13.
Pretes carried Lephonia, dangling in his arms, until they finally reached the Duke’s office. As they approached, the Duke of Kreitan’s furious roar could be heard from within.
"I thought my father had lost his mind, but it seems he’s still quite sharp."
Pretes chuckled and set Lephonia down on the ground. She had been worried he might carry her like that even in front of a crowd, so she was relieved. Lephonia brushed off her crumpled clothes and scanned her surroundings.
Perhaps because the Duke had forbidden entry to his office, people were lined up in the hallway. The butler, the head maid, and several knights. Birdie and Becky, who had gone to investigate the situation, were there as well. Behind them stood a few vassals who had been apprehended by the knights.
*I thought they were in solitary confinement.*
Seeing them lined up like that, it looked as if they were waiting for their turn...
*Wait?*
Lephonia’s anxious eyes turned toward the office, which was filled with rage. Then, who was inside right now?
"I am asking who dared! Who set the fire in my mansion! Who threw that incense!"
Along with the sound of something breaking inside, the Duke’s angry voice rang out. It was followed by the sound of someone wailing, claiming they were innocent and begging for an investigation.
*Gasp.*
It seemed one of the vassals was inside that office. It looked like the Duke was finally pressuring the vassals to find the culprit. This was the worst-case scenario.
*I have to resolve this situation, somehow.*
Lephonia’s face stiffened as she racked her brain.
"Move."
Pretes, who had been watching Lephonia’s back, stepped forward.
"Gasp, Young Master Pretes?"
He then kicked open the door to the office, which no one had dared to open.
"Who is it! No one is allowed without my permission—!!"
"Father."
"Pretes?"
*Now is the time.* Lephonia trotted into the office behind Pretes. The inside of the office was a mess. Several pieces of furniture were broken, and there was even a sword on the desk.
"How did you suddenly... get in here?"
Pretes scanned the vassal inside the office and spoke calmly.
"I know you're angry, but you should handle this separately. You're scaring the child."
*Where is the scared child here?*
At Pretes’s words, Lephonia looked around to find the scared child. But no matter how much she looked, she couldn't see one. When she turned her head back to the front, Lephonia’s eyes met Pretes’, who was looking at her.
*...Is it me?*
Lephonia blinked. The Duke, following Pretes’s gaze, discovered Lephonia.
"Ponia!"
The Duke of Kreitan rushed over like a beast and pulled the startled Lephonia into his arms.
"You’ve woken up. How is your body? Is anything hurting? The doctor said your throat was in bad condition because you inhaled too much smoke, how is that? Call out to me... No, wait. If you’ve regained consciousness, you should be resting in bed, so why did you come here? I clearly ordered you to call the doctor first the moment you woke up."
Lephonia swallowed hard at the barrage of breathless questions. Even when she had suffered burns that left her skin raw and weeping, no one had ever worried about her like this.
*Was he worried about me?*
Lephonia stared at the Duke’s face. It was similar to the expression she had seen before she lost consciousness. She had thought she might have misseen it because she was about to faint, but it looked like the face of a father worried about his daughter.
*...No.*
Lephonia stopped her thoughts from drifting naturally and lowered her head.
*I’m not his daughter. I’m a stranger. There’s no way he’s worried about me.*
The person the Duke was worried about wasn't Lephonia. Let’s not be mistaken. The person he was worried about was the "Lady of Kreitan" whose place Lephonia was filling. A substitute for that child. A replacement for the real Lady. That was why he felt a surge of guilt whenever Lephonia got hurt.
Lephonia suppressed her emotions and replied.
"I’m fine. ...What about you, Duke?"
"I am fine, too. A fire like that is nothing to me."
"Okay."
"Ponia. You have nothing to worry about. An assassination attempt in my own mansion is an intolerable matter. I will surely find the one who hurt you and—"
"About that."
"Yes?"
"Let’s drop this matter."
