CH 2

When I came out to the hallway and looked around, I saw Ellen’s back around the corner in the distance.

“Ellen!”

I followed her running down the hallway.

“Ellen!”

I turned the corner and called again, and only then did Ellen stop and look back.

“Miss?”

I looked up at her with the bright eyes I had prepared in advance.

“Ellen, I want some coffee!”

“Coffee?”

“Ugh, coffee!”

Twinkle twinkle. She’ll give me a coffee if I give her this kind of look, right?

However, Ellen was not the type to be swayed by sparkles and twinkling lights.

“No. Coffee is prohibited when you are growing up.”

“Just one sip, huh?”

I grabbed the hem of Ellen’s clothes and jumped up and down.

“Let me drink it.”

I haven’t had coffee in over a year! Sobbing.

Ellen was suddenly perplexed by my search for coffee.

“Why do you suddenly want coffee? You’ve never tried it, lady.”

When she looked down at me curiously, as if asking why a coffee addict is looking for coffee, I was stabbed and gently let go of the hem of Ellen’s clothes.

“Well, I just never drank it, so I’m curious about the taste.”

The lie came out awkwardly, but fortunately, Ellen didn’t suspect it.

Ten years old is the age to be curious.

“Hmm, then how about coffee-flavored cookies? Some cookies taste like coffee, but they have very little caffeine.”

Coffee-flavored cookies. It was a pity that it was not coffee, but I decided to be satisfied because I could taste it in its way.

It’s not a situation where I can be more aggressive, and as Ellen said, coffee is not good for growing up.

“Okay. Give me coffee-flavored cookies.”

“Please stay in your room, I will bring it to you.”

“Okay.”

After sending Ellen, I went back the way I came.

In the future, it would be perfect to eat coffee-flavored cookies as a dessert after eating a sandwich.

“If it’s delicious, I’ll ask for it tomorrow too, hee hee.”

It was then that I was turning the corner and imagining coffee-flavored cookies.

“Uh…?”

A shadow fell and someone stopped in front of me.

In an instant, the surrounding air cooled.

I had goosebumps all over my body.

What? This feeling.

This unsettling feeling…

For about three seconds, I pondered whether or not to check the face of the person standing in front of me. It was because my damn intuition indicated that it was the to avoid it.

Do I have to check who it is? Should I just run away with my eyes closed?

But the frightened legs hardly showed any intention of moving.

I couldn’t help but creak and raise my head like a robot to face the person in front of me.

And it just froze.

Dark black hair.

Red eyes like blood.

A cold-blooded atmosphere that would kill me if I did something.

Why wasn’t the ominous intuition wrong?

This man was, by all accounts, Persis.

***

Persis stopped in front of a little child.

A little child whose height barely reached his waist.

That’s weird. I don’t think there’s a child like this in my house.

The little kid looked up at himself as if he had made up his mind after some internal conflict.

Then it hardened unpleasantly. As if it had seen something it shouldn’t have seen.

It wasn’t just the child who was surprised. He was also surprised to see the little child’s face, though it was not revealed.

You look a lot like her.

“Who are you?”

Who’s in my house and looks this much like her?

The little kid’s lips trembled and parted.

And the answer that came back was…

“Ah, I’m father’s daughter…”

It was a ridiculous answer.

***

Crazy, I’m crazy!

Upon meeting Persis, I desperately ran away from the spot and escaped to my room.

Must be crazy. She introduced herself as a daughter to Persis, whom he met for the first time.

One day, suddenly in the hallway, the girl I’d ever seen for the first time was my daughter.

Hearing my words, his brow wrinkled.

‘It must have been absurd.’

I should’ve just run away with no answer. Rather, it should have been rather than.

No. Will that change anything? When did we already run into each other?

I slammed the door shut and leaned against the door, slipping and falling to the floor. When I put my hand on my chest, my heart beat fast.

How did this happen? In the original story, May and Persis’ first meeting was at a flower garden. So even though I wanted to go to the garden, I held back and didn’t even go near the garden.

