The Kids Have Changed - Chapter 39

Large cushions, a cute tea table, a vanity table, and a bed. Even the pink sign on the bathroom door.

I sat beside Carol’s bed and looked around the room. Then, I opened a book again.

It was a book called ‘The Parallel Relationship Between Magic and Time.’ Small words written in fine print were arranged into boring rows.

“Eeeh… Sharon.”

I stroked Carol’s head as she whined and snuggled against me. The thin hair that touched my fingertips was wet with sweat.

“Yeah.”

“Sharon… I, I, uhhh.”

Just what sort of dream was she having to be this loud?

I looked away from the book and saw Carol crumple her face and grumble.

“Waaah! C-candy…! It’s mine!”

…Was she upset about having to share some candies with Julien? It wasn’t that unfair, was it?

I held Carol’s stretching hand. Perhaps she mistook my hand for candy, but she soon fell back into a peaceful sleep.

When will she grow up?

I rubbed her cheek and turned back to my book. I was going to go back to my room after a while as long as Carol’s fever didn’t rise.

However, I ended up falling asleep by Carol’s side.

***

Today’s dream was worse than usual.

“Carol! “Carol!

Darkness clung to me like a bog. I was deserted in the dark that pulled on my feet.

In my hand was a dagger stained with blood. My hands, my dress—they were all soaked crimson.

In the darkness without a single ray of light, the red blood was vivid in my vision.

Up to this point, it was the same dream as usual.

But then, it deviated. The face of the victim in front of me was revealed.

Gray hair and dark green eyes.

My face, reflected in her lifeless eyes, was also stained with blood.

I reached out to Carol with trembling hands. My body was slowly sinking into the darkness.

“Carol! Carol!”

I shook Carol with my hands, which had yet to be absorbed by the blackness. I pressed down on her bleeding chest and touched her face with my other hand.

“Open your eyes, Carol! Open… them! Carol!”

But there was no way she could hear me.

I couldn’t even feel her heart beating under my palm.

I tried to hug Carol, but she slipped from my grasp, and I was alone in the dark.

The darkness adhered to my crouching form. Even in that, I was alone.

I stood up, still feeling the heat of the blood on my hands.

It was as if it was all my fault. The scene began to spin around me with a creaking sound. A gruesome laughter came from the whirlpool of darkness.

‘Do you think this is the end?’

The high pitched voice that was like the wind frightened me, and I finally woke up.

***

“Huff! Huff!”

This was crazy.

What kind of dumb dream was this?!

Why was Carol…

I rubbed my hands over my body, which was still shaking. That could never happen. I would never kill Carol.

Panting, I turned my head toward Carol.

“Ca… rol?”

But only a cold blanket was there. I blindly groped about to where Carol should have lain.

“Carol!”

She wasn’t in the bathroom, nor the bathroom, nor the terrace.

I rushed out the door.

The hour was such that everyone should be asleep, so the hallway was empty. The only sound I could hear was my own footsteps.

Patter, patter.

The sound of my footsteps resembled the sound of a bonfire, burning my heart black.

It was only after searching many hallways that I found Carol.

“Carol!”

She was at the end of a hallway on the terrace.

Carl, who was sitting on the terrace railing which had no windows, turned to me.

“What are you doing?”

“Huh? It’s Sharon.”

“I asked, what are you doing?!”

My voice unknowingly became louder.

“Nothing much. I was just saying goodbye to my mom. Telling her to leave properly, because I think I’ll be hurt again if we meet again.”

“But why are you sitting there? Come here.”

Carol scratched her cheek at laughed at my absurd reaction.

“Doesn’t this look dramatic?”

But seeing how Carol’s lips smile quickly dropped, she didn’t seem to be in a good state of mind.

Was she very upset?

I bit the inside of my mouth in anxiety.

Did she not want to send her away? Or did she want to live with her mother… I couldn’t ask her that now.

Her mother could no longer be called a duchess.

In the future, she would be called Madame Sarah. Without a title.

I would have to let Carol write letters to her if she wanted. Then, would things get better?

Hiding the thundering of my heart, I replied, “Don’t talk nonsense and come over here quickly. I had a nightmare.”

I reached out my hand. Carol opened her eyes wide.

“A nightmare? What was it about?”

“I don’t know. It just feels really uncomfortable.”

I wiped off the cold sweat that ran down my forehead. I couldn’t tell her that I had looked for her as soon as I opened my eyes because I dreamt she was dead.

Carol placed her hand on mine, her feet still handing out on the terrace.

“Then, should we go to the kitchen and get some warm milk? With honey mixed in.”

“Good idea. So first of all, come down here.”

“Add five spoons of honey to mine!”

“It’s night! Your teeth will rot. Just add two spoons!”

“Eeh. Not fair.”

Carol puffed up her cheeks and stepped on the railing to turn toward me.

It was that moment.

Carol slipped on the railing.

“Um, uh?”

“Carol!!”

Carol’s hand slipped out of mine. The back of my neck became cold.

I couldn’t catch her.

I couldn’t frigging catch her!

