“I’m going to sleep,” not even “May I sleep?”

The child who boldly proclaimed what wasn’t even a question looked up at Lutis with a blank expression on her clear face.

“……”

“Ah, I’m not leaving.”

At Lutis’s gaze, the child hugged the doll tucked under her arm even tighter and put on a determined expression.

‘Is this… right?’

Aeli narrowed her eyes and tilted her head.

Perhaps because she had become aware that Lutis was in the room right next to her, she had unconsciously added a word to the child who couldn’t easily fall asleep.

[Adi. It’s late, aren’t you going to sleep?] [I… can’t sleep.] [Is that so? Then should mother sing you a lullaby?] [Mmm……] [At Adi’s age, it’s still okay to sleep with mom and dad sometimes, but I don’t know when our baby is going to grow up if you keep doing this.]

When she casually let that sentence slip, the child suddenly opened her eyes and asked if mother had done that too, to which she had only nodded.

[Then is it okay if I sleep with father too?] [That’s… right?]

But it was already too late to ask such a question now, as it had been over 6 months since she had slept with Aeli.

…… It seemed the ghost was out of bounds.

Before Aeli could even say those words, the child suddenly got up, grabbed her doll, and flung open the door.

“……”

And that was now.

Lutis paused for a moment before opening his mouth.

“I believe we had dinner together this evening.”

“Th-that’s that, and this is… this.”

“…… You shouldn’t open doors and come in carelessly at this hour. It’s not polite.”

“But the door wasn’t locked……”

“……”

Of course, he probably didn’t expect someone to come in in the middle of the night.

The various documents strewn across the table in front of the couch where Lutis was sitting and the empty coffee cup were evidence of that.

He must have brought what he was doing in his office to the bedroom because he couldn’t finish it all.

Thinking this, Aeli looked at the child who was mumbling with a very aggrieved expression as if to emphasize that she had done nothing wrong. Lutis sighed softly and slowly opened his mouth.

“As you can see, I’m not done with work yet… I’m sorry, but I don’t think I can sleep with you. If you can’t sleep, I’ll assign a maid to you, so play for a while and then go to bed.”

“…… You don’t have to do that.”

The child’s gaze turned to Aeli.

If she simply needed someone to play with, she would have begged Aeli to read her a storybook or sing her a lullaby without needing to call a maid.

The child stood there facing off with Lutis for about a few dozen seconds.

Lutis, who had been scanning the documents, stopped rubbing his eyes and reached for where the bell pull was.

At this, the small figure who had been stamping her feet in dismay grabbed the doll with both hands and shouted.

“I… I’m a baby and can’t sleep alone!”

“……”

Lutis looked at the child with an expression somewhere between bewilderment and embarrassment. Aeli felt the same way.

She clearly remembered that just recently, the child had complained to Mari that the pudding was too small and asked if it was for babies.

‘…… Is it okay to insist you’re a baby only when it’s convenient?’

In reality, the child was indeed a baby in Aeli and Lutis’s eyes, but that was a separate issue.

When no particular response came from Lutis, the child who had been gauging the situation cautiously opened her mouth.

“I won’t be annoying… I can be quiet until father finishes his work.”

“……”

“I’m really, really good at that… really……”

As she went on, her confidence seemed to fade, until by the end it was barely audible.

Lutis put down the quill he was holding and sighed.

“Hah……”

“……”

“…… Don’t complain later if you get bored. Go to bed right away when you get sleepy.”

“……!”

As the child nodded quickly, Lutis cleared away one corner of the table.

Without even being told, the child was already going over there, grinning as she sat down.

It would be a lie to say that this untimely stubbornness in the middle of the night wasn’t troublesome.

But Aeli, who inwardly thought it wasn’t so bad, leisurely moved to stand beside the child.

‘Considering how mature she was at first… this is normal.’

To throw tantrums and be stubborn meant that she now had a place where she could be indulged.

Children are more sensitive to others’ emotions than they appear.

If there was no sign of indulgence at all, she would have had no choice but to become mature on her own.

−Will you wait on the couch?

The child nodded slightly. It might have looked unnatural to someone else, but because she was swinging her legs and upper body back and forth, she just looked excited.

−Won’t you be uncomfortable if you stay here for long? Why not go to bed?

At Aeli’s question, the child quietly turned her head to the side to look at Lutis.

That was enough of an answer.

‘…… I see.’

Aeli nodded without asking any further.

When some more time had passed and it was nearing dawn.

