Chapter 1 : Chapter 1
Chapter 1. Under the Pale Moonlight (1)
The boy felt just like he was dreaming.
His brain could not fully accept the situation unfolding right before his eyes.
The white mansion where he was born and raised was burning.
In the garden outside the window, three or four soldiers were clinging to a white-haired old man, thrusting their swords into him.
That old man was the gardener who would skillfully find him and secretly bring him food whenever he ran away from his tutor and hid in the backyard.
The boy liked almost everyone in this mansion, but he particularly liked the gardener who would always smile benevolently and give him food no matter what wrong he had done.
That was 30 years ago.
“It is not this timeline…… I should have come at least a month earlier.”
The black-haired boy muttering as if his soul had left him while looking out the window.
“Something is wrong. It shouldn’t be like this.”
The boy muttering to himself while looking out the window, as if he had lost his mind.
A blonde maid roughly turned such a boy around.
“Young Master, please wake up! We have to move quickly now!”
The maid dressed in a maid uniform urged the boy who was just standing there blankly.
She was also out of her mind due to the sudden situation, but fortunately, she knew what she had to do.
Now that everything in the mansion was dying and being burned, her duty was likely to protect the boy in front of her eyes.
“W-Wait……. Wait a moment.”
The boy shook his head violently as if trying to wake up from a nightmare. Although he could not know how the situation had turned out, it was clear that it was a situation where he had to move for now.
His head was chaotic beyond measure as he had just traveled back 30 years in time, but he remembered one of the most regretful things he had engraved in his heart.
“Let’s go to Mother’s room. We must bring the spirit tablet.”
“But right now, we must escape…….”
“No. We must bring Mother. Emilia.”
Looking at the boy’s determined eyes, Emilia hurriedly left the room as if she had no choice.
And the black-haired boy closely following behind such a maid.
His warm mother was now enshrined in a small spirit tablet that was only a span in size, having become cold and small.
It had been less than a week since his mother passed away, and the boy intended to take even that cold mother with him.
It was so.
The memory of not being able to take his mother’s spirit tablet during the past 30 years had always pained his heart.
Although his father was still alive, he would soon be beheaded, so it couldn't be helped, but the boy intended to take at least his mother’s spirit tablet, which would be left all alone.
“I understand. Let’s hurry. Young Master.”
Emilia nodded as if she understood and picked up a poker near the fireplace.
His mother’s room was located very close to the boy’s room. It was on the same floor, and just three or four rooms away was his mother’s room.
Fortunately, it seemed the intruders had not yet reached this 3rd floor, as no one was seen in the hallway.
Emilia moving carefully, blinking her large eyes as if scared, holding up the poker.
However, the boy boldly kicked the door open and strode into his mother’s room without any hesitation.
“Young Master.”
“People’s screams are heard from here and there anyway, so would the sound of kicking a door matter? More importantly, moving quickly is what matters.”
Emilia felt a shock as if her heart dropped with a thump at the boy’s bold action.
However, she soon gathered her wits and found and took out the jewelry box hidden in a secret place known only to herself and the owner of this room.
And while the boy found his mother’s spirit tablet and carefully put it into his bosom, the maid emptied the jewelry box and stuffed the contents wildly into the pockets of the Young Master she served.
“We don’t know what might happen. Although Madam did not have many ornaments or jewels, this amount of jewelry will be helpful enough.”
If left here anyway, they would be jewels and ornaments that would only fill the bellies of those unknown invaders.
If the boy’s mother, Nedrian, were here now, she would have likely praised the maid’s action of emptying the jewelry box.
“Let’s go, Emilia.”
The boy, having secured his mother’s spirit tablet, spoke in a cracked voice.
Now they must escape this place. They must run away.
“Please follow me closely. Young Master, you must not lose me.”
Instead of walking through the magnificent and well-organized hallway used by the owners of this mansion, the blonde maid walked toward the hallway in the back used only by servants like herself.
It was a narrow, dark, and even complicated hallway.
Emilia taking the lead in that hallway, holding the boy’s hand tightly.
Feeling Emilia’s trembling hand, the boy could gauge how great a fear she was seized by.
Nevertheless, Emilia not stopping to take the lead for the small and young boy.
Fortunately, perhaps because the intruders hadn’t figured out the servants’ hallway, the two were able to escape the building safely.
“Where should we go now…….”
Emilia was someone who had only worked as a maid all her life after being taken in by the boy’s mother.
“F-For now, to the back gate.”
Naturally, she had no ability to cope with a sudden situation like the present. She only had the thought of escaping this place.
Since they wouldn’t be able to boldly exit through the front gate, the naive Emilia intended to attempt an escape through the back gate.
But would there be no people at the back gate?
Naturally, all entrances through which one could escape this mansion were in a state of being blockaded by the invaders.
And there.
In the past life, Emilia had died.
Blanc remembers the sight of her dying while gasping with an arrow stuck in her neck, and his old self running away crying while leaving her behind.
