Chapter 49: 48

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The Past (½).

A long time ago at the residence of the Duke of Rothsilde on the outskirts of Progen.

A woman and a young boy were strolling through the garden, planted with camellias that bloomed in late winter. The red camellia, the only flower in bloom in the garden, bows its head humbly, unable to bear the weight of the heavy snow.

The boy dressed in well-cut luxurious clothes like a high-ranking aristocrat and wore a thick coat with fox fur. A beautiful woman with silver hair and silver-gray eyes, reminiscent of a winter queen, held the young boy’s hand affectionately.

The woman was enjoying herself as she stepped on the snow that made a giggling sound, while the boy had a dull face that made him look cynical. The precocious, cold-hearted boy and the pure childlike woman had the same frosty hair.  

Silver-white hair, this was a unique Esatian trait.

“Noah. The world turned white in a day. Isn’t it amazing?”

“It snowed, of course it did.”

The young Noah replied indifferently. He had a brisk pronunciation and a mature tone that didn’t match his age. His plump cheeks were tinged red, but his eyes looked insensitive.

“Well, isn’t it beautiful?”

“I don’t understand.”

At Noah’s sardonic tone, Elisa Rothsilde, Duchess of Rothsilde, Noah’s mother, stopped and pretended to be disappointed.

“Noah. In that case, you should answer ‘yes, it’s beautiful’. It’s how the other person feels.”

“Mother likes pretty snow.”

“That makes me happy too. Did your father teach you that?”

The Duchess chuckled and kissed Noah on the cheek. As she passed under the winter tree, she laughed at the white concave snow bird chirping on the branch this time. It was a round bird with white fur and a cute appearance.

“Isn’t that bird cute too? It’s so round.”

“Yes, it’s cute too.”

Noah simply answered as his mother would have wanted him to.

He could not understand how she could give the same meaning to the natural phenomena, such as the setting of the sun, the falling of the snow, and the rising of the stars.

Nor could he understand, in a higher sense, that he should be a good boy. The line between good and evil was always too blurred for Noah to judge.

When he asked ‘Why can’t we kill him?’, his mother would say ‘Don’t you feel sorry for him?’

He could not understand how they made a child who thought differently from other people and remained in a higher dimensional way of thinking.

Father was a good man, but he sat at the top and knew how to kill people efficiently.

Mother was a kind person, but she cooked the pheasants and deer that the hunters killed and passed them around with a casual smile.

So, the young Noah just watched and imitated the people around him and set the standard of what he would and would not do as he was taught. Since he was smart, he was quick to get the reactions and answers that they wanted to hear.

The Duchess of Rothsilde was realistic in her education, saying things like, “Your loved ones can hate you or dislike you,” and “If you do that, they will put you in jail.”

Fortunately, Noah was born into a great noble family, received a thorough education, and pursued a gentlemanly appearance himself, so he was able to integrate into society without difficulty in the future.

Otherwise, he would likely have become a madman who thought death and horror were beautiful and pursued murder and slaughter. The Duchess spoke in a sweet voice as she fiddled with Noah’s hand.

“A beautiful princess will come to our house tomorrow.”

“A princess?”

“Yes. She is Princess of Medea. She will stay in our house for a while. You have to behave politely and treat her as a gentleman, okay?”

Noah nodded. The Duchess then picked Noah up and said in a strained voice,

“Oh dear. Did you grow again? It’s heavy.”

“Please put me down if I’m too heavy.”

“I don’t think I’ll be able to lift you next year, so I’ll hold you a lot now. How do you like that?”

“I will listen to mother.”

Noah’s words were cute, and the Duchess, her mouth covered, laughed like a little girl. Her silver-gray eyes, tinged with the hues of winter, curved beautifully.

“In the future, when you grow up, will you give mother a piggyback ride?”

“Yes.”

They finished their walk, entered the mansion, and shook off their snow-covered shoes.

“Shall we have some cocoa? I’ll put some whipped cream on top.”

“Yes.”

Noah didn’t like sweets, but he never showed it because his mother liked them. 

The Duchess, who had called her servant and asked her to bring a warm cup of cocoa, sat in an armchair in front of the stove and beckoned to her son. In her hand,  she held a book of children’s fairy tales.

“I will finish reading the fairy tale I read to you yesterday.”

“It’s okay, it’s obvious. I don’t even know why the prince is going to save the princess. I’ve never seen it before.”

“Maybe that’s how love begins. They fall in love and get married. Should I read you something different then? It’s about a fox and a prince.”

Noah, who was smarter than his peers and read mostly math and physics books, children’s stories were boring.

“Yes. Because mother likes children’s books. I can do it with you since you like it.”

He nodded as if he had no choice. The Duchess opened the book of fairy tales and giggled. Noah turned to observe her expression in detail.

He knew that his own mother had been separated from her parents at a very young age when she was trapped in an internment camp. He also knew that she was saved and survived by his father, the Duke of Rothsilde, in the Assatine Massacre, which was carried out in the past.

Sometimes she would look out the window with a dazed expression. It looked like she was crying without sound.

A servant came to the Duchess, who was reading the fairytale book, and told her the news that the Duke had returned.

“Noah, your father is back.”

The Duchess took Noah down to the entrance floor and smiled as she looked at her husband.

“Have you come?”

As she held his hand, Noah’s dark blue eyes stared at his mother’s face as she looked at his father.

“I’m. Noah does not greet me again.”

Noah’s father, Duke Noel Rothsilde, deliberately made a stern expression, but it did not last long. Quickly holding his son in his arms, he began to rub Noah’s cheek vigorously.

“Why don’t you do it? Why don’t you say hello? Father is sad.”

