~Chapter 16~
“Then, Clover.”
Khalid looked at Clover softly as he spoke.
“Daddy has a question for the cat. Could you ask it for me?”
“Okay.”
Of course! That was nothing difficult.
Clover nodded eagerly, and Khalid gave a faint smile.
“Ask him why he didn’t tell me where the ring was.”
Clover turned her head toward the cat.
Hearing Khalid’s question, the North Wind Lion tilted his chin, as if in thought, then stared clearly at his master.
And then:
“He says, people with strong storm powers can’t find the ring. Because it’s the wea… weakest? power in Claudian.”
The same goes for those who have been exposed to strong powers for a long time. Even if I had told you, it would’ve been useless. In the end, you still wouldn’t have found it.
“Really?”
Just say it simply. He’ll understand.
“He says people who have been exposed to strong powers for a long time can’t find it either.”
Khalid nodded. As expected, even with Clover’s shortened explanation, he seemed to understand what the cat meant.
The cat rubbed its cheek against Clover’s cheek as if praising her. Clover giggled brightly.
Watching the two of them, Khalid reached out and stroked Clover’s head.
“Well done, Clover. Thanks to you, I learned a lot.”
“It helped you?”
“Yes.”
“Then, can Clover ask something too?”
Clover smiled brightly and pointed at Khalid.
“Trade-off!”
[That’s not exactly how you use that phrase…]
Lucky muttered under his breath, but Clover ignored him. Khalid sent Shina out and nodded.
“Alright, let’s trade. What do you want to ask?”
“Um, well…”
Clover twisted her small fingers together. It was hard to get the words out.
Of course it was—because what she wanted to ask was about her mom.
Her mother.
“…Clover’s mom…”
Count Demper—her aunt—always told Clover that her mother was as good as dead. That she would never see her again.
Not knowing what “as good as” really meant, Clover had simply thought her mother was dead. She had even cried herself to sleep many times under the blanket because of it.
But thanks to what Lucky told her, she understood now. “As good as dead” didn’t mean really dead—it meant something like it.
Which meant, maybe… maybe her mother was still alive.
But Clover had been too afraid to ask. Since coming here, she had never once heard her father or brothers talk about her mother.
What if she was wrong?
What if her aunt was right, and her mother really was dead?
That would be so, so sad.
“Umm…”
Clover hesitated for a long time, unable to speak.
Arwin, who had been watching, sat down beside her and gently patted her head.
“Take your time. Anyway, your brothers don’t have anything else to do. We’ll just keep waiting here.”
“Mm.”
Encouraged by Arwin’s words, Clover slowly lifted her gaze to Khalid.
She folded and unfolded her little fingers nervously, then finally whispered:
“Mom…”
“Yes.”
“Where is Mommy?”
Her aunt had doted on Louis every day. So had her uncle. And Clover had been so jealous of that—Louis laughing happily with both a mother and a father.
“But since coming here… Clover hasn’t seen Mommy at all…”
Her eyes darted around the room, gauging the mood. At her words, Khalid, Damian, and Arwin all fell silent at once.
Maybe… maybe I shouldn’t have asked after all.
Her heart sank. Clover dropped her gaze to her toes.
At that moment—
“Clover.”
Khalid suddenly lifted her up into his arms. He sat her on his knee and gently stroked her small head.
“Your mother is sleeping right now.”
Huh?
Clover blinked rapidly, trying to process his words.
Was this… one of those “adult ways of speaking” where they sugarcoat the truth so a child won’t get hurt?
Misunderstanding completely, the little girl covered her mouth with trembling hands.
“S-she’s… really d-dead…?”
“No. Not dead. Truly asleep.”
Khalid’s voice was firm. Damian and Arwin chimed in.
“That’s right. She’s perfectly alive.”
“Yes, she’s just not at the mansion.”
“Really…?”
“Really. Why would we lie about something like that? She’s your mom—but she’s also my mom.”
Arwin pointed to himself.
Clover stared at him cautiously and asked again:
“Then really, Mommy is alive?”
Khalid replied without hesitation, as if he had been waiting for the question.
“Yes, she’s alive. Clover’s mother is a tree spirit. So right now, she’s sleeping inside a tree.”
Clover tilted her head.
At that, Damian raised his hand.
“But Father, instead of saying vague things like ‘Mom is asleep,’ wouldn’t it be better to explain clearly? That she’s a spirit, and because her power ran out, she returned to her tree to recover?”
“Do you think a child could understand if I said it like that?”
Arwin quickly pulled Damian’s hand down and scolded him.
Clover, watching the two, murmured in a daze:
“‘As good as dead’…”
“Hm?”
“Auntie said, ‘Mommy is as good as dead.’ She said Clover would never see her again.”
Remembering that, Clover twisted her fingers sadly.
“But… it’s not true. It was a lie.”
“…”
“Th-thank goodness.”
Until now, Clover hadn’t smiled once since bringing up her mother. But finally, a soft smile bloomed on her face.
“Thank goodness, Daddy.”
I really thought, just like Aunt said, that Mommy died because of me.
That I would never see her again…
But realizing it wasn’t true, Clover’s lips curved into a bright smile, like sunshine breaking through after rain.
However—
“…”
“…Huh?”
“Ah…”
The others could not smile with her.
At Clover’s mention of “Auntie” again, Khalid, Damian, and Arwin’s faces hardened instantly.
Rumble—BOOM!
Unable to hold it back, their powers burst out, and another storm raged outside.
“Huh?”
Clover tilted her head at the rainwater streaming down the windows again.
***
Later—
“This is outrageous! We can’t just let this go. We can’t forgive her just because she’s family. She must pay the price!”
Damian shouted furiously, clutching Clover’s stack of “diaries” in his trembling hands.
“How could she say something like that to a child? That aunt is no human being.”
He remembered Clover’s small face smiling in relief when she heard the truth—and ground his teeth in anger.
To tell a four-year-old that her mother was dead?
Even if it had been true, no one should ever say it like that. Clover was still just a baby.
“Father, you’re not thinking of letting her off because she’s Mother’s family, are you…?”
“I have no such intention. She was never truly family anyway.”
Khalid’s voice was firm.
“Don’t worry, Damian. Demper will pay for this.”
His tone was calm, but there was no mistaking the icy certainty in it.
“They’ll regret this day for the rest of their lives. Even if they wrote ten times as many apologies as those diaries, it still wouldn’t be enough to earn forgiveness.”
Khalid Claudian.
True to his reputation as the “Butcher of the North,” his voice was as sharp as a blade, as cold as an icicle.
“I never let anyone who harms my family go unpunished.”
“…”
“No matter who they are.”
