The Dragon King's Favorite Person [Vol.1]

Chapter 20

Translator/Editor : Léabyss

I am still a child.

I am standing in the kitchen, stirring the baking powder in a huge white bowl. It is, as if I was seeing myself objectively from a distance. Quite a strange feeling, really.

I am 13 years old, it is my birthday. I was born in December. It is the holiday season so school is closed and my family cannot celebrate with me.

The building I live in is in the garden, it is a room that was specially built for me to stay and not go out. There is a bathroom and a mini kitchen. In addition to the bedroom, there is a living room with a study desk, a television and the Internet, but the only door that can be accessed cannot be opened from the inside. It is like a fancy cage.

I prepared a frying pan on the warmer. I whipped the eggs and milk into a hot cake mix and waited for everything to finally be done.

The surface was burned and the interior did not seem to have filled well, it had spilled around the edges and was somewhat stuck … But it seemed perfect to me.

It was a cake for my birthday, because I was in no condition to go out and buy ready-made cakes. I wanted butter and syrup, but since I couldn’t get it I ate the burnt cake with hot milk.

I know that my brother and sister’s birthday is celebrated every year. They buy cake and balloons and the house fills with children and strangers… But I am completely alone. Nobody celebrates with me, nobody remembers me. I was wondering if I would be alone for long. How long would it last? How would it end?

It seems that the feelings of those days are reviving.

Looking at that boy’s tears, moaning and crying while eating a hot, burnt cake, I felt irritated and breathless enough to send air into my lungs.

“Once we have a few more years, everything will get better. We are going to go to a different world…! It may be difficult at first, but you will also find that you will experience a lot of fun. You are going to love someone and you can interact with a large number of people. You will make a lot of friends… I promise you.”

I speak to him, because I would like myself of that time to have hope. I’d like him to stop crying.

It was when the dream changed.

Kaito is standing outside the window.

My thirteen-year-old self hastily wipes his tears and stands up. His muffled voice can be heard through the glass.

“Hey brother, what are you doing?”

“You shouldn’t be here.”

“Open the curtain at least.”

He couldn’t get close to my house… But sometimes, this way, he comes with me when it seems like he needs to talk to someone other than mom or dad.

What he does is talk. He tells me about the good performance he did in a swimming competition, the story of when he won the piano competition, the memories of his family trip and the gifts that his grandparents gave him for Christmas … He talks about episodes that do not feel pleasant and therefore does not make for a useful conversation for me. I was sure … I think I probably hated my brother. Blessed with my parent’s love, studying, exercising, I had friends and attention.

At that time, I had longed to be Kaito many times.

A few years ago, on that birthday, after some hesitation I opened the windows and drew the curtains for him… The outside air flowed into the room and began to cool everything down. He says:

“Brother, today is your birthday. Where is your cake?”

“I don’t have cake.”

“But it smells like cake.”