I Became the Daughter of a Disgraced Duke - Chapter 34

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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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Chapter 34
It occurred to him that his father’s coldness might stem from the fact that he wasn’t his biological son.
His father was always busy, distant, and taciturn.
There was no love to be found anywhere.
But Adrian was different.
“Dad, bring home a neat branch next time, okay?”
“Buy me a toy! Please, please, please!”
“How many nights are in a month? Why do you keep leaving? Don’t you like us? How can you be a father and act like that?”
“Dad! I think I like Uncle more than you! He actually plays with me!”
Adrian said things that Barelmore could never say so casually.
He begged, pestered, complained—and then turned around and made jokes.
Barelmore envied that about his brother.
Being able to act selfishly was a privilege only a biological son could enjoy.
Still, Barelmore tried to keep his heart in check.
‘If I’m a good son, I’ll be loved too.’
Even while playing with Adrian, jealousy would surge up, and he’d hide alone in the Attic.
But huddled in the Attic, he’d realize that Adrian was the only one in this house who welcomed him, and he’d come back down because he missed the boy.
In the midst of those turbulent days, Iris appeared.
‘She’s so soft.’
His friends said their younger sisters were nothing but a nuisance, but Barelmore found Iris nothing but adorable.
Iris was different from Adrian.
She wasn’t needlessly energetic; her cheeks were soft, and she was easily frightened.
Gentle and kind… and since she was his uncle’s daughter, there was no need to feel jealous.
He simply wanted to protect her. She was a child who made that possible.
While looking for chances to visit his uncle’s house to see Iris, he witnessed something.
“I’m home from scho—”
Iris was sitting on their father’s lap, squishing his face with her hands.
It was something Barelmore could never do.
To him, their father was a cold and difficult man.
Adrian might manage it, but he’d never seen the boy paw at him as directly as Iris did.
The important thing was that their father was smiling.
A tiny girl played with his face, and he laughed aloud, his whole frame shaking with mirth.
In that moment, Barelmore understood he was an impurity in this house.
‘I’m so lonely.’
No matter how much Adrian whined, their father accepted him because he was his biological son; the way he laughed at Iris’s antics was because she was his blood niece.
Everyone loved Adrian more than him.
Adrian was handsome, spirited, and bright.
Iris was lovely just sitting still, and he felt a protective instinct to guard her.
And she was still just a child.
He felt as though he were alone in the world.
He wished his mother were still alive.
“Barelmore, are you in much pain? Are you alright?”
The moment he feigned illness, Adrian and Iris clawed at his door like puppies all day long.
So he’d run off to a friend’s house.
Even at his friend’s place, that hollow ache wouldn’t fade.
To hide his loneliness, Barelmore chose to be utterly alone.
It was better to be lonely from the start than to be lonely surrounded by others.
‘Here, it’s fine.’
The Attic was Barelmore’s world alone. Adrian couldn’t intrude, no one to compare himself to, no need to chase after love.
‘So peaceful……’
Somehow his nose started to run, and he sniffled, but he absolutely wasn’t crying.
Just that there was dust, so of course his nose was running.
That was how Barelmore found a kind of peace in his own world.
Until his tiny cousin came looking for him.
* * *
“You’re special, Barelmore. Even if you’re not my real brother, you’re still my brother. That’s why I’m happy.”
From a child who cried her eyes out over spiders.
“You’re special to me too, Barelmore. Right? You’re really special to me.”
As if we’d known each other for years.
The only reason she called me special was because I’d caught spiders for her and played with her a handful of times.
Prickly thoughts flickered through his mind, but there was no stopping the warmth that bloomed in his chest.
Barelmore was still a child—a child who longed to be treasured by those he loved.
Iris was the daughter of his beloved uncle and the younger sister he adored.
And in this moment, she was the only person who had ever told him he was special.
Even if it was mere childish prattle, he wanted to cling to it like a drowning man to straw.
A boy who had lost his mother and knew nothing of his true father could only beg for love or give it in return.
“If I’m special to you, then you must be special to me too.”
Iris, who comforted him with those words, had become someone irreplaceable.
And now.
Having dozed off beside his precious younger sister, he came downstairs late in the evening to find his uncle in a state of panic.
When his uncle, usually so carelessly at ease that he bordered on rude, clutched Iris and wept, Barelmore felt a twinge of envy.
‘I wish Father would cherish me the way he does her.’
Barely a minute had passed since that fervent wish when his father seized his shoulders and examined him for injuries.
