Killing the Possessor - Chapter 47

“On a sunny day, the fairies began preparing for the spring festival.”

As a noble young lady, my duties were limited, so it was naturally decided that my role would be to read books to the children.

Although I wasn’t used to being the center of attention, even with children, I was a little nervous at first. Fortunately, most of them had gentle personalities and followed the story well.

Maybe it was thanks to that man, who had probably already worn the children out before I arrived.

“The strawberry fairy prepared a red cape, and the orange fairy prepared an orange cone hat.”

I glanced at the man tidying up the things the children had scattered across one side of the room. He had arrived before me, so he had probably done his part, so why was he still here? It was distracting.

“As the banana fairy watched the friends working hard, she tilted her head. What should I wear?”

Just as I started to get a little uneasy, wondering if he was waiting to interrogate me, something happened.

“Ow!”

A loud cry rang out. Startled, I looked over to see a boy huffing and puffing, while the other children around him laughed and mocked him.

“Hey, you halfling! Pay attention while the teacher is reading!”

“……”

When the child was called ‘halfling’ again, I took a closer look at him. He definitely didn’t look entirely like a typical Harent. His skin tone and slightly less defined features made me wonder if he might be from the New World.

I had heard the servants talk about such things. There were merchants traveling between the New World and the Empire who sometimes had children with the natives and abandoned them after birth.

Perhaps this child was one of those. Whatever the case, I couldn’t ignore the typical bullying behavior, so I closed the book and stood up.

“Hey, stop that. You shouldn’t bully your friends.”

“Yes!”

The children responded enthusiastically, as if they had dealt with similar situations before.

It was jarring to see such pure, innocent eyes involved in something so mischievous. It made me feel conflicted.

As I turned my attention back to the child being bullied, I noticed him staring at the floor, fidgeting with his fingers. He looked anxious and restless, likely unable to focus on the book anymore.

Though my heart felt heavy, there was nothing more I could do. I decided I would mention this to Mother Torea later and continued reading the story.

After finishing the reading and helping the children with their art activity, I was admiring their drawings when I suddenly stopped. One child’s picture looked strangely familiar.

“This character is…”

I stared for a long time at the drawing of a bespectacled cat, scrawled haphazardly.

No matter how I looked at it, this was clearly Tororo, a character loved by Korean children.

“Could it be…”

Even children who couldn’t read would generally know how to write their own names. I quickly flipped the paper over to check, and there it was: ‘Tommy.’

“If it’s Tommy…”

I recalled the moment when Mother Torea had shown me the children’s portraits and introduced each of them by name. My memory isn’t sharp enough to remember the names of all the children, but luckily, I remembered who Tommy was.

“That’s the kid.”

I remembered the face of the child who had been teased as ‘halfing.’ His exotic looks made it easy to remember his very ordinary name.

I quickly tidied up the drawing and hurried out of the facility. I wanted to observe the children during their meal to gather any information I could.

“This kid is definitely a possessor.”

Considering he drew Tororo, Tommy was undoubtedly a possessor child. He was young, so it didn’t show much yet, but since I didn’t know when it might be discovered, it seemed best to pass on any information to Hongik Ingan, just in case.

However, before I could reach the dining hall, I ran into someone—none other than Ren Abyss.

When I was with the children drawing earlier, he hadn’t been there, so I assumed he had gone home. But why was he still here?

“You’re still here.”