The Duke’s face crumpled in confusion. It wasn't just the Duke. Although they weren't the culprits of this specific incident, the vassals who had been planning the assassination, as well as Pretes and the household staff who were listening, looked at Lephonia in shock.
"Ponia. Are you saying we should let the people who tried to kill you go?"
The fact that he assumed "people" when he didn't even know if there was one culprit or two meant the Duke already suspected the vassals.
"Yes. Don't look for the culprit who tried to kill me."
The Duke of Kreitan closed his mouth as if he were speechless.
"You, why are you so kind—"
"I’m not kind."
If she were kind, she wouldn't have thrown herself into the fire to create a trap to frame them in the first place.
"For now... let’s sit down, Ponia."
"..."
"You’ll hurt your body."
The Duke made a sound like he was being choked, dismissed the vassals and knights, and closed the office door. Only Pretes, Lephonia, and the Duke remained in the office. The Duke, having sent everyone away, approached Lephonia, who was sitting on the sofa, and knelt on one knee to meet her eye level.
"If you’re doing this because you’re afraid of them, you don't need to worry, Ponia. They will never be able to threaten you."
"That’s not it."
"If not that, then why?"
"Because it’s not good for you, Duke, to be hostile toward those people."
Lephonia was deathly calm, as if she were talking about someone else’s business.
"I know those people are the ones who follow you."
It wasn't easy for a five-year-old to understand vassal relationships. It would surely invite suspicion if she spoke too sharply. Lephonia spoke vaguely.
"You don't have any evidence, right?"
Of course. Since Lephonia had orchestrated the event herself, there was no way there would be evidence that the vassals had done it.
"...Why do you think so?"
"If there were evidence, you wouldn't be shouting 'Who set fire to my mansion,' you would have just caught them."
The Duke closed his mouth. Pretes, sitting next to him, was listening to their conversation with his arms crossed and his legs tucked.
"If you keep pushing them as the culprits, they’ll get angry, too."
"That is not a matter for you and me to think about, Ponia."
"Think about where that anger will go, Duke."
In truth, it wasn't a matter that required deep thought.
"End this here. You scolded them severely, so they won't do it again."
Lephonia said calmly and smiled.
"Ponia. You almost died."
"I didn't die."
"You could have been in serious trouble."
"But nothing happened."
At Lephonia’s words, the Duke’s face crumpled. Pretes, who was next to him, was also crumpling his face in tandem.
"Since it ended well, it’s a relief... Oh. If there was any financial loss because the bedroom burned down, I can request compensation separately—"
"That kind of thing doesn't matter at all, Ponia."
Lephonia sighed in relief. She had been worried about what would happen if a major problem arose due to financial loss, but as expected of a great noble, it seemed that amount was nothing to him.
"Phew, that was a close call, but I’m glad."
"You’re calling that a relief...!"
The Duke of Kreitan stopped speaking and gritted his teeth. He then managed to continue.
"Those things are not a problem."
Ignoring the Duke’s words, Lephonia hopped off the sofa with her short legs. She had said everything she needed to say.
"It hurts. I want to go back and rest. Can I?"
She had said this much, so he must understand now. There was no good in staying here any longer. She had to slip away at the right time so the Duke of Kreitan couldn't be stubborn.
*And I really am exhausted.*
The young body was harder to endure in a fire than she had expected. In fact, her throat felt like it was burning, and she felt like she was going to die.
"...Yes. Call the doctor. I need to check Ponia’s condition again."
The Duke, unable to hold back Lephonia when she said she was in pain and wanted to rest, nodded.
*It worked.*
Lephonia returned to her bedroom, supported by Birdie and Becky, who had been waiting outside.
*Click.*
After Lephonia left, the office door closed.
"Ha."
Feeling the small, pitter-patter footsteps fading away, Pretes laughed in disbelief and ran a hand through his hair.
"A massive con artist has settled in."
"Watch your mouth regarding your sister, Pretes."
