Chapter 2. The Beginning of Everything (2)

Screeech!

The ear-splitting sound of tires scraping against the pavement shook the ground again, clashing with the quaint atmosphere of the dessert street.

As soon as the car stopped, Rapellian jumped out.

‘Why on earth is that kid here.’

The white ball of fur cradled in the small figure who had fallen onto the road was unmistakably his youngest brother, even from a distance.

Rapellian’s expression, which rarely showed agitation, hardened severely.

The people on the street were terrified by his ice-blue sharp eyes and the fierce pheromones emanating from him.

“Riello!”

At the voice echoing through the street, the fallen girl jumped up in shock.

Accustomed to being misunderstood even for praiseworthy actions, she wanted to leave this place as quickly as possible.

“You shouldn’t get up like that……”

What if something was broken—what was she thinking?

Rapellian reached out his hand to stop the child’s sudden movement.

But things didn’t go as he intended.

Before he could do anything, the girl put down the white wolf pup she was holding and moved swiftly.

Her intention to flee was obvious to anyone watching.

With a perplexed feeling, Rapellian picked up his brother and blocked the girl’s path.

“Ack!”

The girl, who had been running forward blindly, stumbled in surprise when her path was blocked and landed hard on her bottom.

As things unfolded contrary to her intentions, she quickly became anxious.

“Oh no……”

He had blocked her way thinking she shouldn’t be allowed to leave, but he hadn’t expected her to fall like this.

Rapellian handed his brother to the driver who had rushed over, then lowered himself to her level.

“Little one.”

At this quiet address, the girl couldn’t even raise her head and fumbled about nervously.

Sensing this approach wasn’t working, Rapellian decided to help her up first.

The moment his hand touched her small body, his eyes widened slightly.

‘What is this?’

A clear, pure energy with no trace of impure intentions captivated him.

It was filled only with innocent goodwill, like a blank white sheet of paper yet transparently sparkling.

“Where does it hurt?”

His voice was remarkably gentle as he asked the question.

There was no reason to maintain a lofty attitude when receiving help from someone.

No matter how noble one might be, only ill-bred fools who knew neither gratitude nor proper home training would act stiffly in such a situation.

Feeling grateful that she had saved his brother and sensing a pure energy he had never felt from the children of numerous noble families, Rapellian naturally softened his demeanor despite usually maintaining walls and sharp edges around others.

“Pardon?”

Surprised by the friendly voice and gentle gesture that made her doubt her ears, the girl quickly raised her head that had been lowered.

Thanks to this, their gazes, which had been misaligned until now, collided for the first time.

“Gasp!”

The girl inhaled sharply as she recognized who was holding her.

Silver hair fluttering in the cold breeze, blue eyes that seemed to contain the clear northern sky, and beautiful features both cool and elegant—all these settled upon the girl’s red eyes.

‘How can a person look like this?’

Shocked by his appearance, the girl’s eyes lost focus and became dazed.

Rapellian too was captivated by the ruby-colored eyes before him and could not speak further.

The moment he saw those red eyes, Rapellian felt a strange sensation, like an electric current running through his entire body.

‘How is this possible……’

Rapellian was utterly confused.

His ears, always sensitive enough to hear sounds he shouldn’t need to hear, became strangely quiet in this moment.

This unfamiliar sensation, experienced for the first time, completely paralyzed his thinking.

He couldn’t believe the world could be this quiet.

‘What is this human? What exactly is she……’

Experiencing a sensation he had never felt before, Rapellian strongly felt that he shouldn’t let this small human before him slip away. Perhaps it was curiosity, or maybe desperation for what might become his only breathing space in a noisy world.

The two stared at each other as if the world had stopped, each with different thoughts. The two pairs of eyes locked together without the slightest misalignment, unable to break away.

“……”

“……”

A long silence continued without any words exchanged.

In the calm stillness, as if only the two of them remained in the world, they both forgot even to blink.

However, this intense silence didn’t last long.

