After Iris left, not long after, the day came to an end.
The children who finished their duties began changing their clothes one by one.
Once again, Roo changed alone in the restroom, saying she was too embarrassed to be seen by others.
“I’m so excited! Lady Iris is amazing! So kind, so beautiful.”
“When will she give us the gifts she promised? I’m gonna brag to my mom and dad!”
“Lady Iris is as kind and pretty as my mom. Actually, she’s just a tiny bit prettier than my mom.”
The children’s main topic was naturally Lady Iris—their encounter with her earlier.
They bounced around, as if dreaming, enchanted by Iris’s princess-like presence.
Amidst this, Roo tried to slip away quietly but was called back.
“Roo, already leaving?”
“Ah, yeah.”
If she stayed out later, the way home would be too dark and dangerous.
Last time, she had almost fallen into a ditch. If that happened again, she might ruin her clothes and trouble her parents.
“Not taking the carriage again?”
“Yeah. Roo’s house is pretty close, right? Aren’t your parents worried?”
“If it’s about your life, I’ll pay for the carriage.”
The kids worried about young Roo and urged her, but she shook her head with a soft hum.
If I took the carriage...
The one time she rode it on her friends’ insistence, when the carriage arrived at her home, her father punished her harshly for recklessly spending money.
If you spend your parents’ money without permission, what kind of person will you become?!
Because of that, Roo could barely sit down properly the next day.
“It’s okay. I like walking.”
“But you liked it when we took the carriage together.”
“Actually... it’s because I wasted my parents’ money without permission last time. See you tomorrow.”
She quickly slipped away, worried her friends might catch her again.
I really like my friends, but...
When together, she couldn’t help but talk about her parents.
Her mother had said that talking carelessly about family matters was something only very bad children did.
Roo followed the servants’ quarters’ back gate and took a shortcut path.
Though the walk was a burden for a child, Roo was used to it.
The sky was full of stars.
If only one of those stars would fall onto the roof of her house... then she wouldn’t have to go home.
“I’m not scared— I’m not scared—”
She sang a song she always sang when afraid as she walked.
Though she tried hard to forget, the image kept coming back—the gentle face of the lady of the house who had treated her kindly.
Her heart warmed and then chilled again.
She must have seen it.
Usually, Roo hid the scars by clipping her collar up, but the lady had come so suddenly that time she hadn’t managed to do so.
She must have seen the disfigured back.
“You wicked child, you should never have been born! I don’t know why I suffer raising a child like you.”
“A child owes their parents a lifelong debt. You must repay that debt forever.”
Now Lady Iris surely knew how wicked Roo really was.
Perhaps she wouldn’t want to see Roo anymore. Maybe she would even find it dreadful that Roo remained in the castle and might drive her away.
If I’d known, I’d have hidden it better like Mom said.
I should have obeyed more so Lady Iris wouldn’t be displeased.
She was such a kind person, and yet Roo ruined everything.
Why was I so stupid not to just say I wanted any gift, just to follow my friends’ silly ideas?
At the very least, she should have asked for something useful for the household.
‘What am I going to tell Mom and Dad?’
If they heard about today, they’d be furious—calling her an unfilial daughter who didn’t even prepare gifts for her own parents.
‘Maybe I really am beyond redemption.’
Iris’s warm expression now sharpened into something unmistakably clear, her shoulders heavy with gloom as she stared down at the ground while walking.
“You’re leaving now, huh.”
A gentle voice broke through her thoughts.
Startled, she looked up to see the same Iris from earlier, waiting with a handsome man.
Unfortunately, Luke didn’t know the face of her true master—Duke Cedric.
“Mis-mistress… why are you here…?”
“Sorry to startle you. Are you frightened?”
Iris wrapped the blanket she was holding more tightly around the thin-framed Luke.
“Madam.”
“Ah, forgive me. But it’s far too cold for a child out today…”
“Sigh—then you should wear my cloak.”
The man spoke kindly, draping his outer robe over Iris’s shoulders.
‘Wow…’
Though Luke was amazed at Iris, the man’s striking appearance was just as breathtaking.
