Just then, Lutis had no chance to catch the child as his hands were full with the snack bundle that had been handed over, saying the child was too heavy.

The child groaned for a moment, repeatedly rubbing their tailbone, then looked ahead.

“I’m… I’m sorry…”

The boy who had collided with the child bowed his head and spoke. He was about a head taller than the child but appeared younger.

He looked to be around ten years old, wearing clothes that seemed to have been patched multiple times.

Seeing how ill-fitting the clothes were, forced onto his body, Aeli was reminded of a child she had seen before.

Though not quite to that extent, it reminded her so much of that time that Aeli shook her head.

‘What domain doesn’t have a street urchin or two?’

It wasn’t such a shocking scene, but having a child of her own made it feel different.

The black eyes that met the child’s trembled. It was before the child could even open their mouth.

“I’ll be… g-going now―”

“…?”

“…συγνώμη!”

The boy who had bowed his waist shouted something and turned his back.

Aeli’s eyes widened slightly in surprise at the unfamiliar language.

Come to think of it, the skin was too dark to be simply from living outdoors…

The awkward Imperial language indicated that the person now running away was a foreigner.

The next thing that happened was Lutis, who had also hesitated, extending his arm to grab the fleeing boy.

“…!”

“Now what do you think you’re doing?”

“B-bumped, a-apologize… didn’t know, baby would fall…”

The boy, his nape caught and lifted by Lutis’s hand, blurted out words in jumbled order, looking about to cry.

Lutis looked down at him silently with sunken eyes, as if thinking about something, then spoke.

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Th-then…?”

“You reached for the pocket while bumping.”

“…!”

Bad habit you have there. Lutis said, pulling out a locket necklace that had been hidden in the sleeve.

The child, who had been listening to the conversation, reflexively put a hand in their pocket and gaped.

“Ah, m-mine!”

The child turned their empty pockets inside out, and finding not even a speck of dust, looked at Lutis.

Sighing, Lutis handed the locket back to the child and spoke.

“Be careful with your belongings in crowded places. Pay extra attention to important items.”

“Yes…”

“And―”

“…! Ah, that! I… didn’t do it on purpose!”

The boy, meeting Lutis’s eyes, cried out with a pale face. It was just as Lutis turned his gaze towards the security patrol making rounds to prevent potential incidents during the festival period.

The boy mumbled that it wasn’t on purpose, but with the child’s necklace coming out of his sleeve, it wasn’t convincing at all.

Moreover, since that locket contained Aeli’s portrait, there was no hesitation in Lutis’s eyes.

“…”

“I, well…”

“…”

“P… Παρακαλώ γλίτωσέ με.”

The boy, receiving the child’s sharp glare, soon bowed his head deeply and mumbled. It was still unintelligible.

‘He was definitely trying to steal it.’

If Lutis hadn’t caught the boy trying to escape, the locket would have been sold somewhere.

If they didn’t recognize its value, it might have ended up at a pawn shop or somewhere similar.

– …Hmm.

Seeing how clumsy he was, it seemed like he had just started pickpocketing or this was his first time.

It could all be an act, but that’s how it appeared for now.

It seemed he had planned to snatch the target from the pocket and run away, but unexpectedly the child fell backward, and he got caught.

Aeli was narrowing her eyes at that thought when it happened.

“Hey.”

“…”

The child, who had been staring at the boy’s appearance, walked a little forward to stand beside Lutis and asked.

“Why did you take this?”

“By… by mistake…”

“I know that’s a lie. How could you take a necklace from my pants pocket under my cloak by mistake?”

“…”

“…If you don’t answer, I’ll just have those men take you away.”

When there was no response, the child turned around abruptly. Only then did the boy, still suspended in the air with Lutis holding his nape, flail his limbs and speak.

“Hungry, I was hungry…!”

“…Hungry?”

The boy nodded repeatedly, whimpering.

Aeli looked the boy up and down. Now that she heard it, not only were his clothes tattered, but his body was also as thin as a twig, which caught her eye.

Unlike the child from that time who still had some baby fat typical of young children, his face was gaunt without a trace of baby fat, and Aeli clicked her tongue.

– …Adi, could you ask how old that child is?

At Aeli’s request, the child blinked once slowly and asked the boy.

“How old are you?”

“How…?”

“Age.”

“Ah, t-ten…”

“Ten?”

“Twelve…”

“So, you’re saying twelve?”

“…Yes.”

