TMKWPL CH 10

Chapter 10

• ────── ✦ ────── •

A New Emotion

“You can go now. The child looks tired.”

“Huh? But we still need to organise the gifts...”

Gilliana answered worryingly but Heath quickly used his magic to stack the boxes all the way to the ceiling, clearing enough space to move around.

“...Then let's clean up the rest tomorrow, Gilliana. Let's go.”

Vernon grabbed the oblivious Gilliana and quickly pulled her out of the dormitory.

Once they were gone, Nia was anxiously clutching the clothes she was wearing

“Nia. Everything eventually becomes dirty.”

“...No. It doesn't. When I touch things, they become unusable.”

Hearing a child who was destined to become a Saint say something like that left Lucia both startled and bitterly amused.

“That's not true. There is nothing in this world that becomes unusable just because you touched it.”

If anything, they would be restored or bring it back to life..

Nia avoided Lucia's gaze, looked up and murmured something in a very small voice.

“...Gloves. The gloves are dirty.”

“The gloves?”

“It was dirty... that you can’t use it...”

Lucia raised an eyebrow at Nia's cryptic words.

The child's face went dark, as if she had made a big mistake again. Nia had been looking on those gloves on the very first day she arrived here.

...Ah, so that was it.

First it was the bathroom and the floor, now it was the glove.  What on earth could possibly be filling in her little head?

What kind of scars were etched in her heart?

She unconsciously stroked the child’s head, who in her previous life, would have died with even more painful wounds.

But Nia flinched at her touch and stepped back. Seeing the rejection, Lucia blankly withdrew her hand.

I have no idea how to make this child stop thinking that she is dirty.

But one thing was clear, if she continued to play house like this, the outcome was obvious.

What now seemed like simple self-blame would grow into a heart that trusted no one, leading inevitably to loneliness.

Just like Lucia herself.

She had walked that path, so she knew better than anyone that such a life was not a happy one.

So she made a decision.

Even if her aggressive attitude made the child want to go back to the orphanage, there was something she had to tell her.

“Nia. Bring me the gloves.”

Nia flinched at her serious tone causing her small shoulders to tremble.  With reluctant footsteps, she found the glove, which its owner had forgotten, and carefully held it out to her. The glove was crusted with tiny feathers and bird droppings, bringing back the image of Nia from that day.

Lucia took the glove, headed to the bathroom and filled the basin with warm water. She threw a bar of expensive soap into the water and stirred it. But the water just turned cloudy, and no suds appeared like she'd seen in the mountains of laundry where the maids gathered.

Is it a different kind of soap...? Or do you need more people?

“Can you come here and lend me a hand?”

Nia stood in the distance, hesitated, then slowly approached.

“Come up and stir it for a bit. No matter how much I stir, it won't make suds.”

Perhaps wanting to repay the favour, Nia squeezed her eyes shut and cautiously placed her hands into the basin. Stirring the cloudy water together, though not as much as Lucia remembered, tiny bubbles began to form in the basin.

“...Bubbles!”

“That's right. Now, let's do it together.”

Lucia handed her the glove, and Nia blinked her round eyes and took it. Following Lucia's lead, she put the glove in the soapy water and wriggled her fingers. After a few rubs, the filth on the stained glove quickly came off.

...Not bad.

Lucia had never done housework in her life, but she was surprised at the sense of satisfaction it gave her. She was proud that the glove return to its original colour. Straightening her back, she suddenly froze.

...What?

Nia was silently focused while kneading the glove. The glove had already returned to its original colour.

A competitive spirit ignited Lucia, she was being bested by a five-year-old.

She began scrubbing meticulously, with a face as serious as when she was wielding a sword.

After a moment of intense scrubbing session,

“…Look! Look !”

Nia’s cheeks flushed with a triumphant smile, and held out her clean glove to Lucia.

“...”

Lucia lost.

She simply nodded to match the child’s excitement, though inwardly she felt a little defeated seeing how much cleaner Nia’s gloves were than her own. But that wasn't what was important.

She collected herself and remembered her original goal.

“Smell it, Nia.”

Nia tilted her head and carefully brought the damp glove to her nose.

“What does it smell like?”

“It smells like water and flowers. It smells nice...!”

Of course it is. It was imperial soap, after all.

Though they didn’t know it, they had essentially dissolved a week’s worth of a commoner’s food budget into the basin.

Oblivious of that, Lucia leaned her face closer to Nia's beaming face. The child was startled by her sudden closeness and almost fell from the stool, but Lucia in time caught her.

“You smell nice, too.”

Despite that, Nia pulled her wrist back and shook her head, as if that couldn’t possibly be true. Lucia averted her gaze and calmly removed the last stain from the gloves.

