Chapter 30: 30

After that, Alan and I had a normal conversation like a father and daughter who loved each other.

Things like, it was good to come to see the moon, we should come again next time, and such.

I laughed outwardly, but was careful not to spit out the wrong lines.

It felt like playing a duet on an old violin.

Care must be taken to not break the barely worn strings.

Because even one mistake can bring the play to an end.

I couldn’t stop now. As long as I had started, I had to keep playing.

Even though I know that the moon is fake.

***

“Fake!”

In the middle of the night, I jumped out of bed and screamed.

I was thinking about the main character, Benimus.

How the count’s illegitimate child became a slave, and why on earth Benny’s father had no traits that were passed down to his son, etcetera.

In the midst of immersion, I thought of a way to go to the carnival.

It was random, but it was real. 

“He is a fake. That is it.”

I covered the cabbage head doll with a blanket and hurriedly left the room.

I ran barefoot to the corner of the duke castle.

At the end of the isolated hallway, the most recently opened door was seen.

I went into Michael’s bedroom without hesitation. The door was not locked.

I remembered the lock was broken all the time.

A bedroom as dim as the moonlight. I relied on my body’s memory to find Michael’s bed.

“I have something to tell you. Wake up, Michael.”

I lowered my voice and shook the blanket that popped out.

It was weird. It was too light…

Flop! In an instant, my body turned over. My head was squashed on a feather pillow that had been lying on the bed pretending to be human. A cold blade touched the nape of my neck.

“Is it you again?”

Michael slipped the blade that was pressing onto my neck into the ring’s frame.

Even though he was in pain and moaning, he never left out that tool.

“What is it this time? Did you come here to test if I’d get sleep paralysis?”

The boy, who had been shooting sharply, staggered and sat down on the bed.

As expected, it still seemed difficult to stand. 

“Now I know.” 

I raised my upper body like a dwarf. When words that didn’t add up fell, I looked like I was a red bean at night, not Michael.

“What?” 

“I realized it. That you are a fake like me.”

“Are you dreaming? Go and hug the doll which looks like you and fall asleep…”

“You, you are not the Duke’s son.” 

The corner of Michael’s lips, which was drawn into an arc, stiffened.

Like the day he poisoned me, the moment I asked if he is really Alan’s son.

“At first, I thought it was strange that you didn’t resemble the duke at all.”

Michael wrinkled his face, that was not even a bit like Alan’s, and scratched the ring.

“You don’t look like your father either, do you? Fake.”

“Nike said Lily looked like her mother. You don’t even look like me.”

“…What’s wrong with that?”

Michael averted his gaze. 

Yes, there are some fathers and sons who don’t look alike at all. But this is a fantasy novel.

Characters mixed with blood in novels look exactly alike.

Even Alan, whom Michael calls father, is the main villain.

The answer came from a very small sense of déjà vu.

“Michael, you are not an illegitimate child. You’re completely a stranger to the duke.”

He licked his red lower lip as if stabbed in the right direction.

“It’s not like I’m going to inherit the family, and it doesn’t mat…”

“Your dad. I know him too, right?”

At that, Michael shut his mouth. There are clear dots on his well-shaped chin. 

It vividly overlapped with the hateful bastard’s face.

His father was probably the trigger for all these tragedies.

“It’s Thomas.”

The leader of the bandits, ‘Walpurgis Night’.

“You are the son of Lily’s kidnapper.”

The sound made from him scratching the ring stopped. Silence passed for a while. 

Michael, who had been staring at me the whole time, turned his head quickly.

“…Don’t say anything strange.”

I was sure at that moment. 

‘I’m right. He’s Thomas’ son.’

Let’s summarize the first things that came to mind when I realized about my reincarnation.

Alan searched the entire continent for 10 years to catch the culprit who kidnapped his youngest daughter.

Then, at the beginning of this year, the bandits, ‘Walpurgis Night’, was finally captured.

There was a blind spot in the story that I had overlooked.

How the hell did a thief who had been running for 10 years get caught?

“Are you done talking?”

Michael raised his arm straight and pointed to the door. It meant to get out.

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But I had no intention of backing away like this, so I sat right in the middle of the bed like a stone statue.

“Teach me. How did you come to the duke castle?”

If my assumptions are right, he can help me.

