Special - 1
Zachary suddenly found himself in a strange place. He looked around in confusion. The shield on the flag waving on the castle wall looked familiar. It was the castle of Blanchefort.
When did he arrive at Blanchefort?
His mind was cloudy, as if there was fog in his head.
Zachary strolled through the territory, following the structure of Blanchefort Castle. In no time, he reached the garden.
It was rude to intrude into a castle without an invitation, no matter how related they were. Not to mention the support within the castle.
Zachary immediately tried to turn back.
However, from the interior of the back garden, he heard a girl whimpering. In Blanchefort Castle, the only girl who could cry was Colette, the daughter of Johaseng de Blanchefort.
Zachary struggled between appeasing his niece by accepting the rudeness of entering the castle unannounced or pretending not to know.
It was questionable whether Colette would stop crying even if he went anyway. Colette had difficulties with her uncle, Zachary.
When he thought about it, he wondered where the difficulty lay. Like Bianca in the past, she cried because she was afraid to see his face.
A small smile spread across Zachary's stiff mouth as he remembered the past.
At that time, his wife cried a lot. In fact, Zachary had never seen any expression other than crying from young Bianca.
That was a bit unfortunate. At least once, he would have liked to see little Bianca smile. But time had already passed.
When he arrived at an unfamiliar place, he began to think about things other than usual. Zachary laughed at himself for thinking useless things.
Meanwhile, the girl's crying didn't stop. She might end up fainting from crying so much.
There was a time when Alex sobbed and cried for hours before finally passing out. Judging by the fact that there was no one around, it seemed that there was no one to comfort the girl except Zachary.
Zachary stopped worrying about what to do and moved to where the girl was supposed to be.
The moment he rounded the wall of the garden covered by bushes and looked down, Zachary involuntarily murmured.
"...Bianca?"
The familiar reddish-brown hair and chubby red-cheeked face with tears streaming down. It was just like Bianca on their wedding day.
The crying girl trembled at the presence of a stranger.
The girl raised her head, looked at Zachary, and asked.
"Who, who are you?"
It was Bianca. He couldn't not know. It was exactly the same as the appearance of Bianca in the portraits they exchanged before the wedding, which Zachary drew over and over again.
This is a dream.
As soon as he noticed Zachary's presence, fear grew in the young Bianca's pale green eyes.
The past Zachary didn't think he would be a threat to Bianca, but now he knows.
Zachary quickly stepped away from Bianca, and when that wasn't enough, he knelt down and lowered his gaze. Even so, Zachary's seated height eclipsed that of Bianca.
Now that he knew it was a dream, he decided to be a little more serious. Zachary told a white lie.
"I am a guest at Blanchefort."
"Y-you showed an embarrassing side."
Bianca, who felt relieved when the other person moved away, responded by pretending to be an adult. If it had been adult Bianca, she wouldn't have felt so relieved. He laughed at Bianca's foolishness in many ways, but at the same time, he was worried about what to do with such a lack of vigilance.
"I guess she didn't like the way I dressed from the first time we met."
Zachary reflected on whether or not to reveal that he was from Arno. It wouldn't matter since it's just a dream anyway... For some reason, he felt that he shouldn't reveal it. Zachary replied.
"I am not in a position to be called Lord by you. By the way... do you like chocolate cake?"
"How do you know?"
Bianca asked in surprise. Instead of answering, Zachary chuckled softly.
There was a lot of chocolate around Bianca's mouth, so he couldn't help but notice. It was also surprising.
The Bianca he knew didn't eat too much fruit, let alone chocolate cake, saying it was too sweet.
Zachary knew his tone sounded brusque. It was because Bianca would say something about his tone whenever she had the chance. To be precise, it was more like a complaint that their eldest daughter, Alex, shouldn't resemble Zachary in her tone.
"I'm used to it now, but do you know how scary it was at first? It created a lot of misunderstandings... Well, of course, that doesn't mean Alex has to learn to speak like me! I know my speaking skills aren't that good!"
Bianca said, "I'm used to it," not "It's okay." So Zachary spoke as softly as he could to Alex.
"I just asked because I thought you might like it."
It was a voice that softened to a degree that Zachary had never believed possible. However, there is a limit to how much a tiger can sound like a cat, so in the eyes of others, he still epitomized a blunt gentleman.
Still, it wasn't a futile attempt, but Bianca muttered a response with a sullen expression.
"I like it... But I don't want to eat it now."
Bianca remembered the muddy texture in her mouth. Normally, it was a food she liked so much that she begged her father to let her have it.
When she thought of chocolate cake, she also remembered the topic that came up with it. Tears welled up in Bianca's eyes again. Little Bianca sobbed and buried her head in her lap, forgetting that there was a stranger in front of her.
"I don't want to get married... I don't want to leave home..."
The pronunciation of the internal dialogue mixed with the crying was almost drowned out, but Zachary understood Bianca perfectly. It was then that Zachary realized this was the moment when he and Bianca were talking about marriage.
Upon realizing that, the Bianca in front of him seemed even younger. He felt bitter. His past self was so afraid of this girl. He didn't know how to deal with this unfamiliar being...
Meanwhile, Bianca's sobs grew louder. Zachary felt nervous, not knowing how to appease Bianca.
What could Bianca like at this age? Shopping was the only thing Bianca enjoyed, but right now, not even that was hers.
"It would be nice if jewels fell from the sky..."
Zachary dreamt of a deceptive illusion. If it were a dream, it would be fine if it were a little absurd like a dream, but Zachary's dream felt all too real. Soon, Zachary's gaze spotted smooth stones rolling on the ground.
"Here. Look at this."
After catching Bianca's attention, Zachary picked up five stones, tossed them in front of Bianca, and repeated catching them. It was the game he learned from Bianca.
He heard that Bianca often played with her nanny, so she probably already knew how to play Gonggi.
Zachary managed to catch the stones. It wasn't as tricky as the first time he played with Bianca, but it was still clumsy.
Even for young Bianca, Zachary's skills must have been mediocre.
"Sir, you're really bad at this."
Zachary stared at Bianca. She could be like this, a girl who could.
Zachary, who only remembered the way she cried at the wedding hall and the way she frowned and avoided him every time she saw him, couldn't help but admire this moment.
"I'll give it a try."
Bianca reached out and took the stones from Zachary.
Then, with skillful hand movements, she began playing with the stones. Her hand, the size of Zachary's palm, deftly held the stones.
Zachary stared at her.
Even though her eyes were swollen from crying, he couldn't take his eyes off her smiling face as soon as something interesting happened in front of his nose.
At the same time, admiration and regret washed over him.
"One, two..."
Bianca, repeatedly tossing and catching stones on the ground, lifted her head triumphantly after completing a full circle.
"That's how it's done... sir?"
When Bianca looked up, Zachary in front of her had already disappeared.
Bianca jumped up from her spot and looked around.
"Sir?"
However, in the backyard garden, there was no presence other than Bianca's.
Tags:
TWB (Novel)