103 – Heist – 1
“Brother! Are you going to come over next vacation?”
Louis grabbed the hem of my clothes. I stroked Louie’s hair roughly. Louie followed me exceptionally, and I treated him like a younger brother with a big age gap. It was a short time, but I got a little affection for it.
“Maybe?”
I evaded the answer appropriately. I don’t think it’s a little too much, but I haven’t even thought about plans for the next vacation yet. Louis showed a look of disappointment at the answer that was neither one nor the other. My conscience is pricked, but this is better than not being able to come after answering that I must come here.
When you were young, the feeling of despair when you go to work alone, when your father, who used to go out to play this weekend, suddenly said that something happened. The bigger the expectation, the bigger the disappointment.
At the moment when she was trying hard to ignore Louis’ earnest eyes, someone came over and squatted down in front of her, making eye contact with Louis.
“Yes, I will definitely come to play.”
“Hestia?!”
It was Hestia who straightened Louis’ sullen expression. She threw her eyes at me, wondering what she was complaining about.
“Why? Did you really mean not to come in winter?”
“No, that’s not it….”
“Then no problem.”
There is no problem with that, but…. I had nothing to say in response. I feel like I’m worrying about something that hasn’t even happened. I put aside all the fuss and promised Louis that I would definitely come over during winter break. Hestia finally put on a satisfied expression.
“hahahaha! I will live very tightly.”
“I will.”
Nilvas, who was watching the situation from the side, smiled and said a word. It’s not like fanning a house on fire.
I know that I am weak against Hestia. Usually, Hestia is always conceding and considerate, but sometimes there is no compromise in strange places. Thanks to that, when Hestia smiled like that and asked for a favor, she couldn’t possibly refuse.
“Is it over soon?”
“I didn’t have as much luggage as I thought.”
At my words, Hestia shrugged her shoulders. She was pretty dapper even with her luggage. Seol-ah and Cordelia were still unpacking their belongings.
Today is the day when life in the county of Gracia, which was long and short, ends. Thanks to that, everyone was busy moving since morning. In the first place, I, who had very little to say as a burden, and Nilvas and Louie, who were planning to stay here a little longer, were the exceptions.
After getting ready early, I greeted the people of the count family whom I had been familiar with for a week in the lobby. While trying to comfort Louis, who was saddened by the news that she was leaving today, Hestia, who was the first to prepare for her departure, came down to the lobby.
“Ready!”
“What, am I the last one?”
Not long after, Seol-ah and Cordelia also came down to the lobby. The preparations are all over, and now it’s time to go to the grand duke’s house. It’s a strange feeling to be bland.
–
“Mikhail! It’s been a while. I was surprised to hear that you brought a friend.”
“Um.”
The Grand Duchess, my biological mother, greeted us with her fuss. The Grand Duke was also with him. What a lovely couple.
In the face of the Grand Duchess, when she came out to greet her guests herself, the fact that her son had returned made her seem more happy to bring her friends than she was to herself. The Grand Duke was still taciturn, but even he raised the corners of his mouth very slightly, as if he was satisfied with the fact that I had brought a friend back home during vacation.
“I told you to make some friends, but to be honest, I didn’t expect much, but I even invited you to my house like this. This mother is very happy.”
She was welling up with tears. She wiped the corners of her eyes with her slender fingers. No matter how much it is, it’s a child, but I didn’t even expect it, isn’t it too honest. She greeted each member of the group by holding their hands.
“This is Miss Cordelia, and this is Miss Lily, right? Nice to meet you. Both of you think it’s your own home and rest comfortably.”
“Yes? Yes….”
“Miss Hestia, our ugly son is always beholden to you.”
“No, I am Mikhail’s… , No, I am indebted to my son. Please take care of me.”
When they reached Hestia, they bowed their heads to each other. Then, the moment my name came out of Hestia’s mouth, the Grand Duchess’s eyes flashed.
After completing her brief (as far as the Grand Duchess’s point of view) greetings, she called me.
“Son, can we talk?”
“Yes?”
“Follow me.”
Before I could answer, the Grand Duchess dragged me into the drawing room. Eventually, after making everyone else around me back down, I sat down. She asked me directly and without hesitation.
“What the hell happened with Miss Hestia?”
“What happened?”
“You say that now?! Do you have any idea how worried this mother was?”
The Grand Duchess was instantly taken aback by my dry reaction. As she herself said, she must have been quite anxious about the relationship between me and Hestia.
