Chapter 2

I flailed around desperately, my face buried deep in the snow.

I flailed around desperately, my face buried deep in the snow.

I flailed around desperately, my face buried deep in the snow.

I flailed around desperately, my face buried deep in the snow.

The only reason I’ve even lasted this long is due to the Delde blood that runs through my veins. If it were any other normal child, they would’ve died on the spot due to suffocation long ago.

But if I don’t succeed in manifesting my abilities soon, there’s no doubt that I would die. As proof of that, my breathing was already growing rapid and shallow.

“Mmph!”

Every time I took a breath, snow made its way into my nostrils. In an act of desperation to break free from this situation, I clenched my muscles and forced out the strength I had been containing within me, but it didn’t work out as smoothly as I had hoped.

If I can’t even turn myself over, why am I even alive? But I didn’t have the leisure to catch my breath.

Wanting to grasp onto the last sliver of hope in me, I mustered up all the strength that I had. I writhed in the snow, making countless futile attempts to turn over. I squeezed out so much of my strength that all my blood rushed up to my head, causing my small face to turn red.

I want to live.

That primitive desire to live began to bubble up within me. There wasn’t an exact reason behind it. It was simply a survival instinct you were born with.

While I flailed in the snow, somewhere, the sound of footsteps drew nearer.

Thud. Thud.

When those heavy footsteps finally reached me, I was already gasping my last few breaths.

I could really die here like this. I didn’t even have the strength to struggle anymore at this point.

The owner of the footsteps swiftly lifted me up. With their help, I was finally allowed to breathe. They stared at me intently with their blue eyes as I took violent gulps of air.

“Oh? It’s a baby.”

His voice was nonchalant and indifferent. His intent gaze slowly traveled down my body, inspecting me, exactly like the people in the Delde clan. He was no different.

It wouldn’t be a surprise if he simply put me back on the ground and left.

He looked like that kind of insensitive person. It seemed that with his dull, hollow eyes, he saw the world as a colorless place. In his eyes, I was nothing.

As I was penetrated by his cold-hearted gaze, the thought of the Delde family popped into my head. I remembered the ones who looked at me as though they were criticizing me, and my ruthless father who abandoned me. The memories of being tossed off that cliff swarmed my head and I shuddered.

The feeling of endlessly falling down an abyss. Of being thrown into an empty void with nothing to grab onto, with only death awaiting me. That very moment.

My body stiffened as I remembered those frightening memories.

But I can’t stay like this. If this man abandons me here and leaves, who knows how long it’ll take until another person comes to a place as desolate and cold as this.

This cold winter night, in the center of a snowy field, I, who was thrown out here, would freeze to death.

The cold would begin to devour me from my legs and my arms, making its way around until I eventually reached my last, final breath.

Becoming a human mummy in this way would certainly be unpleasant. I, who had only lived a single year, squeezed out the last of my strength. For the first and last time, I attempted the impossible.

And that was indeed aegyo*, the very thing that would determine my life or death.

“Papa!”

I’m cute, aren’t I? You can’t stand it because I’m so lovable, right?

I looked at him with desperate eyes.

He had been staring down at me silently, but at this moment, something stirred in his eyes. They were tinged with an inscrutable, complicated emotion.

Well, he could be perplexed by that. But it’s not like I had a choice.

I’m not calling out papa because I consider you my papa!

It’s been a long-established fact that humans would sympathize with a pitiful animal when they saw one. I was relying on that natural conscience humans carried.

Truthfully, that was all nonsense. I just wanted to live. Because even now, the tips of my fingers were still curved and couldn’t move at all.

In this state, it seemed like I might actually die after a few hours.

I filled my eyes with as much sadness as I could muster and turned to him.

“Papa!” I shouted.

But the man didn’t react. Now, nothing even stirred in his eyes. He simply gazed at me silently with placid eyes.

Just show some kind of reaction!

As frustration began to well up in my throat, behind the man, dozens of presences seemed to reveal themselves.

They rushed towards the man, but when they noticed me, they came to a sudden halt.

For a while, there was a murmuring among the unknown figures. But someone quickly silenced them and approached the man.

“Master, who is that child?” a voice asked.

“I don’t know.”

“Pardon?”

“She’s calling me papa.”

“Excuse me?”

A wave of confused gasps and whispers ensued. The people standing behind the two men stared at them with their eyes wide open in surprise.

In just a few moments, the murmurs rippled through the crowd. The man who was called “master” continued to stare at me intently. His eyes reflected the color of lakes, bottomless and mysterious. But then, the word “master” registered in my mind, and I froze, staring wide-eyed at the man.

Why did I only just realize?

This person wasn’t just an ordinary stranger. He was the head of the Ardellos clan, the enemies of the Delde family.

How do I know so much about this? Well, it was because of the male lead’s father.

The knight who would unseal the devil and exterminate the Delde family was the male lead, Devarus. And the person holding me right now was the male lead’s dad, Agnos Gaethje.

Agnos was the most powerful knight in the novel. He was a sword master who could instill aura into his blade. On top of that, he was the youngest person in history to have been deemed a sword master. He was a genius for his age, different from the rest of his peers.

Of course, afterwards, that title was passed down to his son, also known as the novel’s main character, Devarus.

But of all things, the one single person who could save me just had to be the main character’s father. How could my luck be this bad?

The man stared at me silently with his deep, lake blue eyes. Within them, an unknown question dwelled.

