Could this child be the one I was looking for? The thought grazed my mind but only for a moment.

I couldn’t remember the exact face of Ted’s younger brother as depicted in the original, but there was one clear fact.

‘The reunion scene of Ted and his brother was moving. Ted’s brother waited for his older brother the whole time. That means he knew he had a brother.’

The impoverished young boy, Ted, loses all his family, left only with his brother. He leaves his brother on the street for a moment to find food.

It was his mistake.

Ted’s brother gets lost and disappears into the crowd.

‘But blue eyes are not common…’

While I was thinking, the child stopped walking. I paused momentarily at the ruins of a stone rolling in front of me.

“We are here.”

I lifted my gaze to look at the nursery in front of me. It was a narrow, monstrous ruin, even from this distance.

“A scary place…”

As the maids had said, the nursery was so terrifying that it made one’s legs tremble just looking at it.

The halfcollapsed large stone building was little more than rubble barely protecting from the rain.

I hesitantly asked.

“Are there… still children living in this nursery?”

“It closed. The children scattered in all directions.”

“Oh, I see…”

“You seem to be looking for a child.”

“Yes, indeed!”

At this point, everything is back to square one.

The boy who was looking at me clenched his basket tightly and whispered softly.

“I see.”

Looking at the boy, who somehow seemed lonely, I felt sorry for him.

From my own similar experiences, I knew that offering sweets instead of hasty consolation works best in such times.

“Do you want to eat this?”

I took a few candies from my pocket and held them out. The boy’s eyes widened and he let out a clear laugh as if he had let his guard down.

“Thank you.”

The boy, whose face was unusually white amidst the black, looked happy for the first time today as he eagerly bit into the candy. As the atmosphere quieted down, as if he needed to say something, the boy carefully spoke to the maids.

“When you… uh… were talking back to those thugs earlier, you were really cool.”

“It’s nothing.”

Even as they said it was nothing, I glanced at the maids whose shoulders had risen slightly and then back at the boy.

My heart ached for some reason.

A child who was abandoned by his family, living alone in this ruin.

Anyone who saw such a child would want to extend a helping hand.

So, I have to help a little more.

It’s not like I would lose anything by helping anyway.

“Miss.”

“Yes, Miss Cien.”

I opened my eyes wide and spoke.

“Can we take this child with us too?”

Perhaps, he could help find the brother of the knight who lived in the nursery.

“What?”

The boy’s eyes widened.

Looking at him, who was like a spotted cat, I gave a small smile.

“It’s lonely being alone, right?”

“What?”

At the word “loneliness”, the boy’s eyes swayed like a ship hit by a storm.

Staring into his eyes, I figured this boy must have been battling loneliness for a long time.

While I grinned, folding my eyes playfully, I blurted out the next words.

“Well, I mean, weren’t you bored?”

“Well… uh… I was okay.”

“Come with me!”

This child who lived in the nursery could provide the knight with clues about his brother.

‘If the child wants, I could hire him as a young servant in the Mirmode family.’

I smiled at the child.

The small nameless child who had been living alone in the nursery.

“Yes. If I can be… be of any help.”

He blinked his eyelids as he put his hands behind his back. There was a faint hint of joy as his lips curved ambiguously upwards.
However, there was a slight awkwardness in his words. I firmly shook my head at him.

“Even if it doesn’t help, it’s okay!”

“……Yes? But……. ”

“Anyway, children should be happy!”

“Happiness……. ”

The child seemed awkward smiling, bowed his head deeply, and nodded.

Then he carefully approached me.

As he moved, a hollow sound was heard as the basket bumped into his leg.

“I will give you a lot of delicious things!”

With those words, I saw a hint of a smile on the boy’s face.

So we happily set out to the front of Felrod Street. Thanks to the maids dealing with the bullies, we were able to get out to the street comfortably.

‘The time I promised with the knight is almost up.’

Before the end of the hunting competition, he and I had promised to meet ‘tomorrow at three o’clock in the afternoon, in front of Felrod Street’.

And now it’s two fifty in the afternoon.

The maid, who had been looking afar down the street, opened her mouth with her eyes squinted.

“Do you think the man on that horse is the knight?”

“The knight……. ”

The boy muttered in a trembling voice. I looked up at him and asked cautiously.

“Why? Do you know?”

“Yes. They’re amazing, aren’t they? I… I wanted to become a knight.”

The dream of children in the slums is usually to escape the slums.

Although the boy’s dream seemed unusual, I did not challenge it, but nodded.

“I hope you can achieve it.”

With that, Ted’s horse stopped right in front of the street.