Melissa spoke.
“The emergency treatment is finished, but it looks like some scars may remain. But do not worry. If we inform His Grace, he will resolve it.”
“I want to rest.”
By then, having grown tired of everything, I flopped down onto the bed.
“Please lie down and rest. I will prepare some medicine to help restore your strength.”
I nodded vaguely, and after watching Melissa leave, I soon fell asleep.
Escaping the annex and walking all the way to the main building had drained my strength, and after pouring all my energy into confronting the Grand Duke, my body felt completely worn out.
***
After leaving the room, Melissa headed straight for the Grand Duke’s office.
Knock knock.
When she knocked and entered, the Grand Duke was talking with his vassal, Jeff.
The Grand Duke looked at her and asked,
“The treatment?”
“The treatment is finished, but… the young lady’s condition is quite serious.”
“Is it that serious?”
Melissa recalled Ivelotte’s emaciated body, covered with numerous wounds, and felt as though tears might fall from pity.
“Your Grace, the young lady is suffering from malnutrition, and there were many signs that she has been abused for a long time.”
The Grand Duke’s expression stiffened.
“Malnutrition and abuse?”
Jeff jumped in shock when he heard that.
“Melissa, are you saying the young lady’s condition is that severe?”
“Yes. There were many old wounds that had turned into scars because they were never treated in time.”
After hearing her words, the Grand Duke remained silent for a while.
Then he broke the silence and dismissed Melissa.
“That’s enough. You may leave.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
After sending Melissa away, the Grand Duke spoke to Jeff in a low, subdued voice.
“Jeff, I’m certain I allocated a sufficient budget to the annex. What happened? Report what you found in your investigation.”
“I apologize. This is my oversight. After investigating, it appears the servants of the annex embezzled the budget. The hygiene conditions were terrible, and there were no signs that any cooking had been done in the kitchen.”
Frowning, the Grand Duke recalled the sight of Ivelotte appearing before him in a beggar-like state.
Her hair had been disheveled, her clothes were nothing but rags, and she hadn’t even been wearing shoes.
Moreover, perhaps because she had walked all the way from the annex, her bare feet were wounded.
He had certainly allocated a sufficient budget when he sent Ivelotte to the annex and had also sent people to look after her.
He had believed that was more than adequate treatment for the child and had lived without thinking about it afterward.
Seeing the child’s face reminded him of his late wife and caused him pain.
But he had never intended for her to live in such a miserable state.
If the child hadn’t appeared before him, he wouldn’t have known until she became an adult.
Suddenly, he remembered what the child had said.
“If you gave birth to a child, you should at least take the minimum responsibility. Instead of stuffing me in the annex and pretending I do not exist.”
“If you gave birth, you must take responsibility…”
As he recalled the angry face of the child who had thrown stones at him and confronted him, his mood darkened.
“Jeff, arrest all the servants in the annex and throw them into prison.”
“I anticipated you might say that, so I have already taken care of it. They are all locked up, and not a single one has escaped. Just give the order.”
“Conduct a thorough investigation and make them pay the appropriate price.”
“Yes, Your Grace. They will all pay the proper price. How dare they lay a hand on a young lady of the direct line!”
“You are not exempt either.”
“Pardon? Why me?”
“Do you ask because you truly don’t know? While the servants embezzled the annex’s budget and abused a member of the direct line, you noticed nothing. You can’t escape responsibility either.”
“If you put it that way, Your Grace is not exempt either. Who was it that said from the beginning not to concern ourselves with the annex?”
“Jeff, do you wish to die?”
Under the Grand Duke’s murderous glare, Jeff fell silent.
***
The next morning.
I woke up in the best condition I had been in since possessing this body.
Perhaps because the bed was so soft, it felt like I had slept deeply for the first time in a long while.
“You are awake, my Lady.”
A maid opened the door and entered the room.
Unlike the servants from the annex, she treated me very respectfully.
I looked at her with wary eyes.
She was worried about me, whom she was seeing for the first time.
