Chapter 60

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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“Whoa…”

On the way to the capital’s main avenue, Evi couldn’t keep her mouth shut.

Beneath the now-darkening sky, a sparkling road full of lights stretched out as if it would reach the end of the world.

Beside it, shops displaying numerous goods in their show windows were lined up, and in the middle, countless people passed through the streets laughing.

Evi was lost in the newly encountered world.

“Evi?”

“Ye-yes!”

Evi, who was looking here and there in a daze, came to her senses at the voice of Professor Sian coming from beside her.

“You should stay alert and follow me.”

“Yes.”

Evi answered energetically and grabbed his sleeve.

Still, her eyes were busy scanning the surroundings.

‘It’s like a different world.’

Evi recalled the festivals in Elam. The festivals held in the central plaza of Elam City were full of light until late at night.

Many people who came out dressed beautifully laughed happily while chatting and playing.

When she looked at the plaza where people gathered from the orphanage on the hill, she thought it was the most complicated place in the world…

‘It was nothing compared to the capital.’

There were so many mysterious and pretty things.

Jewelry, clothes, and general goods piled beyond the shop glass windows.

Among them, the place that caught Evi’s gaze was a candy shop where children were gathered.

The cylindrical glass jars were full of colorful candies.

The shapes were also diverse. Ordinary round candies, bent cane-shaped candies, round and flat candies stuck on wooden sticks…

Gulp.

Evi swallowed her saliva as she recalled the gift she had received at the orphanage.

Because she liked that sweetness so much, she had cherished the only three candies she had received and eaten them very sparingly.

“Do you want to eat some?”

Clois, noticing that Evi’s gaze could not leave the candy shop, lowered his head and asked.

At his words, Evi jumped and shook her head.

“No! I don’t like it!”

It was clear to anyone that she was lying.

If she disliked it, she wouldn’t have swallowed her saliva and stared at it like she had just now.

Clois headed toward the candy shop with a smile.

“I won’t eat! Really!”

But Evi, whom he thought was just being polite, turned pale and hurriedly grabbed and pulled him.

“Evi?”

“I, I really hate it! I won’t eat it!”

Evi’s face was full of fear.

‘Why?’

Clearly, she had been staring at the candy because she wanted to eat it. So he thought that even if she declined several times, she would eventually be happy if he tried to buy it for her.

But contrary to his thoughts, Evi pulled him in another direction as if to truly stop him from buying candy.

In the end, Clois could not enter the candy shop and had to turn his steps away.

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Evi, while holding onto his sleeve, desperately turned her gaze to somewhere other than the shops.

‘I shouldn’t look for too long.’

Then she would surely be scolded. Just like before.

Even in Elam, a small city, there was a candy shop. So children were always gathered in front of it.

The children of the orphanage were the same.

After helping with all the farm work and having nothing more to do, they would run to the town and stare at it while drooling.

Then one day, she met a noble lady who occasionally stopped by the orphanage to make a donation.

She was pleased with the word that Evi was smart and smiled benevolently, saying, “You could work as a maid at our house later.”

Because she was a person who treated her kindly, Evi bowed and greeted her.

“Ah, you are…”

“Madam, is it a child you know?”

“Yes, she’s a child from the place I’m sponsoring.”

While saying that, she talked about something with her friends. In the meantime, Evi looked at the candy again.

“Oh my, were you looking because you wanted to eat candy?”

“How pitiable.”

At the noble ladies’ words, the person who was sponsoring them smiled for a moment, went inside, bought an armful of candy, and handed it to Evi.

“Take this and eat it.”

“Tha-thank you!”

Surprised, she thanked her several times and ran back to the orphanage holding it.

Then she boasted to the Director that she had received such a thing. She thought the Director would be happy too.

“Oh dear, this has become troublesome.”

Contrary to the thought that she would be happy, the Director clicked her tongue and told Evi that next time, she should just greet them and return immediately.

Then a few days later, while she was standing in front of the candy shop again, she met the lady passing by there again.

It wasn’t intentional.

Elam is a small city, and the front of the candy shop is the busiest street where people pass most often.

Most of the wealthy people in Elam used to pass that way.

