Chapter Three Hundred and Thirty-Six: Secret Proposal
Lena was, in the end, smaller than Mark and the rest. She was quick, and Michael was slow on his feet, but the red-haired girl caught up to Lena in no time at all.
“No! Let go! I’m going home!”
The red-haired girl had Lena pinned to the ground with startling ease, thrashing and all. The whole sequence of movements had been remarkably polished. The fact that someone’s technique for pinning people down could be polished was a bit frightening when Mark thought about it, but he shook his head and pushed the thought aside for now.
The point was, Lena. They had drifted a little distance from the annex, but they were still within the earl’s residence grounds, and no one had spotted them yet. Mark looked around and let out a small breath of relief. If they got Lena back right away, no one would ever need to know.
“Your name’s Lena, right?”
“…? Who? Who are you?!”
Lena had apparently only just realized she didn’t recognize the girl pinning her down. She craned her tearful neck and glared up at the girl looming over her.
“I’m Teresa. Hey—when you say you’re going home, where exactly are you going?”
“Back to Mama and Papa!”
“But your mama and papa abandoned you, and that’s why you’re here. Don’t you get that?”
“Lena wasn’t abandoned!”
“You were abandoned. Even if you went back, they wouldn’t let you in, would they?”
“It’s because Lena didn’t take good care of her little sister. Lena will do better from now on. So they’ll let Lena in!”
Mark put the pieces together and frowned. Lena really was a pitiful child as well. And yet she was also extraordinarily fortunate.
Even without Harald having to spell it out, each of them understood this on their own. They studied and worked according to Karen’s wishes—and even so, it felt nowhere near enough to repay what they’d been given, to a frightening degree.
In this environment, Lena had been doing nothing but shutting herself away, refusing work and lessons alike. At times, she threw fits, cried, screamed, and even tried to break things. And yet she had been allowed to live exactly as the rest of them did. Recently, Lily had been spoiling her, making her even harder to manage.
The adults might have some plan in mind, but Mark had an uneasy feeling that if Lena’s attitude wasn’t corrected soon, things were going to end badly for Lena herself.
As far as Mark could tell, Karen was not a problem. She did not seem angry at all about Lena’s selfishness. Harald was furious, but Karen’s wishes took absolute priority, so that side of things was fine too.
The problem was that the other children were starting to resent Lena. At this rate, as blessed as this place was, Lena would end up with nowhere left in it.
“You’ve got it wrong. You were thrown away because you weren’t wanted. If anything, you might get killed if you went back, you know?”
“That’s not true!”
Teresa’s malicious grin and the cruelty of her words made Lena shriek and burst into tears. Mark didn’t particularly like Lena. Even so, watching someone talk to her like this, he couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
“So your name is Teresa. Thanks for catching her. We’ll take her back from here—”
“She’s my prey. I’m not giving her up.”
Teresa rejected Mark’s offer.
“P-Prey?”
“I’ll be the one to take you home.”
The red-haired girl—Teresa—whispered it in Lena’s ear, and Lena, who had been struggling and flailing, went completely still.
“I’m an adventurer. Unlike you lot, I can move around freely. So I’ll take you home.”
“T-There’s no way Lady Karen would allow that—”
“Who cares whether Karen allows it or not?”
“Don’t you owe Lady Karen your life too!?”
“I’m not like you lot.”
Teresa dismissed Mark’s words with cool arrogance.
“I can survive on my own. I might die doing it, but until I do, I’m living my life on my own terms. I’m nothing like you cowards who can’t even breathe without someone’s help… but…”
Teresa looked down at Lena and grinned.
“You’re not a coward. No magical power, and you’re still trying to break out of this place that might as well be a goddess’s garden. That takes guts.”
“She doesn’t have guts. She just doesn’t understand anything, Teresa!”
“I’ve been meaning to say—stop calling me by my name like we’re friends.”
“Ugh… Michael, can you say something?!”
Mark appealed to Michael, who had been unusually and persistently silent this whole time. Michael raised his downcast face and spoke:
“…Maybe it’s okay to let Lena go back, as Little Teresa says.”
“Michael!? What are you saying?”
“Because if we drag her back now, Lena’s just going to do the same thing again.”
“But…!”
“Next time Lena tries to sneak out, maybe none of us will notice in time. If that’s going to happen anyway… why don’t we take Lena to her parents ourselves?”
Mark knew well enough that hauling Lena back by force when she hadn’t come to terms with anything would only be a short-term fix. Before Mark could find a response, Teresa spoke up sharply:
“Huh? Why are you acting like you’re coming too? You’d just be in the way.”
“Because I’m worried. About Lena, and about you, Little Teresa.”
“Drop the ‘Little’. Why am I the only one you’re calling that?”
“Because Little Teresa just feels like a Little Teresa!”
“So. Annoying.”
Distracted by the ‘Little,’ Teresa apparently forgot to object to Michael using her name at all—even though she had complained about Mark doing it.
“Mark, you don’t have to come. Could you tell Lady Karen later that we’re taking Lena home?”
“If you’re going to tell her, do it tomorrow. It’ll be a hassle if she tries to stop us.”
“…I’m coming too! I’m not leaving Lena and Michael with someone I don’t even know!”
Whether Lena accepted how things had turned out or not, she remained silent, her pale face completely devoid of emotion.
After somehow persuading Teresa not to drag Lena away immediately, Mark scribbled a letter in the handwriting he had only recently learned and left it in the bedroom. When he got back, he found Michael clinging to Teresa to stop her from leaving without them, and getting kicked repeatedly for it. Mark hurried to pull them apart.
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