Translator: Nox

Ch#100

I wanted to cry.

But I couldn't cry.

Because her mother's words kept echoing more vividly in her mind.

'Don't cry. Smile. If you can't do that, then stay silent.'

Smile, smile.

But she couldn't smile either. So Adelin stayed silent.

Reginald appeared belatedly.

He stared at the expressionless Adelin and summoned her to his drawing room for a brief talk.

'Adelin. My one and only niece. Are you fearless, or just foolish?'

Adelin lifted her wandering gaze to Reginald's face.

Seeing his face flickering in the candlelight twisted her stomach.

'Are you resentful that you were one step too late? Should I have kept her alive a bit longer somehow... Ah, I mean, should I have tried some life-prolonging treatment?'

She wanted to strangle the brazenly smiling Reginald.

He no longer bothered hiding it in front of her.

That he had killed her mother.

'Fine. Enough idle talk. You're almost of age now. Is that why you returned?'

But something felt off.

The denser her anger grew, the calmer her mind became.

Adelin felt her head coolly sinking.

Smile. If you can't, then stay silent.

Right now, Adelin was adrift on a vast ocean.

Clinging to the plank her mother had left her.

Adelin couldn't bear to throw away that plank and sink.

Not for her mother's sake.

She gave Reginald an awkward smile.

'No, Uncle.'

As if flustered, with an uneasy gaze she couldn't hide, nervously biting her nails.

'How could I become lord? I can't do it. Someone like me, who disgraced herself in the palace and got fired from her maid position...'

Her mother's words had been true.

The moment Adelin smiled, faint curiosity flickered in Reginald's eyes.

'Fired from your maid position?'

'E-Everyone said I was clueless and stupid...'

Adelin rubbed her bleeding nail against her dress hem.

'That's why I didn't want to go. But Mother kept insisting I had to become Her Highness the princess's maid...'

'Your stepmother said that? It wasn't your own idea?'

'I didn't want to go, Uncle. I wanted to stay here. Every day I spent in the Capital was a nightmare. Thinking of Mother who sent me to such a place makes me so upset... Sniff...'

To fool Reginald completely, she needed to cry.

But it was as if her body was broken—tears wouldn't come.

Adelin sneered inwardly.

Unable to cry when she should, unable to smile when she should.

No, when was she supposed to smile, and when cry?

Unable to find the answer, she simply bowed her head and hunched her shoulders.

'I resented Mother every day in the Capital... It was all because of me. Why am I like this?'

'Ha, haha.'

'Someone like me doesn't even deserve to stay in her hometown. Father trusted me, but I'm still so pathetic...'

'Hahaha!'

That day, Reginald's laughter echoed endlessly without stopping.

Of course, Adelin knew.

That even as he laughed, he was pondering inwardly.

Whether to kill her or leave her be.

"I lied about my late parents coming to mind."

In the end, after staying in the Lord's Castle for a few days, Adelin made that excuse.

"I said my mother haunted my dreams every night too."

When she said she could no longer stay in the castle.

Reginald eyed her warily.

She deliberately said she'd set up a new house in the village where people gathered, not far from him.

"I could have just fled entirely... But my feet wouldn't move."

Was it because she'd only endured?

Or because she'd only had things taken from her?

Even in a situation where she didn't know when Reginald might try to kill her, Adelin couldn't fully leave the territory.

Her mother had said she'd give up anything to protect her.

But she herself couldn't do it.

And not long after that, another incident occurred.

"Uncle announced that the lord's will he had been keeping had disappeared."

Raoul and Enzo let out hollow laughs.

"Lies. The will didn't disappear—he destroyed it himself!"

Adelin thought so too.

The will clearly stated her father's words.

'Until my successor, Adelin Kaldbain, reaches adulthood.'

Delegating lordly authority to Reginald only until exactly then.

"As Lady nears adulthood, suddenly the will vanishes? Nonsense. He must have felt somewhat relieved seeing you act like you had no interest in the lord's seat."

"Exactly. When you said you'd leave the castle, it must have seemed too easy, making him suspicious."

Adelin agreed.

"Yes. In fact, around that time, I was under surveillance."

While staying in the castle, a strange presence always followed Adelin.

Instinctively, she thought it was an assassin.

Enzo said with a hardened face.

"There's only one possibility. At that time, Reginald decided to let Lady live for some reason."

And continued in a grave voice.

"But he was still uneasy. So to solidify the situation, he destroyed the will."

To completely erase the evidence that Adelin was the rightful heir.

"...Probably."

After that, she was able to leave the castle safely.

When she truly opened a pub in the bustling village area where people lived, Reginald let his guard down even more.

He even stopped occasionally sending people to check on her condition.

The one fortunate thing was that she had the excessive amount of money the princess had given her.

She had been able to cover the villagers' tribute shortfalls with that money until now.

Reginald seemed pleased that she was squandering her wealth repurchasing coal and such.

But that was it. All Adelin could do.

She could no longer do anything beyond that even if she wanted to.

Adelin smiled again.

"That's why I didn't want to tell old stories."

Her eyes were now filled with deep fatigue.

"Because they're just hopeless and suffocating tales."

Silence fell over the room.

Adelin sighed.

"Anyway, that's how I know the castle's layout..."

"So originally, Adelin sis was supposed to be the lord?"

At that moment, a cautious voice came from the side.

Turning her head, Tie was gazing at her with curious eyes.

Adelin gave a faint smile in response.

"Originally, yes, that should have happened. But not anymore."

"Because the will disappeared?"

"Yes."

However, even if the will had existed, the outcome wouldn't have been much different.

Reginald was clever.

He had married a capable mage and made her firmly his ally.

He always invested part of the collected taxes into his army.

So no one would dare dream of taking his position.

Thus, even if Adelin had tried to reclaim her seat, she would have had to face Reginald and his army either way.

The chances of winning were, of course, slim.

"But when you were in the castle, those people following you around—were they really surveillance?"

Then Tie asked another question.

Adelin, too exhausted, sighed without hiding her dark expression.

But it was perfectly natural for children that age to be full of curiosity.

She nodded flatly.

"I felt a presence every day, so probably."

"Hmm......"

"Whether eating, resting, or sleeping. I always felt someone following me. Uncle must have been watching me."

For some reason, Tie avoided Adelin's gaze.

"But......"

The child looked troubled.

Soon, hesitantly glancing behind Adelin, she parted her lips.

"Sis, actually."

Sensing something odd, Adelin narrowed her eyes.

"What's wrong?"

Tie, who had been pursing her lips, answered softly.

"Actually, since earlier, there's been someone behind sis......"

"Behind me?"

"Standing like this, and I think this person has been following sis the whole time......"

Adelin's expression went blank.