I Picked Up My Father Who Left Home 109
“Yes?”
Lia froze for a moment, unsure if she had heard correctly, and asked again in a daze.
“Angel baby, just do what you want.”
“Really?”
Lia had known all along that Cassian would eventually agree to her request.
He always had.
However, this time, she thought it wouldn’t be so easy.
Cassian had even warned her in advance that this time he wouldn’t comply so readily.
But for some reason, Cassian had accepted her words without hesitation.
He hadn’t even set any conditions.
As a result, Lia looked slightly bewildered.
It felt almost absurd how smoothly things were unfolding, making all her worries about how to persuade him seem pointless.
Still, Lia couldn’t completely relax.
She knew Cassian’s personality wasn’t so simple that she’d just accept his approval at face value.
“I’m the owner of this house.”
“Yes, not just this house. If my angel baby desires it, you’ll be the owner of everything.”
How could he simply hand over just the duke’s estate to his precious little angel?
If she wanted, he would even hand over his grand duchy, or the empire itself.
Whatever Lia desired, nothing was beyond her reach.
“Crown Prince Jeshuan is a guest I approved, so you can’t just draw your sword and throw him out because you don’t like him.”
“That’s quite an interesting method, though.”
Cassian’s eyes sparkled as if intrigued.
“…I said no!”
“Alright, if my angel baby says so.”
“And you’re forbidden from harassing him to the point he leaves voluntarily, either.”
“I’m quite confident in that skill.”
After all, torturing someone so thoroughly that it left them trembling in fear was his specialty.
He was sure he could completely exhaust someone, both physically and spiritually.
“No, Khal.”
“Lia, my angel.”
“What now?”
Cassian’s affectionate call made Lia feel uneasy, and she looked at him warily.
“I think my angel baby should learn to judge people better.”
Cassian spoke with a rather serious expression.
“…I think I’m pretty good at reading people.”
“Well, judging by how you see that annoying brat as gentle and harmless, I’d say you’re not as good as you think.”
“…I don’t think he’s exactly harmless, though.”
“That brat isn’t someone who would just let himself be bullied and leave quietly, you know.”
“I don’t think that’s entirely true either…”
Lia felt that, while Jeshuan wasn’t overly meek or mild as Cassian claimed, he wasn’t entirely the opposite either.
If he were, he wouldn’t have stayed quiet when that noble provoked him during their last encounter.
Before the noble spoke rudely to him, Jeshuan had simply ignored it all with indifference.
Even though the tone was dismissive, he just let it slide.
“How could you be so bad at judging people….”
Of course, Cassian didn’t think that cunning brat would show his true self in front of Lia.
In fact, to win her favor, he had likely pretended to be weak to draw out her sympathy.
Who knows what other tricks he had up his sleeve to win her over?
Just seeing how Lia thought of him in such a good light proved it.
Cassian needed to set things straight before his precious angel baby fell completely for that guy.
He had to show her that the guy wasn’t as innocent or kind as he appeared.
He was simply good at hiding his true intentions. That twisted and crooked heart of his had been well-concealed all this time.
“That’s not true! And… no picking fights with him, either. I’m not asking you to get along, but I don’t want to see you two fighting. After all, you’re both important to me.”
“If my angel baby says so…. But why is it only me who’s forbidden from picking fights? What if he starts it?”
“Jeshuan wouldn’t do that.”
Lia replied firmly, without a second’s hesitation.
“Hah…”
Cassian looked at her, somewhat dumbfounded.
She seemed to have such a low opinion of him while thinking so highly of that guy.
And yet, contrary to what she believed, Jeshuan had picked a fight with him before.
Clearly, the guy had been bothered by Cassian’s close relationship with Lia.
Cassian felt a bit sulky about Lia’s one-sided ban on him starting fights.
“My angel baby is so harsh with me.”
His voice carried a hint of bitterness, as if he were truly hurt.
“It’s not like that!”
For once, Cassian looked genuinely hurt, prompting Lia to carefully gauge his mood.
Her cautiousness made him chuckle inwardly.
Pretending to be pitiful had worked better than he expected. Lia, who was usually so firm with him, was now watching him anxiously.
She kept glancing at him with her big, round eyes, which he found utterly adorable.
Unable to resist, he patted her on the head.
How could he stay mad when she was this cute?
No matter how angry he was, just looking at her melted his heart.
