Cordelia held the small hand of seven-year-old Robert and spoke.

“Now, repeat after me: ‘I missed you so much, Father.’”

The child’s lips didn’t move as he stared at his mother’s flushed face.

Cordelia tightened her grip on Robert’s tiny hand and shouted.

“Robert! I told you to repeat after me. Come on! ‘Father, I missed you so much. Let’s live together now. I’ve been waiting for this day.’”

Seven-year-old Robert’s eyes were filled with defiance.

“You may long for him, Mother. But I don’t. Because I don’t like people who abandon us.”

Cordelia suddenly let go of his hand and yelled.

“Why are you being like this? Your father didn’t abandon us! He had no choice but to be away for a while.”

“But you told me, Mother. You said we had to live in hiding because of him. That he abandoned us. And now you want me to say I missed him? Are you crazy?”

Cordelia let out a bitter laugh.

“Do you even know what kind of man your father is? If he takes a liking to you, our entire lives will change. We won’t have to live in a musty little cottage like this—we could live in a palace. Do you think I approached your father for nothing? Do you think I ran away while pregnant for no reason? I did it all for you! For your future!”

But young Robert didn’t believe her.

“For me?”

He glared at Cordelia and shouted.

“Liar! The truth is, you were cast out, weren’t you? Just like the townspeople said—you were abandoned! You got pregnant with a child whose father you didn’t even know, and you were kicked out of your home, weren’t you?”

“Ignore such words. There’s no need to listen to ignorant country folk. Just listen to your mother. As long as you win your father’s favor, you can resent him all you want. Now, repeat after me—Father!”

It was only after enduring Cordelia’s pestering all day that Robert was finally able to escape. Filled with frustration, he ran as far away from the house as his little legs could take him.

The hut they lived in was on the outskirts of the village. Near the hut, there was nothing but an old forest that no one dared to enter. Under normal circumstances, he would never have stepped into that dark and frightening forest. But today was different.

Robert was furious with his mother, who kept forcing him to say things he didn’t want to. He wanted to show her just how angry he was.

“You can’t even pay the rent, so we can’t light a candle at night in case the landlord sees us… And yet you think we’ll live in a palace? That’s crazy. Completely insane! Just like the landlord said—you really have lost your mind…”

Breathing heavily, Robert finally burst into tears. Just as the village children always mocked him, he was a fatherless child.

The more anger and resentment he felt toward his mother, the deeper he went into the forest.

‘What if I just get lost? Then someone else might take me in, and Mother could start over.’

There was also a part of him that wanted to punish himself—for being a fatherless child, for living like a wanderer, for yelling at his mother and running away.

‘It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t been born, Mom… My beautiful mom would have lived a good life. She wouldn’t say strange things, and people wouldn’t whisper about her behind her back.’

His mother’s ramblings, the cold and hunger, the life of drifting from place to place, unable to fit in anywhere.

Even the constant change in the story of his birth felt like his fault. Sometimes, his father was said to be dead. Other times, he was alive but a soldier they were searching for. And then there were times when his mother told him to call her Cordelia, not as his mother, but as his sister.

Robert resented his abnormal life and his abnormal mother. With every step, he fumed, blamed himself, and wiped his tears.

He had already ventured deep into the forest. The hut was no longer visible. Though the sun hadn’t set yet, the woods were dim. He was scared to go further, but he kept moving.

‘It’d be better if I got lost and a woodcutter found me and raised me. I’ll follow whoever finds me first. Mom would be much better off without me anyway. The landlord likes her, after all.’

The way men looked at Cordelia made Robert uneasy. They all let their eyes roam over her face and body in the same unsettling way. Then they would glance at Robert and smirk.

After walking for a long time, he came upon a clearing—a vast, open space he had never seen before. He had ventured to the forest’s edge before, but never this deep inside.

Feeling an unexpected sense of relief in the open air, Robert ran toward the clearing. The trees surrounding it were much larger and had denser branches than the others.

He picked the tree with the thickest branches and eagerly climbed it. The abundance of limbs made it easy for someone as small as Robert to ascend.

