IMMCFC 08

Chapter 08

“Is it a problem if she’s my daughter?”

Cain’s gaze was unsettling enough that I almost asked aloud, but I forced myself to stay calm.

“…Y-yes, but what do you mean?”

Come to think of it, I’d been so focused on stamping the contract that I hadn’t explained my relationship with Melody to Cain at all.

Apparently, he had assumed that the Saintess candidate was my younger sister.

‘Well… I’m not that old.’

It was an easy misunderstanding to make. Melody and I looked so much alike that people naturally assumed we were family—but often mistook me for her older sister.

It had never caused a problem before. A simple correction that she was my daughter was all that was needed…

‘But why is it so difficult to say?’

Despite his expressionless face, Cain’s eyes were anything but ordinary. His usually dignified gaze looked almost stunned, as if he’d been hit on the head.

‘Just my imagination… right?’

After all, he was the cold, emotionless Duke of Dragons. He wouldn’t be this affected unless it was the end of the story, where he becomes a doting father. Surely it was just my imagination.

I decided to explain properly.

“Melody is my daughter. I’m raising her on my own.”

“Alone?”

“Yes.”

“And… the husband?”

“Well… I’m unmarried, so…”

“Ha. Unmarried?”

I had meant to ease the confusion, but instead his gaze wavered, a look too difficult to describe.

“Mom?”

Melody seemed to sense the strange tension and tugged at my clothes.

“It’s nothing. Just grown-ups talking.”

“Uh!”

She nodded lightly, apparently satisfied, but my mind was still in high alert.

Ugh. This is bad.

I knew this pattern well. Soon he would ask, in a tone of barely concealed anger, what kind of man I was, leaving me to raise a child alone.

‘What do I say? Every time I get this question, it’s awkward.’

It had been a year since I started pretending to be a single mother, yet I still wasn’t used to it.

‘Ah! I need to say something…’

I could just casually say that I was abandoned by my husband or widowed, but the words wouldn’t come out.

I wasn’t skilled enough at lying to invent a story out of thin air.

‘And I’d feel bad painting Melody’s real father as some kind of villain…’

The original story never mentioned him, so I didn’t know who he was—but it still pricked my heart.

Maybe I should just tell Cain the truth.

I considered it briefly, then shook my head.

Melody’s status as my adopted daughter was a secret between the two of us. No matter what, I didn’t want to break the promise I made to her.

The reason I had taken on the role of her mother was long and complicated.

I was a commoner now, but I had originally been the adopted daughter of the Marquis of Dvoré.

And like many foster daughters in stories, my family had hated me—locked me up, starved me, beaten me.

‘Eventually, they even tried to sell me as the fifth concubine to some old lord in the countryside, without a shred of conscience.’

I first met Melody on the day I was notified of that arranged marriage.

A pink-haired child, trembling and crying in the rain.

Seeing her small body covered in signs of abuse, I felt as if I were looking at my own younger self.

Why? I didn’t know, but it felt like fate.

‘Looking back, it may have been because of the original story… but anyway, I’m glad I met her that day.’

I immediately treated her and decided to become her family.

The problem was that imperial law was very unfavorable to foster daughters.

If Melody’s biological parents ever claimed her, I would have no choice but to hand her over—to people who might have abused her.

‘Then why not just become her real mother?’

Now, thinking back to the original story, I knew the abuse was caused by the Temple. But at the time, I simply thought Melody’s biological parents were the strange ones. So I made my decision without hesitation.

Melody and I looked remarkably alike, which made the deception easy.

No one ever suspected our relationship—not even family members.

There were occasional questions about when I had given birth, but given that we sometimes didn’t see each other for over a year, it was easy to explain away.

From that point, everything started going smoothly.

Once people knew I was a single mother, any arranged marriage prospects evaporated instantly.

‘Originally, I thought I’d run away. Yay!’

Even the insufferable people from the Marquis’s household chased me out. There was no need for a complicated legal battle; I was simply stricken from the family registry.

‘All thanks to this little cutie.’

I looked down at Melody. I just wanted to be her family, and all my lifelong worries were suddenly solved.

From then on, I continued living as if I were her biological mother.

In conclusion:

I pretended to be a single mother, and legally I was—but there was no trash of a man who had abandoned me in the first place.

When I finished recalling all this, I let out a long sigh.

Haah.

‘So what do I say in response…’

No matter how much I thought, I felt helpless. In the end, I pressed my lips together and fixed Cain with the most sorrowful look I could muster.

It wasn’t acting, because…

‘Ugh… I really am sad.’

Thinking that I would probably encounter similar situations in this mansion often made tears well up.

At that moment, Cain, as expected, opened his mouth as if about to ask the anticipated question.

“So, then, who exactly is the father—”

I quickly covered Melody’s ears, not wanting her to hear, and looked at Cain with still-moist eyes.

“Uh….”

“Yes?”

“Nothing. It’s nothing.”

What the…?

This was the first time. Someone hadn’t asked about the father!

For whatever reason, I was grateful. My tears subsided.

“It’s late. I’ll tell the servants, so you can go rest.”

“Thank you for your consideration!”

Cain nodded slightly and left the room.

‘Has he always walked this fast?’

His hurried steps seemed like someone trying to suppress their anger.

That night, in Duke Ascheln’s office.

“The investigation on Miss Viola you ordered has been completed.”

Conrad’s report caused Cain’s pen, which had been moving nonstop, to finally stop.

Cain commanded in a cold voice:

“Speak.”

“The results suggest she is not a spy. However… it seems she has had a rather difficult life.”

“What do you mean?”

“Although she is currently a commoner, she was originally an adopted daughter of a noble family. It seems the late Marquis of Dvoré had taken in an orphan from the streets.”

Cain knew who the former Marquis of Dvoré was. He had been the long-time protector of the late princess, and after becoming a Marquis, he returned to his lands. He was renowned for his virtue and prestige.

“The problem is that after the death of the late Marquis, the remaining family members revealed their true nature. From then on, she endured severe abuse.”

Flinch. Cain’s fist tightened unconsciously. Conrad continued the report, seemingly unaware of Cain’s reaction.

“Her self-taught knowledge of pharmacology stems from this background. The abuse was so severe that the maids, unable to bear it, secretly provided her with herbs…”

Conrad explained further:

The abusive noble family didn’t even allow young Viola to see the family physician. The compassionate maids could only bring her herbs, but they knew nothing of medicine.

From an early age, Viola had to study herbal medicine on her own. What started clumsily eventually developed to the point where she could even oversee the maids.

“How did she end up being stricken from the family registry?”

“It seems the family intended to sell her as a concubine. She must have reached her limit resisting and secretly gave birth. When that was discovered, she was stricken from the family registry.”

Ha. Absurd. A nervous laugh escaped before words.

“And the father? What was he doing at such a critical moment?”

Conrad’s voice trembled as he carefully replied:

“He completely disappeared. Didn’t show up anywhere…”

Snap. The fountain pen Cain held shattered into two.