerie.

[You said you’d draw me prettily—what kind of evil spirit did you draw?]

Maybe because the pencil was blunt, or because it smudged on his hand as he drew, the parchment was darkish all over. It looked even more like a wicked evil spirit.

[Pfft, kheh……! Ahem! So back then, it wasn’t just because he hadn’t held a pen before.]

Back when Lucian was being picky about broccoli, there was something he drew in beside the picture she had drawn.

At first she thought it was a flower, but later when she asked, he said it was the sun.

Lucian just has no talent for drawing. It was embarrassing that she’d even worried about what if he was a genius of the century.

[……But did he really draw this seriously?]

At first it was just funny, but thinking the evil spirit in the parchment was something he drew while looking at her made it serious.

After singing nonstop about how pretty she was. Does he actually have a problem with his aesthetic sense?

Because of what he always said, she’d still thought, well, my face must be pretty. But now she had doubts.

[Hah, he draws something like this and sleeps so well.]

Carefully holding Lucian in her arms, she went into the mansion with the other baggage.

Ria tucked today’s painting she drew and Lucian’s evil-spirit(?) painting into the bookshelf.

Without her even realizing it, Lucian’s traces were steadily increasing, one by one.

* * *

“……And so, Dick was able to return safely into his family’s arms.”

[Waaah! You finished the whole fairy tale today?]

Right before bed, fairy tale reading time.

Tonight was a special night where Lucian read a fairy tale from start to finish for the first time.

He’d only been learning letters for around two months, but reading a fairy tale book isn’t such an easy thing.

She gave him passionate applause and praise, but Lucian didn’t show any reaction.

She was sure he’d get smug and lift his nose high, but instead of being happy, he looked depressed.

Ria stopped clapping and carefully watched him. Lucian’s gaze was stuck on the fairy tale book.

More precisely, on the picture of a family that looked harmonious.

Only then did Ria understand what he was thinking of.

[……Do you want to go back home?]

Lucian’s shoulders jolted. After thinking it over, he shook his head. But he looked full of lingering regret.

Ria took the fairy tale book from Lucian. Only then did he look back at her.

Lucian still hadn’t properly talked about his own story. She had only waited until now because she thought it was too soon. Now, the time had come.

[Can you tell me how you ended up coming here, and why you became a fake prince and were offered up as a sacrifice?]

She spoke calmly so the child wouldn’t be startled. Then Lucian blinked his big eyes and stared straight at me.

“……Fake prince?”

[Yes. I know everything, so there’s no need to hide it.]

Even as she patted his back, Lucian still looked blank. Soon he sprang up from his seat and looked down at me.

“I’m not a fake prince.”

[Huh?]

“I’m a real prince. I’m not an orphan.”

What is he talking about? Back when he first came here, those human bastards definitely…….

Her confusion lasted only a moment; suddenly, Ria recalled the meaningful thing those human bastards had said.

‘But do we really need to dress him up like that? Like a royal…….’

‘Shh. We just do what we’re told. Don’t take an unnecessary interest.’

Not only that, there was a question she’d had while looking at Lucian.

The imperial family’s defining trait is golden eyes. Lucian, no matter who looks at him, has unmistakable golden eyes. There’s no trace at all of magic or drugs being used. That means his eyes were originally golden.

[……Then he wasn’t dressed up as a royal, was he?]

“Huh? What?”

[Ah, no. I’d heard the human bastards talking when you first came here. Back then, those guys…….]

As Ria continued explaining, Lucian sat down with a dark expression. Soon he pulled his knees up to his chest.

[……Is there something going on?]

“I don’t really know either. It’s just… people suddenly started calling me an orphan.”

Even though he’s only eight, he wore a gloomy expression that didn’t fit his age.

“But honestly, I don’t really know if I’m truly a real prince, either.”

Lucian explained what kind of life he’d lived until he came here.

He said that from the moment he was born until he came here, he lived in a shabby palace. A place smaller and more worn than this mansion, a place that was only a palace in name.

