Chapter 139
* * *
“Surely the lost child can’t be a boy around ten years old?”
“Eh…? Is it a child you two know?!”
Wendel asked in surprise.
Even without that, the old woman had urgently pleaded, “Perhaps the child may have co here.”
Of course, while Wendel had nodded solemnly to her words, he did not truly believe the old woman.
“I…I…”
Seeming to recall sothing, lody urgently called out to Claude.
“I told the child I was staying at this mansion!”
When the boy had worried over her lost
shoe, she had said:
“There are still a few spare
shoes for
back at the Briggs mansion.”
The bright child may have casually relayed lody’s offhand comnt to the old woman – that the person who found his
shoe resided at the Briggs mansion.
“Was the old woman alone in searching for the child?”
At Claude’s shout, the now wary Wendel Benton nodded to a nearby servant.
“Send the servants out to the village imdiately.”
“Also prepare a carriage. I’ll go take a look in the village as well.”
“Yes!”
A swiftly prepared carriage began carrying Claude and lody away.
“To have gone missing… But where to?”
lody tightly clasped her hands, considering where the child could have gone.
Of course, the first place that ca to mind was the southern bridge, where the boy had continuously made his wish these past days.
The two leapt out from the carriage stop and ran towards the bridge.
Though they carried umbrellas, the rain was so heavy they were practically useless.
“No one here.”
Claude surveyed the surroundings before giving a small shake of his head. It seed he too had thought they might find August here.
“Could he have gone to Prince Samuel’s estate? Perhaps longing to et his father…”
“That’s unlikely.”
If the old woman knew the child had gone missing, she would have checked there first.
By now, Prince Samuel himself may be desperately scouring the rain in search of his son.
“For him to disappear in weather like this… Just why…”
lody forlornly gripped her umbrella tighter. The swollen river beneath the bridge fiercely flowed.
“…?”
Then sothing at the edge of lody’s vision caught her eye.
A spot where several protruding rocks disrupted the water’s flow.
Beneath those rocks, tangled among trailing river plants, a small boy was precariously leaning against the boulder.
“Young master!”
lody urgently pointed to where the boy was.
Realizing the situation, the two imdiately cast aside their umbrellas and began running.
The fierce currents looked ready to swallow up the child at any mont.
Sliding down the slippery riverbank, Claude plunged straight into the water without hesitation.
“W-wait a mont!”
lody called out, thinking they should at least take a rope or sothing.
“There’s no ti, lody! Go call for anyone you can!”
The waters that had only reached knee-height earlier were now up to Claude’s thighs.
Moreover, this was a section where the river narrowed, making the currents particularly strong.
lody watched Claude advance with bated breath before finally turning away.
rely watching from here would be of no help.
She ran down the street, shouting loudly.
“A child has fallen into the river! Please help!”
But her cries were drowned out by the heavy rain, and there were hardly any people around.
“Please…!”
Then she happened to run into a man, frantically grabbing his arm and pleading – a village child had fallen into the river, please help.
Driven by urgency, lody tugged on his arm and began running back before even finishing her appeal.
Fortunately, the man did not shake off her grasp.
In fact, he took a few steps ahead to ask her for the direction, and upon lody pointing towards Claude and the child, he imdiately dashed that way without further delay.
* * *
anwhile, Claude Baldwin was struggling mightily against the fierce currents.
He had managed to reach August’s location, but the waters only grew stronger as he tried to return.
“August.”
Claude looked down at the boy clinging to his arm.
In truth, he had disliked this child’s existence from the mont he learned of it – perhaps because lody spoke of him as soone so important, which sohow irked Claude.
“Y-Yes, yes.”
The boy seed to instinctively understand that Claude was essentially his lifeline, gripping his arm with considerable force.
Yet with his other hand, he clutched a single white
shoe.
‘lody’s
shoe… it seems he found the one caught in the river plants.’
Claude couldn’t help but feel amused.
Even in this situation, he reached out to stroke the boy’s pink hair.
It was rather endearing how he refused to give up searching for her shoe.
“The water has deepened, so it would be better if I carry you.”
“B-But…”
“Wasting ti will only beco more dangerous. Co here.”