And again, a situation similar to the previous one was repeated.

That evening, the noble lady who had bought her candy came to visit the orphanage.

“I thought she was cute because she was young and bright, but she’s quite cunning! Isn’t the reason she greeted me in front of the shop and glanced at the shop obvious! Does this orphanage teach children how to beg?”

That noble lady pointed her finger at the Director and got angry for a long time before leaving.

Evi, who was secretly watching the whole scene, guessed what had happened.

‘I never asked her to buy it.’

She did want to eat it.

But if she had known she would hear people asking if she was begging, she would never, ever have looked at it in front of her.

When Professor Sian now said he would buy her candy, Evi recalled the memory and shame of that time.

If she continued to look, the professor would inevitably buy it for her. And then if he thought she was purposely pretending to be pitiable to force him to buy it…

‘He’ll come to dislike me.’

Like that noble lady who looked at her with contempt and never came again.

So even if Evi was looking at something, she quickly turned her gaze away.

As if she had no interest. As if she had never wanted it.

The problem was that there weren’t many shops that caught her eye in Elam. But the capital was different.

No matter how hard she tried, if she took one step forward, new mysterious things appeared like magic.

Clois felt puzzled as he watched Evi, who kept stopping her steps.

Whenever there were interesting items or something that looked delicious, she stopped her steps each time.

But if he tried to say even a single word, she would be terrified and tell him to pull her and go somewhere else.

“What is that doing over there?”

“Ah. This is where if you pull a string and the tied stone is pulled up, you receive the product written on it as a gift. Should we try…”

“No!”

While saying so, she couldn’t take her eyes off the sight of other children pulling stones and receiving wooden dolls.

Now Clois was certain.

‘She wants to do it, but she’s holding back.’

If so…

He took a coin out of his pocket and handed it to the shopkeeper.

“I won’t do it…”

“Evi, I’m doing it because *I* want to.”

At those words, Evi couldn’t say anything. Since he said he wanted to do it, it wasn’t something she could say anything about.

Clois pulled a few. As such street games go, they were all blanks.

When one chance was left, he spoke to Evi, who was watching him with concentration.

“It seems I have no luck. Why don’t you try pulling once?”

“Me…?”

“Yes. It’s the last time anyway, so go ahead and try.”

Saying that, Clois handed the bundle of strings to Evi.

In fact, while watching him do it, Evi had been watching with her hands tightly clenched as if she were the one pulling.

And she had thought she wanted to try it once herself…

‘This should be fine, right?’

When Evi hesitated and fidgeted with her hands, Clois smiled and urged her lightly.

“Hurry. The next person has to do it too.”

“Ye-yes!”

Evi looked at the bundle of strings held in her hand and then chose one of them with a more serious face than ever.

“Please…”

Clois ended up smiling at the sight of her closing her eyes tight and praying before checking the result, even though she had pretended not to be interested.

Did that prayer reach?

“Congratulations, little lady! It’s a hit!”

The shopkeeper showed the yellow stone that came up at the end of the string Evi pulled, then took a squirrel doll from among the wooden dolls placed on the shop wall and handed it to Evi.

“Oh, this…”

Evi, who was looking at the doll she had pulled as if she couldn’t believe it, held it out to Clois.

“You pulled it, so you should keep it.”

“But!”

“The one I wanted to have was the biggest doll over there.”

Clois replied like that and pointed to the wooden doll in the shape of a person that could only be received by pulling a gold stone.

“I don’t really want to have anything else. If you won’t have it, should I just return it to the shopkeeper?”

At those words, Evi made a tearful face and shook her head.

It was her first time playing such a game. Naturally, it was the first prize she had ever obtained.

If she was allowed to have it, she definitely wanted to take it.

As Clois watched Evi tightly hugging the wooden doll to her chest, he turned around.

“Then shall we go somewhere else?”

The event had just begun. There was still so much more to show her.

Feeling somewhat excited himself, he took brisk steps.

At that moment, a group of people brushed past him in a rush.

When the group, shouting and laughing loudly, had all passed by.

“…!”

Evi, who had been following right behind him, was nowhere to be seen.