Chapter 5
Reinhardt departed for Luden.
She looked at the map and started moving, dragging her injured leg as she did and, curiously enough, the child kept hovering around Reinhardt.
“You’re not going home?”
The child became hesitant when she asked him like that. He then mumbled something and followed behind her.
It wasn’t okay for her to go to the next village with a limp leg right now, it was the same as the night when she was traveling half-asleep in the mountains.
When Reinhardt pulled out all the dry grass, gathered the branches, and started the fire with flint, the child screamed.
“Ha….”
Reinhardt squatted five steps away from him and smiled as she made eye contact with the child who was looking over at her.
“It’s cold. Come here.”
However, the child did not come forward when he saw her from a distance.
Reinhardt shrugged his shoulders and hit the flint a few more times. The child opened his mouth again when he saw the flashing flame.
“… Do you want it?”
Reinhardt held out the flint. The child crept up but flinched again when she stretched her arms out.
She smirked and threw the flint toward the child. The child jumped back but came back to look at it. He then picked up the flint and ran ten steps away.
That night, Reinhardt regretted giving the child the flint.
She couldn’t get any sleep because of the sound of rocks crashing all night long.
Though he would go off somewhere in the middle of the journey, the child stayed around Reinhardt. He disappeared like a ghost when Reinhardt stopped by the village and then appeared again when she was up the mountain.
“Don’t you have a home?”
He didn’t answer what she asked him.
Reinhardt gave up in seeking the child’s answer. Instead, she started to talk to herself as if she were muttering something.
Before, the mercenary had been talking next to her, which may have been her reflection.
* * *
Reinhardt bought two rooms in the village.
One was for her. One was for the child.
The child rarely came close to Reinhardt. She even had to throw his bread at him.
The child grabbed the bread thrown in front of him and smelled it. Reinhardt intentionally dropped his bread on the ground and pretended to shake the dirt around him.
The funny thing was the child’s reaction.
When the child saw it, he went to the room as if he knew that was what he was supposed to do and ate it all up. Not knowing that Reinhardt’s eyes were astonished, the child ate the bread while hiding his eyes.
Once he finished eating the bread, the child came up slowly, cautiously grabbed more bread, and ran away. He didn’t eat dinner that night because he didn’t want to.
At one point she woke up from her sleep because of a strange sensation in her left leg.
The child ran away quickly when she lifted her body up. She furrowed her eyebrows and frowned as she stared toward where the fiery sensation was coming from.
Something was attached to her leg.
When she reflexively touched it, the child spoke up from a distance.
“No.”
“…What are you talking about?”
The child looked at Reinhardt for a moment and thought,‘I should muster up my courage again.’
“No.”
“…Don’t take it off?”
Reinhardt moved her hand away from her leg and the child nodded joyfully. She laughed, at a loss, and lay back down again.
Surprisingly, when she woke up the next day, there was medication on her wound. It was a wound that hasn’t healed for days. She cleared her throat and spoke to the child who was looking at her from a distance again.
“Thank you.”
The child’s mouth went agape.
* * *
She arrived at the Luden Castle in the center of the Luden Estate after only one week, all thanks to the child.
The dirty little boy often looked at her following the map and said, “No.” So she decided to follow him on a trial basis, and that’s how they reached the next village.
Although there were a few roads and paths made by animals that she could have followed, the path the child taught her shortened her trip by leaps and bounds.
“…Oh my God.”
She was thankful and surprised when her travel was shortened to a week.
The child would either walk right behind Reinhardt or walk right in front of her.
The boundary of the village the castle of Luden was in was right in front of them. Reinhardt saw the guard far away and grabbed the child’s hand, which had been one step away from her.
“Ahhhh!”
The child screamed in surprise.
Reinhardt held the child’s hand tightly. It was dirty and sticky, but she didn’t care and used enough strength to prevent the child from running away. Then she leaned down and made eye contact with the child. His black eyes were shaking and had a hint of confusion.
“Come with me.”
“……Aah!”
“I don’t know what you’re doing, but I know you don’t have parents.”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”
“And I know you’re interested in me. So come with me.”
