She really has been abandoned.

She was still fast asleep, so I carried her on my back while I searched for a guard post. They would probably send Nonna to an orphanage, where she would have to wait for her mother. As those thoughts went through my mind, I saw a young man running toward me at full speed.

He seems dangerous… I need to steer clear of him.

He was clutching a bag that clearly belonged to a woman. That meant he was a pickpocket. I was carrying Nonna on my back, but I had no other choice. If I were still a spy, I’d avoid him. But now I was just an ordinary citizen with good intentions. Maybe I’d gotten carried away on my first day of freedom and decided to just react without giving it much thought.

I braced myself, and the moment the man passed me, I stuck out my leg, tripping him. He fell with a spectacular thud!

“Oww!”

A muscular, silver-haired man who’d been chasing after him caught up with the pickpocket in no time.

“Give it up!” he shouted.

For some reason, the large man was holding a thin rope, which he used to expertly bind the pickpocket’s hands. Then he turned to me.

“Thanks for your help, miss.”

“Of course. Excuse me, but are you going to hand that man over to the guards? Would I be able to come with you?”

“Hmm? Why?”

“Well, I think this girl might have been abandoned.”

The silver-haired man’s gaze shifted to Nonna behind me. “Sure, I can take you there.”

He didn’t say anything else about it. An elderly woman who looked like an aristocrat ran up to him, catching her breath, and he handed the bag back to her. The snowy-haired woman gracefully bowed several times before departing.

The silver-haired man pulled along the pickpocket as he showed me the way to the guard post. He told me his name was Jeffrey Asher. He appeared to be in his early thirties and was in top physical shape, judging by his toned muscles. He was around one hundred and ninety centimeters tall and weighed about eighty kilograms. His clothing looked fairly expensive, and he seemed well-to-do. He had deep-blue eyes, handsome features, and a very nice voice. I had a feeling he was quite popular with the ladies.

The guard post was a two-story building situated in the center of the downtown area. Two guards armed with swords stood at the entrance and immediately straightened their posture when they spotted Mr. Asher.

“I caught a pickpocket.”

“Thank you, Captain!”

Captain? If this man was a member of the guard, they’d refer to him as Commander, so he had to be either a captain of the knights or the military. He was in civilian clothes, so this must have been his day off.

“And who’s this lady?”

“She found a child who’s been abandoned. Would you mind helping her out?”

A member of the guard led me down the path to the left, while Mr. Asher escorted the pickpocket toward the right. I explained how I’d come to find the little girl, presented my identification papers, and signed Victoria Sellars on the documents. Once all that was finished, I asked the question that had been nagging at the corner of my mind.

“What will happen to Nonna tonight?”

“She’ll have to sleep here. I’ll contact the orphanage, but the soonest they’d be able to send someone over would be tomorrow.”

After waiting a very long time for her mother to come back to no avail, now she would have to spend the night by herself at the guard post. It reminded me of the day I’d been taken to the spy organization’s facilities. I remember crying myself to sleep out of fear and loneliness in that unfamiliar bedroom.

“Do you think it would be possible for me to take her back to my hotel for tonight? I’ve just arrived in this kingdom, so I have no one to vouch for me, but my heart aches when I think of leaving her after I spent all day waiting with her.”

“You don’t have anyone to vouch for you? Hmm… If you had someone upstanding to be your guarantor, I could grant you permission. However, without someone to verify you’re really a guest at Hotel Fruud like you’ve written here, our hands are tied.”

That made sense. Perhaps it was no use. I was about to give up, when suddenly, I heard a voice from behind me.

“I can confirm whether she’s really staying at Hotel Fruud. It’s my day off today anyway. The only reason I caught the pickpocket earlier was because she tripped him.”

“Is that right? Ms. Sellars, thank you so much for your cooperation! And yes, it would be a big help if you could check out the hotel, Captain.”

“It’s no problem. I’m just returning the favor for her help with the arrest. Plus, it would pain me to see this little girl have to spend the night alone in such a dirty guard post.”

“Please don’t call it dirty,” the guard said with a rueful chuckle. Regardless, he ended up granting me permission to take Nonna to my room for the night.

“I can carry the girl.”

“Thanks, I’d really appreciate that.”

Mr. Asher effortlessly picked Nonna up in his arms, and the two of us chatted the entire way there. His voice was deep, with a smooth, velvety timbre I could listen to all day.

He told me he was the captain of the Second Order of the knights, whose duty was to keep the peace in the capital city. They were the superior organization to the guards.

“Where are you from, miss?”

“Randall, the neighboring kingdom.”