There, Lucian grew up neglected to the point it felt like abuse.

‘Didn’t I tell you not to call for me unless it’s something you need!’

‘You’re grown up now, so you can do it yourself, right?’

‘Why are you ordering people around and making things hard! Am I your friend?!’

Just from Lucian reciting the abusive words he’d heard there, she could tell what kind of treatment he’d suffered.

[Then how did you find out you were a prince?]

“Once, Abamama came.”

[If you mean Abamama, the Emperor?]

“Yes. He came on my fourth birthday. That day was the first time I learned it was my birthday, that I was a prince, that I had family, that I had a family at all.”

Before that, everyone called Lucian not “Your Highness,” but by a name, treating him with contempt.

But after the Emperor visited, little by little they corrected their manner of address, and before he knew it, they began using honorifics. Of course, it wasn’t like they fixed their behavior along with it.

It was a long time ago, but Lucian vividly remembered the day he met the Emperor.

Because the adults he feared most, the ones he found most difficult, saw the Emperor before their eyes and panicked, slamming their heads to the floor, unable to even lift their faces.

He had the same white hair and golden eyes as Lucian.

The moment Lucian saw the Emperor, he instinctively realized he was his father.

‘……Dad.’

Little Lucian hesitantly grabbed the Emperor’s trouser hem and said it.

At that, the Emperor frowned and muttered,

‘……So you’re still alive.’

Hearing Lucian’s words, Ria was dumbfounded. Is that something a father says? To the child he’s seeing for the first time?

Rage bubbled up inside her.

“That day, I asked the nanny what kind of person Abamama is, and whether I had other family besides Umamama.”

[So what did she say?]

“She said Umamama is healthy and well, and that I have one older brother.”

That meant only Lucian was abandoned in the cold palace, while his older brother lived receiving many people’s love and care.

She couldn’t understand it at all. Why was only Lucian treated that way?

[Is it possible your mother is someone different?]

“She said that’s not it. She said the Empress is my Umamama.”

That makes even less sense. Why is a child born of the Empress unable to even be treated as a prince and has to live hidden away?

“After I saw Abamama, every night before I slept, I thought: tomorrow my family will come to see me. Someday they’ll take me with them…….”

But not a single time did anything like that happen.

Maybe his emotions surged up; Lucian stopped speaking midway and began sniffling. Ria clenched her fist tight and pulled Lucian into her arms.

“A week before I came here…… people took me somewhere. It was bigger and more splendid than here. Then I thought my family was finally taking me away. But, but that wasn’t it.”

They cut his unkempt hair, dressed him in big but good clothes, and he tasted delicious food he’d never eaten before, but he never met the Emperor, nor any people who could be called royalty.

Rather, the people who dressed Lucian up called him an orphan picked up from the roadside.

“I’m not an orphan…… I have a mom and dad too…….”

The resentment he hadn’t been able to spill to anyone burst out.

“The nanny said I’m a child who shouldn’t have been born. She said because I was born, the power split…… so, so I can’t be treated like a prince…….”

Lucian stopped speaking and pressed his lips tight. Tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.

“W-was I really someone who shouldn’t have been born?”

In his twisted expression, she could see the wound he had suppressed and tried so hard to hide all this time.

It looked like it had festered long ago and needed treatment right away, but there was no one to treat it, and no one taught him any way to treat it, so it was left neglected.

Sniff, sniff.

Ria put her hand on Lucian’s back and patted him.

[I don’t really know why you heard something like that, or why you were abandoned by people, but I’m truly happy you came here.]

Golden eyes shimmering with tears looked up at Ria.

[You said that to me before, didn’t you? You asked if I wasn’t lonely, alone for 300 years. I thought I wasn’t lonely, but maybe that wasn’t true.]

Living together with Lucian, she realized it. That she could never return to the time before she met him.

She came to understand keenly how happy a life with someone is, and how great a blessing Lucian brings her.

