Episode 101
The daughters of the Moonlight have the ability of foresight. Of course, not all daughters of the Moonlight possess this ability.
‘What if the duchess could foresee?’
Certainly, Victoria said that if she were to foresee, she could see the past and the future. Also what they were thinking. Of course, there was no precise explanation, so Agnes might not have been able to accurately predict events after her death. However, one couldn’t ignore such a strong possibility.
Lillian suppressed her trembling and spoke up.
— I’ve often heard that the duchess was very wise.
— Wise, or perhaps overflowing with herself. From the perspective of a culprit like me, she had some unique qualities.
As Cedric reminisced, he chuckled slightly and continued speaking.
“When I first met my wife, it was during the initiation ceremony. We had a private meeting place, and Agnes said to me then. Not to love her.”
“Not to love her?”
“Yes. Isn’t that absurd? She laid down such an ultimatum, saying not to love her under any circumstances.”
Cedric could still vividly remember Agnes, intoxicated from the ceremony, grabbing him and uttering those words.
— You must not love me, Your Grace. You must never do so. Do you understand?
“Don’t love her?”
“Yes. She was so adamant about not loving me that I told her it would never happen.”
Cedric could still remember the moment vividly. In the aftermath of the initiation ceremony, a drunken Agnes had grabbed him and said.
— You mustn’t love me, Your Excellency, you mustn’t, do you understand?
— I don’t know anything else, but I know you’re very drunk, so let it go.
— You’re going to fall in love with me.
— ….what?
—You can’t love me, because you’ll love me so much that you’ll be in pain for a very long time…….
Agnes was drunk. She probably didn’t even realize what she was saying. Cedric knew, but why? The words of the vagrant lingered in his chest.
“In the end, that statement wasn’t wrong, was it? It’s not a funny thing. Looking back, I might have fallen for her at first sight, so maybe it was something I said consciously.”
Despite Agnes’s warning, perhaps her efforts to avoid fate were futile, as Cedric ended up falling in love with Agnes and suffered for a long time.
Cedric himself seemed to think little of it. But it struck Lilian, who knew all the details, completely differently.
It felt like a blow to the head.
‘Why didn’t I think of this sooner?’
Agnes could foresee. That fact was confirmed just now through Cedric’s conversation.
So she could see what others couldn’t, and she could also be considered wise.
“…Dad, did the duchess love you a lot?”
“Of course. I loved her too.”
“And what about the child?”
Cedric smiled bitterly at that question. It would have been a question he couldn’t answer before, but now he had also accumulated experience. He had grown older.
“To be honest, I didn’t have the confidence to love the child. It was my wife who loved the child. My wife assured me that I would surely love the child. It’s not like she often spoke so confidently.”
“…Are you sure she said it confidently?”
“Yeah. And in the end, everything my wife said came true. Because I met you.”
Lilian felt something settle deep inside her heart.
At first, she thought it was Cedric’s guilt, but gradually, her thoughts changed.
Just guilt wouldn’t make her heart ache so much and her nose tingle.
“They say that families are not made by choice, and while you can choose your spouse, you can’t choose your children.”
In that sense, Cedric and Lilian were a family made by choosing each other.
“I don’t know about you, but I feel lucky to be able to choose you.”
Lilian looked at Cedric quietly. There was a faint smile on his face, similar yet not. Now she knew that it was Cedric’s affection. Lilian suddenly asked.
“Dad, do you love me?”
“Of course, sweetheart.”
Lilian approached Cedric without realizing it and hugged him. She felt his careful touch against her. Feeling tears welling up, Lilian closed her eyes tightly and buried her face in his chest.
‘What did I give my dad that made him love me?’
Unlike other families, we weren’t born together, nor did we share blood.
But looking back, wasn’t Swan also someone who loved her horribly, even though they weren’t born together or shared blood? Swan taught Lilian love and showed her that she could be loved.
It was evident in Lilian’s eyes. Cedric’s love was like Swan’s.
As the thought dawned on her, she began to wonder.
‘Did the duchess know about this too?’
How far could the daughters of the moonlight see?
* * *
The late Duchess Maynard, Agnes, could foresee.
Lilian’s first question, confident in this fact, was this:
‘Did the duchess know about Swan and me?’
How far could foresight see?
And the second question.
‘Surely Swan… Could she also… wield divine power?’
Did Swan also know the future?
Lilian quickly formulated a hypothesis, only to quickly dismiss it. If Swan had divine power, she would have known. The two were always together, and Lilian even once expressed a desire to become a priestess. Swan wouldn’t have hidden the fact that Lilian had divine power.
So if there was any possibility, it was the duchess’s foresight.
‘I want to confirm a lot of things… but it’s not good to keep attending the reading club.’
Theo was right. The reading club was dangerous. Moreover, if Victoria’s intention was to exploit her, it wasn’t good to have frequent contact. If by any chance she was revealed not to be the real Daughter of the Moonlight, who knew what would happen?
Therefore, Lilian chose a slight detour to resolve these two doubts.
“…So, you came to see me?”
“Yes. Lord Fitzroy thinks he should take some responsibility.”
At Lilian’s words, taking a detour, Asher looked a bit puzzled. Either he hadn’t expected Lilian to come in the middle of the day, or he was really just barely dressed up. It wasn’t until after Lilian had asked for the teapot to be refilled twice that the hint dawned on him.
Hair hastily combed and a shirt and pants thrown on carelessly. It was a dress that advertised itself as being ready to greet guests in pajamas.
“I don’t want to go to the reading club anymore. But meeting the Viscount would look more natural on the outside. It’s the same for my father.”
“Of course, you have a point. But if you had let me know in advance that you were coming, I would have had time to prepare…”
“It would have been time not to prepare, but to escape.”
For some reason, Asher’s expression became twice as awkward. He may not have known because he was stuck in the laboratory looking into relics, but unfortunately, Lilian had quite a mischievous personality. It was enough for her to come and find Asher, who advertised himself as smart and mature, rather than Victoria, who advertised herself as smart and mature but was actually always stumbling around like a fool.
Above all, Asher owed Lilian a real debt.
“You approached me systematically and sold me out to the heretics. You have to pay for that.”
“Lady -Lilian. It’s true that I approached you systematically, but I never sold you out! I swear I didn’t take a penny—”
“Pay for the systematic approach you made to me.”
In the end, Asher surrendered cleanly. He was someone who knew when to retreat.
“W-What do you want?”
“For starters, show me your research lab.”
She intended to start from the bottom.
