# 75
75. The Count Whom I Met Again (5)
Fortunately, I couldn't see Vincent after that day. He didn't stay here, only visiting occasionally. Even when he visited, as long as he didn't go around meeting each servant, there was no point of contact between us. Just seeing him from afar, or brushing past him. He didn't remember me, and I didn't do the foolish thing of pretending to know him.
The provisional employment period is three months. I'd have to leave here once that period ended anyway. It was rather for the best. Since this was the Bellunita County, not the Stella County, I couldn't stay here any longer. This place was neither the grand mansion nor the annex where I stayed in the past, and there was no butler threatening me. Because of that, it wasn't immediately dangerous, and I almost adapted to this place without realizing it.
I recalled the reason why I had fled from here once more. I didn't know what this situation was, but it didn't matter anymore. Let's not settle down here. When the time comes, I'll leave. It might be fine now, but I never know when or where the butler might find me.
Less than two months remain. Alicia will try her best to stay, so then I can just leave alone. It's a place where I can't settle down, but it wouldn't be too bad for Alicia to live in. I didn't hope to be hired, and even if I was, I planned to leave making the excuse that this place didn't suit me.
Whether I wanted it or not, the end would come.
Until then, I need to earn a lot.
'Since he doesn't need me anymore anyway.'
Now my place in this mansion had truly disappeared. I shook off the bitterness with a laugh. What was I expecting? It's a good thing.
But life indeed doesn't flow as I think. The meeting with him continued in a different way.
"Young Master?"
As usual, I opened the door to attend to Robert, but the room was empty. Today, the nanny went out early in the morning. So I attended to him alone and prepared breakfast and lunch. Then, in the brief moment I went down to the kitchen, Robert had disappeared.
But I immediately realized where he was.
I found Robert struggling to climb onto the horse-shaped iron stand. Wondering how he could get on the iron stand that was hard for even me to climb, he stepped on the square support holding the stand's leg with his small foot and jumped up onto it. It didn't look like a skill he'd only tried once or twice.
"Young Master!"
At my shout, Robert jumped in surprise and turned his head. He soon spotted me and rarely panicked. At the same time, his awkwardly positioned body slipped and fell, and I urgently ran and caught him. That could have been a disaster.
"D-don't scold me."
"I won't scold you."
I sighed in relief and helped Robert up the rest of the way. Robert, sitting on the saddle, grabbed the horse's neck and looked at me cautiously. He seemed to know that what he did was "something he shouldn't do." Well, the nanny always freaked out and stopped him, so it would be stranger if he didn't know. Yet he didn't say he'd get down either.
He wasn't a child who would listen just because he was told not to do something; rather, being told not to makes one want to do it more. Besides, I recently learned that Robert had his own reason for constantly climbing up the iron stand like this. For example, wanting to be the first to see someone coming through that wide forest.
In times like this, it's better to play along and coax him.
"Next time you want to come here, please take me with you."
"You won't scold me?"
"Yes. Let's climb up together."
I also struggled and climbed up behind Robert. His round purple eyes looked back at me. I grabbed the horse's neck with one hand and held Robert's small body with the other. As expected, with the height, the scenery outside the window looked spacious.
Robert's gaze was fixed beyond the window. Watching his face constantly searching for something gave me a strange feeling.
"What can you see?"
"There are trees. And grass too."
"You should be able to see flowers too."
"Yeah. There are flowers too."
"What color are the flowers?"
"Yellow."
"Are there red or white ones too?"
"Yeah."
The small head nodded. I asked silly questions like how pretty the sky was, what condition the soil was in, and what the trees looked like. Robert answered my questions faithfully. I hoped that at least that way, the child would forget his longing for a moment.
"Hey, ugly."
"……."
"Ugly."
"Yes."
"Do you think Mother is coming?"
I frowned briefly then quickly relaxed my face and looked down at Robert. Robert was still looking out the window. Blinking his big eyes blankly.
"Yes. She must be on her way."
"Wow, really?"
"Do you miss her a lot?"
"Yeah. I miss her. I miss her this much."
Robert waved both arms in a circle. He seemed to be expressing a big heart in his own way. Robert can wait patiently. Robert saying that and smiling made me feel sorry for him. I hugged the child's small body and patted him.
"You're so good, waiting patiently even though you miss her."
"I'm good?"
"Yes. You're good."
"Then I don't have to get down?"
Robert didn't join in my emotion. I clicked my tongue at his cleverness in seeing right through my intention to let him ride for a bit and then get down. When I couldn't answer, forcing a smile, Robert giggled again and looked out the window.
