I Became the Daughter of a Disgraced Duke - Chapter 19

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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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Episode 18
My mother told me.
“Your father is incredibly handsome and the most entertaining person in the world.”
The most handsome in the world meant he looked like a prince from a fairy tale, but this gentleman had the golden hair of a prince, and his beauty was so delicate it seemed as though flowers floated behind his head.
Since handsome meant entertaining, the father my mother described was unmistakably this man.
“Ah, Father?”
The monstrous gentleman looked back and forth between me and Father, then scowled.
“Yamma! You said you didn’t have a child!”
“I don’t.”
The beautiful gentleman trudged toward me, grabbed both my cheeks firmly, and studied my face intently.
Since this was the first time I’d met my father, I felt embarrassed and my face flushed red.
So I quietly hid behind the monstrous gentleman.
“Huh? Hey, little one. What are you doing right now?”
“(I think that gentleman must be my father.)”
“Edrian. What did you say?”
“I’m not sure either.”
The moment my eyes met those of the blond gentleman—Father, presumably—my entire body twisted up in knots.
I never knew our father could be this handsome and magnificent.
I’d thought the gentleman looked frightening, but his face was incredibly beautiful—or so I’d believed.
Handsome was a word meant for our father (presumed), not for this gentleman, whose face was merely wicked-looking.
The gentleman spoke as if feeling wronged.
“That’s not your father.”
“(My mother said so. She said our father is incredibly handsome.)”
“Iris’s mother said that. She said her father was incredibly handsome.”
“What? Are you saying you’ll make him your father just because of his face? Don’t be dazzled by looks! How much does a pretty face actually feed you? And who’s been feeding and clothing you all this time?”
The indignant eagle-faced gentleman pounded his chest repeatedly—thump, thump!
“Will you raise the child?”
“She’s my responsibility now. Or, well, what should I call it—sponsor? Guardian? Caretaker? Something like that.”
The blond gentleman, speaking curtly, looked the monstrous gentleman up and down.
“Did you do anything to ruin the girl’s life?”
“What did you say?”
How did a young girl end up with a bruise like that on her face? You’d be better off sending her to the Orphanage.”
“That’s a wound I got while breaking up a fight between your sons, so keep quiet.”
…….
I saw it clearly.
The beautiful gentleman’s bright blue eyes trembling violently.
His hand, which had been holding my cheek, slowly released it.
The beautiful gentleman cleared his throat. “Have you two apologized?”
“Yes. We did. Little one. I’m truly sorry.”
Barelmore hesitated for a moment, then pulled me into a tight embrace and patted my back.
Barelmore was treating me like I was just a small child.
But I was actually ten years old too.
“(I’m not a baby…….)”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“(I’m not a baby.)”
Edrian, who was rifling through Barelmore’s pocket and forcibly taking out a candy, explained for me.
He couldn’t understand my words when he was with the gentleman earlier, so how is he able to now?
Edrian, who had popped the candy into his mouth, widened his eyes at that very thought.
“Huh? Why can I understand now? Father. She’s Iris, and she’s Uncle’s daughter, but I could understand her words sometimes and not other times. Am I a Magician?”
The beautiful gentleman raised his eyebrows, then shook his head.
“It’s probably a foreign language you learned from a governess when you lived with your mother before. Your governess was foreign, after all.”
“Is that so? Father. Now that I’ve slept, would you play with me? Let’s play together, okay?”
“I have work to do, so ask your brother to play with you.”
The beautiful gentleman, with dark circles under his eyes, shuffled wearily toward the Study Room.
Edrian, who had been watching with a disappointed expression, quickly brightened and asked me.
“Iris. I’ll give you a candy as an apology. Come here!”
“(Um… I’m actually tired of playing.)”
But despite my reluctance, I was dragged along by Edrian’s forceful hand to the playroom.

