Chapter 22
He came much sooner than expected, and everything had changed, but the fact that he was leaving remained an unchanging truth.
As I walked quickly while looking at the child walking ahead of me, my mood kept sinking heavily.
Before long, we were able to enter the orphanage through the back path. As expected, perhaps because the grand duke’s carriage had arrived, the surroundings were utterly quiet.
At the end of that silence, the place where sound could be heard was the orphanage’s front yard. Fortunately, it didn’t seem like chaos had broken out—low murmuring voices were drifting out from there.
Carefully moving our steps in case the pursuers might chase us all the way here, we arrived at a place where the child—who had put on a little weight over the past month—and the grand duke were standing.
The grand duke, wearing an expression far more uncomfortable than before, stood silently in front of the carriage with his arms crossed.
But something was very strange.
“My son is here.”
As I followed the child leading me and approached the carriage, I heard the grand duke’s words. He clearly said son.
‘Then… was the one who was with me not Lari, but Rohen?’
When he had called me “noona” earlier, I had wondered for a moment, but I believed it couldn’t be. Every time I sensed a strong scent of Rohen from Lari, who had remained at the orphanage with me, I told myself I was overthinking it.
Only then did I grasp reality, and I vented my grievance toward the child in front of me.
“So it really was you, Rohen….”
That was when I noticed the child who had been wildly waving as soon as they saw us.
What’s more, it was the child who had been adopted first. The child I had thought was Rohen all this time was Lari. Wearing an expensive-looking dress, the child was smiling brightly while hugging a lamb doll.
Meanwhile, the orphanage director, who had been standing with her back to us, shook her head excessively.
“Y-Yes? A-ah, your son? You’re mistaken. The grand duke’s son? There’s no way someone like that could be here… The one who left last time was all.”
“That can’t be. Is that really so?”
“Of course. There is no such person.”
Knowing what would happen if it were revealed that there had been another child of the grand duke here whom she had hidden, the director’s voice was firmer than ever. The fact that the grand duke had let things slide silently last time was nothing short of a stroke of luck for her.
The grand duke had come without thinking he had a child, then encountered one, and in his bewilderment, left without even considering what to do with her—just like in the novel.
In that situation, the director hid the existence of another child. Even then, she had hidden it due to the sudden circumstances, but in any case, even later on, she never informed the grand duke of the other child’s existence.
On the contrary, she had contacted the grand duchess and tried by any means to get rid of the remaining child, so the moment this came to light, the director’s future would be as clear as day.
Perhaps that was why she defended herself with a stronger, more resolute tone than ever.
“You said you definitely had a daughter.”
The grand duke looked at her, who was telling an obvious lie, with a scoff.
At that moment, after briefly lifting her head and staring intently at the child beside the grand duke, she shook her head from side to side.
“T-That can’t be. No one at the orphanage has seen such a thing. Because I haven’t seen it.”
The orphanage director, to the point that it felt pitiful, caused a scene on her own and pointed her finger at one of the nearby children.
“You! Have you ever seen another child who was with that—no, with the young lady over there? Have any of the other teachers seen them? Huh! Anyone, speak up! His Grace the Grand Duke is asking!”
The director stared at each person in turn, forcing answers. Faced with her sharp gaze and firmer-than-usual voice, the children flinched.
The grand duke, who had been calmly observing them, let out a faint laugh and spoke very slowly.
“It seems no one is responding to your words.”
“That’s not true. The children are just shy around strangers. They’re scared right now and can’t speak. The caregivers will speak.”
Only then, as if frightened, the caregivers nodded heavily. Anyone could see that telling the grand duke the truth would be right, but they were already deprived.
Emotionally deprived. No matter how correct their words might be, there had never been anyone to listen to them, so they had been deprived of hope.
For countless years, those in power had ignored their words and sided with the director.
Those who had experienced that many times believed that even a grand duke would be no different. After all, he would show interest once and then never again. Having lived through this several times, they responded not to the grand duke’s words but to those of the director, the king of this orphanage.
