Mari paused as she turned her back towards the door, her gaze shifting to the child.

It was an almost reflexive action, seeing the child flinch in surprise at the flutter of her skirt as she turned.

“Uh… Waaah!”

The child, who had been blankly staring at the broken flowerpot with startled eyes, burst into loud tears.

It was only natural for the once-quiet space to become noisy.

Aeli and Mari, who quickly moved to comfort the child, opened their mouths almost simultaneously.

– Adi! Look at me! Look at this! Peekaboo!

“Y-young master! Are you hurt?!”

…Well, if you do that, what am I supposed to do?

Mari, who had let out a shrill scream, examined the crying child’s body all over, wondering if there were any injuries.

Even at a glance, it was a reaction that clearly showed concern.

Aeli, the novice mother who had been trying to comfort the child with a funny expression, awkwardly lowered her arms.

Having only experience in soothing newborns, she couldn’t think of any more novel methods.

“Waaah! Huuung…”

“Ah! Don’t touch that! You might cut yourself if you touch the broken pieces!”

Mari, who had stopped the child from reaching for the flowerpot, was about to say she would clean it up as it was dangerous, but then hesitated.

Except for Aeli, the only people left in the dining room were the child and Mari.

Even the chef who had been waiting with them had left after telling Mari to just tidy up the dishes and go, saying he would get up early in the morning to do the washing up.

Given the situation, it wasn’t easy to go get tools to clean up the flowerpot.

‘Forget leaving the dining room, he’ll probably grab the flowerpot pieces as soon as Mari lets go…’

While she could try to dissuade him verbally, as Aeli, who could pass through objects and people, this was something she couldn’t help with.

Quickly realizing that there was no one available to help her right away, Mari seemed to have chosen to comfort the child first rather than cleaning up the flowerpot.

“Why is our young master so upset… You’ll get dehydrated if you cry like that.”

“B-but it’s mine… Huuung…”

“I know. You’re tired, and I was careless and didn’t take proper care… I’m really sorry. I’ll go right now and bring a new flowerpot, so could you forgive me just this once?”

“Then you can’t bring it today… *sniff*… If it’s tomorrow, it’s no use! Uhuhuung!”

“No! I can go right now and be back before midnight! Young master, do you trust me? I’m really fast-”

“Mari doesn’t keep promises either, *hic*! How can I trust you! I won’t… I don’t even have the ribbon, and you have something I liked but didn’t even give me pretty things, Dad won’t come… Huuung-!”

Saying that, the child crawled down from the high chair and reached out towards the pile of dirt.

Mari, shocked and dumbfounded, didn’t have time to stop the child’s hand.

“Huuung… Ah, Dad…”

The child picked up a yellow ribbon from among the dirt spilled when the flowerpot broke and sniffled.

Seeing tears flowing down the tender skin and soaking into the ribbon, Aeli hesitated at the unexpected appearance of a word.

The child didn’t seem to have the capacity to notice such details, but.

“The, the Duke?”

As Mari asked in confusion, the child, clutching the dirty ribbon tightly with both hands, opened his mouth.

“This is… the flower Mom likes. Even if Dad doesn’t like me, Mom likes it, so I was going to give this…”

“Young master! What are you saying? Why wouldn’t the Duke like you? I’ve seen it! He was so careful not to touch you wrongly in case you might get hurt, why would you think such a thing?”

“That was! *hic*… That was in the past! He hates me because Mom left because of me! Am I stupid? I know, *sob*… I know Dad hates me!”

The teardrops had grown even larger by now.

Aeli, at a loss for words watching the child rummage through the dirt pile gathering broken flower stems, unconsciously took a step back.

Had there ever been a time in her life when she felt more terrified than now?

The words that came out of the child’s mouth pierced her heart like daggers. Her fingertips trembled slightly.

“The flower, it’s ruined, *sob*- It’s ruined… Dad won’t come…”

“…”

“He won’t treat me pretty like before anymore… Waaah-!”

Droplets rolled down the child’s cheeks and fell onto the dirt pile. Aeli’s gaze, watching the soil darken in patches, caught sight of the child’s dirty hands and knees.

With those hands, he had rubbed his eyes vigorously trying to wipe away tears, resulting in his cheeks and eye area also becoming dirty in this situation…

Is this reality?

‘I… No, did I really…’

A question struck Aeli’s mind like lightning.

Those times when he whined to her about wanting to see fairies, and even further, when he was focused solely on that small flowerpot for nearly a week.

