NOVEL NEXT Chapter 163
Chapter 163. Beggar Siblings – Self-Reliance
“Lena. It’s time to get up now.”
“Ugh, brother, just a little more… Ah!”
Half-awake, Lena, who was dreaming of playing hide-and-seek with her brother, suddenly sat up. Startled by the soft texture and an unfamiliar voice, she opened her eyes wide and looked around.
“Did you sleep well?”
– Hiccup!
Lena involuntarily pulled the blanket up to her chin. She looked at the woman in front of her briefly before realizing where she was.
“Oh, sister. Did you sleep well?”
Lena quickly got off the bed. She stood up by stepping on the bedding laid out beside the bed and bowed deeply.
It was Sister Xenia’s room.
Yesterday, her brother had told her that she would stay here from now on. She had protested, not wanting to be separated from him, but her brother said, “I’ll visit often. It will ease my mind if at least you stay in a good home,” and didn’t give in to her pleas. He returned home alone.
“You’ll come tomorrow, right? You’ll come every day, right?”
“Yes. I’ll come tomorrow and the day after, too. Listen well to what the sister says. And this will be your last time coming out of the theater, okay? Promise.”
Her brother held out his pinky finger. But Lena asked with a teary face, “…If I promise, you’ll come every day?”
She was afraid her brother might leave her behind and disappear. Though she trusted him, she wanted to secure a promise from him.
A moment’s hesitation. “Alright.” ─ Her brother’s response came with a tiny delay. She almost burst into tears from anxiety, but her brother pulled her into a tight hug. As he patted her back and said, “I will. I’ll come every day,” her anxiety somewhat subsided.
“Xenia, please take good care of my sister. We won’t bother you for long.”
“Don’t worry.”
And then her brother left. With hurried steps, he turned the corner of the alley and disappeared. The sunset was beginning to descend.
“Shall we go in too?”
“…Okay.”
The theater, now empty of an audience, was quiet. Lena felt the reassuring touch of Sister Xenia as she gently patted her shoulder, leading her around the theater.
However, it was late, so the two soon returned to the room. Unlike the silent first and second floors, the third floor, where people lived, was bustling.
“Oh my, how pretty. Who’s this new face?”
As they walked down the corridor, some women approached and started talking. Startled by the women who causally came up and patted her head, Lena clung to Xenia’s skirt.
“She’s my boyfriend’s little sister. She’ll be staying here for a while.”
“Boyfriend? Xenia, you have a boyfriend?”
The attention, which had been focused on Lena, shifted direction. In the narrow corridor, through the open door, the women started chatting, while Lena felt the urging touch of Xenia to move forward.
“What kind of person is he?”, “How long have you been dating?” The chatter faded as the door closed. Pushed into Xenia’s room, Lena hesitated, not leaving the doorway.
It was a good room.
Through the wide-open window, the sky was turning yellow, and a sweet perfume scent lingered.
But as Lena stood idly, unable to step onto the carpet, the reality of the unfamiliar space suddenly hit her.
A strange place.
Not knowing whether she was allowed to touch or sit, the space brought her loneliness.
“Hiiiiiing… Brother…”
Tears began to fall from Lena’s eyes.
The separation from her brother had been abrupt. She hadn’t had time to process the surprising events of the day before being left alone, so she clutched the hem of the clean dress she had never worn before and sobbed.
The sobbing went on for quite some time. As the chatter outside ceased and silence fell, the terrified Lena finally burst into loud crying.
“Oh my, dear. What should I do?”
Xenia had returned.
Holding plates in both hands, she quickly embraced the crying Lena, who was crouched by the door.
“You miss your brother, don’t you? That’s why you’re so sad.”
Kneeling and hugging Lena, Xenia gently rocked her body side to side. As Xenia patted her back in time with her heartbeat, Lena hugged her back.
Poor thing. Xenia, pressing her cheek against the thin girl’s head, felt a tingling sense of maternal affection.
Just a moment ago, she had been such a bright child. When Leo went out with Ober to find shoes, she had not worried much.
The child had not seemed to grasp what it meant when her brother said he was leaving her there.
The two stayed like that for a while. By the time the food Xenia had brought cooled, Lena’s sobbing had subsided, and Xenia reached for a handkerchief.
“Blow. Blow.”
“Hic… Hiccup… Blow. Hooo.”
After wiping the tear-filled eyes, she used the other side of the handkerchief to clean Lena’s runny nose and helped her blow it.
“Feeling a bit better now?”
Lena nodded.
“Then let’s eat. You must be hungry, right? I picked only the tastiest things from the restaurant.”
Lena nodded again.
Holding Lena’s hand tightly, Xenia helped her up. Upon seeing Lena’s feet dangle from the chair without touching the floor, she thought she’d need to get another chair.
Though Lena would be an adult in two years, she was still so small. She must have grown up without proper nutrition, which made the fact that she turned out to be so pretty even more pitiful.
Xenia took a piece of pie from her plate and placed it on Lena’s plate. At first, Lena nibbled on the sweet dish containing hruska fruit, sniffing, but later she began to sob and devour it.
“Oh dear… crying again? This time it’s because it’s tasty, right? Hmm?”
Xenia got up and approached. As she playfully tickled Lena’s cheek, Lena let out a strained giggle despite her tearful face.
