🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter: 6
The answer that came back was an awkward smile that meant yes.
Thank goodness—just as I remembered, he’s still the vice tower master.
It was a relief that he hadn’t left the mage tower.
I hope he’ll listen to my story.
Now that I was actually about to meet him, my body felt stiff with tension.
“I’ll go bring the vice tower master, so wait here for a moment.”
Rachel left to fetch Pellion, leaving me completely alone.
“Hoo… my head hurts.”
I leaned back against the sofa and closed my eyes for a moment to calm myself.
I prayed fervently to every god I could think of that he would be well-disposed toward me.
How much time had passed?
“So you’re saying a daughter I don’t even know showed up looking for me? What kind of insane nonsense is that? Since when do I have a daughter?”
“Hey, keep your voice down! She’ll hear everything!”
From far away, I could hear Rachel bickering with an unfamiliar man.
That was fast.
As the voices grew louder, the tension I had finally relaxed surged back again.
“She’s obviously a con artist, and you believed her and brought her into the mage tower? You even interrupted me in the middle of my research? Rachel, have you gone crazy from being away on outside assignments for too long?”
“Let’s see if you can still say that after you meet her in person.”
“That’s enough! This is a waste of time.”
“No, wait—!”
The argument suddenly sounded as if it were moving away.
Was he leaving?
I jumped to my feet and flung the door open.
“Oh dear… I guess you heard everything.”
Rachel looked flustered when she saw me and darted her eyes around awkwardly.
“Hah, fine. Since it’s come to this, I might as well see your face properly—”
The man standing behind Rachel brushed past her and stepped forward. He was about to say something to me, then stopped short without realizing it.
As he had insisted, this situation really was an absurd lie, forced and unbelievable.
An unmarried Pellion having a grown child?
No one who knew him would believe it.
But in the end, once he saw me, he had no choice but to believe.
Pale sky-blue hair, gray eyes, softly curved eye corners, a fair and slender face, long limbs, a thin build.
“…Me?”
Aside from color and gender, I was the spitting image of the vice tower master.
That was why everyone—from the station to the train to the people inside the mage tower—had whispered when they saw me.
It was also why entering the mage tower without identification had gone so smoothly.
“Let’s not do this here—go inside and talk!”
Rachel shoved the frozen Pellion into the reception room.
When I followed in, she kindly closed the door behind us and left.
Seeing his still-blank expression, it was clear he’d taken quite a shock.
It was the same in my previous life.
This also explained why the tower master had once mistaken me for the Hexwood duke’s daughter and kidnapped me.
“Hello, Mr. Pellion Hexwood. My name is Ophelia, and I’m your daughter.”
Because I was the mirror image of Pellion, a member of the Hexwood family, he had mistaken me for having Hexwood blood as well.
“That’s a lie. That can’t be true.”
“I am Pellion Hexwood. Your uncle.”
“What? I’m not a Hexwood. I think you’re mistaken. Elodie is the Hexwood duke’s daughter, not me—”
“What? That can’t be!”
Our claims completely contradicted each other, but the situation was strangely similar to the first time I had met him in the past.
I nodded at his stiff, bewildered expression.
“That’s right. It’s actually a lie.”
“What?”
“My name is Ophelia Hexwood. I’m the missing daughter of the Duke of Hexwood.”
Was it really that shocking?
With a dull thud, Pellion collapsed on the spot and lost consciousness.
“…Huh?”
I blinked at the sudden turn of events, then hurried outside once I came to my senses and found Rachel there.
“Rachel! My dad collapsed!”
“What? That’s ridiculous—!”
Apparently worried about the reunion, Rachel had been lingering near the door, so I was able to call for help right away.
She rushed over at my shout, gasping when she saw Pellion lying on the floor.
Pulling a small wand from her clothes, she flicked it lightly, and Pellion’s body was carefully lifted onto the sofa.
“I guess I really startled him.”
I never thought he was this faint-hearted.
“He’s been cooped up in research for so long that just coming outside after ages must’ve overwhelmed him. It’s not because of you, Ophelia.”