But why did we meet in the hallway?!

“I’ve never met you before…”

I often went in and out of the library because I was bored, I couldn’t go out anywhere, and stayed in the room.

My room and the library were in opposite directions, but I never ran into him on the way back and forth.

Once, I was lost because of the wide Duke’s mansion. For as long as an hour, I couldn’t find my room and wandered around the mansion. I didn’t run into him then, either.

Is that why? Naturally, I came to think that there would be no meeting other than at the flower garden, and I came out of the room frequently without hesitation.

She had hoped so much not to run into Persis, but was too careless.

I let my hand on my chest fall weakly to the floor.

“It’s ruined… Why did I want to drink coffee…”

But now is not the time to blame yourself.

She took a deep breath and calmly closed her eyes.

Now, a man called my father will kick me out.

There is no answer if you go to an orphanage. You have to stay in this house somehow, not die.

Fortunately, the original story and development have already changed.

‘The reality is that it can be different from the original content.’

Even so, it was unavoidable. It’s not like Persis’s personality has changed.

He’s a man who thinks I’m of no use to the family, not even his flesh and blood.

As long as that thought doesn’t change, the plan to expel me to the orphanage won’t change.

It is not that there are no plans in place for such situations.

I have a plan in place in case Persis discovers me before I am old enough to live on my own.

“But it’s a last resort. I don’t want to use it at all.”

… If that’s the only way to survive, I’ll use it.

Knock knock.

Then, with a knock, the door clicked open and Ellen entered the room. In her hand was a coffee-flavored cookie.

“Lady, I brought you coffee-flavored cookies… what? Why are you sitting here?”

When Ellen looked down curiously at me sitting by the door, I burst into tears as if I were about to cry.

“Ellen…!”

I got up and hugged Ellen.

“Oh? Did anything happen while I was gone?”

“I met my dad…”

In response, Ellen almost dropped the cookies she was holding for a moment. The eyes had already grown as big as a lamp.

“Master, you said you met the master… ?”

As I nodded, Ellen said resignedly.

“The magic… looks like it’s unlocked…”

“Magic?”

Magic’s unlocked?

“What magic?”

“It’s the magic Floa placed on the master at Lady Viche’s request.”

So what kind of magic is that?

Ellen tilted her head as I put on an expression that I didn’t know at all.

“Did you forget? Floa put a spell on the master to keep him from knowing the lady’s existence.”

It was the first time I heard it without May’s memory. In addition, the story is not in the original story.

Well, the inside story of a single supporting character must not have been written in the text of the novel. Because novels exist for the main character.

When I asked about the situation in detail, Ellen explained in detail.

The backstory that was not revealed in the original novel was like this.

Persis had a woman he loved, whom he regarded as his savior. That’s May’s biological mother, Viche Yuriet.

Although there were many men, he loved her with all his heart.

Viche also whispered love to him. She was always by his side when he was in pain.

So when he proposed to marry her, she ultimately refused.

She abandoned him, saying that her unwillingness to be bound to someone is greater than her love for him.

And came back to him three months later.

‘I’m pregnant with your child. Let me stay here.’

Persis tried to send her away, but contrary to his promise, he had already given her a room to stay, and a lady-in-waiting attached to her.

It was embarrassing to have resented her so much for three months.

He immediately regretted taking her into the house, but since he had a child, he did not expel her. But I did mention a cold doctor.

‘I have no intention of raising the child in your womb. When the child is born, take it out of this house.’

‘But it’s your child…’

‘I don’t need the child you gave birth to. Even if it’s my bloodline.’

When it seemed that Persis would not raise the child, Viche begged Floa, the guardian deity of Flotina.

After giving birth to a child, she will leave, so ask that the child be raised here.

So Floa casts a spell so that the child can grow up in the duke’s mansion without Persis’ knowledge.

So that the child’s existence is never known. Living in the same house, but never running into the child.

Until I concluded that by this time Persis would raise my child.

Viche then died while giving birth to May.

Hearing all that, I took a deep breath.