Chapter 5: 5

“Lily, this is our house.”

The carriage, which was running non-stop, finally came to a halt. I slowly turned my head and looked into the duke’s castle.

Stone walls soaked in the wine-colored sunset. A flock of crows who go and sit in the middle of the day and cawled.

An eerie atmosphere as if a curse had been spelled. 

This…

‘It looks like a drawing of a villain’s hideout.’

“Do you remember?”

As soon as Alan got off the carriage, he wrapped a blanket around me.

In an instant, I was like a worm, and I shook my head, looking for a breathing hole.

Hey, even if I’m the real Lily, there’s no way I remember this house. I was kidnapped a week after I was born.

“…I never leave this place for fear that you might come back.”

Alan said quietly. He seemed to have failed to give up on this one possibility even though he knew it would not be possible.

Woof, woof! 

Three hounds ran over the vine-filled fence.

The largest dog was all black and the tallest dog was white. The little dog following behind must have it’s fur dyed partially. They circled around Alan’s feet.

Without realizing it, I dug into his arms.

‘Argh, dogs are scary.’ 

One day when I was living in an ant cave, I went out to find my father, who didn’t come home, and was chased by a wild dog.

From that day on, whenever I ran into a dog, I was scared that it would bite me.

“They were gifted to you on the day you were born 10 years ago, Lily.”

Alan patted me like one would to a baby, and sternly glanced at the dogs. Then the dogs calmed their excitement and sat down.

‘Wow, is it because Alan also has animal blood, so they listen well?’

He looked down at me kindly and said.

“At that time, these guys were shorter than you, Lily. Still, I’ve trained them to remember your scent. Would you like to touch them?”

How much will it hurt to be bitten by a dog?

“Who are those people?” 

I turned to the people who were standing at a distance.

At first glance, there seemed to be dozens of people. Alan noticed what I was thinking and moved without further urging.

“They’re servants. Unless you call them separately, you’ll hardly ever run into them…. there.”

Alan glared at the servants. After a while, the guards pulled a young servant out of the back row of the group.

Alan looked down at him coldly and ordered.

“What you just said, spit it out again.” 

‘Eh? Did he say something?’

Was there any sound? It was so far away that I couldn’t even hear his voice, let alone his breathing.

As if he had made a mistake, the servant shook his head and trembled.

“I, I have sinned to death!” 

“I told you to say it again.”

“Ma, maybe because she had come a long way… the princess seems different from what I imagined…”

Combining the gibberish of the servants, it seemed to mean that I was too dirty to be a princess.

‘Honestly, that’s true.’

Red hair that was disheveled and dirt under my fingernails because of living in an ant cave for a long time. 

Even without looking in the mirror, I could guess what I would look like. Like a beggar.

But Alan’s eyes flashed as cold as ice picks, as if he didn’t want to hear even an honest evaluation.

“I will not forgive anyone who insults my daughter. I’m sure you guys know that.”

At those words, the servant trembled like an aspen. My body was trembling as well.

If he found out that I was a fake, this man would look at me with an expression even worse than this.

‘I’m scared, I’m scared. I’d rather pretend to be dead.’

Then a question popped into my mind.

‘What would Lily do at a time like this?’

Alan only remembered Lily as an angel. If so, then he would think that her heart would be like an angel’s.

Confused, I approached him.

“Father, I’m fine.”

I gently pulled Alan’s sleeve.

“He probably didn’t mean to insult me… do, don’t be mad.”

Inside, I cast a spell on myself. 

‘I am Lily. I’m Lily. I have to keep this madman mistaken for me to survive.’

After a while, Alan’s mood was softened as if I had poured cold water on him.  It was a success. He murmured as I was secretly relieved.

“….dy.” 

“Yes?”

“Call me Daddy. You didn’t call me that way when you were little.”

I couldn’t say ‘Did you think I would call you that? It was a newborn baby, so what nonsense…’.

I smiled broadly at him and did whatever he wanted. 

“Yes, Daddy!” 

Alan stared at me and clenched his teeth.

‘Did he… smile?’

Although the intense joy was felt from his skin, I was honestly a little scared because I felt like I forgot how to smile. (PR/N: ‘skin’ in this case meaning ‘outward appearance’.)

“My daughter is nice.” 

Alan hugged me and went through the antique main hall to reach the courtyard.

He didn’t stop pointing fingers at his servant all the way here. 

“Nike, the horsemen were too slow. According to the original plan, we should enter a safe area before the boundary is broken.”

