Chapter 9

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Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
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Then, the moment she realized the man’s eyes were red, Evi spoke without realizing it.

“Did you cry?”

At Evi’s words, the man flinched and slowly stood up.

‘He’s big.’

The strange man was tall.

He was not as big as the sailors who occasionally came to help at the orphanage, but Evi felt an even greater sense of intimidation than then.

However, she was not afraid.

Evi, who was staring blankly at the man, remembered that the corners of his eyes were red.

Evi knew when eyes became like that. When one wants to cry so much because they are so sad, but they must hold back that crying.

While holding the flower bouquet in one hand, Evi fumbled through her pocket.

‘I have it!’

Inside her pocket was the handkerchief she had received today along with her clothes.

Not only was it clean without a single stain, but the crest of the Gifted Center was embroidered in one corner. Just looking at it made her feel good, so she had folded it neatly and put it inside her pocket.

A new one she had never used yet.

Even though she had put it deep inside her pocket on purpose for fear it might get touched, Evi handed it to the man without hesitation.

“…….”

“…….”

However, the man looked at the handkerchief Evi held out without saying anything.

So Evi eventually had to open her mouth first.

“Use this.”

“…….”

Even though she told him to use it, the man still did not move and just stared.

So Evi opened her mouth again.

“It’s something I newly received today. It’s clean!”

Long ago, when she was doing cleaning work at the upper school, someone had fallen.

At that time, Evi had the handkerchief the director had made for her and quickly took it out, trying to wipe the place where it was bleeding.

However, the other person struck away the handkerchief Evi held out, asking where she was holding out something dirty from the orphanage.

Evi, who remembered that time, quickly said again.

“I really haven’t used it even once…”

A large hand grabbed the handkerchief Evi held out.

Was it because it was such a large hand? Not only the handkerchief but also Evi’s hand was caught in that large hand at once.

Then, he soon carefully took the handkerchief from Evi’s hand.

Evi felt that the body temperature of the man remaining on her hand was warm, so she opened and closed her empty hand for no reason.

“Thank you.”

The man replied briefly in a blunt voice.

At first listen, it might sound as if he were angry, but Evi was not afraid.

The man took the handkerchief, but he did not wipe the corners of his eyes.

Instead, he looked alternately at the handkerchief and Evi, then asked.

“By the way, who are you?”

Clois was feeling absurdity while looking at the small handkerchief held in his hand.

He wondered who the bold person who had snuck into this place was, but to think it was such a young child.

Clois, who had thought she was about five or six years old at first glance, realized that what the child was wearing was the uniform of the Gifted Center.

If so, it meant she was at least seven years old.

The moment he realized that fact, Clois almost clicked his tongue.

Even if she was seven years old, the child was too small.

Unless it was a disease, it meant she had not been able to eat very well.

He wondered if there was a disease, but the eyes looking at him were clear and twinkling, and her movements did not seem uncomfortable either.

‘Who on earth are her parents?’

Clois cursed the parents of the child he was seeing for the first time in his heart and examined the child.

‘But how is a child of the Gifted Center here?’

There is no path to enter this side from the Gifted Center.

If one tried to enter through the forest, they would have to push through thick bushes for a long time, but the child’s clothes were clean to say she had entered that way.

Furthermore, why was a child he was seeing for the first time placing flowers on Lilian’s grave?

Just then, the child blinked her eyes and replied with a bright smile.

“I am Evi Alden.”

Clois stared blankly at Evi.

While always seeing the illusion of Evbien with a faint face, he had imagined how that child would smile and how she would speak if she were alive.

However, even seeing the appearance of other girls of similar age, it was strangely difficult to imagine Evbien’s appearance easily.

But the moment he saw this child’s smile now, Clois was certain.

If Evbien were alive, wouldn’t she have smiled like this?

Then soon, he ended up chuckling at his own thoughts.

If that child were alive, she would have grown up receiving all love and affection as the only imperial princess of this Empire.

