“Sit down.”
After they arrived in a separate room, the Marquis offered Lena a seat. Then he sat across from Lena and raised his face. For a while, he muttered something quietly.
“You look good.”
It was neither a gentleman’s manner to compliment a lady, nor a high-ranking nobility to treat a knight.
“Fortunately.”
It was just the voice of a father who was talking to his daughter.
Then, Lena also quietly muttered, “Do you recognize me?”
“You’re my child, I can’t not recognize you.”
Marquis Rubel smiled bitterly at Lena’s question. Lena looked at him, and the Marquis said tenderly, “You made a dangerous choice.”
“What do you mean?”
“You act as a representative of the Southern Duke.”
The worried voice of the Marquis made Lena laugh in vain.
“Are you lecturing me?”
“I wish you could think of it as a worry…”
“You skipped too much, father. Don’t you have something to do before that?”
Lena’s friendly pointing out made the Marquis laughed.
“Yes, I have to do something first.”
The next moment, a smile disappeared from Lena’s face. This was because her father got up from the sofa and kneeled.
“Father…” Lena was surprised and tried to get him up.
“I’m sorry, ” said the Marquis before that, “Forgive me.”6
It was a very sad voice.
Lena looked silently at the kneeling Marquis. Her father, who always looked up, kneeled down for a long time. Lena’s lips gave a small sigh.
“What do you mean ‘sorry’?”
“I turned my back on you. No, I sold you, to that dangerous man.” His voice was monotonous but desperate.
Lena muttered in her father’s confession with a blank face.
“….I never imagined a moment like this.”
Then, she hesitated and began to speak.
“But I’m not really happy to see it. Why are you doing this all of a sudden? You pretended not to know me yesterday.”
“I couldn’t believe it.”
“What?”
“That you showed up again. I thought I’d never see you again.”
The Marquis raised his head when he said so. When their eyes met, Lena’s eyes grew saddened.
“It’s a waste. I would have believed you if you hadn’t tried to poison me.”
In Lena’s whisper, the appeals that stood in the eyes of the Marquis closed like a lie.
“You didn’t just send the butler because you need to check and then to feed poison to a simple impersonator, right? You’re sure it’s really me.”
Marquis Rubel’s face hardened when she pointed to the point. Lena spoke bitterly as she looked at him.
“Was it so difficult for you if I show up?”
“What…”
“It’s okay. I don’t mean anything. I’m just curious.”
When the Marquis found the excuses, Lena kindly asked him, with a smile on her lips. It was neither a sharp sarcastic nor ridicule teasing. It was a real smile like when she was having a normal conversation.
After he saw it, the Marquis recalled Klavis’ words.
—She recognized me. But she smiled.
—How can that be? To the person who pushed her to hell, how on earth?
—Do you understand? The child we sacrificed came back as a monster.
The cold fear swept his back.
Until just now, he thought Lena had no idea about the poison. Because she came to the ballroom yesterday. It wasn’t the reaction of a person that had been threatened to death.
The anger of a threat was natural for living beings. But she didn’t show it. So her mildness was rather bizarre, it’s like she thought of it as a piece of a nightmare that was out of order.
When the Marquis became silent and stunned, Lena asked him, “Why did you do that? Or are you originally like that?”
When Lena was young, her father, who used to be a Viscount, was very busy. So she couldn’t see him very often, but she really liked her father. Because he was a sweet, warm, and wonderful father.
He sometimes played jokes. Whether he pricked his daughter’s face with ink-stained hands, replace her apple juice with ginger tea and watched her reaction, or held her doll for her.
He was a gentle-looking father who played unexpected pranks and made her laugh.
Lena remembered it clearly. He taught her to dance, she put her feet on her father’s feet and danced together.
“I really liked father.”
“….So did I.”
“But why did you do that?” Lena asked, whispering, “We didn’t do or have anything bad, but why did you do that?”
“It’s to be humble.”
“Be humble?”
“As the Emperor said, I was so humble that I had to choose. Either we all die together, or they cut off a finger.”
“Did that one finger die?”
Lena asked back with a smile. The vague attitude made the Marquis felt strangely hopeless. It seemed useless to say anything.
“Please stand up. You don’t have to do this. It won’t happen.”
As expected, Lena spoke softly.
“I’m an adult now, father.”
“What…”
“I’m 18 this years, it’s the age that the Empire recognizes as an adult. Are you still mistaken for my age?”
Lena teased her father, who didn’t know his daughter’s age. But he had no idea what she was talking about. Lena enjoyed her father’s embarrassment and spoke.
“So treat me as a person, not as a finger. Don’t kneel uncomfortably.”
At Lena’s request, the Marquis eventually stood up. Then, he sighed.
“I received your letter.”
He thought it would be pointless to tell Lena about his story. Thinking so, the Marquis chose to talk rationally.
Lena smiled as if it was the right answer.
“Yesterday you asked why.”
Just yesterday, Lena asked in a letter.
—I’m curious as well. Why did my father do that to me?
—So if you tell me why, I will tell you too.
—What I came to do and what I can do.
The Marquis thought that the letter was a declaration of war even if he tried to read it again. He also thought it was a bitter letter. She knew about the poisoning and wrote it, so he felt heavy about it.
