Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Cesare fell silent for a moment at that question. He toyed with his glass, then began speaking with a reluctant expression.

“After all our masters died, we managed somehow for a few months. But then the brothel owner said he had the contract for this house and drove us out.”

Perhaps I should have killed that bastard after all. Cesare continued speaking calmly.

“Once the cash ran out, there was nothing we could do. Arkel hyung did bring in money, but it was not enough.”

Arkel had been the oldest of my disciples. Even so, he had only been an eighteen-year-old child.

Arkel, the only adult and the eldest. So that child had earned money for them. He had taken responsibility for his younger siblings. Those were all things I should have done.

“After another half a year passed like that, Arkel hyung gathered us together and told us.”

Cesare spoke in a subdued voice.

“He said he did not want to be responsible for us anymore. He told us to live on our own.”

I could not even begin to imagine how the children must have felt when they heard those words. Nor could I imagine how Arkel had felt.

No one had been at fault. And yet, it had been more than enough to ruin the bonds between my disciples. I asked Cesare carefully.

“Do you not resent Arkel?”

“No?”

Cesare’s expression was free of any bitterness. He calmly shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth and said.

“It was a shock back then, but I understand now. Even if he was the eldest brother, how could an eighteen-year-old kid take responsibility for four people? Holding out for half a year was already more than enough. He must have been exhausted too.”

His response was different from what I had expected, and I fell silent.

Cesare had grown up far too quickly. During all those years when I had failed to protect him.

He continued speaking in an even tone.

“We left Xenia, the youngest, at an orphanage, and I followed a mercenary. The others disappeared after leaving nothing but a note telling us not to look for them.”

Not to look for them? Why had they left such a message? I asked, clenching my fist tightly.

“Have you ever gone back to that orphanage?”

“Yes. When I went there as an adult to look for her, the orphanage had already gone under.”

Cesare’s eyes darkened. Still, he had tried to find Xenia. I spoke as though soothing him.

“Fortunately, that means there is at least a clue to Xenia’s whereabouts, so let us start by looking there.”

The other two weighed on my mind as well, but for now, it seemed more likely that we could find Xenia first.

Even if the orphanage had gone under, there should be at least one person who remembered it. Cesare gave a single nod.

“Well, fine. It will not hurt to go. I am done eating, so shall we head upstairs now?”

“No. Let us go to Balanus Domus. We will be using that place as our residence.”

“All right. Let us go.”

Cesare rose from his seat with both hands tucked into his trouser pockets. Outside, the sun was setting.

As we walked along the brick road dyed orange by the sunset, Cesare looked around several times. His gaze was puzzled.

“Huh? Why are we coming this way?”

The place we were heading toward was a residential district. I approached one building and inserted a key.

“Come in.”

The interior was empty, without furniture or household goods, but it was clean and filled with sunlight. He looked around and asked.

“What is this place?”

“Balanus’s new home.”

At those words, Cesare’s eyes widened.

“Huh? That brothel—no, the place in the slums is Balanus Domus.”

“I sold it. The security there is too poor, and it would not be quite right to live in a place that had been used as a brothel.”

Quietly, I looked around the interior in the glow of the sunset. The scent of old wood, the faint sound of people laughing outside.

“I want the children to live in a bright, comfortable home when they come back.”

I slowly ran my hand over the window frame. The old, small building left a little dust on my fingers, but even that felt warm.

“From now on, I will raise Balanus here again. I will make it into a very famous domus. So that everyone in the world will hear the name Balanus.”

So that the children could hear that name and find their way back.

Cesare traced the table with his hand, just as I had done. As though he were grasping at a dream. He murmured in a low voice.

“……So now I have a home too.”

Cesare was silent for a long while before he turned to look at me. With no trace of a smile on his face, he asked.

“What if the others are satisfied with their lives now? Will you still bring them back?”

My hand stopped for a moment. Fifteen years. It was more than enough time to settle into a new place and meet a new family.

As Cesare had said, the children might be satisfied with their new lives. They might not want to return to Balanus.

If that were the case, I had no intention of forcibly taking their lives away or controlling them as I pleased. What I wanted was their happiness.

“If they are living well, I will not force them. But if they have gone down the wrong path or are living unhappily…….”

My eyes, reflected in the glass window, gleamed darkly.

“I will bring them back, even if I have to drag them out of hell.”