Stepmothers Are Not Always Evil

Chapter 134

Side story Chapter 4 The laundry I was carrying in my arms fell to my feet. Her head felt like a blank paper. Tiaris struggled to find her voice, her lips moving soundlessly like a person who had forgotten how to speak.“Escalium… Anthemion?”“Isn’t that too long?”It was a playful answer, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to accept it.“Uh, how….”“I’ve been looking for you for a long time.”Tens of emotions overlapped his innocent smile. His expression was more of a strange sense of emptiness than joy, as if to prove that he had been searching for a long time.Tiaris stared blankly at Escal, who was sweeping his bangs.How did you know? What happened? Why did you come? Random questions quickly came to mind and quickly disappeared. She had a lot to ask, but in the end she couldn’t say anything.Escal, who had been looking at her like that, approached her slowly.When he was close enough to her, he bent down and picked it up. In his white-gloved hands was the laundry she had dropped.“Why are you dropping it after you’ve washed it?”Escal lightly scolded her, brushing off the dirt on the laundry. The moment Tiaris reached out to pick up the laundry, raindrops began to fall.“You’re going to get wet. Let’s go inside and talk.”Escal strode into the cabin carrying the laundry. Tiaris, who suddenly came to her senses, followed him inside.He stood blankly in the middle of the palm-sized house, looking around the house. For the first time, she felt ashamed at the hard wooden bed, an old table, and a broken wardrobe.His gaze scanning the room, it landed on Tiaris, and she averted the eyes, unable to fathom the depth of his gaze. The sight of myself in his field of vision was as insignificant as the space itself, and she felt shabby.When the long silence became burdensome, Escal spoke first.“Thank goodness.”“……”“I was worried that you might not recognize me because so much time had passed… You haven’t changed at all, you.”Tiaris finally raised her head at the voice full of longing. His somewhat sharp eyes turned round.“You’ve changed a lot, Brother.”The face that had been smiling at the cold tone hardened. Escal tried to act as if nothing had happened.“But you recognized me at a glance.”“Something other than your face. Count Fenbury.”Tiaris answered stiffly and sat down on the bed to start folding laundry. Far from being happy to see him, he felt like an unwelcome guest.Not that I expect her hospitality, but….Escal, suppressing his inevitable disappointment, personally pulled a chair and placed it next to the bed.She was skilled at folding laundry with her thin fingertips. It was heartbreaking to think he knew about her life without asking.“What about grandfather?”“He passed away.”Tiaris answered with an expression that showed no signs of sadness. Although he had expected it since there were no other people in the house, Escal had to swallow his regret again.“So you’ve been living alone the whole time?”“Yeah.”“How have you been…?”“I’ve been doing well. I’ve been eating well, sleeping well, living like everyone else.”Tiaris said as she got out of bed and put the laundry she had folded into the closet. Thump, Tiaris closed the old closet door and turned around, biting her tongue.“You still have this.”Escal was fiddling with the puppy doll that was on the table. Her face flushed. Tiaris bit her lip, feeling like the mask she had barely managed to keep would break.“It-it’s an imperial item, so I couldn’t just throw it away, so I kept it. I might have to return it someday.”“You thought we’d meet again, right?”A smile spread across Escal’s face. Tiaris couldn’t answer.‘I can’t get entangled with the Anthemion Dukes again.’After leaving the Dukedom, Baron Heazel habitually asked Tiaris. She was too young to understand what he said, so Tiaris hoped that she would meet Escal someday.That was until Baron Hazel passed away and Escal’s name was always printed in the newspaper.However, as she grew older and heard the news that Escal had become Count of Fenbury, she realized that he belonged to a completely different world from her.So she tried to forget him. Tiaris sighed as she glanced at the box with the lid closed.Trying to forget was a lie. In fact, she had never forgotten him for a single moment.“Take that back.”“What?”“I told you. I kept it to return it. It’s something I don’t need anymore, so take it.”With a click, the hand wrapped around the broken doll stopped. Tiaris averted his eyes as they met his eyes that were darkening in an instant.Please, don’t shake me and just go.She thought it would be okay, but it wasn’t. He was too big to dismiss it as a childhood relationship that I couldn’t even remember. If I was not careful, everything I had protected until now would crumble. However, Escal didn’t give up.