“How on earth did you end up here?”

“Well…”

Joy began to tell her story, barely holding back tears.

It happened on her way home from school.

Joy, who was able to attend school thanks to the help of the Grand Duchess despite lacking tuition fees, was on her way back to the orphanage after another day of diligent study.

Taking a shortcut from the school to the orphanage, Joy was quickly passing through a deserted alley. That’s when someone called out to her.

“Child!”

“Yes?”

In a gloomy corner of the alley sat a woman with long, loose hair, looking weak and slumped.

“Could you help me? I seem to have injured my leg and can’t get up…”

“Ah…”

Joy hesitated for a moment at the stranger’s words but cautiously approached. She remembered the Mother Superior’s words that one should always help those in need.

“Are you perhaps from the Maris Orphanage around here?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Joy nodded and extended her hand as the woman looked her over and asked.

“Are you alright? Here, take my hand.”

“What a kind child. …Unfortunately.”

“Pardon? Ah…!”

The woman grabbed Joy’s outstretched hand and suddenly pulled her close. Then she covered Joy’s mouth with a cloth in her other hand.

“Mmph!”

“You shouldn’t trust people so easily, child. Especially orphans like you.”

The woman whispered coldly as she caught Joy’s collapsing body.

The last thing Joy remembered before losing consciousness was the woman throwing off the wig she had been wearing as if it were a nuisance.

“…And when I opened my eyes again, I was here.”

It was terrifying when she regained consciousness, bound in an unfamiliar space. Moreover, seeing other girls who seemed to have been captured like her made it even more frightening.

One girl told her that everyone here would soon be sold off. Shocked by those words, Joy struggled to free herself from her bindings. Then that girl spoke with a resigned face.

“Give up. You don’t have parents either, right? No one in this world will look for us. Besides, even someone who seems to be of high status was captured over there.”

“High status?”

Joy was startled to see the figure of a woman collapsed in the corner. Even in the dim interior, her hair shone like smooth honey. Joy had only seen someone with such beautiful hair once before in her life.

‘Could it be…?’

Joy dragged her bound body closer to the woman. Then an angelic, beautiful face came into clear view.

“…I found Her Grace the Grand Duchess collapsed.”

“I see…”

Aidel slightly furrowed her brow at the pain that pierced her chest. As expected, Joy too had fallen into the trap and been captured without knowing anything.

It pained her heart to see unfamiliar girls captured, but perhaps because she had a connection with this child, an even greater sadness seemed to weigh on her.

Moreover, among the captured girls, Joy was the youngest. She wanted to hold and comfort the small child, but in her bound state, she couldn’t even do that.

Aidel looked at Joy with sorrowful eyes, then clenched her bound hands tightly.

‘At least this child…’

No matter what, she would make sure this child got out of here.

Aidel’s eyes shone resolutely in the dark warehouse that held her and the girls captive.

‘I must stay calm.’

Using Joy’s story as a clue, Aidel began to calmly assess the situation again.

‘If Joy was captured on her way home from school, we must have already arrived in Maris.’

They were supposed to take a ship from Maris to Marquis Chalet’s territory, so all that remained was to be transferred to the ship. Once on board, there would be even less hope of escape.

Moreover, as the main trade target, it would likely be difficult for her to escape from this place.

‘But Joy might…’

Having made up her mind, Aidel gazed at Joy with calm eyes.

“Joy, listen carefully.”

.

.

.

It was when Aidel was looking at Joy’s sleeping face beside her. The closed warehouse door opened and Dylan walked in. As he carelessly tossed in food rations and turned to leave, Aidel stopped him.

“This child, did you bring her?”

Dylan glanced at the small child lying next to Aidel. She was a girl he had captured after arriving in Maris.

“You have a lot of useless curiosity. What if I did?”

“Did you have to deceive such a young child to bring her here?”

“…It’s the child’s fault for being foolish enough to be deceived.”

Dylan retorted irritably, his expression darkening at Aidel’s pointed question.

Even Dylan felt uneasy about deceiving and capturing such a young girl. There were many restrictions on kidnapping orphans who wouldn’t be missed if they disappeared. The child had been chosen out of necessity to meet the quota within the limited time.

“This child is from the Maris Cathedral Orphanage.”

The fact that she was a parentless child entrusted to an orphanage was something he had already confirmed before the abduction. He had deliberately kidnapped her from the path leading to the orphanage.

“So what?”

As Dylan replied nonchalantly, Aidel continued speaking slowly.

“The Maris Cathedral Orphanage takes in and cares for children abandoned by unwed mothers.”

“…!”

Dylan’s body flinched at the mention of a child abandoned by an unwed mother.

“She’s a child abandoned right after birth. Moreover, due to the circumstances of her birth, people’s gazes toward this child were always cold. She didn’t even receive proper support.”

Dylan looked at Joy again. The sight of Joy sleeping curled up as if protecting herself reminded Dylan of someone from his past.