But she quickly calmed her excitement and returned to her calm demeanor.
“I didn’t say anything because I felt like I was interfering, but you don’t know how much I was really nervous because it seemed like we didn’t get along very well.”
“Me and Hestia are always….”
“Don’t tell me it was always good. How many times do you think I’ve seen the two of them not talking a word, and in the end Hestia-san went home as soon as she finished drinking tea?”
The attitude was calm, but the contents were not calm. The Grand Duchess immediately crushed my evasive evasion.
Anyway, the excuses don’t seem to work. To be honest, her interest in my relationship with Hestia was quite a burden to me. Although she is a mother, to me she is just a bit more beautiful and far-fetched than her broad-minded aunt. Even more so, even if you are a real mother, it is burdensome for you to be interested in my love history.
Of course she is a very nice person and a good mother who loves her son very much. She can tell even though they haven’t been together that long. But she couldn’t help but feel the pressure.
Still, it’s strange to draw the line as a personal love story since it’s a family engagement, and it’s true that it caused concern. I made up my mind to answer all questions straight away. However, I couldn’t help the content become dull.
“I apologized.”
“Did Miss Hestia accept that?”
“Yes, what.”
The Grand Duchess put on a tired expression at my short answer. As if she had nothing more to say, she waited for her to open her mouth, but I kept hers shut. What more do you mean here?
“Is that it?”
“Yes.”
“What do you like about this guy….”
I heard something muttering, but I pretended not to hear it. Perhaps it was because I gave off the impression that I did not want to discuss this topic any further, the Grand Duchess shook her head as if she had given up on it and asked me to.
“… Be nice to Miss Hestia.”
“I am doing my best.”
“Since when did you become so blunt? I wasn’t like this when I was younger.”
While listening to nagging in one ear and letting it out in the other, I heard something I couldn’t just pass away. It wasn’t like this when I was young, it’s a story that contradicts what I heard from Seol-ah.
The original Mikhail she explained to me is a clichéd character who meets Lily and realizes that this is her first feeling. Of course, there was no talk of being active when I was young. If he was active when he was young in the first place, it would contradict the core element of his character, which is that he realizes his emotions while meeting Lily, so it is natural.
Anyway, the important thing here is that the childhood of Mikhail described by the Grand Duchess and the childhood of Seol-ah explained to me are different. Of course, as I have said many times, the world is based on the world in the novel, but it is a completely different world and not everything flows the same way. However, that was because Seol-ah and I showed a different path from the original. When Mikhail is a child, it is the time when Seol-ah and I are living our lives on Earth.
I decided to ask the Grand Duchess a little more about my childhood.
“What do you mean I wasn’t like this when I was younger?”
“Don’t you remember when you were little?”
I can’t even remember what happened last year, let alone when I was young. Exactly, I can’t remember. I shook my head.
Then the Grand Duchess began to recount stories of Mikhail’s childhood with excitement. The image of Mikhail she described as a child was very different from what I had imagined of Mikhail.
“No matter what he did, he was full of enthusiasm and was very far away. Not very childlike.”
It’s hard to react. I just let out a hollow laugh. I couldn’t figure out what to do with the girl who believed me to be her son.
“You don’t know how much you tried to learn magic when you were young. In the end, I was told to give up because the teacher who called me with expensive money had no talent at all.”
She sat me down and endlessly poured out the past episodes of Mikhail, as if she had been soaked in the past memories she had heard after a long time.
As her story continued, the seat became more and more uncomfortable. Memories of the Grand Duchess made me face the fact that I had been ignoring with my head turned.
From nob le mt l dot com
Maybe I took away Mikhail’s life.
I have felt this kind of guilt or debt before. But it was the first time I had felt those emotions so intensely.
The previous feelings of guilt and debt were solely due to my own conscience. Of all the people I have ever met and had a relationship with, very few have had a direct connection with the former Mikhail. And among them, Mikhail’s father and mother are probably the only ones who have a good memory with Mikhail from the past. I have spent the past half year in an environment where there is absolutely no need to recall the past.
But now? The Grand Duchess, who was excited about recalling memories, was not thinking of me. The son she loves is not me. It’s not me she shares those memories with her. It’s michael
I am not Mikhail. He only wears Mikhail’s skin, but he is a different person. The doubt that I had stolen Mikhail’s life soon became a certainty and pressed my heart.
I took Mikhail’s life.
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