Chapter 8 Part 3

“Don’t cry. If you cry, you won’t get a present on Christmas.”

It was childlike comfort. He couldn’t help but laugh, wondering what he was doing with such a small child. Rumpel forgot to cry and burst into laughter.

“You shouldn’t cry and laugh……! If you cry and then laugh, you’ll grow horns on your butt……! That’s what my dad said.”

The girl seemed genuinely worried about Rumpel. As she stomped her feet and made a crying face, Rumpel couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.

Meanwhile, the child watched Rumpel with a worried expression. With eyes that were also curious about whether horns would really grow on his butt, Rumpel decided to answer the child’s curiosity.

“I’m okay. I’m special, so even if I cry and laugh, I won’t grow horns on my butt.”

“……Really? How are you special?”

At the child’s question, Rumpel was lost in thought for a moment. How could he show his specialness to this grateful girl who had recognized him? Before long, the corners of Rumpel’s lips curled up.

“What color are these leaves now?”

“Green!”

“Yes, green like your eyes. Look closely.”

As soon as Rumpel finished speaking, the green leaves turned pink. Soon, the large tree turned pink like a giant cotton candy.

The child’s eyes widened as if they were about to pop out.

“Wow! A pink tree! Did you do that?”

“Of course. I did it.”

“Wow! You’re really special!”

Rumpel was secretly pleased that even a small girl acknowledged his specialness, although he wondered what good it would do. He had been able to use magic all along, but it was all useless because no one recognized it.

“Since you showed me something amazing, I’ll show you something good too.”

“Something good?”

The girl’s face was full of pride as she spoke confidently and generously.

Rumpel tilted his head with curiosity as he looked at the child. Then, with a look of excitement on his face, the child wrote some unknown letters on the dirt floor.

“Yes! These are Irina’s letters.”

“Irina’s letters?”

They were strange, enigmatic letters. It was a text that Rumpel couldn’t interpret at all with the languages he knew.

In fact, Rumpel had read a lot of books over the long period of time he spent there. It wasn’t that he particularly intended to study, but since there was nothing else to do, he ended up studying a lot.

In the process, he learned not only the language of this country, but also the languages of neighboring countries. Nevertheless, the letters the child wrote were completely incomprehensible.

“It means Irina’s own script.”

“Who is Irina?”

“Me! Irina Lehman. That’s my name.”

The girl, saying her name, had a proud expression. It was as if she was asking him to praise her for creating Irina’s letters. Rumpel quietly stared at the letters the child, or rather, Irina, wrote, and then looked back at Irina’s face.

“What did you write?”

“Irina. I wrote my name.”

Rumpel alternately looked at ‘Irina’ written in strange letters and ‘Irina’ in front of him. Then, he murmured unconsciously.

“Irina…”

“Why?”

“Huh?”

“Didn’t you just call my name?”

“No, it’s nothing… Just…”

Rumpel lightly shook his head. He himself didn’t know why he had called her name.

He just unconsciously wanted to call her name. It was because he had an inexplicable feeling that it would be the only force that could keep him here.

“Irina! Where are you, Irina?”

“Oh, right! Uh, Mom! I’m here!”

Just then, the angry voice of a woman calling for Irina was heard from afar.

Irina seemed to be looking around, then waved her hand widely, letting the woman she called her mother know her location. Soon, Irina’s mother approached.

“Oh my, the color of the tree is really pretty!”

The woman was greatly impressed. Seeing that, Rumpel’s eyes widened. Even though he had been using magic all along, no one recognized it, but now, following the girl, even the girl’s mother was amazed by his magic.

Could it be that she could also see him?

With anticipation, Rumpel used magic to go down the tree. Standing right in front of the mother and daughter, Rumpel looked straight at the woman.

“Uncle came down, Mom.”

“Uncle?”

“Yes! The person standing here in front of us…”

However, Rumpel’s expectations returned to disappointment. From the woman’s words, Rumpel felt that she couldn’t see him.

“Irina, are you talking about your imaginary friends again?”

Sure enough, she dismissed Rumpel as a child’s ‘imaginary friend’. Rumpel hung his head in despair.

He knew it would be like this. The hope that his figure would now be visible to others was shattered.

“Irina, let’s go. I told you not to wander around alone. Why aren’t you listening to me from the morning? Starting with the necklace?”

“I’m sorry…”

Irina walked away from the tree holding her mother’s hand and looked back as if she suddenly remembered something. Rumpel, who was standing there in despair, felt Irina’s gaze and looked at her.

“Uncle, I’ll see you again. Show me something special next time!”

“……Okay. I definitely will.”

Irina Lehman.

Rumpel recited her name in his heart as he answered.

* * *

But there was no next time. There was no such thing as meeting Irina again at the Imperial Palace. Of course, outside the Imperial Palace as well.

To be precise, Rumpel went to see Irina. He went to find the only person who had recognized him, with a desperate expectation.

However, as if everything that had happened at the Imperial Palace was a lie, Irina didn’t see Rumpel.

At first, he couldn’t believe it. She had clearly seen him, but he couldn’t understand how she couldn’t recognize him to the point where it all felt like a fiction.

He even thought that Irina was playing a prank. That she was pretending not to notice him even while seeing him, a mean prank.

It would have been better if it had been a prank, but Irina really didn’t see Rumpel. Even when Rumpel changed all the trees in Baron Lehman estate, where Irina lived, to pink, she did not notice the change.

It was hopeless. Was the memory of that day just a midday dream?

But as time passed, even despair became hope. Just by the fact that someone had recognized him, he had faith that someone would see him again someday.

Anyone was fine. Of course, it would be a lie if he said he didn’t have any hope that Irina, who had first recognized him, would be the one, but even if it wasn’t Irina, he expected that a miracle partner would exist.

That’s why Rumpel lingered around Irina. He didn’t always follow her around, but he watched Irina, who was a young child, grow up into a lady, and the world around her changed.

 

‘Who…. Who…. Oh, How you….  here?’

 

Irina’s green eyes, which had found Rumpel, widened greatly.

Once again, a miracle happened in the narrow, old tower.

* * *