Chapter 25
Did the young Troy Langsher have someone he loved enough to abandon his family, honor, and wealth to run away with them?
‘…Was it someone other than Mother?’
Surprisingly, Chloe wasn’t that shocked by the idea. Despite knowing how much her father respected her mother, she also knew they weren’t a particularly affectionate couple. They got along well, but sometimes her father treated her mother more like a superior.
So, did he marry her mother after being betrayed by his lover?
Even if that were the case, why would Aunt keep Father’s love letters so secretively? No matter how close they were, it seemed unlikely one would want to read their sibling’s love letters.
“Marie? What’s wrong, do you recognize the handwriting?”
Sylvia’s voice snapped Chloe out of her thoughts. She hesitated, then shook her head.
“No, but the handwriting looks a bit similar to the Empress’s…”
But this clue should be fine. These were Troy Langsher’s letters, but they were also part of Leah Olfenster’s belongings.
“…Could it be that the letter isn’t from a member of the Langsher family?”
Sylvia, flipping through the pages of the journal with the torn cover, tilted her head a few times before nodding.
“It doesn’t look the same, but it’s similar. You have a good eye, Marie…”
Her muttering was loud enough. Used to sudden compliments, Chloe pretended not to hear and turned her eyes back to the letter.
“Then could it be from one of Mother’s brothers? Three, no, twenty years ago it might have been four.”
“Four…?”
At Chloe’s puzzled expression, Sylvia’s eyes sharpened for a moment, but Chloe, focused on the letter, didn’t notice.
“Yes. Around that time, Mother’s eldest brother might still have been alive.”
Only then did Chloe recall her father’s brother, whom she had only seen in records. He had died before she was born, almost erased from her memory.
In her memory, her father’s siblings were his twin brothers and a younger sister, totaling three.
Suddenly, Sylvia muttered as if she realized something.
“Maybe it’s Kairon Langsher, the true eldest.”
“I suspected Edwin Langsher or Troy Langsher.”
Chloe mentioned her infamous uncle, slipping her father into the suspicion, but Sylvia shook her head.
“No. It must be Kairon Langsher. I’m almost certain.”
“Based on what-”
“Because Troy Langsher took his brother’s lover. This letter is probably from Kairon Langsher to the woman who chose his brother over him. Maybe the child born here is Chloe Langsher…”
“…Kairon Langsher died before Chloe Langsher was born.”
Sylvia’s confident expression cracked. Chloe quietly added her doubts.
“And I’ve never heard that Troy Langsher took his brother’s lover. Where did you hear such a rumor?”
“It’s not a rumor.”
Sylvia, after hesitating several times, grabbed Chloe’s sleeve. Despite being alone, she looked around cautiously and whispered.
“Mother asked me to find out about Chloe Langsher’s real mother before she died. How that woman died.”
“She… died of illness.”
Chloe blinked at the sudden mention of her aunt’s last words. Her mother, Alina Langsher, certainly died of an illness. There was no incident or conspiracy involved.
“Yes. She really died of an illness. I knew that too. I couldn’t understand why Mother asked me to investigate a woman who just died of an illness, but it wasn’t about her death. It was about what happened afterward.”
Alina Langsher had a normal funeral and was buried in the family tomb, or so she thought.
“Troy Langsher secretly took his wife’s remains and enshrined them in a rural church. And he combined them with the remains of a man who had been there for ten years.”
“Don’t tell me that man’s remains were…”
“Yes. It was Kairon Langsher. Troy Langsher’s brother who died over ten years ago.”
Suddenly, a thought flashed through Chloe’s mind. It wasn’t about who the letter belonged to or why Aunt hid it.
Chloe Langsher was a seven-month baby.
…That’s what she believed. Everyone said so.
And Chloe knew her father didn’t love her mother. He cherished and respected her, and the entire family did too. Her mother was always the elder of the household.
She had a gut feeling.
Her father didn’t take his brother’s lover.
Knowing that his brother’s unborn child was in his sister-in-law’s womb…
Knowing he couldn’t raise Kairon Langsher’s posthumous child…
So, I…
Troy Langsher…
To become my father…
“Marie, are you okay? You’ve turned so pale…”
Kairon Langsher died for treason. And the hero who uncovered and punished that crime was…
“-What is it? Ma’am? Ma’am!”
Crown Prince Hessel Olfenster.
