“It was the Lady’s room. The Duke lent it to me. He said I can play with everything inside!”

Jade chattered happily while eating cookies.

Calon brushed the cookie crumbs from Jade’s mouth while surveying the room again.

The fairytale-like room, lovingly filled with colorful hues, was packed with toys everywhere. It was the kind of space any child would dream of at least once.

The charming room made Calon feel like a giant who’d wandered into a land of tiny people.

On the walls hung several framed pictures, presumably the Lady’s drawings. Aside from the yellowed paper showing their age, there wasn’t a speck of dust.

“You’re enjoying yourself.”

“Yeah.”

Everything in this room that the Lady had used as a child was maintained like new.

“You know, Calon.”

Even alone with him in the room, Jade couldn’t speak his heart freely. He rolled his eyes around unnecessarily before whispering to him.

“Being here puts my mind at ease.”

In a very small, careful voice, like saying something no one should hear.

Calon didn’t know how to receive the child’s feelings, so he just smiled awkwardly.

Jade took a big bite of fresh fruit tart, swallowed what remained in his mouth, then stabbed a fork into a square-cut bite-sized piece of pound cake.

“It seems to suit your taste.”

“The snacks at the ducal residence aren’t too sweet and they’re really delicious. Eat with me.”

“I’m fine. Young Master Jade, please eat plenty.”

Calon shook his head and gently brushed the powder from Jade’s mouth.

The child who used to refuse snacks at the marquis’s residence was now happily eating snacks at the ducal residence, getting them all over his mouth and spilling freely.

“Yesterday……”

In the middle of this, Jade suddenly stopped reaching for a snack.

“Panna cotta came out after the meal. The Duke pushed his portion to me.”

“Did he?”

“Mm-hmm.”

Jade’s shoulders drooped as he anxiously chewed his lip.

‘Dad saw my plate was empty, but he probably didn’t know I wanted more.’

Jade stared at Calon’s somehow sad-looking face, then soon rested his chin on his forearm.

Calon affectionately stroked the head of the child leaning weight against him.

‘Calon would have known.’

Jade pressed down on his arm with force in his chin, like reproaching him for not being there yesterday.

A strange place, strange people. Dad, who wasn’t strange but didn’t know him. A place with no one to understand him.

In that gap, Jade couldn’t help but be tense.

‘Jade. Was your stomach okay? Were you uncomfortable eating with the Duke?’

And he learned that a person’s heart moves easily over very trivial things.

Like a hand pushing food over after seeing an empty plate, or feet walking at a child’s pace. Or questions that considered a child’s feelings.

Jade envied Ray, who could casually cling to their father’s back and fall asleep in his arms without a care.

His father was a difficult person to him, but seemed like an easy person to Ray, which hurt.

He compared himself, always walking behind him, to Ray who could always be held by him.

When his mood grew gloomy and he wanted to cry just like that, the Duke’s feet beside his own feet caught his eye.

“Calon, I like it here. I want to live here.”

“……”

“I’m not just saying that……”

The moment Jade felt that the people at the ducal residence cared about him most, he wanted to stay here.

Here he could run, didn’t have to hold back, and could act rudely all he wanted. Even so, no one hated or blamed him. Rather, they tried to take better care of him. Like how they treated Ray at the marquis’s residence.

Jade hated being ‘Jade’ who always had to be mature. He hated being ‘Jade’ who naturally had to look after his younger brother and always had to endure.

‘I’m going to sleep here.’

He threw a tantrum purely for his own feelings, without even expecting it to work.

‘Do as you wish.’

Even though he acted immature and unreasonable, they said it was okay. Everyone told him to do as he wished.

Jade found it amazing that besides Calon, there were people who accepted his whining and understood his heart.

The Lady was a strange person, so the Duke must be a strange person too—that’s what he thought.

“I don’t fit with Carentium.”

Jade spoke while focusing on the pound cake crumbled by his fork.

“If I hadn’t existed, mom wouldn’t have left either. Because I’m not a child who fits with Carentium,”

“Jade!!”

Calon, who’d gone pale, cut off Jade’s words with a loud shout. Startled, Jade became frightened.

“S-sorry. I promised not to say things like this anymore……”

“No. I overstepped.”

Calon immediately regretted his action. After catching his breath, he sat Jade up properly and knelt on one knee before him.

“Young Master Jade is the proud son of Lawrence Carentium and his legitimate heir. No matter what anyone says.”

To him, Jade was his close friends’ child, practically no different from his own. When the child doubted his identity and rejected himself, his heart broke.

“You are Carentium.”

Calon was firm. Though Jade thought his words were wrong, he couldn’t strongly refute them.

With a passive attitude, Jade listed out how much of a mess he was, and therefore why he didn’t fit as his father’s son and Carentium’s heir.

“Mom said I was worse than other children. I’m cowardly so I cry all the time. I read slowly too……”

Jade’s insides were filled with deep self-loathing. His dislike of himself was so great that Jade couldn’t continue speaking properly.

“I can’t write well either. I can’t eat everything so I leave food every day. At night… sniff, ……sob, I, I don’t… don’t sleep well, so I bother people. I’m, I, I’m… sob……”

Calon quietly pulled Jade into his arms. The child’s body was trembling.

“It’s okay. It’s fine to be slow at reading and cowardly. It’s fine to be picky with food and fussy about sleep. It’s perfectly fine.”

At Calon’s quiet comfort, Jade became even more unbearably sad. He sobbed sorrowfully in his arms.

This situation where a child bore the adults’ faults was strange.

Calon felt like all of this was his fault. Lawrence would blame himself just like him too……

What was certain was that Jade at least shouldn’t be allowed to blame himself.

“It’s no one’s fault. The lady left because she herself decided to leave.”

The Marquis’s wife leaving had nothing to do with Jade’s fault. Jade was simply a ‘child.’

“If the ducal residence is comfortable, you can stay longer. Still, everyone is worried.”

“……”

After a long while, Jade’s crying stopped and he pulled away slightly from his embrace. Sniffling, he then leaned his body against him like falling over.

Calon naturally caught and held Jade.

“Young Master Ray even skipped a meal because Young Master Jade wasn’t there.”

“Ray needs to eat……”

Jade, lips buried in Calon’s shoulder, mumbled. His body vibrated as much as the volume of the child’s voice.

Smiling gently, Calon held Jade a little deeper.

What fault could this lovable child possibly have? All the faults belonged to the adults.

“When your heart settles, let’s go back together.”

“……Together.”

Jade savored Calon’s words. He liked the resonance the word ‘together’ gave.

We, together, with.

Jade liked words that included him. They seemed to clarify where he belonged.

“Does Calon like me because I’m dad’s son?”

Jade asked without even knowing what answer he wanted.

Calon was a Carentium retainer and his father’s friend. In a way, it was natural for him to like him.

But Jade might have hoped he’d say he liked him even without that natural reason.

Even knowing those things were elements that made up who he was.

“What if the Marquis and I broke off our friendship? If I left Carentium because of that, would you no longer like me?”

“No!! I’d still like you! Because Calon is my friend too!!”

When Calon’s voice turned gloomy, Jade hurriedly waved both hands saying no and shook his head at the same time.

At that pure appearance, Calon crumbled into laughter.

Of course, when he first met Jade, he was endearing because he was his friends’ child. He cherished him more because he was his lord’s child. Then he became affectionate out of guilt.

“I’d like Calon even if he broke off friendship with dad. What about Calon?”

Now this child who trusted and followed him like family, like a parent, like a teacher, had simply become precious.

“I feel the same.”

“Yeah!!”

Jade finally regained his smile and clung tightly to his neck.