CH 9

Claude watched the scene and asked me.

“Noona. What is Auntie doing right now?”

“Oh. It’s just how to make him tell the truth. He won’t tell a lie for a few hours.”

My mother used to interrogate strangers who came to my house this way, and erase the memories of people who had bad intentions. My mother was a doctor, so I wondered what drugs Mom used on others, and I just guessed carefully.

‘Am I really going to become a witch like I wrote in the novel?’

The novel that is no longer published. In that novel, my character was still quite realistic. I was a journalist who graduated from the engineering department.

“Wow, Auntie, you are cool.”

“No, Claude. You can’t do things like that.”

If he does something wrong, he could be involved in a crime and it could become dangerous to him. I blindfolded Claude and took him to his room because I thought it would be good for my little brother.

We lived in a wooden house that was not soundproofed. However, because my mother lowered her voice and spoke very quietly to the big-bellied uncle, I couldn’t hear their conversation very well in the room.

“Noona. I’m curious, can we go to the living room?”

“No, no. Eat this and then brush your teeth before going to bed.”

I was about to light candles put on top of the cake to congratulate my little brother. Then, the stranger’s visit ruined that plan. After eating snacks and bread in the room, drowsiness began to creep up on us.

“Noona, are you asleep yet?”

“Yes, let’s sleep here together tonight.”

The conversation between my mother and the stranger uncle was getting longer. Mother was the strongest person I know. It wouldn’t be a big deal to let her keep chatting with the strange man. Whilst thinking so, I hugged Claude and fell into my dream.

“Haley, wake up. It’s already morning.”

The next day, I woke up to my mother’s voice who woke me up, and I realized my little brother wasn’t on the other side of bed anymore.

“Mother. What about Claude? Is he in the shower?”

When I asked with a big yawn, my mother wore a stunned expression.

“Claude won’t be living with us anymore. He’s going to live with his family now.”

“….”

I was quiet for a moment because of the unexpected remark.

Mom smiled awkwardly and spoke again.

“Do you remember the man who came yesterday? That man said he would take Claude to his biological father.”

What? She said he lost his family in a train accident. Mother was explaining to me that this was a good thing for Claude.

“He’ll also be happier living with his own family.”

The remark quickly made my eyes flicker with panic. When I woke up from the deep slumber, the child I thought of as my own little brother had disappeared. There was no way I could accept this reality right away.

“Then, does it mean we can’t stay with Claude anymore?”

“Yes. It’s only the two of us, Haley. Just like before.”

“What’s the rush?! No, at least give me time to bid my farewell to him. Mother, you should have woken me up.”

The day I became separated from my angelic brother without saying goodbye, I just cried in my room all day. I regretted it, if only I had known we would part this way, I should have been nicer to Claude. Yesterday, I just wasted my time shopping on my own. I shouldn’t have fallen asleep and promised to meet him again later.

I think I’ve become very attached to my little brother over the past two years.

Of course, I was not a child. I couldn’t keep crying and begging my mom to bring my little brother back. Come to think of it, it was better for Claude.

‘We’ll meet again someday if we’re meant to be.’

In the future, if I became the owner of a newspaper office and a famous reporter, my younger brother might come to visit me by chance.

I didn’t ask about my brother’s whereabouts because I was frustrated with my mother. However, I slowly came to believe it. The fact that my mother had discovered Claude’s real family. My mother couldn’t have lied to me about something like this.

* * *

“Wait here for a moment. I’ll bring Claude out.”

When Bella entered the room where the children were sleeping, the two children were sleeping peacefully while holding hands. They were so close to each other. Having lived together for so long, Bella couldn’t believe she had to let them part this way. Bella could already imagine her daughter sobbing as she missed Claude.

Bella kissed the cheek of the sleeping Claude and whispered in the child’s ear.

“Dear. I’ve removed the thorny path that has been laid out in front of you, so I hope you grow up to be a kind man when you two meet again.”

To her, Claude was like an assurance for her daughter. Originally, the child was destined to survive after a train accident and grow up to be an orphan among ordinary people. For an orphan who was supposed to live on the streets, people were cruel, and a child who survived fiercely and cruelly grew into a man who had a bad personality.

Claude’s father, the Honorable Gateron Lischer was the saboteur of Empress Fionia, managed to find the child when he had grown up. Thus, Claude Lischer became a ruthless giant capitalist, causing great damage to the workers in the empire.

That was the original fate of the child.

If possible, Bella did not want to interfere in the fate of other people, except for her own daughter.

The witch held Claude’s body with a wry smile.

“Here. When the child wakes up later, you should explain this yourself.”

“I’ll give you a big surprise at the Duchy. Thank you for protecting the young Duke so far.”

“That is already my duty. Oh, let me give you a hand, just in case something happens on the way.”

The witch, Bella, moved her finger in front of the man’s face. Something that looked like a purple mist appeared between her fingers.

“This… what the hell.”

In the mysterious situation he experienced for the first time in his life, the man was at a loss for words.

‘Is she a witch?’

