Chapter 79
<82화>
‘Eek.’
Seeing my father so angry, I thought it best to change the subject quickly.
Suddenly, I remembered what Grace had said earlier.
“By the way, Dad. What exactly changed about me?”
She had mentioned that my true appearance seemed to have been hidden by black magic.
I wondered what exactly that meant.
“Ah.”
Fortunately, my father returned to his usual self at my question.
“Check for yourself in the mirror.”
He held out a hand mirror in front of me.
I took the mirror and checked my face for the first time in a long while. And then…
“…Huh?”
Blink, blink. A pair of ruby-red eyes stared back at me.
Looking at that face, which seemed to overlap with someone else’s, I turned to look at Calyps.
“D-Dad. Come over here.”
“…Alright.”
When I called out to him with a stutter, he approached with a somewhat tense expression.
Sitting down beside me, he let his face be captured in the mirror next to mine.
Deep red eyes set beneath neat black hair. Beside them, large, round red eyes beneath blonde hair.
Seeing us side by side like this, my face looked like a perfect half-and-half mix of Calyps and Ariena.
Thanks to Ariena’s confession, I had vaguely realized that I was his biological daughter.
But seeing it with my own eyes like this…
“Aisha.”
I stared at the mirror for a long time, feeling my heart thumping, when Calyps called my name in a low voice.
“Yes?”
“Shall we go for a walk together?”
I had been so startled that I was just darting my eyes back and forth.
Snapped out of it by the sudden suggestion of a walk, I looked up at my father.
A walk? Where? So suddenly?
Various questions popped into my head, but my answer came out first.
“Yes. I’d love to.”
I had loved going on walks with him ever since the days when Duke Calyps was just the gardener.
Ten minutes after we started that walk, however…
I bitterly regretted accepting the offer.
In the hallway of the Royal Palace.
Calyps, carrying me as if I were swaddled in a blanket, strode majestically out of the infirmary door.
“Where shall we go?”
“Anywhere.”
As we rounded a corner in the corridor—
“…Your Excellency, how is Lady Aisha’s treatme—”
Knox, who had been standing there as if waiting for us, let his jaw drop. His gaze was fixed squarely on my face.
“…Lady Aisha? Is that really Lady Aisha?”
“It is,” Calyps answered as if making an official proclamation.
“This is Aisha’s original eye color. It had been hidden by black magic until now.”
“Pardon…?”
“I’m saying that Aisha was the true lady who went missing five years ago.”
“…Whaaat?!”
Wow. Knox’s mouth was going to tear at this rate.
However, I almost let my own mouth hang open too.
The true lady. Hearing those words made my heart flutter strangely.
“Wait a moment, Your Excellency. If you just say it like that without any context… please give me a bit more of an explanation…”
“Later. We have to go for a walk now.”
Knox followed us like a lost puppy as if he couldn’t believe it, but Calyps heartlessly brushed off his aide’s touch and stepped out into the hallway.
Tap, tap—
The sound of his footsteps seemed even louder than usual today.
It was as if he wanted everyone to notice us walking down the corridor.
‘But why did he suddenly want to go for a walk?’
I tilted my head while clinging tightly to my father’s chest.
It felt like there was a conversation he wanted to have with just the two of us, but what could it be?
‘…About Ariena?’
Come to think of it, we hadn’t talked about Ariena once since I collapsed.
I tilted my head back to peek at him.
Seeing him heading somewhere without a word, was he looking for a suitable place to have a heavy conversation?
He was probably doing this out of consideration for me.
“Dad.”
“Yes?”
“About Ariena. Was that woman arrested too?”
At my question, his legs, which had been walking briskly, came to a halt.
Seeing his eyes widen in surprise, it seemed he hadn’t expected me to bring up the subject.
“…I was told she had already fled by the time the royal knights arrived. She must be alive somewhere.”
“Ah. So she fled.”
I didn’t know that. Then again, spies weren’t knights who stayed by their master’s side until death.
It was only natural to run away the moment they judged there was no hope for their master.
“Why? Do you miss your mother?”
“That’s what I want to ask you.”
“What?”
