Chapter 12: The Landlady and Her Daughter
“Mm, I’m back.”
Leon replied softly as he stepped into the house and closed the door behind him.
“You were gone for such a long time this time. You didn’t come back at all, and I started getting worried.” The landlady’s daughter, Melissa, walked down the narrow staircase leading to the attic, holding a bowl with a spoon inside.
Melissa was thirteen this year—an age that should have been full of youthful vitality—but she was very thin, her complexion pale, with the unmistakable look of malnourishment.
Even the smile that should have been lively on her face carried a distinct gloom.
Her hair had grown almost to her waist and had clearly not been tended to for a long time.
Though it was tied up with a thin hemp rope, it still looked somewhat messy.
Only her bangs and side hair had been cut by herself, and the cuts were far from neat.
She was even wearing her mother’s old clothes and apron, loose and ill-fitting on her small frame.