Chapter 82

Eek.

Seeing how angry Father looked, I decided it would be best to change the subject as quickly as possible.

Then I remembered what Grace had said earlier.

“By the way, Father. What changed about me?”

She had said it seemed my true appearance had been concealed by dark magic.

What exactly did she mean by changed?

“Ah.”

Fortunately, Father returned to his usual self at my question.

“See for yourself in the mirror.”

He held out a hand mirror.

I took it and examined my face for the first time in ages.

Then—

“...Huh?”

Blink, blink.

A pair of ruby-red eyes stared back at me.

Someone’s face seemed to overlap with mine, and I turned toward Calypse.

“F-Father. Come over here.”

“...All right.”

When I called him haltingly, he approached with an oddly tense expression.

He sat beside me, and both our faces appeared together in the mirror.

Beneath his neatly arranged black hair were deep-set crimson eyes. Beside him, beneath my golden hair, were my large, round red eyes.

Seeing us together like this, my face looked like an even blend of Calypse and Ariana.

Thanks to Ariana’s confession, I had already understood, at least vaguely, that I was his biological daughter.

But seeing the proof with my own eyes...

“Aisha.”

I had been staring at the mirror for a long while, my heart pounding, when Calypse called me in a low voice.

“Yes?”

“Shall we take a walk together?”

My eyes had been darting about in shock.

The sudden invitation snapped me back to my senses, and I looked up at Father.

A walk? Where? Why now?

All sorts of questions filled my mind, but my answer came first.

“Yep. I’d like that.”

After all, I had enjoyed walking with him ever since the days when Duke Calypse had been the gardener mister.

Ten minutes after we began our walk, however—

I bitterly regretted accepting his invitation.

***

In the corridor of the royal palace, Calypse carried me as though I were bundled in swaddling cloth and strode majestically out of the treatment room.

“Where are we going?”

“Anywhere.”

The moment we rounded the corner—

“...Your Grace, how did Lady Aisha’s treatment—”

Knox, who appeared to have been waiting there for us, let his mouth fall open.

His gaze was fixed on my face.

“...Lady Aisha? Is that really you?”

“It is.”

Calypse answered as though making a proclamation.

“This is Aisha’s original eye color. It was concealed by dark magic until now.”

“Pardon...?”

“Aisha was the true young lady who went missing five years ago.”

“...Whaaat?”

Wow. Knox’s mouth was going to split open.

But I nearly opened mine too.

The true young lady.

For some reason, those words made my heart flutter.

“One moment, Your Grace. If you suddenly say something like that without explaining any of the circumstances... Perhaps you should give a little more detail—”

“Later. We have to take a walk now.”

Knox followed after us as though he could not believe what he was hearing, but Calypse coldly brushed aside his assistant’s attempts to stop him and continued down the corridor.

Step, step—

His footsteps sounded unusually loud today.

Almost as though he wanted everyone in the corridor to notice us.

But why did he suddenly suggest a walk?

Clinging tightly to Father’s chest, I tilted my head.

He seemed to want to talk to me alone, but what could it be about?

...Ariana?

Come to think of it, we had not spoken about Ariana even once since he collapsed.

I lifted my head and glanced up at Father.

He was silently heading somewhere, so perhaps he was searching for a suitable place to discuss something serious.

Maybe he was doing it out of consideration for me.

“Father.”

“Yes?”

“Ariana. Was that woman arrested too?”

His rapidly moving legs stopped.

His eyes widened in surprise. He clearly had not expected me to bring her up.

“...They said she had already fled by the time the royal knights arrived. She is probably alive somewhere.”

“Oh. She escaped.”

I had not known.

Then again, spies were not knights who remained beside their masters until death.

Once they judged that their master had no hope left, fleeing immediately was only natural.

“Why? Do you miss your mother?”

“That is what I wanted to ask you.”

“What?”

“Do you miss Mother?”

I stared up at Calypse with wide, unblinking eyes.

