~Chapter 13~
Leah came back to Raphaella after hearing what the maids had told her.
As always, she was busy teaching her daughter the basics.
Smart little Raphaella had followed all the lessons well during the winter.
Honestly, it felt like she understood ten things just by being taught one.
‘She’s really smart—must be because she’s my daughter.’
While Leah was smiling proudly, Johann showed up at Raphaella’s room.
Leah had been a bit worried that he might break his promise, so she was relieved to see him.
But sadly, while he was fine as the Duke of Blumhardt, he was a total failure as a dad.
He was nothing like the man she used to know—“Hardt”—and couldn’t do anything in front of his daughter.
All he did was sit there awkwardly and stiffly.
‘Ugh, this won’t do.’
Leah had planned to let him bond with Raphaella on his own, but she decided to step in.
“Do you know what Raphaella likes the most?”
She had to speak formally to him now, or she’d accidentally fall back into using casual speech again.
‘We used to talk informally, so it almost slipped again.’
Maybe it was because she hadn’t seen him much during the winter, but it was still hard to speak formally with her husband.
“…How would I know that?”
“She’s holding it right now—that wooden doll.
Its name is ‘Tosooni.’
She loves it so much she even sleeps with it.”
“Tosooni? So it’s a rabbit? I was wondering what kind of animal it was.”
Hearing that, Raphaella glared at Johann and quickly hid the doll behind her back.
Leah turned away to hide her laughter.
“…What’s so funny?”
“Haha, sorry.
That wooden rabbit was actually made by you, Your Grace.”
“…Me? I made that thing?”
“Yes.
You were wondering what to give her as her first gift, and after thinking hard, you asked Raul—my friend from the village—to teach you how to make it.
“When I lost my memory… I must’ve really lost my mind too, huh.”
He let out a dry laugh, not believing he ever learned how to make dolls.
“It’s not that—you just really loved your daughter.”
“…”
He still couldn’t believe he’d made a wooden toy for his daughter.
“Anyway, she loves playing with Tosooni.”
“…So I just have to play with the doll with her?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Johann nodded like he understood and walked over to Raphaella, who was playing with Tosooni.
But not even five minutes had passed before Raphaella stood up.
“Mommy, I wanna play with you instead!”
She couldn’t stand how bad her dad was at playing dolls and ran to her mom.
‘Hmm, guess doll play was a bit too much for that stiff guy.’
After thinking for a bit, Leah took out Jenga blocks from a toy box.
“…Jenga?”
“Yes.
It’s one of Raphaella’s favorite games these days.”
Johann had played Jenga when he was younger, so he felt more at ease with this.
Since Raphaella didn’t want to play alone with him, Leah joined too, and the three of them started playing.
The problem? Johann never let his daughter win.
After a few rounds, Raphaella got upset.
“…I don’t wanna play anymore.”
“Why not, Raphaella?”
“…Dad keeps winning.
It’s boring.”
“He’s just really good at it…”
“He’s not my dad! My dad wouldn’t do that!”
Leah tried to calm her down, but Raphaella grabbed Tosooni and stomped into her bedroom.
Johann looked confused and put the wooden piece in his hand down.
“A proper noble should accept defeat and think about the next move.
Acting like that is just—”
“…You used to only win one or two out of five games.
The rest, you let her win.”
“Really? Looks like past me was spoiling her way too much.”
Seeing how he made no effort to reflect on himself and had upset the child on the very first day of playing, Leah clenched her teeth.
“She still doesn’t fully accept you as her father yet, so did you really have to win every time?”
“Ugh, I just don’t know how to play with kids.
I wasn’t trying to win on purpose…”
“Then go study how to play with kids.”
“What? Study? That’s a bit much—”
“If you’re bad at something, you study it.”
“…”
Johann felt irritated by the idea of having to study how to play with a kid.
But Leah looked even more annoyed than he was, so he kept his mouth shut.
He had thought their whole arrangement would be a simple contract, but this woman was making it way more complicated.
Still, he realized even saying what she wanted to hear could benefit him, so he gave in.
“…Fine.
I’ll study it.
“Then I’ll go check on Raphaella now.”
With a heavy sigh, Leah went to comfort their daughter.
Johann left the room too, feeling a bit uneasy after making his daughter cry.
Their first attempt at bonding ended without much success.
—
Leah managed to calm down a very sulky Raphaella and sang her a lullaby until she fell asleep.
She had expected it to be tough the first time, but ending it with a sad child wasn’t what she had in mind.
Johann had his struggles, but Leah realized this process wouldn’t be easy for her either.
‘Next time, he really has to make a proper effort with Raphaella.’
Was she asking too much from a high-ranking noble?
Maybe, but she had no choice.
If their relationship stayed just a cold, dutiful one between a noble father and daughter, then nothing about Raphaella’s fate would change.
Even if it was hard, Johann and Raphaella needed to truly become loving father and daughter.
‘Because I won’t be able to stay by her side forever.’
Ria sighed, staring at the snake-shaped mark on Raphaella’s neck—a divine symbol that seemed to warn her not to neglect her duty.
She desperately hoped that the mark would disappear soon.
Only then could she die without regrets.
‘Raphaella, I’ll make sure he loves you again.’
So just stay happy like you are now.
That’s all I want—your happiness.
She carefully tucked Raphaella’s blanket and stood up.
In the dark, she tiptoed to the side room where she kept her things.
She was looking for the potion recipe notebook she had used with her grandmother.
That morning, something the maids had said had sparked a thought.
“The late Duke passed away, and the following summer, the Duchess and Lady Penelope went to a summer villa near the estate.”
“Apparently, the Duchess was depressed after her husband died, so Lady Penelope took her there to cheer her up.”
“A villa?”
“Yes, there’s a beautiful lake between the Eisner and Blumhardt territories.
A lot of nobles have summer villas there.”
“But something must’ve happened.
They came back earlier than planned.
Lady Penelope’s finger had a black, swollen wound, and after that, she started getting weaker day by day.”
“Like her body was drying up.”
“Healers from all over the Empire came, but no treatment worked.”
“The Duke even asked the Emperor to send a royal mage, but even he couldn’t heal her.”
“They say it’s a new illness and no cure exists yet.”
“She used to be so full of life.
Now she hasn’t even come out of her room on the fourth floor.”
Leah remembered a boy from the village who had gotten sick the year after Johann had collapsed.
He had played in a nearby stream and got bitten by a strange fish.
After that, his body started drying out.
His parents brought him to Leah in a panic.
Leah was good at making potions, just like her grandmother.
When she examined him, she noticed symptoms she’d never seen before.
The bite mark looked weird, and his tongue had turned a dark blue.
He was also extremely thirsty.
‘That was way too serious to be from a normal fish bite.’
She remembered thinking that the boy’s symptoms were kind of like those of knights who had been poisoned by monsters.
But it wasn’t quite the same—usually, their whole body turned dark blue, not just the tongue, and the thirst wasn’t as extreme.
She first tried the potion used to treat monster poison, but it didn’t work.
She ended up spending nearly a year digging through her notes and old books to find a cure.
‘Funny enough, the key ingredient wasn’t in a book—it was something I found near our cabin.’
But eventually, she did make a potion that healed the boy completely.
If Penelope had the same illness, maybe Leah could cure her too.
But then again, none of the Empire’s best healers or potion-makers could help her.
‘What if her disease is something else entirely?’
If so, Leah worried she’d just give everyone false hope.
She wasn’t sure if she should speak up yet.
