Chapter 391 – Might Be Real, Family (4)
The table was noisy. On days when I wasn’t on a business trip, the table at the mansion was always like this. Selu grabbed her table and climbed onto her chair. Aira was smiling as she brought her tableware to her. Soya carefully sat down in her chair and waved her hand at Matilda. Matilda shrank her body as if she was happy to see Soya, but she vigorously shook her hand. Elsie scrambled her tail as she waited for her food to be served.
Eve sat next to Matilda. Eve met Matilda’s eyes and grinned. While eating her lunch, she shook off her awkwardness at her first meeting and was smiling brightly again. The nun sat down at her table, nervous that a brightly smiling Matilda might share her rudeness with her.
While I was eating, I saw a messenger waiting for me sweating profusely from the window across the dining room. I got up from my meal and nodded to him.
The messenger met my eyes, nodded hurriedly, and then came in panting. At dinner, my wife and Matilda looked at the messenger curiously, but that was all. They resumed their meal, chatting again, with or without a messenger.
Being a lord, it was quite common for a messenger to urgently deliver news in the middle of a meal. I asked the messenger in a low voice.
“What happens?”
“Ah, you have to fill out the sponsorship renewal agreement here… I came here in such a hurry.”
“Ah, the renewal agreement.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing. You just have to sign it.”
It really didn’t matter. It was just a sponsorship agreement to continue sponsoring this child in the next semester. There was no need to worry about Matilda, so I quietly signed it. While I was signing, the messenger from Daecheonsingyo rummaged through my pockets and then blurted out a letter to me.
“And, this is a letter from the lord.”
I accepted the letter with my eyes closed. Eve stopped eating her bread and leaned over to me to look at the letter.
[Dear lord.]
“Saw? Dear lord, How nice it is when everyone is so kind.”
I said this because I felt good at the polite rush I hadn’t seen in a long time. Eve dismissed my words as nonsense and nodded.
“Read on. Originally, those who lacked something always sucked it up like this from the start.”
“Dear lord, I…”
I stopped reading her letter and looked at Matilda. Matilda, unaware of anything, was enjoying her meal with her. With her stern face her, the nun once again cautioned her about her dining etiquette her. Rather than saying that she was immature, she was teaching a little strict that nuns were in front of me. I started reading the letter silently.
[I am Margaret, Matilda’s mother. In fact, our family is so poor right now that we don’t even have water to drink tomorrow. We earnestly hope that the wise and benevolent Lord Peta Lucius will take pity on us and do good to us. My daughter is also worried about the family’s poverty, so she doesn’t study properly, so please ask for it.]
“Matilda.”
“Yes?”
I called Matilda. Next to me, Eve was watching Matilda with a hard expression. Elsie said in a sudden calm atmosphere.
“Priest. Suddenly, the kid gets scared.”
At that, I grinned and told Matilda.
“Would you like to eat some food and come to the office? I have something to tell you.”
Matilda seemed to have no idea what she was talking about yet. She was looking at us with a face full of bewilderment and fear. The nun looked at her letter and clenched her teeth as if guessing her contents her.
****
When we went upstairs and waited, it was the nun who opened the door and entered before Matilda. As soon as she knocked, she slammed the door in. She tried to explain the letter we had just seen.
“Younglord. The financial part of Matilda’s parents is being supported by the Daecheonsin Church. The letter you just received is a mistake or misunderstanding…”
“My name is Margaret, Matilda’s mother. In fact, our family is so poor right now that we don’t even have water to drink tomorrow. We earnestly hope that the wise and benevolent Lord Peta Lucius will take pity on us and do good to us. That said, it’s strange to be misunderstood. Is there another child named Matilda among the children being sponsored?”
“Ah, that…”
The nun shut her mouth. I walked closer to the nun and said,
“Actually, I had a similar letter like this before. At that time, now the letter to Matilda… Because I happened to see it. By mistake. Looking at the contents of the letter at that time, it seems that Matilda’s mother, Miss Margaret, has periodically used her Matilda to get money from other lords … Did the Daecheonsingyo understand this?”
“…I know to a certain extent, but there was no way to stop it. All the previous lords have gone badly.”
“As far as I know, the first person in charge of Matilda was the former Grand Duke of the North, but even then she was paid this way?”
The Grand Duke of the North I knew was once a man whose head and heart were all hot, even though he was lying cold in his coffin now. Did you do such a trick to someone like that?