“The answer I gave you earlier isn’t enough?”
“No, that’s enough. It’s my turn to tell you, isn’t it? What I came to do, and…”
“What you can do.”
As the Marquis continued, Lena replied as if she had been waiting.
“I want to exist.”
It was not a statement that was easy to understand.
“I’m not in this world. Everybody forgot about me, and sometimes even if they remember, they remember me as someone who has died. But I’m not dead. I’m alive here now.”
She said with smiling lips, but determined eyes, “That’s all I want. I was erased by father.”
“If you exist…”
“Please admit me. Officially.”
“….Do you mean to confess my fault?”
“I’m not interested in father’s fault. All I want is me.”
Marquis Rubel took a deep breath at Lena’s request.
To recognize her officially, that meant to reveal Lena was his daughter, didn’t die of illness, became Klavis’ sacrifice, and nevertheless returned.3
In the end, he demanded a confession of treason.
“I’ll give you a new life,” He spoke in a hearty voice, “I promise you a life that will satisfy you. Live a noble life as much as the royal family.”
“No, I’m fine.”
But she refused humbly.
“I say, all I want is me.”
“It’s impossible.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s treason.”
The Marquis confessed with a long sigh.
Lena’s eyes widened and the Marquis smiled bitterly at his daughter’s shocked face. He agonized over this matter yesterday.
He was sure she’s determined to come. What she needed. Why did she come here to challenge the Imperial Cardinal and the Northern Marquis?
There was only one point. Treason. There was no way Lena could shake himself and the Cardinal unless he moved to cover up the treason. So he decided to take out that card first.
“You didn’t know about this.”
Maybe she was surprised because she didn’t know what to do or was embarrassed because of it. Either way, it didn’t matter.
“The Cardinal took you to confront the Empress. If it’s known, then of course I will be one of the traitors too, and you will be known as a daughter of a traitor.”
Although all the Kings did it, Niheal was especially sarcastic about treason. She was a woman who destroyed her family by even attacking them with treason. Even she never had the mercy to the snitch.
So, treason was a double-edged sword that would inflict a fatal blow on Lena too.
However, there was a possibility that they would fight against each other to death. The Marquis spoke with Lena what she would become, like a moth.
“I understand how you resent me. I have no face to show you….”
The Duke paused and looked at Lena. Then he looked at her eyes and muttered, “Your mother is innocent.”
Lena’s eyes shook when the Marquis mentioned her mother. She couldn’t speak for a moment.
The Marquis quietly relieved watching her appearance. Now that he felt the human nature from his daughter, he thought he found her weakness.
“…I’m not guilty of anything.” Then, she spoke after a while.
“Rest assured. I have no intention of accusing father. It’s a waste of time to finish it like that.”
Time passed.
Marquis Rubel thought it was an interesting expression. Yes, six years was never a short time. It would have been harsher and longer for an abandoned child.
‘Yeah, she’d rather die.‘
He was deeply sorry for his daughter who came back. And Lena seemed to have read the thought.
“So I’ll give you a chance.”
“Chance?”
“A chance to be forgiven by me.”
Marquis Rubel’s eyes narrowed in the unexpected remark.
“Even if father doesn’t admit it, even if it’s a clue of treason, I will be Lena Rubel. You want to get rid of me, don’t you?”
He couldn’t answer. It was like he was stabbed. Lena smiled bitterly because she already knew it would happen.
“Keep trying. If it’s successful, father will be able to stay where you are now.”
“Keep trying?”
“Kill me. Like you did before,” Lena’s voice was so quiet.
“The deadline is until the tomb conquest is over. Until then, I won’t retaliate or reveal. Instead, if you can’t kill me until the last day, then I will do as much as I received the attempt.”4
She would get what she wanted. It’s a simple statement, but it was like a statement to kill each other.
As her father stared with a firm face, Lena added in a calm voice.
“But if you admit me before that, then I’ll forgive you, father.”
Kill, die, or confess. Lena gave him a chance to be forgiven and to commit the sin again.2
The Marquis deeply sighed after he understood the meaning.
“Did you come to talk about this two days ago?”
“Yes.”
“I see,” he quietly murmured.
His daughter’s determination seemed to touch his flesh, so he kept thinking for a long time.
When the Marquis couldn’t continue, Lena said, “Is the deadline enough?”
A bitter smile filled the Marquis’ mouth. It’s strange that his daughter joked about killing herself. He didn’t know if she should be considered as someone strong or broken.
“Do we have to do this?”
“I want to ask you the same question. Do we have to do this?”
Lena’s determination prompted the Marquis to nod.
“Don’t take it seriously.”
“Please think about it positively.”
“Lena.”
When Lena tried to talk, the Marquis called her. It’s like in the past when he always called his daughter.
“I can let you meet her for a while.”
“Who is it?”
“Your mother.”
His voice was serious before. And it was sweet again. So Lena’s face became strange. She looked at him with a smiling face. She looked like she wanted to say something.
But Lena ended up saying nothing. Then, she rose quietly and turned around.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
If you want to do it, please don’t.
Don’t throw your phone, guys…. or swear or curse or something like that, please don’t 🙂