~Chapter 05~
“…Okay.”
“Huh?”
“I won’t tell anyone. Not until you reveal it yourself.”
I lifted my head in surprise. I couldn’t believe what I had just heard.
“R-Really? You’ll keep the secret?”
Aska looked at me with serious eyes. There was no trace of his usual annoying playfulness.
“Rel. I might enjoy tormenting you more than anything else in this world, but I’m not trashy enough to spread your personal matters around.”
What a piece of trash.
He just admitted that tormenting me was his favorite hobby. My expression twisted as if I had bitten sand.
Aska, indifferent to how I felt, calmly adjusted his clothes with a composed expression.
“Who else knows about this?”
“Hmm?”
“That you have a daughter.”
This bastard had figured it out.
“No one else knows, except for you.”
“I like that.”
Aska answered neatly and then opened the door.
“Keep this secret for now. If it gets out that a royal mage hid a child in the Southern Continent, the crown prince won’t let it slide.”
Ah, that damned bastard who would be searching for my weaknesses… just thinking about it made my spine tingle.
“I was already planning on keeping it quiet.”
Publicly, I—‘Relshiz Baltain’—had a very exemplary image as a magician.
I hadn’t worn that mask on purpose, though. The Edelheim royal family had strongly urged me to maintain my dignity.
Because of my origins, I was already being attacked enough. If my behavior was also questionable, it would suggest that the king who selected me had bad judgment.
This secret… well, not exactly a secret, but still. If Shiz’s existence was exposed, the crown prince and many others would attack from all sides.
I could never let it be discovered. Never.
“Alright. Looks like we’re done here.”
Aska said that and stepped into the hallway.
“A-Are you leaving?”
“Yeah, something urgent came up.”
I anxiously followed behind him.
Though Aska had promised to keep the secret, I wasn’t sure what his true intentions were.
He could have reassured me here and then gone back to spread rumors everywhere, maybe even on the front page of a famous weekly magazine.
‘Should I just knock him on the head and give him amnesia?’
Aska’s back looked more prominent in my eyes than usual today.
Meanwhile, Shiz, who had been crouching on the stairs, looked up as we came down.
“S-So, is it over, um, ‘Mom’?”
Shiz’s confused face was truly a picture of confusion.
It made sense. She had been suddenly dragged into a strange magic experiment and fallen into an odd situation, and now I was calling myself her mother.
Because of that, I noticed a slight trace of expectation in Shiz’s eyes.
‘She’ll be really disappointed when she finds out it’s not true.’
I felt terrible knowing how much she would be hurt. I couldn’t bring myself to look at her face.
In the meantime, Aska stepped up to Shiz.
“So, this is your daughter.”
Even so, saying ‘this’ to a kid was… well…
Whether he knew how uncomfortable I was or not, Aska quietly looked down at Shiz.
I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt their tense atmosphere and just swallowed dryly.
‘Did he notice something?’
Aska was one of the few who remembered me as a child. My unease grew.
Shiz, sensing the strange air, also looked cautious.
“…Who is this, mister?”
“I’m not ‘mister,’ I’m Aska Muyer Willovis.”
“Ah, Ash?”
“If it’s easier, you can call me that.”
Aska replied carelessly and then kneeled down in front of Shiz.
His cold gaze seemed more like he was observing an experiment subject. It was as if he were looking at an object, not a person.
Shiz, stiff with tension, slowly started to pull away. I kept my eyes on Aska, ready to knock him out if necessary.
After a long pause, Aska finally spoke.
“…She looks a lot like you.”
“H-Huh?”
“She looks exactly the same. How did she resemble you so much?”
Suddenly, Aska reached out his hand to Shiz. I jumped in front of her, startled.
“S-She’s my daughter, of course!”
When I abruptly stepped in front of Shiz, Aska took a step back.
His eyes widened slightly as he looked back and forth between me and Shiz, clearly surprised by my reaction.
‘Did I treat him like a virus?’
Well, I had my reasons for hiding things.
“She’s scared, so please leave.”
I shoved Aska toward the door.
“Go! Go now!”
“Okay, okay, I get it. Stop pushing.”
Despite Aska’s usual stillness, he finally moved reluctantly after my repeated urging.
Luckily, it seemed like Aska hadn’t realized Shiz’s true identity. Instead, he found out that I had a hidden daughter.
‘I’m not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing…’
By the time I started leaning toward the letter, Aska, who was about to step outside, turned to look at me.
His expression was unreadable.
“…Do you have more to say?”
When I awkwardly asked, a strange smile appeared on his lips. I had a bad feeling. Whenever he smiled like that, something bad usually happened to me.
“I’ll go for now, but I’ll come again, Rel. Until then…”
Aska glanced at Shiz.
“…Take care of her. Don’t let anyone find out.”
“What? You’re coming back? What does that mean?”
I asked in surprise, but as I spoke, Aska’s body began to blur. He answered lightly.
“Exactly what it sounds like.”
Immediately after, Aska’s form disappeared into the air like petals scattering in the wind. It was an incredibly delicate and perfect teleportation spell.
Both Shiz and I stared at the spot where he had been for a while, stunned.
The first one to break the silence was little Shiz.
“Um, are you really my mom?”
She asked in polite, formal speech, but I couldn’t bring myself to look her in the eyes.
“I’m really sorry. The situation is… well…”
I bowed my head deeply and began explaining everything from the beginning.
After a long time of explaining, Shiz didn’t seem sad or disappointed at all.
“You liar!”
Instead, she ran up and kicked me.
“Ow!”
For such a small thing, it actually hurt a lot.
From a very young age, Aska Willovis had never known what it was like to face a ‘difficult task.’
Everything he wanted to accomplish, he achieved with ease. Whether it was reading, studying, or magic.
Because of this, he grew indifferent. There were no obstacles or challenges, so life lacked stimulation.
Seeing their son, who rarely smiled or cried, Duke and Duchess Willovis realized the seriousness of the situation.
They were constantly worried that their son, born with magical talents, would live a life different from ordinary people.
So, they tried their best to find activities that would interest Aska.
Swordsmanship, horseback riding, hunting, archery, card games…
Eventually, they found the answer in Relshiz.
He still vividly remembered the moment he met Relshiz when he was six years old.
He had visited an orphanage with his father. There, a girl was crying loudly for some reason.
‘That was you, Rel.’
Perhaps because he had never seen such intense emotions, Aska felt curiosity for the first time toward someone else.
Relshiz, who had caught the attention of his plant-like, indifferent son, was noticed by the Duke of Willovis.
The Duke, recognizing her magical talent, eagerly decided to support her.
This was the beginning of Aska and Relshiz’s long, intertwined relationship—or rather, their twisted fate.
Through Relshiz, Aska learned many things: joy, sorrow, and feelings of loss and ambition he had never known before.
‘If you like it, then I like it too. If you don’t like it, then I don’t like it.’
At some point, Relshiz’s emotions became his own, and her wishes became his.
If there was any misfortune in the fact that Aska Willovis was a genius, that was it.
It wasn’t until much later, after he had grown, that Aska realized he had taken everything Relshiz had ever wanted.
By then, it was far too late to turn back.
This is so good!