The next day, Deborah went to the back alley. Except for encountering a few servants from nearby mansions a couple of times, she couldn’t meet the boy.

‘I felt his gaze, and the place I went to check had only cats.’

It seemed that the boy wouldn’t come to Deborah after all.

Nevertheless, Deborah, who couldn’t give up, went to the back alley whenever she had time, fueled by a sense of uncertainty.
However, until the colleagues who had gone to the hometown returned, Deborah couldn’t meet the boy.

‘I shouldn’t have touched his hat for no reason…’

Deborah repeatedly chastised herself with useless regrets.

“Deborah! Come here for a moment.”

Just as Deborah was walking along the corridor in front of the kitchen, the head chef called her.

Trotting over to the kitchen, Deborah was shown a basket filled with bread, and the head chef explained,

“I gathered the remaining bread lately. It’s a real disposal challenge.”

“Then, why don’t we share it with everyone?”

The head chef shook his head anxiously.

“No. If the master knows there’s leftover bread, he’ll make a fuss about improper stock management. He doesn’t really understand the kitchen’s ecosystem. After all, food is either excess or lacking, one of the two!”

Watching the excited head chef, Deborah chuckled softly.

“But you can’t just secretly throw away the precious food…”

Extending the conversation, the head chef made an unfortunate face like a rain-soaked cat.

“Sorry, but can you handle it, Deborah?”

“It seems like I’ll get caught right away…”

“Oh. I’m not asking you to keep it an absolute secret. Just handle it quietly if possible.”

At the head chef’s earnest request, Deborah reluctantly took the bread basket and went outside the mansion.

Fortunately, no one crossed her path, but she still wondered what to do with it.

‘I can’t sell it…’

Just then, noise came from the alley.

Approaching quietly, she saw small children standing at the back gate of another mansion, and a maid was standing with her forehead pressed.

“Why are you guys causing trouble only in our mansion? Is it easy here?”

“N-no, it’s not like that.”

“Forget it. You have nothing to do with our mansion, so try knocking on the door of a more magnificent mansion! If you’re confident, that is!”

The maid who shouted abruptly closed the door, and the children stood frozen like rocks. The sobbing sounds echoed in the alley.

“Hey, kids.”

Deborah called the children softly. Surprised, the children approached Deborah, who smiled awkwardly and patted them on the head.

The children, who were initially shocked, eventually gathered courage and approached Deborah. Showing them the bread basket, Deborah said,

“These are leftovers from the mansion. Would you like to take them? There’s no problem with eating them.”

“R-really?”

The children asked in surprise. Deborah nodded.

“Yeah. And if it’s okay, can you come here around this time occasionally? Even if not every day, sometimes would be fine.”

“Thank you! Miss, you’re an angel!”

The smallest child among them smiled with a face wet with tears. Deborah ruffled the child’s hair and lowered her head.

“No, I’m just an ordinary person, not much different from that person just now.”

The children looked at Deborah with eyes that couldn’t understand her words.

Looking at the children with an affectionate gaze, Deborah said, “You guys are so cute.”
“It’s just that God loved you, so He used me.”

Deborah handed all the bread to the children in this way. The children looked back at Deborah several times and ran away.

Deborah waved her hand until the children disappeared from view.

“Hi.”

Stretching after waking up, Deborah was about to return to the mansion. However, she felt a presence from the opposite corner.

Deborah remembered the cat she had met before. It was a small and slender cat with beautiful golden eyes.

“Meow?”

Deborah laughed brightly and extended her head beyond the corner.

But there, instead of a small cat, a boy, larger than the cat, stood with a surprised face.

“Y-You scared me!”

The boy shouted, covering his reddened face with his arm. Deborah quickly folded her surprised eyes and smiled.

“It’s been a while! How have you been? How are your wounds? Are you all better now?”

Deborah asked warmly, as if meeting a long-lost friend.

Under her radiant smile like sunshine, the boy’s crumpled face slowly unfolded.

Somewhere in his body, the boy was in pain, as if he had collided with something. At that time, the boy had no understanding of why his body hurt so much, but later on, he would come to realize exactly why he acted that way.

It was love.

The sensation, tingling and painful throughout his body, was love.