Chapter 24
Chapter 24
“Isaac took care of it?” Maud asked, using Seia’s lighter to light her cigarette, a familiar ritual between them. Arietta simply offered a mysterious smile, leaving her mother to answer.
Seia obliged, taking the cue. “He seems to be quite observant and quick-witted. A child’s arm got caught in the machinery, and he rushed over and freed them.”
“Is that so?”
Maud’s expression was one of surprise. This was understandable. The Isaac she knew was a boy consumed by desperation, his focus narrowed by necessity.
He was so often engrossed in his tasks that he lacked the awareness to notice his surroundings. He was tenacious as a weed, driven by a fierce desire to prove himself, making him worth watching, but whether his potential would flourish or be wasted remained to be seen.
Shortsightedness wouldn’t get him far.
“When I arrived, he was holding and comforting the frightened, crying child,” Seia added, exhaling a long plume of smoke, portraying Arietta as a helpless little girl. “Why don’t you keep him closer? He seems bright. I know a machinist or errand boy position is too much for a fifteen-year-old, but I think his abilities might lie elsewhere.”
“Hmm.” Maud returned the lighter to Seia, lost in thought. But it was a pointless deliberation. Maud almost always deferred to Seia’s judgment.
Everything was unfolding precisely as Arietta had planned.
Two days later, Isaac’s domain shifted from the workshop to the room next to Maud’s office, the waiting area for the boss’s closest confidants. Arietta’s playground also changed accordingly.
“Mother told me to stay away from the workshop. It’s dangerous.”
That’s what she said, but the real reason was obvious. In the workshop, Isaac could at least yell at her to leave. Now, he was powerless.
He owed his new position to Arietta, and his proximity to power was a sandcastle she could destroy on a whim. He couldn’t afford to discard everything she offered and turn his back on her, not like he had years ago.
He had come too far. He couldn’t selectively reject her gifts while keeping the fruits of his own labor. Life wasn’t that convenient. It was all or nothing.
Would things have been different if he had continued to ignore her? The question lingered, unanswered. It was too late.
“Hello, Izzy.” He was sitting on the couch when his personal hell approached and greeted him.
Her fractured arm was conspicuously encased in plaster. Arietta, who had limited her interactions to mere glances in the workshop, had become bolder.
She smoothed her skirt and sat right next to him. She must have enjoyed the feeling of their close proximity in the hallway outside the workshop. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder.
A sweet scent drifted to his nose. Isaac closed his eyes, acutely aware that this beautiful, cunning girl would be his ruin.
He needed to become stronger…strong enough to resist her influence, to reach a position where her words held no sway.
‘Someday, I’ll kill you.’
Until then, he had to endure the humiliation. He resigned himself to his fate, pressing his lips against her hair. He felt the delicate brush of her breath against his neck.
Outwardly, they looked like any ordinary teenage couple. Arietta was undeniably beautiful, and Isaac, now in his mid-teens, was blossoming into his own. They seemed well-suited.
A rumor began to spread: the witch’s daughter had chosen Isaac, and had taken a liking to him.
This rumor made Isaac’s life considerably easier. No one dared to challenge him, the young man who had secured a position as Maud’s direct subordinate.
They saw not Isaac, but Arietta’s shadow. They feared not his abilities, but her whispers, the words she would carry to the witch, Seia. The comfort he enjoyed was entirely her creation.
The shadow Arietta cast over Isaac was dark, suffocating… inescapable.
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