"Sister? Since when have I had a sister?"
Pretes chuckled with a loose, nonchalant attitude.
"Father, does that look normal to you? Even to my eyes, having never raised a child, it looks abnormal."
Pretes stretched his long legs out onto the sofa table and tapped his foot.
"She didn't even cry when she woke up. You said she’s five, right? Isn't it normal for her to cry if she’s hurt or scared? There wasn't a single tear track on her face. And that’s not all? I ran into her and intimidated her a bit, but—"
"Pretes."
The Duke of Kreitan called out to Pretes in a low, warning voice. Pretes just laughed, as if he were used to it.
"She isn't even afraid. People my age or even professors run away in fear when they see me, but she looked me in the eye and didn't even flinch, you know?"
"..."
"You heard what she said earlier, right? She said she didn't die and nothing happened? And then she said it was a relief because there was almost a financial loss. I got goosebumps."
"The doctor said she tends to be indifferent to her own affairs. As a kind of defense mechanism."
"If she defends herself twice more, she’ll be dead."
Pretes stood up and approached the Duke’s desk. There was a small frame on the desk. It was a family portrait painted a long time ago. Back in the days when the Duchess was still alive and there was a baby sister who had been born only a few months prior.
"She’s clearly been brainwashed and sent here with the intention of becoming the Lady of this family. Unless it’s someone who has undergone sophisticated training for a very long time, that kind of thinking process is impossible for a five-year-old."
Pretes looked at the portrait and then turned the small frame face down.
"Pretes. There seems to be a misunderstanding, but it was I who first proposed the adoption."
"You must have been manipulated into a situation where you had no choice. Have you seen her face? I thought Mother had come back to life."
"..."
"If I was this shocked, Father and the people in the mansion must have been even more confused. She definitely used some kind of trick."
Pretes, who had turned around, sat on the edge of the desk and stared at the Duke. His lightless blue eyes were as cold as if he were looking at a stranger, not his own father. The two men clearly resembled each other, but they were strangely out of sync.
"Did you want to play family, Father? Or did you just give in to impulse and bring her here because she resembles Mother?"
"Pretes. I will not permit any more insolence than that."
"No, that’s not right. We were never a family, so it wouldn't be an Adoption Game, would it? I don't recall a single moment where you acted like a father to me."
"Pretes. Still..."
"If you want to play father and daughter with her, do it after you hand over the position of head of the house, Father. Don't go bringing some strange child into the family and inciting a fight between your children this late in the game. You should be grateful it was me who came and not my brother. If he had come, she would have been dead right here."
"Watch your tongue, Pretes."
Pretes merely shrugged and crossed his arms.
However, the thought of that audacious five-year-old child, who bore a face resembling his mother, dying left him with a strange feeling.
The moment he saw her face as she stepped out of the bedroom, his heart had inexplicably surged and ached. It felt as if his senses were opening up, much like when he first mastered Aura.
His gaze lingered on her silver hair, which stuck out here and there as cutely as a clump of cotton, and her round, shining red eyes that looked like two ripe cherries.
It was as if he had finally encountered something he had been searching for for a long time.
But his lost younger sister could not possibly be five years old.
"Is it because she looks so much like Mother?"
Pretes clicked his tongue and dismissed the thought.
She was going to be kicked out anyway; what was the point of thinking about such things?
"I’m going to talk some sense into her and send her away, so keep that in mind."
"Pretes. If you lay a hand on that child, I will not let it slide, even if it is you."
Despite the Duke’s warning, Pretes walked out of the office with a rough, indifferent stride.
And the next day.
"Hey. Kid. Eat up, quickly."
What is wrong with him?
"I’m keeping watch right now, so don't worry and just eat."
Pretes said this while scanning the left and right sides of the garden, standing guard.
Lephonia looked down at the chocolates and candies piled high in her palms with an incredulous expression.
'Is he trying to bully me, or is he trying to be nice?'
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