Chapter 23: 23

Michael beckoned me to come quietly.

I hesitated, but I had no choice. Because he had my weakness. 

Following him, another private room appeared. As soon as I opened the small door and walked in, I saw a bottle of formalin containing a frog.

‘This is…’

I looked around the private room covered in blackout and wrapped my arms around myself amidst the eerie feeling.

A closet lined with sharp dissection tools and numerous medicines.

In the middle of the gloomy furniture, a lively tea set was laid out as if it had come from somewhere else.

Steam rose from the teapot as if tea had just been brewed.

“Sit down. It’s going to be a bit long.”

Michael took the note in my hand and threw it into the small furnace.

In an instant, the tiny piece of paper turned to ashes and disappeared.

I did not sit right away, but stood still and looked at Michael.

“…I can’t stay here long.”

“Because of Father?”

I nodded. 

What would happen if Alan found out I’m out in the middle of the night?

There was no need to waste time. I took a step forward and asked straightforwardly.

“Does the Duke already know?”

“Of what?”

Michael asked naturally. No matter how much I heard it, he was simply making fun of me.

My stomach was boiling, but I cleared my throat as calmly as I could.

I didn’t mean to be angry and give him more fun.

“Does the duke know that I’m… a fake? Did you already tell your brothers?”

Without affirming or denying, Michael tilted his head.

“Why do you think so?” 

“Because the reaction was strange. When Brother said you were joking earlier.”

Alan didn’t take Michael’s joke lightly. Rather than that, he got angry like he had been stabbed.

The more I looked at it, the more I felt uneasy.

Michael pulled out the chair without a word. 

I was about to open my mouth before I sat there.

‘I can’t.’

I carefully sat down on the chair. 

Michael took out two teacups and poured the tea.

The reddish stream of tea stretched a long shadow like the tail of the devil.

“……”

I slowly raised my eyes and looked at Michael’s face.

There was a small dot under the eyes of the boy who came close.

Around the mouth and under the chin…?

“Usually, I cover it up with powder.”

As if Michael felt my gaze, he touched his face and sat down opposite me.

“It’s hereditary. It’s a family of moles… in the South.”

It’s not a trait inherited from Alan, who doesn’t have any blemishes on his face, so he was probably referring to his mother.

Michael put the teapot down and tilted his head.

“Drink. I boiled it while thinking of you.” 

There was no way I could readily drink the tea that Michael had served.

As my glaring face was reflected in the teacup, Michael drank his tea lavishly.

Liquid from the same kettle sweetened his lips.

“People may think I’m going to eat you up.” 

“Please answer first.”

“Then will you become Lilietta?”

I was speechless.

Michael spoke casually.

“All I want is you as Lilietta, and what you want is the truth. Let’s change it.”

A light tone, as if made up, was empty inside.

I got goosebumps at how hard it was to see him as an 11-year-old child.

“…I can’t promise you recklessly.”

I was speechless. After all, it was a matter of if.

“As you said before, even if I live as Lilietta, when I turn 14 anyway…”

“There is one thing I want to ask you.”

Michael cut my words off and changed the subject.

“Somehow, I think you would know. Tell me, and I will answer your questions.”

“…What is it?”

“Is the real Lilietta dead?”

I opened my eyes wide. I was not surprised by the question itself. Because many people thought that the kidnapped princess was already dead.

What surprised me was Michael’s attitude.

There was a certainty, not a guess, in his eyes. It was like reaffirming what he already knew.

“…What makes you think so?”

“It looks like she’s dead, seeing you say that.”

Michael opened his eyes languidly and leaned his back against the backrest.

I sighed and nodded my head. Yes, Lily is dead. I heard it firsthand from the kidnapper, Thomas. But I’ve never told anyone before.

The only thieves who know the truth have disappeared from this world.

“Hey, fire ant.”

Michael called me sarcastically.

“Have you heard the rumors? ‘Walpurgis Night.’ The bandits that abducted Lily, the fact that my father caught them and tortured them one by one.”

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I knew it. Even before I realized my reincarnation, I had heard about the filial head next to the drawbridge.

I replaced affirmation with silence. 

Michael spoke in a calm tone.

“They’re all geniuses of escape, so they’re not used to torture. When we caught one, he told us where the other party was. Of course, my father took it easy even after he got all the information.”

Michael put three sugar cubes in his tea and stirred.

A red vortex entangled with the silver teaspoon.

“Wouldn’t the bandits who have been sold by their colleagues confessed, ‘Lilieta is dead! Even if you do this to me, your dead daughter won’t come back!’?”

‘…Ah!’

I was startled and covered my mouth. A blind spot that I had never been aware of before flashed through my mind.