It was the first time Luke had ever seen such radiant red eyes in her life.
His hair was jet black, so if she had seen those eyes in the dark, she might have mistaken them for jewels.
“And you.”
“Y-Yes!”
But it was a little frightening.
“It’s far too late now. This is no hour for a child to be wandering alone.”
Indeed, the hour was far too late for a child so young to be walking about.
No one brave enough to harm a child leaving the Duke’s estate would dare approach, but any responsible parent wouldn’t let their child roam at this hour.
“Alright, Luke. How about you stay at the Duke’s estate annex tonight?”
“N-No, my parents…”
“Which parent would send their child into an unsafe situation?”
The man’s cold words caused Luke’s eyebrows to droop.
But she truly had to return home. Otherwise—
‘I’ll upset my parents! I should be home on time helping Mom and Dad.’
At the thought of punishment, Luke’s face turned pale.
The real terror wasn’t the punishment itself.
‘If you don’t obey Mom and Dad, they’ll abandon you. Do you think you could live well without them?’
‘Where else could you go if you left your parents’ home? No one would take in someone like you.’
“I-I really, really have to go.”
Iris grasped the trembling child’s hand and wrapped her gently in the warm blanket.
“Luke, do you want to go home?”
Luke didn’t answer.
“Or do you have no choice but to go?”
Eventually, tears streamed down Luke’s cheeks. Sobbing so hard she could barely breathe, she stammered,
“…My parents are worried. And if I don’t go today to draw water, there won’t be any to drink at home.”
“At this hour?”
“That’s my responsibility. My parents work too hard, so I have to do at least this.”
Despite the sorrowful crying child before her, her words were overwhelmingly mature.
“I-I do it because I want to.”
Watching the tear-streaked face, Iris saw a reflection of her own past.
Her childhood self, desperate to be loved by her parents, to be acknowledged by any means, doing whatever it took.
“Why... do you think that way?”
Suppressing her own sorrow, Iris spoke gently. She waited until Roo, unable to meet her gaze, finally looked up at her.
“I’m sorry for crying. Did my tears make you uncomfortable?”
“No, not at all.”
“Why won’t these tears stop... sniff, I’m sorry.”
Tears fell like rain over Roo’s worn-out clothes.
Each drop marked the countless unspoken feelings she had kept hidden until now.
“I was wrong. I’m sorry for staining Lady’s dress like this.”
“But by doing so, I was glad to see your beautiful eyes, Roo.”
“No! That’s a lie! I was rude to Lady Iris!”
“No, you weren’t. You were just firm in your beliefs.”
Why was she speaking so kindly? No one had ever done that before.
I’m really a bad child,
Roo thought, because that’s all she had ever been told.
“I... I...”
No one had saved Iris when she was young.
Everyone had taken it for granted. Probably, this little girl was no different.
I couldn’t save myself,
but
I can save you.
Iris reached out her hand.
“I know you love your family deeply, but sacrificing yourself for that love is not the way.”
Finally, Roo lifted her head at those words.
“But they’re my parents.”
“Unfortunately, yes.”
Iris’s gentle eyes filled Roo’s tear-soaked gaze—like a kind cultivator who had mastered mercy and strength.
The hand that touched Roo’s was neither harsh nor painful.
“But Roo, you are not someone who should be hurt for your family’s sake.”
“B-But...”
Once again, tears streamed from Roo’s eyes. She feared that speaking ill of her parents might bring severe punishment.
But Lady Iris was too kind—so unlike her parents who scolded and abandoned her at every turn.
“I don’t know. Maybe I really am a bad child.”
She spoke in a fragile voice, like a leaf about to be blown away by the wind—
a truth Roo had hidden from everyone, even herself.
“It’s not that I hate Mom and Dad.”
Encouraged by Iris’s attentive presence, Roo found a little more courage.
“But I’m so scared. I’m afraid they’ll hit me every day.”
The cracks in her heart, born from long nights of torment, finally burst forth uncontrollably.
Roo could no longer hold back.