Chapter 5
“Ugh…”
A painful groan, belonging to someone unknown, reached Chloe’s ears.
She froze, her gaze fixed on the narrow gap in the wardrobe door.
Through the slit, she could see the silhouette of a large man steadily approaching.
“D-don’t come.”
Chloe frantically searched her pockets.
But all she found were useless things.
There weren’t many sheep wandering in the peppermint field. She had confidently told her mother there were three, but in reality, the only real item containing concentrated extract was the water gun her mother had handed her.
“Please… please don’t find me.”
But the man approached the wardrobe without a trace of hesitation.
In Chloe’s ears, the sound of locks breaking, snapping one by one, echoed.
Terrified, Chloe shivered and buried her head in her hands.
Through hundreds of experiences from her previous life, she could already anticipate what was about to happen.
“I… I have to escape.”
But the narrow wardrobe she was trapped in offered no escape.
Despair filled her as she watched the wardrobe door slowly, very slowly, open.
The light reflecting on the child’s face grew from the size of a finger to the size of a palm, eventually illuminating her entire figure.
As the light expanded, so did her feelings of helplessness and fear.
“I-I’m sorry!”
Chloe rubbed her hands together frantically toward the man.
It was just a habitual apology, not a plea she expected the man to hear.
She clenched her body tighter, bracing herself for the imminent blow.
But no matter how long she waited, no matter how many times she apologized, there was no pain.
The unfamiliar man, standing with a brilliant white light behind him, seemed speechless, simply standing in front of the open door.
“Why… isn’t he saying anything…?”
After trembling for a long moment, Chloe cautiously lifted her eyes to look at the man before her.
He wore armor stained with blood and was as tall as Uncle Blake.
But unlike Blake, whose body was filled with bulging muscles, the man before her had a well-proportioned physique with lean, defined muscles.
“C-could he be an ally?”
As Chloe raised her eyes with the tiniest flicker of hope, she suddenly realized…
“Uh…?”
Seeing the stranger’s face, she was frozen in awe, forgetting her fear.
He looked as if he had stepped out of an angelic painting. Beautiful enough to make her think she was hallucinating.
Golden curls tumbled across a smooth forehead. A perfectly sculpted nose and jawline completed his flawless face.
But it wasn’t just his appearance that stunned Chloe.
“Why… is he crying?”
The man was crying.
Silently, without sobbing, he was crying while looking at her.
His teal eyes, like melted jewels, shed tears that glimmered as if they were gemstones, and Chloe instinctively reached out as if to catch them.
The man, quietly letting his tears fall, slowly knelt.
Chloe’s eyes followed him downward.
As the once-intimidating man lowered himself, she could finally exhale a little.
“Chloe.”
The man, whom she had never met before, spoke her name.
Only then did Chloe realize where she had seen those beautiful eyes before.
“A mirror…”
His eyes resembled her own reflected in a mirror.
“Chloe.”
He smiled through the tears streaking his face.
It was impossible to tell whether it was a smile of joy or sorrow.
“Chloe… so, you really are Chloe.”
Chloe realized that the man kept repeating her name.
Tall. Bright blonde hair. Teal eyes like a shattered summer forest.
A beautiful, elegant man, as if crafted by a god…
“Nice to meet you, my daughter.”
Lucian Liander—the direct heir of the Lion family ruling the southern continent.
In the story, he was the father who killed Chloe and her mother before committing suicide.
Phew. Wrapped tightly in a blanket, Chloe lifted her head to breathe.
Lucian, carefully rolling her up like a fragile porcelain doll, held her firmly as he ran.
“What on earth is happening?”
Chloe looked up, lips pressed together in a straight line.
Her gaze caught Lucian’s tense, handsome jaw.
“Why was he crying?”
Even from below, Chloe could see a man without shame or flaw, and she furrowed her brows in confusion.
The novel, which focused on the main characters’ story, never mentioned a word about Chloe and Lucian’s relationship.
“But I thought he would hate me for causing the war.”
“Hold on a little longer.”
Lucian, perhaps noticing Chloe’s discomfort, adjusted his hold.