The child struggled at first but soon calmed down. Still, she didn’t lessen the strength she was holding him with so he wouldn’t get out of her grip. As she continued exerting strength unto his hand, her fingers began hurting, but Reinhardt still spoke clearly as she looked into the child’s dark eyes.
“You won’t believe it easily, but I am the Lord of Luden. I don’t know if you can understand me, but I can’t just simply let you go.”
“……I know.”
“Okay? I’m going to give you a lot of bread.”
The child didn’t quite understand what she’d said, but he seemed to understand “bread”. It was natural since he had gotten bread from her for days.
Reinhardt spoke with renewed emphasis.
“A lot of bread.”
“Bread, bread, bread.”
After repeating the same word several times, the child stopped trying to pull his arm away.
Reinhardt grinned.
“Yes, bread.”
His dark eyes blinked a few times and his gaze stopped at her hand holding his hand tightly.
The child’s hand had stopped using strength before she knew it.
His wiggly, sticky fingers wriggled in her palm and slowly grabbed her hand.
So into the boundary of Luden, the two walked hand in hand.
There an old lady, who has been in charge of the family for generations, spoke to her.
“State your name.”
Sarah was a very strict-looking old woman, but she didn’t bow when she saw Reinhardt.
“It’s been 20 years since the Lord him/herself came to Luden.”
“Is that so?”
Reinhardt pinched her nose with her fingers. She’d been wandering out in the cold for two months so when she came into the warm castle, her stuffy nose became runny.
Sarah stared silently at the new lord, who deemed that cleaning her runny nose was more important than the conversation.
“My cousin.”
“The ex-Lord was born and raised in the big city of Velken, and he handled things through his representatives. He came to Luden three times during his time.”
Aha.
So she meant to say that the lord, who’s just an outsider, shouldn’t try to interfere with territorial affairs and just eat.
Reinhardt nodded as she looked at her gray eyes with a little hostility.
“The mistress must have had a hard time.”
“A waste that had sinned and was banished out of the capital must be too much for the mistress. I respect you for saying that.”
“…..I didn’t mean that.”
Reinhardt grinned.
“You’ll need a lot of advice for the time being.”
Sarah’s eyes shook.
Reinhardt’s words were obvious.
She had no intention of showing off as a Lord, but that didn’t mean she wanted to take her hand off this place.
Helka and Luden are very different. Helka’s territory is more than ten times the size of Luden.
But Luden’s territory is…
There was a shabby castle that looked about 300 years old.
And there was only one tower and two borderlines which were small enough to cover if they stood with their arms open.
Reinhardt sighed at the sight of the territory.
She’d thought it would’ve been a bit better.
It was possible to stop an attack, but having a territorial battle was impossible.
‘……Well, now there’s someone who’s gonna bring troops here.’
Helka and Luden were both located outside of the capital, but they were very different.
She had a hard time coming to Luden all alone. There couldn’t be anyone who wanted to have this barren land.
“I have a favor to ask of you mistress.”
“Go ahead.”
“The kid I brought.”
“….The child?”
The old lady stuttered for the first time.
“Yeah, I had also been surprised that he was a human being.”
Thinking about it, Reinhardt grinned.
When Luden’s guards first saw Reinhardt coming in while holding the child’s hand they yelled, “It’s a beast! He’s a savage!” and made a scene.
She then showed her identity card and entered the castle, but when she looked in the mirror, Reinhardt understood why the guards made such a fuss.
Reinhardt, who’d spent a week outside, was also sullied and didn’t look much better than the child. At first glance, she looked like a barbaric sorcerer who brought a beast with her.
“He is the one who saved my life. He’s like an orphan, but in order for you to tell where he’s from, you’ll have to wash him thoroughly…”
Reinhardt, who had been speaking, suddenly raised her eyebrows. This is because she heard a distant scream coming from somewhere.
She got up, approached the window, and lifted the tapestry.
“Argh! There!”
“HOLD IT!”
An untimely chase was taking place in the quiet garden of Luden Castle. And the subject of this chase was a young man that looked like a wet mouse…..no, a child.
Reinhardt turned around trying to hold back her laughter.
“…Just give him a lot of room.”
“And bread.”
“Yes, please.”
Reinhardt glanced sideways at the garden. The face of the child running at full speed was revealed in the evening.
It was so dirty and yet so cute at the same time.
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