Episode 29. A Man More Useful Than You Think
It was around dawn.
As Mark and Judy came out of Adele’s clinic, Christine came running.
“Adele?”
He, who was always neat and tidy in his uniform, looked a little tired in his disheveled shirt. He had been nursing sick children all night.
“Fortunately, her fever has gone down and her breathing has improved. We’ll have to wait and see, but it seems she’s over the hump.”
“Ha, that’s a relief.”
Christine finally felt relieved at Mark’s words and washed his face dry. His haggard appearance must have been due to his concern for Adele.
“Would you like to come in?”
“Hmm.”
Christine nodded and entered the clinic, but paused for a moment.
“You’re quite useful, Baron Castler.”
Mark raised his eyebrows slightly as if it were an unexpected compliment.
“The Count was more useful than I thought.”
Christine smiled faintly at his response.
Adele was still asleep on the bed. The face was so pale that it looked like a dead person.
Christine brought a stool and sat down next to the bed. He carefully touched her forehead and saw that she still had a slight fever, but her breathing was much more comfortable.
“Chris...”
Adele closed her eyes and moved her lips with difficulty. Her dry lips were cracked, and blood was seeping through them.
“Yes, I’m here.”
He wetted a handkerchief and carefully wiped the blood off her lips.
“Mom died. What should I do now? I only have mom...”
Tears flowed from Adele’s eyes as she sobbed silently. It seemed like she was dreaming about that day ten years ago.
“Shhh... Don’t be too sad, Adele. I’m here. I’ll protect you.”
Christine stroked Adele’s head and whispered affectionately. So that the girl in her dream could feel a little bit of relief and comfort.
“Where was Chris? It’s Mom’s funeral... You left me alone... Where..?”
Christine's hand, which was stroking Adele's head, stopped.
Her mother's funeral...
Now that she thinks about it, she has forgotten.
Adele's mother died when his body was first starting to mutate.
At that time, he was so confused, scared, and powerless that he couldn't control himself for a while. He couldn't control his urge to tear everything apart.
So he often ran away to the forest. He felt like he would hurt the people around him if he didn't.
In the meantime, Adele's mother died, and he barely returned after the funeral.
However, he didn't notice how desperately Adele had waited. It was too much just accepting the enormous changes that had occurred in his body.
That's right, you waited for me like this.
"I'm sorry, Adele..."
He clenched her slender hand tightly as if she were atonement.
***
In the morning, Christine had a meal with Mark's family.
"...The White Ghost Knights, right?"
The two children who had been whispering and glancing at him throughout the meal asked with sparkling eyes. They were Mark's son, Jade, and the son of the drunkard, Adele had saved, Pauline. Jade didn’t want to be separated from Pauline, so the two children stayed together.
“Why do you think so?”
Instead of answering, the children pointed to his uniform hanging on the chair.
The black uniform had shoulder straps with the white wolf decorations that symbolized the White Ghost.
“You have a good eye for detail.”
Jade and Pauline laughed at Christine’s compliment.
“Then Count Weiss knows too, right?”
“Have you seen it?”
Christine, who had just finished eating, answered dryly, wiping his mouth with a napkin.
“Me.”
But the children didn’t believe it.
“White Ghost knights don’t lie. You’re fake, aren’t you, mister?”
Christine frowned at Jade’s provocation.
“It’s true.”
“Show me evidence.”
“Why do I have to prove that I’m me?”
“Huh, then it’s a lie.”
“What?”
“Then swing your sword once. They say Count Weiss is so fast that you can’t see his sword.”
Christine shook his head.
“Only a brat like you would believe such stupid things.”
“Not a brat, Jade!”
“Yes, brat Jade. Why don’t you stop being picky and start eating the carrots in front of you?”
“Ugh, I don’t like carrots! They taste like vomit.”
Jade stuck his tongue out as if he was going to throw up.
Christine clicked his tongue.
“That’s why you're a brat.”
“Even you picked out beans!”
Jade pointed at Christine’s plate as if she were wrong. Indeed, there were only beans left in Christine’s soup plate.
But he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“I’m already a grown man, so it doesn’t matter, kid.”
At that moment, Jade got angry and threw the napkin around his neck at Christine.
“Take it, a duel!”
“Jade!”
Mark, who had been watching in bewilderment at first, shouted in surprise.
However, Christine had already seriously accepted the challenge.
“Yes, we’ll fight until one of us dies?”
“Of course!”
Jade nodded cheerfully, not caring about Mark’s worries.
Judy murmured as she anxiously watched Christine and Jade leave the restaurant.
“Isn’t it okay?”
“Well, I don’t think you’d be that serious with a child...”
Mark hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to stop him or not.
***
“Take this.”
Pauline handed Christine Jade’s sword. It was Jade’s favorite wooden sword. It was quite heavy for a child’s toy.
“How can I trust the weapon you gave me? There might have been some kind of device installed.”
Christine was still serious.
“Hmm... really?”
The child also rested his chin on his hand, seriously considering it.
“Yes, I’ll trust you just this once.”
“You won’t have anything else to say after losing!”
“You too.”
“Of course!”
Christine, Jade, and Pauline, holding wooden swords, came out into the garden to watch the referee.
