The Dutiful Kid Who Saved the Villainous Family - Chapter 44

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 44

Then Airi poked her head out and said.

“Yes! It’s portrait drawing. Could you possibly come draw pictures with us?”

He looked at Serafin who was fidgeting.

As time passed, the relationship between Declan and Serafin had become awkward.

They had lived lives where they were conscious of each other but couldn’t get close.

But Declan knew.

That there wasn’t much time left to keep the child in his sight.

Then when the child extended his hand first, there was no reason to refuse and hurt him.

He looked around at his retainers and said.

“Today’s meeting is over.”

“Pardon?”

“Let’s go. Airi, Serafin.”

“Yes! We’re going to draw pictures!”

“…Where should we go? For a portrait, the garden would be better.”

He headed to the garden, resolving to maintain a certain distance from Airi today as well.

The desolate garden with not a single blade of grass, only one dead tree, didn’t please him today.

When he found ground that was less contaminated by magic and stood maintaining a certain distance from Airi.

Serafin, who had become a bit bolder, carefully muttered.

“That… Very good! Please stay like that!”

“…Like this the whole time?”

“Yes, yes.”

Had meeting his eyes become awkward again?

Serafin, standing in front of the easel that servants had hurriedly brought, fixed the portrait he was drawing and avoided his gaze.

He silently watched Serafin pick up a brush and wave it around wildly on the easel.

“I’ll try drawing!”

Serafin brushed so earnestly that beads of sweat formed on his forehead.

From the tip of his brush, a harmonious family portrait was being drawn.

How much time had passed?

Serafin fell into deep thought while holding his brush.

At the top, he drew a blue sky and sun, and in the middle, he drew his father’s face.

And now he had to draw himself and Airi.

‘Where should I put myself?’

Somehow placing himself and Airi next to Declan felt a bit strange.

“Wh-what should I do?”

“Oh, Serafin suddenly stopped! I’ll go check!”

Then Airi raised her hand quickly and came running over.

“What’s wrong?”

“I have to draw you and me, me and, ah, father together, but I don’t know how to draw it.”

“Huh? I’m in the picture too?”

“Yeah! You have to be drawn too! You’re family too, aren’t you?”

Doubt arose in Airi’s expression, but Serafin was too busy glaring at the easel to notice this fact.

“Where, where on earth should I draw them…!”

When the children were in confusion, it was naturally up to Declan, the adult, to step in.

“Serafin.”

“Yes.”

“You don’t know where to draw the family?”

“…Yes.”

When Serafin looked at Declan with a serious expression.

Declan’s Adam’s apple bobbed greatly.

And he brought out words as if spitting out what he had suppressed for years.

“In the picture, we can all get as close as we want, right.”

Serafin’s eyes widened slightly. To his ears, the words about being able to get close sounded exactly like…

‘It sounds like we can get close in reality too.’

Thanks to that, the awkwardness lessened just a little bit.

Serafin, whose complexion had brightened a bit, finished his brushwork magnificently.

“It’s all done!”

“Al-already?”

Airi looked at the completed portrait.

“…Huh?”

“How is it! My great artwork!”

“Th-the faces are strange!”

Around Declan, jagged demon horns were sprouting.

Airi was so small she was almost stuck to the bottom.

Only the figure presumed to be Serafin in the center occupied the entire canvas most enormously.

“Sh-shocking…”

After Airi briefly gave her impression and staggered back to her place.

Declan, who came to check the picture, looked at Serafin’s drawing.

It was truly a mess of a picture, but he could see a different part from Airi.

“We’re all holding hands.”

“Y-you said we could get close…”

Now, because of the magic Declan harbored, their family could never hold hands.

Even looking at each other’s faces for long was difficult.

But in the portrait, they could hold hands as much as they wanted.

“Yes, well done.”

At the words “well done,” Serafin’s eyes widened a bit.

Then, Airi, who had been watching them, jumped up.

“But, I had something I was curious about! Is the sun drawn on the portrait mother?”

“I-I won’t tell you!”

“I understand.”

At Airi’s dejected expression, Serafin’s eyes became sharp.

He sighed deeply as if letting out a very small cry, then said very quietly.

“Olivia Ortejo. Our mom.”

Serafin shrugged his shoulders.

“A family portrait can’t be without mom.”

Although mom had passed away, he drew her as the ‘sun’ meaning she always watched from afar.

‘Because mom loved me so, so much. Like the warm sun!’

Mom who used to hold young Serafin tight and sing lullabies every day.

Until then, he had gotten along well with Declan.

At the vaguely rising warm memory, Serafin’s eyes instantly became bloodshot.

Declan made a troubled expression.

“…Serafin.”

“Wh-whaaa…”

He shouldn’t cry over something like this when he was the Academy’s greatest martial artist.

Serafin shed tears like pearls. Declan ran his fingers through his hair and muttered.

“Don’t cry.”

“Th-the tears won’t stop…”

“Then, finish crying. Until the emotion ends.”

“Hu-huwaaa…”

“I don’t know what to do when you cry.”

Unlike Declan, Airi remained calm.

Even after hearing the story about their mother, she extended a handkerchief toward Serafin with the same expression as before.

“Wipe your tears!”

“Sniff, sniff, thank you. Anyway, I’m strong…!”

“Yes. Now you’re saying thank you properly too? If you just don’t cry, you’ll be perfect!”

“Since I’m strong, what’s flowing from my eyes isn’t tears.”

“Huh? Then what is it?”

“Sn, sn, snot.”

Airi calmly nodded her head. Then she watched Serafin’s tears intently.

“I understand. You’re dripping snot.”

As he blew his nose with the handkerchief, Serafin felt something was off.

Even though he had drawn the portrait and talked about their mother, strangely there wasn’t even a hint of wavering in Airi’s expression.

Serafin found that sight a little strange.

“What? You, you are.”

“Yes?”

“…Why, why aren’t you crying?”

“Why should I cry?”

“Don’t, don’t you miss mother?”

“I’ve never seen her.”

Only then did Serafin realize the source of the unease he felt from Airi.

Airi wouldn’t know what a mother was at all.

‘Even looking at the family portrait, she has no thoughts about it, and she can’t even long for mother.’

That realization struck Serafin’s mind like lightning.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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