In the next moment, Liz realized that she was sitting on someone’s lap.

With a slight narrowing of her eyes, she looked at the person who had pulled her towards them.

“What’s up? Couldn’t sleep?”

“I did. I woke up because someone was staring at me with intense eyes.”

Hersis said. The languidly relaxed gaze didn’t seem like a lie.

“W-who was staring at me with intense eyes? And I had my eyes closed.”

“I can see better when I close my eyes.”

Liz admitted that, at least, she agreed with that statement. To this man, eyes were just a more convenient sensory organ.

“Honestly, were you disappointed that I fell asleep?”

“No, not at all.”

Liz thought she might have answered too quickly.

Then Hersis spoke.

“How about you be a bit more honest? You used to be so honest and bold.”

Liz realized that when he said ‘used to be,’ he was referring to a time before she became aware of the possession.

“You didn’t dislike that, did you?”

“I never said I disliked it.”

“I never said it with words. I expressed it with my expression.”

‘And, I saw your heart in the original work.’

“If what you know isn’t everything?”

“…What are you talking about?”

At the sudden words, Liz widened her eyes.

“Exactly that. If you don’t know how I concluded that you dislike and annoy me, but if that’s not everything, would you then open up to me a little?”

“…I don’t understand what you’re talking about.”

Liz made a bewildered expression.

In the moonlight seeping through the window, Hersis’ eyes glowed faintly.

It was an inward-converging gaze.

“Listen carefully. I won’t say it twice.”

Hersis said in a determined tone. His eyes were directed at Liz, but it felt like he was looking at the Liz of the distant past, not the current Liz.

It was the day when I first stepped into the Verm Hujukjeo.

Hersis faced a small child who was staring at me piercingly.

‘What is this thing for?’

I knew that the child was looking at me with such eyes. I laughed at the eyes that were not like a child.

It was a cute and adorable child like a pansy flower. However, the flower had nothing but thorns, without any sign of life.

‘What is this doing here? It’s so annoying. Clean it up quickly.’

‘Did you make this into a cookie? You eat it.’

Every word was criticism and sarcasm. There was no one around the child.

The child seemed to prefer being alone. No, it seemed like the child was trying to be alone.

Taking care of such a girl so well, Verm Hujukjeo’s master and mistress had no way to call their daughter except when guests came, and people in the city scattered in all directions whenever the young miss appeared.
By her side, there was only Mirabel. Only she, revealing her own feelings, recognized and diligently cared for the lonely inner world of the chirping baby cat.

However, the time Mirabel could spare to play and alleviate the girl’s loneliness seemed far from sufficient.

Hersis had witnessed the girl waiting for Mirabel at the door several times. He had also witnessed Mirabel trying to keep her close to me with exaggerated claims of pain here and there.

A child starving for affection.

In that appearance, it seemed like she had glimpsed me. So… I didn’t know if I wanted to fill in what Mirabel couldn’t provide.

He immediately told Mrs. Verm.

“I would like to take care of Liz’s companion.”

Mrs. Verm readily agreed. After all, there was no reason to refuse when someone volunteered to take care of the household’s odds and ends.

So, from that day on, Hersis was stuck to the child’s side.

The first words the child said while looking at me were like this.

“Go away. Call Mirabel.”

Although I thought it wouldn’t be easy, that statement still shocked Hersis considerably.

When will I receive the child’s blind affection like Mirabel’s?

Suddenly, it felt like a terribly sweet fantasy. So, from then on, Hersis’s goal became to receive the affection of this fierce little kitten.

The child often got hurt. Especially on the stairs.

So when Hersis suggested moving the young miss’s room to the first floor to Mrs. Verm, she refused, saying that it would be annoying to see the child too often.

“Such people are parents.”

Hersis clicked his tongue.

He followed Liz until the child no longer fell on the stairs.

The moment seemed to come slowly as the girl’s physical growth was slower than expected, but it came.

For the first time, the girl who skillfully jumped up the stairs alone turned around on the staircase and said.

“Thanks, Cain.”

For the first time, a smile was drawn on her lips that had always been tightly closed.

It was a subtle yet intense smile.

Like the sunlight that penetrates the dense greenery in midsummer and brightly illuminates the dirt floor, the girl’s smile pierced Hersis’s chest and illuminated the abyss.

Then he finally learned a fact.

While I thought I had been taking care of the girl all this time, it turned out that it was me who was being helped by the girl.