Chapter 4

Translator: Skye

* * *

Late at night, when the moon was high in the sky, the maids were having a secret chat in the white rose garden.

“Ah, today was a really hard day.”

“That aside, where’s Marilyn?”

“I hope she didn’t get into big trouble with Lady Juvellian.”

As the maids were wondering about Marilyn’s whereabouts, the woman in question appeared.

“Marilyn!”

The maids approached her with a worried look.

“Marilyn, how was it? Are you okay?”

At Sella’s question, Marilyn recalled what had occurred in her master’s room earlier and let out a sigh.

‘She seemed like she was okay…’

Despite the straight face Juvellian had tried to put on, her eyes had been filled with tears. She had also tried to laugh it off with a smile…but that smile seemed a bit awkward and forced.

Although Juvellian was a wicked master, Marilyn couldn’t help but feel sorry for her after witnessing her in that state of weakness.

“No, there were tears.”

At Marilyn’s words, the maids widened their eyes in shock and shouted, “Our miss is seriously too much!”

“That’s right, if you’re going to be mad at Sir Mikhail there’s no reason to drag Marilyn into that anger too!”

Marilyn had an urge to rub her temples. It seemed the other maids had misunderstood her words.

“No, not me. Lady Juvellian was the one who cried.”

The maids, who were about to ask Marilyn if Juvellian had thrown anything, suddenly all looked like startled rabbits.

“Huh?”

“I had finished preparing the bath when I entered her room and saw that she had been secretly crying.”

The other maids all frowned. Based on their experiences with Juvellian, they couldn’t believe those words.

“Was the miss really crying?”

“It seems she was really shocked over the break-up, especially seeing as how she looked like she had no strength at all today.”

Everyone became quiet and solemn, but that silence was quickly broken by a new voice,

“That child was crying?”

The maids, including Marilyn, were startled by the sudden male voice.

“Y-Your Grace!”

The mansion’s owner, the Duke of Floyen, was staring at the maids with an unreadable expression. The maids trembled in fear, realizing they had been caught talking behind the lady’s back. They had no excuse to avoid being severely punished.

“You there.”

The duke’s blue eyes fell on Marilyn.

Waiting for her master to speak, Marilyn held her breath as a cold voice spoke over her,

“Report what you’ve witnessed in detail.”

* * *

When I opened my eyes, my body felt pleasantly light.

‘It seems like today is going to be a good day.’

For the time being, I felt that it would be nice to be a homebody, staying at home and eating lots of delicious food.

However, that was a short-lived wish, because my father suggested we have breakfast together.

“Does it suit your tastes?”

‘Ah, of course it tastes good but at this rate, I think I’ll get indigestion because of you, Father.’

“Yes.”

Unable to express my innermost feelings, I simply focused on eating as fast as possible.

‘I’m just going to have to eat quickly and escape to my room.’

As I was practically inhaling the food in front of me, I heard a sigh.

“Eat slowly. You’ll upset your stomach.”

Looking up, I saw my father staring down at me as if he thought I was pathetic.

‘The cause of my indigestion would be because of a certain someone…’

On top of having breakfast together all of a sudden, it was a bit discomfiting having him stare at me constantly like this.

‘Why is he being like this? Is he complaining because I broke things off by myself?’

I wanted to escape from the dining room immediately, but seeing as that would be too obvious, I remained in my seat and chewed on my food instead. Not long after, I saw my father turn his eyes away while sighing.

‘I guess I look pathetic. Yeah, that’s probably it.’

The leader of the elite group of Imperial Knights and the Central Army was none other than my father, the Duke of Floyen. He was the empire’s strongest swordmaster, and the most respected hero after he led the empire to victory in the war twenty years ago.

‘Honestly, it’s unfair.’ [1]

In addition, he was so good-looking that marriage proposals continued to come in.

‘Therefore, even if he were to tell me I was pathetic, I’d have nothing to say.”

Compared to my father, who was a munchkin character [3], I was so ordinary that it was pitiful. I didn’t have anything I particularly excelled in, not to mention I also had a terrible social reputation due to constantly chasing after Mikhail. In fact, I didn’t even have any friends because of my non-existent social skills.

‘In other novels, the Villainess was always fairly popular no matter how evil she was…Why did my character settings have to lean more towards the realistic side?’

Not realizing I had been pouting, I met my father’s eyes again.

“Did you want to eat this?”

He must have mistaken me for staring at his plate when I was really just lost in my inner thoughts. Before I could shake my head in denial, a big chunk of meat landed on top of my plate.

“Eat.”

Having consumed a lot of meat already, my stomach was bloated, but I couldn’t just refuse what my father gave me.

‘Father…why are you doing this to me…’

As I was suffering from overeating, he called out to me.

“Juvellian.”

“Yes?”

“What is your ideal type?”

Hearing such an unexpected question, I dropped my fork.

‘Just what exactly is going through his head for him to be asking me that?‘

A servant replaced the fork I had dropped, but due to the lingering confusion, I almost dropped that one as well.