“Duke, that’s because the World Tree’s barrier was torn faster than expected rather than the carriage being slow…”

“I don’t want to hear such excuses because my daughter might have been hurt. Must you always question everything I say?”

“N, no.” 

“Dispose it.” 

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No matter how much I had to pretend to be nice, it seemed like there was no end to it. 

‘Should I just pretend to sleep?’ 

The moment I was about to pretend to sleep, Alan grabbed my wrist.

I was so startled that I almost had hiccups.

“Who did this?”

The part he gripped was quite painful. It wasn’t because of Alan. 

Contrary to his grumpy look, his hands were very gentle, but my wrists were full of fresh bruises.  

‘…I’m ruined.’

How could a princess’ body be blue with bruises like mold.

As I desperately looked for an excuse, Alan took his hand off my arm. 

As he glanced at the bottom of the baggy sleeve with a sharp gaze, he seemed to have noticed, too. 

The bruised part wasn’t just the arms. My body was full of hidden scars, on my shoulders, nape, and stomach… 

“Lily.” 

Alan looked into my eyes. 

“I just…  want to know who did this to you.”

There was suffering in his soft voice.

‘I don’t think he’s trying to scold me… right?’ 

I calmly choose an answer. 

I fell down. I got hit by my own father. There was a kid stoning me in the ant cave. Of the many reasons that came to mind in a flash, there was only one thing I could tell Alan. 

“…I fell down.” 

Alan’s eyes narrowed. I was on edge because he didn’t seem to like my answer. 

“Re, really, Dad. Trust me.” 

“Where?”

“What?”

“Where did you fall?”

“Uh… a little while ago. When the monsters appeared…”

Alan was silent for a moment and slowly let go of my wrist. Then he looked across the courtyard and shouted sternly.

“Larks, bathe Lily.”

Lark? Is there a bird in this house? 

Crunch, crunch.

It was not a bird but four women who walked out of the courtyard through the leaves. 

The moment I saw their faces, I thought my eyes were mistaken. 

*** 

Splash.

“Ahh.”

“Oh my, is it too hot?”

The maid ,who poured warm water all over my shoulders, opened her eyes wide. 

I looked up at her and shook my head. 

“Oh, no. It’s perfect.” 

I was just not used to the hot water, but it was a nice thing to be dazed about. 

I put my heated face halfway into the water and peeked around.

‘I’ve never seen anything like this before.’

White marble tiles. Shining toiletries. Four maids who served me. A toy boat containing petals floated on the warm bath water and smelled sweet from the steam that rose up from the bottom. 

‘But the main hall wasn’t as pretty as here….’

The mansion was majestic, but it was desolate as if it had not been well managed. 

On the way, I looked around and found that every corner of the pier was full of dust and spider webs, which would take months to clean up. 

However, Lily’s bedroom and bathroom were different. 

Rooms that had no owner for 10 years were clean without a speck of dust, and wallpaper and furniture that decorate the room were sophisticated, as if they belonged in the shopping mall show window. 

No wonder it was strange. 

The mansion of the living was dead, but only the spaces of the dead child were alive. 

“Sisters, bring me a bottle of healing flower water. We should pour it out immediately.”

A maid clapped and the other ladies scattered from place to place gathered. 

Four pairs of light purple eyes stared down at me in the bathtub. I was nervous without realizing it. 

The Lark was a quadruplet. 

Not only their faces, but also their light pink dresses, white brushes across their chests, and even their refreshing knee-bending gestures were the same. 

I still couldn’t tell who was who, so I felt like I was seeing some ghosts. 

“Hey, can a bottle heal the wounds? Let’s just pour it all in.” 

“That’s a good idea. We’re lilac spirits for a reason.” 

“Shall we show our skills?”

The ladies chatted among themselves and took out a long jar from the cupboard. 

There was a rustling sound inside the bottle as if it had some bubbling sweet and sour medicine in it. 

“Princess, it must be a little itchy, please bear with it a little while.”

They surrounded the bathtub at equal intervals. And one of them started singing in a clear voice first. 

「We are the daughters of the plant god Flora. The World Tree grows in the center of this land. The first being Flora created. Thank her for her ministry.」

The larks hovered around the bathtub with the same strides and tilted the jar’s contents into the bathtub. 

Various medications fell into the bath and the scent of fresh flowers was smelled.

‘Perfume? No, is it flower water…?’ 

A gentle glow rose from the water. 

A thin stream of light, like a thread, became thick and surrounded my body and melted gently on my bruised forearm. 

I turned my arms around and opened my eyes wide. 

“Wow….” 

The blue bruise disappeared. I could tell it right away. 

‘This is the magic of a spirit.’

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