Chapter 24
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Translator: Wjin
Chapter: 24
Chapter Title: Experiment Children
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"Tower Master Rguin."
Lexion, who had gone behind the desk, knelt and spoke. Rguin appeared to be sitting on the floor.
"Yeah. What is it?"
A dry voice came from beyond the desk.
"Someone claiming to be your daughter has come."
"What? Now, of all times?"
"It's a bit late, but her statements about her mother match the records. However, there's no record of the mother giving birth to a child."
"They probably assumed the pregnancy didn't happen or ended in miscarriage since there were no updates."
This was a conversation about Philomel, but one she had no knowledge of whatsoever.
"She's here right now. Would you like to meet her?"
"I suppose I should, at least once."
Soon, a figure abruptly rose from behind the desk.
Philomel glanced sideways at Rguin's face. Beneath his disheveled silver hair, his golden eyes gleamed strangely.
Having seen Emperor Justis and Nassar, she was confident no ordinary handsome man would faze her, but even he made her eyes widen in astonishment—he was that beautiful.
And remarkably young. She had vaguely imagined him as old, but he looked no older than his early thirties.
The resemblance to Philomel... perhaps the eye color? Hers were closer to forsythia yellow than his radiant gold.
Suddenly, she recalled that Lexion had similar eye color.
Her brief scan met Rguin's inorganic gaze.
In that instant, a bizarre sense of dissonance flowed through her body.
'Something's off.'
For some reason, this man felt like a fundamentally different being from her or anyone else.
'What is this feeling?'
The silver-haired man looked at Philomel, wiping the boredom from his face and flashing a captivating smile.
"Hello? I'm Rguin. And you are?"
"Phil... Philomel."
Unable to reveal her real name, she gave her nickname. One she'd never actually been called, though.
"Right. Philomel. Have a seat here for now."
Rguin roughly cleared some clutter from the sofa to make space for her.
"Shall I step out?"
"Stay. I have something to tell you after this."
"Understood."
In response to Lexion's question, Rguin replied as if his business with Philomel would wrap up quickly.
Philomel and Rguin sat, with Lexion standing nearby.
"Your hand."
As Philomel stiffened in tension, unsure how to begin, he extended his hand.
"Pardon?"
"Give me your hand?"
Philomel hesitantly offered hers, and Rguin grasped it. A firm, large hand...
"Kkgh...!"
Sudden pain made breathing difficult. It felt like something had invaded her body, rummaging through every inch.
"Ugh..."
"No mana. Well, a tiny bit. But it's practically empty."
Rguin murmured impassively, looking down at the hunched Philomel.
"Are you okay?"
Lexion approached and protested on her behalf.
"You can't just do that without warning! It's hard to endure unless you're a mage."
"Oh, sorry. Since she claims to be my child, I assumed she was a mage."
Philomel straightened up and looked back and forth between them.
"What... what was that?"
Lexion explained.
"He infused you with his mana to check yours. That's how you can tell if you're truly his child—through mana. It's just a sting for trained mages, but it must have hurt you. I apologize on his behalf. He's always like this..."
Ignoring Lexion's subtle criticism, Rguin added,
"It's an absurdly small amount, but it matches my mana."
"So...?"
"It means you're really my daughter."
It was a reunion moment utterly devoid of emotion or drama.
'What is this?'
She had imagined this encounter with her birth father hundreds, thousands of times.
From tearful, heartwarming meetings to cold rejections declaring he could never accept her as his daughter.
But the reality unfolding now was something she had never envisioned.
For a man meeting his unknown biological daughter, Rguin's attitude was far too businesslike.
'I had so many questions to ask...'
Why did you leave my pregnant mother alone?
Did you not know you had a daughter like me?
What made you accept the 'Philomel' from the book?
And... do you have even a little affection for me?
Questions she hadn't been able to voice for years swirled in her chest.
Rguin spoke first.
"You look like you have a lot of questions. Ask away."
Philomel hesitated, then blurted out her first one.
"...Why did you leave my pregnant mother all alone?"
