HCYPBTKIRWO? Chapter 10

“Lunabelle Blaine, where are you going?”

Elliott silently followed Luna as she grabbed Luca's hand and walked out of the dining room door without answering.

She didn’t know how many times he repeated their parents' advice to avoid making a loud noise as she walked down the hallway.

"Get out! I don't want to see you! You rotted the cake!"

“Hey, the cake…”

Luna dragged Luca to their room.

Elliott stood by the doorway with his arms crossed, watching the children building their own fortress with pillows and cushions, and warned them.

“You guys won’t have dinner today as a punishment for being rude.”

It was like a prize for children who did not like to eat. Elliott then added after realizing it only after Luna made fun of him by pulling out her tongue.

“You won’t even have chocolate for a month.”

"I don't need any chocolate!"

“Ugh… Seriously...”

Wasn't that also a punishment? Elliott rested his forehead on his hand in agony as Luca looked up at Luna with a puzzled face.

“Bring our nanny!”

“You kicked her out.”

There was a new nanny who had been hard to find from the other side of the empire. After successfully raising even the most infamous children and persuading a retired woman several times, he finally brought her in...

“It is a wonderful opportunity to look back on almost all my life as a nanny, Archduke.”

Afterwards, the nanny left the duke's residence after a week.

“I mean bring Hazel, not that nanny!”

As Luna chanted those words every day, Elliott asked the same question every day.

“What the hell did the witch do?”

These are children who hated nannies as if they were enemies of their parents.

When Luna learned the difficult word for a spy, she even called the nanny 'The Archduke's spy'.

Luca jumped up from his bed and pushed Elliott, and he tapped his hand.

'Did they get beaten?'

The maids said there were no bruises or wounds on the children's bodies. He asked for more details, but the children only said what they had to say.

“You need to rest.”

"Hazel doesn't nag like brother does."

Comparing the evil witch to her real brother, Elliott's brow wrinkled.

“And Hazel abducted you by luring you into the sweets house. And that’s something I don’t do.”

"No! Don't you dare frame Hazel!"

"That's right. Don’t do it.”

At this point, the suspicion deepened that there really had been brainwashing or manipulation magic used by the witch.

“Then how can you explain that you, who are smart, didn’t know that the witch lived in the Black Forest, and you even went to visit on your own feet?”

"That's because there was a sweet confectionery shop."

"What?"

“I went because I was hungry.”

“So, you went to the man-eating witch’s house even though you knew it was a trap."

That's stupid. Elliott was stunned and clicked his tongue briefly.

"Look."

Luna stood up and swung her arms out wide.

“Have I been torn anywhere? Huh? Did Hazel eat us?"

It was a moment when Elliott took a deep breath. Luca crawled down from his bed and ran to shake Elliott’s leg.

“Send furniture to Hazel. She deserves it too."

“No, Luca.”

“Every day… We couldn’t do what we wanted."

The moment Luna said that, Elliott clenched his teeth.

'Do you think that I live only doing what I want to do?'

After their parents died, he gave up his dream and had to do things he didn't want to do.

It was only for these kids.

It was a difficult and bad story for children.

Elliott took a deep breath to swallow his trembling emotions.

He was an adult and the guardian of these children. He was their only protector. Then, Luna repeated the same words.

"Go away!"

When he went on an expedition where the children ran away, he didn't even want to go in the beginning. The whole time he was there, he was thinking of those kids.

Luna's sharp words became a dagger and pierced Elliott's heart. It was not easy even if he tried to be resolute as an adult, like the child said a while ago.

Anger can be cooled easily, but wounds take time to heal.

He was their older brother, the elder, and as the head of the Duke, he was the only one who would protect those children.

Recalling his duty once more, Elliott straightened his wrinkled brow and smiled as if nothing had happened.

"If you go away again, I'll put the soldiers in front of the witch's house."

Luna stared at him with a stern expression and held out her hand.

“Luca, come here.”

Luca looked at his older brother and sister, and he eventually ran to his older sister.

Elliott's purple eyes were filled with tiredness as he watched the children build a wall with their pillows and cushions between him again.

'Hard.'

Raising his younger siblings was more difficult than governing the territory, avoiding the threat of assassination, or rolling around on the battlefield where a single mistake could be the difference between life and death.

***

If you live alone, you get in the habit of talking to yourself a lot.

“Lunabelle, Lucas. They’re pretty names."

I muttered to myself as I engraved the children's names on the corners of the handkerchiefs.

“Then why did you only tell me your nicknames?”

I was quite upset.

The handkerchief was a gift. I was going to finish it today and send it to you...

I threw my gaze out the window. Thick raindrops pounded on the window carelessly.

I put the handkerchiefs on the table and laid down on the sofa. Daisy, who was sitting on my lap, moved and dug into my arms.

[When are the kids coming?]

"Well…”

Daisy still did not lose hope that the children would return. It was a pity that every day Daisy sat in front of the hut fence, staring at the place where the children had disappeared.

When I was a child, I sat in front of the door and waited for my mother to return.

The figures overlapped for a moment. Actually, a few days ago, I sent Daisy to check up on them.

I was relieved to hear that they had a lot of food, a large mansion, and the children were well.

But it looks like Daisy will never see the children again.

The man who took the cake recognized Daisy and kicked her out. She said she went back the next day, but was found again and kicked out.

I stared out the gloomy window with my unfocused eyes. The confectionery house had a hole in it, but it has been a while since it was not repaired.

“Oh, I’m lonely.”

Every time I said I was lonely, Lady was quiet.

I was just lying on my back. Lady also looked depressed, unlike her usual arrogant one.

[Oh, put that away. Please stop picking up weird things.]

At first, she pretended to be annoyed by the children, but it seems that the Lady was actually kind.

“It’s scary, really.”

[Adopt them.]

Lady, who had been keeping her mouth shut for hours, finally opened her mouth.

“Who is going to let a witch adopt children?”

[Say she's not a witch.]

“It’s a bit…"

The three of us gathered together on the sofa and let out a long sigh.

"Are they doing well? They haven't forgotten me already, have they?"

Originally, the more lonely I was, the more energetic I was. But this time, for some reason, the more I moved, the more depressed I became.

A few days ago, there were no children to feed, so before the meat went bad, it was made into sausages or smoked ham.

Thinking of the children made me shudder. I lied that I cried because of the smoke, but both Lady and Daisy knew the truth.

Come to think of it, even my favorite carrot cake hasn't been baked since the kids left.

“Now I can’t eat carrots…

***

‘Father, mother. Why did you leave me with this ordeal?'

Elliott sighed deeply as he looked up at the gigantic portrait that occupied a wall in his office.

The parents who received the complaint disguised as a question were surrounded by three children in the picture, smiling full of happiness.

By the time this portrait was painted, Luca had barely begun to walk. Unlike now, Luna followed Elliott all the time.

It was a happy time for him. He didn't know then that it was a happiness that will never come again.

When his gaze turned to his younger and brighter face, Elliott turned his head away.

Who was to blame?

He had to blame himself for his lack of parenting, because the 'Little Demons of the Archduke' were adorable angels when their parents were still alive.

As soon as he sat down at his desk with a heavy heart, someone knocked on the door.

"Come in."

As expected, the door opened and his lieutenant Daniel entered. However, the news Daniel delivered was beyond Elliott's expectations.