I’m the Youngest Daughter of the Serpent Family
Chapter 59
Baon’s voice carried through the slightly cracked door of the office.
I stopped in my tracks.
What did he just say?
“Are you truly intending to send the young lady away?”
I stood frozen, my thoughts grinding to a complete halt.
They’ve already decided to send me to the East?
Crinkle. The corner of the box in my hands crumpled slightly.
I didn’t want to be alone again. It would be so desolate, so lonely.
“…No.”
I flung the door wide open.
Sitting directly across from me, Baon turned toward me with a startled expression.
“Lady Irene?”
“Iling isn’t going anywhere! I’m gonna stay right here, I said!”
Whoosh!
I hurled the cookie box with all my might. Thud. The box crashed powerlessly onto the floor and rolled away.
“I hate you, Daddy!”
My voice roared through the room and echoed far down the hallway.
Gasp. I heard Baon draw in a sharp breath.
Inside the terrifyingly silent office, no one dared speak first.
Why isn’t anyone saying anything?
The sudden heavy silence was a little scary, but I had no intention of taking my words back.
I even baked cookies to give him as a gift, and Kaid was thinking of sending me away.
A surge of sorrow welled up inside me. The rims of my eyes burned. Breath rushed out of me in ragged gasps, overwhelmed by emotion.
I carefully peeked through my tightly shut eyes.
Chilly crimson eyes were staring straight at me without wavering.
Flinch.
When I took a step back with tears brimming in my eyes, Kaid offered a crooked smirk.
“I thought I misheard, but apparently not.”
“…M-My Lord. Please calm down first and…”
“What did she throw on the floor?”
“I will check.”
Baon rose at once and went to inspect the box I had thrown.
Soon, astonishment bloomed in the blue eyes behind his spectacles.
“These are cookies.”
“Cookies?”
“Did the young lady make them herself?”
Both of their gazes turned toward me. Clamping my lips shut to suppress the sob trying to burst out, I merely nodded.
Showing interest in the box, Kaid held out his hand.
“Hand it over.”
“How cruel. I wished to look a moment longer.”
“It’s mine.”
“…Where is the logic in that? She threw it on the floor, so finders keepers.”
“This house is mine.”
With an intensely reluctant expression, Baon passed the box to Kaid.
Checking the contents through the transparent box, Kaid’s face quickly shifted into one of pleasure as he looked at me.
The aura around him felt distinctly different from moments ago.
“Irene.”
“…Yes.”
Knowing I had done something wrong, I answered in a tiny voice. My throat was choked with emotion, so I couldn’t speak loudly either.
I shouldn’t have thrown things. I’m going to get scolded.
“Did you make these yourself?”
“I made ’em with Baharun.”
“I can tell at a glance.”
Opening the box, Kaid picked up a small heart-shaped cookie and showed it to me.
Baon looked at me standing despondently and shook his head.
“It seems the young lady overheard our conversation.”
“I see. So that’s why she misunderstood?”
Misunderstood?
I snapped my downcast head right back up.
Letting out a soft chuckle, Kaid rose from his seat and approached me.
He slipped his hands beneath my arms and lifted me into the air.
“How much of the conversation did you hear?”
“…From the part about letting them visit.”
“Then it’s Baon’s fault.”
“Mine, you say?”
Baon looked baffled for a moment, then sighed and closed his mouth.
A look of injustice was clearly plastered across his face, but since his words were indeed the cause of the misunderstanding, he didn’t bother arguing back.
“I never had any intention of sending you away from the start.”
“Then why?”
Why are those people coming?
“It’s just that the situation has become a bit complicated.”
“…Because of me?”
It couldn’t be that things got complicated because he was trying to keep me here, right?
Seeing my sorrowful, teary gaze turn to worry, he shook his head.
“No. If anything, this worked out for the best.”
Things got complicated, but it worked out for the best? What did that even mean?
When I scrunched my brow at the incomprehensible answer, Kaid raised his thumb and stroked my forehead.
“The time has simply come to untangle the knotted threads.”
“…Do you suspect it is connected to Lady Estella?”
