The Duke Dad I Chose Can’t (Really) See Well - Chapter 5

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 5

As she grew older, Esther told me many things.

The situation between the current ducal family and other noble houses. The rebel forces stirring in the ‘Forbidden Land’ and the Imperial Palace’s movements to stop them, and so on.

Thanks to the information Esther gave me, I was able to transform from a ‘useless child’ into at least ‘a child with some understanding of the world.’

Just as my house arrest was gradually being lifted from my room to the Duke’s Mansion, contact with Esther was cut off.

I wanted to find her, but the political situation was so turbulent due to the Rebel Forces’ movements. I couldn’t act rashly.

While I was anxiously waiting like that, when I turned 18, Esther came to find me again.

[It’s the Day of Mercy.]

It had been several months since our contact was cut off. And suddenly she appears and that’s all she has to say.

[Why didn’t you come all this time?]

[I had things to do.]

[I was worried. I kept waiting… I was so afraid something might have happened]

I stopped my pen there.

I couldn’t continue.

I was afraid Esther might disappear again.

So like when we first met, I was afraid I might shed tears that Esther hated.

Forcing myself to hold back tears, I wrote briefly.

[I want to go outside.]

I want to be free.

So… I want to meet you.

I couldn’t write such words, thinking they might be burdensome.

Since she was a child who disliked bothersome questions, I thought I should endure it even if no answer came. But.

Tap.

An answer arrived.

[Should I let you out?]

I moved my hand as if enchanted.

[Yes.]

It was an answer I wrote knowing it wouldn’t be possible.

Even though my house arrest had been lifted, I was still an Agnito. Unless I married someone, I would never be able to leave the Agnito castle.

[Alright.]

However, the reply that arrived was full of confidence.

[I’ll make it happen for you.]

As if she could fulfill my long-held wish.

That confidence was so bewildering that for the first time that day, I couldn’t write a reply.

There was no time to continue thinking.

“Get married, Hanisha.”

After that day, Count Agnito ordered me to marry.

A marriage with Rene, the leader of the Rebel Forces and the abandoned Emperor’s illegitimate child.

* * *

‘What happened to Esther?’

After that contact saying she would make it happen, Esther never came to find me until the wedding day.

‘Still, she was my closest friend, so I wanted to tell her directly that I was getting married.’

Of course, now it’s become a vanished past, so it’s only my memory…

But I still wanted to meet her once more.

‘It would be nice if I at least knew her name…’

I was leaving the Library while reminiscing about my first female friend when.

“Oh? Sister!”

I paused at the familiar voice.

Dark blonde hair and green eyes. A child with a lovely appearance.

It was Esther, Bert’s twin sister and my cousin.

On the Day of Mercy, the Saintess always had to go out to the streets and offer prayers of blessing on behalf of God.

But with the Saintess absent now, Count Agnito hid me, the Saintess’s daughter who should have taken that place, using the excuse that I wasn’t feeling well. Esther had gone out to the streets in my place to help with the ceremony.

“Sister, why are you here alone? Where’s your nanny?”

“My nanny is…”

Before I could finish speaking, Esther clapped her hands as if she had just remembered something, saying “Oh, right.”

“Sister doesn’t have a nanny or anything like that, even if she has maids.”

“…”

“I was at the Temple for a few days and forgot for a moment. Sorry.”

Esther smiled, scrunching up her nose.

I quietly looked at Esther like that.

When everyone ignored me, Esther always called me ‘sister.’

“Even when other people badmouth you, sister, I don’t.”

“Both you and I lost our mothers the same way. We’re sisters who went through the same pain.”

“So you’ll be on my side too, right, sister?”

So I really thought I had become Esther’s sister.

Not knowing that this was also a scheme to use me.

“Ugh, I’m so tired from going outside in sister’s place.”

Esther stretched and held out the small bag she was carrying to me.

“Sister, please hold this for me. My arm hurts so much.”

That small bag probably contained a mirror or something similar. There was no reason for an Agnito young lady to carry anything heavy.

This was just a display to show that my position was lower than hers.

“Alright.”

I took Esther’s bag.

