A Fortune-telling Princess - Chapter 251

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Ravi swallowed hard, knowing full well that Camilla wouldn’t lie about something like this.
‘This… surely this isn’t a dream?’
Dragon magic, no less!
Ravi pinched his cheek repeatedly, his expression shifting endlessly.
Fear and curiosity, and exhilaration! His yearning as a mage for the unknown laid bare for all to see.
“….”
Camilla, who had been silently observing Ravi, turned her gaze back to Jishua. He was watching Ravi with undisguised delight, unable to hide his own excitement.
“Brother.”
“What is it, little sister?”
‘…Just as simple-minded as always, our brother.’
Look at how his tone changed over a single grimoire. Somehow, all the embarrassment falls on me, doesn’t it?
“I’m curious about something.”
“Ask away.”
“About your biological father.”
“…My biological father?”
“Yes. Did Mother ever tell you anything about him?”
At the sudden question, bewilderment flickered across Ravi’s eyes.
While he fell silent, searching his memory, Camilla tilted her head slightly and offered a cold smile.
Camilla hadn’t taken her eyes off Jishua since moments ago, as if determined not to miss a single shift in his expression.
[….]
When their eyes met, Jishua’s face hardened in an instant.
[You don’t mean to say….]
His mouth, which had been visibly flustered, snapped shut. Jishua’s gaze quickly shifted back to Ravi.
“Father, you say….”
[….]
At the word ‘father’ that finally escaped his lips, Jishua’s eyes wavered ceaselessly.
“I haven’t heard much about him.”
“Is that so?”
“I was told he passed away not long after I was born.”
“…He passed away shortly after you were born?”
“Yes.”
Camilla’s gaze toward Jishua turned cold in an instant.
‘Whether it’s this father or that one.’
Somehow, there wasn’t a single man who properly took responsibility for his child. At least Duke Escra had the excuse of lost memories.
‘And what about you?’
A clicking sound escaped Camilla’s lips. Should I just have the King chase him out?
‘You dared to abandon our brother?’
Damn it. If I’d known sooner, I would’ve kept ignoring him. Should I grab him by the collar and shake him down right now? Tell him to get lost immediately?
“But why are you suddenly asking about that?”
“Just because.”
I don’t pity people carelessly.
‘Our mother….’
Life is strange. Why does every man I happen to meet act like this?
“Sigh.”
“What’s with the heavy sigh?”
“Nothing.”
“What do you mean ‘nothing’ all of a sudden?”
“….”
“…Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you looking at me like that? What did I do wrong again?”
“Brother.”
“I’m terrified every time you call me that. What’s going on?”
“Let’s take care of each other and live well from now on.”
“…What did you eat for dinner? Why do you keep saying strange things since earlier——! Fine, little sister. Let’s take care of each other and live well. You’re absolutely right! Now put that hand away!”
The moment Ravi reached out to snatch the grimoire, a forced smile crossed his lips as he wore an expression of utter bewilderment.
Camilla, who had been watching him with a look of pity for a moment, rose from her seat.
“I’m leaving.”
There was no farewell.
Ravi, already completely absorbed by the books and magical items she had given him, didn’t even answer properly—he merely waved his hand dismissively, urging her to go.
Camilla shook her head lightly as if she couldn’t help it, and her gaze soon turned back to Jishua.
He flinched slightly when their eyes met, then let out a long sigh and quietly followed her toward the door.
[How did you know?]
“Know what?”
[That I….]
“That you’re Ravi’s biological father?”
Camilla clicked her tongue repeatedly. Was that really what mattered right now?
“And how did you know Ravi was here in the first place?”
Camilla returned to the room immediately and answered Jishua’s question with a question of her own.
Hadn’t Ravi left his family not long after he was born?
‘When was that?’
That was ages ago, wasn’t it?
My mother wandered from place to place searching for work to earn money, even after I was born. Would it have been any different for Ravi?
