Chapter 41: The Boy Abandoned in the Castle

The boy was wearing a poet’s shirt. It was more neat than before, but the worn Bishop sleeves and the fastening on the chest were clearly old. His black pants seemed unchanged, just like the ones he had worn before.

It looked like he was strolling through the woods near the chapel. His gaze met hers, just like before. Lara was so frightened that she took a step back, but he didn’t move.

Still, he didn’t shift his gaze either. Lara pulled her chin in and stared blankly at him. The boy passed by her like a ghost. Lara quickly turned her body toward his direction. He was picking red berries near a mountain ash tree. Lara, startled, approached him.

“You shouldn’t eat that.”

“……”

“If you eat that, your stomach will hurt.”

The boy didn’t respond. His hand, still picking the fruit from the tree, didn’t stop. Lara added urgently,

“My mother used to say that. She said it would make your stomach hurt… and that your stomach might make strange noises.”

Lara had a worried expression on her face. The boy maintained his indifferent attitude, as though he hadn’t heard her at all. Lara wondered if he was deaf. Before she could ask him, “Can’t you hear me?” she slapped his hand, which was about to bring the fruit to his mouth.

“You can’t eat it. It’s poisonous. Poisonous.”

The fruit fell from the boy’s hand. Only then did he turn to look at Lara. His eyes were dry, devoid of any emotion. His sharp, irritated gaze was dark and menacing. Lara hesitated, her lips trembling as she took a step back.

Lara’s eyes were drawn to the crumbs on the boy’s lips. It looked like dried juice from the fruit or dirt particles that had become crusted and twisted.

He was a strange boy. Lara considered turning away, thinking that someone who would chew on tree roots like that wasn’t worth her attention. But for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to walk away.

The disdainful look from the village elder, Mr. Tason, flashed in her mind, and she thought about turning her head from him. But when she looked at the boy’s hollow eyes and his thin cheeks, she couldn’t bring herself to look away. The boy was about to eat the fruit again. Without thinking, Lara grabbed his hand and shouted.

“I told you, you can’t eat it!”

“Don’t touch me.”

His voice was icy. Despite his withered body, the boy still had the strength to push Lara away. She collapsed weakly onto the ground, looking up at him with teary eyes. He looked down at her with contempt.

Lara’s breath caught. Tears welled up in her eyes, just as if she were standing in front of the lord. This was the kind of face they had when they looked down at her. The fear-stricken Lara started to cry, and the boy turned his back.

Lara stood up and gathered the basket that had fallen. It was the berry pie she had planned to eat under the shade after walking around the chapel. This morning, their neighbor, Mrs. Nora, had baked it with lemon bread and given it to her, saying it was delicious. Lara picked up a few pieces of pie that had fallen to the ground, dusted off the dirt, and looked at the boy’s fading figure.

“Hey.”

The boy did not respond to her call. How could a beggar be so proud? Lara started to feel a little angry. But she wasn’t cold-hearted enough to get angry at a hungry person. She thought there must be some reason for his hostile behavior.

Lara ran after the boy, pretending not to hear her, and handed him a pie.

“Eat this.”

The boy still had the fruit in his hand.

“If you eat that, you’ll get a stomach ache. Really.”

The fruit remained in his hand. Lara knew that the boy sometimes begged from the villagers. She had heard it from Mrs. Nora, their neighbor, when she visited the chapel earlier today and chatted with Lara.

‘It’s somewhere near here. Yeah, the abandoned castle behind the woods. It’s near the chapel, right? Anyway, that boy has been hanging around again today.’

Mrs. Nora seemed to get upset whenever she talked about him, grumbling angrily. It was unusual for the always warm and kind woman to get so upset, which made Lara feel uneasy as she listened to her.

‘Honestly, I’ve given him food a few times because I felt sorry for the orphan, but he didn’t even say thank you. Acting all high and mighty like he’s too good for a thank you. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t have parents.’

Lara thought about herself in front of Mrs. Nora, who believed that orphans were rude because they didn’t have parents. Dallas had taken her in as an adopted daughter, but Lara was still a child who had lost her real parents.

Because of that, Lara didn’t quite understand the idea that children without parents were automatically ill-mannered. Even without parents, some children were polite. But she didn’t say anything while Mrs. Nora grumbled about it.

‘Anyway, he seems to be a really big kid. Lara, don’t be like that. Understand? If an adult gives you food, you always have to say thank you.’

Mrs. Nora continued to badmouth the boy, clearly displeased. Lara quietly held the basket Mrs. Nora had given her, glancing up at Dallas. He also didn’t seem to be enjoying the conversation.

Lara felt uncomfortable with Mrs. Nora’s harsh words about the boy. It didn’t make sense to her that, despite being an orphan who often went hungry, the villagers were trying to push him out of the town, especially when they were criticizing him just because he didn’t have parents.

