Chapter 23: 23

When Ivanna woke up in the morning, she was still in her father’s arms.  She looked up at her dad as she rubbed her eyes, while he laughed beautifully.

“Did you sleep well?”

“Yes.”

“You don’t need to sleep anymore?”

“Yeah.  I want to get up.”

When she yawned loudly, her dad stood up while holding her.  After her mother died, no one hugged her like this.  Her father’s arms were so nice and comfortable.

Ivanna hugged her dad’s big, hard shoulders and rubbed her cheeks against him.  Her dad laughed happily.

“Are you hungry?  Wash your face and eat······.”

Dante, who was walking while holding Ivanna, suddenly stopped talking.  Ivanna, who was listening because she liked her father’s quiet voice by her ear, looked up.  Dad was looking at something.

“Sandwich, did you eat?”

“Sandwich?”

“Bread on the table.  I brought it to you for dinner yesterday and left it because you were sleeping.”

Ivanna woke up in the middle of the night and looked at the table and ate the bread, vegetables, and meat.  She ate one, and the other remained as it was, rolled up.

“Yeah. I woke up and I was hungry.”

“······Even though you did, I didn’t know.”

Dante was dumbfounded.  Not only did the child get up and climb onto his lap, but he also didn’t even know she woke up to eat the sandwich.  Somehow he felt strange.  He remembered the time when he was with Louise.

“I can’t eat it······?”

Ivanna was terrified when her Dad stared at the half-empty plate with a serious look on his face.

“No.  I’m sorry you had to eat alone.”

Dante, with a gloomy voice, came to his senses and kissed the side of her head.

“I don’t mind eating alone······.”

No, he didn’t think it was that good thing for her to say.  Dante glanced at Ivanna’s leftover sandwich.  There is no bread and vegetables on top.  Seeing the meat and the leftovers, it seemed as though she did not know how to eat a sandwich.  Thinking of the child that must have struggled while eating alone, it was very cute and sad.

“But it’s lonely if you eat it alone.”

Ivanna nodded very naively, she never dreamed that Dante, who said that, was a person who skips meals often because he was annoyed.  The child froze as he pulled the rope next to her bed.

“What is that?”

“If you pull this, people come.  You don’t have to call anyone yourself, so if you want to call someone later when you’re alone, pull this.”

“I can do it too?”

“Of course.”

People come when you pull the rope.  In prison, no matter how much she cried, no one came except when she had her power pulled out or when she was brought food.  There are so many interesting things at her dad’s house.

Not long after, Alaine came in.  Alaine smiled softly when she saw Ivanna in Dante’s arms while gently waving her hand.

“Shall I get the wash water?”

“Yes.  Prepare breakfast too.”

Alaine got water from a small wooden bucket from the bathroom.  After the bathtub was broken, the smashed powder was removed.  But Ivanna still did not enter the bathroom because it was entirely decorated with white marble.  Dante washed lightly in the bathroom while Alaine moistened a soft towel and thoroughly wiped Ivanna’s face and hands.

‘All the bathtubs in the duke’s residence are white marble, I think I’ll have to take a look and work on every single one of them.  It shouldn’t be white or marble.’

“I have to call the contractor.”

When Ivanna’s condition improves, I’ll call someone to get an estimate.  It would take quite a long time to repair all the bathtubs in the duke’s house, and it would require a lot of manpower.

“······It’s not that bad to vacate the mansion.”

Now that Ivanna can go out to the garden, will she be able to go outside the mansion someday?  I wanted to show Ivanna the places her mom liked.

“That’s a good idea.”

You have to decide by watching the treatment progress. Wouldn’t it be possible after a year or so?

Dante put on a robe, dried his wet hair moderately, and walked out of the bathroom.  Alaine had gone to get a meal and Ivanna was walking around the room alone, fiddling with the toys.  Ivanna touched the soft ball with the cotton stuffing, and when Dante came out, she came up to him.  Dante familiarly hugged Ivanna.

“Your hair is wet.”

“It’s okay, it’ll dry soon.”

Her little hand touched his wet hair.  Dante sat on the sofa while holding Ivanna.

“Ivanna.”

“Yes.”

“Aren’t you uncomfortable when you move your fingers?”

Ivanna opened her eyes and looked at her hand.  She began to wiggle her fingers, but she wasn’t sure.

“I’m not uncomfortable.”

“You’re not sick?”

Instead of answering that, she glanced at Dante’s eyes.

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‘My dad said that just because I didn’t feel the pain doesn’t mean there wasn’t a wound.  So am I sick?’

Ivanna’s pretty eyes rolled around.  Dante patted the child’s head.

“It’s okay to say it.”

Ivanna pondered for a moment, then shook her head.

“It doesn’t hurt.”

“You’re not sick, but without treatment, you can’t hold your sword.  What do you want to do?”

“Should I get treatment even if I’m not sick?”

“Even if you’re not sick now, you will get sicker as you get bigger.  Then you can never be able to hold the sword.”

“Why?”