It was a mystery how he learned that we, living a life no different from vagrants, had settled in this place.
[I learned long ago that she had become the wife of Duke Sorpel.]
“Long ago?”
[A commoner becoming a duchess—can you imagine the uproar? Even I, dead as I was, heard the news.]
After meeting an unexpected death and wandering for some time, I went to find her.
That journey was never a light one. No matter how dead I was, I had no confidence in facing her and Ravi.
But as expected, she had already left the place where I once lived with her, and by the time I heard from her again, she had already passed away.
[I heard the ghosts snickering about some unfortunate woman—she became a noblewoman despite having another man’s child, only to die in an accident not long after. They called her a woman of boundless misfortune. But could that woman possibly be….]
“….”
I couldn’t deny it. There was nothing I could really say in rebuttal.
Mother, you truly were a woman of boundless misfortune.
[In any case, that’s how I found out where Ravi was living, but I didn’t have the courage to go find him.]
I was desperately curious about how my son was faring, but I had no confidence in facing him with my own eyes.
[What if he wasn’t doing well?]
What if he was being mistreated there?
[I could do nothing for him….]
After all, being dead, there was nothing I could do for him. I couldn’t bear that helplessness.
“But why did you suddenly come looking now?”
Even now that I understood all the circumstances, I couldn’t shake the feeling that Jishua was being selfish.
It was Jishua himself who left, saying he would search for and study dragon magic, despite having a wife and child. It was a decision based purely on self-gratification.
‘No one pushed him to do it.’
Moreover, even after learning long ago where his child was, he hadn’t come to see Ravi until now because he lacked the courage to face his own mistakes—and that too seemed nothing but selfish.
‘But….’
I didn’t show it openly.
The way he kept sighing suggested that Jishua himself understood that fact all too well.
[I heard it from Amy. About you being able to see the dead.]
When he learned that this person was his son’s younger sibling, he apparently couldn’t stay silent—and the way he recounted it seemed quite pitiful.
[Now I’ll ask again. How did you know about the relationship between me and Ravi?]
No matter how I thought about it, it didn’t make sense. He’d never mentioned anything like that since coming here, so how could he….
“That ring.”
[A ring?]
Jishua looked down at the emerald ring on his finger.
“That’s a couple’s ring, isn’t it?”
[A couple’s ring?]
“The ring you and Mother shared, isn’t it?”
Jishua’s eyes widened in surprise, and he nodded frantically like a madman.
Despite being a capable mage, his circumstances had never been particularly favorable. He disliked being constrained, so he never entered the Magic Tower and never took on commissions.
Obsessed solely with his research, he had little interest in money. The only possession of value he had was this ring, which he and his wife had divided as a wedding gift.
“I found it while organizing Mother’s belongings.”
I took out the emerald ring from the drawer. It was something I’d found while organizing the Storage Room last time—identical to the ring Jishua was wearing.
“It was even drawn in the portrait.”
The portrait I’d given to Duke Escra.
In the portrait, Mother’s hand, gently facing young Ravi, wore the same ring.
Most of all….
“G and T. Those are initials, aren’t they?”
Looking at the letters engraved on the ring, I was certain. If the G stood for Jishua’s initial—
“Then the T must be Tia’s.”
[⋯Yes, that’s right.]
The family Jishua had abandoned and cast aside when he departed to seek the dragon’s magic was none other than my mother and Ravi.
‘Mother, you truly are a remarkable person⋯.’
So why had I continued to keep the ring given by such a person?
When Duke Escra had lost his memories, he gave me a ring—one I could never bring myself to discard, one he never took back from me.
‘I should have simply sold all these wretched things.’
What memories was I clinging to?
Though I had tucked it away in the Storage Room, I could not fathom why I still possessed the ring from my first spouse alongside the one Duke Escra had given me—neither could I bring myself to abandon either.
‘Was there lingering attachment after all?’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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