“Father, you’re back.”

“I thought I’d kiss you if you didn’t do it again tomorrow.”

Noah quickly avoided his father’s face, who rubbed his cheek awkwardly. The three of them were a harmonious family.

Noah read satisfaction, joy, and happiness on his parents’ faces. Especially when his mother and father were together, those emotions were overflowing on their faces.

However, love could not be read because it was an emotion he did not yet understand. The Duke, who was having dinner in the dining room, cut up a plate of mutton and began to talk.

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“Honey, the princess will arrive at the capital of Progen tomorrow around noon. I will come pick her up.”

“She will stay until after giving birth. I feel bad for her.“ 

Noah, who was eating while listening to their conversation, tilted his head and asked a question.

“A princess is pregnant with a child? She is not a queen or married.”

“How on earth do you know the word ‘pregnant’?”

The duchess looked at her husband with embarrassment at her son’s words. The Duke ruffled his golden locks and smiled gently.

“Our son is very smart. He seems to be a lot like you, honey.”

“I didn’t study well.” (Duchess)

“That’s all right. In my eyes, you’re clever.” (Duke)

The Duchess smiled shyly and wiped her lips with a napkin.

After dinner, the Duke always took Noah to his study to answer questions in the book Noah had read at noon.

Knowing that his wife, who was confined to a pigsty-like camp from an early age and had no access to education, could not answer, the Duke would make time separately to teach Noah.

In particular, since he (the Duke) had a head for physics, which was the search for the essence, he thought he might become a physicist one day, and he even met a retired scholar who worked as a senior researcher in the technical development department.

The Duke, who sat Noah on his lap, swept Noah’ soft silvery-white hair, gently advised him.

“It would be better not to ask the Princess about the father of her child, or some similar questions.”

“Why?”

“The Princess will be sad. If the Princess cries, I think your mother will be sad too.”

“Why is the Princess sad?”

“She was betrayed. She even broke up with him. So you have to be nice and be a gentleman.” 

It was Noah who did not understand the emotion of grief. Betrayal, separation. He had never experienced it, but he understood that it was negative.

The boy nodded as if he partially understood.

***

Princess Grace, who came to the mansion, was still a young girl with a child-like face.

She was only 17 years old, pregnant, and was kicked out until she gave birth. Her body was thin despite her pregnancy, and her skin, which looked pale under her pitch-black hair, made her seem even more pitiful.

She wore a tubular dress without corset and petticoat, a cape, and low heeled shoes. She was plainly dressed for royalty.

Noah stared up at her, smiling with difficulty, and read a series of negative emotions.

“Please make yourself comfortable, Princess.”

The Duchess led her to her room, wrapping a warm blanket around her shoulders. The Princess had not come out of her room for several days since her arrival at the mansion, and only spoke for a few moments when the Duchess brought her her meals in person.

At times a sobbing voice escaped from the room. Noah thought that the crying had something to do with betrayal and separation.

Before going to bed, the Duke couple lay down on the bed with Noah between them and talked in secret. The Duke patted Noah lightly on the back and sighed as he spoke.

“It seems the Princess didn’t let anyone know who the baby’s father is. That must be why she came here in secret.”

“He’s a really bad man. The Princess is so young. …… Poor thing.”

“Yes. Are you worried?”

“Of course I am. I have a child, too. I can’t even imagine how upset the Princess must feel.”

The kind-hearted Duchess was sincerely worried about the Princess. Noah, who was lying between them, heard their conversation and, like a child, immediately fell asleep.

‘If you feel sorry for her, why should you protect her?’ That was his question.

The afternoon the next day.

The weather was somewhat mild, with warm sunshine and a clear sky. Princess Grace, who had been cooped up in her room, went for a walk alone, wearing her thick scarf.

Noah, who was playing in the attic, his secret place, spotted her walking slowly through the garden outside his window. He hurried downstairs and followed her.

A small boy called to the Princess with long braided down hair as black as ebony.

“Princess Grace, star of Medea.”

“Hello, Noah. You have a good Medea accent.”

The Princess turned around and smiled beautifully. Her light blue eyes looked warm in the sunlight. Noah, who rolled his tongue and tried to pronounce her name smoothly over and over again, replied indifferently.

“That’s a beautiful name.”

“You may call me Gracie. It’s a nickname.”

“May I call you Sister?”

At the child’s abrupt and bold words, Princess Grace covered her mouth and smiled. For a woman with a high status, she was unusually uncharacteristic and sweet.

“Yes. You must be an only child.”

“Yes.”

“Will you come here?”

Princess Grace, hugged Noah in her arms, tried to ask, but gave up quickly after making a grunting noise.

“Why is are you so tall? You don’t look like a seven-year-old.”

“I look like my father.”

“I see. The Duke is tall. You look so much like him.”

She giggled as she looked at Noah and said he was cute.

“I need an escort while staying here. How about Noah being my knight?”

“If it’s an order, I will do that.”

“It’s not an order. You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to.”

“Ummm, then you’ll have to give me a separate honorary knighthood of Medea later. Otherwise I won’t be a knight.”

“Yes. You’re a smart kid.”

The Princess thought Noah was like a grown up in his 7 years old body. He had a strange atmosphere.

From that day on, Noah became Princess Grace’s knight and followed her around. He followed her around and was with her when she ate and walked.

He even laid out a handkerchief for her before sitting on a bench in the garden in a gentlemanly manner and escorted her in a plausible manner. The Duke and Duchess were surprised but pleased, as they had never seen Noah’s consideration for strangers before.

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They felt sorry for the Princess, who had come here as an outcast, had no maids or knights for the purpose of maintaining secrecy.

The poor Princess may never return to Medea again.

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