Seemingly concerned about leaving her sitting there without anything to drink, there were beverages and light snacks that Lutis had ordered a maid to bring placed in front of the child.

To be more specific, it was a plate with only cookie crumbs left, already all eaten, and a mug with a little unmelted honey settled at the bottom.

The child, who was smacking her lips as if searching for the sweetness still lingering on her tongue, moved the doll she had been hugging to her lap.

After fiddling with the doll for quite a while, she opened her mouth.

“Father……”

Lutis paused at the voice that suddenly broke the silence and replied.

“…… I said I can’t play with you.”

“That’s not it……”

“……”

“Thank you. I like both the rabbit and the room. Thank you.”

“I’ve already heard that through the servant. Didn’t you say it at mealtime too?”

“Yes, I know… but I just wanted to say it again.”

This was already the third time combined.

The child’s fingertips touching the doll were quite careful for a young child, and Lutis glanced at her as he opened his mouth.

“In any case……”

“……”

“Neither of them were mine to begin with. If you want to thank someone……”

“……”

“…… Ah.”

As Lutis’s voice cut off, a chilly silence descended.

There was a topic that, though not specifically defined, was consciously avoided between the child and Lutis.

Namely, Aeli herself.

While it was obvious that Lutis deliberately avoided bringing it up.

The child simply hadn’t mentioned it because she was preoccupied with being with her father. Perhaps she had instinctively sensed it and not brought it up.

‘I wouldn’t know this unless I asked.’

But Aeli had never asked the child such questions either.

Why…

‘…… There’s nothing good that would come from talking about it anyway.’

She had heard that when people lose someone precious, they fall into two categories.

Those who overcome their pain and look back on memories fondly, and those who cannot overcome it and completely fall apart.

In Mari’s case, she belonged to the former. Whenever she had time, she would smile and tell the child stories about her life, talking with her and thereby filling the longing.

And Lutis…

“……”

Lutis was clearly the latter.

Though it seemed he was becoming somewhat more human-like since the child had returned to her true nature…

It wasn’t enough yet. He might be able to answer a young child’s curious questions, but it was obvious that it would just end up exhausting him again.

In Aeli’s opinion, it might be possible someday in the distant future with time, but it was impossible for now.

“……”

“Uh……”

She had noticed he seemed particularly down since midnight.

Just as Lutis was biting the inside of his cheek at the words he had inadvertently let slip.

The child glanced at Lutis like that and opened her mouth, her cheeks flushed as she hugged the doll tightly to her chest. At the same time, she swung her legs that were dangling beneath the couch.

“I know. Sara told me earlier that mother decorated the room.”

“……”

“The rabbit too, did father give it to mother when she was young?”

“……”

“……”

“…… Yes. That’s right.”

At the child’s words, the documents in Lutis’s grip were visibly crumpling.

Aeli, flustered, hesitated whether she should stop the child, but paused as a sudden question occurred to her.

Had the servant mentioned the rabbit doll earlier?

−…….

It seemed they had only said it was a gift. Aeli’s brow furrowed.

Considering that she herself had never talked about this story anywhere, and Lutis was not the type to unnecessarily tell such things to servants.

‘…… Something seems strange.’

However, that question remained unresolved.

Because sounds flowed from the child’s mouth once again.

“I liked it because it felt like a gift from mother to me.”

“……”

“But father said he worked hard to fix it……”

“……”

“The rabbit is… precious to father too… but you gave it to me……”

It’s not easy to readily give something you cherish to others. Even if it’s just a room and a doll, once meaning is attached, it’s no longer “just” that.

Aeli knew well how much value that could hold. Though it was gone now, she once had such an object too.

So no matter if it was being given to one’s child, the resolve to let it go, risking damage, could not be light.

“…… I’ll treasure it. I like the gift, but……”

“……”

“To give me something you cherish so much… means you like me that much.”

“…… That’s right.”

The voice seemed to break off abruptly.

At some point, unable to fight her heavy eyelids, the child was nodding off.

As Lutis stared blankly at the child like that, a brief reply came from his lips.

“I don’t……”

Actually, I love that mother and father love me the most…… It was the moment when even her legs that had been swinging slowly under the couch completely stopped.

The child who had been opening her mouth drowsily fell completely asleep with those words.

As if truly happy as she said, with a faint smile on her flushed cheeks.

“……”

−…….

The love that felt so terribly blind took her breath away.

It was a tumultuous night full of thoughts.