Left alone in the room, the child kept staring at the spot where Julia and Airien had been. His hand awkwardly rubbed the back of his head, which was still throbbing.
***
“Name.”
“......”
“You don’t have one?”
“......”
“Then I’ll call you Dog Poop from now on...”
“...Zien.”
Hmm. So you can talk after all.
He must have hated the name Dog Poop, because that was the first time Ceres heard his voice.
“Zien?”
He nodded.
But something about the child’s reaction was strange. Zien stole a glance at Ceres before cautiously taking a step back. His fists were clenched tight, and he looked terribly tense.
“......?”
Ceres frowned. Why was he suddenly so scared?
“Why?”
Am I that scary? Ceres scratched her cheek.
Well, I suppose I can see why.
She never really got along with kids. Maybe it was because she had a rather stern expression. Children were often a little afraid of her.
Hmm?
But this was far beyond that.
I’m not scary enough to make him shake like that, am I?
The child was trembling all over, like he’d done something terribly wrong.
“You...”
The child flinched. Ceres’s expression stiffened slightly.
“......”
She said nothing for a while. No, she couldn’t. How could she say anything when he was trembling like that?
So she simply watched him quietly until he calmed down.
“......?”
After some time, the child finally raised his head and looked at her with a puzzled expression. Only then did Ceres speak.
“What is it?”
Why are you shaking like that?
“.......?”
The child looked even more confused by her question.
“What were you afraid of?”
“......”
He fell silent again, clearly unsure whether to answer. Ceres waited patiently, giving him time to speak on his own.
After another long silence...
“Why...”
The child finally spoke in a small voice.
“Why... aren’t you hitting me?”
“...What?”
Ceres didn’t understand at first.
What did he just say? Did he ask why I wasn’t hitting him?
“I... I spoke, so why...”
What is he talking about?
“So...”
Ceres struggled to make sense of it before slowly asking again.
“Right now...”
Is he afraid I’m going to hit him?
“Did you think I’d hit you?”
“Because I spoke.”
“......”
Ceres was speechless. It felt as though she’d just been hit over the head.
Just because he spoke...?
“...You get hit for speaking?”
“......?”
At Ceres’s question, the child tilted his head as if he couldn’t understand why she was asking something so obvious.
“Sorry. Let me take a look.”
Ceres’s expression turned cold as she lifted the child’s shirt. He merely flinched as though he was used to this and didn’t resist. Seeing that only made Ceres feel worse.
“...Damn it...”
Remembering that there was a child right in front of her, she barely stopped the curse from slipping out. His body was covered in wounds, with hardly a single uninjured spot.
This is the body of a ten-year-old?
“Haa...”
A long sigh escaped Ceres. The child flinched at the sound. He seemed to think he’d angered her again. Fear quickly filled his eyes.
Ceres met his gaze and let out an even heavier sigh.
***
“So that’s why.”
“You really didn’t know?”
“No. He kept insisting on washing himself...”
After hearing what had happened, Butler Colin sighed. When the child arrived yesterday, Colin had shown him to his room, prepared fresh clothes, and brought him water for a bath.
He had offered to help him bathe, but the child stubbornly refused to take off his clothes. When Colin asked if he could wash himself, the child nodded, so he quietly stepped outside.
“Maybe he didn’t want anyone to see his injuries.”
“It wasn’t that he didn’t want to show them. He must have thought he wasn’t supposed to.”
“Pardon?”
Colin tilted his head, not following Ceres’s meaning.
“Why do you get hit for speaking?”
“...Because I’m bad luck.”
“......”
“Damn it...”
Remembering their last conversation, Ceres muttered a curse under her breath. She’d heard that Zien had been living in an orphanage, and that the director would beat him whenever he opened his mouth.
The reason was simple.
“Because I’m bad luck.”
That crazy b*stard.
“His hands and face were clean.”
The wounds were all hidden beneath his clothes. The director clearly didn’t want anyone else to see them. He had probably drilled it into Zien that he was never to show his injuries to anyone, just as he’d taught him that speaking meant getting beaten.
That must have been why Zien refused to take off his clothes in front of the butler.
Come to think of it, I heard he really hated it when Julia touched his hands, too.
“Ceres! That boy is so mean! I tried to put a pen in his hand to teach him the letters, but he smacked my hand away and got mad! So I hit him.”
“You hit him too?”
“Yeah!”
“...Then that’s fine.”
“Okay!”
That day, Julia came running over and immediately started complaining about what had happened.
“If he does it again, I’ll hit him even harder.”
...Is she going to see him again? At least she never said she wouldn’t.
In any case, there was a simple reason the child, who reacted so strongly when Julia touched him, hadn’t resisted Ceres at all.
It must be because of the contract.
The blood contract. With Ceres holding it, he must have thought she’d taken the Director’s place now that he was gone.
That’s why he didn’t resist when I checked his wounds.
He knew that refusing would only earn him another beating.
He thought I’d beat him for everything, just like the Director.
The more Ceres put the pieces together, the more bitter she felt. Was it because he had Artia’s ring? For some reason, she couldn’t help but worry about him.
Am I being ridiculous? It feels like my Artia went somewhere and came back covered in wounds.
“Where’s the child?”
“I gave him a snack, but Miss Julia said she wanted to have some with him.”
Hearing that they were together, Ceres headed over.
I hope those two aren’t fighting again like last time.
Crash!
“.....?”
Ceres quickened her pace when she heard something shatter.
What was that? Are they throwing things at each other?
“Julia—”
When Ceres entered the living room, she saw both children standing there. Broken pieces of a plate were scattered at their feet.
“Careful, it’s dangerous. Come over here.”
Colin quickly ushered the two children away from the broken pieces and began cleaning up.
“What happened?”
They don’t look like they were fighting.
“Well, Sooty...”
“Sooty?”
Ceres didn’t need to hear anything more. The moment she heard that name, she knew what had happened. That little rascal must have tried to steal their snacks again and ended up breaking the plate.
“...What’s wrong with him?”
Ceres looked toward the corner of the living room. Sooty was lying face-down on the floor, hiding his face behind his two short arms.
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