Childcare Diaries - Chapter 89

Gideon had just woken up when Derek went back to see the doctor.

“Are you okay?”

Blinking once at Derek, who looked at him worriedly, Gideon took the water handed to him and took a sip. He then asked as if he had come to his senses just then.

“My wife…”

“She’s at home. She must have been very worried as she looked emaciated overnight.”

“Ah…”

Muttering in a sad sound, after thinning for a moment, he spoke to Derek.

“I will be discharged after lunchtime.”

“It would be better to stay in the hospital for one more day. They say that you are not feeling well usually, too, so if you leave in this state, you will soon collapse again.”

At his insistence, Gideon thought he had heard of his condition from a member of the council. Nonetheless, he continued to insist on returning home.

“The hospital bills have already been paid. If you go now, you’ll be wasting an amount of money.”

Derek thought Gideon wanted to go back because of the hospital bills.

“…Sorry. I am indebted to you again.”

It had been a long time since he had already given up his face, but Gideon, who was shy to expose his situation like this, uttered in a low voice.

“Well. If you really feel bad about it, can you give me a tour later before I leave this town?”

“Yes, I can.”

Gideon answered in a voice that had regained the energy a little.

“You’ll have to get well sooner than that.”

Gideon smiled slightly at his words before closing his eyes slowly. It seemed that the fever had come again.

‘Haa… I didn’t come here to take care of them like this.’

On the other hand, Derek’s eyes staring at him had complicated feelings.

* * *

The night that Barry and Siege had been waiting for has arrived. The two children, who had been pretending to sleep with the lights turned off in their respective rooms, opened the window and met in the garden with the highest bushes.

After looking at each other’s faces and exchanging glances, they started moving.

“How’s it going?”

Barry, who was checking to see if no one was approaching them from the mansion, asked Siege. At that, he glanced at the County’s knights and shook his head.

“Did they increase the security compared to last time? I guess we’ll have to wait for the shift change before leaving.”

“We can’t help it.”

Both of them crouched and hid in the darkest part of the shadows.

“I feel like a criminal when I’m doing this.”

When Siege said that, Barry laughed out loud. It was because it was funny to be doing this.

“This time, let’s get back before the Count comes to find us. Someone will find us in the morning.”

“Yes.”

Finally, the shift change time approached, and the two succeeded in getting out of the mansion while the knights were talking to each other.

The place the two of them went to was the bridge — where Jaz’s body was found, and they planned to look for eyewitnesses. Even the guards and the Count’s knights couldn’t solve it easily. Still, the children were looking for any kind of clue.

“Is it here…?”

“From the mark, I think it’s right.”

Siege’s expression subsided. His heart throbbed at the thought that his brother had died in a place like this. He peered around, struggling with his heart.

Perhaps, there was something that could be of help.

“If the luggage was not found or dropped while moving the body, maybe some of the homeless people living here took something worth the money.”

He agreed to Barry’s words and slowly entered the bridge. Siege, who entered there, was quite surprised. Even though he had lived being treated like a rogue at home, he was born a nobleman.

Hearing that people live in a place like this was very different from seeing it in reality. The smell of filth and something rotten wafted together, and there were many people who leaned against the wall and slept, whether they were drunk or asleep.

They all looked like they hadn’t bathed in a year.

“….”

However, seeing Barry casually passing through it, it seemed that many of the fallen nobles and commoners were living like this.

As the children went deeper and deeper, those who had not yet fallen asleep or those who had been waking up from a slumber began to pay attention to them.

The people there seemed to hide it as much as possible, though seeing that they wore expensive clothes and clean skin, they knew that Barry and Siege must have been young masters of noble families.

Although they didn’t know what happened until here, everyone was preparing to stretch out a hand towards the two children.

Still, the reason they hesitate was because of the swords the children wore around their waists. It seemed that they had just entered the Knights Order, and they were worried about what would happen if the children wield their swords.

However, they soon concluded that it was nothing more than a decorative toy sword for the young masters of the noble family.

Barry and Siege exchanged glances at each other and began to narrow their distance.

“Can you feel it?”

Siege asked Barry a little.

“Yes. They’re surrounding us.”

Barry answered and placed a hand on his scabbard. He saw them twitch for a moment.

