TOPWL 170

When Mom left… we hadn’t eaten for two days. We set a rat trap, and we actually caught one. I was about to eat it, but Mom stopped me.

Then she took me and my little brother outside. We stood in front of a fountain for a while, and then she said she’d gotten some money and took us to a restaurant. We had bread and soup and meat. It was so good I gobbled it all up. I looked to see if Mom was eating too, but she was just staring at me and my brother. I thought it was strange. It had already been weeks since we’d last been able to buy bread.

And then I saw it. The ring was gone from Mom’s neck. She used to wear it as a necklace because it was too loose for her fingers.

That’s when I knew. Mom was planning to leave. Leave us behind. Suddenly the bread and soup didn’t taste good anymore. So I gave it all to my brother. He ate it happily.

After we left the restaurant, Mom said we should go to a clothing store. Not one selling discounted items, but a secondhand shop with clothes barely worn once or twice. I got scared. I held onto Mom’s clothes and asked if she could just take my brother with her and take care of him a little longer, even if she didn’t buy the clothes. Because I didn’t think he could survive without her—he was only three.

Mom looked surprised and stared at me. Then she nodded. I was relieved.

We went into an alley, and Mom told me to keep walking straight. Thankfully, she was holding my brother’s hand.

As I walked, an orphanage came into view. I didn’t cry then. I wasn’t sad.

What really broke me was a year later—when my little brother was admitted too.

I haven’t seen Mom since. I hope… wherever she is, she’s living well.

Luka laced his fingers together as he spoke. Yudit, unsure how to respond, took a moment before saying,

“I hope things go the way you want them to, Luka.”

Luka smiled shyly, but then looked anxious again.

“Do you believe everything I said?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“You don’t think I’m a liar?”

“Did you lie?”

Luka shook his head hard.

“Then I believe you. Not just this—anything you say, I’ll believe it.”

At Yudit’s words, the boy’s eyes wavered.

“Where did you go yesterday?”

“To see my brother.”

“Where is he?”

“He’s at the Uman Orphanage.”

Yudit knew the place. For an adult, it was at least a two-hour round trip on foot. For a child’s steps, it would take even longer.

“You went there on foot?”

Luka nodded.

“They served something good for lunch. I wanted to give it to him.”

Luka, who had been speaking freely, suddenly looked flustered.

“I didn’t take more than I was given. It was my portion. I split it and gave him half.”

“I see. That’s okay. I’m sure your brother loved it.”

“Yeah. He said it was really tasty. But… whenever I come back from there, I feel a bit sad.”

“Why?”

“He keeps asking me if we can live together. But I can’t, so…”

His voice broke as he spoke, the thought alone clearly painful.

“I see. That’s why you were sad.”

“Yeah. I really want to live with him too… It feels so awful to keep leaving him behind.”

“If you could live with your brother, where would you want to live?”

“Where?”

“Where you’re living now? Or at the orphanage?”

Luka hesitated. He looked like he wasn’t sure if he could answer honestly.

“You can tell me the truth. It’s just the two of us here. Everything you say will stay between us.”

Even so, the child didn’t relax easily. But eventually, he spoke.

“Then… I’d pick the orphanage. At the orphanage, they give us food and soft beds. And… no one hits me.”

“…Someone hits you at home?”

“Everyone does.”

“Everyone there hits you?”

“Yeah. But it hurts most when Joaquin hits me. He’s my older cousin. My uncle and aunt avoid hitting places where bruises would show. But Joaquin just hits me anywhere.”

“…”

He spoke as if it were nothing. The reason he could talk so casually about being beaten was because it had become part of his daily life.

“Did Joaquin cause the wounds on your body too?”

While tending to Luka’s feverish body, Yudit had naturally seen the marks. They looked like a snake had coiled around him—mottled scars clearly from being whipped. Yudit knew that kind of wound well. He had suffered them too. Luka nodded.

“Yeah. He told me to punch new holes in a belt, but I messed up, so he hit me.”