“If it were me, even if I smelled bad, I’d hope you wouldn’t avoid me.”

Lucia squeezed the water from the glove and shook it, holding it up in front of Nia's face. Nia blinked her wide eyes.

“You can just wash it away like this.”

Lucia wasn’t the type to offer hollow reassurance, to say it was fine to be dirty or unchanged. But this was the best she could do to comfort her.

She lowered the glove away from Nia’s surprised eyes. The child looked down at the glove in her hand for a long time, then her small lips quivered.

“…Then, since Nia washed today, you don’t have to avoid me, right?”

Perhaps sincerity truly does carry. Nia's whisper echoed in the quiet bathroom. She glanced sideways at Lucia with clear golden eyes, as if hoping she’d understand.

When their eyes met, Lucia nodded, and the child's small mouth moved shyly, her cheeks flushed.

Lucia was a little surprised by the warmth, heavy feeling that seeped into her heart. This unfamiliar feeling was fluffy and ticklish, not quite painful but hard to describe.

Perhaps for Lucia, this was the first step to truly understanding what it meant to be with someone, not just to protect the saint from a distance.

Beyond the two of them, Heath watching everything, turned around with a subtle look and disappeared unnoticed from the barracks.

• ───────── ☽༓☾ ───────── •

Chirp. Chirp. 

Morning had come, and the clear chirping of mountain birds filled the air. Lucia woke up early, her eyebrows twitching at the light of dawn.

The familiar but strange mural on the ceiling showed the beautiful Goddess Asir, a reminder that this was still the barracks. The broken part where she had thrown her sword was a bit bothersome, but the remained unchanged for days.

It wasn't a dream after all.

Lucia instinctively reached out her hand while lying down. She couldn't grab her sword.

Oh, right.

Her sword should have been there, but with a child and only one bedroom, she placed it far away.

Now she had to go to the training grounds to warm up, it was a bit inconvenient.

But then, it occurred to her.

Maybe this was what an ordinary life was like. Perhaps just having a child here had turned this barracks into an ordinary home.

Her goal was simply raising the young saint as a normal child, but to truly live together, perhaps she herself would need to become ordinary too.

But that thought was short-lived.

Me becoming ordinary? That’s ridiculous.

“Monster.”

That was the only word her father called her when they first met after she became an adult.

Though decades had past and the memory had faded, that word remained etched into her bones and would never be erased.

She let out a sigh and was about to get up when she felt an unfamiliar warmth on her shoulder.

“...”

There was a lump of black hair beside her.

It’s too long...

She had noticed before, but the child's long hair was too much for her small body and always covering her face.

Nia stirred at Lucia's slight movement. Her fair, pale cheek, revealed between the strands of hair, rubbed against Lucia's shoulder, tickling her.

Lucia froze. She was the great commander who had never felt fear even when facing the toughest enemies. But now she was so timid that she carefully moved her eyes to check on the child, afraid that her slightest movement would wake her.

Lucia was lying there, unwillingly restrained, and she thought about the laundry she had done with the child last night.

Housework really isn't for everyone. I thought kids this age didn't need much sleep.

It was too early to assume a child wouldn’t sleep in. But it wasn't unreasonable, the child was usually awake before Lucia could rouse her. She had seen her curled up with her back turned, and tearful.

She would smile sometimes, but when she did, she always had her head down, as if to hide her feelings. But her appearance now was so peaceful that the phrase sleeping angel came to mind.

Since a saint is close to an angel, she might be the closest to one among her peers.

As Lucia was quietly turning into a complete doting fool.

Knock. Knock.

Someone knocked on the bedroom door.

“Captain. Are you awake?”

It was Vernon. Lucia wanted to see the child wake up, but she reluctantly got up and carefully opened the door.

“Quiet. Nia isn't awake yet.”

“I'm sorry. I had no choice, there's a letter you haven't responded yet...”

Vernon whispered, handing her a silver envelope. Since she had gone on parental leave, many invitations and letters had been recently flying into the barracks as a way to harass her. Lucia didn’t bother about such things.

But, if Vernon himself had brought the letter, it had to be important.

Lucia took the letter and opened it. Inside the luxurious envelope were the seals of the four orders, representing black, white, yellow, and red.

“Oh dear, it seems to be a General Assembly of Knights. You'll have to attend in person this year.”

Vernon clasped his hands together and made a face as if to offer his condolences.

The Black Knights were known for their extreme dislike of revealing their presence at any event. And no one embodied that trait more than Lucia herself.

Because of this, meetings had been attended by Berl, the Vice-Captain, for the past five years. But this year, she couldn't use training as an excuse anymore.

“...Damn it.”

Lucia cursed under her breath and roughly signed the document.

Chapter 9

Chapter List

Chapter 11