‘Am I dreaming? I didn’t sleep well because of the thunder and lightning yesterday……’

The girl, who had forgotten even to blink, slowly lowered and raised her eyelids, trying to understand the situation.

But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t comprehend what was happening.

The girl’s sense of reality was close to zero, which led her to do something she would never do normally.

Her thin, small hand reached out and touched his cheek.

“Beautiful. Soft…… Huh?”

The girl tilted her head to the side as the sensation clearly transmitted through her fingertips. With a half-dazed face, she stroked his cheek once.

The clear sensation felt by her hand was definitely not a dream.

‘This isn’t a dream. Then……’

The girl reached one conclusion.

No matter how fast she prided herself on being, there was no way she could have avoided that hard metal contraption moving at such tremendous speed.

‘I’m not that lucky a person.’

The girl’s heart fluttered.

She had thought ‘I survived!’ while rolling on the ground, but now realized that was a mistaken thought.

“I…… must be dead. This person must be an angel.”

The girl muttered while staring blankly at her hand that had touched him.

She felt relieved that the pain of death wasn’t as great as she had imagined, that she hadn’t died too painfully.

Yet she felt sad. Unbearably wronged.

‘There were so many things I wanted to do before dying…… I died on an empty stomach, so I probably don’t look pretty. To be a beggar even in death.’

As these thoughts continued, the girl sniffled and finally shed tears from her unusually large and beautiful eyes as she faced his gaze again.

“Ah, no.”

The girl’s tears brought Rapellian back to reality.

His ears became noisy again.

The noise he felt after the breathtaking silence made his nerves even more irritable, but he was more concerned about the small human shedding large tears before him.

“Why are you crying? Does it hurt a lot?”

Rapellian stroked her dry cheek, trying to soothe the being who had suddenly started crying.

“I really must be dead. You really are an angel. Waaah.”

The girl began to cry loudly at his gentle touch.

She couldn’t stop her tears, believing only an angel would treat her so kindly.

Realizing her death anew, the girl unleashed the tears she had suppressed all her life. Now that she was dead, crying to her heart’s content seemed the only way to feel less miserable.

“An-angel?”

“I never even got to eat bread until I was full. At least it’s…… hic heaven and not hell, that’s fortunate. But could you please sob save the puppy?”

The girl muttered through her flowing tears, unable to imagine how perplexed he was.

Rapellian was confused about what was happening, but soon understood what she was thinking.

Even with the courage to save an unfamiliar being, how could she not have felt fear?

‘Despite being so frightened, she asks for the puppy to be saved.’

He started to feel a bit better experiencing such pure goodwill after a long time.

“You’re not dead.”

“Angel, but do you really have to take me too?”

“Little one. Look at me. You’re not dead.”

Rapellian took out a handkerchief and gently dabbed at her eyes, which kept producing tears.

Her cheeks, which had been a mess with tear stains, became a bit neater.

“What?”

“I said you’re not dead.”

“You don’t have to lie to comfort me. There’s no way someone like you could exist in the world.”

He, who usually never clearly displayed emotions, couldn’t hold back this time and burst into laughter.

At the sight of him laughing brightly, the driver watching from a distance and the youngest of the Mosteros family cradled in his arms gaped in astonishment.

“My name may be derived from Raphael, but unfortunately, I’m not a real angel.”

After laughing heartily, he shrugged and tucked her jagged hair behind her ear. Only then did her full appearance properly register in his eyes.

Rags and tattered shoes. Short hair cut messily and in disorder. Dark circles under her eyes as if she hadn’t slept, and hollow cheeks.

And skinny, bony limbs.

‘Twelve? Maybe thirteen years old?’

Feeling a bitterness in his mouth, Rapellian wiped her tear-soaked cheeks again.

“You may be a little hurt, but you’re still alive, so don’t worry too much.”

“If that’s the case, then I…… I……”

If she wasn’t dead, that was a problem in itself.

As she began to realize this wasn’t heaven, the girl’s eyes grew wider and wider until she finally started gasping for breath.

Fear of what she had just done washed over her like a wave.

