IBTHM Chapter 20

It was during lunch.

I didn't exactly have an appetite after what happened with Abel yesterday, but with this pathetically weak body, skipping even one meal would leave me too drained to walk.

The ducal castle's cook had clearly put thought into the meal—there were many dishes laid out—but there was no one to share them with.

Just me alone in the vast dining room.

Every so often, the quiet dining room felt strangely alien, and I'd stop cutting my food to stare blankly at the empty chairs.

Had Abel been looking at this same scene every day?

"Haah..."

Wanting nothing more than to escape, I shoved food into my mouth haphazardly.

That's when someone entered the dining room.

I turned at the sound and saw Abel holding a soup bowl.

"Y-Young Lord... Kuk!"

A piece of meat I hadn't fully swallowed lodged in my throat and I nearly died right there.

Abel rushed over immediately, worried as I clutched my throat and hacked away.

"Y-Young Lady. Are you all right?"

Setting his bowl on the table, Abel came to stand before me with a concerned expression.

I forced down the barely-chewed food and answered.

"Yes. Kuk... I'm fine, I'm fine."

My gaze instinctively dropped to Abel's feet as I finally managed a response.

He shouldn't be walking around yet—I was worried he'd come all the way to the dining room.

Perhaps sensing my stare, Abel hesitated for a moment before speaking.

"May I... eat with you?"

"Hm? Oh, of course. Sit down. Care... fully."

I'd said it with his injured soles in mind, but Abel simply nodded without seeming puzzled and took his seat.

I began watching Abel carefully.

When he'd woken this morning, Abel would have seen his bandaged wounds.

Knowing that aside from Hades, there was no one else in the ducal castle who would care for him, Abel seemed to have faintly guessed that I'd visited last night.

"Um... Young Lady."

"...Yes."

"By any chance..."

"..."

"C-could we eat together like this... every day?"

Abel's voice was trembling.

As if afraid of being rejected.

I held back the tears threatening to spill from my stinging eyes and answered.

"...Of course."

"And after meals... could we have snacks together in... your room?"

"Of course. Absolutely."

"When my feet heal..."

Abel's lips were quivering, and then he burst into tears.

Teardrops rolled down his small cheeks and fell plop, plop into his soup bowl, creating ripples.

Through sobs that mangled his pronunciation, Abel asked once more.

"...E-every day, c-kuk, t-together... going for w-walks?"

With reddened eyes, Abel looked at me.

'Mom, are you coming home today?'

'I miss you. Can't you come home soon so we can sleep together tonight?'

It felt like I was seeing my childhood self overlapping with him...

"Yes. Yes. I'd love to. So, so much. We'll do everything you want."

In the end, I burst into tears too.

When Abel, who'd been sitting right beside me, threw himself into my arms, I embraced his head.

We cried like that for a long while.

When the tightness in my chest finally subsided and we stopped crying, Abel and I looked at each other's messy faces and burst out laughing without either of us starting first.

"Young Lord, you mustn't cry. It ruins your pretty face."

In truth, even Abel's crying face was shockingly perfect, but I said it teasingly.

Abel laughed for a while, then pulled me into another hug and nuzzled his face against me.

"Young Lady, even your crying face is pretty."

Oh my...

I remembered a line Abel had once said to the female lead Deborah and found myself laughing again.

He'd told Deborah not to cry because her crying face wasn't pretty.

Of course, he'd said it because he didn't want to see the female lead cry, but I decided to interpret it my own way.

Unlike Deborah, Abel thinks even my crying face is pretty.

"Young Lord."

"...Yes."

"From now on, you must tell me when something hurts."

"Y-yes..."

"You have to tell me when your body hurts, and when someone hurts your feelings too. Come straight to me and tell on them. Understand?"

"..."

Abel pulled away from my embrace and looked up at me hesitantly.

He was probably thinking of Agatha.

I added with a completely unconcerned expression so Abel wouldn't worry.

"If it's the Countess, don't worry. I went and told her very firmly never to bother the Young Lord again."

"What?!"

Abel turned pale.