By the time he reached the middle, the thick foliage obscured the ground from view. Today, he felt braver than usual, and that lifted his spirits a little.

‘If I climb even higher, maybe I’ll be able to see the hut.’

Wanting to prove his courage to his mother, he kept climbing.

‘I don’t need a father. The two of us can manage just fine on our own.’

But at some point, he realized he had climbed too high. The branches above looked too weak to hold his weight. He still couldn’t see the hut, yet going down suddenly felt just as daunting as going up. His strength drained, and his hunger gnawed at him.

His mother had scolded him harshly today, even more than usual. She hadn’t given him lunch, saying it was because he wouldn’t listen. But Robert didn’t regret running away.

‘There’s no way Father is really looking for us. We’ve moved too many times. Mom lied again.’

Leaning back for just a moment, Robert accidentally dozed off in the tree. He woke up with a jolt as he felt himself sway. Startled, he clung tightly to the branch, as if his life depended on it.

Though he couldn’t see anyone, he could faintly hear voices in the distance. He thought about calling for help and carefully started climbing down.

That was when a man’s urgent voice rang out.

“Did you find him?”

“No. There’s no sign of him anywhere. I think the woman lied.”

“She wouldn’t have. She firmly believes we were sent by the Emperor. She was certain the boy ran into the forest. Besides, where else could he go? There’s nothing but trees and fields here.”

“Then why can’t we find him?”

“How should I know? Could he have gone to someone else’s house?”

“He’s never made a single friend anywhere we’ve lived. If she had raised him so carelessly, he wouldn’t have survived to seven years old.”

“She could have given him to someone she knew beforehand—handed him off with some kind of token—then lied to us, saying he ran into the forest, just to buy time.”

There was a long silence.

“Let’s search for another hour. If we stay here too long, someone might see us. Check thoroughly. He’s small, so he could be hiding in the shade of a tree or under some bushes. Stab through them if you have to. It doesn’t matter if he dies. We’ve already set fire to the hut. We can just say the mother and son perished together.”

“Got it. What if he climbed a tree?”

Robert felt the tree tremble as if someone had kicked it. He held his breath and clung to the branch even tighter.

“He’s only seven. Even if he could climb, there’s no way he’d go so high that we wouldn’t see him.”

Robert instinctively knew that they were searching for him. Having spent years running and hiding, he had always feared this day would come—the day someone would track them down.

‘But… fire? What are they talking about? They’re not people Father sent?’

Suddenly, Robert thought he could smell smoke.

‘No way…’

He wanted to climb even higher, but if he moved now, they might notice him.

Robert remained silent, holding his breath. He spent a long time debating whether the smell of smoke was merely his imagination or real. He could no longer hear their voices.

The scent of smoke grew stronger. He could no longer deceive himself. Unable to climb down or go higher, Robert clung tightly to the tree branch with both arms.

‘I must not make a sound. No one can know I’m here.’

Even though he feared that they might have killed his mother, Robert lacked the courage to go find her.

‘How foolish. Why did we try to meet Father? We should’ve just stayed quiet and lived on our own.’

That night, Robert remained in the tree, torn between resentment, worry, and guilt toward his mother.

By the time dawn arrived, the smell of smoke had faded. Or perhaps he was simply too exhausted to notice it anymore.

Robert drifted in and out of sleep, waking up repeatedly. As morning approached, the cold kept him from falling into a deep slumber. Yet, he still couldn’t bring himself to climb down.

The only thing he could do was hold on to the branch and endure. But deep down, he knew he couldn’t stay there forever.

Having spent his life on the run, seven-year-old Robert had learned to be perceptive.

As daylight brightened the forest, he felt that he could endure no longer.

‘Maybe I should just let go.’

But no matter how much he thought about it, his fingers refused to loosen their grip. In fact, despite his thoughts, he clung even tighter, afraid that he might actually fall.

He found himself pathetic—hanging onto a branch like it was his lifeline, unable to do anything.

Suddenly, tears welled up and spilled over. But because he was so exhausted, his sobs were not as loud as he expected.