He lowered his waist and swiftly lifted the boy up.
“If w-we hold hands, I-I can walk without being carried…”
“Your light weight would make you get swept away. You don’t want to lose that
shoe you just found again, do you?”
At Claude’s point, the boy stopped squirming and obediently stilled, gripping the
shoe even tighter instead.
“Good.”
Claude briefly praised him, and the boy leaned his full weight against Claude’s body in response.
Claude imdiately began walking, carefully navigating as the waters had already risen past his waist.
“Ugh!”
Suddenly a powerful surge rushed by, nearly making his legs buckle.
He barely managed to regain his balance, the harrowing near-fall leaving his head reeling dizzily.
Struggling to properly lift his feet from the riverbed, he took another step forward.
While he knew they needed to escape from here as soon as possible, reckless movents were impossible for fear of the currents sweeping them away.
What beca of himself did not particularly concern Claude.
What truly frightened him was how deathly cold the boy felt in his arms.
Despite being pressed together, August trembled uncontrollably, his chin and shoulders visibly shaking.
If the worst happened and they required rescue again… Claude could not guarantee the boy’s body would withstand it.
Biting his lip, Claude forced his legs to keep moving, tightening his hold around August’s freezing fra.
Though he had barely moved, his breathing grew labored from the ceaseless battering of the currents.
“Damn it.”
Perhaps for the first ti in his life, Claude uttered a coarse expletive.
He could not endure without doing so. But simultaneously, he felt the ground suddenly give way beneath his feet.
“…Gah!”
Of course it would be at the deepest point that his body tilted and was promptly swept away by the flow.
The deafening rush of water roared painfully in his ears.
It did not last long, however.
Soon his ears grew completely muffled and his vision turned pitch black, as if sucked into another world within an instant.
Claude extended his legs but felt no surface beneath. Had they been fully subrged? As dread surged through him…
A white puff of August’s breath drifted up through the water from the boy cradled in Claude’s arms.
Following it, Claude instinctively thrust one arm upwards.
“…!”
His fingers grasped onto sothing.
The mont he gripped it tightly, his body began gradually being pulled back towards the surface.
What Claude had grabbed was a rope, hastily brought by villagers alerted to the situation.
With their combined efforts, Claude and August were swiftly hauled out of the river.
The instant they reached shore, Claude swaddled the boy’s drenched body and hair in a coat soone handed him.
The young n who had assisted ca running over, extending their arms – likely to take the child.
But Claude continued holding August against him for a mont longer.
Then the man at the rear end of the rope line ca dashing over, his face ashen with terror.
Claude gave him a small nod before handing over the boy.
“Take him.”
Even in his frantic state, the man carefully studied Claude’s gaze, a hint of fear mingled within.
“Quickly now.”
Claude extended the boy bundled snugly in the coat to conceal his pink hair.
Still shivering uncontrollably, the child’s hands remained clutching the white
shoe.
Claude gently placed it in the boy’s grasp as well before sending him off.
“…Thank you.”
Cradling the child, the man imdiately took off running, the old woman with an umbrella following close behind.
“Whew.”
Letting out a deep exhale, Claude sank down on the spot for a mont, his legs apparently having given out.
Soon an umbrella was held over his head – it was Wendel Benton.
Claude wanted to ask about lody’s whereabouts, but the words would not co out.
He rely hung his head, gasping for breath, his lips trembling from the cold.
Thump.
Soone then draped a warm blanket over his shoulders.
“Young master!”
At the familiar voice, Claude lifted his head to find lody clutching the blanket, her face only inches away as she regarded him with a conflicted gaze of both worry and anger.
Seeing her expression, he inexplicably felt like smiling – perhaps out of relief at last.
“Please don’t be angry.”
When he said those words, her face only grew more deeply furrowed.
Oh dear, it seed he had angered her again.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, lody abruptly pulled him into a tight embrace.
Relishing the warmth against his frozen cheeks, Claude closed his eyes for a mont, savoring it.
‘Strange, this lody.’
She worries yet grows angry, grows angry yet worries after all.
‘…But that’s what makes her endearing.’
With a faint smile, Claude leaned his weight against her for now.
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