His lips, which had been firmly sealed, slowly opened, letting a mumbled query flow from it. His voice, low yet soothing, indicated that he was truly curious.

“But, why isn’t she calling me Papa again?” He paused. “Perhaps she’s in pain.”

Hearing the man’s question, the faces of the people behind him paled. I was sure that at that moment, I felt the same as them.

One of them stepped out to the front, slightly hesitating before continuing on from what the man had said.

“Why, that’s because this newborn baby has been in such a cold place. She must not be in her right state of mind.”

“Is that so.”

The male lead’s father looked as though it was the first time he heard something like that. He slowly shifted his head to look at his subordinate behind him.

“Then, what needs to be done?”

There was no agitation in his eyes, only a simple question of courtesy.

Hearing the male lead’s father’s question, the subordinate immediately slipped off the coat he was wearing and offered it to him. Seeing this, I relaxed.

Will my body finally warm up again? Ugh, it’s so cold that I could die!

But, contrary to my wishes, he just stood there silently staring. Annoyed at his behavior, I began to fuss up a tantrum, flailing my arms and legs.

“Waaahhh!”

Cold, it’s so cold! Just give me something to wear!

Why was he just standing there in a daze? I couldn’t understand. As I broke into a cry, the subordinate’s face froze with despair.

The man contemplated for a while, before seeming to have come to a conclusion, his expression twisting into one of realization. It was only then did he finally understand my situation.

Wow, so the head of the Ardellos family finally realizes that I’m cold.

It was truly the same as a worm swimming in the sea.** It was as impossible as that. I didn’t think he would ever figure it out, seeing how dense he was.

He was like a being that transcended mortal limits. Therefore, he was human, but not human at the same time. So even if you compare him to the standards of a normal human, there was no way you’d understand.

In the end, the subordinate seemed to have given him an additional explanation. He seemed to sense that if he didn’t do so, they would never progress, and the situation would never end.

Doing good, doing good!

I urged the subordinate on by shooting him desperate glances. He seemed unable to win against my eye contact attack and continued on, bracing himself through his fear.

“First, we have to heat up her body. If her body temperature falls any lower than this, it could be dangerous.”

“I see.”

“In order to defrost her body, we must cover her with coats, and light a fire to keep her warm.

“I see.”

Even after listening to his subordinate’s words, the master had no reaction. He simply replied calmly, still silently staring down at me.

Seeing his master’s lack of reaction, the subordinate trailed off. Even after explaining, his master didn’t react. There was no doubt the subordinate was speechless.

Mister, it’s ridiculous, isn’t it? I think so too.

I barely managed to swallow the sigh that threatened to break out from my lips.

As I held back my exasperation, a gust of wind swept through the area, the force of the ever changing winds causing my small body to shiver. Seeing this, the subordinate’s expression turned into one of pity.

And the master, who had been ever so silent, moved his lips to utter a quiet remark.

“Looks like this child’s body is weak. If my son was tossed into a snowy field, he wouldn’t shiver one bit.”

Hearing these words, my frustration grew, and soon I was teetering on the border of letting out a sigh.

That’s only because he’s Devarus?? That guy’s the strongest character!

In the end, I couldn’t stand it, and began to cry once more.

“Waaahhhh!”

Even the one who gave birth to me abandoned me because I was weak. Was I to be subjected to that here again?

Waahh, the supposedly lethal aegyo* was all useless. I might just die here again!

He turned his gaze on me once again as I stopped crying, growing tired of everything. Why is he just silently looking at me, doing nothing to help? I couldn’t understand it at all.

In his apathetic gaze, not a single trace of emotion could be found.

And as I observed his gaze, a feeling dawned on me. Just like the ones who abandoned me before, he could leave me here at any time and it wouldn’t seem strange.

In any case, this is why those who were born with a silver spoon in their mouth are a problem.

A wave of despair surged within me and I felt tears welling up again. The truth was, I didn’t even have the strength to cry anymore. I had barely managed to flail my upper body around earlier.

The shadow of death flickered in front of my eyes, seeming to slowly approach me. Sensing my death at just one year old… What an unfortunate life I have.

I guess I’ll really die now, I thought.

But right when that thought crossed my mind, his gaze began to waver. It was as though small pebbles were thrown into his blue, lake-like eyes. It was only the beginning of a small ripple.

But I had an excellent survival instinct, and managed to catch that slight change.

Huh? Something changed…?

I tilted my head in wonder, when suddenly, my surroundings became warm. The cold that froze my body disappeared, and I felt as though I was standing in front of a fireplace, the heat embracing me.

When I finally looked around me, I noticed that the area within a one meter radius was encircled in a really bright light.

It was probably caused by the aura emanating from him, whose particles collided amongst themselves and created frictional heat.

As proof of that, the overcoat that the subordinate had offered to me had already been shredded in half and burst into flames.

The expression of the dazed subordinate who had been observing the situation paled to a ghastly white. I, too, turned ashen in color.

They acted like they’d leave me here. What’s this all of a sudden?

As if to reassure my suspicions, the man opened his mouth. And with that, his steady voice spoke a single sentence which resounded across the snowy field.

“She called me papa.”

His eyes gazed at me intently.

Afterword

*Aegyo refers to a cute display of affection often expressed including but not limited to through a cute/baby voice, facial expressions, and gestures.

**An expression that basically means it’s impossible.

Translator: Grace

Proofreader: Alice Liddell