Even earlier than that.

-…

She didn’t know. Really, she hadn’t noticed at all.

If he had been harboring such thoughts alone even before Aeli opened her eyes as a ghost.

…For how many years had he been enduring alone, bottling up his feelings?

Unable to fathom what thoughts might be filling that small head, Aeli felt like fainting for the first time in her life.

‘I thought he liked flowers… That’s why he always carried it around.’

But that wasn’t it.

Just to somehow improve the mood of a father who no longer came to see him because his mother had died.

On the day that should have been happier than any other, he had been pouring all of his time into this.

The fact that it was her own death, and no one else’s, that had made the child like this felt terribly guilty. And to think she had been scolding him to stop looking at the flowerpot without knowing any of this…

“Young master. That’s not true. Right now, the Duke is just a bit tired, that’s all.”

“*hic*…”

“You’ve heard from me that the Duke has known the miss, your mother, since he was as young as you are now, right? That’s why. Because she was so, so precious to him.”

“…”

“The Duke loved the miss, your mother, so much that his wounds haven’t fully healed yet. You know, people can get hurt in their hearts too, not just what we can see.”

Mari, who had said this, wiped the child’s tears with the back of her hand and continued.

“Remember when you fell while playing hide-and-seek with me before? Your knee hurt so much that you didn’t even notice I had found you, right?”

“Uh, *sniff*! Mm-hmm…”

“The Duke is just like you were then. The pain of his wound is so great that he can’t see anything else right now. I can assure you, the Duke loves you very much.”

So please wait just a little longer, young master. Instead, you can tease your dad for being a coward all you want later!

Mari, who had distracted the child’s attention with an exaggerated tone, stood up naturally. She had the child in her arms as well.

Covering the child’s slightly swollen eyelids with her cool hand to soothe them, Mari asked gently.

“Now that you’ve calmed down a bit, would you like some cake? They say eating something sweet when you’re feeling down helps improve your mood. Or if you’re tired, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to wash up and go to sleep.”

“…Cake…”

“Alright. But after you finish eating, you must brush your teeth thoroughly. Promise?”

“Promise…”

Mari, who had skillfully soothed the child and seated him in the chair, cut the cake into small pieces and placed it in front of him.

It was long past midnight, but she had just sung a heartfelt birthday song, more sincere than ever before.

Aeli sat down by the head of the child who was traveling in dreamland, constantly chewing. He seemed to be in quite a good mood, as if eating something very delicious in his dream.

-…

You’re really sleeping like you don’t have a care in the world.

Well, it’s understandable. He had stayed up way past his usual bedtime, and after causing all that commotion, he even had a bath, so it would have been harder not to be tired.

‘I couldn’t say anything to him…’

It wasn’t entirely due to being frozen from the unexpected shock.

It weighed heavily on her mind that she couldn’t offer a single word of denial to the child who was crying so sorrowfully.

In fact, she had tried, but.

She just couldn’t get the words out. Given what she had heard just a few days ago, she wasn’t sure if it was right to deny this so simply.

She had seen him giving orders with an impassive face about what he would do to the child.

She was afraid that if the child believed her words completely, it might cause him even greater pain in the future.

-Ah, this is completely stupid…

To think that even parents could be this foolish.

It was clear that if it weren’t for Mari, she wouldn’t have been able to comfort him properly.

If that had been the case, the words the child had cried out would have become the truth, embedding themselves as yet another wound.

It was pathetic to feel relieved that it hadn’t turned out that way when she hadn’t done anything except cause the problem in the first place.

Aeli, faintly self-deprecating her cowardly self, lowered her head.

-Sleep well, Adi.

I hope you have good dreams. With such a trivial wish, she gently stroked the child’s hair.

Well… it was more of a pretense of stroking since her hand would pass through if she actually touched him.

By now, she was somewhat used to it, so it didn’t feel as miserable as before.

-Mommy will be here watching over you to make sure you sleep well.

Ghosts don’t sleep, so she could stay by the child’s side all night.

It was okay because she could reveal the truth like this when she was sure he was asleep. If she had been able to sleep, she wouldn’t have had such opportunities.

Perhaps because of this, Aeli sometimes found herself getting a little excited as the child’s bedtime approached.

So, as she watched the child breathing heavily and sweating coldly, she was about to greet him just like before…

-…Huh?

Aeli’s face, which had been wearing a faint smile, gradually froze.

Something was going wrong.