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Chapter 5
Get Out Too. This Is My House.
“Is it good?”
“…”
Garen, sitting beside Janice as she focused on eating her apple pie, asked in a crooked tone.
Janice ignored him completely.
Seeing the annoying little girl, Garen groaned. The old general immediately scolded him.
“Our baby skylark is eating her snack. Why are you bothering her?”
“I can’t even talk to her? Isn’t she supposedly my daughter? And didn’t you tell me to apologize?”
Janice, who had been eating pie, looked at Garen.
At her son’s grumpy words, the old lady snorted.
“Why? I thought you said you couldn’t accept it.”
Garen moved his lips for a moment, then turned toward the old lady.
“…Then give me a piece of pie too.”
“Sorry. We just finished it.”
The old lady casually moved the remaining three slices of pie onto her own plate.
“I’m your real child!”
“But she’s my real granddaughter. And I think our little skylark is much prettier than you.”
Smiling kindly, the old lady stabbed her son straight through the heart.
At that moment, Janice swallowed the pie in her mouth and spoke.
“I don’t accept you as my father either.”
It wasn’t only Garen who disliked Janice.
Janice disliked Garen too.
A father with such a twisted personality? She didn’t want him either.
At Janice’s declaration that she could not recognize Garen as her father, everyone’s gaze turned toward her.
Even Garen seemed speechless.
Janice continued.
“My parents who passed away loved me more than anyone else in the world. They told me I was someone worthy of being loved. So why should I accept someone as my father when he doesn’t even care about me?”
It was flawless logic that nobody could refute.
Breaking the silence, the old lady spoke.
“They must have been wonderful parents. You’re very smart, our little skylark. You’re right. It isn’t right to lower your own value.”
“Indeed. They sound like respectable people.”
The old lady and the old general praised Janice’s adoptive parents.
“They were good people.”
Fernando added his own words.
Janice’s face immediately brightened.
To her, Mr. and Mrs. Baker were the greatest parents in the world.
The child’s eyes sparkled as though they held starlight.
Watching her look so happy, Garen felt strangely uncomfortable.
Although he had only reluctantly accepted her existence, he still didn’t like seeing his daughter call someone else her parents.
She says she’s my daughter…
Just then, Janice happened to make eye contact with him.
The girl, who had been smiling brightly, immediately snorted and turned her head away.
That little brat!
Garen felt his temper flare.
But Janice didn’t care.
Mad? Get even madder. Get so angry you collapse clutching the back of your neck!
That was her honest feeling.
People say pigs see only pigs, and Buddhas see only Buddhas.
The old couple and Fernando, who said her parents were good people, were good people.
Garen, who insulted her parents, was a bad person.
To Janice, Garen was worth less than dirt under a toenail and not even worth paying attention to.
Seeing that Garen looked upset made her feel much better.
After blatantly ignoring him, Janice slowly spoke.
“Anyway, I want to go home.”
The sudden statement made everyone’s eyes widen.
“Home?”
“The house where I lived with my parents. The one on Fifth Street!”
Ever since her parents passed away, Janice had stayed with Fernando.
No matter how nice someone else’s house was, it could never be as comfortable as her own.
And after seeing her terrible biological father, she missed the Bakers even more.
Janice firmly insisted that she wanted to return home.
The adults were worried.
Even Garen, unpleasant as he was, frowned and added a few words of objection.
But Janice would not budge.
Eventually, the adults surrendered.
“Then let’s go together and see it.”
They decided to humor her for now.
The old lady came up with a plan.
Janice only wanted to go because she was angry at Garen and missed her parents. Once she saw the house herself, she would realize how difficult it would be to live there alone.
Then they could comfort her and bring her back to the ducal estate.
Everyone agreed.
The old lady, the old general, and Fernando would accompany Janice.
Garen couldn’t be excluded either.
“Do I really have to go too—”
“My soooon?”
The moment Garen tried to protest, the old lady raised her tone.
He couldn’t win against her.
And so they all headed to Janice’s old home.
The house where Janice had lived with the Bakers wasn’t far away.
However…
“Who are you people?”
“…!”
That was the first thing they heard when they arrived at the house on Fifth Street.
Fernando even stepped outside to check the address again, wondering if they had come to the wrong place.
Janice stared at the strangers coming out of her house and stammered.
“Th-this is our house!”
She had been born and raised there.
She had lived there until only a few weeks ago.