“If my angel baby shows me some affection, I think my mood will improve. Who knows? I might even be kinder to that annoying brat.”
Of course, what Cassian considered kindness was entirely from his own perspective.
“Affection…?”
“Yes.”
Cassian looked at Lia expectantly, imagining what kind of affection she might show him, and how adorable she would look while doing so. Just the thought of it made his heart ache with anticipation.
“But… is that really necessary?”
“If you don’t show me some affection, I might be so heartbroken that I won’t be able to control what I do next.”
At Cassian’s words, Lia let out a small sigh.
For a moment, she had thought he was finally agreeing to her requests without any conditions, but of course, it had come to this.
Still, what choice did she have? For the sake of maintaining peace between Cassian and Jeshuan, she would have to compromise.
If she didn’t, who knew what might happen while Jeshuan stayed at her estate?
Taking a deep breath, Lia tried to steady herself. The idea of showing affection at her age required some mental preparation.
After a moment of contemplation on how exactly to go about it, Lia finally made up her mind.
With a determined expression, she raised her hands.
Her small, clenched fists were brought up beside her cheeks.
Then, with those fists gently pressing against her cheeks, she opened her mouth in a trembling voice.
“…Lia is cu… cute. P-puing puing.”
Stammering and barely managing to get the words out, Lia immediately bowed her head.
She couldn’t bear to look up.
What on earth had she just done?
Such an embarrassing and cringeworthy display… she felt like her hands and feet might shrivel up and vanish.
At the same time, she worried that anyone who had to witness it might suffer from second-hand embarrassment.
However, Cassian, who had seen it all, was left speechless, overwhelmed by an unbearable level of adorableness. He simply blinked, stunned.
It was a massive shock.
“How can someone… no, even an angel… be this adorable?”
If cuteness could destroy the world, Lia would undoubtedly be capable of doing so.
For now, hadn’t she already put his heart in danger?
Cassian, forgetting even how to breathe, kept rewinding the scene of Lia’s affectionate display in his mind.
But he decided to stop thinking about it before his heart truly stopped.
There were still so many moments with her he hadn’t yet seen, so much time they still had to spend together—he couldn’t die now.
After all, he had a duty to protect Lia.
“…Say something, anything.”
Having mustered the courage to show affection, Lia felt even more embarrassed when Cassian didn’t respond and spoke in a slightly sulky tone.
“…It feels like I’ve opened my eyes to a new world.”
“Does that mean your original eyes were so overwhelmed that they stopped working and you needed new ones?”
“It was shocking, that’s for sure.”
“…You were the one who asked for affection, Cassian.”
She had only done it because he requested it.
So even if he was shocked to the point of his eyes being affected, it wasn’t her fault.
Still… it stung a little.
Though she herself found her actions cringeworthy, was it really that bad?
“You made the best choice. It was so lovely and adorable that I thought my heart might go crazy.”
“…You just said it was shocking?”
Lia narrowed her eyes, trying to make sense of his contradictory words.
“It was shockingly lovely and adorable. Who could have imagined someone could be that cute?”
“…And what about your comment about opening your eyes to a new world?”
“From now on, my life is divided into two eras: before and after witnessing my angel baby’s affection. I can’t believe I lived so long without seeing something so precious. I must have wasted all that time.”
Ah… so that’s what he meant.
Cassian’s detailed explanation left Lia with a peculiar expression.
While it was a relief to know it wasn’t so bad it hurt to watch, his excessive praise made her feel a bit shy.
Still, it wasn’t an unpleasant feeling.
Being thought of as so adorable by someone was a nice thing.
Especially when that someone was Cassian.
“So, I’d like to see that affection from you again sometime.”
“No way. My body can’t handle it.”
It had been hard enough to do it once—if she had to keep doing it, she might just die of embarrassment.
Cassian’s reaction had been overwhelmingly positive, but that didn’t completely erase her own feelings of mortification.
“Such a shame.”
It felt like a loss to end it after just one display of affection, given how utterly cute and lovely it had been.
But… this wouldn’t be the last.
He knew there would be many more moments to come with Lia, and with time, there would surely be more chances to see her adorable displays.
“Anyway, thank you, Cassian.”
Trying her best to move past the recent affectionate display, Lia spoke sincerely.
To convey her gratitude, she leaned her whole body against his in a gesture of trust.