‘Why did Alan kill Thomas on the spot?’

The captain of ‘Walpurgis Night’, Thomas, is the main culprit in the kidnapping of the princess.

Alan hated him for ten years, grinding his teeth.

Considering his cruel temper, it was natural to take Thomas and skin him alive.

But why did he cut his throat so quickly?

“It’s different from your promise! You said that if I return your daughter, you will save… Argh!”

Thomas’ death came to mind. He could have uncovered my identity before he died and dragged me away like a water ghost. But Alan’s hand was faster than Thomas’s tongue.

…It was too fast.

As if trying to stop Thomas from speaking.

“My father didn’t believe it.”

Michael stopped the hand that was stirring the tea.

“A few people said Lily was dead, but my father didn’t believe it, and he kept looking for her. Then only one person. Only Thomas wrote a letter saying, ‘Lily is alive.’”

The boy took a sip of the tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“He believed it. Rather than choosing the truth… he chose to believe.”

Michael took my teacup, put three sugar cubes in it, and stirred it. He quickly drank the tea, which was close to sugar porridge, and even wiped his mouth and the silver teaspoon before returning the teacup to its place.

As if to prove that he didn’t do anything to the tea nor the teacup.

“That’s why when he sees something that’s not like Lily, he’ll look away. Look, you came out of the room in the middle of the night and he didn’t even follow you.”

“…He already knows I’m here?”

“Don’t you understand? You’re the daughter he met after 10 years.”

Michael opened the lid of the teapot and shook the handle as if to check the remaining amount.

The sound of water was heard in the distance. I realized belatedly.

A month ago, the night I met my biological father. It wasn’t because I was lucky to sneak out to the abandoned kitchen.

Alan knew I had left the bedroom, but pretended not to see it.

“Unless you are kidnapped again, he will leave you alone. You can’t leave the castle anyway.”

“He has to use you as a substitute for his lovely youngest daughter, so he’s trying to control the distance. Not get too close to the truth.”

Clatter.

The sound of the kettle lid closing was particularly loud.

“My father is as afraid as you are of the evidence that you are fake. Why would someone like that ask me to do a background check? I did it myself.”

Michael’s voice deepened for an instant.

“For House Bauner.”

For the sake of the family. That’s why Michael wanted to make me Lily.

“I don’t know for sure, but you seem to really look like Lily. I thought about it for a long time. There was a lot of fuss about Brother Pedro saying you smelled the same. Although now that I see it, I think it was their misunderstanding.”

Michael filled my teacup with black tea.

It seemed that quite some time had passed, but the tea water that flowed from the spout of the kettle did not cool down and gave off a misty steam.

The teapot’s body was as big as a ball, and Michael’s hands looked small like a toy.

It was ridiculous. Tea time that didn’t go well with the gloomy greenhouse, a cute checkered tablecloth, and a tea set that was jagged like a toy. And we’re all turning a blind eye to the truth.

“Fire ant, you called him ‘Father’ on the way to the castle, right?”

When the teacup was filled to the brim, the flowing water stopped. The tea seemed to have run out. 

My throat was burned by the delicious red color.

“And you use the same face as his lost daughter. My father must have felt like he had come back alive.”

Alan’s expression, which was as if he had been saved, filled my mind.

“I don’t know exactly when I started doubting you. But I’m pretty sure the truth has been found. My father nevertheless chose to trust you.”

The boy resembling a devil opened his eyes narrowly and groaned.

“But in the middle of this, you try to bring in evidence that you’re a fake, which he doesn’t even want? You want him to wake up from a dream with his daughter?” 

Michael paused for a moment, then spoke calmly.

“That means to die.”

The first time he saw me, the mad duke cried. He said he finally found me.

It was the first time in years that he had escaped from the hell where he lost his daughter.

“If it was you, would you die?”

Will he come now and go back to hell on his own feet?

‘I’m thirsty.’

As my thoughts became more complex, a deep thirst came upon me.

I grabbed the teacup with both hands and gulped it down.

Clank!

I emptied the cup to the bottom and put it down roughly. It felt like the cup holder I hit was about to break.

My head hurts. 

Seeing me frown, Michael smiled, very satisfied.

“One thing is for sure. My father has no intention of digging into your circumstances.”

“……”

“You trembled like a dog in the rain for fear of being found out that you’re fake, but you don’t have to. As there’s only one thing you need to pay attention to.”

Even if he didn’t say it, I guessed I knew what it was.

What I did in the original.

“Not to reveal that I’m fake.” 

The moment I accepted the real me, the illusion was shattered.

The happy father-daughter’s play will come to an end.

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