The familiar words any parent would speak—are you alright, are you hurt anywhere—tumbled from his lips.
“Father?”
Then he pulled him into an embrace and trembled.
It was no mistake.
His father was truly shaking.
Even a faint scent of sweat emanated from him.
Unlike his uncle, his father was a mage and rarely exerted himself enough to perspire.
So the smell of sweat from his father bewildered him.
It made him feel as though he had become someone truly precious.
Then, at some point, his father’s eyes grew sharp like his uncle’s, and he began to scold him.
“You never used to do this! Why do you make me worry so? Was I really that unbearable to you? Why don’t you just get angry with me instead? If you keep hiding and disappearing like this… what if something happens to you?”
He was being rebuked, and by rights he should have felt hurt, yet Barelmore was glad his father was scolding him.
It was the first time he had ever been reproached. And he was glad, because within that reproach he felt affection directed at him.
The earnest eyes and the hand that gripped his arm so tightly it ached—he loved all of it.
Did he love me even though I’m not his biological son?
Was I actually loved all along?
His eyes were beginning to redden.
“I only have one brother!”
Adrian, thinking that Barelmore had played only with Iris, wept bitterly in disappointment.
Iris was the one with shared blood, yet Adrian cared for him more.
Perhaps… I truly was loved.
Barelmore, gladdened by this unvarnished display of affection, broke into a radiant smile, standing before the weeping Adrian and his still-trembling father.
It was the happiest moment of his life.
* * *
Adrian wept so hard he couldn’t eat dinner.
“Sniff! Do I mean more to you than Iris? Does he mean more to you!”
“Does that really matter?”
“Of course it matters! Wahhh! Uncle! Scold my brother! Sniff-sob!”
“Stop crying already. Iris isn’t crying, so why are you?”
“Am I the same as Iris? Uncle, whose side are you on anyway!”
Father clutched his head with a pained expression.
I wiped Adrian’s face with a tissue.
Then Adrian asked me too.
“Do I mean more to you, or does he? Sniff!”
“I love you both.”
“Get away from me too. Wahhh!”
“Adrian, don’t you like me? I really like you. I like you so much!”
I wrapped my arms around Adrian tightly to show him how I felt.
“Adrian’s my second brother after all. You’re one of only two brothers I have. Plus, you’re so strong and cool and you’ve got that golden hair. Right?”
“Ye, yeah. I’m strong. Sniff!”
“That’s right. Edi’s so cool.”
“That part’s true. I am pretty cool.”
“Right! Completely!”
“Hick! Sniff. Huff! O, okay. I’ve decided.”
Adrian stopped sniffling and thrust his finger toward Barelmore, announcing loudly.
“I’m not playing with my brother anymore!”
Whoosh!
Adrian positioned me in front of him and stretched my cheeks from behind, kneading them relentlessly.
“Now Iris’s only brother is me! And this ball of dough belongs to me.”
My cheeks weren’t clay, yet they kept squishing and deforming under his fingers.
Adrian shouted.
“Don’t you dare show your face around here! I’m not sharing my sister with you anymore!”
Even I could hear the nonsense in his words, but Adrian spoke with absolute conviction.
And so I thought to myself.
Adrian was just as foolish as Father……!
* * *
That night, after Iris had suffered through Adrian’s declaration all evening and collapsed into sleep, Cassian came to Barelmore’s door once the girl was tucked in bed.
Disappointment flickered across Barelmore’s face when he opened it—not Zenobian, whom he’d been expecting.
“You ungrateful brat. Here I am, your uncle, coming all this way for you.”
“Ow!”
After showing him a taste of his fist, a death-rattle sound came from his nephew.
“You, you should’ve said something before going up to the Attic. Do you know how worried everyone was?”
“I thought no one would look for me.”
“Why wouldn’t they look for you!”
“Because I’m not your real son.”
Cassian, unaware that Barelmore knew the truth, was caught off guard and left speechless.
“Who told you that?”
“Does it matter?”
He sighed.
With the master of the house constantly absent, the servants ran loose—someone must have let it slip.
“I heard you raised me because of a Contract.”
…….
“But it seems like you love me anyway. I know that now.”
“That’s right. He loves you more than anyone. That’s why he took to his bed, thinking his son had run away.”
“What? Father’s ill?”
“Yes. Stomach cramps came on. He took medicine and is lying down.”
He’d tried to hide it for the sake of his pride, but there was no help for it now.
This karma is yours to bear, Zenobian. Atone for it yourself.

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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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