Episode 1
“I know you’re famous for not taking on trivial tasks like this. But I have a sincere request, so I called for you.”
The **Grand Duke Crichton** spoke in a frail, aged voice. It was hard to believe that this man—one of the empire’s only grand dukes, a figure who wielded power nearly equal to the emperor—could sound so weak.
I stared at him for a moment. A thought crossed my mind: *Did he know everything and call me here because of it?*
“What exactly is the request you want to make?”
“Find my daughter.”
Deep regret filled the Grand Duke’s eyes.
The moment I saw his expression, I knew.
He didn’t know anything.
“Your daughter?”
“Yes. The child in this portrait is my daughter.”
I bit my tongue lightly as I examined the portrait he handed me.
The woman in the painting was someone I knew very well.
Someone I could never forget—not even for a moment.
Someone I must never forget.
With trembling hands, I picked up the portrait.
“My daughter, **Cornelia Crichton**. Twenty-five years have passed, so she may have changed a lot… but please. Find my daughter.”
Cornelia Crichton.
It had been a long time since I heard that name, yet it didn’t sound unfamiliar at all.
It was a name I had kept deeply engraved in my heart for over fourteen years.
Because the daughter the Grand Duke was searching for—**Cornelia Crichton—was my mother.**
“As far as I know, Cornelia Crichton went missing 25 years ago… Why didn’t you try to find her sooner?”
I tried to remain calm, but my voice trembled.
Why now?
Why only now… after **fourteen years** had passed since my mother died?
I simply couldn’t understand him.
My mother had chosen love over the honor of her family, yet she still wished for forgiveness from her father.
She sent him letters asking for forgiveness again and again.
But in the end, the Grand Duke never replied.
“I did try to find her. But I simply couldn’t.”
“Or… did you just not want to?”
“…What?”
“If that’s not the case, why did you ignore your daughter’s letters?”
I would never forget the moment when my mother—fighting illness and facing death—finally gave up on everything.
Did he know how much she suffered until the moment she closed her eyes?
“Letters?”
“Yes. The letters Cornelia Crichton sent to you from time to time.”
Seeing the Grand Duke looking completely confused only made me angrier.
Had he thought so little of them that he couldn’t even remember?
“I’m sorry to say this, Grand Duke Crichton. But Cornelia Crichton is dead.”
I couldn’t hold it in anymore. The words burst out of my chest.
At the same time, the Grand Duke’s face turned pale.
“She sent letter after letter begging for your forgiveness! In the end, she died resenting the father who never replied. That was fourteen years ago. So I’m afraid I can’t accept your request.”
In truth, my mother never resented him.
Instead, she blamed herself and told me to forgive my grandfather.
But Grand Duke Crichton…
From the moment I learned of your existence, I have never forgiven you. Not once.
“Then I suppose there’s no reason for me to stay here any longer.”
Seeing no reason to remain, I stood up.
The Grand Duke rose as well, looking bewildered, as if he didn’t understand what I was saying.
“You… who exactly are you? Cornelia is dead?”
Just then—
*Clap. Clap. Clap.*
An out-of-place sound of applause echoed through the reception room.
“So the two of you have finally met.”
The one who entered the room was an elderly man.
He wore a suit just as expensive-looking as the Grand Duke’s.
“Daniel?”
The Grand Duke seemed to recognize him.
“Daniel, why are you here—!”
“More importantly… have the greetings finished?”
The man called Daniel pulled a cigar from his pocket and placed it in his mouth.
A servant who had come in with him cut the tip and lit it.
Daniel inhaled deeply, then exhaled.
A cloud of smoke drifted through the air.
“Seems you haven’t properly greeted each other yet. It’s your first time meeting your granddaughter—shouldn’t you say hello?”
“What?”
Daniel spoke as if he knew everything.
The shocked Grand Duke turned his gaze toward me. I looked at him once, then back at Daniel.
I couldn’t understand how he knew that.
“What are you talking about, Daniel? Granddaughter?”
“Oh, come on. Even if I’ve been controlling the ducal household, this is a bit much. Not recognizing your own granddaughter? Don’t you think so, **Mirabel**?”
Even though I had never revealed it, Daniel knew my name.
“Who are you?”
I prepared to draw the dagger hidden in my clothes at any moment.
Something felt very wrong.
“Who am I? Why, I’m your great-uncle. So, how far had the conversation gone? You haven’t mentioned Cornelia’s letters yet, have you?”
His tone was openly mocking.
