C142
"Dad! What do you mean?!"
Liena was surprised by Duke Cassius's cold attitude.
"I found out about this from Miss Angela here. The girl who was originally close to my wife, Cheryl, was Ethel, and you deceived me into adopting you."
At the moment the truth of the past was revealed, Liena only opened her eyes wide and couldn't utter a word.
"That's a lie!"
She then exploded in anger, as if having a fit of rage.
"That woman lied! Do you believe in such nonsense?"
"We also confirmed with other students who were at the orphanage at that time."
The duke responded with a somber voice.
"Most people I contacted remembered Ethel as a girl who was friendly with the lady who visited them occasionally."
"Well, all those people are lying to frame me! You know it. I was ostracized from the nursery!"
"Are you saying that Angela, the other students, and even Ethel had malicious intentions toward you and agreed with you?"
"That's right!"
"Then tell me what Cheryl told me the night before she married me."
"What?"
"If you were close to Cheryl, you would know."
"... She didn't even tell me that."
"That's strange. Ethel was able to answer well."
"What?"
"She told me a while ago. Cheryl told her about our love story."
Liena suddenly looked at me.
I smiled gently in return for those warm eyes.
"Now, tell me quickly."
"Well, what I remember..."
Despite the duke's insistence, Liena only bit her lips.
Tick-tock, tick-tock. Meanwhile, the grandfather clock hanging on the wall of the room continued to move its hands.
Finally, Duke Cassius sighed, looked at me, and opened his mouth.
"Don't worry. Bad people are punished, and good people are blessed."
It was truly exquisite.
Originally, these words were said by the duchess to encourage the duke, who feared not being able to start a family long before his marriage.
You will be blessed because you are a good person.
But at this moment, doesn't it seem like he is foreshadowing Liena's destruction?
"Yes, that's right! Leandro should have told him! That's why my sister-in-law knows!"
Liena fought with all her might, denying her imminent destruction.
"No, I heard that for the first time today too."
But Leandro, who was leaning against the wall, shook his head, and Duke Cassius agreed.
"I haven't told anyone about that day either."
That was true. That is, until Liena gets married at the end of the novel.
Duke Cassius shares his experience with Liena, who is about to marry Mikhail, and encourages her by saying that she will be fine.
I decided to use the scene that showed the strong bond between father and daughter in a different way.
Didn't I say it a moment ago? Sometimes a little lie is necessary.
Suddenly, tears fell from Liena's eyes.
"Ugh, ugh... Why is everyone doing this to me?"
Liena, who was cornered, chose to act with tears, which was her specialty.
Watching Liena shed tears, wondering if her acting skills were rusty, was truly pitiful.
"Dad, I'm Liena. Dad's only daughter."
"......"
But Duke Cassius did not yield.
Then it was the turn of the two brothers.
"Brothers, please say something! Why don't you believe what I say, you're my family, and you only believe what others say?"
"Liena."
Leheim, who had been silent until now, spoke up.
"Don't you know what your sister-in-law, or Viscountess Lucibiu, knows about our mother?"
"I forgot! It was so long ago. My sister-in-law still remembers what she heard from me. We were close, and we shared everything."
That seemed to be Liena's new excuse, but it was like digging her own grave.
"You finally admitted it. Ethel was your friend."
Murmured Duke Cassius.
"Then why didn't you tell Leandro when he brought Ethel to our house?"
Liena, who was crying sadly, stiffened in shock.
"I heard she was a close friend? It's not that you didn't recognize her, so why pretend not to know her?"
"... I-I felt like Ethel didn't know me. Later, I found out she lost her memory in an accident, but I didn't want to cause confusion..."
"Looking back, your attitude back then was clearly strange. You said you were afraid of losing our affection for Ethel. Now I understand."
"Dad!"
"You were afraid of losing everything because, in the first place, it wasn't yours."
At that moment, Liena's time seemed to stop.
"... Well, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. But I couldn't help it. I really wanted a father and a family."
Liena slowly collapsed to the floor and soon began to cry like a child.
"I knew I shouldn't have done that... I was jealous of Ethel's opportunity. The love given by three people was so warm... I didn't want to lose it."
Liena sobbed and continued speaking with difficulty.
"Can you forgive me just once? I've been your good daughter until now. I'll do better in the future. Forget the past and give me a chance."
She then crawled and clung to Duke Cassius's feet.
If I didn't know Liena well, I would have thought that this sincere repentance was genuine, but it was too obvious to my eyes.
Liena's intention was to change her strategy to gain his sympathy because she could no longer deny the truth.