"Really, you don't need to worry. His Grace the Duke gave me permission to scold anyone who bothers you."

"...R-really?"

"Of course. Probably?"

Even as I answered, I felt just the tiniest bit worried.

By now, Agatha had probably gone to Hades and thrown a fit demanding he throw me out.

After I'd caused such a scene yesterday...

Hades had certainly said I could act however I wanted, but unless I was an idiot, I should have known there were reasonable limits even to that permission.

When he found out that not only had I been rude to the Countess, but had also hurled insults and mockery at her, Hades might be absolutely furious.

He might even say, I must have lost my mind momentarily to think of letting a hooligan like you into the ducal castle, and throw me out into this freezing northern wasteland with nothing but the clothes on my back...

"Hieek!"

My confidence from yesterday had somehow become remarkably timid.

Abel was looking at me with worried eyes.

"I-I'm fine. Really."

I said it so he wouldn't worry, but what if I really did get thrown out?

Then I wouldn't even be able to see Abel from a distance anymore...

BANG!

"Oh my!"

"Huk!"

That's when it happened. Abel and I jumped at the furious presence.

Speak of the tiger and it appears. The timing gave me chills.

The person who'd burst through the dining room door with enough force to nearly break it was Hades.

He wore the most terrifying expression I'd ever seen on him.

Even though our eyes met from quite a distance, his menacing aura made my legs go weak.

Hades glanced sharply at me, then strode forward and stood before Abel.

"F-Father?"

Without answering, Hades knelt before Abel.

Abel floundered as Hades unceremoniously removed his shoes.

"I-I..."

Once the shoes came off, Abel's bare feet were revealed, clumsily wrapped in bandages.

The white bandages where blood had seeped through were stained reddish.

Hades fell silent for a moment, looking at Abel's feet.

"F-Father..."

"Abel."

Hades called Abel's name quietly. But no other words followed.

How had he found out about Abel's injuries?

Most likely he'd deduced it from his conversation with Agatha, who had probably gone to tattle yesterday.

Which meant he also knew I'd caused a scene in her room.

That wicked old woman wouldn't have conveyed the situation and conversation exactly as they happened.

Right now, Hades might have me branded as a complete lunatic. No, he definitely would.

Hades stared down at Abel's wounds for a long moment in silence, then gently grasped his ankle.

In that instant.

Even though I had zero magical power and couldn't even hide my core jewel, I could feel some strange flow of energy.

I immediately recognized what Hades was trying to do.

"Y-Your Grace! Please don't. There's no need to go that far..."

Hades looked at me with indifferent eyes as I tried to intervene.

He seemed incredibly angry for some reason, and in the end, I couldn't stop him and fell silent.

As Hades stroked Abel's ankle a few times, a startled gasp escaped Abel's lips.

That was 'Absorption'—an ability possessed by all core jewels regardless of attribute.

Any physical changes caused by external factors could be transferred to another target using this ability.

Simply put, Hades had just taken Abel's wounds onto himself.

Of course I wanted Abel not to hurt, so I shouldn't have stopped Hades, but at the same time I was worried.

Because the pain of the wounds would be transferred entirely to the one who absorbed them.

This was why all the healers in the temple had the white attribute.

Only the white attribute's 'Purification' ability could heal transferred wounds without experiencing them fully.

And I could recognize this immediately because Hades had died using precisely this absorption ability.

He had absorbed the rampaging Abel's internal injuries and shattered mind, and died doing so...

"F-Father."

Abel seemed bewildered that the pain had completely vanished, as if it were miraculous.

It was a very subtle change, but I noticed Hades frown as he took on all of Abel's pain.

But it was truly only for an instant. Hades rose with a completely unaffected expression and swept Abel into his arms.

The sight of Abel in his father's embrace, arms wrapped around his neck, looked very natural. I could sense a bond between them that was beyond my understanding.

Holding Abel, Hades looked down at me. His face said he had much to say.

Was he going to demand why I'd caused such a scene with Agatha?

If he asked that, I had no answer ready.

I simply avoided Hades's gaze as he stared directly at me.