“Okay, I’ll take it with me when I go. I’ll have to ask a skilled puppeteer to fix it.”At the same time as Escal tried to act cheerful, a thunderous sound came from inside his stomach. Escal awkwardly placed his hand on his stomach.“Have you had dinner?”“… I haven’t eaten yet.”“I’ve been starving for two days.”“What have you been doing that you haven’t eaten?”“I didn’t even realize I was hungry until I saw you.”The witty answer made me chuckle. I thought his complexion looked bad. How could the young master of the Anthemion family, who had more money than the royal family, be walking around hungry?I wanted to cut him off coldly, but Tiaris was not cruel enough to kick out a hungry person.“I’ll bring you something to eat, so wait.”Tiaris sighed and went into the kitchen. There was a little soup left over from breakfast in the pot on the stove. Tiaris put all the wilted vegetables into the soup and cut up a piece of hard bread.If I had known this would happen, I would have asked Uncle Ronald to do some grocery shopping.Tiaris smiled bitterly as she rummaged through the empty cupboard, which didn’t even have a piece of dried ham, let alone meat.Why are you worrying about not having anything to give him when you told him to leave a moment ago, he probably knew my situation anyway, and I’m sure he didn’t say it as a favor.“What’s so urgent that you’re skipping meals….”I told myself not to worry about him, that I wasn’t the one who needed to worry, but it didn’t work out as I thought.Feeling like an idiot, I just stirred the pot, but suddenly my body was pulled back. Tiaris raised her voice in surprise at the feeling of a large hand grabbing her waist.“What are you doing? All of a sudden.”“…. I missed you.”“Stop saying weird things and let me go.”“I’m sorry I couldn’t come to you sooner.”The voice in her ear trembled. She could feel a faint tremble in the hand wrapped around her waist. Tiaris barely suppressed the feeling of wanting to cry.It’s not that she didn’t think about going to see him at least once. If she had tried to meet him, it would have been easier for her to move.But she didn’t do it because she was afraid. Because she didn’t think Escalium Anthemion would remember the girl he had briefly met when he was young.“Dinner is almost ready, so go to the room.”Tiaris pretended not to hear him, as she couldn’t come up with a proper answer. Escal, who was pushed away, left the kitchen without showing any sign of resentment.When she returned to the room with a tray filled with warm soup and bread, Escal, who was reading the newspaper in the box, turned his head.I should have cleaned it up. She put the tray down bluntly, ignoring the smile on his gaunt face.“This is all I have, so just eat it even if it doesn’t suit your taste.”“It’s okay. I ate worse things than this on the battlefield.”Escal, who was picking up the bread, suddenly asked, thinking that this was a proper meal.“How about you?”“I’m fine.”He dismissed the idea and began to eat alone. Although he could not possibly like the rough food without any spices, he emptied his plate without a single complaint.After waiting in silence for him to finish, Tiaris took his empty plate and headed back to the kitchen.“Hah.”This isn’t right. Why do I feel like stopping him?I tried to be harsh, but my heart kept weakening when I saw his face.I really have to kick him out. Tiaris, who had gathered her feelings while wiping the few plates, put the plate away and returned to the room.“It’s getting late, so let’s stop now….”Her determination to kick him out coldly was easily broken. Tiaris quietly stared at Escal, who had fallen asleep on the table.As if to prove that he had been starving for two days, his thin cheeks under his sunken eyes were noticeable. The grand praise of being a hero of the Empire seemed too much for him.I was debating about waking him up, but I picked up a blanket and covered his shoulders.“Ugh….”Despite the careful touch, Escal, who was sensitive to movement, quickly got up.“You didn’t sleep?”“Yeah. About three days.”Why did he look like he was going to die? I’m not going anywhere, so why are you in such a hurry? Tiaris clicked her tongue in frustration and said.“Go ahead. There’s a small inn in the village, so go there-”“Let me sleep there.”“What?”“Then you’re going to throw me out into this rain?”Escal glanced out the window. The rain that had started to fall again in the early evening was now pouring down heavily.Tiaris barely opened her mouth, his face as pale as a lost puppy.“… Okay.”Heavy raindrops splashed in through the tightly closed door.It was raining heavily.