CH 5

She is a daughter raised as the son of a duke

Episode 5

My heart sank at the sound of the word orphanage.

His cold eyes met mine again.

“I’ll prepare a wagon, so send that kid out by the end of the day. If the kid is still in the house when I come back tomorrow morning, I will hold you accountable.”

At his instructions, both Ellen’s and my eyes fluttered aimlessly.

I thought I’d have at least a week, but today, I can’t believe it’s so soon…

I’m still not ready yet…!

Ellen, who was looking at Persis as if to beg for something, couldn’t bear to open her lips at Persis’s cold expression.

Finally, Ellen squeezed her eyes shut. And answered.

“… Yes, I understand”

Hearing the answer, Persis was about to leave.

The moment he turned his back to me, I grabbed his sleeve. Perhaps because her life was at stake, her hands trembled slightly, and her words stammered out.

“Tomorrow, by tomorrow…!”

He looked back. It wasn’t anything familiar, but I could see that he was annoyed with me.

“I will prove that I am the person His Excellency really needs.”

“…”

When he looked down at me without answering, I continued.

“If I can’t prove it, I’ll just get out of this house.”

It felt like grabbing at least a straw. 

Please. Please.

Please say yes. Just give me at least one chance…!

I was so desperate that my hand holding the sleeves trembled with strength.

Soon his answer came.

“… yeah, go ahead.”

It was consent.

I was deeply moved by just that one word.

“Thank you…!”

It was really slow. What are you thankful for?

But to live, it was something to be thankful for.

He removed my hand and went out of the garden.

***

After talking with May, Persis arrived at the parlor 

A man had come to the first.

That man was Persis’ only close friend, Hind Nazet. He has been friends with Persis since childhood.

“You always come without notice, Hind.”

Persis went to the seat on the sofa and sat down.

The sunlight coming in from the large window illuminated Hind’s silver hair and cherry-colored eyes.

“I came to see your face for the first time in a while. You haven’t been here in a while because you’ve been busy.”

Soon the maids were serving coffee and dessert. Hind lifted the coffee cup.

He said, “I had troubles and wanted to share them.”

“What troubles?”

“Because of my brother’s daughter.”

Hind recently ascended to the position of Marquis his brother, Antonio, who was the predecessor of the Marquis Nazet family, died.

Antonio had an unregistered daughter, and Hind seemed to be talking about her.

He said, “I think you told me before. The name…”

“Stella.”

“Yes, that’s the name you said.”

Hind sighed deeply.

He started complaining by rhyming with “I don’t know what my brother was thinking.”

Before his death, Antonio had taken his daughter from his ex-wife, from whom he had been separated.

I didn’t bring her because I loved my daughter, but because my ex-wife, who was busy buying her own luxuries with child support payments every month, was annoyed, so I didn’t want to pay child support.

Antonio did not like his daughter very much, but he allowed her to live luxuriously in the House of Nazet.

After Antonio passed away, Hind became the head of the household, and naturally checked the list.

Hind is surprised to see the list, but the name of Antonio’s daughter, Stella, is not on the list.

“My brother didn’t put Stella on the family register. What was he really thinking… ”?

The child was not on the family register of the ex-wife.

Status of no deficit. Stella was practically an orphan by law.

“My older brother is no longer in the world, and my mother told me not to come to her because she has no intention of raising the child… Unless she is adopted by someone, the child will remain without a family name.”

For Persis, his story sounded somewhat like his own situation.

“… Your situation is similar to mine.”

“A similar situation?”

“Now Viche’s daughter is at my house.”

“What?!”

Persis calmly talked about May and what had just happened. Hind couldn’t believe it, so he kept his mouth open the whole time he heard it.

Hind put down the coffee cup and asked calmly.

“So… Are you going to send May to the orphanage?”

“Yes.”

“Are you serious? Are you really going to send your child to an orphanage?”

He tried to remain calm, but Hinds had become unwittingly agitated, and his values ​​did not permit him to send the child to an orphanage.

Persis answered again in a tidy tone.

“I have no intention of raising it.”

He remembered May, who held on to him fearlessly.

‘I’ll prove it. That I am the person that His Excellency needs.’

Like an idiot, he agreed. Wasn’t it after he had already made up his mind that the little girl had no need for him?

And yet he gave her a chance, just as he had one day when she came to him pregnant.