We had definitely been holding hands, but her hand slipped from mine like fine grains of sand.

“Caaaroool!!”

That wasn’t my voice. My lungs and heart seemed to stop, so it must have been another who had called to Carol.

Thud!

I had closed my eyes, unable to withstand it, and now I opened them again.

Haa.

I let go of the railing and sank down to the cold terrace floor. Carol had been caught by the duke.

I didn’t know why he was lingering in the garden at this time, but the duke was beneath Carol, who had collapsed.

People who heard the nighttime noise came out to see what had happened.

“Carol…”

Sitting on the terrace, I buried my face in my hands.

Strangely, the Carol in my dream and the Carol who just fell to the garden seemed to overlap.

Carol was bleeding, and the dagger was in my hand. Her white pajamas fluttered and fell on the green grass.

The ground beneath me was sinking.

Was this what my dream had meant?

That I would not be able to save Carol? My hands trembled.

The anxiety I’ve had so far was amplified. This was a sample of the consequences of twisting the original plot.

“There you are, milady! Lady Carol fell from a railing, and outside, everything’s a mess… Oh my. Did you see it?”

Madame DeJoue said, panting.

“Ma-madame DeJoue… Because of me… Since I changed things… Because I did that…”

“Lady Sharon, snap out of it. Nothing happened. His Excellency is fine except for a broken wrist, as is Lady Carol, who only injured her ankle.”

“But I…”

I clung to Madame DeJoue.

“It’s not your fault. What wrong did you do? Lady Carol’s condition had been poor these days because of the duchess.”

Madame DeJoue’s voice gradually faded away. I was being choked by the dream that returned like a deja vu.

***

Duke Gratoni had been wandering the garden at dawn because of Carol.

He couldn’t fall asleep because after a few days of lingering, Carol’s fever rose so high that she couldn’t eat properly.

“Why is she the one in pain? The ones who sinned were the adults.”

He didn’t have the courage to go to Carol, so he just walked around outside. Once Sarah left, he would be free. He would be able to express his feelings to Carol as much as he wanted.

He was looking forward to that time, but he was also afraid.

“Carol…”

Someday… The day may come when he could tell her everything.

Then, he heard the sound of people talking. He looked up at the terrace to see his daughter falling.

Duke Gratoni instinctively reached out his arms and ran.

“Caaaroool!!”

His chance to go to Carol came unexpectedly. Like an opportunity that fell from the sky.

He hugged his daughter with all his strength, who fell in his arms like a lightning bolt.

Before he lost consciousness, he said this.

“Carol, where are you hurt? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

Just that.

***

I opened my eyes a bit and frowned at the light shining through.

“Oh, Lady Sharon. Are you awake?”

“Huh? Sharon! Sharon’s up!”

Carol, who had been sitting by my bedside, bounced on her bed.

I got up, rubbing my eyes as the bed rocked.

Was it a dream…?

“Oh my, Lady Carol! Lady Carol! You can’t bounce around like that!”

“Eh, but I’m sitting down!”

“Even so. Your ankle is very swollen.”

I heard Madame Berna’s worried voice. I lowered my head when I heard about Carol’s ankle.

So it wasn’t a dream…

I hugged Carol.

“Carol! I… I…”

“Huh? Hehehe. Sharon, were you shocked? I’m fine now… Did you know it’s 3 p.m. now? I thought something bad happened to you!”

Carol hugged me back tearfully.

“You know, a lot of things happened while you were sleeping, Sharon. Dad got so angry that he chased out my mom. I think she went straight to the port.”

“Y-you. Are you okay?”

I asked, pulling away from Carol. Carol laughed painfully.

“Yeah. I’m okay. I don’t know why my dad is doing this now… But anyway! I’ve never seen my dad so angry for me. He was the first one I saw as I opened my eyes this morning…”

Carol looked away. She clasped her soft, white cheeks with her hands.

The duke only put a splint on his broken wrist and stayed by Carol’s side all night. Once he confirmed that Carol opened her eyes, he stood up determinedly.

He headed directly to Sarah’s room.

“Madame Berna gave me a piggyback ride so I could follow him.”

“In that situation, you…”

“I was curious. Hehehe.”

Then, the duke opened Sarah’s door and shouted at her. He was uncharacteristically heated up.

‘Get out of my house right now! Do you think I don’t know who put Carol in this state?’

Carol said she was surprised. She said she thought her dad didn’t know anything she was thinking about.

“But Dad knew everything. What my mom told me, what happened, everything.”

The tension left my body.

The duke was watching over her carefully, silently. I was foolish to think that the duke wouldn’t have people to report to him in this mansion full of people.

The duke cared much more for Carol than I had expected.

Carol rubbed her head in my embrace like a puppy.

“I think I’m fine. It’s almost like I lost my mom, but gained a dad…”

Considering their relationships and their deal, that was about right.

“Still, it might be best for Mom to go live somewhere far away. With the man that she likes.”

“…You already knew?”

“I’m not dumb!”

Weakly, I patted Carol’s head. I thought I was alone trying to protect Carol, but the duke was also there.

Maybe the duke had been aiming for the right timing.