Chapter 124
***
Meanwhile, at that very moment.
The children, who had been sent out of the drawing room, were all gathered in Diana’s room.
They couldn’t leave young Diana alone, and since her room was connected to Lia’s, they figured they’d be able to find out the outcome of the commotion quickly.
“Diana, here. Eat this and stop crying.”
Allen handed a candy to Diana, who was sobbing miserably.
Diana, still sniffling, couldn’t take her eyes off the candy and quickly opened her mouth like a baby bird.
Normally, Allen would have found her adorable, but this time, his expression was dark.
“Diana.”
“Hm?”
“Be honest with just me.”
“About what?”
“Do you really see Lia… like that?”
Allen, who was never one to beat around the bush, hesitated, asking his question carefully.
Jack, who had been deep in thought, and Taze, who had been standing by the door with a serious expression, both turned their heads.
Everyone was tense, waiting for Diana’s answer.
“Big sister?”
Diana suddenly shouted with a bright smile that completely clashed with the serious atmosphere.
“She’s pretty!”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
“The prettiest in the world!”
“I know she’s pretty, but I’m asking—does she really have pink hair?”
Allen, giving up on being indirect, asked bluntly. Diana blinked her big eyes.
Her tears had only just stopped, but they welled up again in an instant.
“You’re a dummy, too! You’re mean!”
“D-Diana…”
Allen, flustered, quickly reached out to soothe her, but Diana pushed him away and shouted.
“Big sister’s hair is like pretty cotton candy! And her eyes! They’re just like the hairpin!”
“Cotton candy?”
“Hairpin?”
Jack and Allen stiffened at the same time.
No way…
“Diana, are you talking about the hairpin I gave you before?”
Allen asked with a stiff face. Diana, still pouting, nodded.
As if that wasn’t enough, she dashed into the dressing room and came back holding the hairpin Allen had given her as a birthday gift.
“I wanted to show it to Mom that day! Because it was just like Big Sister’s eyes! But you got mad at me…”
Diana looked sullen, as if recalling the memory.
Allen stared blankly at the hairpin in his hand, speechless.
The pink diamonds embedded in it shimmered brilliantly.
“This is seriously driving me crazy.”
He hadn’t thought that Lia and Diana were lying, but it had been hard to believe.
If he hadn’t gotten angry that day… What would have happened?
The thought made his heart sink.
“Back then,”
Jack, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.
“A long time ago, when Lia was very little, she used to ask the other kids at the orphanage something.”
“What?”
“She asked them what color her hair and eyes looked like.”
After hearing their unanimous answers, Lia had looked even more dejected than usual.
Jack still remembered the small figure of her turning away with slumped shoulders.
Maybe the reason he remembered it so clearly was because she had come to him last, as if saving him for the end.
⟨Your eyes are deep brown, and your hair is a soft brown.⟩
That’s what Jack had said back then, answering almost instinctively.
He had wanted to say something special, something different from what the other kids had said, but having spent his whole life in a small orphanage, his vocabulary was limited.
If she had asked him now, he would have said,
‘Your eyes are like rich hazelnut coffee, and your soft brown hair catches the sunlight and shines like gold.’
Jack’s gaze darkened.
After entering the Elard household, many people, like Diana, had come to care for Lia.
But Jack had always believed that he was the closest to her, the one who knew her best.
Sure, Lia sometimes showed unexpected sides of herself, but that belief had never wavered.
‘At least, that’s what I thought…’
Suddenly, commotion erupted outside.
Startled, Taze opened the door and stepped out.
A moment later, he returned with shocking news.
Ascart had collapsed standing up and was rushed to the marquisate, and it had been confirmed that Lia was the Grand Duke’s daughter, Belus’s princess.
At that moment, Jack realized…
He didn’t know Lia at all.
***
Thankfully, Ascart’s condition wasn’t serious.
The marquisate’s physician said he had been pushing himself for days without sleep, and the sudden shock had drained him mentally.
A good rest would be enough to recover.
I felt relieved… until I realized that at some point, I had been placed in the Grand Duchess’s bedroom.
In the chaos of moving Ascart to the marquisate, I must have been carried into the carriage while still clinging to the Grand Duchess.
Now, after the young duke’s dramatic collapse, here I was, being held by the Grand Duchess.
The marquis’s servants and the retainers from the grand duchy must have been bewildered.