After all, the word [Worry] was floating above her head.
‘Why is she worried about me?’
The maid spoke.
“My Lady, may I help wash you?”
I stepped back, keeping my distance from her.
Because of the wary look in my eyes, she couldn’t approach me easily either.
Above her head, the words [Worry] and [Pity] alternated.
I couldn’t understand it.
While I was still confused like that, Melissa entered the room.
“My Lady, would it be alright if I helped you?”
I nodded.
Melissa was the one who had treated me, and she seemed like someone I could trust a little.
With her help, I took a bath and changed into clean clothes.
The fabric was so soft that it couldn’t even be compared to the rags I had worn before.
“My Lady, His Grace has asked for you to be brought to him. Come with me.”
I had expected that the Grand Duke would call for me. He had said we would talk after the treatment was finished.
Holding Melissa’s hand, I headed toward the office.
The Grand Duke looked at me, freshly bathed and dressed in clean clothes, and said one thing.
“Now you finally look like a person. Come and sit.”
I strode forward and sat down in the chair. He stared at me for quite a while.
I waited for him to speak first.
But the word [Apathy] was floating above his head.
‘Apathy?’
It seemed to mean he felt nothing in particular toward me.
“You told me to fulfill my duty as a parent. Is that correct?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
“Then I will speak plainly. I admit that I neglected the management of your care. But that is all. As the Head of House Blackeyed, I do not keep children who lack ability.”
“So you are saying it does not matter to you whether I rot away and die in the annex?”
“The annex will be reorganized. It will not be like before.”
“I do not find that very trustworthy. How am I supposed to believe the words of someone who left me in that environment for seven years?”
“Whether you believe it or not is your choice. This is the extent of what I am willing to do for you. However, the scars on your body will be treated.”
“How very generous of you. Then may I bring up my business now?”
“Your business?”
“Yes. I believe I at least deserve some compensation for the life I have endured under oppression.”
“Compensation?”
“Yes, compensation.”
“Let me hear it.”
I had already made a plan from the moment I escaped the annex and headed toward the main building.
To succeed with that plan, I needed to meet the Grand Duke, and along the way I vented a bit of my anger as well.
“You said you do not keep children without ability. Then if I do have ability, things would be different. Is that correct?”
The Grand Duke frowned.
“What are you trying to say?”
“I will prove my ability. Open the Relic Room for me. And as it happens, I have just turned seven.”
The Relic Room was a chamber passed down through the family for generations, where relics used by their ancestors were preserved.
Each of those relics was said to contain a spirit.
Children born into families of spirit summoners enter such a Relic Room when they turn seven. If they are chosen by a relic, they can form a contract with the spirit within it.
But not everyone succeeded in forming a contract.
There were often those who failed to be chosen by any relic.
Children who became such failures were considered a disgrace to the family and treated like useless trash.
The Grand Duke looked at me and sneered.
The word [Disbelief] was floating above his head.
“You believe you can form a contract with the spirit dwelling in a relic?”
“Yes.”
“With your pitiful spiritual power, that is impossible.”
“What if I can?”
Spiritual power was determined at birth.
In this world, it was an almost unchangeable law.
The spiritual power Ivelotte possessed was the lowest level ever recorded in the history of the Ducal House.
“You will give me a chance.”
“You seem quite confident.”
I had no choice but to be confident.
Because I knew the original story.
And that meant I also knew all the cheat-like powers the heroine would obtain throughout the story.
One of them was hidden in the Ducal House’s Relic Room.
‘When the heroine later brings down the Ducal House together with the male lead, she opens the Relic Room. There, she obtains an extremely valuable relic.’
I planned to take it first.
If I obtained it, I would be able to give that assassin who would kill me in the future a massive surprise.
That assassin had killed Ivelotte in order to enter the Relic Room.
But in the end, he failed to obtain it and disappeared from the Ducal House.
“Very well. I will give you the chance.”
Tbh, I dont want any loving moment with that kind of father even if that happen later. Why do children have to prove themself first to be loved? 😕