It was only natural for the grand duke’s face to harden.
“Then are you saying my daughter is lying?”
The director, afraid that her words might turn against her, kept glancing around nervously, behaving and appearing in ways very unlike her usual self.
“Of course not! Rather than lying, isn’t it possible she’s mistaken?”
Meanwhile, the pursuers who had been looking for us seemed to have approached from behind, and things began to grow quite noisy. The director probably thought they were looking for Lari—no, Rohen.
Either way, whether she admitted it here or not, she would be punished. Hoping that the pursuers would catch Rohen, she continued to deny everything.
The sight was truly laughable—unable to even lift her head, watching the grand duke’s reaction.
“Lari doesn’t lie!”
“She isn’t lying—she must simply be mistaken.”
Lari hugged the lamb doll tightly and shook her head from side to side. Her high-tied pigtails swung wildly.
“There is absolutely no such thing. Absolutely.”
Watching the director deny the child’s words to the very end, Lari huffed angrily, then broke into a grin and tugged on the grand duke’s arm. Only then did his gaze slowly shift toward us.
On his face, which had been so stiff it seemed as though he had no emotions, a faint smile spread. As if everything had finally ended, he nodded with a relaxed expression.
“You don’t seem afraid of me.”
“Pardon?”
“I say that because you’re telling such an obvious lie.”
At that moment, with a shing sound, the grand duke drew his sword.
“W-Wait a moment. A-are you… are you trying to kill me?”
There was no answer. Instead, he changed the direction of the hand holding the sword. Is he really going to attack the director? Just as that thought crossed my mind, he threw the sword toward where we were. The blade flew in an arc.
Thinking that this was how I was going to die, I was about to close my eyes when Rohen pulled me toward himself. Rohen didn’t even blink, as if the sword didn’t frighten him at all. Startled by the sudden situation, I too stared straight at the direction the sword was flying.
“Ah….”
Contrary to my expectation that it would come at us, the sword passed us and headed behind.
“Ugh….”
Behind us was a pursuer. Without us even knowing when he had come so close, the pursuer was struck squarely in the chest by the grand duke’s thrown sword. With a groan, the man collapsed to the ground. At the same time, the grand duke approached us.
He moved at an astonishing speed, as if he had used some kind of teleportation technique, and stared intently at us—more precisely, at Rohen.
“It’s you.”
“Yeah. I’m your son.”
Rohen, who had been holding me, looked at him with an uncomfortable expression. At the same time, the child who had been beside the grand duke ran over and clung tightly to me.
“Big sister!!”
Only then did it truly sink in. The child who had been with me was Rohen, and the child who had come with the grand duke was Laris. I had somewhat expected it, but hearing that “big sister” made my mind snap fully awake.
When I stared at her wordlessly in my bewilderment, the child puffed out her lips.
“Why aren’t you hugging me?”
“Huh?”
“Ah! Don’t tell me! Big sister, did you forget me in the meantime? I looked forward to the day I’d see you every single day!”
“No, that’s not it… You were really Laris? Then the one who was always with me was Rohen?”
“No way… you still didn’t know, big sister?”
Laris shook her head from side to side in great surprise. I wanted to say no, but until just moments ago, I truly hadn’t been able to tell whether the one with me was Rohen or Lari, and my face burned with embarrassment.
No matter how much they were twins, how could I not recognize them?
‘I really must be crazy.’
Otherwise, it made no sense. Of course, since the two had clearly planned to deceive me, and their hair length and voices were almost identical, it wasn’t strange that I was fooled.
‘I’m not the strange one.’
How could anyone not be deceived when someone is determined to deceive them?
Having reached that conclusion on my own out of embarrassment, I awkwardly smiled and met Lari’s eyes.
“N-No, I knew.”
I hurriedly denied it, but before I could finish speaking, Rohen snorted and let out a short laugh.
“Knew what? Earlier, you thought I was you and went around crying, calling ‘Lari, Lari,’ looking for me.”
“Q-Quiet….”
