Chapter 7

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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“I’ve looked at those who applied, and frankly, there is no one trustworthy. Most of them are people aiming for the banquet of the Gifted Center, where the guardian and child attend together once every half year, or otherwise, they are those aiming for talents who will graduate from the Gifted Center.”

Since it was difficult to enter the Gifted Center, the children who entered were essentially the Empire’s finest talents.

They enjoyed many privileges, and the children themselves were useful in many ways.

That was why the competition to take on a guardian was quite fierce.

“Since she is a child from an orphanage with no particular place to return to after graduation, it is easy to take her to one’s own family if one becomes her guardian. Because of that, there seem to be many greedy humans.”

At the Minister of State’s words, wrinkles formed on Clois’s forehead.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke.

“What about you? How about you becoming the guardian?”

“I already have a child I promised to help long ago if they entered the Gifted Center. It’s the grandson of a friend.”

One cannot become a guardian for two children at once. Moreover, since it was a promised matter, it was also a pity to break that promise.

“Furthermore, if the fact that Your Majesty picked her and I became her guardian becomes known… frankly, I don’t think it would be good for that child.”

Clois agreed with that point.

She was a child who would receive more attention than necessary just from the fact that he had picked her.

On top of that, the Minister of State becomes her guardian? If so, more troublesome things would occur.

“Is there no one else to entrust her to?”

“It’s not that there isn’t, but most of those I could ask have also received requests for guardians.”

“I see.”

It would be troublesome to entrust her to someone he did not know for no reason.

It was also irritating if they acted as if they had done something great just because he entrusted them with such a task.

“You wouldn’t have just come here; is there some other way?”

“Yes. Among the professors registered at the Gifted Center, there is one whom others do not know well. He was a professor registered before the war broke out, but he returned to his hometown when the war started. He was someone with the status of a baronet, but his professorship still remains at the Gifted Center.”

“Then, you’ll make him the guardian?”

“Yes. Since he had no particular interaction with others, no one knows who he is, and it seems it would be fine to organize it appropriately when convenient.”

“What is that professor’s name?”

“He is called Sian Roshen.”

“Understood. I will turn a blind eye, so use that professor’s name for the guardian.”

“Thank you.”

The Minister of State bowed and withdrew.

In fact, the Minister of State could have handled a matter of this level on his own.

However, Clois thought it was just like the upright man to go out of his way to seek permission.

Left alone, he muttered quietly.

“Evi… it is.”

Strangely, that child’s name kept lingering in his mouth.

Furthermore, the illusion of Evbien, which would normally have been seen somewhere in the room, was not visible at all today.

Clois felt a stirring emotion unlike usual and stepped outside.

A secret place inside the imperial palace that he visited on days when he especially missed his wife and daughter.

Clois moved his steps toward that place.

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Evi was walking alone inside the Gifted Center with heavy steps.

She was waiting for the person who would use the opposite room, but the other person did not come to the room easily.

In the meantime, it became time to eat dinner, and Evi changed into the clothes of the Gifted Center, then headed to the dining hall with the book containing the map in her bag.

‘It’s my first book.’

A book with even her name written in it, which only she looked at and touched.

Every time she went to clean at the upper school, she saw the students there carrying their own books.

How envious she was that they had their own books they didn’t have to return.

Evi hugged her bag tightly.

‘I love it so much.’

To think she was this happy from the first day. Surely, this place would be full of good things.

The dining hall she arrived at was noisy.

“No maid to set the meal? Are you saying I have to bring the food myself? Me, the son of a Count?”

A few children were raising their voices, asking how they could bring and eat it themselves.

Against those children, the staff of the Gifted Center were saying that it was the rule here and that they could return home if they could not follow it.

Among them, some children burst into tears, and some got angry.

Evi checked the noisy atmosphere inside and quietly headed to where the food was.

‘It would be better to eat outside. Or return to the room.’

Perhaps for people who would eat somewhere other than the dining hall like Evi, there were sandwiches wrapped in paper and water and drinks in glass bottles.

Evi put them in her bag one by one.

When she came out of the dining hall, she saw the sky covered in orange sunset light.

‘It will get dark soon.’

Even if it was a safe place, it would be difficult to walk around when it got dark.

