Chapter 5

This is his room.

It was a very small and worn-down door. It looked completely out of place, like it was taken out of another house and placed here. The maid did not speak as she stopped before the door, but that fact alone was not the only one that made Julia realize who the owner of this room was.

CREAK!

The rotted wooden door opened slowly, creating a loud noise. She opened the door carefully to make as little noise as possible, but her hair still stood at their ends at the noise it made.

“Hir.”

Her mouth had whispered the nickname of the boy before she could even realize it. It sounded more like a choke since she was overwhelmed by seeing his condition.

A boy with black hair and pale skin stood up from an old bed in the corner, perhaps startled by hearing his name. The night sky only seemed to highlight his features more and immediately she noticed that cheek bones jutted out in the place of what could have been to soft round cheeks. She looked at how malnutritioned the rest of his body was and she was even more disgusted by her previous body’s host, if that was even possible at that point.

I can’t believe he’s already like this.

It was worse than she had thought. Mrs.Willy’s neglect had gone on for a lot longer than she thought it had.
Bewilderment filled Hir’s deep sea colored eyes. His hair, wet from how much he was sweating causing it to stick on his forehead. His eyes were reddened from not being able to sleep and his lips were unnaturally white from dead skin. He must have been chewing his lips from the pain.

“Hir, does it hurt a lot?”

As soon as Julia had spoken, Hir’s position fell down to a bow down, and he asked for forgiveness.

“Sor-sorry. Mo-mother … It doesn’t h-hurt. I don’t want to trouble … you.”

Julia’s heart was throbbing from the pain, as if a blade had been plunged into it, on seeing the child holding his shivering fist tightly with his small hand, suppressing his pain.

“I came here because I heard you were sick. You don’t have to be sorry.”

“I-I’m sick because of my own fault, so mo-mother you don’t have to waste your time with me.”

“…”

“N-no! I’m not sick. I-I’m … I’m sorry, so sorry!”

The boy’s paleness seemed to have no limits, as he turned so pale that Julia thought that her presence in the room was making Hir’s illness worse. She couldn’t tell if it was because he was terrified or his body was in pain.

Sigh

Having sighed deeply in her heart, Julia beckoned to the maid, who was standing behind her.

“Why is this child so skinny?”

“I-it’s because … You told … ah! I mean, the Master skipped meals for days … ”

Such a terrible excuse. She thought to herself.

Julia sank her teeth into her lower lip just as Hir has done many times from the pain. She couldn’t believe that this innocent mistreated child was being blamed for anything.However, there was something more urgent that she had to pay attention to, right now.

“Would you bring some soup for Hir to eat?”

Hir must have been starving. His body had slimmed down in such a short period of time it was almost like something was consuming him from the inside. She could sympathise with him, as she was well aware of that condition because she’d experienced it in her previous life.

“Oh, for him to eat. Yes!”

The maid quickly left. Surprised by the previous request as if Hir was never given anything to eat. Which was most definitely the case.

Julia looked back till the black dress’s hem could no longer be seen to check the maid’s progression, she then turned her head back to the mistreated child. Hirah was staring blankly at her with hazy eyes.

Would he be fine if I approached him? She thought to herself

Julia slowly came close to Hirah and bent down to his level to make eye contact. She could see him flinching as she laid her hands on his bony forearm body. She wanted to check his condition more thoroughly so she sat on the ground with her knees. His forearm was so thin that her entire hand could go reach around it. She ran her hand up and down his forearm, it felt abnormally warm, almost burning and damp with sweat. She ignored it and took out her handkerchief to wipe her hand.

Julia assumed that his forehead must be even worse. She rested on the conclusion to bring him a wet handkerchief to place on his forehead.

When Julia rose up to bring a wet towel. Hir’s eyes raised to hers as his pupils shook violently. He looked so anxious, thinking that she had gotten up to release her anger on him.

Oh no! Am I scaring him?

“I-I-I’ll be fine when I wake up. I-it doesn’t hurt! I’m so sorry…!”

Hir couldn’t understand the situation and felt very awkward. He was never treated in a humane way in almost his entire life so far.

“What are you talking about? You have such a high fever.”

“S-sorry…”

“From now on, you are forbidden to say sorry to me.”

“Eh? But-”

“Forbidden means forbidden. Hir, you’re not at fault for being sick. And being ill isn’t something to be sorry about.”