Chapter 11

“Eat this,” Freya instructed. But the boy looked at her skeptically and didn’t reach out. She completely understood his behavior because the people in this place always had a hidden agenda behind their good deeds. She never thought that she would somehow become one of those people.

“You don’t need to do that,” Freya said and then decided to get it off her chest, “I am the one who saved you so you can eat this cookie.” She wasn’t sure if it was a good idea, nor how it would turn out. But as soon as she held out the cookie, the timid boy approached her and sat down, reaching his hand up quickly and grabbing it from her.

“Oh, so you are my savior,” he said as he bit into the tasty cookie.

His tone seemed a little different from earlier, but Freya thought it was all in her head. “If you say so. I don’t know what a savior is.”

The boy, whom Freya thought wouldn’t talk much, appeared to be opening up to her, and he asked, “Your name is Freya?”

“That’s right. What is your name?”

“I’m… Call me Luke.”

Freya thought that the name suited him well; he looked like someone she’d seen in the orphanage before, and the two children slowly bonded from the day that they learned each other’s names.

“This is how you write your name.” At some point in his life, Luke had learned how to write and, whenever he had free time, he taught Freya too.

“How do you write your name, Luke?” She asked.

“I will show you later on.”

Through him, Freya heard stories about the outside world when he told her about his previous life. And Luke said that the Morciana Empire had an elderly king and two princes.

“Then the Crown Prince becomes the next king?” Freya tilted her head and asked.

Luke gripped his fist, making a bizarre face as he replied, “That’s how it’s supposed to go, but I still don’t know for sure.”

“Hmm, I see.” Freya couldn’t care less whether the first prince or second prince would wear the crown. She was only interested in Luke, who sat in front of her, reminding her of a white, delicious cake. “Well, I don’t know. You will be prettier than those two princes, Luke.”

Luke’s eyes sparkled when she said that. Freya didn’t quite know the meaning of beautiful but, to her, Luke was what she would call beautiful. It then occurred to her that Sophia couldn’t bear beating a child like him. But now, it seemed like he didn’t like her compliment.

With a frown on his handsome face, he said more seriously, “Calling a man pretty isn’t a compliment.”

“You? A man?” For the first time in a long time, Freya grabbed her stomach and rolled on the floor, laughing out loud. Luke looked like he was only eight years old. On top of that, he was so cute and lovely that she couldn’t see any manliness in him, and she giggled, “Luke. I will soon be thirteen.”

He made a confused face and let out a long sigh. He seemed to have something to say, and he bowed his head, “Freya, I have a story.”

The way he did that was so funny that Freya had to make fun of him, “Okay. You’re originally one hundred years old. Let’s pretend that you’re under a spell. How about that?”

“Hey! How did you know that?”

After he lifted his head with an even more serious look on his face, Freya burst out laughing, more amused than a moment ago. “What? Luke, do you honestly believe in that? You’re so cute.”

Freya thought of Luke as a child, like Lotty, even though she could read Luke’s handwriting. His angry appearance now made him look like a cat with its fur standing on end. The child she had handed a small piece of bread to had blond hair like Luke’s, which had reminded her of the yellow cat that appeared when it heard Freya’s footsteps.

“You’re soft.” Imagining a cat in front of her, she reached out to pet his head. You are strange, Luke.

He was full of elegance, even in the shabby clothes he rolled around the orphanage wearing. His blond hair and big, prominent eyes, which could be seen even in the pits of darkness, set the tone for the surroundings. Looking into his mysterious eyes, Freya nodded silently.

“Freya, what is that look in your eyes?”

“You look just like a cat,” she said as she covered her mouth with her hand to hide a smile.

“Are you saying that I look like a lovely cat?”

He had a soft voice, but he wasn’t offended. Freya lowered her hand and apologized. “Sorry. That was rude.”

“Coming from you, it’s okay. It makes me feel purified.”

“Purified?” It was too difficult of a word, so when Freya tilted her head questioningly, Luke smiled gently in the dim light.

At some point, children in the orphanage started to disappear, one or two at a time. It was disturbing to see the growing number of empty seats each time Freya ate breakfast, and she wondered where on earth they had all gone. What is going on in this place?

Now that she thought about it, it had been a few days since the last time she’d seen Lotty. Freya felt a lot of weight on her mind when she thought of the annoying kid, who used to hover around her constantly, disappearing.

She wasn’t really in a position to ask Sophia about it, but eventually, she mustered up as much courage as she could and asked, “Auntie, do you know where Lotty is?” Sophia whacked the back of Freya’s hand with a fan as she was placing a pearl necklace around the woman’s neck.

“How would I know that?”

Freya sagged her shoulders and slowly finished adorning Sophia with jewelry. At the end of the day, there was nothing that she could do.

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