It seems that when I saw the innocent eyes of the little girl looking at me, I suddenly felt that I could not defeat the little girl.

“What will change my mind… There won’t be.”

Maybe even at this moment.

Hind shook his head with a worried face.

“I can see why you hate May, because she knows what kind of existence she is to you.”

Hind had been friends with Persis since childhood, so he knew his circumstances.

“But think of May’s point of view as well. No matter what your circumstances are, firstly, she is your daughter.”

Persis sipped his coffee indifferently. 

“Even if you think about it from that kid’s point of view, it’s better to grow up being loved by new parents than parents who hate you.”

“No one guarantees whether you will be loved or not.”

“You would never dream of being loved in my house.”

“…”

Hind wanted to refute, but there was nothing to refute. Indeed, it seemed as if he would not give May an ounce of love. I don’t know if it’ll change later, but at least for now.

“… Maybe you are right, maybe you she’s better off living with a new family. Then you?”

Won’t you regret

“You won’t regret it after sending your daughter to an orphanage.”

Regret it, Persis felt a strong, bitter taste in the coffee in his mouth.

There’s only one thing in life that you’ll regret.

That you gave your heart to Viche. That’s one thing. There’s nothing more to regret.

“Hind, I still have nightmares about her.”

“What? Still?”

Hind’s eyes widened in surprise.

It’s been a while since Viche passed away, and he still has nightmares about her.

“A dream in which the woman who was my everything left me.”

A dream that left him alone, knowing that he would suffer.

“Regretting to me like that.”

Regret is done by those who have lingering feelings.

“It’s absurd.”

He had no regrets left.

***

I let Ellen have some time to think alone and walked slowly through the garden.

‘Is this the only way now?’

My last resort, which I tried to avoid if possible.

The problem is that even though it is a last resort for me, it may not work for Persis.

I looked up at the sky. Contrary to my mood, it was sunny enough to be indifferent.

Why did it have to be May? Why should I possess this body and be afraid of the foreseen future? I know that May did nothing wrong. 

If you understand it with a very, very broad tolerance, it’s not even Persis’s fault

Strictly speaking, it is the fault of the fraudster who thought of adopting May and selling her as a slave, and the fault of the Countess Lady who abused and killed the young May to relieve stress.

Who knows, if it wasn’t for those trash, May would have grown up happily with new parents who truly love her.

But even as she thought about it, she thought of Persis again, which made her angry.

No, if Persis was in charge of May in the first place, there would be nothing to worry about, right?

I thought to myself, haughtily.

Cancel my statement that it wasn’t Persis’s fault just now! I made a hundred and a thousand mistakes, heung! It was when I crossed my arms and timidly shook my head.

I met eyes with a strange man who came out of the mansion.

He paused, as if he had noticed me, and then stared at me.

I watched him carefully. That curly silver hair… 

Hind Nazet! Hind is a long-time friend of Persis who occasionally appeared in the original work. 

I was surprised to see a friend with a Persis personality.

I hurried over to Hind and said hello.

“Hello, my name is May.”

There is a reason why you have to say hello.

Due to the nature of the hind, he would be terrified if he found out that Persis was going to send his daughter to an orphanage.

It was to make my presence known in the hope that he would stop Persis.

Hind gave me a kind eye smile.

“Are you May? I’ve heard that you are the daughter of Persis, right? I’m your dad’s friend, Hind Nazet. Nice to meet you.”

When Hind asked for a handshake, I took it with a big smile. Hind was not surprised by my greeting, as if he had already guessed that I was May.

Brilliant platinum, blue as the sea, resembling a fairy.

But soon we looked at each other and made sad faces without knowing.

Hind felt sad because he felt sorry for the girl in front of him, who was in danger of going to an orphanage.

Then why did I feel sad when I saw Hind?

He has a lost son. Shocked by the loss of his young son, his wife committed suicide, and Hind went through hell.

They say that people who smile a lot usually have a lot of scars.

I felt sorry for him because he didn’t seem to be smiling when he smiled at me right now. Besides, in the original story, Hind couldn’t find his son.

Of course, he may have found him after the ending, but what is certain is that he will not be able to find him for the next few years.

‘I’m sorry.’

‘I’m sorry.’

Hind and I felt sorry for each other, so we tried to smile brighter.