Yudit let out a low sigh. Luka’s fever had been caused by walking a long way in the rain while wounded. If it had turned into sepsis, it could have killed him. Yudit made up his mind. He could no longer allow violence to be excused under the name of ‘family.’

“Is there anyone else who tries to touch your body or hit you?”

Since opening up, Luka had been speaking fairly smoothly. But now, he suddenly went quiet. He fidgeted with the hem of his shirt.

“I don’t want to say.”

“Why not? I want to hear it.”

“Even if I say it, you won’t take my side anyway.”

“I’ll listen. So please tell me.”

“Really?”

“Of course.”

After hesitating several times, Luka finally began to speak.

“Mr. Pavron… he keeps playing the butterfly game. I don’t really want to do it.”

“The butterfly game? What’s that?”

Instead of answering, Luka reached out. His small fingers slipped under Yudit’s clothes and began to fumble around. Yudit’s face went ice cold.

“This… is the butterfly game.”

***

Yudit immediately headed to the school. The moment he burst into the teachers’ office, everyone froze in shock.

“Your Highness…? Is something wrong?”

“Where is Pavron?”

His voice dripped with contempt, overwhelming the teachers. One of them stammered,

“M-Mr. Pavron is in the middle of student counseling. He’s probably… in the classroom.”

At the mention of student counseling, Yudit clenched his fists. Then he vanished like the wind. Staring at the door he’d left swinging open, the teachers muttered in stunned voices.

“I’ve never seen him that angry before.”

“Me neither. What could have happened…?”

Yudit stomped down the hallway and scanned the classroom through the window. Pavron, supposedly inside, was nowhere to be seen. Yudit threw the door open with a bang. From inside came the sound of something falling. A gust of wind billowed the curtains wide like a skirt. Behind them, legs came into view—not two, but four.

“I know you’re back there. Come out.”

At Yudit’s command, Pavron slowly pulled the curtain aside and greeted him with a feigned calm.

“My, if it isn’t Your Highness.”

“Who’s behind you?”

“What brings you to my classroom, Your Highness?”

“I asked you who’s behind you.”

Startled by the unfamiliar tone, Pavron looked uneasy. Then the figure behind him peeked out—a boy with soft brown curls and a gentle expression. The child looked up at Yudit with timid eyes. His nose was red, and his lips were pouty, as though he’d been crying.

“This is Joey. He’s one of my students. It was a nice day, so we were enjoying the view together.”

“Then why is the boy crying?”

Pavron looked down at the child. Only now did he seem to realize the boy was crying. He gave a clueless shrug.

“I wonder.”

Rage boiled up from deep within. Yudit couldn’t hold back—he lunged at Pavron and punched him. Pavron’s head snapped to the side, and he was thrown backward. His back hit the window frame with a sickening thud, and he slid down, unable to even groan. The boy took the chance to run away.

“Luka wasn’t enough for you?”

“W-what… are you saying…?”

“I heard everything. So stop lying.”

“I already told you, that kid is a liar. How can you treat me, Alderich’s disciple, like this just based on the word of a child? In the afterlife, Alderich will—”

Crack.

Yudit drew his sword and slammed it into the wall beside Pavron. The blade embedded deep, and a fissure split the wall with a loud crack. Pavron’s face turned deathly pale.

“Don’t throw Alderich’s name around so carelessly.”

Some of his hair had been sliced—strands drifted to the floor.

“W-what are you doing? That was my—my hair…!”

“Oops. I’m still new to the sword.”

It had been entirely intentional. But no one in this room was about to point that out.

“So you’d better not lie. I’m not very skilled yet, so if I get angry, I might just swing wildly. Everyone’s only got one neck, right?”

Realizing Yudit meant every word, Pavron turned ghostly white.

“H-how could a prince of a kingdom stoop to threatening a commoner so disgracefully…”

“Yes, I’m threatening you disgracefully. And what exactly do you think you can do about it?”

At Yudit’s words, Pavron’s face stiffened. Because those very words were ones he himself had written in Luka’s diary:

I’ve decided to stop writing in my diary. I’m not a liar. But the teacher says I am. That makes me sad.

‘And what exactly do you think you can do about it?’