There was no way she could mistake the house.
When she demanded to know what they were doing in someone else’s home, the strangers replied:
“This is our house. I inherited it!”
They said they were sorting through everything inside.
Useless things like books were being thrown away, while anything valuable was being set aside.
Sure enough, furniture and household items were scattered everywhere outside, leaving the house in chaos.
The excitement on Janice’s face instantly turned into anger.
“This was my parents’ house! I should inherit it! Why are you inheriting it?!”
“My grandfather’s cousin’s sixth-aunt passed away, so I inherited it!”
A grandfather’s cousin’s sixth-aunt was practically a stranger.
How could such a person come before a daughter?
Janice’s face turned red with rage.
At that moment, Fernando suddenly realized something.
“What’s wrong?”
“She probably wasn’t registered.”
“What?”
“Legally, Janice was never registered as the Bakers’ child.”
Janice asked:
“Then what about my registration?”
“…We thought you’d soon be reunited with your father. Legally speaking, Janice doesn’t exist in any family registry yet.”
Nobody had expected it to take this long to inform Garen about Janice.
They had kept putting it off, thinking he would recover his memories soon.
As far as they knew, Janice would eventually return to her biological father.
Because of that, the Bakers never officially registered her as their daughter.
Though she had been raised exactly like their own child, legally she was unrelated to them.
As a result, the inheritance had gone not to Janice, but to the people claiming to be the Bakers’ distant relatives.
Fernando looked troubled.
He had only worried about not leaving Janice alone after she became an orphan.
The inheritance issue had never even crossed his mind.
Janice cried bitterly from frustration.
But if the law said they were the heirs, there was nothing anyone could do.
“Then at least let me take my belongings.”
“Everything in this house belongs to us now.”
“Then give me the family photographs!”
The couple looked nervous that Janice might cause trouble.
They clearly had no intention of giving her anything that could prove she had been the Bakers’ daughter.
Janice burst into tears again.
Everyone stood there helplessly.
And then—
“How much?”
Garen spoke.
“For this house. Everything inside included.”
Looking the couple up and down, he continued.
His voice was calm, but unbearably arrogant.
Janice looked at her biological father through tear-filled eyes.
“I’ll give you ten thousand gold.”
Fernando tried to stop him.
But Garen spoke first.
“On one condition. You leave immediately. Ten thousand gold. Deal?”
The couple looked shocked.
The house was worth only a little over three thousand gold.
“Nine thousand.”
“Um…”
“Eight thousand. Including every item inside. You don’t take even a single thread.”
The couple exchanged glances.
“Seven thousand.”
“We’ll sell it for ten thousand!”
“Six thousand.”
“Why does the price keep going down?!”
“Five thousand.”
“…”
“Four—”
“We’ll sell it! We’ll sell it!”
The couple practically screamed their agreement.
“But then the money—”
“I hadn’t reached four thousand yet. So five thousand. Satisfied?”
The couple nodded enthusiastically.
“But who are you?”
Judging from the luxurious clothes and expensive jewels, he clearly wasn’t an ordinary commoner like them.
But Garen couldn’t care less about their curiosity.
Without a word, he took out a checkbook and wrote the amount.
The check was handed over.
Pointing toward the door with his chin, Garen said:
“We’re done here, right? Then get out. This is my house now.”
They disliked everything about his tone and attitude.
But they had just received five thousand gold for a house worth a little over three thousand.
All complaints vanished instantly.
Afraid Garen might change his mind, they grabbed the check and hurried away.
Only Garen, Fernando, the old couple, and Janice remained in the empty house.
Everyone blinked in disbelief at the robbery-like speed of the transaction.
They didn’t know whether to scold him for wasting money or praise him for solving the problem.
The first person to recover was Janice.
“Um… um…”
“What?”
“Thank you!”
She didn’t know about anything else.
But one thing was clear.
Garen had protected her home.
Whether she liked him or not was a separate matter.
If someone did something worthy of gratitude, they should be thanked.
At least, that was how she had been raised.
Janice bowed ninety degrees.
The proud and arrogant Garen became strangely awkward at that exact moment.
She had been rebellious the entire time, and now all because of one house…
After a brief silence, he finally spoke in a gruff voice.
“I bought my own house. Why are you thanking me?”
“…Huh?”
Janice stared blankly at him.
Then Garen asked:
“Get out too. This is my house now.