“Although she lacked tuition fees, the child was able to go to school thanks to the support of the Grand Duke’s family. I still can’t forget the face of this child when she came to express her gratitude to me directly.”

“…Why are you telling me this story?”

“Her eyes were full of joy. Hope had entered the life of this abandoned child.”

Hope? Dylan frowned at that unfamiliar and irritating word.

“Ha, what are you trying to say? What does this have to do with me…”

“Please. I beg you, don’t crush the hope that has just sprouted in this child.”

“…!”

Aidel raised her body from her kneeling position and bowed her head respectfully. Seeing this, Dylan’s eyes widened in disbelief.

It was a first. To see a noble, and one of the highest rank at that, pleading like this.

And it wasn’t an action taken to beg for her own life. It was for the sake of this insignificant orphan.

“Please help this young child to be able to live with hope.”

“…Why are you going this far?”

Dylan couldn’t understand the Grand Duchess’s actions at all. In his experience, high-ranking nobles barely even treated such orphans as human. They were merely disposable objects to be used and discarded at convenience.

“Even though she was abandoned by her parents… I want to show her that she’s not alone in this world, that there’s an adult who supports her existence.”

“…!”

“Then this child too might grow up to be an adult who gives hope to someone else.”

At Aidel’s words, Dylan’s mind went blank for a moment. The someone from the past that had come to mind upon hearing Joy’s story was… his younger self.

If there had been such an adult by his side too…

‘Would my life now be different…?’

Like that Joy child, he too was born to an unwed mother and had to survive alone in the world without anyone to care for him.

From childhood, he had to beg on the streets to survive. Then he met an old woman who first shared food with him. He trusted and followed her, only to be sold to a large plantation in the east. It was the plantation of Douglas, whom he now served.

The betrayal of the one he briefly trusted, and the reality he faced at the plantation were horrific. Seeing how the powerless female slaves lived while working at that plantation, Dylan cut his own hair and wore men’s clothes.

He lived as Douglas’s confidant, loyal to him as a mercenary who would do anything he was ordered to. He reported and captured slaves trying to escape, and deceived orphans into becoming slaves just as he had been deceived by the old woman in his youth. That was the only way of life he had learned to survive.

“You can be that too. An adult who gives this child hope for life.”

Aidel’s appealing voice penetrated deeply into Dylan’s ears as he recalled his past. Dylan’s eyes shook violently as he looked at Joy. Just like his wavering heart.

“Damn it! This is troublesome when we have to leave tomorrow.”

Douglas slammed his fist on the official document placed on the desk, losing his temper.

They had barely made it to Maris after escaping the lockdown in the capital, but a problem had arisen. Security checks had been strengthened at all ports leading to the Empire. The port of Maris within the Grand Duchy was no exception.

“Outwardly, they say it’s to search for contraband, but it’s clearly to search for the Grand Duchess.”

Douglas looked at Dylan with an anxious face and asked fiercely.

“How many have we captured now?”

“Four, including the Grand Duchess.”

“The more people, the harder it is to avoid inspection. Keep only three, including the Grand Duchess, and dispose of the remaining one.”

“Dispose… you mean?”

“The dead don’t talk. Don’t leave any loose ends.”

“…Understood.”

Dylan bowed his head expressionlessly upon receiving the order.

After leaving Douglas’s room, Dylan’s footsteps headed towards the warehouse where the abducted individuals were held.

Entering the warehouse, Dylan examined each of the captives one by one, as if searching for something. Those who met his gaze tensed up and shrank back.

Finally, Dylan’s gaze stopped on Joy’s face. Filled with fear, Joy pressed herself close to Aidel. Aidel also shielded Joy behind her back, looking at Dylan with wary eyes.

Dylan walked closer to them.

“What’s going on?”

Despite Aidel’s question, Dylan said nothing and reached out to grab Joy’s body. Sensing something was wrong, Joy cried out in surprise and struggled.

“How noisy.”

Dylan took out a long, horizontal cloth from his pocket and tied it around Joy’s mouth. Joy whimpered and cried behind the gag. Dylan picked her up.

“Wait! What are you going to do with Joy?”

“I’m taking this child where she needs to go.”

“Surely… you’re not…?”

Aidel looked up at Dylan with tear-filled eyes.

“Let the child go. I’m begging you.”

Aidel blocked Dylan’s path with her entire body as he tried to head outside.

“Move aside.”

“Please… you can still be a good adult.”

Despite Aidel’s desperate words, Dylan looked down at her and spoke in a cold voice.

“…It’s already too late. The chance to be such an adult.”

Dylan stepped past Aidel, who had frozen in place.

“It’s not, it’s not too late yet!”

Aidel cried out pitifully behind Dylan, but the warehouse door closed firmly. Along with the darkness, deep despair settled in Aidel’s eyes.