I Played the Role of the Adopted Daughter Too Well

Zenon noticed something strange. Duke Heron had been standing in front of Viola’s door for quite some time.

 

“Duke, you have returned.”

 

The Duke’s eyes turned to Zenon. Zenon smiled and bowed his head to the Duke.

 

“Do you have anything to say to Princess Viola?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Shall I deliver it to you?”

 

“If I wanted that, I wouldn’t have come in person.”

 

“That’s true.”

 

Zenon felt puzzled. The fact that the Duke came here in person was obviously to say something important, so why was he hanging around for so long?

 

“What time do young children usually go to bed and wake up?”

 

Heron rarely remembered sleeping deeply as a child. Instead of sleeping, he pushed himself to the limit and trained. When he was young, he considered sleeping a waste of time.

 

“Princess Viola usually goes to sleep between 11 PM and 12 AM and wakes up between 7 and 8 AM.”

 

“What time is it now?”

 

“It’s 10:52 PM.”

 

“Right.”

 

Zenon smiled and asked again.

 

“Were you worried that you would wake up Princess Viola?”

 

Was that why he was lingering in front of the door? It would have been possible to determine whether the person inside was asleep or awake by spreading one’s energy, but it didn’t seem that the Duke had done so. Usually, spreading one’s energy to ‘read the signs’ was only done when the opponent was an enemy. Thus, it appeared that the Duke didn’t read the signs of the room where his daughter might be sleeping.

 

“I’m sure she hasn’t fallen asleep yet.”

 

“Right.”

 

Heron felt somewhat regretful. The interesting report that Zenon had given to Isabella came to mind.

 

“As a result, she fell into a very comfortable sleep and is currently chewing on her hair. She’s probably having a good dream, like eating an egg tart.”

 

If Viola was deeply asleep, she would probably be chewing on her purple hair. Heron would be able to see one of the Iron-Blooded Princess’s hidden sides. Did he come too quickly? Such thoughts went back and forth in Heron’s subconscious mind, which even Heron himself was not aware of.

 

“Let’s go in.”

 

“Alright.”

 

Zenon knocked.

 

“Princess, the Duke has arrived.”

 

Viola was sitting on the bed, seriously contemplating which dessert she would eat tomorrow. Maybe she would have pancakes for a snack tomorrow. She could have the soufflé pancakes topped with whipped cream and maple syrup.

 

‘Mmm, that sounds delicious, I hope tomorrow comes quickly.’ 

 

While she was thinking about that, her eyes widened.

 

‘Father is here?’

 

It seemed that Heron, who had gone on an expedition to the Northern Forest, had returned. Viola, who was still much smaller than her peers, had to jump off the high bed.

 

“I’m glad you returned safely. Did you come back after subduing a monster?”

 

“Yes.”

 

Viola’s eyes turned to Heron.

 

‘As expected, he’s so handsome.’

 

Even though he was scary, he definitely showed off his beauty which Viola loved best. Her head tilted back and forth while she admired Heron’s beauty.

 

‘But why did he come here?’

 

There wasn’t a reason to come. And why did her favorite character smell so pretty?

 

‘Oh, that’s not important. I must come to my senses!’

 

Maybe it was because she had become used to this world, but Heron wasn’t as scary as before. To be precise, Viola’s admiration and love for her favorite character were overcoming her fear.

 

Heron frowned slightly.

 

‘What is she doing?’

 

He wasn’t sure why Viola’s nostrils were flaring. Did the scent of the Rainbow Mealworm’s blood permeate his body? Since she was a child with a killing nature, she would be extra sensitive to the smell of blood.

 

Viola’s voice was heard, “What are you doing here?”

 

“Aren’t you a White Bellato?”

 

The question was, if she was White Bellato, couldn’t she figure out for herself why he came here? 

 

Viola escaped from her world of admiration. She was out of breath! She felt stuck. There was a big difference between critiquing a character in a book and critiquing a real person. When she was reading the novel, she could let her imagination run wild and savor the characters to the fullest, but now she had to risk her life. The fanfiction she was writing in her mind was realistic and lively but now a sense of crisis overflowed.

 

‘Is he here because of my first duel?’

 

There was a good chance he was, but she wasn’t sure.

 

‘Rather than saying something plausible that isn’t certain… It’s better to say that I don’t know.’

 

Heron was that kind of character. He was someone who believed that admitting that you didn’t know what you didn’t know was courageous.

 

‘If I say I don’t know why, he shouldn’t slice my head off…’

 

There were no important missions today, nor were there any special issues in the succession competition. Thus, today she decided to choose honesty.

 

“I don’t know.”

 

“You don’t know?”

 

“I can’t find a reason for you to come visit me.”

 

For a moment, Heron felt a bit sad. The White Bellato didn’t know anything and yet she admitted that she didn’t know so easily. Hickson’s face came to mind.