“It started when the Grand Duke felt sorry for Matilda’s family her being poor and personally sent relief items.”
“You must have been passionate about donations.”
“It wasn’t on this scale at the time… After that, the lords gave money to their families in a similar way to the custom… When it changes…”
The nun fell to her knees at a loss for words. I was a little taken aback when she suddenly fell on her knees. Eve sat in the passenger seat and narrowed her brows.
“Matilda is innocent! It’s because I was negligent in management. Perhaps, rather than suspending Matilda’s support for this issue, he would rather protest directly to the Archangel Church and reprimand me…”
“Calm down. Sister. I am also a member of Daecheonsingyo. I can see that your clear mind is very similar to mine.”
The nun could not control her expression her for a moment at those words, so the corners of her mouth her hung down. Quickly clearing her slightly frowned eyes, she soon returned to her original face her.
“Puffy…”
Eve let out a laugh out of proportion, then clamped her mouth shut. After agreeing to forgive Eve and the nun for their momentary mistake, I continued.
“… So, actually, I have something I want to ask about this day.”
“As for this matter…”
She still seemed to be feeling serious anxiety, even though I hadn’t said anything to her about ending her sponsorship of her. I shook my head and said.
“So. Actually that… I don’t think it’s a matter that anyone can make a hasty decision about being a parent. For example, you can’t take him away from me just because my father is too poor. Isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“So, I’m a bit cautious about what to say… Actually, as Miss Matilda’s parent, I don’t see the current biological parents as playing a proper role. In this case, what can be done within Daecheonsingyo, which is the main body of sponsorship?”
The nun pondered, then shook her head.
“I’m sorry, but the Archangel Church cannot impose such sanctions in areas where religious issues are not intertwined. Even if I tell you legally, except for the child being an orphan, losing parental rights…”
The nun stopped talking until there and covered her mouth. Eve and I quickly exchanged glances between her and then looked at the nun again. The nun glanced at the two of us and quickly changed her words to her.
“No. That… Don’t kill me! It’s murder, right? Thinking of the doctrine of Daecheonsingyo, which he once belonged to…”
“I’m thinking about it. Carefully.”
“Right. Carefully.”
A knock was heard. The nun stared at her door with her hardened face. Eve sat at her desk, I leaned back in her chair and looked at her door. She cautiously opened the door and Matilda stepped in, eyes widening anxiously.
She was already crying, as if she had assumed the worst case she could imagine.
“That… You called, and I came.”
“Why are you crying? Do not cry. Pop.”
I started to calm her down slowly. Eve took her Matilda’s hand her and she pressed her face together as if about to cry, then swallowed the tears again and took a deep breath. The nun sat silently in her guest seat and closed her eyes.
When Matilda seemed to have calmed down somewhat, I patted her on the back again. Matilda held Eve’s hand tightly and looked at me. A firm determination was felt from his tightly pursed lips of hers. I started her explanation of her in a low, quiet voice so as not to upset her.
“Matilda. Don’t misunderstand me, will you listen? Actually, I got a letter from your mother…”
“Yes?”
Cried Matilda, squeezing Eve’s hand and opening her eyes wide.
“Calm down. Matilda. Wait a minute.”
Matilda was shaking her head. Tears welled up in her eyes. Seeing her face her as her tantrum her exploded, me, Eve, and the nun had to do her best to calm her down. Seizing her quivering wrist like a branch swept away by her valley wind, the nun hugged her tightly.
*****
“Are you calm?”
“…Yes.”
Matilda was sniffing at the mere mention of her letter. I thought she must have been in a lot of trouble. Eve was hugging her from behind. Matilda, who said she was covering her face her, looked at me in her Eve’s arms her as she held her arms tight like her seatbelt her.
“Therefore… What I mean is, you need someone who will let your talent bloom. I mean, it doesn’t mean that your parents can’t or don’t deserve to raise you. In your current environment, you see the need to take care of someone who allows you to focus on your studies. Do you see what I mean?”
“…Yes.”
Matilda nodded her head. I took a deep breath. I thought it was fortunate that she was quick to understand.
“Matilda. I, so Eve and I, want to find you a guardian who can support and support you more than your parents do now, what do you think?”
“That… That…”
Matilda averted my eyes. And she squeezed Eve’s hand her.