After the reign of Emperor Royan, witch hunting was officially banned. It was said that witches with little hand skills had become extinct by then, and disappeared on their own. For many years after that, people thought that being a witch was just something that came from the beliefs of foolish old men.

Like this.

Bella snapped her fingers. At the same time, the man’s eyes blinked and the time and space of the man and Claude changed places and they were suddenly placed in the moving carriage. The sun was just rising as it could be seen through the windows of the carriage.

“Oh my!”

Unable to realize what had just happened, the man looked at his hands. On the seat opposite him was the young Duke who was lying down and sleeping peacefully. The man reached out to the young Duke’s face.

Poke.

The plump cheek of Claude Lischer that his fingers touched felt very soft. The child slept peacefully with a cute frown.

“Uh… uhm.”

Claude frowned once and then opened his eyes. It was not the ceiling of the house he was used to see. He blinked a few times, rubbed his eyes with his hands, and gasped in surprise.

“What’s wrong, uh, how are you feeling Your Grace?”

The man sitting opposite him was obviously the man who visited his home before going to bed.

“Oh, forgive me, Young Master. My name is Leon, the servant of the Duke of Lischer.”

“Duke of Lischer?”

Claude felt familiar as if he had heard it somewhere. As the boy tilted his head, Leon added an explanation with a friendly smile.

“For the past two years, the Duke of Lischer has been searching for a missing young man. His Grace has been very worried about him ever since he went missing after the carriage accident with the Duchess.”

“His Grace?”

“Yes. Your father, the Duke of Gateron Lischer. Do you remember him?”

Claude shook his head from side to side. He had lived for the past two years without remembering that he had a good father.

“In that case, are we going to see my father?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Huh. I see.”

The child enjoyed the scenery outside the carriage with an insincere answer. The sun had just begun to rise, and the darkness outside was beginning to lessen.

“In that case, I’ll go back to Haley’s house after meeting with my father, right?”

The man was unable to answer Claude’s innocent remark. If he said no, it seemed that Claude would immediately want to turn back the carriage.

How could he know that? She smiled awkwardly and the end of his words were blurry, and Claude was sure that he would be able to stay with Haley again after hearing that.

After a long train ride, they arrived at the Duke of Lischer’s local estate. Claude’s father, Gateron Lischer, had been waiting in front of the mansion after hearing the news that his son had been found, waiting for his son in the neat attire that could only be worn by the imperial people. The young grand duchess was more elegant and more beautiful than anyone else.

To hide his nervousness, he lit a thick cigar and inhaled it. Then, when he saw the carriage approaching in the distance, the Duke hurriedly threw his cigar to the ground.

After a while, his son got out of the carriage with the assistance of a servant. Black hair and blue eyes that remind people of the sea. He had only grown a little taller over the past two years, and his son’s face remained the same. The grand duke rushed over to them.

“My son!”

Duke Gateron hugged Claude so tightly, and Claude just rolled his eyes. He felt suffocated. However, on the other hand, he felt strange. His father’s scent felt familiar and comfortable. He looked a lot like him.

‘Hey. Will I be like that when I grow up?’

Claude knew that Haley liked handsome men. He clenched his fists, thinking that it would be great if he would grow up to be as dignified and handsome as his father.

Duke Gateron had no idea what the son he had just met after so long was thinking. Gateron Lischer was the only one who shed tears of emotion. He closed his mouth tightly and wiped his eyes with his sleeve for a while. Claude was his only child. His beloved wife who wanted to protect him even until her death.

When he first saw the ruined carriage two years ago, the Duke of Lischer’s heart felt like it stopped beating and breaking into pieces. He couldn’t breathe at all. His wife’s pitiful body was a horrible sight, and his son, whose body could not even be found, did not know where he had bounced off.

The servants tried to console the Duke by saying that it was possible that his son was still alive. However, they would never understand unless they were the one who got affected by the sad accident. Duke Gateron must have been so desperate during that moment.

When he received a letter from his servant saying that he seemed to have found a child who resembled Claude, the duke felt a little relieved. The child who was said to have been found in the capital, however, could not be found for two years. During that time, the duke had to suffer.

Then one day, a mysterious woman came. The duke got a vision about the horse-drawn carriage accident two years ago from a woman. After that, one of the servants finally succeeded in the mission to find the young lord.

The duke carefully examined Claude from head to toe and hugged his son again.

“I missed you so much.”

When the duke was finally rescued from the pain he was suffering. His son suddenly spoke.

“I want to see Haley now. Where is my sister?”

“Haley?”

The duke who knew nothing turned to the servant who brought Claude, asking for an explanation.

“Ah, there is an ordinary family that has been protecting the Young Master for two years. They are a pair of mother and daughter, and I think the daughter’s name is Haley.”

“Yes. That’s right. My Haley is very beautiful. She shines when she smiles, and her hair smells like roses and fragrant.”

Claude was very proud and praised Haley this time. Seeing his son smiling brightly because of the name of an ordinary girl and completely uninterested in his own father whom he had met for the first time after two years, the people who worked in the duke’s manor were also thinking the same thing in their hearts.

There was no point in raising a son.