Dry Drowning

Chapter 16

What the hell is he doing?

Regardless of whether Ian felt absurd at the situation or not, the wooden board was drowning once again.

The child tilted his head as if it was strange to be submerged in the water, and then he jumped in and put his hands in to rescue the wooden board. Then, he clumsily fixed it and drowned it in the water again, making a loud noise.

Unbeknownst to him, Ian, who was unwittingly watching the child’s behaviour was barely able to understand him shortly after.

Ian had to fix the wooden board he had just managed to get on the chin of the fountain in order to rub his clothes on, but it kept slipping and falling into the fountain.

He couldn’t understand whether he was doing laundry or fighting a war.

Ian noticed that the child was trying to imitate what he was doing, but the result was completely different. While he was trying to wash the clothes, Ian became speechless for some time as the kid got frustrated, causing the wooden board to slip once again.

Even if it was messy, it was too sloppy.

Looking at the stack of clothes in his arms, it seemed like someone ordered the child to wash them just like me, but no matter how much I looked at it, it didn’t seem like I could finish it today.

The child, who was covered in water, was looking down at the drowning wooden board again.

It was understandable that nothing worked out the way I wanted, but I was just wondering. If he dresses like this in this weather, it’s just right to catch a cold.

Ian stopped watching and soon started his work.

He didn’t feel the need to help.

It was his first time seeing him, and even it would have been the same if he hadn’t seen him for the first time.

It was an old habit not to be involved with others. Since no one knows if what you did as a favour will turn out well or not. It wasn’t really uncommon to doubt even the favour that was being given to you. People used to be most wary of the reason for no reason.

There is also unconditional altruism in the world. In the end, Ian couldn’t give the dog a habit.

I just couldn’t afford to be responsible for anything.

Ian had the chance of falling once out of five times, but if he fell into the mud, he would get dirty, so he stuck to the floor. A man who crawls on the floor not to fall, cannot shake hands with someone, so the best he could do was grab their ankle to show his courtesy.

[T/N- Ian could have fallen 5 times but he stuck to the floor to not fall because he would get dirty. But according to him(or from a third person’s POV) a man crawling on the floor to not fall is shameful (or something like that) and so as it’s such a shameful thing, the only thing he can do is to grab others’ ankles and show courtesy because he can’t shake hands after doing such a shameful thing. I don’t know why it’s shameful but that is what they said ig(＠_＠;). (Hope this clears a little confusion (；^ω^))]

It was still like that.

He knew best that he wasn’t in a good enough situation to help others.

Looking down at his red fingers, new water flowed out of somewhere as if it recognized the yellowish water. Ian didn’t know what system it was, but it was made for laundry, not fountains.

By the time the sun began to set, everything calmed down as I decided not to pay attention to anything more.

When Ian, who had finished all the laundry that had been multiplied, got up, the child who was still struggling with clothes was also seen standing up.

‘Isn’t it cold to look like a wet mouse? ‘

Ian glanced at the pile of ragged clothes unlike in the morning, sighed. If you take it as it is, you won’t be able to see good things. The child, who smiled broadly as if he was excited to meet his eyes whether he knew it or not, poked his own lips.

It was clear what he was trying to say, but Ian didn’t mean to accept it.

The child, who was flustered by the sight of Ian turning his back, immediately shook his hands diligently.

‘Goodbye!’

I said hello that I couldn’t say, but I couldn’t hear the answer.

I thought I might turn around at least once, so I opened my eyes wide and walked with great strides like a busy person.

The child, who had been staring at Ian’s back disappearing in an instant, stuck out his head again.

Feeling sorry, he looked around to see if he really had gone, but Ian, who had already returned to his room, never came back.

Fred’s idling continued the next day. Blankets were mixed in the pile of laundry thrown with a face even seen by the parents.

Now that I’ve washed it every day, I’m almost done with the laundry. As I can see from the blanket that was rolling around in the corner.

‘But what is that?’

Fred, who was almost there, raised his chin, but the atmosphere was again silenced by Ian, who lifted a pile of clothes pretending as if nothing had happened.

At this point, it was reasonably discouraging, but rather, it felt like Fred was attracting attention.

Not knowing that sympathetic eyes were directed at him, Ian moderately ignored Fred, who was spewing out abusive words and left the door. He was a man who didn’t like to talk much. Well, he can’t even talk.

As I stepped into the hallway that I was used to now, all of their gazes gathered.