[Maybe not to other people, but you are special to me. You’re the only human who can see me. So don’t even think about things like you shouldn’t have been born, or that you’re ominous. The one by your side right now is me.]

“……Am I really special?”

[Yes. To me, you’re more special than anyone.]

“He, hehe…….”

Lucian smiled bashfully, and the tear that had been barely hanging on dropped. It looked so sad that she wiped the corners of his eyes.

Even though it must be a strange sensation with no body heat at all, Lucian looked pleased as he rubbed his face against her mana-wrapped hand.

“I was jealous of the family in the fairy tale book, but now I’m not jealous anymore.”

[Then?]

“Because Ria is by my side. Ria is my family.”

Family. It’s a word that doesn’t suit a ghost at all, but she didn’t want to break the mood right now.

[Yes, I’ll stay by your side the whole time.]

And so, without realizing it, she said something impossible. Bound to the mansion, how could she always stay by Lucian’s side?

When he comes of age, he has to leave the mansion. It’s not that she’s driving him out, but he can’t live here forever with her, a ghost.

But if she were freed, and could keep staying by Lucian’s side.

She wanted to watch Lucian live happily—falling in love with someone, marrying, having children—until he grew old and died.

Even knowing it wasn’t realistic, it was so sweet that she wanted that future to happen no matter what.

* * *

“Thank you again today!”

“No. It’s what I should do.”

It had been three months since Lucian came to the ghost mansion. Today was the day supplies arrived, once a month.

James, who’d fled in a hurry on the first day and seemed like he’d never come again, delivered supplies the second month too, and today as well.

‘On days like today, if you just deliver this, work’s done, and they even give extra pay.’

At first he’d been scared because of all the rumors, but once you know it, there’s nothing easier than this. In case someone else snatched this sweet posting away, he even told a lie-not-lie that he had no choice but to go.

Well, it’s not like anyone would volunteer to come here anyway.

‘And more than anything, that kid keeps sticking in my mind.’

After finishing the errand on the first day, he’d asked the chief attendant about Lucian because it felt odd.

‘There was a kid there—who is he?’

‘You. I’m pretty sure I told you to watch your mouth.’

‘Of course I didn’t tell anyone! It’s just that the kid there looks exactly like the Crown Prince…….’

Seeing James hesitate, the chief attendant spoke with a look that said it couldn’t be helped.

‘……An orphan we brought to offer up as a sacrifice.’

‘An orphan? But he clearly looked like royalty…….’

‘Things like that happen. Don’t try to know too deeply. If you tell other people about the child……!’

The chief attendant made a throat-slitting gesture, his face as blue-cold as a blade.

‘Then you and I are finished. Understand?’

What the chief attendant said wasn’t a threat—it was sincere. The look on his face when he whispered it was quite pale.

James became more careful to keep his mouth shut, but he still couldn’t shake his interest in Lucian.

In the end, he dug up information about the ghost mansion while avoiding the chief attendant’s eyes. As a result, he learned that recently they’d held a ritual to pacify the mansion’s ghost.

He tried to find the people who had supposedly participated in that ritual too, but for some reason, they all quit, so he couldn’t find out any more.

Still, since he heard they offered up a sacrifice, it seems the child they’d dressed like royalty must be the sacrifice.

‘Pitiful, too.’

No matter how much he was an orphan, Lucian, left all alone in a huge mansion, seemed nothing but pitiable.

But in a situation where even putting food on his own table was hard, he couldn’t just take Lucian out of the mansion. Besides, the chief attendant had ordered that the child must never be smuggled out of the mansion.

So, since it had come to this, he thought he should at least deliver abundant supplies, but…….

“He looks a little taller than last time?”

Why does Lucian’s complexion get better every time he sees him? The first time he saw him, he was so skinny he looked like he’d topple over if you flicked him.

Now it seems like he’s taller too, his cheeks are plumper in a nice way, and his body looks sturdier—the way his clothes sit hints at it.