Chapter: 12
“…Thank you!”
I accepted the precious apple with both hands, my cheeks flushing red.
‘It’s just an apple, but why does it make me this happy?’
I could almost feel the boy’s sincerity—the way he must have climbed the tallest tree because he wanted to give me the very best one.
At first, we could barely even talk to each other… and now he was giving me gifts.
“The present you gave me, Sis, is like a treasure!”
When I beamed at him, Sisrein’s ears immediately turned red.
“…”
Pretending to be distracted, Sisrein scratched lightly at the corner of his sharp eyes.
Just then, a loud, confident voice shattered the warm atmosphere.
“Big Sis, look over here!”
It was Heinrich.
Still hugging the apple to my chest, I looked around.
‘Huh? Where is he? I can’t see Heinrich anywhere…’
“Ta-da!”
Suddenly, Heinrich popped his head out from beside a mountain-sized pile of apples.
“Look at this. I picked a ton, didn’t I?”
…Good heavens. Our Heinrich practically harvested the entire orchard.
When I hurriedly looked around, every nearby apple tree had been stripped completely bare, as bald as someone suffering from severe hair loss.
“Well? I’m amazing at picking apples too. Pretty cool, right, Big Sis?”
“…Y-Yeah!”
Apple trees… I’m so, so sorry.
Just as I was silently apologizing to the poor trees while Heinrich puffed out his chest proudly—
“Annette! Lady Mimosa wants you in her room.”
Caroline came running from the mansion.
“Right now?”
“Yep! Right now!”
‘I wonder what this is about.’
Standing outside Lady Mimosa’s room, I knocked nervously.
Knock, knock.
“Come in.”
Her cool voice answered almost immediately.
I always became strangely tense whenever I stood in front of Lady Mimosa.
Still, I smiled brightly, hiding my nervousness and acting like the model student I was.
“You called for me, Lady Mimosa?”
Lady Mimosa was holding a bundle of documents tied together with string.
Looking more closely, I realized they were the children’s Life Records.
“I called you because I have something to ask, Annette.”
“Yes! Please ask me anything, ma’am.”
“When you entered this room the other day… did you happen to touch these Life Records?”
The Life Records contained every child’s personal information.
Their age.
The abilities they had awakened.
Their academic performance.
Their personality.
Even the events that had brought them to this forest.
It was literally a record containing everything about the “Trees.”
Of course, I had never touched it.
“No… Did something happen?”
Lady Mimosa’s cold golden eyes seemed to pierce right through me.
“Two nights ago, someone entered my room and searched through the children’s Life Records.”
“…”
“I believe someone contacted Viscount Puterio.”
“…What?!”
I gasped so hard that I instinctively covered my mouth.
I had wondered how Viscount Puterio had managed to find Sisrein in the forest.
If Sisrein had been carrying a tracking magic tool or a tracking spell, the viscount would have found him immediately.
Instead, there had been a delay.
‘So someone deliberately told Viscount Puterio where Sisrein was?’
Who would do something so cruel?
“It definitely wasn’t me, ma’am. You know how much I care about Sisrein.”
“I know.”
Lady Mimosa accepted my answer without hesitation and closed the file.
“I don’t believe you did it either, Annette.”
“…”
“But procedure requires me to question every child who has entered my room.”
So she was already convinced that one of the children was responsible.
Lady Mimosa barely appeared in the original novel, so there wasn’t much information about her.
Still, she had always been portrayed as an exceptionally perceptive woman.
If she had reached that conclusion, there had to be a good reason.
“If you discover anything, come tell me immediately.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“You may go now.”
Lady Mimosa turned away with her usual expressionless face.
I left the room with a grim expression.
‘Who could have done something like this?’
Was it connected to the mysterious shadow I had seen near our hideout before?
Somehow, I was convinced they were the same person.
Eventually, I could only reach one conclusion.
There was…
A child in this forest who was bullying Sisrein.
And not just bullying him—
Someone malicious enough to try to get him sent away forever.
“…”
My fists clenched on their own.
After returning to the classroom before lessons began, I rested my chin on my hand and quietly observed everyone.
Every child looked happy.
Kind.
Gentle.
‘Trying to have someone sold into slavery… that’s far too serious to dismiss as childish mischief.’
…No.
Maybe children could be even crueler.
It probably wasn’t that they had carefully thought through what life as a slave would be like.
They had simply wanted Sisrein to disappear.
“…”
I absentmindedly stroked the smooth, bright-red apple resting in my lap.
‘I have to find them.’
Who knew what they might do next with that blind obsession?
If someone was willing to reveal his hiding place and even inform a slave trader, then they would surely make another move.
‘I missed it twice because I didn’t know. There won’t be a third time.’
Like a fearless honey badger hiding in the grass, I sharpened my mind.
For now, I would set aside my love for all the Trees and think with cold logic.
After carefully narrowing it down, I ended up with two suspects.
The first…
…was that girl.
“Heinrich! Heinrich! Do you want this brooch?”
Her name was Vivian, an eleven-year-old beauty with platinum-blonde hair and vivid turquoise eyes.
Even at her young age, she already showed signs of growing into a stunning woman.