“Daniel, how do you know about the letters?” the Grand Duke demanded with a frown.
Daniel shrugged and walked over to the sofa, sitting down casually.
“How do I know? Because I stole them, of course. They were very heartfelt letters. If my dear brother had seen them, he surely would’ve brought Cornelia back to the mansion.”
Daniel exhaled another plume of smoke and continued.
“But that wouldn’t do. That girl was quite an obstacle to my taking control of this estate. As you know, Cornelia was the fiancée of the emperor back when he was still the crown prince. Honestly, it was a blessing that she ran away from the mansion because she was blinded by love.”
Only after hearing Daniel’s words did I finally understand the situation.
And absurdly enough, the knot that had weighed on my heart all this time suddenly loosened.
The Grand Duke had never received my mother’s letters.
That realization filled me with relief.
My mother’s faith had not been betrayed after all.
But at the same time, the thought that my mother had suffered because of the man standing before me—Daniel—made my blood boil.
The Grand Duke stared at me with disbelief.
“Why are you revealing this?”
I narrowed my eyes and glared at Daniel.
Daniel nodded as if he had expected the question.
“Because your lives end today.”
The moment he finished speaking, soldiers stormed into the reception room.
At the same time, they drew their swords.
I also drew the dagger I had hidden the instant they moved.
“My, my, Mirabel. Such pointless resistance. Just die quietly. It’ll hurt less that way.”
Daniel gestured toward us with his chin.
That was the signal.
The soldiers began closing in.
I stepped forward with my dagger, placing the Grand Duke behind me.
Though I tried to keep them at bay, I couldn’t deny Daniel’s words.
It was pointless resistance.
There was no way I could defeat all the soldiers flooding into the room alone.
If I were alone, I could at least run.
But not now.
“M-my child, you don’t need to fight because of me. Leave me and go.”
The Grand Duke’s voice trembled.
Since my back was turned, I couldn’t see his expression.
I stopped him as he tried to step past me and took a quiet breath.
“Grand Duke Crichton, tell me one thing.”
“My child, please!”
“Did you really love Cornelia… my mother?”
“She was a child as precious as my own life. Not once in my life have I ever hated her.”
“That’s enough for me.”
As soon as I finished speaking, I swung my dagger at the soldiers who had closed in.
—
“…Rabel.”
My body felt heavy, as if sinking into water.
“Mirabel.”
A voice I had longed to hear so badly it made me want to cry—my mother’s voice—called my name.
At that moment, as if my body were floating in the air, I heard it again.
“Mirabel!”
“!”
My eyes snapped open as sensation rushed back like a bursting firework.
A familiar ceiling—and a face I had missed dearly—came into view.
“…Mom?”
My mother was standing in front of me.
“Yes, it’s Mom.”
“For real?”
Unable to deny what I was seeing, tears streamed down my face.
“Of course it’s real. Did you have a bad dream?”
She gently brushed the hair stuck to my forehead aside and looked down at me with worried eyes.
They say eternal happiness awaits at the end of death.
Perhaps this moment was it.
I clung to my mother and cried for a long time.
Like a lost child who had finally found their mother again, I held onto her and sobbed endlessly.
My mother didn’t ask me anything.
She simply patted my back until I stopped crying.
When I buried my face in her arms, I smelled the scent of grass.
My mother’s scent—one I thought I would never smell again.
Only after crying until I had no more tears left did I pull away.
“Are you okay?” she asked, wiping the tears from my face.
I held her hand and pressed my cheek against it.
“Yeah. I’m okay.”
It was real.
She was truly my mother.
Even though I had feared she might vanish like an illusion at any moment, she remained there.
What on earth was happening?
Puzzled, I looked down.
Only then did I half understand why my mother was standing before me.
“What is this?”
A small, delicate hand—like that of a child—came into view.
No… it wasn’t *like* a child’s hand.
It **was** my hand.
Gasping, I looked around.
To understand the situation, I needed a mirror.
After searching the room, I finally spotted a small, blurry mirror hanging in the living room.
I hurried over and looked at my reflection.
The person in the mirror was a young girl, about ten years old.
And that face—
It was my face from childhood.
“That can’t be…”
I lifted my small hand and touched my face.
The child in the mirror copied my movements exactly.
Which meant the child in the mirror was me.
“M-Mom… how old am I right now?”
Even though it seemed impossible, I asked while holding onto the faint hope.
My mother smiled as if it were a silly question.
“How old? You turned **nine years old just yesterday**.”
