“I won’t eat.”

“……”

“I’ll never eat food from you bastards.”

Today too, the food bowl was kicked away. Cleaning up the spilled food was also the boy’s job. The boy didn’t think this was a difficult task. It wasn’t bad since he could see more of the girl. However, he did think that if she kept not eating like this, it would be the girl’s loss.

As expected, the girl was getting thinner. It was natural since she barely drank just water.

And that’s when the organization members started beating ‘Maggot’. It was because the girl had become emaciated.

“Make her eat! If she dies, we’ll gouge out your eyes and kill you too!”

“F*ck, why isn’t there any contact from the higher-ups?”

He was beaten outside several times, but one day he was beaten right in front of her with the warehouse door open. As he struggled to get up staggering, his eyes met with the girl’s, who was looking at him with surprised eyes. He thought she would avoid his gaze and curse as she had always done, but…

“…You, you were beaten because of me?”

When he brought food again, the girl spoke for the first time instead of refusing.

“Why are you getting beaten when I’m the one not eating?”

“…Because it’s my responsibility.”

‘Maggot’ was awkward with words. He wanted to speak clearly and precisely like the girl, but for the first time, he felt embarrassed.

“…Bread.”

“……”

“If it’s bread, I think I could eat it.”

“But you said you wouldn’t eat.”

“Then you’ll get beaten.”

The girl breathed heavily. Her eyes were strong. But they were filled with tears. Somehow, he couldn’t take his eyes away from those emerald-like green eyes.

“You don’t seem bad. My judgment could be wrong, but. That’s what I want to think.”

“……”

“You’ve never blamed me even once while getting beaten.”

‘Maggot’ felt as if someone was tickling his body.

After that, the boy talked to the organization members, and the food changed from stew to bread. At first, it was high-quality white bread, but after ten days, the quality of bread decreased. After making her decision, the girl showed no complaints and ate everything.

And as the quality of bread decreased, an atmosphere of anxiety surrounded the organization.

The period of confinement grew longer for the girl who was supposed to be returned quickly after receiving ransom after the kidnapping.

As it kept growing longer and longer, three months passed.

Around when the bread quality became the worst that was barely edible.

The girl told ‘Maggot’ her name.

“I’m Rose.”

“…Ro… se.”

“It’s a flower, rose. Pretty, isn’t it?”

The girl smiled brightly.

“It’s as pretty as my face.”

“……”

“What, you should laugh here. Say it’s obvious too.”

“Ah, o-obvious.”

“What kind of response is that.”

She laughed out loud. It was a first. Even though she couldn’t properly wash her face, she was as pretty as when she first came.

“What’s your name? After watching you, I really don’t think you’re bad.”

“……”

The boy hesitated for the first time. His name was ‘Maggot’. But the intelligent boy knew well what kind of creature a maggot was. What if she learned and hated that his name was that of such an ugly and dirty creature?

Suddenly, startled by something touching him, the boy jumped.

“What’s wrong, are you hurt somewhere?”

A white, delicate hand touched his cheek. The girl didn’t stop there and tried to brush aside his hair to see his forehead. Even though the boy struck her hand away in surprise, she showed no sign of being startled. She was composed.

“Ah, sorry. I was trying to check if you had a fever. Come to think of it, I’ve never seen your eyes even once.”

“…Na, name.”

“Hm? Name?”

“Don’t have one.”

“Oh, really?”

Rose looked a bit taken aback. Soon after thinking, she raised her head.

“Then shall I give you one? Since I’ll need to call you something. Hmm… How about ‘Rick’?”

“……”

“It means ‘strong leader’.”

Rose hugged her knees, rested her face on them, and smiled slightly.

“Dad said he was going to give me this name if I had been born a boy.”

The boy felt dazed. Had he felt this happy when he accidentally found a gold coin? No. This couldn’t be compared to that. ‘Maggot’ clutched his chest tightly.

“…Rick.”

“Ah, and it suits your blonde hair too.”

Maggot, no, Rick often found himself touching his hair after that day. To think his hair, which he thought was wheat-colored, was blonde. Did Rose like blonde hair then? He hoped so.

While getting closer to Rose, an even more anxious atmosphere surrounded the organization. It was so clear that even the perceptive Rick got goosebumps.

“Why aren’t they taking her! What’s happening with the negotiations?”

“Damn it, it’s been over three months already. Are we the only ones being set up here?”

Rose was clearly the daughter of a high-ranking family. The organization members, along with their superiors, kidnapped Rose hoping for ransom, and they said the higher-ups were attempting negotiations. They said since Rose’s father only had one daughter, they could surely get a very high ransom.

However, there was still no response.

Rose, who hadn’t lost her vitality even once during those three months, muttered one day with a lifeless expression.

“My dad, he really loved mom. So much that after mom suddenly died, he neglected and ignored me.”

“……”

“Actually, I don’t think he loved me that much since I was born. Why, I thought everyone would be nice to an only daughter. I don’t understand.”

Rose, lonely, sat the boy she had named down and told him countless stories. The intelligent boy remembered every single one without missing anything.

Someday Rose would leave this place. Would he never see her again then? He didn’t want that. Then what should he do to keep seeing Rose? If he became like Rose, could he go to her side?

Rose said she was lonely. Actually, the reason there were few guards on the day she was kidnapped was because after her mother died, the Duke hurriedly left with the Knight Order, leaving almost no knights to be assigned to Rose who was following behind. She was sad about the fact that her father was so distracted he forgot about her.

Rick didn’t understand more than half of what Rose said, but he just memorized it. He also memorized all the responses Rose wanted.

Another month passed.

“…It seems my dad has abandoned me after all. Right?”

Rose smiled like a withered flower. The girl lost her vitality.

And the situation flowed to the worst.

“This won’t do anymore. Let’s either sell that girl or dump her somewhere! What if the ducal family raids our organization?”

As the boss leading the organization’s fear grew, it spread like a plague to the organization members. They were gripped by fear that the ducal family already thought Rose was dead and weren’t looking for her, and would only appear here for revenge.

Around that time, a secret proposal came to the organization holding Rose.

“…Really?”

“Yes, boss. It’s true! They said they’ll give double, no, triple if we just hand over that girl!”

“But how can we trust those guys?”

“Ah, about that…”

They thought Rick was practically mute, so they freely discussed secret matters in front of him. That day was no different.

“—seems to be a Count.”

“What, kid, are you joking?”

“No, it’s true! Somehow he knew about the lady and said he wanted her…”

“Huh, what’s he going to do with her?”

“He said he’d make her his bride…”

“Heh, there was such a perverted bastard. Well. Good. We have many perverted customers anyway.”

He heard the conversation taking an ominous turn. Talk about Rose being sold at a high price to another place. Rick had seen human trafficking quite often and knew well what happened to those who were taken. After all, their corpses always returned to these back alleys one way or another.

That evening, the organization threw a party in joy over the big money coming their way. The organization members, drunk heavily, were all intoxicated. Rick secretly slipped away from that place and went to where he had collected lots of oil.

What to do? Facing a choice that would determine his life, Rick chose without hesitation.

Then he saw an organization member staggering into the warehouse where Rose was.

Soon after, a small scream was heard.

Rick ran frantically, and after some time passed, he breathed heavily.

The organization member reached out to Rose, and before that hand could touch her, Rick stabbed him with his dagger. Drunk, the organization member collapsed without even screaming. But being an adult, he beat Rick with tremendous strength, and even while being hit by blind fists, Rick stabbed his neck again with the knife.

Dripping blood, Rick undid all of Rose’s chains and ropes.

“Rose… can… can you walk…?”