“Then you hold this for me too.”

And I handed her the book I had been carrying.

“Eek!”

Esther, who barely managed to catch the book, blinked with an incredulous expression.

“S-sister. What are you doing right now?”

“Didn’t you mean we should share the load?”

“Why should I listen to you, sister?”

“Really? Then why should I listen to you?”

“…What?”

Esther blinked her eyes with a bewildered expression.

“…Sister, what do you mean? You are.”

Esther, who was about to burst into anger, continued speaking calmly.

“…I went to the Day of Mercy event in your place. So you should help me.”

Those words had another meaning implied within them.

‘You know that the saint’s power was cut off because of you, don’t you?’

-That’s what she meant.

“Yes, I’m grateful for that.”

So I answered honestly.

“But I don’t think you’ll need to do that anymore.”

“…What?”

“I mean you don’t need to replace me anymore. There’s no need for that now.”

“I, I don’t really understand what you’re saying, sister. I am.”

“Well. What could it mean?”

I smiled brightly.

Esther’s face gradually began to cloud with anxiety.

Esther’s mouth was tightly shut.

She probably heard that I had fought with Bert on her way to the Duke’s Mansion.

However, it was Bert who was punished.

And I, who had been confined all along, was out here like this.

‘Moreover.’

Esther slowly lowered her gaze.

The books I had given her were all about the Four Great Ducal Families.

Things that a member of a ducal family should naturally read.

I could see some assumption forming in Esther’s mind.

Something like, perhaps the Count had acknowledged me…

“No, no way. Sister, you can’t become the same kind of young lady as me!”

“Why? You said we should live like real sisters.”

“That, that was true, but…!”

Unable to find any words to refute, Esther pressed her lips tightly together.

This was what Esther was like.

She would say we should live like sisters and make me do this and that, but she never wanted to share any of the benefits she gained.

That’s when I realized it. What Esther wanted wasn’t a sister, but to monopolize the family’s love.

But back then, I didn’t bother to argue.

‘I sincerely… wanted to become family with you.’

Though I’ve realized now that’s no longer the case.

Unable to find any words to refute, Esther’s face turned bright red. Her nose started twitching.

“Huuung-!”

In the end, she burst into tears.

“Mommy-!”

As if to prove they were twins, her crying sounded exactly like Bert’s.

“Oh my, young lady!”

“Young lady!”

The servants who came running at the sound of crying lifted Esther up.

“Why are you suddenly crying? Hmm?”

“Huuung…!”

“Don’t tell me you had a fight with Lady Hanisha?”

One of the servants looked at me with disbelieving eyes.

“It, it’s not like that…!”

Perhaps afraid that attention might turn to me, Esther frantically shook her head.

“It’s just… Da, Daddy didn’t come to pick me up… I was surprised…”

“Oh my.”

Thinking this was Esther’s consideration, the servants let out sympathetic sighs.

However, the servants who had heard about what happened today couldn’t bring themselves to scold me.

Since they already knew from the Temple that my condition wasn’t good, they wouldn’t want to create bigger problems.

“I miss Mommy. Huuung-!”

Esther began calling out desperately for the late Countess Agnito.

“It’s okay. It’s alright, young lady.”

“Let’s go inside for now. We’ve prepared the fragrant oil you like. If you take a warm bath with it, you’ll feel better.”

The nanny and the maids who had been caring for Esther gently comforted the child as they moved away from me.

The books I had given to Esther fell helplessly to the floor.

“…”

Left alone, I picked up the fallen books and headed back to my room.

I wasn’t sad. All of this was for the ‘next’ step.

However.

“I miss Mommy. Huuung-!”

So when you’re sad or miserable enough to cry, you call for your mother. It’s okay to call for her.

‘Then who should I call for?’

Even if I called her name… would our mother in heaven really look upon me with pity?

I couldn’t know.

In my past lives, and even in this life I’ve returned to, I still had no family.

Anyway, I didn’t cry.

“…Sniff.”

I was just sad that I couldn’t understand the feeling of calling for my mother, and felt a little resentful, so only the tip of my nose turned red.

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