“I can’t let that happen.”
“Pardon?”
Emilia was inwardly worried about the mental state of the boy who had been muttering to himself since earlier.
“Escaping through the back gate right now will be impossible. Whoever those guys are, there’s no way they wouldn’t have prepared that much.”
No. He knows who the bastards burning this mansion he loves, this mansion he missed even in his dreams, are.
He remembers clearly.
Although he can’t do anything with this frail body right now, one of the goals of this regression was revenge.
“Then where should we go?”
“Follow me.”
They were memories from 30 years ago, but they were moments he had remembered vividly every time he had a nightmare.
The boy crossing the garden with familiar steps. And the blonde maid clutching her skirt and following that boy.
The boy skillfully used the surrounding terrain to avoid the eyes of the invaders.
The boy figuring out a safe route and beckoning Emilia to follow as he crossed the garden.
‘Since when did he learn such movements?’
Emilia harbored doubts inwardly watching her young master showing movements that only a well-trained soldier could perform, but the situation was too urgent to resolve that doubt right now.
The two people moving secretly and reaching the edge of the garden.
However, at the place they finally arrived, a huge wall was blocking the two.
“Young Master, it’s too high, we can’t climb over it…….”
Surrounded by a high wall, it looked impossible for a young boy and a frail maid like themselves to jump over.
Realizing there was nowhere else to run, Emilia was filled with despair.
‘Ah, Lady Nedrian. I’m sorry, I don’t think I can protect the Young Master.’
Emilia looking up at the dead-end wall, tears dripping from her large eyes.
As the thought that she wouldn't be able to keep the promise and will of the master she served came to mind, despair and sorrow were welling up.
“Emilia, what are you doing!”
“Sob sob…… Madam…….”
“Wake up!”
At the boy’s low and fast voice, Emilia quickly snapped out of it and saw the boy diligently clearing away the bushes near the wall.
And what became visible once he cleared all the bushes was a small dog hole.
“Young Master?”
“No time to explain. Get in quickly!”
If they just crossed this wall, it was the hunting ground area of the Cadmus family.
It was a forest, spacious and full of fascinating things, so it would have been enough to stimulate a young boy’s curiosity.
To have his own secret base, the boy had passionately made a dog hole.
With the gardener who had a benevolent smile.
Perhaps the existence of that dog hole was also known to the head of the Cadmus family and the boy’s father, Pallard Cadmus.
Nevertheless, leaving this hole alone might have been a small gift for his curious young son.
It wasn't made for this purpose, but in the end, Blanc was able to survive thanks to the consideration of a father who thought of his son.
Even in the past life, this was the place he had instinctively run to with a blank mind after Emilia died.
He just needs to escape to the hunting ground through here and go find the gamekeeper, Rakshar. He survived like that in the past life too.
If he passes through here, he can live. His existence guarantees that.
“Young Master, then hurry……!”
“You go in first!”
This life must be different. It must be different from the past life filled with failure, defeat, and despair. And now, there was one singularity different from the previous life in front of the boy’s eyes.
“Emilia, are you not going to listen to me?”
Seeing the boy’s burning eyes, Emilia sensed he wouldn’t break his stubbornness and had no choice but to push her body toward the hole first.
It was a small hole. A tiny dog hole that only a child or a slender woman could escape through.
Fortunately, Blanc was a young boy, and Emilia had a slender figure, so she should be able to pass through this hole sufficiently…… that’s how it should have been.
“Young Master…….”
“Damn it.”
However, the problem was that her hips were too big compared to her slender figure.
“My hips are stuck!”
At the same time, the voices of soldiers were heard.
“There are footprints here!”
“How did a young brat run this far?”
Blanc saw the soldiers who had approached close by before he knew it.
Fortunately, the sun had started to set and the surroundings were dark, and he was hiding his figure through the cleared bushes, so he wouldn't be discovered right now, but that would be useless if they came closer.
“Young Master…… Ugh!”
Blanc, roughly spreading the legs of the woman who was stomping her feet in panic, soon began to push her large hips with his shoulder with all his might.
“If you don’t get out of here, we all die!”
“Yes! Yees!”
Although Blanc was grabbing her hips as if kneading dough, Emilia was trying to escape the hole with all her might without even having time to feel shame at such an action.
“Eek! Eeeek!”
Thinking his shoulder alone wouldn't be enough, Blanc turned his back completely and was pushing Emilia out.
Whether his efforts were not in vain, fortunately, Emilia’s hips slipped out, and following that, her legs popped out as if being sucked out by something with a pop.
However, as soon as Emilia escaped the dog hole, the soldiers found Blanc.
“Here! There’s a brat here!”
“Blanc Cadmus! We found the heir of the Cadmus family!”
Soldiers blowing whistles as soon as they found Blanc.
“Oh, fuuuck…….”
It was a curse word with a pronunciation too thick to have come from the mouth of a young boy.