“Lady Rosie, you’re incredible.”
Shulva said with a relieved expression, overwhelmed with gratitude.
“I never even thought of that...”
“Well...” Rosie responded nonchalantly, sitting back down by Julian's bed. “Those people will be happy with what’s happened to you, but I can’t let them do something good on top of that.”
Julian stared blankly at Rosie.
...So, Rosie wasn’t preparing these documents out of greed for money...
Shulva muttered, sounding worried.
“What do we do now, Lady Rosie? Those people will likely come to see you as soon as the documents are ready. I’m not sure if you’ll be able to hold out...”
“I’m sure it’s better than if it were you.”
Rosie replied calmly.
“At least I know I absolutely can’t hand over this money. And I’m not a patient either.”
Julian suddenly felt an odd tingling at his feet.
When the people had swarmed in, shouting for him to sign, his head had felt like it was going to split.
The doctor wasn’t wrong when they insisted he needed ‘absolute rest.’
Then Rosie... did she think that because of the money, he, as a patient, might not be able to rest properly?
So, that’s why she took everything for herself?
Unable to say anything, Julian just stared at her, but Rosie smiled faintly and said,
This content is taken from freёwebnovel.com.
“Now that the urgent stuff is out of the way, let’s start the ‘real’ conversation.”
Julian looked at the small girl sitting next to him, just like at the beginning before all this chaos erupted.
“First of all,”
Rosie sighed lightly and spoke in a soft voice, her appearance pitiful.
“Hing, I’m so sad, brother. My heart feels like it’s tearing apart, and I don’t even know why this is happening to us. My chest is tight, my heart’s racing. What am I supposed to do now?”
Julian silently looked at Rosie. After a deep sigh, he responded honestly.
“...Isn’t it a bit too late for that, brat? You seem to already know exactly what we’re supposed to do.”
“I think so too. But, when I saw you, I couldn’t just sit there and mourn the tragedy that had befallen us. The situation didn’t allow for that. Please understand. And it’s ‘Rosie,’ not ‘brat.’”
“Well, don’t be so rational about it...”
Julian clicked his tongue involuntarily, feeling a tightness at the back of his neck. He then paused, deep in thought, before continuing.
“Well, anyway... I get it now. This place is a bit dangerous. But... thanks.”
He cleared his throat and looked at the girl, who seemed too small to be twelve, and added,
“I... well, I’m planning to leave here, but if you want, you can come with me.”
He ran a hand through his hair and tried to look as impressive as possible before speaking again.
“Living in the Count’s house? That’s not going to happen, but at least there won’t be people like those. And until you turn an adult, I can...”
Rosie didn’t respond to his words.
Instead, she stared at his bandaged legs, ignoring the ‘impressive’ expression Julian tried to put on, before suddenly asking,
“When will you be fully healed?”
“Hey, brat. Who the hell do you take after, not listening to other people?”
Rosie paused and put on a serious expression for a moment, before brightly answering.
“Oh, I guess I take after you, brother. You never listen to me either and always call me a brat.”
“....”
Once again, Julian was at a loss for words.
Looking at Rosie’s smiling face, he repeated what he had heard from his physician earlier.
“It’ll take a few months before I can move properly. They say that while I used to be better than anyone in the Empire with a sword, it’ll be hard to go back to that. The memory loss... there’s no telling when it’ll come back.”
In truth, he didn’t even remember learning swordsmanship, so he didn’t feel any sense of loss over it.
“As for the swordsmanship and all that, I don’t care. Once I’m better, can I at least cut meat?”
“You’re going to cut meat? Not... humans?”
He had said that once he recovered, he could run a butcher shop. Julian genuinely thought that would be enough.
“Well, I was thinking maybe I’ll go back to my old hometown to recover. Considering those kinds of people might keep swarming here, I think that would be better.”
“Oh, don’t worry about that. This won’t happen again.”
Rosie smiled brightly at Julian’s words and then casually added,
“You’ve lost all your fortune now and are broke. There’s nothing left for anyone to take.”
“...Thanks for making me broke, brat.”
“Eh, it’s no big deal. You’ve done so much for me already. So don’t feel like you have to thank me for this.”
It was an unnecessarily sincere and serious reply.
Julian suddenly found himself feeling distant from his past self, wondering how he had ever raised this child.
“And brother, never think about leaving here.”
Rosie grabbed Julian’s hand tightly and spoke.
“You’re Grandfather’s most cherished grandson, so this is the safest place.”
“You’re saying that while looking at the people who came here carrying documents...?”
“If it were outside, they’d be holding swords instead of papers.”
“......”
Julian swallowed dryly at Rosie’s clear words.
Just then, Shulva cautiously interjected.
“By the way, Lady Rosie, those people will likely see you, who doesn’t know much about the world, as an easy target as well. How do you plan to deal with that...?”
“Ah. Don’t worry, Shulva.”
Rosie replied with a worried expression, almost as if she was deeply concerned.
“I don’t really know much, so... I’ll have to deal with them by using the arrogance of someone who has more power than them.”
Arrogance?
...Did I hear that wrong?
Julian stared at the small, fragile-looking girl with his mouth slightly open.
‘This kid...’
Although he hadn’t known her for long, Julian felt like he could roughly judge what kind of person she was.
‘...She’s really strong.’
It was the instinctive sense of a former street thug who had been in a few brawls.
‘And she’s even stronger because she’s serious about it.’
Julian blinked, and Rosie tilted her head slightly and said,
“Brother, then rest. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Huh?”
“I’d love to stay longer, but... I think people are going to start flocking back soon. They’ll bring documents that have changed your name to mine. Plus, you’ve assigned a lot of substitute teachers, so I have classes to attend this afternoon.”
Rosie waved her hand lightly to say goodbye. Then she lowered her voice and whispered,
“Remember, brother. There’s no relative here you can trust.”
“...Huh?”
“Don’t worry though.”
Rosie gave a small smile and patted his shoulder.
“I’ll protect you.”
“What?”
“Thanks for waking up.”
“Huh?”
“I knew you’d wake up soon... but still, thank you. Honestly, I missed you so much.”
There was a slight hint of tears at the end of her otherwise calm voice.
After that, Rosie stood up cheerfully with the documents held close to her chest and left the room. Her small figure walking away with quick steps made Julian let out an odd sigh.
Julian, not even knowing why, flopped back onto the bed.
“What’s she saying?”
He muttered to himself as he closed his eyes.
“Why does she want to come back tomorrow when I’ve lost all my wealth and am just a nobody now?”
Her saying she’d protect him or not to worry was just ridiculous.
Yet, the words “I’ll see you tomorrow” that Rosie had lightly left behind strangely lingered in his ears.