“Your Grace, I brought the medicine.”
“Leave it and go.”
The maid hesitated at the Grand Duchess’s command but soon withdrew.
Even the other maids looked dumbfounded at the sight of me sitting awkwardly in the middle of the grand bed.
But the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, sitting on either side of me, were too focused on me to care about anyone else.
Even Bianca, who had been standing by the door, simply smiled contentedly and ushered the maids out of the room.
Now alone with just the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, I fidgeted uncomfortably, unable to hide my awkwardness.
Swept up in the emotions of the moment, I had cried in their arms, seeking comfort.
And somehow, I had ended up at the marquisate with them.
But now that I was here, I wasn’t sure if it was truly where I belonged.
‘Am I really the Grand Duke’s daughter?’
Just because of a single sentence from a strange person?
My life had never once gone smoothly.
There was no way such luck could come my way.
Somehow, this situation felt like a dream, too unreal to believe.
‘What if I wake up and everything disappears?’
An uneasy feeling crept into my heart.
“Dear, I brought some medicine to bring your fever down. Let’s take it quickly.”
The Grand Duchess poured the medicine onto a spoon and held it out to me.
Even though I had dressed warmly, spending hours outside in the snow had taken its toll, and my body was now heating up.
Seeing how worried she looked, it was hard to believe that this was the same person who had once treated me so coldly.
The sight was so unbelievable that it made everything feel all the more surreal.
“Come now, dear. It might be a little bitter, but just one sip…be brave and take it.”
The Grand Duke, sitting beside me, spoke in a nervous yet soothing tone.
He must have thought I was hesitating because I didn’t want to take the medicine.
Speechless, I glanced at the bottle of medicine placed on the bedside table.
It was the same children’s cold syrup that Diana often took. The aftertaste was a little bitter, but compared to adult medicine, it was incredibly sweet.
‘…I’m not a kid, though.’
Being constantly called ‘dear’ made it feel like all the heat in my body was rushing to my ears.
I figured the sooner I drank the medicine, the sooner this situation would end, so I quickly opened my mouth.
“That’s right, just swallow it like that.”
“Oh my, how well-behaved you are.”
As soon as I took the medicine, the two of them praised me gently, as if soothing a small child. And that wasn’t all.
The Grand Duke stroked my head softly, telling me how brave I was, while the Grand Duchess wiped my tear-streaked face and hands with a damp cloth.
She kept checking if I was uncomfortable, if the blanket was thick enough, fussing over every little detail.
Feeling dazed, I simply nodded along while a bittersweet smile tugged at my lips.
‘…So, this is what it’s like to be treated like a child.’
Even after coming of age, my master had always treated me like a child. And now that I had become one again, I found it both familiar and somewhat unsettling.
But today…
Today, it felt different.
Deep down, a part of me had still been waiting for my parents like a child.
That realization hit me hard.
“Dear, what’s wrong? Does your head hurt?”
The Grand Duke immediately reacted when he noticed my expression change.
Watching the Grand Duchess place a hand on my forehead to check my temperature, I suddenly recalled her whispering to me as she held me in her arms.
⟨You have no idea… how much I missed you. I love you. I love you, my dear child.⟩
The words alone were enough to make my eyes sting.
Or maybe it was just the fever.
Propping up my chin, I boldly declared,
“I’m not sick at all.”
“Hm?”
“This doesn’t hurt one bit.”
Then, hugging the thick yet feather-light blanket tightly, I mumbled,
“The only real pain is having no one by your side.”
“…”
Back when I left my life as a beggar and entered Terencium, the intense training left my whole body aching as if it had been trampled.
When my fever burned so high that I desperately wished for a cold towel.
When my throat was so parched that a single drop of water felt like a miracle.
Even then, I had been alone.
At those times, I would curl up beneath my thin blanket, trying to forget that I was by myself.
But now… that wasn’t the case anymore.
“I wasn’t an abandoned child after all.”
Though I had been separated from my parents the moment I was born, I hadn’t been abandoned.
And that…
That alone was enough.
But…
“Are you both really okay?”
“…Huh?”
The Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, who had been quietly listening, tilted their heads in confusion, as if not quite understanding my question.
Their undivided attention on me made me feel a little nervous.
And with my fever clouding my thoughts, my mind wasn’t working properly.
So, without much thought, I just blurted it out.
“Aren’t you disappointed… that I’m your daughter?”
