Chapter 34
“You wouldn’t have cared enough to recognize my handwriting.”
Father answered with a mocking smile. But then, as if pained, he murmured again,
“…No, I’m not so sure anymore.”
I grabbed Father’s hand and shook my head vigorously.
“No! Grandpa knows your handwriting for sure!”
At least this much, I could say with confidence.
Because…
“When I was practicing writing with Grandpa, he told me that my handwriting doesn’t look like yours at all.”
Maybe it was because Mother had boasted about me, but Grandpa suddenly brought out paper and pen that day and told me to try writing. That’s how I ended up practicing my letters—and with the leftover paper, I even wrote a very effective threat—no, request—letter.
Father said nothing to my words, only closed his mouth in silence.
Instead, Mother lifted a finger to her chin and began speaking.
“Then, it’s very likely someone copied your handwriting exactly.”
“…”
“And since the letter was switched after you placed it in the study, it must have been someone who could enter without raising suspicion.”
I gazed at Mother with sparkling eyes.
Detective Mode: Activated!
Go, go, Mom! You’ve got this!
“And if it was someone who knew you had written the letter in the first place…”
Mother trailed off at that point. Her violet eyes wavered faintly with a troubled light.
She knew it too—there weren’t many who fit all those conditions.
“It wasn’t my brother.”
Perhaps he had reached the same thought, for Father slowly shook his head.
“He wasn’t the only one who knew my handwriting. It’s possible they just imitated it after seeing a sample.”
“…”
“And the attendants also come and go from my study. More importantly—”
Father paused for a long moment, then spoke again in a strangely earnest voice.
“More importantly, my brother was someone who always looked after me before himself. He was always kind to me.”
“Harzen…”
“He would have no reason to go so far as this.”
Mother gazed at Father in silence, then gently held his hand.
“I don’t want to speak badly of him either. I know very well how good he was to you.”
“…”
“But Harzen.”
Her violet eyes gleamed—clear, resolute, and piercing.
“I’ve never told you this, but I always found it strange. Why did you live such a lonely life in the palace?”
Her voice was warm and tender, yet firm—so trustworthy that even I wanted to believe her without question.
“At first, I thought perhaps His Majesty left you no room to breathe. But after what I heard today, I don’t think that’s the whole truth anymore.”
“…”
“If I were your brother, and if I truly cherished you as much as you say—then I would never have let you suffer in silence until you came to hate the palace itself.”
Inside, I almost cheered.
“Yes! That’s exactly what I wanted to say!”
As expected, my mom is the best. A genius. Perfect!
“I want to be clear—I’m not trying to sow discord between you and him. I only mean…”
Mother glanced carefully at Father and added in a softer voice,
“I want you to keep the possibility open.”
“…”
“Because there is no such thing as ‘absolute’ in this world.”
With those words, she smiled faintly, as if aware that even voicing them might wound Father’s heart.
I sneaked a glance at Father.
So… what now?
For him, Uncle Berthold was an absolute, untouchable existence. Normally, he would have rejected such a suggestion outright. But now, shaken as he was…
“I understand what you mean.”
After a long silence, Father finally spoke.
“I will… give it some thought.”
His answer was vague, as if he wouldn’t actually consider it at all.
“As I thought, maybe it’s still too soon.”
Still, even planting the seed of doubt was something.
At that very moment, another translucent scroll appeared before my eyes.
Special emotional fluctuation in a key character has been detected.
Analyzing its impact on side story progression…
I widened my eyes at the words.
So he really is considering it. He’s not just brushing it off.
Clasping both hands together tightly, I prayed from the heart.
“Please, let Dad really think this through properly.”
And if such a system notification appeared… didn’t that mean I’d done really well?
After all, if Grandpa hadn’t sincerely apologized, Mom and Dad would never have had this important conversation in the first place.
Nice work, Cici! Good job, Cici!
As the saying goes, a good child deserves a gift.
“Hehehe.”
The very next day, I politely extended my hand to the researcher standing before me.
Time to claim my reward for doing so well!
“Haa…”
Despite my sparkling eyes, the researcher only sighed heavily, as though the ground itself weighed on him.
“This is precious… this is dangerous.”
He glanced at me, then at the vial in his hand, muttering under his breath.
Of course, that vial contained Verbium.
The truth serum that Grandpa had promised to give me!
“And to hand something like this to a child…”
The researcher let out another long sigh.
It seemed he’d forgotten that I had ears too.
Well, I can understand.
If I were in his shoes, ordered to hand a deadly truth serum to a clueless little kid, I’d probably think “Has His Majesty finally gone mad?”
And indeed, he muttered exactly that.
“Has His Majesty truly lost his mind…?”
“Even if the order came from the Emperor, isn’t it a researcher’s duty to resist commands that are clearly wrong?”
Still grumbling, he went on and on.
“What if this careless act leads to the nation’s downfall… to a disaster beyond repair…”
Excuse me, hello?
I’m doing this precisely to prevent such disasters, you know…
That was it—I couldn’t take it anymore.
“Researcher oppa.”
I kept my hand stretched out, but spoke in a firm voice.
“I’ll pretend I didn’t hear what you just said.”
If Grandpa heard every word of that, things could get messy real fast.
“Huh? Ah!”
The researcher jolted, eyes wide in panic.
“Oh no—! Forgive me, I have this terrible habit of thinking out loud when I work… I truly apologize.”
Ahh, so he hadn’t meant for me to hear.
I smiled reassuringly, imitating Mother’s confident tone as best as I could.
“You can trust me.”
Did it work?
“…Honestly, how could I trust you…”
Apparently not.
I twitched my lips at his reply.
Fair enough. If a seven-year-old told me “trust me,” I probably wouldn’t either.
But still—couldn’t he at least pretend to? I mean, look at me, I’m adorable!
“I’m really smart, you know. I won’t cause trouble just because I have this.”
Switching tactics, I decided to appeal not with cuteness, but with intelligence.
All this effort—just to claim a serum I was already promised!
“You know my dads, right?”
“…I only recently learned you had more than one father.”
“See? You already know enough then!”
I declared proudly.
“Then you must know about Dad Kyle too. The genius inventor! The very symbol of brilliance!”
“Of course I do.”
The researcher nodded, surprisingly receptive.
Oh! This might work!
But then—
“And that’s exactly why I’m more worried. No one knows better than me how much trouble that man has caused.”
…So much for that.
