Chapter 90
Her chestnut hair flowed gently, shimmering more brightly under the summer sun. The large eyes that filled her milky face were a color Alfred had never seen before.
Yellow, green, with a hint of blue… colors as vibrant as a summer beach.
His gaze then shifted to the child who was holding the woman’s hand.
The little girl blinked, holding a large book in her arms. The girl was beautiful, much like her mother, but she looked nothing like Alfred’s late younger sister.
‘She’s not my sister. She could never be.’
Before stepping back, Alfred’s relative, who had brought him, muttered softly.
“Alfred.”
“……”
It was a plea to save face.
‘Sigh. Calling this child my sister… Well, what does it matter?’
Alfred extended his hand and smiled cheerfully. After a month of getting along, he’d forget about her. That’s all there was to it.
“Hello, I’m Alfred.”
“……”
“I look forward to spending the summer with you. Um… you can call me ‘Brother’!”
Alfred added the last part with a sly grin, aware of the adults’ eyes on him. However, in contrast to the adults’ softening atmosphere, the cute voice sharply retorted.
“We’re not even blood-related, so why call you ‘Brother’?”
“Huh?”
“I didn’t want to say it, but your mouth came out like a duck’s-“
“Sorry! Sorry, Alfred!”
Theodora Norton hastily covered Eugenie’s mouth, desperately calling out.
“Our Eugenie… She loves books so much! She uses slang in a cool metaphorical way! Right, Eugenie?!”
“Mmm, mmmmmm.”
Eugenie’s face, squashed like soft dough, scrunched up. While the adults were taken aback, Alfred didn’t dislike the girl.
‘I’m a bit surprised. How did she know?’
He thought he was good at smiling, just like the men of the Wilberforce family. But how did she see through his smile as he didn’t want to play the sibling game that had been forced by the adults’ gaze?
Later, Eugenie would say, “I really can’t handle social situations.” However, Alfred never thought she was insensitive.
While she may not have had the finest attention to detail, she had a good sense of reading people’s feelings.
Since there weren’t many other children to befriend at the beach, they gradually became closer after that slightly awkward first meeting.
‘But once we return to the capital, we’ll probably lose contact.’
While Alfred smiled at Eugenie, he thought to himself. Once summer passed, he would forget about her too.
However, when Eugenie came to see him holding a small basket, all such skeptical thoughts came to an end.
“Alfred, eat this.”
“Huh? Is it candy?”
“Yep. Cherry-flavored candy! My dad gave it to me.”
Eugenie beamed with pride.
“Hehe, Mom doesn’t give me things like this, saying they’ll rot my tetth.”
Eugenie chattered on about how she liked her dad more than her mom. Her dad was handsome and kind, while her mom was always nagging her and dad.
Alfred, with his usual charm, nodded along to the conversation, knowing full well that despite her words, Eugenie loved both of her parents dearly.
Meanwhile, feeling her listener’s attention, Eugenie seemed even more excited, lowering her voice as she laughed.
“Hey, Alfred, should I tell you a secret? Just between us?”
“Huh? What’s that?”
“You know my dad, right? Every time Mom takes a nap, he disappears.”
“…Huh?”
“That’s when Dad gives me candy. He says not to wake Mom up.”
Alfred was momentarily at a loss for words, distracted by the candy in his mouth. Come to think of it, the aunt who took care of him also disappeared during the day…
He couldn’t quite pinpoint it, but a bad feeling started creeping up on him. It was like that moment when you were about to check under the bed in a room where all the lights were off.
But in the end, just like checking under the bed despite the fear, once the candy had melted, he made a suggestion he shouldn’t have.
“…Want to follow him?”
“Huh?”
“To see where your dad goes when he leaves.”
“Huh…! You shouldn’t do that.”
“Why not? Maybe… your dad gets the candy from there.”
“Really? Hm. Dad’s so strange. Why doesn’t he just give it to me at once instead of hiding it?”
Eugenie’s curiosity was strong even then.
That curiosity was what Alfred had stoked, and it eventually exploded into a disaster.
To circle back to Peregrin Norton’s charming smile from earlier…
The woman who had been kissing Peregrin Norton so passionately was the same relative who had taken Alfred to the beach.
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