Chapter 13
Pellens arrived at the duke’s office still carrying Reponya dangling in his arms.
As they got closer, Duke Krytan’s furious shouting could already be heard.
“I thought my father had finally gone senile, but it seems he’s still perfectly healthy.”
Pellens let out a short laugh and finally set Reponya down on the floor. She had been worried he might keep carrying her around like that in front of everyone, so thankfully he stopped.
Reponya dusted off her wrinkled clothes and looked around.
Perhaps the duke had forbidden anyone from entering the office, because people were lined up along the hallway.
The butler, the head maid, and several knights.
Buddy and Becky, who had gone to assess the situation.
Behind them were several vassals being restrained by the knights.
‘They said they were in separate rooms.’
But seeing them lined up like this made it look as though they were waiting for their turn…
‘Huh?’
Reponya’s uneasy eyes turned toward the office filled with rage.
Then who was inside right now?
“Who dares—! I’m asking who set fire inside my estate! Who threw that incense?!”
The duke’s furious roar echoed from inside along with the sound of something breaking.
After that came the desperate cries of someone begging for an investigation.
‘Gasp.’
It seemed one of the vassals was currently inside the office. The duke really was pressuring the vassals to find the culprit.
This was the worst possible situation.
‘I have to settle this somehow.’
Reponya’s face stiffened as she frantically tried to think.
“Move.”
Pellens, who had been watching her from behind, stepped forward.
“Ah, Young Master Pellens?”
Then he flung open the office door that nobody else had dared to touch.
“Who is it?! Without permission no one—!!”
“Father.”
“Pellens?”
Now.
Reponya quickly scurried into the office behind Pellens.
The office was a complete mess. Several pieces of furniture had been destroyed, and there was even a sword on the desk.
“How did you suddenly come here…”
Pellens glanced at the vassal inside the office before speaking calmly.
“I get that you’re angry, but handle this separately. You’re scaring the kid.”
Where exactly was the scared child?
At Pellens’s words, Reponya looked around, searching for the frightened child. But no matter how much she looked, there was no scared child anywhere.
When she turned back forward again, she met Pellens’s gaze.
‘…Me?’
Reponya blinked. The duke followed Pellens’s line of sight and discovered Reponya.
“Ponya!”
Like a wild beast, Duke Krytan rushed over and immediately pulled the startled Reponya into his arms.
“You’re awake. How’s your body? Are you hurt anywhere? The doctor said you inhaled too much smoke and your throat was in bad condition. How is it now? Try calling for me. …No, no. If you regained consciousness, you should’ve stayed in bed and rested. I clearly ordered them to summon the doctor the moment you woke up.”
Overwhelmed by the barrage of breathless questions, Reponya swallowed dryly.
Even when her body had been covered in burns and oozing wounds from fire, nobody had ever worried about her like this before.
‘Was he worried about me?’
Reponya stared at the duke’s face. It looked similar to the expression she had seen before losing consciousness.
At the time, she had thought she must have imagined it before fainting.
It almost looked like the face of a father worried about his daughter.
‘…No.’
Stopping her thoughts before they could continue naturally, Reponya lowered her head.
‘I’m not his daughter. I’m a stranger. There’s no way he was worried about me.’
The one the duke worried about was not Reponya. She must not misunderstand.
What he worried about was the “Daughter of House Krytan” whose place Reponya had taken.
A substitute for the real young lady.
That was why he felt guilty when Reponya got hurt.
After organizing her emotions, Reponya answered.
“I’m okay. …What about you, Duke?”
“I’m fine too. A little fire is nothing to me.”
“Okay.”
“Ponya. You don’t need to worry about anything. An assassination attempt inside my own estate is unacceptable. The one who hurt you, I will absolutely find them and—”
“About that.”
“Hm?”
“Please pretend this never happened.”
The duke’s face twisted in shock.
And he wasn’t the only one.
Though they were not the culprits this time, the vassals who had been planning assassination schemes, Pellens listening nearby, and the servants all looked at Reponya in disbelief.
“Ponya. Are you saying we should spare the people who tried to kill you?”
The fact that he referred to them as “people” despite not even knowing whether there was one culprit or several already revealed that the duke believed the vassals were responsible.
“Yes. Don’t look for the person who tried to kill me.”
Duke Krytan fell silent as though speechless.
“You… why are you so kind—”
“I’m not kind.”
If she truly were kind, she never would have thrown herself into danger to create a trap for them in the first place.
“First… let’s sit down, Ponya.”
“……”
“You’ll strain yourself.”
The duke made a sound like someone choking as he dismissed the vassals and knights and shut the office door.
Only Pellens, Reponya, and the duke remained inside.
After sending everyone away, the duke approached the sofa where Reponya sat, lowered himself onto one knee, and met her eyes.
“If you’re saying this because you’re afraid of them, you don’t need to worry, Ponya. They will never threaten you again.”
“That’s not it.”
“If not, then why?”
“Because there’s nothing good that comes from you turning those people into enemies, Duke.”
Reponya was frighteningly calm.
As though she were talking about someone else’s problem.
“I know they’re people who follow you.”
It was difficult for a five-year-old child to understand relationships between lord and vassals. If she spoke too clearly, it would definitely arouse suspicion, so Reponya deliberately spoke vaguely.
“There’s no evidence, right?”
Of course there wasn’t.
Since Reponya herself had orchestrated the incident, there was no evidence the vassals had done it.
“…Why do you think that?”
“If there were evidence, instead of shouting, ‘Who set fire to my estate?’ you would’ve already captured the culprit.”
The duke fell silent.
Beside him, Pellens sat with his arms crossed and legs folded, listening to their conversation.
“If you keep accusing those people of being criminals, they’ll become angry too.”
