“You dust that. I’ll wipe the back of the shelf here.”
I woke up to the whispering voices and the touch of the wind tickling my eyelashes.
I turned my head to see the gentle sunlight and cool breeze coming in through the open window.
Because of Linda who kept trying to play with me, I couldn’t train, was exhausted and slept while adjusting to her rhythm. By then, Linda didn’t see that I had slept, and other servants were coming in and cleaning my room. As usual, I listened to their voices. The only way to get information with this body is by listening.
“The baby is so calm.”
“Well, she never says a word. Sena was worried before, so she put her hand under her nose.”
“Haha, but when she saw His Highness, she screamed out and cried.”
“Oh my God, really? Was it because of His Highness’s cold expression?”
“I guess so.”
‘No.’
I only said the rebuttal inwardly.
I felt sorry for my father. I cried sadly when I saw my father⋯⋯ I was so overwhelmed with emotions that I couldn’t help it, but it seemed that my father didn’t care.
‘Is that why he hasn’t come?’
I cried when I saw my dad⋯⋯.
When the thoughts came to mind, my lips unconsciously moved downwards.
I was crying with a sullen heart, and then I panicked.
‘There’s really no end to greed.”
A few years ago, I prayed to God that I wouldn’t ask for anything else if only I could be under the same sky as my parents.
When I saw my dad once, I wanted to see him again, and I had a desire to tell him that I was his daughter.
Many people, including my aunt, didn’t sacrifice themselves for my personal satisfaction.
If I’m greedy like this, I’ll be hated by God.
‘Okay, let’s recover quickly.’
I closed my eyes and felt the magic in the air.
Even priests couldn’t feel the divinity, but witches could feel magic.
Contrary to people’s prejudices, magic is everywhere, not just in the underworld or in the abandoned city of Nasha. They’re even in the Sun Palace, which is full of relics.
If I focus on the flow in the air, I can feel its magic. To train my magic core, I have to draw the magic I sensed into me little by little.
As a result of repeating this consistently, my empty core was quite full of magic in a few days.
The recovery rate was slow because of the location, but with this amount of power, many things could be done. For example, this.
I opened my right eye slightly without letting the servants know. My fingers were reflected in my pink eye, which I inherited from my mom. I slowly moved my body’s mana to the right hand. Then, the black magic visible only to the witch’s eyes gathered.
Since long ago, this power has only been seen with my right eye.
When I touched it, my little fingers pressed by the magic flinched.
I moved the mana under the back of my hand. Then my hand, which had no strength, slowly moved up.
It may look like I raised my hand to others’ eyes, but to me, it looked like black magic supported my hand.
‘It seems like it’s still not enough⋯⋯.’
As I was looking at it, a servant suddenly spoke.
“By the way did you hear it too? Rumors about the secret of the baby’s birth.”
“⋯⋯!”
I was surprised and recovered my mana. The hand that had been lifted in the air fell onto the bed.
My heart pounded.
As I turned my head, shaking, I saw the servants whispering while wiping the pots by the window.
“Yeah, the story that the baby might be His Majesty’s bloodline?”
“⋯⋯?”
Frightened, I became confused by the voices.
‘What does this mean?’
“Is this evidence supporting the rumor?”
“Well, I think it makes sense.”
Not noticing my gaze with a million or so question marks, the servant naturally shrugged.
“Her left eye and facial features resemble His Majesty”.
“⋯⋯.”
I had nothing to say, so I touched my face with my hands.
‘It’s not unusual for a granddaughter to resemble her grandfather⋯⋯.’
Ha, but in terms of bloodlines, I’m more closely related to my dad than my grandfather. So wouldn’t I look more like my dad? Look here again carefully, guys.
“Besides, His Majesty also has a history.”
As the servant added. I suddenly felt a sense of dizziness.
‘Hmm, something similar happened 6 years ago⋯⋯.’
People who first discovered me said something similar, saying that I looked like my grandfather. I was frowning and agonizing, and soon came up with a thought.
‘Grandpa’s youngest son, Fariel de Reinhardt.’
He’s my youngest uncle. Come to think of it, I heard that the youngest uncle was an illegitimate child.
As he died on the battlefield, he was later recorded as an honorable warrior. He died when I was very young, so I couldn’t recall any personal information.
He was abandoned by the Imperial family when he was young.
‘Come to think of it, he must be alive now.’
Uncle Fariel.
Many people who died in the future and I’ve never met before are alive now. I opened my other eye to the new emotions, then came to my senses again and concentrated on gathering my mana.
As a baby, I slept too much. I don’t have much time for work, so I have to use my time as much as possible.
While I was diligently filling my magic core, the servants’ cleaning was over. As they were doing their final clean-up, I heard a murmur outside.
My ears perked up at the familiar title. Did daddy come? I turned my head with excitement.
