"Hey, kid," called Michel, reaching the end of the woods and meeting Edward.
At first, Edward thought Michel was talking to him, but the leader of Midian soon showed his true intention.
Poking Theo, who was sitting on the ground and scribbling in the dirt with a stick, Edward got his nephew's attention.
"He's talking to you, Theo."
Theo looked at Michel with a monotonous expression that bothered the leader.
"The boy has quite an expression..."
"I know," retorted Ethan, completely dissatisfied.
Michel took a small sickle from his waist while adjusting his straw hat. With a nod, the leader called Theo without saying a word.
A few minutes later, a crowd of villagers formed around a section of the plantation, blocking the road and half the routes through the fields.
They whispered while bursts of laughter erupted from time to time. Nothing related to the event that brought them there, but for personal reasons: the farmers had just found an opportunity to rest for a few minutes and chat.
"What's going on here? Why aren't you working?!" complained Anton, one of Michel's closest men.
The peasant pushed through the crowd, shoving the other farmers aside.
When he reached the end of the path... He was surprised.
Anton was shocked to see the back of Duke Ethan, who stood with his arms crossed, just watching from a distance.
"My Lord..." he said, but was interrupted by a heavy sigh.
"Cut at this height," said Michel, running his hand along the wheat plant, almost close to the ground.
With the sickle in hand, Theo cut exactly where Michel ordered.
"Great, put it there. Now, do it again with the next ones."
"What are you doing?" Anton asked as he approached.
"Giving the Young Master a reason to show off to Magnum."
A vein popped on Anton's forehead; Magnum was his only son, but unlike Theo, he wasn't a deviant.
"Come on! I'll teach you how to get the seeds."
By accompanying Theo and Michel for the rest of that day, Ethan found the solution to his concern.
In the following months, Ethan took Theo to the village at least twice a week. Even with more than thirty children to play with, Theo preferred to stay by Michel's side.
He found himself in the personality and values of the elder, someone completely opposite to Liam Mason. Theo became attached to the fact that Michel was always extending a hand to others, even when they didn't need it so much, just to accumulate what he called "positive balance."
A karma capable of ensuring a dignified rest... Something Liam didn't care to have.
Before, Michel said there were no heroes in humanity... But he ended up becoming the light of a child with the most intense glow.
A second father to the Young Master of the Lawrence's.
Four months after starting to spend time with Michel, the boy was already relatively more open with some villagers but hadn't connected with the children of Midian.
When Michel wasn't around, Theo sat at the foot of a tree, scribbling in the dirt with a stick.
That particular afternoon, Theo was scribbling a kind of eye on the ground, with rays forming a sort of magical velcro around a sharp pupil.
"I think it was like this..." he thought, analyzing the scribbles. "The will of the destroyer... All this information is inside my head, all these memories are so..."
With his eyes closed, he sighed heavily.
"Cruel."
"What are you doing?" Agnes, a red-haired, brown-eyed girl, approached Theo slowly. Michel's granddaughter then continued: "What is that?"
She leaned over to analyze Theo's drawing.
"He's weird..."
"An eye..."
"It's messy... The composition isn't good."
Theo's pride was hurt. How?! How did she dare insult his art? Although it really wasn't a masterpiece... Maybe she wasn't having the same interpretation as him.
"It's not for you to understand."
Agnes laughed, knowing it was the excuse of someone with a bruised ego.
"Yeah, yeah. Sure. Do you mind if I stay here, reading?"
Theo's eyes shone like the most beautiful gold.
"You can read?! Like... Aren't you a peasant? How do you know how to read?"
Agnes puffed out her chest with pride and tossed her wavy red hair back.
"The Duchess teaches me," Agnes showed a book. "She gives me a book every week, and while you're here, she teaches me to read and write..."
The arrogance in Agnes' voice annoyed Theo.
"Oh, yeah? She teaches me every day. Reads to me, teaches me to read and write, teaches me to paint..."
