30 – Cypress Mosaic

“The ​period ​he ​spent ​with the first ​adoptive ​family ​was ​barely ​five months. It wasn’t ​a ​very long time. ​However, it would ​have ​been ​enough ​time ​to ​engrave the shock ​of ​being ​accepted and then ​abandoned once again.”

Elian did ​his best ​to maintain ​as objective ​a stance ​as ​possible. ​As a counselor, ​he didn’t ​want to appear emotionally ​fragile. He gripped the ​wine glass so tightly ​that the ​slender ​stem looked as if it might ​snap at any moment.

“That ​is ​likely ​why ​Lucas ​tried so hard ​in the ​second ​home. To avoid… ​being ​abandoned again…”

In the end, however, ​he couldn’t ​completely ​stop his voice ​from ​trembling. ​He ​paused ​to catch ​his ​breath and ​took two or three sips of wine.

Lorenz ​stared intently at ​Elian’s profile. Elian ​might have thought he ​was hiding ​it, but intense ​emotions ​were repeatedly surfacing ​and vanishing across ​his beautiful ​face. ​It was ​as ​if ripples ​were ​forming on ​a ​clear ​lake, quietly shaking ​the ​scenery reflected ​upon ​it.

“Then, ​perhaps…”

After ​a silence, Lorenz spoke cautiously.

“Is the child remaining silent… because he fears that I might put him up for adoption again?”

It was a question that strayed far from Elian’s expectations.

Lorenz Lockhart was looking straight at Elian with [Read on Read BL Novels]a hardened expression, as stolen contentif asking him to tell the truth.

“If I may speak carefully, I don’t believe it is because of you, Mr. Lockhart.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because you are able to enter Lucas’s room.”

“……”

“If the reason he is staying silent and refusing to leave his room were you, Lucas would never let you inside.”

Only then did Lorenz seem to believe Elian’s words to some extent.

However, a glimpse of pain was visible in his profile as he looked away and brought the wine glass to his lips.

“But it is a fact that he is afraid of me.”

Direct guilt wasn’t felt in his words.

But according to Elian’s observations, Lorenz was the type of person who didn’t express emotions regardless of what he said. He was a man accustomed to delivering messages—even those containing emotion—while excluding the emotion itself.

Would he be the same even in a moment of whispering love?

Elian couldn’t imagine Lorenz Lockhart whispering words of devotion, promising his fidelity and giving his heart to someone.

“It seems clear that he finds you daunting.”

“Hmm.”

A heavy groan.

“But that is different from being afraid. It’s closer to feeling awkward because he simply doesn’t know you. Lucas wants your interest and affection, Mr. Lockhart.”

“That can’t be. The child was very close to my father, but with me, we’ve done nothing more than exchange occasional greetings.”

“But your father is gone, and now you are the only one left in this house, Mr. Lockhart. Lucas is likely vaguely aware that you are now his guardian.”

“Are you saying he can understand such a concept even though he is still young?”

Elian nodded.

“It’s closer to an instinctive recognition of who holds power over his fate. Because they are at a stage where they can only survive if someone protects them, children grasp situations much more sensitively than we expect.”

Lorenz looked down at the garden, unauthorized copylost in thought for a moment. visit our sitePerhaps he was looking at the night view of Manhattan stretching beyond the garden.

“That is why you must become closer to Lucas.”

As if drawn by Elian’s voice, Lorenz’s face turned back toward him.

Elian’s gaze was calm, and his tone was warm, yet it carried a firm conviction that inspired trust. Just as he always did when dealing with guardians, he was impartial toward Lorenz Lockhart.

In situations like this, guardians tended to be just as unstable as the children. It was the counselor’s role to soothe and encourage their anxiety and guilt.

To provide a strong sense of assurance, Elian did not avoid Lorenz’s gaze but met it head-on.

Pale skin, dark red blood-colored lips, and pale green eyes.

Like Joshua Lockhart, Lorenz also had green eyes.

