I Picked Up My Father Who Left Home 97
Amidst a subtly tense atmosphere, Lia spoke with a bright voice.
“Jeshuan, do you still have the pendant I lent you?”
“Of course, I—huh?”
Jeshuan instinctively reached into his pocket, curious about the sudden question, but his hand froze. He couldn’t feel the pendant that should have been there.
“If you have it, please take it out,”
Lia said confidently, as if she already knew the answer.
Jeshuan hurriedly rummaged through his clothes, but no matter how much he searched, the pendant was nowhere to be found.
Lia looked as if she had expected this. After all, she had the pendant with her all along.
She hadn’t secretly taken it, nor had she taken back what she had given.
It was merely a coincidence that she found it.
When Jeshuan fell into a rampage, the pendant had slipped out along with the burst of energy.
Luckily, it remained intact.
However, Jeshuan, who was in a berserk state, had no awareness of the situation.
Lia decided to take advantage of this fact.
It wasn’t exactly a lie—after all, it was true that the pendant was lost.
If she hadn’t picked it up, who knows whose hands it might have ended up in? It could have even been shattered by the rampage’s aftermath.
So, it wasn’t a complete lie.
“…I’m sorry, Lia,”
Jeshuan apologized, looking dejected. It was hard for him to believe.
He had promised not to lose it just that very day.
How could everything go wrong all at once?
He couldn’t even bear to look at Lia’s face.
“It’s fine. But still… a promise is a promise, and you have to keep it,”
Lia said as she pulled out a contract with Jeshuan’s signature from her pocket.
“Do you remember this? The one where you promised to grant my request if you lost the pendant?”
“…Yes, I remember,”
Jeshuan replied with a somewhat reluctant voice, as if he had an idea of what she was about to propose.
However, he couldn’t refuse, as the condition wasn’t meant to benefit her. He couldn’t use a reward meant for her to benefit himself.
Just as Jeshuan was about to speak again, Lia cut him off.
“My request is that you follow my decision, Jeshuan.”
“Lia…!”
“You did say it was my choice. Surely you’re not planning to break your promise with me, are you?”
“…….”
Jeshuan couldn’t answer, neither affirming nor denying.
He hadn’t expected that his condition would backfire like this.
He set the condition, believing Lia wouldn’t ask for anything harmful, yet she demanded a reward that only favored her.
Even so, he couldn’t turn her down.
Breaking the promise would mean severing their bond completely—something he couldn’t bring himself to do.
It wasn’t just about not seeing her; it was about cutting away all the time they had shared.
For Jeshuan, it was the only lifeline he had left, so he allowed himself to be swayed by Lia, despite knowing he shouldn’t.
“Now that Jeshuan is settled, we just need to resolve things with Khal, right?”
“I absolutely refuse,”
Cassian said firmly, not breaking eye contact with Lia.
“No, Khal will allow it,” Lia replied confidently.
“What?”
Khal’s expression turned incredulous at Lia’s confident response.
“You said you’d let me do whatever I wanted. You said I could do anything I wished.”
“This situation is an exception.”
Cassian seemed momentarily taken aback, not expecting Lia to bring that up now. But his stance remained unchanged—he couldn’t give in to Lia this time.
“Khal, Jeshuan needs me,”
“What’s important to me isn’t the crown prince, it’s you, Lia.”
“It’s something only I can do.”
“I made it clear before, with the angel baby’s promise, that if the angel baby’s actions endangered her, I would do as I see fit.”
Just as Lia had used her promise to block Jeshuan’s refusal, Cassian used his promise to justify his actions.
“It’s not dangerous.”
“Yes, it is. There’s no guarantee that the same thing won’t happen again.”
“True, I can’t be certain about that. But I can assure you of one thing—even if Jeshuan goes berserk again, I won’t be in danger.”
Her tone was filled with certainty.
It wasn’t just a feeling or a vague hope—Lia knew her abilities.
Although she didn’t know exactly how, she was aware that she was special.
She didn’t know how to free Jeshuan from the hellish time he was enduring, but she was sure that her presence helped him in some way, even when he was on the verge of rampage.
How could she ignore Jeshuan when she was the only one who could help? Especially since her intuition strongly told her so.
Lia could not let Jeshuan go like this. She couldn’t turn away from him.
Lia was ready to follow her intuition wholeheartedly. She didn’t know what she might face or endure, but a peculiar sense of duty filled her mind.
“That’s something no one can know,”
“No, I know. It was me who calmed Jeshuan’s rampage. It’s also me who soothes his energy whenever he’s agitated,”
That was why Jeshuan felt relieved whenever he held her hand, even after suffering so much.
It was why he showed unusual interest in her and seemed especially at ease when she was around.
Lia’s words made Cassian’s expression turn serious. It seemed like she had realized something significant through this incident—something she had previously done unconsciously.
Cassian found this development troubling.
He wished she hadn’t realized her own abilities.
With her kind nature, she would willingly use her power to help others, even at the risk of her own safety.
Moreover, the emperor was present at this moment. Even before knowing Lia’s abilities, the emperor had wanted to keep her close to Jeshuan.
Now that he was aware of her abilities, he would never let her go.
“Khal, please,”
“…Still, I cannot allow it,”
Cassian responded firmly, rejecting her desperate appeal.
While he had always given in to her wishes before, this time was different.
Lia’s face showed a mixture of emotions.
She hadn’t expected to persuade him easily, but his resolve was stronger than she had anticipated. Could she really convince him? She wasn’t sure.
Still, she couldn’t give up. Cassian’s approval wasn’t the most crucial factor; even as her guardian, he had no right to interfere with her decisions.
If she truly wanted to do something, not even Cassian could stop her.
However, Lia still wanted Cassian’s consent, not because he was her guardian but because he was a cherished person to her.
Even if he had no authority over her decisions, she couldn’t ignore his feelings or act on her own without considering him.
She didn’t want to hurt one precious person for the sake of another. Although, knowing Cassian’s character, he might still find a way to prevent her from meeting Jeshuan, even if it meant using his power as a grand duke.
After a moment of deep contemplation, Lia finally spoke, her voice tinged with a hint of bitterness.
“Khal, will you make me experience the loss of another precious person again?”
“What do you mean…?”
“Jeshuan is important to me. And without me, who knows what will happen to him,”
Cassian remained silent. In the past, he would have been confident in his ability to control Jeshuan’s rampage, avoiding the worst-case scenario.
However, he could no longer guarantee that now. Not only was Cassian’s current state not normal, but Jeshuan’s power was also growing stronger.
An uncontrolled rampage by a being with extraordinary powers would cause unimaginable damage. And no one would be able to stop it until the one who initiated it lost their life.
“I still haven’t fully overcome the pain of my grandfather’s passing,”
She was merely pretending to be okay, as memories of her grandfather occasionally brought her sadness. The sorrow would never completely fade, even with time; it would only become duller, more bearable.
“But… if I were to lose another precious person again, I don’t know if I could handle it.”
Lia didn’t want to use the pain of losing her grandfather as a weapon.
Yet, she couldn’t think of any other words that might convince Cassian without hurting him.
This was the only way she could persuade him while causing the least amount of pain.
Perhaps her earnestness reached him, as Cassian’s previously unwavering eyes wavered slightly.