She was a self-proclaimed—and universally acknowledged—”Heinrich fanatic.”
Vivian had been present when Heinrich awakened his powers.
The moment she witnessed the overwhelming Special Rank Level 1 mana that required him to wear mana suppressors, she fell head over heels for him.
Since her own magical power was weak, Heinrich seemed all the more incredible.
From that day onward, she followed him everywhere.
Naturally, Heinrich found her extremely annoying.
With the expression of someone trying to chase away a buzzing fly, Heinrich frowned.
“I don’t want it. Stop hanging around me and go away.”
But Vivian wasn’t discouraged at all.
Looking at Heinrich, who was resting his chin in one hand while staring out the window indifferently, she asked again,
“Then… why don’t you ever reply to my letters? Did you not like what I wrote? I can write another one.”
Looking back at her with his narrow violet eyes, Heinrich answered,
“I don’t know what was written in them. I tore them up without reading them.”
“…!”
‘Ouch! That’s way too harsh!’
Even I felt emotionally wounded just watching.
As expected, Vivian finally retreated after taking a direct hit from the King of Rude Chihuahuas.
To be fair, I couldn’t completely blame Heinrich.
She kept following him around no matter how many times he rejected her.
He was practically developing a neurosis.
She had already sent him over thirty letters.
He ignored every single one.
‘She was just as obsessive in the original story.’
Vivian loved whatever Heinrich loved.
She hated whatever Heinrich hated.
Blindly.
‘That’s why she mercilessly bullied Sisrein alongside Heinrich.’
Because whenever she did, Heinrich would at least acknowledge her existence.
Even so, Sisrein never bothered taking revenge on Vivian later in the original story.
He simply wasn’t interested in her.
In the end…
She never truly gained anyone’s attention.
I watched Vivian carefully.
‘If it’s Vivian… it’s possible.’
She was fundamentally a model student with a strong sense of civic responsibility.
If she had discovered our hideout, she probably would have reported it without hesitation.
As for contacting Viscount Puterio…
Since Heinrich openly disliked Sisrein, perhaps she had done it for his sake.
‘Besides, Vivian helps clean Lady Mimosa’s room.’
That gave her easy access to the Life Records.
Just as I was deep in thought, Vivian met my eyes.
“…”
She narrowed her eyes in obvious displeasure before sharply turning her head away.
‘Hmm… she really hates me.’
Vivian disliked me quite a bit.
The closer Heinrich became to me, the more obvious her resentment grew.
Ironically, I was the only person she refused to like, despite copying Heinrich’s tastes in everything else.
Well…
I suppose she had her reasons.
‘Being glared at by a little kid… honestly, it’s not scary at all.’
I lightly shook my head.
Even if she seemed suspicious, I couldn’t accuse Vivian so easily.
The crime was too serious.
I had to proceed carefully.
Otherwise, I might end up falsely accusing an innocent child.
Still…
Of the two prime suspects,
Vivian remained my number one suspect.
And the second…
At that moment, Heinrich interrupted my thoughts.
“Big Sis, reward me. I picked the most apples, and I’m the coolest.”
Suddenly, I remembered the first time I met him.
The boy with eyes as cold as a winter forest…
Covered in thorns.
At first, Heinrich had been just as mean to me.
Yet I couldn’t help accepting all of it.
Because I loved him that much.
Ever since he had only been a protagonist in a novel.
Because I knew that beneath all his bad behavior…
He wasn’t cruel.
He was simply an unbearably lonely child.
But in this situation…
The child with the strongest motive to harm Sisrein…
…was Heinrich.
I forced myself to stay rational.
‘My second suspect… is you, Heinrich.’
“Big Sis.”
His beautiful eyes, like a winter night sky, curved gently beneath his sharp gaze.
“As my reward… can I sit next to you all day during class?”
He smiled so sweetly, resting his chin on his hand.
Completely unaware of what I was thinking.
‘Just considering Heinrich a suspect hurts.’
A wave of self-loathing surged through me.
There was no way this adorable, innocent, kind-hearted little boy—who seemed too gentle to even hurt a single hair on someone’s head—
(That was absolutely my bias speaking. During socialization training, Heinrich had once ripped out a baron’s hair by the handful.)
—could have done something like this!
My affection for my favorite character and my reason battled fiercely.
I pressed a hand against my forehead.
‘If Heinrich really did it… that’s even worse.’
Heinrich already knew what happened to slaves.
If he had done it…
Then he had acted knowing exactly what would happen to Sisrein.
Normally, I would have defended Heinrich without question.
I would have insisted there was no way he could ever do such a thing.
‘But this… concerns Sisrein.’
Right now, the person who most desperately wanted Sisrein gone from this forest…
…was Heinrich.
I knew the spoiled boy who had always believed I belonged only to him had begun to hate Sisrein more and more lately.
And when I thought about the original story…
Everything fit too perfectly.
His character.
His motive.
Everything.
“Big Sis? Why aren’t you answering?”
Resting his folded hands on the desk, Heinrich looked up at me, his pretty face leaning against them.
His violet eyes sparkled mischievously.
“…”
I hardened my gaze and spoke.