“I… hic… why am I such a coward? Sniff… Mom… I’m sorry…”

He cried softly at first, but gradually, his sobs grew louder.

After a long time, as his crying subsided and he finally began to calm down, a voice came from below the tree.

“If you’re done crying, come down now.”

Startled, Robert nearly lost his grip. He quickly tightened his hold again, his tear-filled eyes staring at the branch he was clutching.

He knew he was exhausted, yet he still couldn’t bring himself to let go. His body felt frozen, refusing to obey him.

With a trembling voice, he spoke.

“I… I’m sorry. I don’t think I can climb down. My hands won’t move.”

A sigh followed. Then, the tree shook slightly, and soon, a man’s face appeared just below his feet.

“This isn’t even that high… Oh! I see, you’re quite small. For your size, I suppose it does seem high.”

The man looked at Robert’s tear-streaked face and spoke again.

“You resemble him more than I expected. I don’t even need to confirm it.”

As he spoke, the man pried Robert’s hands off the branch and wrapped them around his own neck.

“Think of my neck as the branch and hold on tight.”

When Robert obeyed and wrapped his arms around the stranger’s neck, the man jumped down in one swift motion.

Without hesitation, the man carried Robert on his shoulder and began walking out of the forest.

Robert wanted to ask who he was and where they were going, but exhaustion overwhelmed him. He didn’t have the energy to argue or even feel afraid. Before he knew it, he drifted into sleep.

The man glanced at the sleeping child on his shoulder with curiosity before gently patting his back. He could tell how much Robert had endured—so much so that he could fall asleep in a stranger’s arms.

Robert slept for a long time before he finally woke up.

He was in an unfamiliar place. The white bedding was incredibly soft. It amazed him that sheets could be this clean, this smooth, and even have such a pleasant scent.

Lying there in a daze, he ran his palm over the fabric, feeling its texture.

Then, his mother’s words echoed in his mind.

“If you meet your father, your life will change.”

Robert closed his eyes and silently apologized to her.

‘I’m sorry for not believing you, Mom.’

Just then, he heard someone enter the room. The person approached the bed and looked down at him before speaking.

“Open your eyes.”

Robert slowly opened them.

The man gazed at him and said,

“So, you’re Robert. I am Francisco Uranus—your father.”

With a hoarse voice, Robert asked,

“Did you abandon my mother and me?”

“Is that what Cordelia told you?”

“Yes. She said you abandoned us. Sometimes, she said you ran away. But even so, she made me pretend to like you… pretend to miss you. My mother… she’s gone, isn’t she?”

“…Yes. They said it was a miracle that you survived. Did Cordelia tell you to hide like that?”

Robert said nothing. He simply stared at the man who claimed to be his father.

He didn’t want to admit that he had survived by defying his mother. He didn’t want to acknowledge that he had ignored her death. He didn’t want to confess that he had doubted her words.

He didn’t want to tell anyone.

After a long silence, he finally spoke.

“Yes. She told me not to make a sound, not to do anything—just to stay still.”

The emperor muttered with a complex expression,

“Well, at least she gave you the right advice.”

Robert observed the emperor’s face and asked,

“What do I do now?”

“Don’t make a sound. Don’t do anything. Just stay still. That way, you’ll survive.”

Robert whispered,

“…Can’t you just abandon me again?”

The emperor replied.

“It seems it’s too late to pretend I don’t know you. There isn’t a single person in the capital who doesn’t know that I have a son. I’m sorry.”

“Then what happens to me now?”

“You will become Robert Uranus.”

“If I remain silent and do nothing as Robert Uranus, will I be able to survive?”

The emperor replied with a bitter expression.

“Yes.”

Robert opened his eyes and touched the bedding in his hands. It was soft and carried a pleasant scent.

Fifteen years had passed since he began living in the imperial palace. He had never let go of the branch from that day. He had lived quietly, doing nothing, holding his breath.

For the first time in his life, he felt like he could finally let go of that branch.

If it was with her—if she told him to let go—he felt he could willingly leap down from the tree.

Smiling, Robert stepped out from under the covers.

“If I can’t rid myself of the name Uranus, then I should at least live as one.”