"I don't remember well, but she must have wanted to stay there. Otherwise, I recommend staying at the Magic Tower."
She couldn't grasp what this man meant.
Even knowing their conversation wasn't meshing, Philomel focused on something else.
"...You don't remember?"
"It was over ten years ago."
His matter-of-fact attitude left her speechless.
Katrin Hounds and Rguin had truly been nothing more than a one-night fling.
"My mother's name is Katrin Hounds. I look a lot like her. Does seeing my face jog no memories?"
Rguin leaned his face close to Philomel's and pointed at her hair with a finger.
"Dyed."
"Ah."
Come to think of it, she had dyed it that morning. She should have washed it out.
Rguin wiggled his finger, and a cool energy spread through her hair. In the blink of an eye, Philomel's locks returned to their natural color.
"Hm. Something's coming to mind..."
The man crossed his arms, rummaging through memories, then smiled brightly.
"Sorry. No clue."
"...How can you not remember?"
"Why should I?"
His bold counterquestion made Philomel's eyes heat up.
"More importantly, what do you want? You came to me late for a reason, right? With so little mana, becoming a mage is out, so money, I suppose."
Her hand grew wet.
Philomel realized a beat later that the moisture on her hand was her own tears.
"I'll give you plenty, enough to cover what your mother didn't take..."
For years, she had forgotten how to cry. The world never comforted Philomel for her tears.
"Why are you crying?"
The man widened his eyes, seemingly genuinely puzzled.
"I don't need it. Money or anything else from you."
"Why?"
"We're strangers, despite sharing blood. Excuse me. I shouldn't have come."
Philomel gathered her scant belongings and headed for the door.
"I won't show up again, so live well."
As she turned to leave, Philomel bowed one last time to the man who had brought her into the world.
"...Why is she so angry?"
Rguin stared blankly at the spot where Philomel had departed.
"Argh, really! You could have said it nicely, but that's just how you are..."
Lexion snapped in irritation and hurriedly left the room.
Not knowing the way back, Philomel ran aimlessly. Her tear ducts must have broken; hot liquid kept flowing.
She thought she expected nothing, but she was wrong. Deep down, she had craved her birth father's love. Foolish.
"Wait!"
Lexion, who had followed, called out to stop her.
Philomel roughly wiped her eyes with her sleeve and turned.
"What is it?"
"Let me escort you out. Would you hear me out on the way?"
With no other way out of the Magic Tower, Philomel accepted his offer.
As they descended via levitation stone the same way they came, Lexion spoke.
"I suspected as much, but you don't know much about your own birth. Did your mother not tell you?"
"What don't I know? No, I know there's a lot I don't, but I've learned one thing clearly. My so-called birth father is a scoundrel who can't even remember the woman carrying his child."
Even though it wasn't Lexion's fault, her words came out sharp.
Lexion scratched his cheek.
"That's true, but..."
"Sorry. I took it out on you. You're not involved."
"No, I am involved."
"Pardon?"
"To be precise, I'm your half-brother."
The unexpected words made Philomel gasp.
"I see..."
"Not that surprised."
She had thought his eye color, facial lines, and such resembled Rguin's.
"I heard he never married, so he's a scoundrel with two illegitimate kids."
"Four, actually. Besides you and me, you have two more brothers."
"..."
"And for reference, all three of us—wait, four—have different mothers."
Shocking facts piled upon shocking facts.
What kind of messed-up family is this?
Her head throbbed.
Lexion continued.
"I won't deny your assessment of Tower Master Rguin, but... don't you want to know the secret behind your birth?"
Philomel nodded weakly, and he began explaining.
"Tower Master Rguin is a man who doesn't know love. More precisely, he doesn't understand most human emotions. The parental affection, attention, or whatever you wanted from him? He can't comprehend even a speck of it."
"...But he has children with multiple women. Was it just base desire?"
"That's a misunderstanding. He's never been intimate with any woman."
"Then how did he have children?"
"Experiments."
...Experiments?
To the uncomprehending Philomel, Lexion elaborated.
"In other words, we are children born from experiments."