“How long are you planning on staying here?”

“My whole family passed away in a house fire, so I’ve come here to make a fresh start.”

I told him my cover story without hesitation. There was nothing wrong with making a good impression on the captain of the knights. The key to a good cover story was to answer in a friendly manner with a smile, and to incorporate as much of the truth as possible; that made it easier to remember and reduced your chances of being caught in a lie.

“You speak our language quite well,” Mr. Asher said to me.

“Thank you.”

We bought a change of clothes for Nonna on the way there, then headed to the hotel.

“Welcome back, Ms. Sellars.” The man at the front desk greeted me, and I explained the situation with Nonna to him. Mr. Asher also seemed friendly with the man.

He carried Nonna up to my room and gently placed her on the bed. “Much appreciated,” I said, and Mr. Asher straightened his posture.

“Once again, thank you for your assistance with the arrest, and for helping look after the child. Well then, have a good night.”

He was all business as he bid me good-bye and excused himself. I watched him go, then locked up my hotel room. I wedged a chair beneath the doorknob just in case and then went to go freshen up.

I felt much better after changing into pajamas and slipping into bed beside Nonna. I was hungry, but I couldn’t leave her alone in the room to get something, and ordering room service seemed a bit extreme. So I ignored my hunger and decided to go to sleep.

“Good night, Nonna,” I whispered as I lay down. My first day as Victoria Sellars had been very eventful.

The next morning, I awoke to my stomach growling. Nonna was awake beside me, staring me in the face.

“Morning, miss.”

“Good morning, Nonna. Shall we take a bath before we eat breakfast?”

“Sure.”

We went down to the baths, which were located on the first floor, and I scrubbed Nonna with the complimentary soap. I casually checked her for any signs of abuse, but there were none. That alone filled me with relief.

I carefully dried her off, then helped her change into the simple dress I’d bought her the previous day on the way home.

She hasn’t asked me a thing, I thought.

But as we ate breakfast, Nonna suddenly murmured, “Where’s my mom?”

“I guess she wasn’t able to make it back. What kind of job does your mom have?”

“I don’t know.”

“What do you do when she leaves you alone?”

“I just stay quiet.”

“I see.”

I’d thought she was rather taciturn, but perhaps she’d been raised to hide her emotions. I had a feeling that her mother wouldn’t be coming home again, and even if she did, I doubted she would properly take care of a girl she’d already abandoned once. At the very least, Nonna wouldn’t go hungry in the orphanage.

“And what do you do when you’re with your mother?”

“I just stay quiet.”

“Does she often tell you to be quiet?”

“Yes.”

There are many unfortunate children like her. I shouldn’t pry any further. I feel sorry for the girl, but it’s not like I can take her in, I told myself.

The hotel breakfast consisted of bread with a side of jam and butter, milk, a bland vegetable soup, fried eggs, and sausage. Nonna ate it quietly. I also ate in silence.

Nonna and I walked hand in hand back to the guard post without exchanging a word. On the way there, I bought her a ribbon that matched her blue-gray eyes at a trinket shop and tied it in her hair for her. I felt like I was assuaging my guilt with material things, but the faint smile on her face afterward made it worth it.

“Thank you, miss,” she told me out of the blue in front of the guard post.

I couldn’t decide whether I should tell her to be a good girl at the orphanage, because she was clearly trying very hard to be a good girl already. So I just stroked her hair.

Still holding hands, we entered the guard post and saw a middle-aged woman waiting for us.

“Ah, there you are,” she said. “I’m the director of the southern quarter’s orphanage. I heard you took this girl in for us last night. Thank you for that.” The woman grabbed Nonna’s hand. “Come on, then. Let’s go,” she urged, and began walking.

Nonna took a few steps and then turned to look back at me. And those eyes… Those blue-gray eyes…

They wavered with emotion for the first time.

“Wait! Please wait,” I called.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Can’t I take her instead?”

This definitely wasn’t the first time something like this happened, because the director gave her answer smoothly and briskly. “Take her in? I heard you’ve only just arrived in our kingdom, and you live in a hotel. You don’t even have a guarantor, correct? I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t possibly let you look after this girl. For all I know, you could pretend to take her in and then turn around and sell her. Oh, but it’s nothing personal, of course. Those are just the rules, and I have to abide by them.”

The woman’s argument made perfect sense. And yet I knew that if I let this girl go, the look in her eyes would haunt me forever.

“She has one! She has a guarantor!” Mr. Asher had headed to the guard post right away after one of the guards sent word to him. “I’ll be Victoria Sellars’s guarantor.”