Chapter 32
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 32
Chapter Title: Existence Itself is Accident and Disaster
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“Cough! Cough...!”
I burst out of the acrid smoke into the safe zone of the forest.
Tucked under my arms like luggage were still Alina and Elisicia on either side.
“Baron! Over here!”
At my shout, the Eisen Baron, Kara, and the search party all turned their heads in unison.
“Barg!”
“Alina!”
The Eisen Baron came running with a face pale as death.
I carefully set down the two girls clamped to my sides.
First, I handed Elisicia over to the waiting search party's medic.
She was exhausted and limp, but still breathing.
And then Alina.
I placed the trembling little girl into the Eisen Baron's arms.
“Alina must have been really scared.”
“Ahh, gods...”
Eisen took his daughter into his arms and sank to the ground right there.
His shoulders shook violently.
The cool-headed Eisen was nowhere to be found tonight.
Only the father who had nearly lost his daughter stood beneath the moonlight.
“Daddy...?”
Alina, cradled in the Eisen Baron's arms, finally burst into the tears she had been holding back.
“Waaah! Daddy... sob, it was so scary...”
“Yes, yes... Daddy's here. It's okay now.”
“Because of me... hic! Masha? Back at the shop... she protected me and got stabbed in the stomach... there was so much blood... What if Masha dies?”
The child was worrying first about the head maid who had gotten hurt trying to protect her, rather than her own safety.
The Eisen Baron hugged his daughter tightly and soothed her.
“It's okay. Masha's safe. The doctors treated her right away. No danger to her life.”
“Really...? Waaah! I'm sorry... It was because I wanted to go get a tart...”
“It's not Alina's fault. It was those bad guys' fault. It's okay now.”
Eisen wiped away his tears and looked up.
Then he gazed at me.
His eyes held a gratitude beyond words.
Normally, this kind of thanks would make me squirm, but...
Now that I was a dad myself, I could meet his gaze straight on.
“Barg... You saved Alina, my world. This debt... I couldn't repay it even with my life.”
“No need for that. Protecting Yeppi's big sis is just what I do.”
I grinned and replied.
That was when it happened.
Alina, who seemed to have calmed down, began acting strangely.
Even nestled in her daddy's arms, she didn't look at Eisen's face. Instead, her tiny hands fumbled at the empty air.
“Daddy? It's Daddy, right? I'm sorry, Daddy... I can't see your face clearly...”
Unfocused eyes.
Alina's eyes remained closed.
As if they wouldn't open even if she tried.
“Alina...? Don't tell me her eyes...”
‘No way...’
Eisen's heart sank.
My own composure from moments ago vanished as well.
Eisen carefully examined his daughter's eyelids with trembling hands.
There were no external injuries.
But the child couldn't move her eyelids even as her father's thick fingertips approached right in front of her.
She couldn't see ahead.
“...It's my fault.”
At that moment, Elisicia, who had been supported from the side, painfully opened her mouth.
Her red hair hung down with guilt, her head bowed.
“I... I couldn't control it... The child saw it head-on.”
“Saw what...?”
It was 「Blaze」.
The reason Elisicia was the protagonist, a fact that would upend the empire if revealed—information even Eisen didn't know.
The legendary power of the Sun God, 「Blaze」, which not even the current imperial direct descendants possessed.
“I know it won't comfort you... but it's not permanent. She just can't see for a little while... I was the same at first...”
Elisicia's voice trailed off weakly.
Even though her own palms had been scorched by the heat, she couldn't properly face the girl who had temporarily lost her sight because of her uncontrolled power, nor her father.
“What are you even...”
Eisen still didn't know exactly what Elisicia meant by 「control」, 「head-on」, or 「at first」.
Worry and relief for Alina.
Questions about Elisicia.
Rage toward the kidnappers.
Amid his chaotic thoughts, Eisen turned to look at Elisicia.
Her face was caked in dirt, her clothes scorched and tattered.
He hadn't recognized her at first, but when Elisicia raised her head, the revealed eyes made him freeze.
Golden eyes.
The symbol that shone clearly even under moonlight, possessed only by the direct line of the imperial family.
Eisen's mind raced.
Rare golden eyes.
The target the kidnappers were after.
The rumored red hair.
‘The bastard princess?’
He'd heard rumors of the emperor having a bastard child, but to think she would appear here, in this state.
Eisen asked in a trembling voice.
“Could it be... Princess Elisicia von Croatina?”
“......!”
The surrounding search party members stirred at the word "princess."
Elisicia nodded weakly.
She seemed to lack both the strength and will to hide her identity any longer.
The Eisen Baron couldn't hide his shock.
An instinct that his family was now entangled at the center of a massive political whirlpool involving the imperial throne's succession.
Amid the heat and smoke billowing from the forest fire, an ominous premonition gripped Eisen as he hugged Alina even tighter.
‘How should I handle this...’
While the Eisen Baron was lost in confusion,
I quietly approached Kara.
Kara was staring blankly at the burning cabin.
Blood dripped steadily from the tip of the Frostwind in her hand.
“Kara.”
At my call, Kara startled and turned her head.
The moment she saw me, her eyes shook violently.
Whoosh!
I pulled Kara and Yeppi into a tight embrace first.
Hugging them as if they might shatter.
“Kara! You okay? Inhale too much smoke? Your stomach? Yeppi?”
I asked urgently.
Kara's body trembled faintly in my arms.
“......”
Instead of answering, Kara let out a small chuckle.
Then she gently wiped the soot and burn marks on my cheek with her fingers.
“Idiot. Worry about yourself first. You're singed and burned... and you worry about me first.”
Kara's voice was moist even amid the dry blaze of the flames.
When the forest was burning, she hadn't been able to breathe properly for fear that I might not make it out.