“That is not something you or I need to concern ourselves with, Ponya.”
“Think about where that anger will be directed, Duke.”
Honestly, it wasn’t something that required much thought.
“Let this matter end here. You already punished them severely, so they won’t do it again.”
After speaking calmly, Reponya smiled.
“Ponya. You almost died.”
“But I didn’t.”
“It could’ve turned into something terrible.”
“But nothing happened.”
At her words, the duke’s face twisted violently. Even Pellens beside him grimaced as well.
“It ended well, so that’s good. …Ah. If the bedroom burning caused financial damages, then I can separately discuss compensation—”
“I don’t care about something like that, Ponya.”
Reponya let out a sigh of relief. She had worried there might be serious consequences if there had been financial losses, but as expected of a great noble, that amount meant nothing to him.
“Phew, that was close. I’m glad.”
“You call this glad…?!”
Duke Krytan abruptly stopped speaking and ground his teeth before finally continuing.
“Those belongings are not something worth worrying over.”
Ignoring the duke’s words, Reponya hopped down from the sofa on her short legs.
She had said everything she needed to say.
“I hurt. I want to go back and rest. Is that okay?”
She had spoken this much already, so surely he understood now. Staying here longer would accomplish nothing. If she withdrew at the right moment, even Duke Krytan would have difficulty insisting further.
‘And I really am exhausted.’
The child’s body had endured the fire much worse than she expected.
Even now, her throat felt as though it were burning alive.
“…All right. Summon the doctor. Ponya’s condition needs to be checked again.”
Unable to stop Reponya after she said she was in pain and wanted to rest, the duke reluctantly nodded.
‘Done.’
Supported by Buddy and Becky waiting outside, Reponya returned to her bedroom.
Thunk.
After Reponya left, the office door closed.
“Hah.”
Hearing the tiny pattering footsteps fade away, Pellens laughed incredulously and ran a hand through his hair.
“What an unbelievable scammer we’ve got here.”
“Watch your mouth when talking about your sister, Pellens.”
“Sister? Since when did I have a sister?”
Pellens smirked lazily.
“Does that seem normal to you, Father? Even to me, someone who’s never raised a child, she looks abnormal.”
Stretching his long legs onto the table in front of the sofa, Pellens idly swung one foot.
“She woke up and didn’t even cry. She’s five years old, right? Shouldn’t she cry because she’s hurt or scared? There wasn’t even a trace of tears on her face. And that’s not all. When she met me, I even tried to intimidate her—”
“Pellens.”
Duke Krytan called his name in a low warning voice.
As though accustomed to it, Pellens merely smiled.
“She wasn’t scared at all. Even people my age and professors run away frightened when they see me, but she looked me straight in the eye without fear.”
“……”
“You heard what she said earlier, didn’t you? She said she didn’t die and that nothing happened. Then she says it’s a relief there wasn’t financial damage. It gave me chills.”
“The doctor said she tends to be indifferent about herself. Apparently it’s a kind of defense mechanism.”
“One more defense like that and she’ll actually die.”
Pellens stood and walked over to Duke Krytan’s desk.
On the desk sat a small framed picture.
An old family portrait.
From the days when the duchess was still alive and his little sister had only been a few months old.
“She was definitely brainwashed and brought here after deciding to become the daughter of this house. Unless someone underwent meticulous training for years, it’s impossible for a five-year-old to think that way.”
Pellens stared at the portrait for a moment before turning the small frame face down.
“Pellens. You seem mistaken about something. I was the one who first proposed the adoption.”
“They probably manipulated the situation so you’d have no choice but to do it. Did you see her face? I thought Mother had come back to life.”
“……”
“If I was this shocked, the people in this estate must’ve been even more confused. They definitely used some kind of trick.”
Turning around, Pellens leaned against the desk and stared at the duke.
His faded blue eyes looked at his father as though looking at a stranger.
The two clearly resembled each other, yet something between them was strangely twisted.
“Did you want to play house, Father? Or did you impulsively bring her in because she resembled Mother?”
“Pellens. I will not tolerate any more insolence.”
“No, you’re right. Since we were never a family, it wouldn’t be called playing house. I don’t remember a single moment when you acted like a father to me.”
“Pellens. Even now…”
“If you want to play father and daughter with her, do it after handing over the title of head. Don’t bring some strange kid into the family and create conflict between your children this late. Be grateful I was the one who came instead of my older brother. If he’d come, she’d already be dead.”
“Watch your mouth, Pellens.”
Pellens merely shrugged with his arms crossed.
Still, the thought of that bold five-year-old child with a face resembling his mother dying made him feel strangely unsettled.
The moment he saw her leaving the bedroom earlier, his chest had strangely tightened and churned.
It felt as though his senses had opened for the first time since awakening his aura.
His gaze lingered on the silver hair sticking out adorably in every direction like soft cotton fluff, and on the round red eyes that shone like ripe cherries.
As though he had finally found something he had searched for over a long time.
But his lost little sister could not possibly be five years old.
“Maybe it’s because she resembles Mother so much.”
Clicking his tongue, Pellens forced the thought away.
She would be sent away eventually anyway, so there was no point dwelling on it.
“I’ll handle her myself and send her away, so keep that in mind.”
“Pellens. If you lay a hand on that child, even you won’t escape consequences.”
Ignoring the duke’s warning completely, Pellens strode out of the office.
And the next day.
“Hey, brat. Hurry up and eat.”
What is wrong with him?
“I’m standing guard right now, so stop worrying and eat quickly.”
Pellens spoke while watching both sides of the garden like a sentry.
Reponya stared dumbfounded at the chocolates and candies piled in her palms.
‘Is he trying to bully me, or be nice to me?’
