Chapter 36 — Found by Superion
Chapter 36 — Found by Superion
Translation: Godtl
Lelia couldn't answer either, only letting large teardrops fall one by one. No words came to mind.
Just... because the words that she resembled her mother made her so happy, so happy and sorrowful. She could do nothing but cry.
The elderly noble looked at the young child who couldn't even sob aloud and asked.
"So I want to ask. Child, who are you?"
"...."
Lelia blinked anxiously.
"I am... I am...."
She should tell the truth, but her lips trembled.
She had never imagined someone would notice her existence before her nanny returned.
As Lelia couldn't answer and only shed tears, the elderly noble reached out his hand.
His wrinkled but large and thick hand brushed Lelia's cheek and wiped away her tears.
"There's no need to force yourself to speak."
When she raised her head, she saw the elderly noble's face smiling kindly. Seeing that, Lelia no longer felt afraid of the elderly noble.
She wanted to tell the truth.
That she was her mother's daughter, that she was our mother.
Somehow she felt he would believe her even without any evidence.
However, Lelia just cried silently for a long while without speaking.
The elderly noble stroked Lelia's cheek and head. With a very affectionate touch.
After a long while.
Lelia had unknowingly cried herself to sleep, and the Superion Duke laid the child comfortably on the soft chair.
Seeing the child whose cheeks had become smooth after eating well for just a few days, the Duke's expression was somehow cold.
"...."
At first, he had thought she was just a similar child.
Why did she have to have that expression of all things, he wondered if his dead daughter had sent this child resenting him.
He had said he would take the child as a squire purely out of guilt toward his daughter.
But gradually it became strange.
First. That child was far too similar to his dead daughter.
Looking closely, it wasn't just the expression and light green eyes with which his daughter used to look at him in fear.
The expression she made momentarily when eating something delicious, or the face smiling brightly while scrunching her cheeks.
Precisely speaking, she resembled Elizabeth's childhood.
Elizabeth had been quite a tomboy when young, but after growing up, she changed to have a completely different atmosphere.
When his daughter became a full-grown adult, he somehow missed that mischievous appearance from the old days and felt regret. At the same time, he also felt sorry.
The Superion Duke thought this was because of himself. That it was his own fault for raising his daughter too strictly.
Yet that child possessed that carefree smile like his daughter from long ago.
Whenever he witnessed the child's face smiling among the knights, the Superion Duke felt a sensation of his heart tumbling to the bottom.
After the cheeks that had been pitifully thin began to fill out, she seemed even more similar.
Just when he was thinking something was strange.
He heard news that they were looking for some child from the Imperial City.
Unlike Lelia, who had been greatly surprised at the inspection earlier, the Superion Duke had already known this news for some time.
He had thought it was a completely unrelated story, but seeing Lelia's expression turn pale at the mention of an inspection, a strange thought occurred to him.
'That makes no sense.'
However, when he took out the child who had been crying in the secret space of the carriage, that nonsensical thought became increasingly clear.
Perhaps it was an enormous delusion born of desire.
So he brought it up.
Lelia, you resemble my daughter very much.
The moment he saw Lelia crying as soon as he brought up the story, he became certain.
'This child is Elizabeth's blood.'
She clearly knew something. If not for that, there was no way she would have such a sorrowful face, unable to even make a sound, crying like that.
The Superion Duke curled his large hand into a clenched fist.
'Just how has my granddaughter been living, and why is she being chased by the Emperor?'
His eyes shone fiercely like a lion.
Suddenly, the words the child had said on the day he first found her came to mind.
"Actually... m-my father hates me. So I was running away."
"...Were you abused?"
"...."
Recalling those words, the Superion Duke squeezed his eyes shut.
'Emperor Perseus.'
When he opened his eyes again, his pupils contained deep resentment and sense of betrayal.
'Not only did he fail to protect my daughter...'
The Superion Duke had opposed Perseus's marriage to his daughter from the beginning. Perhaps he had instinctively foreseen his daughter's death.
He had helped Emperor Perseus's restoration solely for his grandchildren.
For the twin brothers, the last traces Elizabeth had left behind.
But what Elizabeth left behind was not only those children.
He didn't know the detailed circumstances, but clearly, the child said to have been stillborn shortly before Elizabeth's death had survived.
When she opened her eyes again, Duke Superion no longer asked Lelia any questions.
'Does he think it was a misunderstanding? Because I didn't tell him the truth?'
Lelia felt anxious, but soon that anxiety faded away.
It was because Duke Superion looked after Lelia with an even gentler gaze and tone than before.
As if he knew without being told, as if there was no need to speak, as if he would wait until Lelia opened her mouth to tell him herself.
Thanks to that, Lelia felt truly at peace for the first time since returning from the temple.
On one hand, Duke Superion's attitude was so tender that Lelia felt the illusion of being with a mother she had never seen before.
When she thought that her grandfather had truly recognized her, her heart would swell and it became hard to breathe.
'I should tell him the truth.'
She opened her mouth several times to say it, but the words wouldn't come out.
Strangely, whenever she tried to speak, it felt like tears would fall.
'If the kids find out, they'll never call me boss again...'
Being teased as a crybaby felt like just yesterday. If they knew she had cried again... an overwhelming sense of embarrassment washed over her at how much her friends would tease her.
'Though I probably won't ever see them again anyway.'
Since returning to her home country from the neutral zone, perhaps because her friends weren't by her side, Lelia felt the illusion of having returned to an even younger time.
It was clear that whenever people are lonely and exhausted, they become smaller in stature and younger in spirit. While staying in the imperial capital, both her body and mind had withered.
'I'm glad I ran away.'
Lelia thought so and vowed never to cry again.
However, the knights frowned as they watched Duke Superion, who had become especially tender toward Lelia.
"Why is he acting like that?"
"Did he eat something wrong...?"
"He's even scarier when he smiles, if you ask me."
Since the Duke always acted like a ferocious bear to the knight order members, the knights were merely bewildered to see him like this.
It was when they arrived at Cretea, the last major city they would visit before heading to the Superion territory.
The carriage stopped in front of the shopping district.
Duke Superion personally carried Lelia out of the carriage, then took her by the hand and led her somewhere.
Lelia gazed up at her grandfather.
"...."