Family (2)
A noble-looking man with platinum blonde hair resembling hers, with clear blue eyes and sculpted features.
Everything. From her eyebrows which are raised whenever she gets scolded to her lips which are always curled up defensively, even her slight dimples. Everything matched her father, Rowan Chernobog.
The problem was the fact that he had died more than 15 years ago.
Dazed, she murmured blankly, looking at her father in front of her.
“Is this a hallucination? Is this another of the Devil’s tests? Don’t tell me, Ahin Estarrot…”
“Why did Estarrot’s name come out of your mouth…”
Feeling uncomfortable, Rowan Chernobog narrowed his eyes at her words.
Altair could easily guess why he was feeling that way.
Chernobog, the head of the aristocracy, and Estarrot, the loyal guardian of the imperial family, who had not been on good terms with their great-grandfather, and or perhaps long before that.
The feud was the most severe during my father’s time, luckily, it seemed to ease a little when Ahin and I became the head of the households.
‘It was my own idea, and in the end, he ended hating me enough to kill me.’
“Altair, answer me.”
As Rowan pressed Altair to answer, she looked for anything she could reply with.
“I had a dream about Ahin Estarrot.”
“Ahin Estarrot…”
Rowan had a look of confusion on his face.
It was only after he waved away the maid with a quick wave of his hand and sat down with a serious mood did she finally realise what was wrong.
The name “Ahin Estarrot” was completely unknown until news of his debut into society came out.
Count Estarrot, who was extremely reluctant on letting his son be known to the outside world, confined his son in the annex by himself.
Of course, great aristocrats like Rowan were aware of Ahin’s existence as well as the bare minimum of information such as his name and appearance.
However, he had nothing to do with Altair, so Altair shouldn’t have known about Ahin Estarrot.
Yet, she had a dream about him?
‘Oh no…’
Altair sighed softly before acknowledging her mistake.
After all, this situation was so unrealistic, considering how she was talking to her dead father, she couldn’t even think of how to handle this specific conversation.
“I should stop dreaming. The dream showed me how Estarrot has an illegitimate child who is said to be a devil.”
Hearing that, Rowan Chernobog clenched his jaw as he hugged Altair tightly in a princess hug.
Surprised by his unexpected moves, Altair hurried and shouted.
“Oh, Father. It’s not like-”
But he was obstinate.
“There’s nothing to worry about, Altair. I’ll make sure he no longer appears in your dreams.”
When Rowan finally moved away from her, an armour-clad knight came up to me.
He whispered a few lines to my father before lowering his head and disappearing quickly.
“I’ve got all the things you’ve like prepared, including all your favourite snacks.”
***
A checkered tablecloth is laid on a round wooden table in the warm sunlight of the Duke’s residence, and a bite of cookies is taken from the tray where a large array of sweets were piled up.
And if you pair that with a sip of southern Busan black tea, the one with subtle scarlet colour, the sweet taste of the cookie spreads smoothly in your mouth.
Have I ever had such fond memories?
After firsthand experiencing so many things, even precious memories like these seemed to have disappeared.
‘Happiness.’
Happiness. When was the last time I felt something like that?
Whether this was the devil’s test or not, she has decided to enjoy this moment to the fullest.
“Altair, do you like this present?”
Rowan asked gently with a soft expression.
Altair briefly pondered what would be considered as a “gift”, but soon gave up and mumbled as she leaned forward to grab a cookie with a generous amount of filling on top.
“I like anything my father gives me…”
“Really? I didn’t even gift you a doll or a dress, so I was afraid that you wouldn’t like it.”
“This is good too. I love everything that I get from my father.”
As she nodded her head quickly with her eyes tightly closed, Rowan’s eyes were opened wide as he bent down gently.
“Thank you, Altair.”
His transparent eyes glistened as if the blue sky had been reflected in them.
Her favourite colour in her past life is purple, the colour of lilacs. Moreover, the feeling of being in a scene from her first few childhood memories was very warm and special.
‘When I was young, I wished for my eyes to look like my father’s.’
Altair was unconsciously lost in her memories. Rowan, who was observing her silently, suddenly opened his mouth.
“Sometimes children grow up without their parents knowing. Altair, you’re looking like an old man now. What are you so immersed in thinking about?”
“I was just thinking about how beautiful my father’s eyes were.”
I was still lost in my thoughts as I replied with an overly honest tone.
Rowan’s expression subtly changed when he heard her tone. The tone which a man usually uses when asking for a date with a woman.
“….Umm. Alright.”
With an awkward silence, she struggled to maintain her cool as she looked back at her memories of her past life.
What topic did she and her father chat about during this time?
“What is the current state of affairs regarding immigrants these days…?”
“Immigrants? Are you talking about Gehen? Why do you care about those insignificant pagans on the outskirts?”
Figuring out Rowan’s expression became more complicated.
Well… should I go into more details?
She didn’t realise that after a decade or so of harsh fighting, her social skills had been completely paralyzed.
