Chapter 6

I also didn’t want to have a frightened child facing the last boss by herself. But even so, it was impossible to prevent the daughter and father reunion.

“Elodie, don’t you want to meet your real family? It’s not just about meeting your Father. A Father’s family is also Elodie’s family. So, Elodie has a lot of family members. Do you still hate it?”

“…….”

Elodie bit her mouth.

“If the Duke or someone else gets mad at Elodie, just come to me right away. Because I’ll protect you from everyone, okay?”

“……Yes.”

Elodie nodded with a reluctant face and crawled into the dog hole. I was nervous and listened to Elody’s every move in tension.

At first, she seemed to have passed well through the little hole and went inside the residence.

But…….

“Hung, sniff, sniff…….”

Doesn’t this sound like a suppressed cry?

“…… Elodie?”

As soon as I carefully called Elodie, there was a sound of wiping tears.

“Oh, nothing. I’ll go now. Now…….”

However, she did not move for a long time, standing as if she was nailed to the spot.

I bit my lips.

I would be able to send Elodie to the Duke half-forced. Elodie wants to do things that I like to the point where I feel bad for her and if I stimulate that aspect, she would go to lengths to make it happen.

But is there any need to force a child to move this far?

‘…… Let’s stop. I’ve done enough.’

I sent letters and even came to visit in person. It wasn’t our fault that the letter didn’t arrive at the Duke’s office. We even came to their doorstep but got kicked out instead.

If Duke Vanice wants to find his daughter, the address is written down, so he will come to us even eventually.

I raised my head and opened my mouth with firm determination.

“Elodie, come here.”

“……!”

She came out of the dog hole in a second and hugged me. Elodie was holding her breath while crying, but her face was covered with tears.

“Sorry, I’m sorry…….but I’m really scared……. I don’t want to be apart from Ariah…….”

Elodie’s rambling words touched my heart. I hugged her and swept the child’s ragged hair.

“Hey, Elodie.”

“……Yes.”

“Let’s go home.”

“……!”

Elodie’s dark red eyes widened and soon filled with hopes.

“Right now?”

“Of course.”

I hugged the child up. She had gained quite a bit of weight during our time togheter, but she was smaller and lighter than her peers, so it wasn’t difficult at all.

“We’re going home.”

* * *

A week has passed.

As if ‘Elodie’s search for her biological father’ adventure never happened, Elodie and I returned to our usual daily lives.

The regulars at the cafe asked me where I had been in the meantime, but I just laughed. As long as Elodie decided to live with me, there was no need or reason to tell them about the details.

It was time to have a late dinner with Elodie after returning home from the cafe business. Today’s menu was crispy garlic bread, fresh tomato salad, and potato soup with thickly cut bacon.

Elodie, who was eating hard, suddenly lifted her head.

“I think there’s someone outside.”

“……?”

I blinked my eyes.

There was no sound of bells ringing or knocking on the door. But right at that moment, there was the sound of the door banging open.

The door was supposed to be locked!

“Elodie, hide.”

I spoke firmly to Elodie and hurried to the front door. I didn’t forget to pick up one of the sticks for self-defense that I left all over the house.

If we’re lucky, it’s not a big deal, but if we’re unlucky..….

‘Maybe, it might be the remnants of that trafficking group back then.’

In that case, maybe I…….

I clenched the stick. If the opponent was a member of a human trafficking group, fighting was no option at all. The point is trying to make as much noise as possible and have people from the neighbor houses come over.

But the moment I identified the intruder, it turned out that all my assumptions were wrong.

‘……what.’

The intruder was a man with a striking appearance.

Black hair, which is rare in this world, and dark red eyes with a saturation similar to that of Elodie’s. A sharp jawline and a towering nose bridge made him look like a sculpture. A man who would appear as a handsome man in a classic movie was staring at me with a rough breath.

But I couldn’t help but admire his looks.

He had blood-shot eyes, a pale complexion, and had an ugly expression on his face, and it seemed that his condition was not normal.

“……Hey, what brings you here?”

I glanced at the fragmented front door and calmly opened my mouth.

If ‘that person’ is the one I’m thinking of right now, we can calmly talk without getting agitated. Then everything will end for the better. Elodie finds her father, and I will be rewarded for the broken front door.

After a moment of silence, the man’s threatening voice reached my ears.

“You’ve been hiding like a mouse in a village like this all this time.”

W-What?

Before I could even clear my confused mind, he uttered words like he was chewing and spitting them out.

“If you give me the child, I will kill you painlessly.”

Without any further notice, the man, the Duke of Vanice, twisted my wrist. The club for self-defense fell helplessly from my hand.

I had a hunch that this man has already lost his reason.

‘The Duke of Vanice is crazy. It’s not even seven years later and he was already crazy……!’

It was then that the warning from the gatekeeper flashed through my mind.

That person was sincerely worried about me and blocked me from entering. I tried to pull myself out of his grip, but the Duke held my wrist tightly and wouldn’t let it go.

The tightly held wrist was getting more and more painful.

“Answer me. Where is my daughter?”

“L-let……!”

I couldn’t even say a word properly, let alone explain the situation. I felt an overwhelming killing intent that seemed to suffocate people’s breath. If I kept being held like this, fear that I could die from black magic struck me.

‘Then, Elodie… … !’

Elodie will get hurt.

She will never forgive the Duke for the rest of her life. The child’s short and happy period should not end like this.

Around the time I struggled to somehow get out of the Duke’s grasp, a small figure jumped out like an arrow and rushed to the Duke.

“Don’t kill my Mom!”

Elodie fought like a cornered street cat. Her small hands and feet mercilessly hit the much larger opponent’s shin. Embarrassed, the Duke stopped moving, but Elodie did not stop her attack. The child scratched and bit the arm of the Duke that was holding me.

Thud.

I collapsed to the floor and exhaled, gasping for breath. Perhaps because of the release of extreme tension, my body had no strength at all.

When I raised my head, I saw the Duke with a blank expression on his face. His mouth opened in a very slow motion.

“Elodie…”

“Mom!”

She pretended as if she had never heard the Duke and jumped into my arms.

“Mom! Mom! Mom…!”

I instinctively hugged Elodie, but my head was still frozen in fear.

Duke Theodor Vanice suddenly tried to kill me while thinking that I kidnapped Elodie. That notion would not have changed just because Elodie called me her mom.

‘He’d rather think I brainwashed his child.’

Elodie caressed my tingling wrist, which seemed to have ugly marks.

“Does it hurt……?”

“It doesn’t hurt.”

I tried hard to smile at Elodie. Of course, it hurts, but what’s the use of telling it directly to the child?

“Elodie…”

The trembling voice of the Duke was heard.

“You….are you really Elodie?”

It was such a sad voice that I would have been touched, had it not come out from the mouth of a man who tried to kill me a minute ago.

It seemed that he really loved Elodie.

Heck, he tried to kill me just by speculating that I kidnapped her without any evidence. But I guess it’s a given that he loves her.

The problem was that it was not a very pleasant state of affairs for me.

The Duke bent his knee, approached Elodie, who was burying her face in my arms, and reached out.

“Elodie, my daughter. Show your face. Huh?

I blinked my eyes.

It felt a little strange that he was already convinced that she was his daughter without even checking the mole on her leg.

But the moment Elodie turned her head and looked at the Duke.

I noticed the reason.

Even though Elodie could be said to resemble the Duke, it was excessively similar!