“If anyone saw you, they’d think your brother had left for good. He’ll be back tomorrow. What will you do if you keep crying like this? Stop now. Yes, you need to be a good girl.”
Xenia sat back down.
“I’m Xenia. What’s your name?” ─ Opening with something they both knew, Lena responded in a calm voice, and their quiet conversation continued.
They didn’t discuss personal details like how they lived. Xenia deflected attention to light topics, asking, “Did you see me perform earlier? Did I make any mistakes?”
She had intended to talk about how they would live together, but decided to postpone it.
Time passed as Xenia talked and Lena nodded quietly. As the sun set and the surroundings darkened, Xenia laid a blanket on the floor for the sleepy Lena.
“Lie down here.”
“…Thank you.”
“No need for thanks… Just a moment.”
Xenia closed the window and returned. Watching over Lena in the darkness for a while, she said, “Sleep well,” and climbed into bed.
I wonder if my brother got back safely.
Lena worried about her brother, who must be sleeping alone in a shabby house. But soon, she succumbed to the soft comfort of the blanket and fell asleep.
The first night in the unfamiliar environment passed like that.
* * *
Lena gradually adapted to life in the theater.
The three meals a day were tasty, and the theater people were all kind. Probably thanks to Xenia, no one mistreated her.
There were four main groups of people living in the theater: actors performing plays, the men managing the stage, the Rauno family gangsters protecting the theater, and the women living at the very top of the theater.
Lena didn’t know why these women were there, but they were especially affectionate to her. They would stroke the head of the unsullied girl with a wistful look, always saying, “Oh, how pretty. She’s so lovely.”
It was a stroke of luck for Lena.
If she appeared in the audience to secretly watch Xenia’s performance and got caught by a man who was charmed by her looks, they wouldn’t hesitate to come to her aid.
They would grab the lecherous audience member by the hair, shouting, “Mr. Ober! Throw this person out immediately!”
Lena found her bright smile again under the care of the theater folks.
“Are you doing well?”
“Brother!”
Her brother came every day without fail.
Except for the first day when he left early to talk with Mr. Ober, he stayed by her side the first few weeks, listening to the stories of her day.
“Brother, I played with Tian in the morning, you know~”
“Santian?”
“Yes. I think he…”
Lena whispered quietly as she looked at the stage where the actors were rehearsing. There was no one to oveLeahr them, really.
“I think he likes me.”
Saying that, Lena covered her face and laughed.
Tian was cute.
He often came to the theater to keep her company, but it turned out he was younger than her!
Despite that, he tried to show her his manly side. He claimed that if you stayed in a small space under the stage, you could hear everything people said in the dressing room. It was all nonsense.
Both Lena and Santian were quickly caught by Mr. Ober and lectured. Tian tried to take responsibility,
“Lena did nothing wrong! It was my idea.”
“Of course, it was your idea. Who wouldn’t know that?” he got scolded even more.
‘Oh no, I told my brother.’
Lena peeked at her brother through her fingers. And he was making a strange face.
What’s with that face?
“What do you think?”
“…Sounds nice. But Lena.”
“Yes?”
“You should just be friends with Tian, okay?”
“…Why?”
She didn’t even have any intention of dating him, but she felt a pointless defiance. He could date Xenia, but why couldn’t she?
Fortunately, her brother’s next words calmed her.
“It’s just that I don’t know Tian well yet. Surely, you wouldn’t date him without your brother’s permission, right?”
“Yikes! It tickles, let go!”
“No? You wouldn’t, right?”
“Hahaha, no. I won’t. Eek! Help!”
Lena shook off her brother’s hand and ran away. She dashed to the dressing room, slipped under the table, crawled through a vent under the stage, and sneaked back into the audience, but somehow her brother found her easily.
Tian, you fool. You boasted about knowing a secret place, but even my brother knew about it. I’ll scold you later!
This might have been one of the most blissful times. Her brother visiting her every day, playing hide and seek with Tian in the theater, hiding in Xenia’s or some other women’s room, reading storybooks whenever Mr. Ober chased them…
However, after a few weeks, his visits became less frequent. What used to be visits every other day turned into every three days, and eventually, when he finally visited after a week, it was already dark in the evening. He said he had found a job. He didn’t specify what kind of work it was, but he asked for understanding, saying it was difficult to find the time due to his busyness. Lena was also gradually becoming more independent.
It had only been a month since she began working at this Orange Theater. Then one day, as Lena was lingering around the dressing room, watching her sister Xenia rehearse a play, an older gentleman with graying hair approached her.
“Ms. Lena? Your name is Lena, right? Hello. I am…”
Lena, her eyes wide with curiosity, put her hand into the one he extended, gazing at the neatly dressed man.
“I am Bretin.”
Gray eyes and golden eyes locked together. The man, who was the owner of this theater and formerly the head of the brothel, elegantly kissed the back of Lena’s hand.
“I have something to discuss with you, if you have a moment. Shall we talk inside?”
Furthermore, he was the half-brother of Brian Sauer, the ruler of all the brothels in Orville.
“Yes.”
Lena, responding innocently, followed Bretin toward the private dressing room. From a distance, Xenia, who had been practicing, hurriedly climbed down from the stage and hurriedly followed the two, saying, “Wait a minute. I’ll be right back.”