* * *
Cassian had decided to spend one night at Zenovion’s House, and now he lay sprawled across the guest room bed, groaning.
Why on earth had he taken three children out to eat?
Edrian, who couldn’t sit still for a moment; Barelmore, stressed and irritable because of Edrian; and Iris, who didn’t understand a word anyone said—it had been absolutely unbearable.
‘And Zenovion, that bastard, locked himself in the Study Room and never came out.’
He wondered how anyone could leave their own children with a guest to watch, but family could never truly be guests. Unless they were enemies, of course.
‘Still, it’s about time for a drink.’
It was nine o’clock at night.
This was usually when he clocked in at the Bar to start his day.
As if by habit, the craving for drink pulled at him, and he was itching for a cigarette too.
The children would be asleep by now anyway, and with Zenovion in the house, Cassian decided he’d slip out to the Bar for a bit.
So he opened the door.
“(U-Uncle…….)”
The little one looked up at him, sniffling.
* * *
The wind rattled against the window pane.
Frightened, she pulled the blanket up over her head and curled her body tight.
‘Mama. Annemare. Teacher.’
Exhausted from Edrian’s pestering, she was so drowsy she kept jolting awake with each gust of wind.
And she was alone in this room.
The thought that monsters might leap out from under the bed, from the ceiling, or from the wardrobe made tears threaten to spill.
When she lived with Uncle, she could just crawl under the covers next to him as he slept, but this house was as vast as a palace, so each person had their own room.
‘I’m scared.’
It had been the same when she lived with her mother.
Whenever her mother left for work, the bed monster would emerge and watch over her.
She thought—though it was only her own thinking—that it was the bed monster’s fault she’d ended up at the Orphanage.
‘I should go to Uncle.’
She wiped her eyes with her sleeves and climbed down from the bed.
Thinking a ghost might appear, she wrapped herself in the blanket again.
Since she didn’t know which room Uncle was in, she went from door to door, opening each one.
Some doors wouldn’t open at all, and others opened onto empty rooms.
The dim lamp lit along the hallway flickered, and shadows danced with it.
Her heart pounded as she imagined a ghost leaping out from within those shadows.
“(U-Uncle. I-I can comfort you for you-ou-ou. Um, um, you’ll feel so much better, right? Wh-where are you-ou-ou?)”
Uncle didn’t really like her, and truthfully he found her rather bothersome—he was dirty and drank far too much—but in a place without Mama or Annemare, he was the only adult she could rely on.
Because he had washed the meat in water for her, hadn’t sent her to the dreary Cave Orphanage, and when she was running from the witch, he hadn’t abandoned her but held her close.
Uncle was a somewhat bad adult, but to her, he was a good one.
So she wanted to see him, but all she found were empty rooms.
‘Will Uncle come out if I cry?’
As she approached the last room, fear crawled up her throat.
Then the door opened from inside.
It was too dark to see his face clearly, but she knew anyway.
It was Uncle.
“(Uncle… I missed you-ou.)”
She ran to him and clung to his legs tightly.
Sniff! As she caught her breath, Uncle, startled, lifted her up.
She buried her face against him and whimpered.
Just as she’d felt at the Hospital before, Uncle was gentler than he appeared.
So even though Uncle didn’t really like her, she liked him a little.
A little. Just a very little.
“Why, what’s wrong? Did something happen? Does something hurt?”
“(It’s not that. I’m scared. I can’t sleep alone.)”
“What, what?”
“Me.”
She struggled to remember the Imperial Language, wracking her brain as she began to speak haltingly.
“Scared.”
Her pronunciation was unclear and she could barely manage one word at a time, so her pace was very slow, but Uncle waited with patience.
“Alone? A, alone!”
“You’re scared to sleep alone?”
“Yes!”
The man let out a deflated sigh as I nodded.
“Lord, child. Little one.”
“Yes! Me. Little girl.”
He drew a deep breath at my words.
“Ah. So much for grand plans today.”
I flinched.
Terrified he might make me sleep alone, I clung to his coat hem with all my might.
“Scary, scary. Sniff!”
As I pressed myself against him deliberately, he shook his head and retrieved a blanket, heading into the bedroom.
“Edrian and Barelmore don’t do this. Are all girls so fearful?”
My friend Luana was a girl, but she was incredibly brave.
It was just me who was afraid. Of course, this was a top secret.
The man tossed the blanket carelessly over a chair and tried to lay me down on the bed.
As I struggled with all my strength not to let go, he spoke from the darkness.
“I’m not going anywhere. So lie down and sleep.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Really.”
He sat down beneath the bed and began patting my back.
I clutched his sleeve tightly, afraid he might slip away while I slept.
“Please don’t go anywhere while I’m sleeping.”
“Do you really have to hold on so tight?”
“But if I wake up and you’re gone, what will I do?”
“Yes, I understand. I won’t go anywhere. So sleep soundly.”
Pat. Pat.
His touch wasn’t as soft as my mother’s or Teacher Annemare’s.
His hands were large enough that his patting seemed like it should wake me, yet it was profoundly warm.
Then the drowsiness I’d been holding back came rushing in.
A wide yawn escaped me, and dreams began creeping closer and closer.
* * *
In the acute quiet, the scent of a small child reached him.
With the world so still, even the child’s soft breathing became distinctly audible.
Were all sleeping children’s faces like this?
The small one looked utterly peaceful.
A face innocent of the world’s darkness.
Then something else began to flood into a heart long saturated with alcohol and tobacco.
Peace itself.
Something he hadn’t been able to feel in the past five years.

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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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