Her skinny body, filled with terror, trembled violently.

If the other wasn’t an angel, there was only one answer.

He must be a very high-ranking nobleman.

“Ah! Oh no. I-I’m sorry. How dare I touch such a noble person. Please forgive me. I thought I was dead…… I’m sorry.”

The girl prostrated herself flat on the ground and begged desperately.

At her frantic cry, Rapellian finally realized that the human before him had touched him.

In truth, he had been so focused on the red eyes that had led him to an unprecedentedly quiet world that he hadn’t even noticed his cheek being touched.

‘She touched me……’

She had even touched him, yet he had been so numb that he hadn’t perceived it.

Wanting to confirm exactly what this rare experience had been, Rapellian looked down at the trembling figure lying prostrate on the ground.

‘I feel like a bad person.’

Seeing the small, bony body curled up wasn’t pleasant.

Rapellian quickly helped the child to her feet.

Then, gently cupping the cheek that was biting her lip and holding back tears, he said:

“What do you think you did wrong?”

“Well……”

“I didn’t say anything, did I?”

The indifferent tone and gaze he usually showed others was nowhere to be found, but the girl couldn’t easily set aside her fear.

“There’s no apology I need from you. Rather, I should be thanking you. Thank you for saving my brother. The Mosteros family is deeply indebted to you.”

Rapellian bowed his head.

“Yes. What?”

The girl, who had responded reflexively, gaped in shock.

‘The Mosteros family?!’

Upon hearing his identity, the girl trembled even more with fear.

One of the Empire’s four ducal families, standing at the center, with enough power to become an independent principality at any time, the leader of the North and the Empire’s greatest family.

No one living in Aserion would be unfamiliar with Mosteros.

The girl couldn’t help but be surprised that a son of such a family was bowing his head to her.

‘Why is such an important person being kind to a child like me? Even bowing his head……’

Having never experienced anyone treating her this way in her entire life, this unfamiliar experience only frightened her.

‘Ah! Maybe he’s pretending to be kind because there are many witnesses, but plans to beat me elsewhere. I hugged his precious body. I even touched him.’

It was a reasonable suspicion built on experience.

The girl was on the verge of tears from fear of being beaten.

Tears she usually held back well were strangely difficult to contain today.

Rapellian, for his part, was troubled by the sniffling person before him.

His sensitive animal instincts detected the other’s clear wariness and fear.

Rapellian instinctively felt that things wouldn’t go smoothly from here on. At this rate, he would not only fail to confirm this unfamiliar experience but might lose this human forever, which made him anxious.

“Oh dear. It must be hard if you keep crying.”

“I-I’m not crying. I won’t cry. I’m sorry.”

Just one comment had increased her tension even more.

Rapellian decided to change the subject.

“There’s nothing wrong with crying. It’s natural to tear up after falling so hard. I’m just worried it might be difficult for you. Where does it hurt the most? Your cheek? Or your shoulder? Your arm?”

Rapellian carefully examined her injuries.

Since most touches on her body had been violent, the girl instinctively shrank back and shook her head vigorously, saying she was fine.

“You seem to move well, so it doesn’t look like you’ve broken any bones……”

“I’m really fine.”

“I understand your feelings. But I’d like to properly examine and treat you. To the hospital……”

“Th-that’s not necessary.”

The girl waved her hands frantically in horror.

She desperately asserted her will, wanting to resolve this matter quickly in a place with many onlookers.

However, Rapellian misunderstood as he watched her face turn pale.

‘She must have experienced something terrible at a hospital. In that case, I can call a personal physician.’

Thinking there was no need to remind someone who was also his benefactor of bad memories, he changed his mind. A simple examination could be done at home anyway.

“If you don’t like hospitals, what about home? I’ll call our family’s physician. I should also meet your parents to explain the situation.”

If she had a proper home and parents, the child wouldn’t be in this state.

Nevertheless, Rapellian followed procedure just in case.

Soon, an answer not much different from his expectation came.

“I don’t have a home. I don’t have a mom or dad. Never had them.”