She'd wanted to rush into the smoke, but because of the child in her belly, and because of our promise, she'd endured an eternity of torment.
Seeing her husband safe before her eyes, her legs gave out.
Slump.
Kara buried her face in my broad chest.
And pressed her ear against it, listening to my heartbeat.
Thump, thump, thump.
Strong and steady.
“...It's beating.”
Kara whispered in relief.
“Thank goodness. Really thank goodness.”
Her warm breath wetted my chest.
I too wrapped my arms around Kara's head, confirming each other's warmth.
We're alive.
We're all alive.
That was enough.
But I had a gut feeling this peace wouldn't last.
I hadn't even entered the academy yet.
I hadn't heard back even on the single line in the letter to secure Karl's safety.
And behind me, the Eisen Baron was having a serious conversation with a grim expression.
With Elisicia, the protagonist of this world, this generation.
She was the heroine of 「Bastard's Snowflake Path」.
Her very existence was accident and disaster.
“Baron! The fire's out!”
The search captain's shout rang out.
“Father! I brought the fire brigade! What about Alina?”
The mountain fire, sparked by alcohol, was fully extinguished thanks to the search party's swift response and the civil defense fire brigade led by Ronas.
The forest was charred black, but fortunately, major damage was prevented.
“Did you catch them?”
“Yes. We tied up the one Kara crippled and the one collapsed alone in the woods.”
“Alone?”
Eisen seemed to think it was a kidnapper I'd wounded who had fled and collapsed.
The search party dragged in two bound kidnappers.
One was dragging his legs, and the leader clutched his mangled foot where his toes had been severed, groaning.
‘What? I didn't cut off any toes? Did Kara maybe...’
But the precision of the toe amputation wasn't Kara's or my handiwork.
A third party had intervened.
Someone extremely brutal and terrifyingly skilled.
‘I have a rough idea who...’
For now, I'd play dumb.
Anyway, Alina was rescued.
And as a bonus, the original heroine too.
The incident was wrapped up for now, but it wasn't the end.
The kidnappers' backers.
The Sloki Kingdom, from my memory.
And the protagonist Elisicia's appearance.
The original story's gears began turning vigorously with this new twist.
And one conclusion was reached.
Elisicia must be separated.
Kara and Yeppi are safe.
‘I hope it's just my imagination.’
“Let's head back for now.”
Eisen stood, cradling Alina.
We dragged our weary bodies back to the mansion.
Ronas, who had planned a long sleep since evening, ended up pulling an all-nighter again.
Upon returning to the mansion, we headed straight for the bath.
The bathroom filled with warm steam.
I gently scrubbed Kara's back, and she washed the ash from my sturdy shoulders.
Black water flowed down the drain.
“Today was really... scary.”
Kara whispered, leaning her face against my back.
“Alina, you... I thought I'd lose you both.”
“Don't worry. I've got you.”
I reached back and stroked Kara's wet hair.
“We're strong. And Yeppi will be strong too.”
Smack—.
Even in the humid bathroom, the kiss echoed clearly in my ears.
Clear enough for Yeppi in her belly to hear.
After washing, in the bedroom.
Kara brought the medicine box and applied ointment to the minor burns on my cheek and arm.
Even after such a grave incident, her touch stirred something sensual.
“Does it sting? Hoo...”
“Tickles. But when you blow on it, it doesn't hurt.”
I closed my eyes, feeling Kara's touch.
The most peaceful time, confirming we were alive and together.
But things weren't so peaceful in the other rooms.
Elisicia was resting in a separate guest room.
They would interrogate the captured kidnappers, but her testimony was needed too.
Before going to her own bedroom, Alina visited head maid Masha's sickroom.
“Masha...”
“Ahh... Thank goodness... really thank goodness... You're safe, miss...”
Alina couldn't see Masha lying there bandaged.
Her eyes still wouldn't open.
But as she groped with her tiny hands to hug Masha and brushed the bandages,
“Ah...”
Masha let out a stifled groan, and Alina burst into tears again.
“I'm sorry, Masha... Because of me... Waaah!”
“Miss... Don't cry... I'm fine...”
Masha tried to soothe Alina despite her pain, but the child's guilt wouldn't wash away easily.
Only after crying herself to exhaustion and falling asleep did a servant carry Alina to her room.
And watching that scene, the Eisen Baron stood in the corridor outside Alina's bedroom, fists clenched, trembling with rage.
“Right now... I have to interrogate those bastards immediately.”
His eyes were bloodshot.
“How dare they touch Alina... my daughter...”
All his cool reason had evaporated.
Today, Eisen wasn't the cold administrator—he was a father burning with vengeance.
At that moment, Ronas grabbed his father's shoulder.
“Father.”
Ronas's eyes were coldly sunken too.
No trace of his usual emotional self or paperwork-weary fatigue.
Only the chilling fury of the heir protecting the family and his little sister's brother.
“If you go now, you'll kill them before getting any info.”
“But...!”
“Stay with Alina. We need the eye exam results too. She'll be anxious without you.”
Ronas said firmly.
“I'll handle the interrogation.”
“......”
The Eisen Baron looked into his son's eyes.
Ronas was angry too.
But he prioritized reason over emotion.
“...I leave it to you.”
The Eisen Baron clutched his crumbling chest and entered Alina's room.
Ronas watched his father go in, then turned.
His footsteps headed to the mansion's underground prison.
A chilling aura emanated from his back as he walked into the cold darkness.
Tonight, the underground prison would echo with sounds more horrific than any beast's screams.
Of course, Ronas would first gag them.
So the pigs' squeals wouldn't wake Alina.
The day those pigs see their own teeth without a mirror was postponed until the sun rose next year.