ESL Chapter 19

At the sound of the office door opening noisily, Joseph—no, Lea—turned her head from the documents she was reviewing. And she met the red eyes staring at her.

“……”

Lea looked at him with surprised eyes. The emotion dwelling in the Duke’s red eyes was far too foreign. His gaze, which had seemed like it would never waver, was shaking violently with indescribable anticipation and anxiety.

“Your Grace?”

At her call, the Duke’s eyes, which had been steadily watching her, slowly regained their composure. Worried by his sudden behavior, Lea stood up from her seat and asked quietly.

“Has something happened? You don’t look well.”

The Duke silently looked at Joseph approaching him. His eyes had been obscured by the brown color, preventing him from seeing. Though he had vaguely sensed it, he had just felt that it could be so. The Duke turned his body and spoke. His voice seemed the same as usual, but it had sunk slightly.

“…Something urgent has come up at the Imperial Palace that needs to be handled. Come with me to the palace today and help.”

“Understood, Your Grace.”

Lea followed behind the Duke with his coat without complaint. However, her sharp mind was thinking about the Duke’s sudden behavior.

‘What’s going on?’

No matter how urgent the matter, the Duke had never called him to the Imperial Palace before. Others seeing him being taken to the palace like this would think he was greatly trusted, but for her, it was an unexpected development. 

Sitting across from the Duke in the carriage, she calmly assessed the situation. Since boarding the carriage, the Duke hadn’t taken his eyes off her. From his gaze, as if trying to confirm something, she could make one hypothesis.

‘I asked him to keep it secret for now, but it seems Uncle MacLean informed him. Should I say he has a looser tongue than expected, or should I say his loyalty to the Duke runs that deep.’

Lea deliberately avoided the Duke’s gaze and looked outside the carriage. If the Duke had figured out her identity, she could roughly guess why he was taking her to the Imperial Palace. He wanted to confirm it in a place without the shadows. After all, what parent who learned their lost child was alive wouldn’t want to confirm it?

‘He’s excellent at managing his emotions, so I’m not worried even if he knows…but still, 17 years is…it’s going to be awkward…’

While thinking various thoughts, the carriage passed through the castle gate and stopped at Helber Palace. It was where non-royal internal and external officials and ministers working in the palace stayed and conducted business. Lea quietly followed behind the Duke as he got out of the carriage. People who appeared to be bureaucrats occasionally passed by, and they seemed curious about who she was. Though there probably wasn’t anyone bold enough to ask Duke Kaien directly.

Upon entering the office, the Duke first approached the window, closed it, and drew the curtains. Meanwhile, Lea looked around the Duke’s office in the Imperial Palace, which she was visiting for the first time. It was almost the same size as the office used at the main residence.

‘As expected, it’s clean and tidy here too.’

As she nodded in admiration at the neatly organized office, as if showing the Duke’s personality, she heard the Duke’s low voice. Was it her imagination that the voice seemed to tremble slightly…

“…It’s safe here, so you can relax.”

Lea turned her gaze to look at the Duke. As her eyes met the red eyes that resembled hers so much, Lea sighed quietly, removed her glasses, and took off the ring from her finger.

“……!!”

As the magic was released and her true appearance was revealed, the Duke’s eyes shook violently like a ship meeting rough waves. The girl standing before him was shining with the Kaien ducal house’s characteristic jet-black hair and red eyes like burning flames. No…even leaving all that aside, she looked so much like him and Rien that he couldn’t help but recognize her. He quickly grasped the sofa right next to him. The sudden dizziness that came over him made him stagger. Raising his other hand to cover his eyes, he spoke in a sunken voice. That voice was trembling so much it couldn’t be hidden even if he tried.

“…You really were alive… My daughter…was alive…”

The hot tears he thought he had lost along with his wife and daughter when he lost them flowed from his closed eyes. And the Duke’s tears, visible between the fingers covering his eyes, shook Lea’s heart as well. At the feeling of something welling up inside her, she clenched her fists tightly. Her eyes had reddened, and moisture filled her always-sparkling red eyes.

How much time had passed? Having each composed their emotions, the Duke and Lea sat facing each other on the sofa. No matter that they were father and daughter bound by blood, 17 years was by no means a short time.

The Duke was the first to speak.

“…You’ve grown well…How did you…escape from them?”

His voice, asking somewhat haltingly, was still sunken and subdued. But in that voice could be felt the gentleness filled with affection for his only daughter. Even when she was in Joseph’s form, she had occasionally felt something similar to this in the Duke’s voice, but it was different from now.

“I was never captured by them from the beginning. I was told I was abandoned in Hazen Forest shortly after being born.”

Lea answered plainly, as if telling someone else’s story. She didn’t remember that time and had only heard about it from Lark, so there was no problem conveying it. However, the words that she had been abandoned in Hazen Forest were enough to harden Duke Kaien with anger. What kind of place was Hazen Forest? It was a forest so dangerous that even average adults wouldn’t travel through it alone. As such, the chances of a baby abandoned there receiving help from a passerby and surviving were extremely slim.

Crack. At the sound of grinding teeth, Lea flinched and looked at the Duke.

“…They abandoned you in such a place…!!”

As a terrifying murderous aura suddenly swept through the office, she panicked. If anyone came, it would be disastrous, so she had to calm the Duke’s anger somehow. She quickly stood up, approached right in front of the Duke, and knelt down. Then she gently placed her hand on the Duke’s fist, which was clenched so tightly that tendons showed, and said.

