Chapter 23
“G-Good heavens! What brings you to such a humble place, Madam Baldomer!”
At the sight of the director gaping at me, I forced myself to smile.
“It’s cold outside, so could we speak inside first?”
“Oh, goodness, where are my manners! Please, come inside!”
At the woman’s warm welcome, Layla and I slowly entered the orphanage.
I had already instructed the accompanying servants and knights to find lodging in the village.
“I never imagined someone of your standing would come all this way. I’ll bring you some tea first, so would you mind sitting over there?”
“Take your time.”
While the woman hurried away, I slowly looked around.
The young children I hadn’t noticed while speaking with the woman were staring at me with round, curious eyes.
Apparently, the clothes Layla and I wore seemed quite splendid and expensive to them, because they couldn’t stop staring in fascination.
There seemed to be around fifteen of them, ranging from toddlers who looked barely three years old to children who appeared to be at least ten.
Perhaps they could tell that we belonged to a different world from theirs, because none of them dared approach us.
A few minutes must have passed when the youngest-looking child broke the silence and toddled toward me.
When the child pitched forward as though about to fall, I instinctively reached out and caught him.
The boy looked up at me with innocent eyes.
“I’ll make sure the child is disciplined.”
At Layla’s stiff words, I immediately replied.
“That’s enough.”
Coldly rejecting Layla’s suggestion, I steadied the child who had nearly fallen.
“You need to be careful.”
The boy stared blankly at me with wide, clear eyes.
“…Mama?”
The pronunciation was unclear, but there was no mistaking what the word meant, and I froze.
Just then, a girl who looked about six hurried over from behind and grabbed the child’s hand.
“Diaz! She’s not your mama!”
At the girl’s flustered words as she anxiously watched my expression, the child called Diaz began to tear up.
“Not Mama?”
Tears welled in those large eyes, ready to spill at any moment.
My fingertips twitched before I realized it. It felt as though an emotion I had forgotten somewhere inside my stone-cold heart began to ache.
At that stinging sensation, I gritted my teeth.
Misunderstanding my reaction, the girl watched me nervously and tugged on Diaz’s hand.
“Mamas don’t come to places like this. Let’s go over there. Big Sister will play with you.”
There was so much meaning contained in the girl’s brief words.
That the parents who had abandoned them would never return to this place.
And the fact that such a young child had already realized that painful truth made my chest ache strangely.
At the girl’s words, tears began gathering in Diaz’s large eyes. Apparently, the child had already learned that crying annoyed the adults around them, because his lips trembled violently as they desperately held back his tears, and his chin puckered.
The sight overlapped with Denion as he had been, buried beneath layer upon layer of time, and my chest tightened.
Children who had learned the painful realities of life far too early, at an age when they should have been showered with love. And yet they were still waiting for mothers whose faces they couldn’t even remember.
At the sight, my body moved before I could stop it.
“Huh?”
Suddenly lifted into my arms, the child looked at me with eyes still damp with tears.
Not only the child in my arms, but the surrounding children and Layla as well, all stared at me wide-eyed.
Ignoring their reactions, I smiled gently at Diaz.
“For today, I’ll be your mama.”
Diaz was still very young, but the child understood the word mama and asked with a puzzled expression.
“Diaz’s mama?”
At the child’s cautious expression, as though afraid I might push him away, I smiled sadly.
“Yes.”
At that, the child smiled more brightly than anything. It was a pure, innocent smile without a trace of darkness.
I saw Denion in that expression.
‘Mama!’
Denion, when he first said the word mama.
That tiny hand tightly gripping my finger.
Those clear eyes and that smile that followed only me.
‘Mamaa!’
When he first learned to walk.
Even the warmth of that tiny body as he came running and fell straight into my arms.
Those precious memories kept flickering before my eyes, and I felt as though I might cry.
“Dun cwy.”
Diaz, still nestled in my arms, spoke with clear eyes.
Perhaps even a young child could see the subtle shift in my emotions, because a small hand was gently stroking my cheek.
Ah, I hadn’t expected this.
Comforted by that tiny warmth, I could only smile sorrowfully.
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