And yet, to imagine Evbien’s appearance in such a small and thin child.

Then Clois realized that the name the child spoke was a name he remembered.

Evi Alden.

The child from the orphanage whom he had picked in a fit of temper.

Clois, who realized why the child was especially small and thin and why she was flustered when he did not take the handkerchief, saying it was not something dirty, tightly clutched the handkerchief Evi gave him.

Then Evi spoke.

“But who are you, Mister?”

At the title he was hearing for the first time in his life, Clois was suddenly at a loss for words.

Mister?

Then he realized that before he came out, he had left behind his outer garment with decorations inside the imperial palace.

To the child’s eyes, he would seem like an employee of the imperial palace wearing an ordinary shirt and pants.

Of course, if seen closely, one could tell his clothes were much higher quality than those of others, but it would not be easy to realize he was the Emperor with just that.

‘Of course, I have no intention of saying I am the Emperor.’

Regardless of whether she believed it or not, he was trying to ask how she came all the way here from the Gifted Center, but he thought it would be difficult to hear a proper answer if she was surprised by him saying he was the Emperor right away.

Then Evi asked again.

“Are you someone who works at the Gifted Center, Mister?”

Clois, who was worrying about what to call himself, had a name flash through his mind the moment he heard Evi’s words.

Sian Roshen.

The professor the Minister of State mentioned, who is not at the Academy now. Clois decided to borrow his name for a moment.

“I am called Sian Roshen. I am a professor of the Gifted Center.”

At the words that he was a professor of the Gifted Center, Evi’s face brightened. Even though he was a professor, the fact that he was a person of the same Gifted Center seemed to give her a sense of relief.

Just then, the sound of a large bell was heard from afar.

At that sound, Evi was surprised and turned her head.

In the Gifted Center guidebook, it said that a bell announcing the curfew would ring.

When that sound was heard, the students of the Gifted Center had to return to the dormitory no matter where they were or what they were doing.

“Oh, I’ll go now! I have to return!”

Evi handed the flower bouquet she was holding to Clois and hurriedly picked up her bag she had placed on the ground.

After picking up her bag in a hurry, Evi, who gave a polite bow to Clois as written in the guidebook, scurried away along the path through the bushes she had come from.

Clois, who received the flower bouquet Evi handed over, stared blankly at that sight.

Was there such a road over there?

When he came to his senses and tried to call Evi again, the child, who was quickly disappearing, turned her body and waved with a smile.

“I’ll see you again next time!”

The moment he saw Evi trying to go, Clois felt a pain as if a corner of his heart were being stabbed.

I must hold her.

Clois’s instinct was shouting like that. To not let her go. To bring her to his side quickly.

However, his reason, which had lived as an Emperor for a long time, quickly blocked his instinct.

Bringing her, what would he do?

She was a child who had just entered the imperial palace today.

Moreover, she was a child who was still young and thought Clois was just a professor of the Gifted Center.

If he brought her back now, wouldn’t she be terrified by surprise?

While he was hesitating, the child disappeared into the bushes in an instant.

“…….”

Clois recalled Evi’s face as she had just smiled and waved to him.

What would happen if that child knew he was the Emperor and knew this place was a place where others were prohibited from entering?

She is a child whose head is good enough to enter the Gifted Center.

She would soon realize how great a crime of lèse-majesté she had committed.

Then would she be able to smile and greet him like a moment ago?

Clois’s gaze, which had been looking at the path in the bushes Evi used, moved toward the flower bouquet held in his hand.

It was a bouquet that was as crude as the wreath on Lilian’s grave but organized with sincerity.

Perhaps she had intended to place this on Evbien’s grave.

But eventually, he had ended up receiving it.

“Phew…….”

Clois let out a long sigh and sat down with a thud in front of the two graves.

Normally, dry grass leaves would be rolling around here and there, but the tops of the tombstones and the graves were clean without even one such thing.

It was clear that Evi had cleaned them.

‘Does she even know whose graves these are?’