As the time to lock him up in his room and monitor him has ended, no one stopped him even though Ian was wandering from place to place.

Even if he tried to escape, he couldn’t, and even if he miraculously escaped, he could be found at any time if the Grand Duke wanted to, so he was almost eaten up by useless surveillance. Knowing that it was inevitable, knights from the north were busy stiffening their faces whenever they encountered Ian.

This was all due to the Grand Duke, who suddenly made a ridiculous act on a whim.

No one could understand the spirit of putting the prince of the enemy country in his own knighthood, but if they didn’t understand it, he would recommend cutting off his head, so no one disagreed.

However, Ian, who had no idea of such a situation, just headed to the fountain without looking around.

“………”

Ian was looking at the snow that was still piled up today when he took a few steps.

Then, he stops for a moment to find someone wriggling in the distance, he turns his head that way, perhaps he felt a sign of people.

Snow piled up on his fluffy hair. The child, who opened his eyes wide once without realising it, soon waved both hands. Ian looked expressionlessly at his smiling face with his puffy cheeks like custard cream, wondering from where he had been beaten.

As Ian got closer, he saw that his condition was far worse.

The back of his hand was scratched and all the wounds that could be seen here and there were fresh and new.

The child followed him as he put the clothes he was holding down in the right place, even if he did not listen to his explanation. His expression was the same as yesterday. Even though the traces of being beaten remained as if they were not properly treated, he smiled without wrinkling and his mouth quivered.

I turned my head away because I couldn’t understand.

The child rolled his eyes at the sight of Ian, who started working the same way as yesterday, fixing the plate, dipping his hands in ice water.

You don’t feel good? Why isn’t it good?

Before I knew it, I put off the laundry I received today and started thinking about it.

Ian, who didn’t seem interested in it, never looked back once.

“Hey, do this, too.”

As lunch neared, Fred, who had finished training in the morning, appeared with another batch. He put down clothes stained with unknown things in front of Ian and opened his mouth when he saw a child next to him.

“What, why are you here?”

Do you know each other?

When I glanced at him, Fred looked into the face of the swollen child, and clicked his tongue as if he knew it.

“Did Turk beat you up again?”

He saw Turk coming in with a leering face last night and understood it right away. He wondered who made the clothes rag, but Turk was the only one who could do such a foolish thing. He must have been heated up after ordering laundry to tease him. Ian had to do laundry because he let himself be bothered but on the contrary, he could have a fever.

Fred, who once looked at Ian, who still didn’t even look at him, twitched his lips.

You’re ignoring me, aren’t you?

[T/N: To clear a little confusion, the above line is said by the boy to Ian. Not technically “said” by mouth, maybe it was just moving the lips or by doing some gesture. Both the boy and Ian cannot talk.]

I was doing what I was told without saying anything, but it was clear that I was looking down on him.

“It’s good that people who can’t even talk get along well with each other.”

Fred, who got half the answer, alternated between Ian and Shyu, who were side by side, and whispered sarcastically.

[T/N: So the boy’s name is “Shyu”]

Unlike Ian, Shyu, who was picked up by the Knights when he was very young, had a congenital disorder. Every year, children who were unlikely to be used as a labor force or were likely to be a burden were thrown away in the black forest. It was because of the weather in the north, which made it difficult for people to earn a living without working.

They were surprised that he didn’t die, so they brought him back to the mansion, but that was it. Unlike the jokes about raising him well and putting him in the knights, the kid hesitated about everything.

Shyu, who is small in size and slow to learn, was not even in a position to hold a sword. Later when it was discovered that his intelligence was a little inferior, Shyu was already being regarded as a servant of several bad knights. There was no one to protect him anymore.

The captain, Schwartz, peeped in from time to time and looked after the child, so they didn’t hurt him, but he couldn’t stop everything. The elite troops who received direct orders from the archduke were always busy. It was practically impossible to look into a child’s daily life and take care of him.

Moreover, it was Turk.

Even the knights, who had a little sympathy and favour with little Shyu were of no help for the majority did not want to get tangled up.

Like all bystanders, the little violence and irrationality were taking place and accumulated day by day. Fred, who knew it better than anyone else, turned his eyes away with a strange look.

ㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡㅡ

T/N: YESH! I AM BACK. Sorry for making you all wait so much. As some of you may know I had an exam (and it went for nearly a monthಥ‿ಥ). But I am finally back!!! Enjoy this chapter and stay tuned for more!!