Chapter 160……………………………………..
At first, everyone was on guard, thinking he had killed the two people.
But when he revealed his identity, the servants realized he was not the culprit and busied themselves talking among themselves.
To Leona, it was all words she could not understand.
Leona simply stayed by Minerva’s side.
It had been almost two weeks since Minerva had left.
Minerva’s body was gruesome.
The wounds were not just one or two—they were everywhere, so painful to look at it was unbearable.
“Red, blue, purple…”
The last time she saw Minerva, her skin had been clear, but now it was mottled—blue in some places, purple in others, red elsewhere.
Even her always-neat clothes were torn.
Leona missed her terribly.
But not like this.
The moment she realized Minerva was dead, the tears would not stop.
It felt as if someone had ripped out her chest.
A little later, the maids fetched some black clothing from somewhere and dressed Leona in it.
She disliked this drab color the first time she wore it.
And she felt she would continue to dislike it forever.
Under the rainy sky, a modest funeral began on the hilltop estate.
Whether it was rain, sweat, or tears, the servants dug into the ground with streams of water flowing endlessly down their faces.
Leona stood alongside Lloyd with swollen eyes, watching.
Lloyd, unable to take his eyes off the coffin in the pit, spoke suddenly.
“Your mother was Princess Minerva, daughter of His Majesty the Emperor.”
“……Was she an important person?”
“She was the second-highest person in the world. But she had been unjustly confined here for seven years… I think I know why, though.”
Muttering the last part, Lloyd stared at Leona’s face for a moment before returning his gaze to the coffin.
The white coffin sank into the pit.
Leona, unable to take her eyes off Minerva’s coffin as it was covered with clumps of dirt, did not notice it fully.
“Mom… why did she die?”
“Because someone killed her.”
“Was it Mom’s fault?”
“No, it wasn’t.”
Lloyd’s answer seemed straightforward but lacked substance.
Yet Leona understood.
In the wild, when something dies, it’s because something killed it.
Whether it was at fault or not, it dies.
If you need to survive today, you must catch the beast before you—does it matter whether it’s guilty?
Minerva had died because she had gone outside, into the wild.
‘Then… if she had stayed inside the house, she might not have died…’
For a moment, Leona could not breathe and collapsed.
The servants burying the coffin, and the maids holding umbrellas, were all startled and rushed to her.
‘I… I sent Mom out. It’s my fault.’
It had been Leona who sent Minerva outside.
Because she had cried out that she wanted to go to the academy, she had pushed Minerva into the wild, leading to her death.
“Ahhh!”
“Miss! Miss, please wake up!”
Leona thrashed painfully in the muddy ground.
The maids barely managed to calm her down, but her eyes remained unfocused.
In Leona’s blurred vision, the rain-pouring, clouded sky was reflected.
‘Mom… Mom…’
Minerva had saved her, but she had killed Minerva.
She had become human to spend more time with Minerva, and yet that had caused Minerva’s death.
She wished she could turn back time.
Even though she had begged for it hundreds of times since, her wish was not granted.
She had become human from a cat, but why didn’t such a wish come true?
For the first time, Leona learned resentment.
She gave up on trying to turn back time.
“Miss, you must not get up!”
“……Sir.”
Shaking off Jane, who tried to stop her from staggering to her feet, Leona approached Lloyd.
“Who… killed Mom?”
The person she resented most in the world was herself.
The next one to resent was the human who had killed Minerva.
Lloyd knelt in front of Leona to meet her eye level.
“Do you want the name of the one who stabbed her, or the one who ordered it?”
“Both!”
Leona’s eyes were filled with resentment and hatred no seven-year-old should ever have.
Lloyd looked down at her complicatedly and answered.
“Do you want revenge?”
Revenge—a word Leona had not needed to know until now.
But no one suited that word better than the current Leona.
Afterward, Lloyd took in all of Minerva’s servants under the name of Eckhart, together with Leona.
‘This place… is strange.’
After the funeral, all the residents of the hilltop estate moved to the Duchy of Eckhart.
Leona, seeing the castle for the first time as she stepped outside, was speechless at its grandeur.
He looked more powerful than he seemed.
“This will be your bedroom.”
The room she was shown was far grander than the house she had lived in all her life.
For Leona, who as a cat liked narrow, snug spaces, it was hard to feel comfortable.
People were naturally kind to cats, but now she was human.
Such kindness was given to her, a human, not a cat.
“…Thank you. For taking me in.”
“I just happened to need a child, so don’t worry about it.”
Lloyd seemed a good person to Leona, despite his first impression.
Of course, it was strange that he immediately started wearing a mask upon arriving at the ducal castle, even in his own home.
Still, it didn’t harm Leona, so it didn’t matter.
He had brought Minerva and Louisa, who would have otherwise died cold on the streets, given them a proper funeral, and taken in her and the servants who had nowhere else to go.
“So… does that mean you’ll be my dad?”
“No, I don’t plan on being your father.”
Leona was stunned by this first direct refusal.
Wait—didn’t he say he needed a child?
He took her in, but doesn’t want to be her dad?
She had experienced gentle rejections before, but usually with affection.
Minerva had always firmly refused things that couldn’t be done.
But this felt like he was drawing a clear line.
Since the topic came up, Lloyd explained while sitting her down.
“You will be registered as my adopted daughter under the Eckhart Duchy. But within the house, you may call me whatever you like. Just be careful outside. You may call me ‘Your Highness,’ ‘Father,’ anything. You just need to show that you are my heir.”
“So, the reason you needed a child was because you needed an heir?”
“That’s right. I usually prefer to live without one, but there’s someone who keeps pressing me.”
Even to Leona, who knew little, Lloyd looked very high-ranking.
Anyone who could confront him must be of even higher standing.
“Your education level is not a concern. Being Minerva’s daughter and aiming for Pova Academy means you are already capable… You will mainly learn etiquette here.”
“…….”
Leona’s face darkened.
She did not like studying.
She had only done it because Minerva made her.
‘…If Mom came back alive, I’d study hard.’
But the dead never come back.
Leona simply absorbed Lloyd’s long explanations like memorization.
When the long, one-sided talk ended, Lloyd stood.
“For now, remember this much. We’ll discuss the rest tomorrow. I’ll assign maids brought from the estate. Rest for today.”
Lloyd picked up his mask and put it back on.
‘Already leaving?’
Leona had not yet received the answer to the question she wanted to hear most.
She quickly grabbed the hem of his clothes.
“So… when will you tell me who killed Mom?”
Leona’s plea was desperate.
When he asked if she wanted revenge, she nodded.
Yet Lloyd still had not told her who she should take revenge against.