The child, having completed the task, glanced slightly at Aeli with a look that said ‘there you have it’. It was an unclear conversation whether he meant ten or twelve years old.

However, regardless of which was his real age, he seemed somewhat undersized, and Aeli clicked her tongue softly.

It seemed that his claim of stealing because he was hungry wasn’t a lie.

In that moment, the child looked up at Lutis, made eye contact, and spoke.

“Elder brother… please put him down.”

“Well, if I let him go, he might pickpocket someone else’s belongings, so it might be better to hand him over to the security patrol.”

“…”

“…”

The child silently stared at Lutis.

After some silence passed, Lutis frowned as if he had a headache and put the boy down on the ground.

Just as the boy’s face, nervously watching Lutis and the child, began to show signs of contemplating whether to run away or not, it happened.

“This is very important to me.”

“…”

“If you had taken it and it disappeared, I might have cried a lot.”

The child, who had been fiddling with the locket in their hand, suddenly said to the boy.

The boy hung his head low, fidgeted with his fingers, and then opened his mouth.

“συγνώμη…”

“Hm?”

“S-sorry…”

“You’re apologizing to me?”

The boy nodded.

When the child asked if he was repenting, the boy nodded again.

It was then that the child, who had been watching this series of events, showed completely unexpected behavior.

“Okay. Then you can have this.”

“W-what?”

The child nodded, unpinning the decorative brooch from their chest and placing it in the boy’s hand.

Unable to stop the sudden situation, Lutis blinked and asked the child. He couldn’t hide the bewildered expression on his face.

“Why are you giving that to him?”

“He said he was hungry. He apologized and showed remorse, so I want to give it to him.”

“…”

“…Is that not okay?”

The child blinked rapidly and asked tentatively. Lutis silently looked down at the child.

Perhaps taking the silence as affirmation, the child continued speaking.

“But it’s hard when you’re hungry…”

“…”

“When you’re hungry, um… your stomach hurts and you have no strength… right? It’s cold outside now, and if you can’t eat, you’ll get sick.”

Aeli’s eyes narrowed as she sensed something odd in the child’s words.

Lutis must have felt it too, as he paused for a moment before asking the child. He asked if the child had ever gone without meals.

“…Before living with elder brother, when Mari wasn’t around?”

“…”

“Sometimes she forgot and came late, um. There were times when she didn’t come at all and I had to go myself.”

“…”

So it wasn’t that the child had voluntarily gone hungry.

Aeli was shocked, as she knew of their dereliction of duty from what she had seen firsthand, but she hadn’t expected them to go as far as starving the child.

Seeing the veins bulge in Lutis’s neck at that moment…

By the time they returned to the capital mansion with the child, it seemed likely that even the servants who hadn’t been fired from working in the annex would already be dismissed.

‘It was merciful not to punish everyone and leave some behind in the first place.’

This was like peeling an onion, with reasons for blame never ending, so perhaps they should consider themselves fortunate to be able to leave alive.

“…”

“Ah, hey! You shouldn’t take that away!”

The child shouted loudly as Lutis suddenly snatched the brooch from the boy. It was a protest asking why he was taking away what the child had given.

Until then, the boy hadn’t even properly grasped the brooch, just leaving it on his palm, and when Lutis took it away, he just stood there with his mouth open, not even resisting.

Lutis took out a money pouch from his chest and placed it on the boy’s hand. He advised the child at the same time.

“It’s worse to give something that looks valuable at a glance than not giving at all. It could be taken by other ill-intentioned people, and if you try to sell it, you’d be reported as a thief. Moreover, this…”

“Uh…”

“…I didn’t bring much on purpose, so it’s not a huge amount, but at least you won’t go hungry for a few weeks.”

This time you were lucky not to be punished, so try to work and earn money instead. Lutis, who seemed about to say something more but trailed off, picked up the child in one arm and looked at the boy.

The boy’s eyes widened as he gauged the weight of the pouch in his palm.

“Th-thank you!”

The boy shouted, bowing at the waist, but Lutis, who had already walked quite a distance away, didn’t look back.

The child spoke to Lutis, who was walking towards the direction of the viscount’s residence while holding them.

“Elder brother, elder brother.”

“Yes.”

“I still haven’t eaten cotton candy.”

“…”

“But I should leave money for me to eat cotton candy…”

The child argued that since the festival ends today, they wouldn’t be able to eat it after tonight.

Lutis responded with silence to the child poking his chin while being held by him.

In the end, it wasn’t much of a secret that Lutis had the knight commander buy cotton candy that night.