“Don’t kill or injure them, just stun them or immobilize them for a while.”

Siege agreed with his words.

The clothes of the people who approached the children were so old that it was difficult to recognize their original form. It was quite bizarre to see them approaching with their loose long hair, regardless of age or gender.

They ran towards the children at the same time.

“Aaackk!”

The screams of the living who had starved for days echoed here and there. If not now, they didn’t know when they would be able to fill their stomachs again. In addition, those who woke up after hearing the sound joined in, and the number of people increased in an instant.

“It seems we took it too easy.”

Siege spoke his words relaxedly to the people who rushed at them desperately.

“The place I used to live was not like this.”

Still, Barry, who had a house to go in and barely had his mouth full, had never seen such a sight. His heart felt bad because there were children of the same age as him among the people running towards them.

“I can’t knock all these people out like this.”

“What are you going to do?”

Barry asked Siege.

“We came out under the command of the Chancellor!”

Siege, who filled his voice with enthusiasm, exclaimed. His voice resounded through the legs, breaking through the screams of the crowd.

“Wh-what are you going to do?”

Bewildered, Barry quickly whispered.

“I can’t help it.”

“It’s true, but it’s been a while since the Count quit being the Chancellor.”

As the two of them were whispering, they saw people with bizarre expressions staring at them.

“Whoever helps us will be rewarded. But, if you rush like this, you will get nothing.”

They all glanced at each other. It was to check whether the children were bluffing or not.

“As it is, there is nothing we can do about it, and we will close this bridge if there is a problem with us.”

Barry, who was looking at Siege, helped. Even on a bridge like this, there was no one who wouldn’t be shaken by the fact that their only place to lean on was gone.

“Do… don’t.”

The words came from a small child near them who was holding the hand of its supposed father. Seeing this, Barry and Siege felt like they were the villains.

“Yes. We don’t want that either, so please cooperate with us.”

The strength was released from the bodies of those who were preparing to rush at Siege and Barry.

“What can we do to… help?”

One of the homeless people who spoke rudely to the children now politely said it in an awkward way after knowing they were the ones sent by the chancellor.

“There is a body from here recently.”

People began to gossip about the mention of ‘body.’

“We are looking for his belongings. Has anyone seen it?”

As soon as they heard that, they glanced at each other.

‘…There’s something.’

Barry and Siege had an idea at the same time.

“Tell me about it. Ten gold coins to those who say they have seen it.”

They could see the people inhaling hastily at the word gold coin.

“And, I will give a hundred gold coins to those who bring the real belongings.”

As if they couldn’t believe the word hundred gold coins, they started looking at each other.

“Don’t try to steal from children. If there is someone who can safely protect the child, I will provide them with gold coins as well.”

Barry added, glancing at the child who said no and the child who appeared to be seven years old.

“We are County Charant’s knights. So, if you have anything to tell or give, come and ask for a knight named Barry.”

After speaking, Barry and Siege leisurely passed the people who were only looking at each other and came out of the bridge. And when they saw the sun that started to rise, they hurried to the mansion.

* * *

The sun shone on the mansion.

Brielle frowned once at the sunlight streaming in through the curtains Marie had put down, then rolled his back and escaped out of the sun. The child buried his face in the pillow.

After a while, his face came out on the side of the pillow. His plump face was pressed by a pillow and became like steamed buns. Laying his body down in an upright position, his face was puffy as if he had slept soundly all night. Meanwhile, his lips protrude slightly, resembling a carp, as Ellie once teased.

‘I must grow taller.’

Brielle stretched out his arms while pushing his legs as hard as he could.

“One… two… three… ten!”

After ten seconds, he let his body relax and repeat the motion once more.

‘Marie is late today.’

He even did his stretching, but Marie, who would normally come to wake him up, was not there.

‘I was going to give her a morning kiss… Hehe. Or, I can look for her.’

With that in mind, Brielle turned over again, pulled out his hips once more, and sat down.

His scattered hair slowly fell down and wrapped around his head. As the child stared at the mirror across from the bed, he ran his hand through his hair. Although he said he had tidied it up, the back of his hair was still stretched out.

Brielle managed to get his heavy body down from the high bed.