In Evi’s eyes as she tried to return, the forest at the end of the Gifted Center was visible.

Just as she was about to turn her body, thinking it was a large forest, a soft wind brushed past Evi’s cheek.

At that moment, Evi muttered to herself without realizing it.

“…Mom?”

Then Evi was surprised and covered her mouth.

What did I just say?

Mom?

It was an awkward word. At least, the only time she had said that word aloud recently was when she prayed to please let her pass the entrance to the Gifted Center.

Yet she herself did not know why she suddenly muttered such words.

Even while Evi was standing in confusion, a warm wind brushed past her cheek.

The wind brushed back Evi’s hair as if combing it with a hand.

Was that why? The reason she muttered “Mom” without realizing it.

Evi, who was about to return to the dormitory, moved her steps toward where the wind was blowing as if possessed.

After walking not far, she reached the forest at the end of the Gifted Center.

The wind was blowing from inside the forest.

Is there a large flowering tree inside? The wind blowing past the leaves was full of a fragrant flower scent.

‘How do I get in?’

Normally, she would never have thought of heading to the forest at such a time, and alone at that.

But Evi was looking for a way here and there to enter the forest even while looking at the reddening sky.

The cheek the wind brushed past was ticklish. As if someone had kissed it.

Even though she knew it was because her hair, fluttered by the wind, had touched it, Evi kept touching her cheek with her hand.

At that moment, in Evi’s eyes, who had been looking here and there at the end of the forest for a long time, a path through the bushes that she thought she could enter if she bowed her body appeared.

She remembered the contents of the Gifted Center guidebook she had read before coming out.

It said that animals occasionally came out in the forest at the end of the Gifted Center.

‘Although it said there are no attacking animals since it’s a forest inside the Imperial Palace.’

Evi, who had wandered around the forest near the orphanage with the children, knew.

The fact that even normally gentle herbivores become very fierce when they carry their young in such a spring.

Therefore, it was best not to go on such a path…

While Evi was hesitating and dawdling, the wind blew again.

A thick flower scent brushed past Evi’s hair again.

It was just the wind blowing, but somehow it felt like someone was calling her.

—Evi.

Very affectionately. And sorrowfully.

It was just the sound of the wind, but she could tell.

That this place was not dangerous.

And that someone was waiting for her beyond this forest.

Hesitating, Evi clenched her fists.

The bushes of the forest were opening a path for Evi as if they had been waiting.

* * *

How far had she walked?

“Whoa!”

After passing through the bushes for a long time by almost crawling halfway, she could finally straighten her back.

Even though it was a warm spring, beads of sweat formed on her forehead.

Whoosh.

Just then, the wind blew again and cooled Evi’s sweat.

Evi, who finally took a breather, looked around.

Is it a clearing in the middle of the forest? There was flat ground in the middle, and the surroundings were densely surrounded by trees.

And under the trees, white flowers were blooming in full along with the bushes.

Apparently, the flower scent carried on the wind was the scent of those white flowers.

Then Evi saw a large stone in the middle of the clearing. It was a tombstone.

‘It’s a grave.’

When she was in the orphanage, just passing near the city’s cemetery made her hair stand on end because she was so scared.

Miraculously, even though she realized it was someone’s grave now, she did not feel fear.

“But whose grave is it?”

Evi tried to recall the map she had memorized.

The map on the first page of the book was an internal map of the Gifted Center.

On that map, this place was just written as a forest. And the map ended there.

‘Beyond this must also be the Imperial Palace, but…’

When seen from afar, the tops of large buildings were visible beyond the forest, so it must still be inside the Imperial Palace.

‘But are there graves inside the Imperial Palace too?’

Since it was a very large place, it was not surprising even if there were graves inside.

There were only two tombstones in the clearing.

One was a tombstone about the same height as Evi.

The other was a low tombstone that barely reached Evi’s waist.

Evi cautiously approached the large tombstone.

The tombstone was made of smooth white stone with beautiful carvings. And the name of the owner of the tombstone was engraved in the middle.

Evi first read the name on the large tombstone.

“Lilian Shell.”

It was a name she was hearing for the first time.

Nevertheless, Evi thought it was a very pretty name.

To the extent that she wanted to call it again and again.