CH 21

Chapter 21 – The mole under her eye…

Translator: Yonnee

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“If my daughter so wishes, so it shall be! Alright, let’s see… I should stop by the Yuria Kingdom after the next monster subjugation campaign. Ah, right, I should send a letter to them first, and then…”

It seemed like Dad had an acquaintance there because he visited the kingdom back then before he and Mom got married.

Dad started hectically planning. In the meantime, I turned to the chocolate cake that I never had the chance to eat before this day, took a small piece on my fork, and brought it to Dad’s lips.

“Dad, eat first.”

“No… Sweetie, this is your first…”

With a well-meaning yet awkward expression, Dad tried to refuse the cake, but I just smiled and brought the piece closer to him.

He scratched his head for a moment, but he soon ate it. Then, as I turned back to the cake, he gave a big smile.

At that moment, one thought crossed my mind for the first time.

If the man who would eventually become my husband was just like Dad, then that would be so great.

Not in an external sense, what with Dad’s huge physique, but the emotional and thoughtful side of him—a man who acts cute towards his wife and is a fool for his daughter, while also very reliable and shows great trust in his son.

If it’s a man like that, then perhaps I could entrust my whole life to him without thinking twice.

As I vowed not to be so influenced by looks, like I did in my past life, I smiled brightly at Dad.

The chocolate cake we’re eating now wasn’t as sweet or smooth compared to what I could recall eating back in Korea, but even still, its rough texture and bittersweet taste spread pleasantly over my tongue.

* * *

Ciel was fully engrossed with reviewing the documents that his aides had brought in.

It had only been less than a day after the coming of age ceremony at the imperial palace, however, his aides had grasped what the duke wanted to do, and so prepared everything perfectly.

It was an investigation into the Closch family. Up until the very moment that his aides had brought him these results, he felt so impatient that he couldn’t stand it.

He had all sorts of scenarios running through his mind as he was waiting.

Just like Ciel himself, did she also receive God’s divine revelation and went back in time? Then, that woman. Did she also go to Korea?

If it’s really true that Lady Closch had gone through an interdimensional shift like him, did she ever get to meet his wife? Maybe she was a friend who his wife used to meet up with sometimes?

His impatience spurned on all these speculations.

When he returned, he kept recalling the voice that he had heard. A voice that was ringing inside his head and within his chest.

That voice told him to find the real star, not a shadow of the star.

It also said that this was the way for the genuine empire.

However, he couldn’t follow God’s command.

He couldn’t forget it.

Seohyun’s final moments, as if imprinted behind his eyelids, continued to make him feel so suffocated just by thinking about it for just a moment. Whenever he did, it seemed to make his blood boil all over.

In the end, he even thought that his mind might go up in flames as well, effectively making him become a complete madman just like that.

Apart from that, his memories of the rampage gave him unbearable pain.

He could never forget—even after he had died—the sensation of all the bones in his entire body, starting from his toes and going all the way up, being shattered into pieces, and as if his flesh and all his organs were being twisted up until they would burst.

An Esper’s rampage was leagues more powerful than a bomb. Perhaps like a typhoon, everything in its wake would be left in disastrous disarray.

Seohyun had the constitution of a normal person, and yet she had walked right into that kind of catastrophe.

Just to try and save him.

When she sacrificed herself like that for his sake, how could he ever forget about her?

“Hah.”

And at the same time, how could he ever forgive himself?

Anger seethed within him, as if it would soon explode.

“Your Grace…”

One of the aides, who was in the same room as him at that moment, had called him in a frightened voice. If he hadn’t called Ciel’s attention right then, he might have caused another accident because he was immersed in his recollection of the past.

At this point, he really needed to be guided already. However, because he didn’t want to receive the saintess’ guiding, he patiently endured it as best as he could.

His internal organs felt as if they were being flayed, and his throat became so hot until he finally reined it back in. Warm blood was knocking upon his throat to be thrown up, however, he pressed down on the urge to retch.

With trembling hands, he placed down the documents on his desk, then he reached to one drawer to pull out a vial of holy water.

After he drank it, he managed to calm down a little, and the ferocious energy inside him slowly subsided. However, because it was merely a temporary alternative to a Guide, the holy water could not completely drive out this energy.

It only suppressed it for now. That energy could still explode at any given time.