Then, the children lying in the examination room also looked out the window one by one.
“Since you’re an adult, I’ll attack first.”
“Yes. I’ll accept that handicap.”
Christine clasped his left arm behind his back and took a sparring stance with one hand.
“Yaaaaaaap!”
Soon, Jade shouted with a blush on his face and rushed at him.
Christine dodged the attack lightly and patted the child’s plump butt.
“Ouch!”
Jade swung his wooden sword wildly, growling in anger.
“Yap! Yap! Yap!”
It would have been nice to get hit once, but Christine dodged them all so annoyingly. Not only that, he kept hitting Jade’s butt.
Knock! Knock!
Jade looked like he was about to cry as she attacked.
Judy, who had come into the examination room to check Adele’s condition, clicked her tongue as she looked out the window.
“He's being too serious.”
Adele, who was lying on the bed and looking outside, smiled faintly.
“Rather than being serious... He looks like he's having fun.”
“Is that so?”
Christine, who was sparring with Jade, was smiling faintly, barely visible. More than anything, his two eyes sparkled warmly in the sunlight. His silver hair, which blew lightly whenever he moved, was dazzling.
She had forgotten. He used to be such a laughing and playful boy. Before she knew it, the kids who had been watching had forgotten their pain and rushed outside. No matter how much Mark and Judy told them to go inside, it was no use.
Knock!
At that moment, Jade's wooden sword struck Christine's waist. When he staggered, the child thought this was the moment and attacked his back again.
Christine fell to the floor with a serious face.
"Don't move. You are now a dead man! Surrender and I will spare you!"
"I would rather choose an honorable death."
However, Jade did not attack Christine anymore.
"I will spare you just this once."
"Really?"
"Yes, I want to spare a knight who chooses honor."
Christine got up after dusting himself off and ruffled Jade's hair.
"Thank you, kid."
"Sir, another duel!"
"That's enough for today."
Christine quickly picked up the angry child and put him on his shoulder.
The sight of him with the child was quite natural.
***
"You came back alive despite losing the duel."
Adele joked to Christine as he entered the examination room.
She had looked pale until dawn, but now she was sitting on the bed. Her complexion had returned somewhat, and her combed hair was calmly covering her shoulders.
It certainly seemed that her condition had improved a lot.
“How is your body?”
He asked, casually touching her forehead.
“It’s still hard to move, but it’s much better.”
“Don’t think about anything and rest for a few days.”
“Thank you. I survived thanks to you.”
“Your friend found you collapsed. And it was fortunate that the vet wasn’t a total quack.”
Even though he acknowledged Mark, his evaluation was still harsh.
“Yeah, I should thank them too.”
“I heard you were quite weak. What happened?”
“I guess it’s because I’ve been overworking myself these past few days.”
Christine’s expression darkened as he guessed why she did that. Ever since she was young, whenever Adele felt depressed, she would work so hard that she would overwork herself.
“I’m sorry, Chris...”
He looked at her voice that had suddenly come.
“What?”
“...I only heard rumors and didn’t trust you.”
“If that’s the case, then that’s enough. I also believed rumors and misunderstood you.”
“Then did we exchange?”
Christine nodded.
Adele’s heart felt lighter. Yesterday, such terrible things had happened one after another, but today was a peaceful morning.
No, it seemed peaceful.
In fact, neither of them could bring themselves to say what they wanted to say.
They thought that if they did, the momentary peace they had found would be shattered.
“Oh, take this.”
As if he remembered it, he took something out of his trouser pocket.
It was the green ribbon headband he had given her. Adele had been upset because she had lost it half a day ago.
It had been covered in mud, but it had been cleaned.
“Where did you get this?”
“Zimmer found it in the palace garden.”
“Will you tie my hair?”
Adele turned her head and showed him the back of her head.
“Again?”
Adele smiled as if to appease him.
“I’ve done it once, so I’ll do it better this time.”
“There are some things that never get better no matter how hard you try.”
Christine grumbled, combing her hair with his fingers and tying it up.
It was still a peaceful morning.
As if nothing had happened between them.
It was Christine who broke that precarious peace first.
He tied her hair more neatly than before, pulled a chair over, and sat down next to her. Then he opened his mouth with difficulty.
“Can I hear more about the silver wolf? Why do I think that beast was involved in your mother’s death?”
In fact, Christine wanted to avoid talking about the silver wolf. But it was something he couldn’t avoid.
Now he needed to be sure that he hadn’t killed her mother.
But if that were true...
‘It would be me who would be more unforgiving, Adele, than you.’
That’s why Adele’s story was more important than anything else.
“Ah, that story...”
Adele took a deep breath, her chapped and dry lips trembling.
It was painful for her to bring it up, too.
“If I’m going to tell you that story, I’ll have to tell you why I left you ten years ago.”
Christine’s expression hardened.
“Yes, tell me. The truth is, I’ve always wondered. Why did you go back to your biological father? Why did you marry old Marquis Oswald? You said it was because you wanted to become a nobleman, but that wasn’t really it, was it?”
Adele took a moment to catch her breath and spoke with difficulty in a hushed voice
“I wanted... revenge.”
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