“No.”

To my surprise, Father answered without hesitation and resumed walking.

“Raising the two of you is already more than enough. Kyle is not even my child, yet I am feeding and sheltering him because of someone.”

“Oh. But I’m Kyle’s guardi—”

My lips puckered before I could finish.

Calling myself Kyle’s guardian did not sound very convincing when Father was the one providing all his food, clothing, and shelter.

“Hehe. Thank you...”

I grinned awkwardly, embarrassed for no reason.

The corners of Calypse’s mouth curved as well, and he roughly ruffled my hair.

“I like things as they are now. And no matter who your mother is, I am simply grateful that you were born with eyes like mine.”

That is so touching...

Feeling embarrassed and strangely restless, I looked away for no reason.

I was not accustomed to feelings like this.

But that was one thing, and the question I had been wondering about all this time was still unanswered.

“Then why did we come out for a walk? Did you really just want to walk?”

“D-Duke Kreutz. Greetings!”

Just then, someone with an extremely tense expression sprang out from across the corridor.

“You endured quite an ordeal at the last banquet. How are you feeling?”

“And how is Lady Aisha? We were terribly worried about both of you.”

The people asking after us with concern were all familiar nobles.

Come to think of it, Grace had mentioned earlier that many nobles remained in the central region to witness Duke Pose’s execution, which was scheduled for several days from now.

They approached, staring at us with eyes that looked ready to pop out, then hurriedly bowed their heads.

More precisely, they had been staring at me.

It was probably because of my eye color.

Well, whatever. Father would surely give them a curt, “I’m fine,” and walk past.

He had never enjoyed interacting with people.

But then—

“You all look as though you have seen something you should not have.”

Whoosh—

The moment Calypse opened his mouth, my entire body was abruptly turned around.

“Is it because of my daughter’s eye color?”

Excuse me?

My lips puckered into a triangle when I suddenly found myself facing the nobles.

After turning me so they could see me clearly, Calypse looked down at them with triumphant confidence.

The startled nobles trembled and murmured with their heads bowed.

“...We were afraid it might be rude to mention it, but Lady Aisha’s eyes look exceptionally beautiful today. We apologize for staring without realizing it.”

“...Do they?”

Calypse gazed down at them with an unreadable expression.

To anyone else, his eyes looked full of killing intent.

Twitch.

Twitch?

Father.

Your daughter saw that.

I saw the corners of your tightly closed mouth wriggle like worms.

“What about my daughter’s eye color?”

“Pardon? W-Well... They used to be blue like the sea, but today they are red, like rubies...”

“Red?”

“E-Eek!”

The nobles jolted when Calypse cut them off and thrust his face toward them.

“The same as mine?”

At the question, one noble nodded nervously, as though terrified he had made some mistake.

“Y-Yes. Although p-perhaps we saw incorrectly. Ha ha ha...”

“You did not.”

“Pardon?”

Calypse declared proudly.

“You saw correctly. Go and spread the word that Aisha, whom I believed to be my adopted daughter, has turned out to be my true blood relative.”

“...What?”

The nobles’ mouths fell open so wide they looked ready to split.

This was a sensational piece of news.

And Father, who normally hated becoming the subject of gossip, continued speaking with his shoulders raised nearly to the heavens.

“Duke Pose dared employ wicked sorcery. He altered our Aisha’s eye color to blue and kept the truth concealed...”

“Gasp!”

“But when we captured him, we discovered what he had done and restored her eyes to their original color. At last, the truth has been revealed.”

His overly explanatory tone sounded somewhat unnatural to me, but the nobles listened with complete seriousness.

“My word! Are you saying that wretch even committed such an atrocity?!”

As the atmosphere swelled with that outcry, Calypse nodded emphatically and drove the point home.

“Yes. Most importantly, Aisha’s eyes were originally red.”

“!”

“She is unmistakably a Kreutz—and unquestionably my own blood.”

“!!!”