“Do you miss her?”
When I looked up at Calyps with wide eyes—
“No.”
Surprisingly, my father answered without a moment’s hesitation as he resumed walking.
“Raising the two of you is enough of a handful. Even Kyle isn’t even my own kid, yet I’m taking care of him because of someone.”
“Oh. I’m Kyle’s guardian…!”
I was about to say “I am,” but my mouth puckered into a pout.
It was hard to claim that when my father was the one responsible for Kyle’s food, clothing, and shelter.
“Hehe. Thank you….”
When I grinned out of sheer embarrassment, he likewise curled the corners of his mouth and roughly stroked my hair.
“I like how things are now. And no matter who the mother is, I’m just so grateful that you were born with eyes that resemble mine.”
How touching….
Feeling embarrassed and tickled, I looked away for no reason. I wasn’t used to this kind of feeling.
But that was that, and the question I’d had since earlier still hadn’t been resolved.
“Then why did we come out for a walk? Are we really just going for a walk?”
“…D-Duke Crost. Good day to you!”
It was then.
Someone with a very tense face popped out from the other side.
“You went through a lot at the last banquet. Are you feeling alright?”
“How is the young lady? We were both very worried.”
The people asking with concerned looks were all nobles with familiar faces.
Come to think of it, I’d heard from Grace earlier.
She said there were many nobles staying in the Capital to witness the execution of the Duke of Pose, which was scheduled in a few days.
Approaching us, they stared at us with eyes that looked like they were about to pop out, then hurriedly bowed their heads.
To be precise, they were staring at me.
It was probably because of my eye color.
Well, regardless of that, my father would usually just say, “Right,” and pass them by.
He was someone who didn’t particularly enjoy interacting with people, after all.
And yet.
“Your expressions look as if you’ve seen something you shouldn’t have.”
Swish—
The moment Calyps opened his mouth, my body was spun around.
“Is it perhaps because of my daughter’s eye color?”
Excuse me?
Suddenly finding myself face-to-face with the nobles, my mouth fell open in surprise.
Having turned me around so I was on full display, Calyps looked down at the nobles with a triumphant expression.
Startled, they trembled and muttered with their heads bowed.
“…We didn’t say anything for fear of being rude, but the young lady’s eye color is exceptionally beautiful today. We were unintentionally disrespectful because of that.”
“…Is that so?”
Calyps looked down at them with an unreadable expression.
Though to an outsider, his gaze looked full of murderous intent.
Twitch.
‘Twitch?’
Father. Your daughter saw it.
I saw the corners of your mouth, which had been set in a straight line, twitching like a worm.
“And what about my daughter’s eye color?”
“Pardon? Ah, that is… it was originally blue like the sea, but today it is ruby-red…”
“Red, you say?”
“E-Eek!”
The nobles were startled out of their wits as Calyps leaned his face in, cutting them off.
“The same as mine?”
At the following question, one of the nobles nodded, looking anxious as if he might have made a slip of the tongue.
“Y-Yes. But w-we might have seen it wrong. Hahahaha…”
“You’re right.”
“Pardon?”
Then, Calyps made a proud declaration.
“If you saw correctly, then go and spread the word. That Aisha, who was thought to be adopted, turned out to be my true flesh and blood.”
“…What?”
At those words, the nobles’ mouths hung so wide they looked like they might tear.
This was a complete scoop.
And my father, who usually hated being the subject of gossip, continued to speak with his shoulders held high.
“The Duke of Pose dared to use sorcery. To think he had been hiding our Aisha’s eye color by turning it blue….”
“Gasp!”
“But we found out while capturing him this time, and we restored her eyes to their original color. The truth has finally come to light.”
His explanatory tone felt a bit unnatural to me, but the nobles listened intently.
“Good heavens, you’re saying that man went so far as to do such a thing?!”
When the atmosphere peaked with that exclamation.
Calyps nodded heavily and said, as if driving in a stake.
“Yes. What’s more important than anything is the fact that Aisha’s eyes are naturally red.”
“!”
“She is clearly of the Crost line—my own flesh and blood.”
“!!!”