“It’s okay. I survived and grew up well like this, didn’t I?”

At her gentle and kind words that seemed to comfort him, the murderous aura emanating from the Duke gradually subsided. But his face was still hardened. To him in that state, she continued speaking.

“I’ve lived very happily all this time. I’ve done everything I wanted to do, made precious people, and never struggled financially. And I’ve learned swordsmanship well enough not to shame the Kaien ducal house, and also…!”

As Lea was bringing up various stories that might comfort the Duke, she suddenly opened her eyes wide in surprise when the Duke grabbed her arm, pulled her close, and held her tightly in his embrace.

“…None of that matters to me… It’s enough that you’re alive… I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you…I’m sorry, Leas…”

The embrace of a father she was being held in for the first time was much warmer and more comforting than she had thought. She felt that nothing would matter if she was in this embrace. Only then did Lea realize that this person was truly her father and blood relative. She raised her arms to embrace her father while feeling her heart ache painfully. And she closed her eyes.

……

Around the time the sunset had faded and darkness had fallen, Lea returned to the house where Abel was waiting. Time had passed faster than expected, so the conversation with her father hadn’t been long. For now, Duke Kaien agreed to maintain the current situation. With the former Duchess’s whereabouts still unknown, it was very dangerous for the Duke to make a move. Instead, he told her to tell him anytime she needed help. What was unexpected was that MacLean hadn’t directly informed the Duke of her existence. MacLean had conveyed that she was by the Duke’s side and was disguising her appearance with color, so he should look carefully, and surprisingly, with just that hint, the Duke had found her. Wondering if bloodlines truly existed, the Duke—no, her father—had told her.

[Strangely, I felt affection whenever I saw Joseph. It was a feeling like what it might be like if I had a son. That’s why I could find you easily.]

And then he had shown a very brief smile as if embarrassed. If anyone who knew the Duke had seen that smile, they would have rubbed their eyes in shock. She too smiled naturally even now when recalling her father’s appearance like that. But soon she hardened her expression.

‘One… two… two people…’

Her eyes standing in front of the entrance flashed coldly for a moment, but the moment she opened the door and entered, her expression changed to a gentle one.

“Bel~ Where are you? Your brother’s back~”

Calling Bel, Abel’s name when disguised, as she entered the living room, she acted as if frozen in surprise at the sight of a strange man sitting on the sofa with his legs crossed and arms folded. She also adjusted her voice to be filled with wariness and anxiety.

“…Who are you? Where is Bel?!”

Abram looked at the beautiful young man with peculiar beauty before him with interested eyes. Indeed, he was worthy of Michelle’s interest. In fact, he was a bisexual who didn’t discriminate between men and women. And Joseph, in his view, was sufficiently attractive and someone he’d like to bed at least once. His voice was a pleasant baritone that was quiet yet good to hear, making him anticipate what sounds he would make if ravished beneath him. However, he pushed such desires to the back. It wouldn’t be too late to touch him after everything was done. After all, he had no intention of letting either Joseph or Joseph’s younger sister live after everything was finished.

“We have your sibling in our care, Joseph.”

Abram savored watching Joseph’s face turn deathly pale at his words. He was the type who felt excitement the more his opponent trembled in fear, so Joseph’s reaction was very satisfying.

“…What…do you want?”

At Joseph’s question, Abram rose and approached him. Then he raised his hand to lightly grasp the trembling Joseph’s left shoulder and whispered in his ear.

“You just need to do as we tell you. Then you’ll get your sibling back safely. We’ll send a contact soon, so do as that person tells you.”

“…………”

As Abram’s voice rang in her ear, Lea forcibly suppressed the rising goosebumps, clenched her fists tightly, bit her lower lip, and showed wavering eyes. As if in too much shock to make any sound. Fooled by her perfect acting, Abram walked toward the door with a low laugh of satisfaction.

Hearing the sound of the door closing and confirming through her qi-sense that Abram had disappeared, she smiled as if she had never trembled at all. Though a shadow still remained, it was on the roof, so there was no way it could know what expression she was making now.

“Finally, it’s time for the event I’ve been waiting and waiting for. Sorry to Abel, but~”

Humming a tune excitedly, she plopped down on the sofa. Now all that was left was to wait.

****

Returning from the Imperial Palace, Duke Kaien sat in his office and stared at Joseph’s empty seat for a long time. Joseph—no, his daughter Leas—had grown up far more splendidly than he had thought. So much so that he couldn’t be confident he and Rien could have raised her as well even if they had raised her directly. That’s why he was more grateful and sorry to Lea. Thinking about Lea, before he knew it, his thoughts had moved to his lost wife. Her always gentle and quiet voice, the eyes that always looked at him with loving gazes, the lips that made him want to kiss them…there was nothing about her he didn’t miss.

‘…Rien… Now only you need to return…’

The Duke rose from the desk chair and approached a bookshelf placed against one wall of the office. When he touched one of the books on the shelf, surprisingly, the bookshelf turned into the wall and in its place appeared a wall with a single portrait hanging. The portrait contained a beautiful woman with hair like woven gold thread and marine blue eyes reminiscent of the blue sky, smiling gently.

“Even after 17 years have passed, you remain the same… Do you know? That the daughter we bore has grown splendidly without our touch and is now trying to find you instead of me… But please wait just a little longer… I miss you, Rien.”

Duke Kaien raised his hand to touch the portrait and spoke in a whisper. His red eyes were sunken with deep sadness.