Michael licked his lips and spit out a curse.

“Are you that curious? Why is the son of that bloody jerk still alive?”

The boy cursed his father without hesitation and rubbed his face as if that alone would not relieve his anger.

Still, his mood, which was as sensitive as a cat, grew sharper.

“I’ll teach you if you want to.”

As if he had given up, he spoke like that, but Michael paused for a while.

“My father… So, my father now. The duke thought that all parents were like him. He said they would come to save their blood-related in danger, he had missed Lilietta for so long that he forgot for a moment that there are others who are not like him.”

Michael paused for a moment and made eye contact with me.

“…You know that, too.”

I knew it very well. Because my father did too. 

I was abandoned. Before realizing I was reincarnated, I struggled to deny that fact.

No matter how much my father cursed and beat me, he won’t abandon me.

Occasionally I brought him some good drinks and it made him smile.

So I was still a valuable being. But one day I found  out. All that affection was just my imagination.

For the other person who I was longing for affection from, I was nothing from the beginning.

“Last year… the Duke brought me into the castle. That way, the rumors of my well-being will go into Thomas’ ears. That your child is on the verge of death.”

Alan’s retrieval of Michael was never due to sympathy or affection.

“The duke thought they could exchange each other’s children, me and Lillieta. He had been looking for his daughter for a long time… so he just wanted to hold on to that belief even if it was just a straw.”

Michael bit his lip. It looked like it was going to bleed.

“As you might have expected, Thomas certainly didn’t come. Why would a man who left his blind wife come here? The plan failed, so there was only one thing left for the duke. To punish the unforgivable enemy.”

Michael paused for a moment and caught his breath.

“Drying the seed of the enemy.”

To dry the seeds means to kill all those of the same blood.

Originally, Michael should have died at the age of nine.

Just because he is a child of trash.

“…But, there was one person among the bandits who took pity on me. A few times he had come to give me presents, and said nonsense that Thomas cares about me in his heart. No matter how hard he lied, there were times when I really thought that was true.”

A wry smile spread across the boy’s lips in an instant.

“I sold the liar to the Duke.”

It was immediately known who the liar Michael mentioned was.

“The first bandit that the Duke caught…”

“That’s right.”

Michael nodded slowly. 

“I sold the only person who took care of me, so I came to call my current father ‘Father.’”

The red eyes seen through the disorganized blonde trembled sadly.

As soon as Michael finished speaking, I put my hands on the bed.

“Help me.”

Upon my words, Michael gave more strength to his wrinkled forehead.

“Now that I have answered, go away.”

“I have to go see Benimus. The slave gladiator sponsored by House Bauner.”

“Are you saying that again?”

Michael was outrightly bored.

Well, I begged Alan whenever I had time.

He put his knees on the bed and grabbed my arm.

“I told you to stop it. Do you think I’ll like it when you come in in the middle of the night and turn others’ insides upside down?”

“If you don’t help me, one day you will die too.”

The hand holding my forearm stopped. Taking advantage of the gap, I quickly crossed my arms.

“Think about it. If I was the real Lily, you wouldn’t be here.”

In the original, Alan killed me. He was the kind of person who wielded a sword without hesitation at a scared child because she was on the side of the bandits.

A man who cares so much about his family, but he is infinitely cruel to others.

Alan is a villain. From the beginning until now, unchanged.

“I’m a fake, so you’re alive, Michael.”

If Alan had recovered the real Lily, not me, he couldn’t have left the kidnapper’s child alone.

Moreover, it was all the more absurd to have the two meet face to face.

Still, the value of use outweighs the risk.

That was probably the only reason Alan kept Michael alive.

“Don’t say non…”

“But you know. We can’t keep it like this.”

A playhouse game that never ends. If the illusion is broken, the fake son will be disposed of just like me…

“No way.”

Michael shook his head angrily. His gaze wandered into the air.

“There is no way my father… could kill me.”

“He could have killed me back then, but he saved me.”

I had never seen someone like Michael. A child who was raised as a child of the enemy cannot forsake the grace he had raised.

Rather, they often become loyal dogs to justify their existence.

“He decided to keep you alive for a while, and you just said that with your mouth.”

“……”

Michael clenched his teeth and spoke meanly.

“Why on earth are you so obsessed with that gladiator?”

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