Chapter 14
My chest is trembling uncontrollably.
Lari, who doesn’t know the reason, held a tree branch about the thickness of her own arm with both hands and quietly looked up at me.
“Unni. Your face is so pale!”
“This is really important.”
“Unni, you’re acting weird today.”
Holding the hands of Lariz and Rohen, who tilted their heads like babies, I ran to the room. Even though it was free time, a few of the kids looked at us curiously when we headed to the room, but since I’d always done all sorts of odd things, their gazes quickly faded.
As soon as we arrived, I locked the door and looked at the two children.
Contrary to my expectation that I’d be able to speak right away, my chest ached so badly that I couldn’t say anything.
Two children with identical faces but different expressions—how was I supposed to tell them this? Still, there wasn’t much time left.
Grateful at least that I knew about the separation and could prepare for it, I tightly held both of their hands.
Unlike my expectation that he would immediately pull his hand away as usual, Rohen quietly looked at me, as if he’d sensed something strange.
Lariz hugged her doll tightly, looking anxious.
“Both of you. Listen carefully to what I’m about to say. I told you before that I’m a special person, right?”
“Yeah! Unni is special!”
“What’s so special about you anyway…?”
“Listen closely. I know your future. Tomorrow, a man will come looking for you. That man is Grand Duke Kishimir Blair.”
“Who’s that?”
Seeing Rohen speak without much emotion, I just bit my lip hard.
“He’s your father.”
“……”
“Father?”
“Dad.”
Just in case, when I said the word “dad,” Rohen’s face grew even sharper and more hostile than before.
“……We don’t have any family.”
“Don’t think of it badly. He just didn’t know that you were here.”
Rohen still looked displeased by my words, his expression stiff, but Lari’s face brightened.
“Unni. Unni. Then does that mean Dad isn’t a bad person?”
“Yeah. He’s absolutely not a bad person. On the contrary, he’s someone who’ll take you with him and do his very best to take care of you.”
“A good person…!”
“How can you believe that?”
“Even if you can’t trust him, trust me.”
“I can’t trust you either.”
As expected, Rohen looked at me with an uncomfortable expression. I gave him a slight smile.
“Even if you can’t trust it, you have to.”
“……You really know the future?”
“Yes. If I didn’t know anything, how would I have found you? Why wouldn’t I have run away when I saw you, who were closer to beasts? And what did I believe in to bring you all the way here?”
I led the two children to the window.
Caught off guard by my unexpected action, they followed me awkwardly.
“The world you’ll live in isn’t a small one like this. It’s a vast and brilliant world. You’re people who’ll look down on the world from a very high place. And to get there, you have to follow that man.”
“……But Unni. What if he’s a bad person?”
“He’s someone who’ll love you more than anyone else. Trust me. Just like you’ve trusted me until now.”
Still hugging her doll, Lari looked at me with worry-filled eyes.
“Umm… Unni did save us from that mean person, but… still…”
“If he really comes tomorrow… maybe he’ll be a little trustworthy.”
“That’s right. So listen carefully to what I say.”
“But Lari doesn’t want to go. I like Unni. Then Unni should come with us too. Okay?”
Lari tightly grabbed my hand and shook it.
“Then I’ll go. That’ll work!”
From the start, that place was never somewhere I belonged. Even here I live off watching others’ moods—there’s no way I’d want to live like that there too.
Besides, the Grand Duke would be extremely busy trying to establish a support base for the children who suddenly appeared in his life, and if he brought me along in that situation, it would only increase his burden.
“And I’d become these children’s weakness as well.”
I quietly looked at Lari, then shook my head.
“That’s not a place for me. You’re of a very precious bloodline. You’re different from me.”
“……What do you mean different? We’re all the same humans.”
It was Rohen who spoke in an irritated voice at my words. His face, turned toward the window, was more furious than ever.
“We’re not the same. And you’ll understand later… the reason you had to be locked up and treated that way is because someone didn’t welcome your birth.”
“Who was it? Who did that to us?”
At Rohen’s curious question, I nodded seriously.
“Originally, it might be better not to say it here…”
It might heighten the novel-like tension, but I didn’t want that kind of frustration.
“Not say it?”
“It might be better, but that person is the Grand Duchess.”
