Where had the child who had been running around the mansion with her small body gone?

Fortunately, it did not seem like she had gone outside.

Having spent time on the battlefield, they were particularly sensitive to keeping guard, so they were sure to check on everyone coming and going.

Even if she was swift and small, there was no way to escape their watch.

“Where on earth did she go?”

Linday asked with a worried face.

“Me, are you talking to me?”

Terion said with a face as if he’d seen a ghost.

Linday clicked her tongue and said,

“Then who am I asking, sir.”

“……Ahem.”

It was the first time a woman had spoken to him like this.

Having spent his puberty on the battlefield, he had not even adapted to the smell of women in the mansion.

But Linday was treating him like this.

“……I don’t know either. Tasha is small, so if she wants to hide……”

“We need to find her quickly. I’m worried that the Empress… no, madam might collapse.”

Linday glanced at Lenisha, who was desperately calling the child’s name with a pale face.

She was already a pale person, and now she looked even more worrisome.

“We’ll be able to find her. But why are you looking for Tasha? Suddenly the child disappears, and…”

Terion cast a suspicious glance.

Linday coolly brushed it off.

She had seen all kinds of things while serving as Lenisha’s attendant.

Such a look was nothing to her.

“That child is Isabella Lotera, Lotera’s descendant. So it’s natural that madam is desperate to find her.”

“Ah… Yes? Yes?? Tasha?”

Wasn’t Isabella the child Terion had been looking for on Casius’s orders?

But she was in the mansion? This was the proverbial darkness under the lamp.

Terion stuck out his tongue and resumed the search.

Linday stared at Terion’s somehow naive back.

They needed a smart sheepdog to herd the sheep properly. He seemed to fit the role.

Linday smiled a little, even in her haste.

It was a feeling of blood rushing to her toes.

The eerie feeling that her heart had fallen to the ground and been picked up again.

Tasha was gone.

When she first heard the news, she was in despair, and looking at Casius’s apologetic and dismayed face, she collected herself.

Fortunately, she was relieved to hear that they didn’t seem to have escaped the mansion.

“Tasha!!”

She cried out the name that the child was using as her own, at the top of her lungs.

It seemed as though she had lost her memory. No, she had pretended to lose her memory.

They also said that she had grey eyes, not pink eyes.

She couldn’t understand why the young child had made that choice after going through some kind of pain.

Now, Lenisha was the only one who could support Isabella.

Lenisha paced the floor.

“Tasha, please!”

The shadow fell in front of Lenisha, who had been roaming the mansion without even knowing her shoes were coming off.

“Casius?”

“…You should wear shoes when you walk. You seem to be hurt already.”

Casius let out a small sigh and suddenly picked up Lenisha.

“We have to find Tasha, Casius.”

Lenisha twisted Casius’s collar and spoke with determined eyes.

She meant that he should put her down right now.

Casius spoke as he walked slowly.

“I found her. I found her, but she won’t come out from that corner. It would be best if Lenisha went to her herself.”

“…You found her?”

Lenisha blinked her eyes.

Lenisha, who had been like a wolf ready to tear Casius apart just a moment ago, calmed down.

Casius nodded heavily.

“The child is safe. I found her in the kitchen. She was hiding between sacks of potatoes, so it seemed like she couldn’t be seen.”

“…Why there?”

“I don’t know. Maybe she was startled to hear that Lenisha was coming.”

“That’s possible.”

The strength drained from Lenisha’s body.

A stinging pain came from something embedded in the sole of her foot.

Lenisha bit her lip, covering her eyes.

The surprise had gone, and relief filled its place.

Lenisha leaned on Casius’s shoulder, her face pale.

“Let me down. I can walk. If the child sees me like this, she’ll be more frightened.”

Casius hesitated before putting Lenisha down.

He carefully brushed off her feet as she stood barefoot on the floor.

Casius removed the wooden splinters stuck to the sole of her foot with his hands and wrapped her foot with a handkerchief.

Only then did he put her shoes on.

Her feet, which had been cold before, were now full of wounds.

The little foot’s ordeal seemed neverending.

Casius let out a small sigh.

Lenisha quietly watched him.

His every movement. Even the way his muscles twitched.

The series of delicacies hidden in this big man made Lenisha feel strange.

Lenisha licked her lips.

“Thank you.”

Casius paused and then got up. Casius spoke in a subdued voice.

“…Don’t get hurt.”

Lenisha nodded her head, feeling like a caredfor child.

It was a continuous series of new moments for each other.

For both Casius and Lenisha.