* * *
Gideon lifted the pale Chloe. Sylvia asked anxiously.
“Is she sick? What’s wrong with her? Should we call a physician-”
“No. That won’t be necessary.”
Gideon replied shortly and started walking briskly. Sylvia followed, but he declined.
“But.”
“It’s okay. She’ll be fine after a short rest.”
Sylvia almost protested but held back. The door closed in front of her.
Outside the door, Sylvia swallowed her sorrow. Inside, Gideon placed Chloe inside the bed’s canopy. Unlike the Edant family’s annex, it was a single layer, but better than nothing.
In the darkened bed, Chloe hugged her knees and buried her face.
“…Are you crying?”
In the quiet canopy, Gideon waited silently, kneeling until she was ready to speak.
Waiting is easy as long as you know it will end someday.
The real pain is in waiting without knowing when it will end.
So it was okay. Chloe Langsher was right in front of him and would eventually call for him.
“Gideon.”
“Was my father a villain?”
Chloe wasn’t sure if she meant Troy Langsher or Kairon Langsher. She didn’t cry. There were too many thoughts swirling around.
She might cry later, but not now.
“You said he was a good person…”
Was Troy Langsher’s killing of Hessel Olfenster for revenge?
For his brother’s death?
If so, could that revenge be considered just?
Chloe realized that for her father’s killing of the Crown Prince to be justified revenge, Kairon Langsher must have been innocent.
But was Kairon Langsher really innocent?
‘…We don’t know.’
She tried not to think about who her real father was. Troy Langsher fulfilled all his duties as a father. Even if Kairon Langsher returned alive, her father was Troy Langsher. The sins she had to bear were those of Troy Langsher.
“Yes. He was a good person.”
So when she heard Gideon’s answer, she felt relieved.
Whether Kairon Langsher was a villain or not, at least Troy Langsher’s killing of Hessel Olfenster wasn’t just for power and greed.
Her father had his own story, his reasons, his thoughts.
Gideon closed his eyes, feeling like he wanted to take back his words. Normally, Chloe would tolerate his silence, but she grabbed his collar and brushed his eyes with her other hand.
“Open your eyes.”
Her voice was cold and burning at the same time. It was paradoxical, but Gideon couldn’t describe it any other way.
“I need certainty, Gideon.”
They were so close they could see each other’s reflections in their eyes. Gideon thought about when he stopped seeing Troy Langsher in her.
“Father sought revenge and paid for it with his life, right? It ended like that…”
If it was truly revenge, it should have ended with Hessel Olfenster’s death. He shouldn’t have touched Luke Olfenster. The moment he targeted a child, his revenge lost its righteousness, and he paid for it with his life.
But if this was a chain of revenge…
“…What do you know?”
“That Hessel Olfenster might have killed the man who could be my real father. Did you know that, Gideon? That Father’s act was revenge?”
Her clear voice made Gideon consider how much she knew. But her next whisper made him realize.
“I’m not saying Father was right.”
Wrong. Troy Langsher was always right. Even when blinded by love.
Gideon managed to suppress the anxiety rising in his throat. It was still okay. For now…
“Touching Luke made Father’s revenge wrong. I know. I just… if it was really for his brother…”
Everything of Langsher was burned to ashes. Power, honor, wealth.
She inherited nothing.
She accepted Luke Olfenster’s revenge, which took everything except her life.
If Troy Langsher’s actions were for revenge and not Langsha’s prosperity…
Then, at least her life…
Her life should be spared.
“…It wasn’t for me, even for a moment. It wasn’t for the family’s sake. It wasn’t to gain more wealth and power to pass down…”
Gideon inwardly laughed. He couldn’t help but find it absurd.
Being so righteous is a disease.
Understanding everyone’s sins and excuses but never compromising with one’s own…
“-It’s not a sin for me to be alive, right?”
Her whisper lacked confidence. It sounded more like a question.
So Gideon dared not remain silent. The most innocent person asked about her own sin.
“Yes. It’s not a sin. Your life is not a sin.”
You dared to ask if it was okay to be alive
The death of her biological father, her father’s revenge, the fall of her family, and the lover who deceived her. As Gideon murmured these unceremoniously, her eyes closed, as if she were mulling over his words. Just a few of his words seemed to have lightened the burden of her family’s karma that had been weighing her down. For the first time, he thought it fortunate that his tongue had not been cut off.