Proof of this is that she only apologized to Duke Cassius and his two brothers and didn't even look at her former friend.
"You should have told me earlier!"
The duke bent down and grabbed his daughter by the shoulders.
"Even if you did it out of love when you were young, you should have reflected and confessed the truth afterward!"
His face was distorted with pain.
"If that were the case, wouldn't Ethel have come here instead of suffering in that horrible house?"
"I was scared. I was afraid that my father and my brothers would abandon me if they discovered the truth.
"Don't you trust us? Did you really consider us family?"
"Of course! Then, what else would I have if not my family?"
A faint glimmer of hope appeared on Liena's face.
From the duke's painfully filled look, she seemed certain that he had not completely withdrawn his affection for her.
"Then why did you use dark magic to make us love you?"
But the next words shattered that hope.
"W-what do you mean? D-dark magic..."
"Don't even think about denying it. This is a conclusion we reached after thoroughly discussing it among ourselves."
"No, I don't know what you're talking about."
"In recent years, we've poured so much affection that we can't understand, even when looking back. I didn't want to admit it, but my father was right. The only way to do this twisted trick is through dark magic."
To put it bluntly, I was quite surprised too.
This is because I never told the Cassius family that Liena had a mysterious power that could attract the affection of others.
I wasn't sure if they would even believe it.
In other words, this meant that it was purely the truth discovered by Cassius and his sons.
Perhaps influenced by Roland Cassius, they seemed to believe it was not a blessing but dark magic.
"Now that I think about it, the old man said he sent hundreds of letters to the Cassius residence warning people to beware of the witch's dark magic."
I can't believe I helped in this way.
"N-no!"
Liena paled and vigorously shook her head.
"How could I perform dark magic? It's so absurd that I'm left speechless."
"Well, alright. I'll have to investigate that in more detail from now on."
Duke Cassius lifted Liena's body.
"Do you recognize me?"
"Liena, we've prepared a room for you at the capital's hospital."
"Am I sick?"
"Recently, I became interested in this area because of Joshua's issue, and I heard that there are various forms of mental illness."
"Is there something wrong with my head?"
"Unfortunately, I can't say there isn't."
Duke Cassius fidgeted and opened his mouth.
"Even when you were young, you didn't mind stealing from others. Every time I told you a story about Cheryl, you pretended to know her well, but it was all a lie. In my opinion, it goes beyond what can be considered normal child behavior."
"I told you! I did it because I wanted affection!"
"Then why did you commit all sorts of illegal activities while leading the Iver merchant guild? Why did you try to use your grandfather to forcibly take Ethel's mine?"
"Don't do this, Dad. Please."
"Don't be too scared. We'll be together until the end. The reason you turned out this way is because I raised you and neglected you too much."
"I said I was wrong!"
"After receiving treatment, sincerely apologize to the person you've harmed."
"They're going to keep me locked up in the name of treatment!"
"There must be circulation restrictions to prevent more victims of dark magic. But as long as you can see the way..."
"No, I don't want to! I'm fine! I don't have any issues!"
As Liena's resistance grew stronger, Leandro and Leheim joined forces to hold her down.
"Aack!"
However, Liena escaped her restraints by biting Leheim's arm.
She ran out of the hall and headed for the mansion's entrance.
"Catch Liena!"
By the duke's order, all the servants surrounded Liena, but there was a traitor among them.
"My lady! Escape quickly!"
A knight burst in with a drawn sword and created a hole in the courtyard.
"You! If you lay a hand on the young lady, you'll have to step over my corpse!"
... It was a fierce cry that reminded me of a battlefield.
"Damn, I fired them all, and there were still more left!"
While the other knights subdued the traitor, Duke Cassius clicked his tongue and chased after Liena.
But after a while, what he saw was completely unexpected.
"Hey!"
A man was leaving the house, riding a horse with Liena hanging behind him.
It was Isaac Cassius.
"Isaac! Stop!"
Despite the duke's shouts, Isaac silently disappeared from sight, taking Liena with him.
-----------------------------
"Uncle, faster! Run faster!"
Liena, tightly holding onto Isaac's waist, shouted with a trembling voice.
"If they catch me, my dad will take me to a hospital!"
Isaac gently reassured his niece.
"That won't happen. I'll never let that happen, so don't worry, Liena."
"... Thank you. But how did you get here?"
"I had a sinister premonition about something, so I followed you."
"I'm so happy. I don't want to go to the hospital!"
"I see. Going to the hospital is too much for you..."
The last words, "It's an ending that's too sweet," were swallowed by Isaac.