“It takes a lot of effort to hold the sword, but if you get sick, you can’t do it.  If you hold the sword with a sore body, your body will get worse.”

Ivanna’s eyes drooped down.

“Then I can’t use the sword forever?”

“From now on, if you get treated well, you can do it.  But getting treatment will also be very painful.  Till the point where you might want to stop.”

“It’s okay to be sick.  I can take it.”

As his eyes dropped, the child smiled and reached for Dante.

“If I can hold the sword like my mom, I will bear the pain.  If that’s the case, I can get treated well.  Compared to pulling out my powers, it doesn’t hurt at all.”

Dante was heartbroken by the heavy words.  How painful it must have been for a five-year-old child to say this.  Dante hugged the child with arms outstretched.

“And it’s warm, quiet, and painless here so I can bear it.  Dad, sister, and brother said that they would stay next to me, so I can bear all the pain.”

Dante took in a deep breath at the voice of the child in his ear.  Ivanna’s skinny arms hugged his shoulders as if comforting him instead.

“My dad, my sister, and my brother said they would share it with me if I were sick, so I can bear it all.  I’m not alone anymore.”

It was just three weeks since the child came here.  The time that Dante usually felt was long, felt very short now at this moment with Ivanna.  At first, each day was painful, but not now.  The day was new and he was always looking forward to the morning.

‘The days I watched my child’s growth felt very beautiful and overwhelming emotion.’

Since she was a daughter who he didn’t even know existed at first, he didn’t even know about the moments she suffered, so that feeling touched him even more.  It was even more overwhelming so when he felt that his child was being healed like now.

“Yes.  Dad will be there.  I will always protect you with your sister and brother.  We’ll be your strength.”

“Yes.”

Ivanna hugged her dad’s shoulders and buried her face in his chest.  His heart was pounding.  The beating sound was louder than when her dad fell asleep, but the sound hitting her ears was still nice.  Her dad’s voice made her feel comfortable.  So Ivanna was held in her dad’s arms until breakfast arrived; listening to the sound of his heartbeat joyfully.

***

Ivanna’s treatment began soon after that afternoon.  This was possible because Ivanna’s most unstable mentality improved a lot after the illusion that the altar was broken.  Otherwise, Ivanna, no matter how familiar with the pain, would have become worn out.  It would be really painful to heal her twisted bones.

When Ivanna was being treated, Dante, no matter how busy he was, put everything off, and stayed by her side.  There were times when he held her hand.  And if it was serious, he carried out treatment with Ivanna in his arms.

The twins were banned from coming near her during treatment.  It is not very good for young children to be shown their younger sister screaming continuously.  Ivanna was not stubborn about receiving the painful treatment, so the twins then sat still in their room and waited for the treatment to end.

Sometimes, when they heard her scream going through a closed window, they took a sword and went out to remote patronage far from Ivanna’s room.  The twins wield their swords together to further develop their strength to protect their sister from suffering.

When the treatment was over, they ran straight to the side of Ivanna, who was crying sadly, with Dante.  The bandages wrapped around both arms, so that the bones could be fixed, looked really painful.  Dante wiped her daughter’s tears away.

“I’m sorry, Ivanna.  Dad is very sorry.”

He felt sorry for the child who couldn’t cry loudly and shed tears with a red face; it was breaking his heart.  Dante put his lips on Ivanna’s forehead and hugged the child tightly.  As if it was exhausting and hard, the child just gasped as she shed tears.

“Still, let’s hang in there.  Let’s be patient for a little more.  It will be better.  It will continue to improve in the future.”

Her arms hurt so much that she couldn’t move.  Ivanna wept, with her arms down and in Dante’s arms.

‘It hurts. It hurts a lot. It wasn’t as painful as being pulled out, but it hurt more than being beaten.’

The words “I want to stop” filled her throat.

‘I hate being sick, I hate being in pain, you said you would protect me, but I wanted to scream out and ask why you are hurting me.’

Still, Ivanna chose to shut her lips tightly and bury her head in her Dad’s arms.

‘I want to be like my mom, who could wield a sword very skillfully.  The sword and the Holy Spirit became one like my mother was dancing.’

But if she give up now, she can’t.  She can’t even hold a sword, and when she grow, she’ll feel more pain than now.  If she don’t want to be sick for life, she should be sick for now.

I hate being sick.  The first life I kept feeling until I died.

I didn’t want to die after living like that again.

If I live like that one more time, I’d rather choose something that hurts for a short moment.

“I’m very sorry too, Dad.”

‘Because I have my dad. I could bear it because my father, who was not in my first life, hugged me and swallowed the pain together.

Because I have an older sister and an older brother who protect my side while swallowing tears, I can endure the pain now.’

Ivanna bit her lips tight and closed her eyes.  Clear tears that couldn’t be wiped down drove down her cheeks, burning red with pain.  The tears were so hot that Ivanna felt that she was really alive.  The treatment was continued in a long and slow time as she was in bad condition.  Ivanna could hardly move her arms, and Dante stayed up for days and nights to take care of his child.

And three months passed in no time as hectic work continued pouring out.

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