CH 154

Episode 154

Sidestory 8. Winter passed, Spring comes (4)

Eugene, who saw the child’s blue eyes sway, felt something unusual.

So he got closer to the bed and made eye contact with the child.

To find out what caused the anxiety in those eyes.

“……What happened during the day?”

The child opened his eyes wide.

As if Eugene hit the nail on the head.

After checking the child’s expression, Eugene sighed and put his hand on the child’s head.

“Can you tell me what’s wrong?”

A small silver head nodded.

And the child moved his lips, which had been tightly closed.

“Duke.”

“Yeah.”

“Actually, Jack, he couldn’t meet his mom, right?”

Eugene thought the child would be able to cope with whatever he brought up.

But the moment he heard the child’s story, he realized it was his own arrogance.

“……that’s…….”

He tried to put on a quick look, but it was too late.

The child’s eyes were glowing with resignation.

“As expected, they can’t meet.”

The calm voice of the child squeezed Eugene’s heart.

Contrary to her low voice, his blue eyes were clearly agitated.

Eugene’s head is spinning.

‘What do I have to say to reassure you?’

“No.”

It was a lie that came out of his mouth after all.

“You’ll be different.”

The child looked up at Eugene.

The child’s pupils were no longer shaken.

Eugene was therefore more anxious.

He felt like the kid had given up.

“My mom must have hated me.”

“……did you know that?”

“Yes.”

The child answered with a nod.

“At the end, she said this to me. If you sleep well, she’ll be back the next morning.”

It was a false promise.

Now the child knows.

That his mother will never come back.

“Duke, I heard it.”

The child’s fist-clenching his sleeve was tightened.

Eugene’s heart seemed to sink in a fragile and desperate touch that contained nothing of anger and coercion.

“I’m going to be sent away soon.”

Eugene’s eyes fluttered.

If he says ‘how did you know that?’ here, it’s nothing but a reflection on the harsh reality of the child.

But saying ‘no, it’s not’ was like lying like a mother to a child.

“I heard some people……talk about nursery.”

It seemed that the child had overheard what the users were saying.

‘When did he hear that?’

Perhaps from then on, this child was afraid of being left alone.

“Duke, you read to me……and you’re not even angry……….”

The child’s voice began to tremble.

“So I thought that Duke was a good man…… Maybe you’re different from my mom…….”

“……..”

Tears slowly began to gather in the child’s blue eyes.

Here, in the eyes of a child who never cried before.

“If the Duke leaves this room, you won’t come back… … …”

His mother, who went out after closing the door, never came back.

And he woke up in a place he didn’t know and met strangers.

In this darkness, this child would have thought that the same thing would happen.

“I can’t sleep, it’s too dark and scary here.”

Eugene knew the child wasn’t afraid of the night and the darkroom.

This child who was afraid of being abandoned, trying his best not to be abandoned somehow.

Somehow, he was trying to put another being next to him.

“So can I not go……?”

Transparent tears fell from the child’s blue eyes.

Eugene’s breathing became rapid.

‘Why……..’

When he saw the crying child’s face, his childhood memories that had been sealed deep hit Eugene.

When he was four years old, he was caught reading a fairy tale book without memorizing the magic circle and was trapped in a dark room.

Then Eugene knocked on the door with his small hand and cried.

‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it again, Father……!’

Repeating words that will never reach anyone.

It wasn’t because he was afraid of the darkroom that he cried, asked to get him out.

It was because he was afraid that his father would think that he was a failure and abandon him.

‘Why didn’t I realize it until now?’

The anxiety that joined him as a child was caused by the fear that his father might abandon him.

The pressure of playing a perfect son in order not to be abandoned and not to be alone ate him up.

And the fear this child has now is not much different from the fear he had.

A large hand wrapped around the child’s hand with his sleeves folded.

The blue eyes, which did not contain lies, looked at the child’s tearful eyes.

“I won’t go.”

The child raised his head at Eugene’s unwavering voice.

A tear rolled down the child’s eyes.

His eyes, not yet sure, looked up at Eugene.

“Really………?”

“Yes.”

Eugene took out a handkerchief and wiped the child’s eyes and said.

“If you want, I’ll stay with you.”

The child hesitated and opened his mouth.

“Tomorrow, too?”

“Tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and forever.”

“Nursery…….? What about there?”

“You don’t have to go.”

“Yes…?”

Obviously, this might have been a hasty move.

It might be unreasonable.

Nevertheless, Eugene had no intention of changing his decision.

Fear of being thrown away is too painful and too heavy for this child to carry.

‘Because I can’t leave this child alone in that fear.’

So Eugene chose a different path.

“Aster.”

In the name of the first child, Eugene felt something emotional in his mind.

“If you don’t mind, would you like to stay in this castle with me?”

The child’s eyes twinkled as her life began to flow.

The child, who still couldn’t let go of his sleeve, nodded in tears.

The child did not meet his mother after all.