“Then isn’t it dangerous to go there?”
“No. Like I said, the Grand Duke will protect you more than anyone. And you have to go there. Staying here would be more dangerous.”
The Grand Duchess was actually the one who tried to kill the children. So it was better for them to be at the ducal estate. Once they were officially acknowledged as the Grand Duke’s children, she wouldn’t be able to act recklessly.
And although the orphanage director was quiet for now, there was no telling when she might cause trouble by taking the twins.
“The situation could change. So you have to leave. Not just for the two of you, but for me as well.”
“Unni…!”
“Anyway, if that man who looks exactly like you comes tomorrow, decide then. But if you do go, one of you has to go first. Rohen. You.”
“Why do I have to go?”
“Huh? You just do.”
“Can’t we go together? If we’re going?”
I frowned seriously.
What he said was right, but it wasn’t possible yet.
“To take over the ducal house—at least to secure their position—the twins had to bring down the current Grand Duchess.”
That was something that absolutely had to be done, even for the sake of the future.
The Grand Duke didn’t even know about the twins’ existence.
It wasn’t even certain information that his children were here. The person who informed him gave only very limited details. Even in the novel, it was never revealed who that person was.
The childhoods of the mastermind and the villainess weren’t described in much detail.
In that situation, when the Grand Duke brought just one twin to the ducal house, the Grand Duchess went mad. But there was nothing she could do. All she could think was that she had to quickly bring the other twin—the one he hadn’t taken—over to her side.
But her plans to bring that child over failed again and again, and in the end, she took matters into her own hands.
In the past, the twins moved separately because they couldn’t trust the Grand Duke, promising they’d come back for each other later.
Ironically, that became a major key to bringing down the Grand Duchess afterward.
“When she stepped in personally like that, the Grand Duchess was caught by the Grand Duke. It was revealed that she had known everything from the start, that she had kidnapped the twins’ mother, and that she had them abused while being raised. With that, the Grand Duchess fell.”
So for all of that future to happen, things had to proceed just like in the novel.
Only then could the Grand Duchess, who had completely infested the ducal house, be brought down.
For that future, it was right to follow the novel to some extent.
“I don’t know what kind of life Rohen lived after going alone to the ducal house in the novel… so I can’t send Lariz.”
Rather, since Rohen adapted perfectly to life in the ducal house in the novel, it was right to send him, hoping he’d adapt just as well this time too.
With the Grand Duke there, it wouldn’t be dangerous, but I was still afraid that if I sent Lariz for no reason, things might change.
Among the twins, the one who inherited the Grand Duke’s power more strongly was the younger one, Lariz.
So she’d be fine even if she went, but…
“To bring the Grand Duchess down more thoroughly later… it has to be Rohen, the son who’ll inherit the ducal house, who goes. That way, she’ll go even more berserk. She’ll try to seize Lariz and make her Rohen’s weakness.”
And Lari, who would remain here alone, endured it in the novel too—and I’m here with her. Lari’s side will be fine.
At that moment, Lariz, who had been looking at me with sparkling eyes the whole time, pouted her lips.
“Unni…?”
“No. You have to separate. Rohen. You might not believe me and you might be scared, but it’s true. That man is your father, and no matter what, he’ll protect you. I don’t like the idea of you going separately either, but just trust me once.”
There was no need to tell them everything. The more I said, the more the story would stray from its original course.
“……”
“Just trust me once.”
If they decided now that they wouldn’t go, nothing would be more troublesome than that.
Fortunately, perhaps finally understanding how I felt, Rohen let out a deep sigh and looked at me.
“Haah… Is that man really that trustworthy?”
“Yes. If you trust me, you can trust him too. So, Rohen, you go. I’ll protect Lari here.”
“……I’ll think about it first.”
At my words, Rohen let go of my hand, turned around without another word, and sat down on the bed.
Even Lari, who normally would have added something to my words, sat down next to Rohen with a strangely gloomy expression.
I walked up to the two of them and sat down on the floor.
“I probably look bad, right? Acting close and nice a few times, then telling you to leave.”
“……”
“It’s okay if you hate me. But you really, really have to go.”
You’ll live as the protagonists of the novel. Don’t think bad thoughts.
