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Chapter 53
The suffocating silence made me feel as if my throat were being strangled.
I sat on the sofa in my father’s study and bowed my head deeply. My guilty shoulders hunched inward and my palms were sweaty.
“Sigh…”
My father’s deep sigh hung heavily above me.
The Ducal house’s information network was formidable.
The moment the Crown Prince announced my marriage date at the palace and I returned home, I was dragged straight to the study.
I felt mortified in my extravagant attire.
When I dared to glance up, I saw Leandro looking down at me with a terrifying expression. I flinched and dropped my eyes.
“Charlize.”
After a long silence, my father finally spoke.
“Yes….” I replied.
“Explain yourself.”
His voice was chillingly the same as the one he used when he confronted me about my betrothal to the Crown Prince.
“So… I’m about to enter the temple. Because the Crown Prince strongly opposed it, I made an arrangement. We agreed to marry one year from now…”
My father had been just as opposed to me entering the temple.
But if I told him I’d set a marriage date with the Crown Prince on my own to accomplish that, of course he would be furious.
“I’m sorry…”
“Charlize. Sometimes you’re very frank. When you try to hide something, this father of yours finds it difficult to notice.”
A worried expression marred my father’s face.
“You said in your previous life you were Saint Eluna. So entering the temple is your destiny—is that true? Or were you led to the Crown Prince with such inevitability that you set a marriage date?” he asked.
“….”
It was hard to lie.
If I told one lie for my family, it would force me to keep deceiving them endlessly.
I still hadn’t shown them how much I hated the Crown Prince. Even if they already suspected, the moment I let on it would blow up—everyone would be convinced I’d been sold, and it would explode beyond control.
But was that the right thing to do? If I ignored the truth and smiled my way through, would everything really be okay?
“I thought I might be able to cure Mother if I entered the temple.”
When I answered honestly, my father’s face contorted with despair.
“This is something only I can do. My power is unique. Although I failed to cure Mother, I have the ability to enter the temple. There must be an answer there.”
We needed Rika leaves.
Alfredo was experimenting with demonic medicine and contaminated Rika leaves, but it wasn’t easy.
Kinen hadn’t delivered demonic herbs to us yet, and the medicine the Crown Prince had given was being used on Mother and so was too scarce.
“Darling, why not ask His Holiness the Pope for help? You seemed quite close to him.”
“No. I can’t burden him. Just being indebted to the temple is already enough.”
My father didn’t know what I intended to do, so his words were understandable.
If I were caught stealing Rika leaves, I might be executed — I couldn’t put that kind of risk on someone else.
“I was born weak, remember? Mother spent more than ten years caring for me in the estate. Father looked for doctors and medicine back then. Because of me, my brother grew up without experiencing Mother’s touch.”
Words poured out of me like a burst dam.
My parents always apologized that they couldn’t give me better health.
But all of that had been my choice.
In my previous life I had tried to shoulder everything alone, thinking only of myself and those I loved; I’d been born frail because of that.
I’d saved the world and left the people I loved to suffer.
“Everyone sacrificed because of me—why can’t I do something I can actually do? Let me help. I’m no longer weak or childish.”
When I met my father’s gaze with a determined face, he looked at me quietly and then spoke.
“…I’m sorry. If I’d created a situation where you could speak frankly, this father could have handled the Crown Prince’s objections.”
Because each of us tried to protect the other, the path we walked to our goal became twisted and painful.
“It seems my worry ended up making you bear more than you should. I didn’t realize how big this had become.”
“After all, the Crown Prince only wants me from our family. The result would have been the same.”
“No. I’ve been preparing to remove the Crown Prince from that position. Even if you end up with the stigma of being the deposed Crown Prince’s fiancée, I couldn’t marry you off to a man like him.”
I was startled—the idea of my father planning such a thing made him seem incredible.
“To depose a Crown Prince, even a scoundrel, isn’t easy. There’s no direct heir besides the Crown Prince. Right now, it’s probably only reached the level of threats.”
I found my father suddenly admirable.
He had plotted to pull the Crown Prince from his post just because he disliked him. Such boldness wasn’t for everyone; being a duke was no mean thing.
“Marquis Caius Borghese is a demon. The leader of the demons that remain in this world.”
When my father told me his plan, I immediately revealed the Crown Prince’s fatal weakness.
“The Crown Prince made a pact with him — he agreed not to kill me and to hand me over instead. The medicine he gave Mother wasn’t ordinary medicine but herbs from the demon realm. There should be evidence linking him to demons.”
I blurted it out like a tattletale.
It felt freeing. The Crown Prince and demons were things I couldn’t handle alone.
My father, who’d been thinking deeply, asked, “Do you know anyone else who’s a demon?”
“I made a list. I’ll give it to you.”
I had gathered some names from Kinen before.
“Good. You’ve done a lot on your own.”
“The painter who comes to paint my portrait—he told me. He’s a demon.”
“What?!” My father barked in outrage.
“He is a demon, though in a past life he was a friend. He’s utterly demonic, but he’s decided not to harm people close to me.”
“A demon? A demon entered my house and met my daughter? Which family introduced him—wasn’t it Count Garren’s family?”
My father seemed barely to hear me.
I swallowed hard and explained the events of my previous life, and told him Kinen had even offered to give me his core, so he calmed down somewhat.
“But you’re too kind; you probably refused the core even though he gave it. Demons aren’t to be trusted.”
My father said that, and then insisted on seeing Kinen in person.
And the next day he actually followed me to where I had my portrait painted.
“Father….”
Armed and armored. It was the first time I’d seen him take up a sword.
In the glass greenhouse filled with bright sunlight and fragrant blooms, my father stood with a large sword while expressionless Kinen faced him.
“You say you were friends with my daughter in a previous life.”
Kinen glanced at me.
I clenched my eyes wide and nodded vigorously, pretending to be the polite daughter’s friend.
“Yes.”
At his terse answer, my father’s grip on his sword tightened.
“My daughter was a saint. You’re a demon. How can I be certain you won’t take her life?”
Kinen was silent for a moment, then raised his hand. As he had before, he removed his core.
“This is my core. If it’s destroyed, I will immediately cease to exist. I will give this to you.”
I was horrified and hurried forward to stop him, but Leandro, who was standing in front of me, blocked my way.
“Big brother.”
“Charlize, keeping him close will help a lot. Trust takes time and effort to build. And since you’re a duke’s daughter, your father must be especially careful.”
Leandro added that at first it’s exactly the kind of thing that can control a life and later be let go—implying the father could keep leverage.
In the end, Kinen handed his core over to my father.
“But there’s a danger that you may sacrifice yourself for your kind and later turn against my daughter. This alone isn’t enough to ensure they can be left together.”
“Demons differ from humans. They don’t feel special about their own kind; they merely move together when their goals align.”
“Then what is your purpose?”
“Charlize.”
“….”
My father was speechless at the rawness of the answer.
“Do you… love my daughter?”
“Yes.”
Oh my God.