"Robert."
Then a sudden call came, and I was startled as I looked down. I don't know when he arrived... Vincent was standing there. I froze at his appearance, and Robert called out "Vincent!" with a bright smile.
Vincent frowned.
"I believe I told you it was dangerous."
At the voice mixed with anger, Robert's face became gloomy. He subtly buried his face in my embrace and pretended not to hear. Vincent's frown deepened as he watched that. When his sharp gaze pierced me, I quickly turned my head and looked at the horse's head. Setting aside young Robert, it was embarrassing that I was also riding along with him.
Soon, a sigh reached my ears.
"It's dangerous, so come down."
Vincent reached out his hand. I tried to detach Robert from my embrace. Robert flailed about, resisting going down. I barely managed to detach him and carefully lowered him down. Vincent caught Robert's small body and held him in his arms. Then he immediately flicked his forehead.
"Don't keep climbing up because it's dangerous. If you climb up one more time, I'll throw you away."
"That's petty!"
"It's not petty, it's justified."
"Justified?"
"Yes. Since you're mine, I can do what I want with you."
What fine words to say to a young child. I looked down pitifully at Vincent who was threatening Robert. Vincent, threatening him not to climb up again because he was his, looked like the most pathetic man in the world.
As I shifted my weight to get down too, a hand was suddenly extended. Vincent, who had set Robert on the floor, reached out his hand to me as well.
"Grab on."
"Pardon?"
"It's too high to come down alone."
Flustered, I alternated between looking at his hand and his face. He flicked his hand once. Urged to grab on quickly, I steadied my trembling heart and slowly clasped his hand.
The body temperature wrapping around my hand was warm. It's nothing. He's just trying to help because it looks hard for a woman to come down alone. It was a consideration that any gentleman would make. Reminding myself of that, I jumped down to the floor.
It was definitely high. My body felt like it was floating. It felt like falling into an endless abyss. I squeezed my eyes shut from the fear and lost my balance.
But a soft sensation enveloped me. I also instinctively embraced something. When I suddenly opened my eyes, I saw golden hair swaying near my chest. My legs dangled in the air.
I ended up grabbing his head and being held in his embrace.
"Agh!"
Startled, I pulled my hands away and my body swayed backward. He quickly wrapped his arm around my back and caught me. I had to grab his head again to keep my balance. Thanks to that, I almost pulled his hair out. Hearing a groan from below, I panicked and pulled my body back.
"I-I'm sorry."
"I understand, so don't move."
His face was right below. My vision spun.
"P-Please put me down!"
"Wait. I'll put you down now..."
"Put me down now! Quickly!"
I begged him to put me down. I flailed about as much as Robert had earlier. But the more I flailed, the closer I got to his body. When his breath brushed against the nape of my neck, I couldn't bear it anymore. My heart pounded wildly. My vision spun so much I felt like throwing up.
As a result of all that commotion, my body went down. When my feet almost touched the floor, I couldn't hold back anymore and jumped down. But his action of letting go and my action of jumping down got tangled, and I finally lost my center of gravity.
As my panicked body fell backward, and Vincent reached out to catch me again, my raised leg kicked between his legs.
Thud! The sound rang out eerily.
His body soon bent forward. After seeing that, I fell backward and hit the back of my head on the iron stand's body.
This time, a gasp escaped my mouth. Stars flashed before my eyes.
I only came to my senses after seeing twenty stars. Touching my throbbing back of my head, I remembered the sensation that touched my toes and stood up. Vincent was on one knee, his body curled up. Robert, who had witnessed all this disaster vividly, blinked and crouched beside Vincent, examining him.
"Vincent, does it hurt?"
"……."
Vincent was silent. His deeply bowed face seemed to represent his feelings. My heart pounded with a different meaning.
"M-Master?"
"……."
"Are you alright? Hmm?"
"……."
I took a step closer to him who still didn't answer. It was ominous. N-no, could a really big disaster have occurred? I've ended the Bellunita County's lineage! Just as I was despairing, not knowing what to do about this tragedy, laughter suddenly burst out.
"Ahahaha!"
I don't know when she arrived, but Joely was standing in the back. Beside her were Alicia with wide eyes and Johnny with a devastated expression. Among them, only Joely was clutching her stomach, laughing as if she'd run out of breath.
"You."
Soon Vincent slowly raised his head. His flashing eyes on his pale face fiercely pierced me.
"Who did you say you were."
At the question spit out through clenched teeth, I swallowed dry saliva. Let me say it again, I definitely did not imagine this kind of reunion.
Not at all.