She tried to comfort me kindly when she saw my shoulders droop, but my expression wouldn’t relax.
Why did he collapse after hearing the rest, not when I said I was his daughter?
I honestly had no idea which part had shocked him so much.
Should I just have hidden my identity?
When I let out a deep sigh, Rachel, who had been watching my reaction, cautiously suggested,
“It’ll probably take a while for him to wake up… why don’t you take a look around the mage tower in the meantime?”
“Is that okay?”
“Of course. The restricted areas are sealed off anyway, so feel free to wander around.”
It wasn’t a bad idea, so I thanked her and left the reception room.
But despite my curiosity about the mage tower, I felt drained.
“Ah.”
Walking listlessly, I turned my head without thinking and noticed a large window right beside me.
The magnificent sunset view stole my gaze, and I stopped.
“It’s beautiful.”
As the tension in my body melted away, I rested my arms on the window frame and leaned my chin on them.
Come to think of it, I haven’t slept properly for days.
Focused only on reaching the mage tower as quickly as possible, I’d barely rested, catching short naps on the train instead of staying in proper lodgings.
Even in those brief moments of sleep, I’d been plagued by nightmares.
Maybe it was the fear that this new life was nothing more than a dream right before death—that when I opened my eyes, I’d be back at the stake.
Countless nightmares tormented me, including dreams of being dragged back to the Hexwood estate after my letter—sent to punish my nurse Julia—was used against me.
After arriving at the mage tower and realizing those fears were unfounded, the tension that had bound me finally loosened.
I’m a little sleepy.
Would it be okay to close my eyes for just a moment?
Yeah… just a little.
My consciousness began to blur.
“Hey. You can’t sleep here.”
At that moment, someone’s voice woke me.
It sounded familiar, and I wondered who it was, but my heavy eyelids wouldn’t open.
“Just a bit…”
“This is driving me crazy.”
He sighed at my mumble.
I heard him say something more, but I couldn’t fight the wave of sleep any longer, and before long, I slipped into unconsciousness.
Seeing Ophelia suddenly fall asleep, the boy who had been trying to wake her roughly ran a hand through his golden hair.
“This is insane.”
He’d only come because he’d heard the vice tower master had finally come out of his laboratory after ages.
Who could have guessed he’d run into a suspicious person sleeping in such an odd, precarious position on the way?
He’d only tried to wake her because she was in the way, but now she’d gone and fallen fully asleep, making things even more troublesome.
Still, he couldn’t just leave her there, so he gently shook her shoulder again.
“Wait… her face looks familiar. What the—Vice Tower Master?”
When he noticed how strikingly similar she looked to Pellion, he froze, forgetting all about waking her.
Had that lunatic vice tower master messed up his research and somehow turned younger?
“Why are you calling me?”
“Agh!”
The familiar voice behind him made the boy jump.
When he turned around, Pellion stood there with his arms crossed, dark circles heavy under his eyes as he looked down at him.
Clutching his racing heart, the boy looked back and forth between Pellion and Ophelia and asked,
“If she’s not the vice tower master, then who is she?”
“…Haa.”
Pellion let out a deep sigh.
He’d come intending to punish a con artist who claimed to be his daughter, only to be shocked by how identical she looked to him.
And then he’d learned she was his damned older brother’s lost daughter.
The overwhelming stress had knocked him out on the spot, and now this situation was no less strange.
“Why is she sleeping like this, anyway?”
“How should I know? She was already like this when I found her.”
She looked unmistakably exhausted, yet her expression was peaceful.
From her worn appearance, it was obvious she’d been through a great deal on her way here.
“Haaaaa…”
Pellion sighed deeply once more, then flicked his finger, carefully lifting the sleeping Ophelia into the air.
“She really is your double.”
The boy, staring intently at her face, added,
“A hidden daughter?”
“…Haaaaa.”
As Pellion sighed again and again, the boy’s eyes widened just like everyone else’s had.
“Seriously?”
“My head hurts. We’ll talk about it later, Rionar.”
Seeing how troubled he looked, the boy—Rionar—nodded.