Soon, the door opened suddenly. The servants, who were approaching the door with a puzzled look, were surprised and bowed their heads.
As I looked back at the door, a familiar face came into my eyes.
The warm and leisurely afternoon air quickly turns cold and reveals sharp thorns. My body reacted before the face began to tremble. He looked very young 22 years in the past, but he couldn’t help but notice his face and atmosphere.
“Seeing Your Highness Rivelius!”
Linda, a young boy who looked like a apprentice knight, and priests⋯⋯.
It was uncle.
The man who killed my aunt in front of my eyes and tried to kill me.
With terrified eyes, I watched him approach me.
Thump thump.
People’s screams were mixed in with his footsteps like hallucinations.
“Ueu, u, heuk.”
An uncontrollable scream rang out. I couldn’t even breathe properly. The feeling of a cold blade touching the nape of my neck still remained clearly.
I wanted to hide, but there were walls everywhere.
The fence of the crib that protected me from falling was transformed into a prison’s iron bars in an instant. Helpless, I rolled over to the other side of the fence, trying to get away from him just a little bit.
“Your Highness!”
Then, Linda stepped in front of me.
Could it be that my terrified struggle could be seen in her eyes? Although it was obvious that Linda was nervous, she gathered her courage and said,
“Now, His Highness Ainzbern has left the Sun Palace. If you tell me what you need, I will tell him about it after His Highness returns⋯⋯.”
“It’s okay. I didn’t come to see Ain today.”
But at Linda’s trembling voice, Uncle cut her off.
“I heard that a child of God came down to the ‘Imperial Palace’.”
The word ‘Imperial Palace’ had a unique accent. He was stipulating that the child of God came to the Imperial Palace, not to the Second Prince.
“I heard that Ain arbitrarily declared that he would be in charge of the saint, but⋯⋯ she is the saint, who came to Imperial family, so doesn’t it make more sense for the first son of the Imperial family greet her?”
No, he went one more step than that. He was drawing a line that it was his arbitrary choice to take me over, and at the same time he was accusing my dad of playing his role like he was taking it away.
In front of my dad’s family.
“That’s⋯⋯.”
I could see Linda’s fingertips trembling. Even the escorts guarding the front door seemed to be greatly embarrassed.
Those were rude words that’ll reach my father’s ears. Even though he was the eldest son of the Emperor, it was also an attitude that crossed the line, considering my father would soon become the pope.
But he had a reason to come out strong. It was because he thought that my father wouldn’t be able to argue even if he did this.
Dad owed a great debt to his brother. It was because when they were young, my father seriously injured my uncle during a quarrel. That left my uncle with a large scar across his right eye. It was already too late when the priests came.
Uncle was blind for a while. It was just a miracle that he regained his sight after that. However, the trauma was so great that my uncle was unable to use the auror properly after that. One of the reasons why Uncle loved Sophia so much in the future was because she removed that scar.
During his life, Dad felt guilty whenever he saw uncle’s wounds. Grandpa’s favoritism must have played a role in fueling dad’s guilt.
But that’s not much of daddy’s fault, and there’s more to it, but⋯ Daddy’s guilt has increased this year.
“If you understand, get out of my way.”
When his long bangs shook with purpose, his covered left eye was revealed. The blue-gray eyes that survived from the long vertical scar shone fiercely.
In front of the man who would become emperor, there was nothing more Linda could do.
The shadow of my uncle slowly that cast over my body swallowed my shadow.
I raised my creaking head and looked at my uncle.
“Nice to meet you, Saint.”
My uncle greeted me with courtesy, raising his hand on his chest.
“I am Rebelius de Reinhardt, the first prince of the Empire.”
There was a bright smile on his face.
My heart dropped.
The two look completely different even though he has platinum blonde hair and blue-gray eyes, the same color as my fathers.
Unlike my father, who looks beautiful but cold with little expression of emotion, uncle gave a good and soft impression at first sight.
However, his gentle smile became invincible only to me over time.
A memory of the past, struggling to get even a handful of kindness and a smile from my uncle, came to mind. My heart was pounding as sharply as a sharp awl.
‘I feel like I’m going to vomit⋯⋯.’
Helpless me and my smiling uncle.
I was so used to this situation. It’s like going back to when I was 10 or 13.
I endured it then, and it was bearable. As expected, did my body become younger and my nerves became more sensitive?
As I shivered silently, my uncle blinked, puzzled.
“Are you shaking right now?”
‘Are you trying to buy sympathy, Evenna?’
The memories of the past were overlaid in the present, and my ears buzzed.
As I was terrified and unable to do anything, I could see the face of my uncle, who was watching me, slowly stiffened.
“Something is strange⋯⋯.”
He murmured and reached into the crib. A large hand approached my head. I shrank, startled.