“If we use the magic stone, we can reach the Lion family’s territory quickly. Don’t worry, there’s no need to be afraid.”
Go to the Lion family? Chloe opened her mouth in surprise.
“Bite your teeth together. You might bite your tongue.”
Lucian lifted Chloe with one arm, as if she were a light plush doll, and mounted his horse.
Eek! Chloe had never ridden so high and flailed in panic, prompting Lucian to hold her even tighter.
“The objective is complete! Everyone, retreat!”
A stern voice, completely different from the one Chloe had just heard, rang out.
At the same time, she could hear cats and wild beasts scattered around the castle howling and running toward them.
“My throat feels ticklish…”
As Chloe shivered, feeling like she might cough, a piercing scream came from behind.
“Stop!”
Chloe immediately recognized the voice and whipped her head around.
“Mom!”
Melissa and Brooks, wielding a blood-stained sword, were frantically chasing Lucian’s forces.
“That’s right—my mom!”
Finally realizing she was being carried off by someone she thought was her father, Chloe struggled.
“Let me go!”
“Stay still. You’ll get hurt if you fall.”
“I have to go to Mom! She told me to wait…!”
Lucian clicked his tongue and frowned as he glanced behind him.
The warmth she had thought she saw in his eyes earlier vanished, replaced by a coldness like moss beneath a rock.
“This ‘dad’… Mom doesn’t like him either.”
Some things were different, but the poor relationship between her parents mirrored her previous life.
Even though she expected it, tears welled in Chloe’s eyes, and she bit her lips.
“Not now.”
She struggled to escape from Lucian’s arms.
“Let me down! I have to go to Mom!”
But Lucian’s hold was too strong and immense for her to break free.
Effortlessly restraining her, Lucian signaled a nearby knight.
“Open it.”
“Yes!”
Then she heard her mother’s voice from afar.
“Lucian, give me back my daughter!”
“Mom!”
“Melissa, you can’t!”
Chloe watched Brooks physically block Melissa from charging alone into enemy territory.
“You can’t go alone! Reinforcements will arrive soon! How could you rush into the Lion family territory alone?”
“That demon! What do you plan to do with my daughter? You abandoned her before…!”
Lucian, glancing coldly behind him, gripped the reins tighter.
Veins bulging on his hands and faint tremors under his eyes showed his intense loathing for the people behind him.
“Hold your breath, Chloe. The beginning may be a little hard.”
Lucian pulled the reins strongly while holding the back of her head.
“Mom…!”
The white horse Lucian rode leapt into the dark void.
Chloe’s last cry was swallowed by the darkness.
“Pain…!”
A suffocating pressure around her neck and dizziness hit her head like a hammer.
“Chloe, breathe…!”
Those words echoed above her, and Chloe lost consciousness.
Long ago, she once asked her mother:
“Mom, why don’t I have a dad?”
She didn’t remember her mother’s expression at the time, but she vividly remembered the embrace.
“Chloe, do you want a dad?”
She didn’t answer, and her mother held her tighter, asking again:
“Are you curious about your dad, my daughter?”
Chloe didn’t answer the first question, fearing it would make her mother sad, but the second question was irresistible.
“…Yes.”
She had always been so curious about her father.
Why other children had one and she didn’t.
Who had given her the teal eyes her mother said were the most beautiful in the world.
“Chloe’s dad… was a very kind man.”
“Really?”
“Yes. So kind, it could even make you mad sometimes.”
Chloe remembered her mother’s expression when she said that.
Ah, yes. Her mother was crying.
So sorrowful that Chloe couldn’t even ask why, yet trying to smile through it.
She realized that her mother’s pain every spring was because of her father.
That her occasional sad expressions were because of him…
“Didn’t I tell you? They are a race you can’t trust.”
Upon waking from the dream, Chloe heard a low voice.
‘Where am I?’
Blinking, she gazed at the unfamiliar ceiling.
‘Why am I here…?’
“You should never have taken the child. No, you shouldn’t have accepted such a prophecy in the first place.”
Chloe, staring blankly at the ceiling, cautiously turned toward the direction of the voice.