Lara understood all too well the pain of missing parents. She knew how frightening, difficult, and sad it must feel.

Fortunately, the slaves she had lived with in Heidelbern hadn’t treated her badly or with contempt just because she was an orphan. They didn’t resent her for taking over more work, though they disliked that her tasks increased. But it wasn’t because she was an orphan; they simply didn’t enjoy having more work.

However, the villagers here seemed to despise the boy simply because he was an orphan who had come from outside the town.

Why, of all places, was he in our village? What did we do wrong to have to live alongside a kid like that? How long had it been? She thought back to the comments she had heard since moving to the village. The boy seemed pitiful, but there was something about him that scared her. She couldn’t help but feel that one day, the villagers would start hating her the same way.

The unsettling feeling Lara had, even as she smelled the fragrant strawberry jam in the basket, was because of this.

“Here.”

She urged the boy once more, but he merely turned away indifferently. Lara felt a little angered by his behavior. However, she wasn’t cold enough to be angry with a hungry person. She thought there must be some reason behind his hostility.

Lara ran to him again, pretending not to hear her, and offered him the pie.

“Eat. You’re hungry. This is really tasty. Is it because you think it’s bad? This is from Mrs. Nora…”

“Move.”

Her hand holding the pie wobbled. Lara looked down at the fallen raspberry pie. The boy crushed it, pushed Lara aside, and left. Lara shuddered, trembling at this new experience. Seeing her kindness and effort shattered so ruthlessly left her unable to control her emotions.

“Sniff, sniff…”

Lara burst into tears. But the boy walked away at the same steady pace as before. His steps weren’t fast nor slow.

---

She encountered him again a week later near the chapel. She had heard that he lived in the castle beyond the woods behind the chapel, and now it seemed to be true, as she had seen him frequently around the chapel. In fact, after that incident, Lara had been so afraid of meeting him again that she had stayed away from the chapel for a while.

Since that event, she had decided she didn’t want to hear anything more about him. She had made up her mind to join the villagers in resenting and speaking ill of him.

Whenever the village adults spoke ill of him, she would nod in agreement, and she had decided that, if they met again, she would no longer offer him greetings or share food.

But when the adults and children spoke ill of his behavior and appearance, Lara couldn’t bring herself to join in. It felt like she was spitting on her own past, and she was terrified of the thought that one day, the villagers might turn on her in the same way.

Lara had always been the weak one, so this was a possible fear for her. While she lived in the village now as the daughter of the priest, she feared that in the not-so-distant future, she might end up living the same life as before. She was a girl familiar with misfortune. And…

“Are you okay?”

The boy, holding a tree for support and vomiting, turned around. After throwing up continuously, he stopped heaving and still struggled to turn back.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

Lara couldn’t be indifferent. Even though she wanted to ignore him and pass by, seeing him like this made it impossible to simply walk away. She watched as the boy, still clinging to the tree, slowly got up.

He wiped his mouth and turned to look at Lara with an expressionless face. Lara slowly took a step back but didn’t walk away from him.

“Do you want to go to my dad?”

Dallas, the priest, was as knowledgeable about medicine as a doctor. So, when Lara was very sick, he had been able to take care of her. If the boy’s condition was because of illness, he should see a doctor, and Lara urged him to go with her.

“Come on. Let’s go to our house.”

In her hurry, she grabbed his wrist. Despite being pushed away and cursed at last time, it felt like she had forgotten all of it. He pulled his wrist away from her grip with a firm force. Lara stiffened, remembering that moment.

“Sorry…”

She was afraid to look at his twisted face. She didn’t know if his face was contorted from pain or from the disgust he felt toward her.

“Still… still…”

“Ugh—”

The boy collapsed to his knees. Lara stood frozen, her heart racing as she watched him, sweating coldly and pale. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, gasping for breath, and suddenly, he swayed and fell. Lara hurriedly grabbed his shoulder.

“Hey, hey…!”

“Ugh…”

The boy groaned in agony. Lara trembled, pacing around him anxiously. After a while, he stopped groaning, and it seemed he had lost consciousness. Panic struck Lara as she cried out, “Aaah! Dad!” and ran toward the chapel. Dallas, who had been sweeping inside, threw his broom down and rushed out when he heard her scream.

“Dad! Huhh!”

“What happened? Afrosa!”

Dallas scooped Lara into his arms as she cried.

“That kid… the one! That kid, he collapsed!”

“What?”

“He… he might be dead! He’s, he’s…!”

Lara clung to him, frantic and crying. Dallas followed her to the nearby woods.

“This child is…”

“Sniff, sniff. What if he’s dead? Dad, is he dead? Is he really dead?”

Lara cried out in panic before Dallas had even checked on the boy. Dallas moved Lara a few steps away from the boy and checked his condition. The boy was pale and sweating coldly, so it seemed his condition was critical.

“We need to move him to the house first.”