“Why don’t we train special forces in advance to respond to their tactics? For example, a unit which is capable of being at the front lines with mobility at the centre…”
Clatter.
He put down the teacup he was drinking and questioned Altair with a serious expression on his face.
“Altair. Where did you hear about those stories from? What the hell is with that stiff tone in the morning?”
She shut her mouth despite herself.
Hic. As she hiccups and swallows mouthfuls of snacks, Rowan sighed deeply, his forehead furrowed into an agonized frown.
“Haa… nothing can change this drastically in the span of one night. It appears as though that bastard of Estarrot must’ve done something in that dream. I’m going to talk about this with Arsene myself.”
Arsene Estarrot was the current patriarch of the Estarrot household.
He was Ahin’s father, the one who had confined his young son in the annex ever since he was an infant to his 15-year-old debut. Never once did he look back.
Such parents would rather not protect their son than protect him from Rowan’s protest.
Upon hearing that, Altair jumped up from her seat and said,
“It’s not like that, Father. Yesterday I had read a book and I tried to imitate the words of the knights in the articles there and the way you would speak. It’s a bit hard to stop doing that now…”
“What’s the title of the book?”
“…”
The only books that she last remembered reading were a military book and an instructor’s manual. She swallowed her saliva.
“I don’t remember the title too well, since I burnt it as soon as I finished reading…”
“Why would you burn the book?”
“After I had finished reading it, I was ashamed to have even read such a book.”
“You didn’t like the book yet you wanted to imitate the way I spoke?”
“Yes. That’s it.”
She answered quickly, with a sincere expression.
But on the inside, she was in seriously agitated…
‘What do I do? What am I supposed to do in this situation?’
Altair had lost her mother at the age of eight, and five years later, at the age of thirteen, she lost her father too.
Since then, she has had to stand alone to survive the fierce competition for favour surrounding the duke.
During which, she had picked up a ritualistic approach to speaking between household to household, and a coercive attitude to not be ignored by her subordinates.
In the process, memories of being pampered by her parents when she was a child naturally started fading.
‘The way a child talks…’
She shook her head.
‘The last time I had spoken to a child was seven years ago in a refugee camp…!’
Rowan watched her daughter dangling a teaspoon in one hand and dusting the tea with sugar in another hand.
Eventually, he pressed down his temple firmly and stepped back, as if he had given up.
“Haa. I won’t press you for more answers if you aren’t able to answer… Anyways, didn’t you mention once that you wanted a swordsman teacher?”
When Rowan finally changed the subject, Altair’s face, which she had kept hidden in a corner turned a deep shade of red as she nodded fervently.
“Yes. I really…want to learn swordsmanship.”
“Well, I’ve selected a few skilled knights to come in. You can feel free to choose those you want as your teacher.”
Having said that, Rowan handed me important documents of the knights which contained their portraits.
Their careers and affiliations were neatly arranged and were written legibly, allowing her to easily read them.
Altair carefully scanned through the identities of more than ten candidates listed in the documents.
There were a few names that especially caught my attention, they were those of the knights who had taught her in her past life.
[ Chris Steiner. Female
20 years old. An apprentice in the 2nd Division of Capital Defense.
Liechten Rodner. Male
24 years old. A regular knight in the 1st Division of Capital Defense. ]
‘Let’s see… was Steiner sent out in seven months and Rodner in a year?’
She shook her head, reminiscent of the moment where she surpassed her teachers.
‘Actually, there no great way to go about this. If I’m going to go up against the Ahin Estarrot from my previous life…’
Then, an amazing idea flashed through her mind.
She looked up at Rowan, her eyes were shining brightly as she said,
“Father, why can’t I be taught directly from Count Estarrot himself?”
Similar to her father, the current Count of Estarrot also went on a large-scale monster subjugation operation the following year when she had just succeeded as head of Chernobog household and had died.
But it was that operation’s success that had changed my life and the peace of the empire.
At that point in time, it was the highest-ranking and strongest monster as compared to the dragon that attacked the empire, and the empire might have perished at that point if the Count had not been able to stop it.
Such a skilled and talented man is still alive and living at the same time as her.
Her heart was already beating quickly at the thought of being able to face him with a sword despite how helpless she might be against someone of that calibre.
Roan’s expression, when faced with her clear and twinkling eyes, was helplessly contorted and distressed.
“…It’s not that. Count Estarrot will never agree to something like that, that bastard of an illegitimate son must have properly possessed you.”
“Father. It’s not like that…”
“Altair. Choose from the list that I have prepared for you.”
Rowan spoke in a low and clear tone, once again pushing the documents towards her. She also knew that she should obey her father in this manner
So, she regretfully said with a short sigh.
“Okay…Then I’ll look at the list again.”
Liechten Rodner.
Without having much worry, I chose the most talented person on the list.
In her previous life, she was only able to beat him after two years, but now, Altair had the ability and opportunity to make Rodner’s first day of work his resignation day.
I’ll have to beat them one by one like this, then I will be able to make father understand.
She thought so, unpleasantly.