While Agnes clicked her tongue and got frustrated with her failed attempts to annoy the Young Master, Theo, on the other hand, looked at the cover of the book in the girl's possession and smiled.
"Aaaah, the book about the Incursion to Snegriya, right?" Theo commented, amused. "Sergei Van Klanov decided to go there five hundred years ago to form the Patriarchal Community of the South Pole. It's a pity that the mana beasts of the South, dominated by the ancient shamans, annihilated the entire crew... Only Van Klanov's diaries were found bottled up in the shipwrecks..."
Theo had just summarized the entire article that Agnes was going to use as study material. That completely irritated the girl.
"Jerk!" she shouted.
"Ooh, ooh. So vulgar."
Waving his arms and making his body limp, Theo mocked his mentor's granddaughter.
Grabbing a handful of dirt, Agnes threw it at the Young Master. Stashing the book at the foot of a tree, she held her dress between her legs and started chasing Theo...
A big mistake.
As a deviant, Theo was absurdly faster than Agnes (even though she was also a deviant). And although he was approximately two years and ten months old, precisely because he was a deviant, Theo's physical maturity was close to that of a nearly five-year-old child.
Dodging Agnes and making her slip in the sand, Theo turned around and snatched the book about Van Klanov before running to the main road.
"Give it back!" Agnes shouted, trying to get up. She chased him to the road. "It's a gift from the Duchess!"
Theo ran down the road toward the wheat field, which, at that time, was small due to the harvest. He passed from the main road to a path that cut through the plantation.
The Young Master began to laugh as he ran.
"Magnum!" Agnes called to a boy sitting on a cart. "Help me!"
The boy Magnum, sleepy and with a straw hat over his face to shield it from the sun, paid attention calmly, yawning and trying to open his eyes.
"Huh?..." he muttered, yawning. "What happened?"
"Get my book!"
Taking the hat off his face, Magnum straightened up and looked at Theo, who was still running toward him. Without fully understanding what Agnes was trying to say, he just noticed a book under Theo's arms and decided to act.
Falling onto the hay beside the cart, Magnum ran toward Theo and lunged at the Young Master's feet. However, Theo jumped over the young peasant, making him fall to the ground.
Michel and Anton saw the exact moment Magnum fell. Anton, after seeing his son carelessly falling to the ground, immediately dropped the bundles of wheat he was carrying and ran after him.
"Oh, boy..." Michel murmured.
"Mag!" Anton shouted desperately.
"Hey, Theo! Into the field!" Michel suggested, pointing away.
Without hesitation and showing complete trust in Michel, the Young Master lunged into the field and ran between the remnants of the plantation.
Irritated, Magnum did the same.
"Agnes woke me up just for this?! Now I can't go back to sleep until I get the book!"
Although the plantation was cultivated and low, it was enough to cover the short legs of the two children. And even though Theo was faster and more prepared, his stamina was gradually running out.
He started walking slowly and looked around for a route.
But, unexpectedly, Magnum slightly caught up to him.
When Theo realized, he distanced the book and used his body to keep Magnum away. The peasant, however, ran to Theo's back and tried to steal the book again.
But the Young Master Lawrence threw the book forward just to grab it again and get rid of Magnum. It worked because, confused, the young peasant let go of Theo's back.
They ran a few more meters until Theo lost control, tripping over the plants.
Theo was the first to fall: Magnum, subsequently, rolled to the side.
The book fell open near Theo.
Both boys fell on their backs, able to watch the sky that afternoon.
Panting, they began to forget the fatigue and were taken over by adrenaline. In a matter of seconds, they burst into laughter.
"That girl is crazy!" exclaimed Magnum.
"Yeah!" Theo agreed.
"Who are you calling, what?!" Agnes, who was running through the field, lifting her dress to avoid tripping, shouted as she went to get the book.
Anton sighed in relief.
Michel smiled and turned to do his tasks.
They were the first sparks of Theo's happiness, which wouldn't be fueled for long...