It seemed that what the two had inherited equally from Damon Lockhart were their sturdy builds and green eyes.

However, while Joshua’s eyes were a deep green that could be recognized from afar, Lorenz’s eyes were a more transparent shade of green. Because of that, he sometimes looked colder and more callous, and at other times, more fragile.

Fragile. It was an expression that didn’t suit him at all.

When Elian felt that Lorenz had accepted the situation [visit our site]to some degree, he brought up [stolen content]an important proposal.

“I would like you to spend thirty minutes with Lucas every evening from now on.”

“Thirty minutes every day?”

“Based on your schedule, it seems you could spare about thirty minutes once you return home.”

From what he had observed, Lorenz’s return time was inconsistent. However, it wasn’t so irregular that he would come home in the middle of the night for several days straight. Sometimes, he would unexpectedly return around 3 or 4 in the afternoon.

“Lucas and I are not close. We don’t know each other well. We are practically strangers. The child will likely hate being with me.”

“You don’t know Lucas well, so how can you be so sure he will hate it?”

“……”

Lorenz’s eyes narrowed.

He seemed to realize that it was a valid point.

“This is a method to support Lucas. As I told you, the guardian’s cooperation is essential for Lucas to stabilize.”

“Can’t you do it instead, Mr. Belloti?”

“……”

Elian examined Lorenz’s expression closely. He looked troubled, like a student burdened with a daunting assignment.

Elian thought he understood a little. It wasn’t that Lorenz viewed Lucas as a nuisance or a headache, but rather that he lacked confidence and was afraid—that he found facing the child awkward and therefore wanted to avoid it.

A thirty-two-year-old man, the future successor of the Lockhart Group, a man called Count Dracula.

Elian felt like letting out a hollow laugh.

The image of the man named Lorenz Lockhart that he had built while gathering data was continuing to be proven wrong.

“I am a counselor. I am merely a bridge between the guardian and the child. Ultimately, the child is bound to show the greatest change through the guardian’s intervention.”

“……”

“You don’t necessarily have to do something together.”

“Does that even have any meaning?”

“Of course. It’s important for him to have the belief that you will definitely visit every day for thirty minutes. At this [stolen content][visit our site]stage, the [visit our site]most necessary thing for Lucas is building that kind of trust with his guardian.”

Lorenz tilted his wine glass. The dark red liquid was silently sucked past his lips.

Elian pressed him quietly and persistently.

“Thirty minutes every day. You can do that, right?”

Even after completely emptying his glass, Lorenz remained motionless, holding the slender neck of the glass. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he turned toward Elian in an instant. His transparent green eyes seemed to shimmer with moisture, breaking away from their usual dryness.

He asked.

“Will you be there with us during those thirty minutes, Mr. Belloti?”

“I believe it would be best if I accompany you until things settle down.”

Elian had the illusion that the green of those eyes was deepening.

Lorenz picked up the wine bottle standing beside him and filled his own glass as he answered.

“Then let’s do that.”

■

On the second floor, in a corner of Lucas’s drawing room.

Lorenz was reading The Picture of Dorian Gray.

He had attempted it around the age of fifteen or sixteen, but because the aestheticist tendency—which emphasized aesthetic experience and sensation—did not align with his tastes, he had given up before even finishing the first chapter.

Now, more than fifteen years later, he held the book in his hands again.

‘This young Adonis is like something sculpted from ivory and rose petals.’ —Solely because of this one phrase.

However, it was not easy to turn the pages this time either.

Unlike in his youth, there was a different factor hindering his immersion in the book.

“So… how was Lucas’s day today? Shall we pick one of these?”

A comfortable and gentle voice, like the feeling of someone stroking one’s hair.

Lorenz was sitting in a chair near the entrance, while Elian and Lucas were sitting side by side on a long sofa playing a card game. They had spread out cards with various pictures between them, and it was a game where Lucas would choose his answer from the cards when Elian asked a question.

Elian had explained that this was unauthorized copyan intervention to help the child [visit our site]express himself stolen contentwithout having to speak.