 

“I heard Hickson often visits this room?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“Why is he looking for this room?”

 

Viola tilted her head. The reason Hickson visited this room was simple.

 

“He says he has no friends.”

 

Hickson’s only friends were the cats that roamed around the Duke’s residence. Hickson recently named the brown cat that often appeared in front of Viola’s window, ‘Butterfly,’ and he would often come and chat with Viola while checking on Butterfly.

 

“Actually, I don’t think there’s any grand reason.”

 

“Right.”

 

Heron felt an inexplicable feeling of discomfort. It seemed that even when Hickson came to visit, Viola wondered, ‘Why did you come?’ But she didn’t ask.

 

Heron looked at Viola silently. In fact, he was in a complicated state of mind.

 

‘Why am I here?’

 

Although it was a question asked to Viola, it was actually a question Heron was asking himself. He didn’t know why he was here. Even at this moment, Viola was looking at him with a lot of unreasonable affection. She had such sincere affection for him that was completely out of sync with the image of her as the Iron-Blooded Princess.

 

“Viola, aren’t you afraid of me?”

 

Viola spoke honestly, “I’m afraid.”

 

It was Heron who cut off Jelton Seall’s head and hung it from the castle gate. He was also a person who took the bloody succession competition between his brothers as an extremely natural thing. The person of absolute power in this world who would slice your head off if you made a mistake. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t scared.

 

“But you don’t seem very afraid.”

 

Her fear of Heron was true, but on the other hand, her love for Heron was also true. Ever since she was Han Arin, she had liked and admired Heron, and with the object of her admiration now in front of her, she couldn’t help but feel affection for him.

 

“That’s right. Because I like you.”

 

Heron frowned slightly. It was something he had never heard from his other children. And her words were not a pretense or a mask. She was speaking from the heart. 

 

‘She is serious.’

 

Heron was confused because he had no way of knowing why she was so sincere.

 

“Why?”

 

“At least you didn’t abandon me.”

 

Viola met Heron’s eyes.

 

“My birth father said he would come get me after a hundred nights.”

 

Heron listened to Viola in silence. It seemed like she was talking about being abandoned in the slums.

 

“That happened when I was five years old. I waited every day, counting on my fingers.”

 

She frequently asked the daycare teacher, ‘When will my dad come?’ And when she asked if it was because she wasn’t good at counting, they just told her that she must count correctly from then on. The emotional wound felt like a sharp awl stabbing Viola in the eye. 

 

Viola bit her lip, holding back the tears that were threatening to escape.

 

“No one came to get me.”

 

Heron continued to look at Viola with grave eyes. He could see Viola’s tear-filled eyes shimmering. At the sight, Heron felt a throbbing sensation in his chest.

 

“But my new father asked me, ‘Will you be my daughter?’”

 

Heron thought about Viola back then. In his memories, the child was much smaller than other children her age. She was so thin and fragile that it seemed like she would break if he tried to hold her in his hands. At that time, Viola’s feet were bare.

 

“My new father never abandoned me.”

 

Viola always believed that it was okay for someone to be a bad father, it was okay for someone to be a bad mother, just as long as they were by her side. She thought it would be nice to have a mom and dad too.

 

Heron spoke with a dry expression, not showing his aching heart.

 

“It is only natural that a father would not abandon his child.”

 

He paused his words for a moment.

 

“I will never abandon you in the future.”

 

He gently raised his hand but paused, quietly lowering it again. He, the Winter Lord, could not muster the courage to wipe away his daughter’s tears.

 

“So don’t cry.”

 

His heart was breaking but he didn’t say that. Heron comforted Viola in the only way he knew.

 

“Take some time to rest. Tomorrow, I will be your new swordsman sparring partner.”

 

***

 

Mariantu’s guardian knights were massacred. Princess Senna went missing and Lord Leven, who had been an observer of the duel, was found dead. It was a disaster that occurred eight days after they left Winter Castle. Newspapers across the continent covered the case in depth. Mariantu immediately formed a search party and explored the surrounding area with Bellato also cooperating actively.

 

Medea herself led a search party but it yielded no results. It was the same for Mariantu’s search party. Princess Senna disappeared from this world as if she had never existed, and it was not even possible to find out who the culprit of this terrible incident was. This incident became the only mission Medea failed to succeed at. 

 

A year passed.

 

Viola took a deep breath as she stood in front of a door.

 

“Zenon, knock.”

 

After Zenon knocked on the door, Ersa opened the door.

 

“Princess Viola has visited!”

 

Ersa looked at Viola with warm eyes and Viola walked into the room without hesitation. 

 

She spoke confidently, hiding her trembling legs, “Sister, I have a favor to ask of you.”

 

Today was the day Viola had been waiting for over the past year.

 

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