“Why are you asking me such a thing all of a sudden?”

“I’m curious,” he said, looking at me with a straight expression.

Though it was a simple question, it was incomprehensible to the me who had seen this man for the past 18 years.

‘You had no interest in me all these years, but you’re suddenly curious about that?’

An uneasy thought suddenly occurred to me.

‘Don’t tell me, is he going to stick a different man by my side? A son-in-law he can make his heir?’

It wasn’t hard to believe since I was his only daughter, leaving him without an heir to pass his title on to.

‘You should just get married again and I’ll get a stepmother and stepbrother, but I, myself, refuse to get married!’

“Hm. Someone stronger than father?”

My father closed his mouth and seemed to ponder over my words before he let out a cold remark, “Do you mean that?”

Noting his lowered voice and icy gaze, I realized I may have made a mistake. There couldn’t be anyone stronger than my father so it seems I may have offended him, as he’s the one who holds the title of the empire’s strongest swordmaster.

I quickly corrected my words.

“….would be nice, but someone like that doesn’t exist, right? Because my father is the strongest in the Empire!”

His expression seemed to slightly relax with the added praise. Sigh, it’s really hard to please my father.

“So, what is your answer?”

Ahhh, I was hoping to move on to another topic, but I guess the empire’s strongest father [2] isn’t willing to let it go.

‘I’ll just describe a man who doesn’t exist while making sure it won’t offend him.’

There was no family with a higher status than our family anyway. Even if my father were to arrange a meeting with a candidate, I can just refuse by saying he doesn’t meet all of my conditions.

Having organized my thoughts, I looked up at my father and spoke with determination.

“I won’t marry a man if his money, honor, family, wealth, and ability aren’t all at the very top.”

Sneaking in the words that I wouldn’t marry, I watched my father with wary eyes. I could never guess what he was thinking because he always had that expressionless face on.

Then, my father opened his mouth to respond with a simple, “I see.”

Judging from his response, it seems he accepted my answer. I breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Ah, so tiring. I just need to hold on for a little longer and then I’ll be free to return to my room.’

Being with my father was taking a heavy toll on my body so I was praying for the mealtime to hurry and end.

“Juvellian.”

“Yes?”

I was afraid of what else he was going to say, but this time, my mind was fully prepared.

‘No matter what kind of question you throw at me now, I’m ready to answer.’

While I was filled with determination, his neat lips opened to speak,

“Today, let’s go out together.”

Surprised by the suggestion that seemed to come out of nowhere, I dropped my fork again.

“What? Go out?”

Has there ever been a time where I’ve been out with him before? Digging through 18 years’ worth of memories, the answer was ‘No.’

“Why?”

I asked because I was taken aback by the sudden proposal but he answered immediately,

“Just because.”

My head was left in a daze and I felt a slight throbbing pain from that simple answer.

‘Father, seriously…why are you doing this to me?’

* * *

I was currently in the middle of a high-end shopping street, its concept similar to a modern shopping mall with several stores under its roof.

“That one.”

When my father pointed at a weird-looking owl watch, the store clerk who was with us immediately called out to his assistant

“Niel, add the owl watch!”

I was getting a headache. Frustrated, I let out a sigh.

‘I don’t understand. Why is he being like this?’

I blinked, closing my eyes tightly for a moment before opening them. I was trying hard not to keep my eyes on something for too long. While I was busily browsing the store, my eyes landed on a porcelain rabbit.

‘It’s really expensive.’

In my previous life, pottery was something available to everyone, but in this life, it was a luxury item only used by a few. Perhaps that was why ceramic figures modeled after animals, flowers, and people were the envy of many.

‘Its appearance is a bit of a shame, it would’ve been nice if it looked a little more lovely…’

While others would’ve gushed over its magnificence and beauty, a porcelain rabbit colored with various pigments looked messy and strange in my eyes.

‘I don’t understand anyone who would buy this for such a high price.’

At that moment, I felt a stinging gaze and quickly lowered my eyes.

‘Ah, this isn’t right…’

I had decided not to look at anything yet it seems I had been staring at this bizarre item for too long. As I was dwelling over my mistake, I heard my father’s voice.

“That one as well.”

My father’s fingers pointed at the porcelain rabbit I was staring at. I couldn’t help but frown.

‘Why does he keep buying everything I look at?’

T/N:

[1] ‘Honestly, it’s unfair’

exact words: ‘사기캐잖아.’

Which is short for “사기 캐(릭터)” which literally translates to “Fraud Character” but it means “too strong/better than others”…like an overpowered/cheat character aka DADDY IS OP

[2] Empire’s strongest father

y’all don’t know how much I wanted to just write it as ‘Empire’s Strongest DADDY‘

……….Actually now I want to change the title to that…HM.

[3] Small edit: before I had Juvellian calling herself a munchkin character when she was actually referring to her dad as the munchkin character. In Korean, “Munchkin character” pretty much means the same thing as “OP character”. I initially thought ‘munchkin’ meant the opposite, which is why I was confused and made the mistake. Sorry!

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