Let’s Make Saving a Habit - Chapter 106

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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 106
Aiden returned to the Empire and resumed his ordinary life with the Golden Silver Mercenary Company.
News arrived that Rivera, who had gone missing, had safely returned to the Tempus Family.
Word came in succession that she had undergone the Evanesco Ceremony and married Marquis Primula.
Since it had been his first love burning so fiercely, the scar left in a corner of his heart throbbed with pain.
But I had cleanly closed the door on my feelings for Rivera.
From the moment she had abandoned me without a word, my love had already ended.
I thought I would never see Rivera again.
Yet our reunion came to pass before even a year had elapsed.
On an evening when rain fell in a steady patter.
Aiden received a telegram that had arrived for him and rushed off in haste to somewhere.
When I saw Rivera after so long, she showed me a newborn child, her face gaunt and worn.
“Aiden, this is our child.”
She had undergone the Evanesco Ceremony while pregnant before we parted ways.
She gazed at me with trembling eyes full of fear.
“I think Father has realized that this child is yours.”
The Tempus Family Head had apparently discerned that the child was not Marquis Primula’s, but another man’s.
It was the worst possible situation.
A child conceived after undergoing the Evanesco Ceremony would not inherit abilities.
Yet the child of Rivera carried the power of the Tempus Family.
It was inevitable. The Evanesco Ceremony only damaged the Core of the mother, Rivera.
The child’s Core remained untouched and intact.
If the Tempus Family Head learned of this fact….
He would surely seek to kill the child.
“Does Marquis Primula know of this?”
“He knew I was pregnant and turned a blind eye. Rather, he actively tried to conceal it.”
I could gauge Marquis Primula’s intentions to some degree.
If Rivera gave birth without the Tempus Family Head discovering it, and the child even awakened?
He could seize the hidden power of the Tempus Family and claim it for himself.
It was a gamble worth taking, or so he must have thought.
The child’s hair and eye color could be concealed through magic. The possibility was sufficient.
Rivera explained bitterly how she had been discovered by the Tempus Family Head.
“As the time to give birth drew near, Father grew suspicious seeing my belly so much rounder than it should have been for the months of pregnancy.”
“I couldn’t flee somewhere with the child either. My face is known to the public, so if Father set his mind to finding us, it would only be a matter of time before I was discovered.”
“So, Aiden. I’m entrusting the child to you.”
Rivera knew that if she entrusted the child to Aiden, he would spend his entire life being hunted by her father.
Yet desperate to save the child, she made this request of Aiden with a heart torn asunder.
I felt as though I were being crushed beneath the weight of overwhelming guilt.
I had betrayed Aiden and left without a word, leaving a wound that could never be healed.
I had kept the existence of the child secret as well.
Yet now, she was asking him to spend his entire life on the run for a child he hadn’t even known existed.
It was an impossible request—a terrible one at that.
But for Rivera, this was the only way to save the child’s life.
Aiden’s gaze turned glacial and distant.
The Aiden who had always regarded Rivera with warmth no longer existed.
He took the newborn into his arms and commanded her to forget she had ever borne this child, then left the room.
Alone in the chamber where Aiden and the child had vanished, Rivera wept as though the world itself were crumbling away.

✦ ✦ ✦
When Aiden first took the child into his care, he harbored no intention whatsoever of living a life perpetually hunted.
Rather than accept such an existence, he chose another path.
He would kill the Tempus Family Head—the one who sought the child’s life.
He was confident in his ability to assassinate without leaving a trace.
Aiden entrusted the child temporarily to the members of the Golden Silver Mercenary Company and set out to claim the Tempus Family Head’s life.
Yet.
Despite his bold departure, he found himself unable to kill the Tempus Family Head.
It was not a matter of the Family Head’s superior strength.
“Damn it… Where could he possibly be?”
Aiden could not even catch a glimpse of the Tempus Family Head’s shadow.
The Tempus Family Head was renowned for rarely venturing beyond the Duke’s Mansion.
Aiden had assumed that by searching the mansion thoroughly, he would find him.
Yet no matter how extensively he searched, the Tempus Family Head eluded him entirely.
As though he were a phantom—a being that did not truly exist.
For a moment, Aiden even questioned whether the man existed at all.
But remembering Rivera’s terror whenever she thought of her father, he shook his head and cast the doubt aside.
In the end, he abandoned his assassination attempt on the Tempus Family Head and chose instead to flee with the child to a rural village.
Then assassins sent by the Tempus Family Head descended upon them…
Now Aiden understood a bitter truth: Tania was not safe in his presence.
The Tempus Family Head’s target was Tania’s life.
Since he did not know what Tania looked like, he could only pursue Aiden.
This left Aiden with only one choice.
To entrust the child to someone else.
After much deliberation, Aiden placed Tania in the care of his younger brother.
His brother was already married with several children, making him a suitable guardian.
Indeed, whenever Aiden secretly visited to check on Tania, the child appeared to be thriving.
By the time Tania reached five years of age,
Aiden gave his brother a substantial sum of money and told him he would likely not be able to return.
A long tail invites capture.
Aiden desperately wanted Tania to be completely severed from him—to grow up safe and free.
Yet this decision would become the greatest mistake of his life.

✦ ✦ ✦
Knock, knock, knock.
Aiden, who had been resting at home after a long time away, set down his book and rose from his seat at the sound of someone knocking on his door.
The presence he felt from beyond the threshold seemed to be that of a small child.
When Aiden carefully opened the door, a child smiled brightly and made a request.
“Hello, sir. Could I possibly get just a piece of bread?”
The moment I saw the child’s face, an indescribable torrent of emotion overwhelmed me.
That soft rose-pink hair I had dreamed of, those amber eyes.
I recognized at a glance that the child before me was Tania.
I could not have failed to know.
There was no way I could not have known.
How could I possibly fail to recognize that beautiful face, even if she had grown a little?
I wanted nothing more than to pull the child into my arms and weep openly.
To tell her that I am your father.
How she came to be here, where Uncle had gone, and why she was begging from strangers with such a gaunt frame.
I wanted to demand answers to each and every question.
Yet I knew I could not let the child know that I recognized her.
To boast that she was my daughter would be no different than begging the Tempus Family Head to kill me.
On the other hand, I was afraid.
If I revealed myself as her father, having neglected her all this time, the resentful gaze that would return to me….
Could I truly ever be forgiven by Tania?
Barely suppressing my impulse, I told her to wait a moment, closed the door, and retreated into the house.
There, I sank to the floor and wept in silence.
Tania, whom I had cherished so dearly, did not look well by any measure.
A body painfully emaciated. Bruises and wounds scattered across her skin.
I had entrusted her to another’s care, hoping she would be safe….
I never imagined that would become poison instead.
It was not truly being raised by another.
Dangerous or not, I should have stayed with her.
A wave of immense regret crashed over me. But the milk was already spilled.
There was no turning back.
I suppressed my shattered heart and forced myself to wear an impassive expression as I opened the door once more.
How could I make her wait long, when she had come all this way to find me?
As I finished recounting the memory, Aiden realized that tears were streaming down his cheeks.
“And so I came to meet Tania again in that way.”
Duchess Papiope wiped away her tears continuously as she listened to Aiden’s story.
She could not even begin to imagine what emotions he must have felt when Tania came looking for him.

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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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