But that night, spring came to the child.

* * *

“It eventually happens.”

Eugene bowed his head still at Ricktuanis’s tongue-tapping words.

“Well, I’m glad you decided now.”

Upon hearing that Eugene had decided to adopt Aster, Ricktuanis ran from his annexe to Eugene’s castle.

It was an act of a person who was very interested in the succession issue.

“Where is the child now?”

“He’s still sleeping. He must be tired because he cried a lot yesterday.”

“He’s still sleeping!?”

Ricktuanis’s voice changed sharply.

“Wake him up. He should start training today.”

“Training?”

Eugene doubted his ears.

No matter how interested his father was in his successor issue, he did not think he would train a child who had not yet completed the adoption process.

“If he’s four years old, then it’s too late. If he wants to follow Ace’s succession class properly, training all day will not be enough.”

“……..”

“I’ll take care of the child’s training for the time being. The rest, Eugene, you take care of it.”

Finally, Eugene, who couldn’t stand it, got up from his seat.

“That’s enough.”

“What?”

Ricktuanis squinted and asked.

Looking down at the blue eyes spouting a sharp chill like an awl, Eugene said in a chilly voice.

“That’s enough. I’ll take care of the child, so you don’t have to look after him.”

“What do you mean? Even if the two of us stick together and teach, there won’t be enough time.”

“No need for that.”

In an instant, the air in the office cooled.

Towards her father staring at him with ferocious spirit, Eugene said in a quiet voice.

“Aster will never grow up like me.”

It was enough for him to suffer alone.

Eugene wanted to end the pain in her own teenage years.

Ricktuanis snorting.

“It’s stupid. Do you really think it’s for the child’s sake to be pushed and ignored by other successors?”

Now Eugene wasn’t the only one standing up.

“You know that, don’t you?”

Ricktuanis, who stretched his back and stared at his son, was as strong as a young man.

“I’m just doing it the same way I did it for you, for the child who’s going to be your successor.”

Nevertheless, Eugene was never shaken.

“No.”

Eugene’s shrill voice resonated in the room.

“It’s not for the child’s sake who has no place to lean on.”

“What?”

Ricktuanis asked back with a firm face.

“What you’ve done to me, and what you’re trying to do to my child, is for you, not for us.”

‘It took me as long as 17 years to realize that.’

Even after learning that, Eugene never told anyone about it.

But now he could say for sure.

“It was abuse.”

Eugene said, looking directly into Ricktuanis’s eyes, who was getting cold.

He didn’t mind being slapped here.

Because he was convinced that he was right.

“So, you’re going to choose your own way?”

“Yes.”

Ricktuanis warned with his eyes full of life.

“You will regret your choice.”

The decision was not made with the determination to be swayed by such a petty curse.

It was the same last time he heard that.

“No, I’ll never regret it.”

That’s how the rich man’s conversation ended.

Ricktuanis would have known.

He can’t change Eugene’s mind.

That’s why he closed the door with a frown without further argument.

‘I had no intention of persuading you anyway.’

Eugene knew that he and his father would never understand each other.

Like parallel lines, the fact that it’ll never meet.

‘He’ll be quiet for a while.’

Since Eugene is the current head of the household, it was difficult for Ricktuanis to break Eugene’s will.

It was all for notification that he would not follow his father’s parenting style.

The option of persuasion did not exist in the first place.

‘Is this all for today?’

Just then, he heard someone knocking on the door.

“Come on in.”

Eugene smiled lightly when he saw a small silver-haired child sticking out his head through the door.

“Did you sleep well, Aster?”

“Yes.”

As he approached Aster looking around the office, Eugene bent down and grabbed the child’s hand.

“If you want to look around, you can take a look.”

“Can I look around the desk over there?”

Eugene burst into laughter when he saw Aster answering quickly.

“Yeah.”

Eugene gave Aster a good look at the desk and put him on his lap.

“Wow…”

“Amazing?”

“Yes.”

Aster’s hand, which was gazing or picking up the object on the desk, turned to the locket in the corner of the desk.

“Can I open this?”

Eugene, who thought about it for a while, soon nodded.

Aster, who found a picture of a woman smiling brightly in a locket, looked up at Eugene with clear eyes and asked.

“Who is this………?”

A woman with purple hair and starry red and purple eyes.

She was the only person Eugene had ever kept a picture of.

“The person who taught me about spring.”

The person who told him how warm spring is.

The person who brings spring to their surroundings.

“She is such a person.”

Aster, nodding his head still, carefully closed the lid of the locket and placed it in place.

“She must be a very nice person.”

“Yeah.”

Eugene replied, stroking Aster’s silver hair.

Suddenly, he thought the back of his neck was warm.

Looking back, bright sunlight was flowing through the window.

Not long ago, the snow piled up on the branches was slowly melting.

“Aster.”

“What?”

Turning so that the child could see out of the window, Eugene said in a calm voice.

“Spring is finally here.”