Baon’s expression hardened as he asked.
“Yes. Which is why we need to thoroughly shake down the Roisar family first.”
Holding me in his arms, Kaid sat on the sofa. Positioned facing him, I looked up into his face.
His crimson eyes met mine.
“And while we’re at it, I’ll drive it into their heads once and for all. That Irene Astrophel will continue to be my daughter.”
* * *
The basement dungeon of the manor.
Ella hadn’t had a single drop of water in days.
Her silence, which had seemed like it wouldn’t last long, proved remarkably stubborn.
“Isn’t it about time you opened your mouth?”
“…”
“A delegation from the East will arrive soon.”
At those words, Ella’s hazy golden eyes trembled faintly. Her gaze, previously fixed on the floor, shifted to Durias.
A flicker of hope and anticipation passed through her eyes.
It was a vain hope that, perhaps, she might make it out of here alive.
Though it was merely a fleeting moment, Durias caught it and sneered.
“Did you think you would make it out alive?”
“…”
“Remarkable. You must be parched by now.”
Durias’s patience was gradually wearing thin.
Ella’s mouth didn’t open as easily as expected.
It felt like playing an endless game of tug-of-war.
Despite having her pheromones completely suppressed, leaving her in a state weaker than an ordinary herbivore, the light in her eyes refused to die.
That continued to grate on Durias’s nerves.
“Once the delegation arrives, your chances of leaving alive will only shrink.”
Internally, Ella scoffed at his words.
She already knew all too well.
Keeping her mouth shut was the better choice. The moment she spoke the truth, it would only hasten her death.
“I despise meaningless wastes of time. Yet you seem determined to keep your mouth shut to the bitter end.”
“…”
“Not that there isn’t a way to pry it open, of course.”
“…?”
Ella, who had implicitly believed that if she just held out they would eventually tire and give up, drew in a small breath.
The atmosphere surrounding Durias was entirely different from before.
“Leniency ends now.”
“What…?”
“I conducted a little investigation into those around you, Miss Ella… What was the name again? Meryl, was it?”
The instant the name Meryl was uttered, Ella’s face drained of color.
“Finally, a reaction. I should have done this from the start.”
Targeting those around her wasn’t a method he preferred, but he had no other choice.
He had been instructed to handle her moderately until she talked, which had prevented him from pushing her to the absolute brink.
Now that the delegation’s visit was confirmed, however, he could no longer wait indefinitely.
He needed to report results to his master, Kaid, before their arrival, at the very least.
“If you do not open your mouth, things will become quite difficult for this Meryl person.”
“Mmph! Mmmph…!”
“No need to struggle so violently. After all, the two of you will be reunited soon enough.”
“Nggh, mmph, mmph!”
Bingo. The corner of Durias’s mouth twitched. He hadn’t been certain, but it seemed he had struck right at her sore spot.
Having been about to rise from his chair to leave the basement, he settled back down as if granting her one last chance.
Because Ella, dragging her battered body, had begun desperately crawling toward where he sat before the cell.
It was a starkly different reaction.
“…Hngh. Mmph!”
“It seems even someone like you has someone precious to them.”
Snap.
Durias removed the gag he had forced into her mouth.
“Cough, hack!”
Rough coughing echoed loudly throughout the basement.
Drained of all strength, Ella collapsed to the floor, completely exhausted from just a few coughs.
Her cracked, bruised lips trembled violently before finally parting.
“Meryl… Not Meryl, please.”
“That depends entirely on your cooperation, Miss Ella.”
“…N-No. I-I’ll tell you everything. Every… everything…”
“I’ll hear you out before deciding.”
Her face twisted as though she were about to weep. Durias gestured with his chin for her to begin.
Soon, a crawling voice emerged from Ella’s bowed head.
“I just…”
“You just?”
“…I just wanted to go back so, so badly.”
Kneeling on the ground, Ella began to wail aloud as if making a confession.
Durias’s brow arched upward.
“Go back where?”
“To my hometown.”
Hometown.
At that word, Durias let out an utterly dumbfounded scoff.