Chapter 70
Fortunately, it wasn’t that she didn’t try—it’s just that Ariel happened to be on the smarter side.
Proof of that was that after only a few months of preparation, Ariel suddenly passed the exam.
And not even with bad marks, either.
When Elicia heard that Ariel had passed the exam, she immediately asked Rachel to go with her.
“But then, my lady, you’ll be alone…”
Even at Elicia’s request, Rachel hesitated.
“Roah and Lizbeth are here, so it’s fine.”
It felt like Elicia had suddenly become an adult who no longer needed her care, and Rachel couldn’t help but feel a little sad about that.
“You know how much Ariel means to me. That’s why I’m asking you—not Roah.”
Elicia hugged Rachel as she spoke.
Every time moments like this happened, Rachel realized the child who used to snuggle in her arms had really grown up.
“I may be all grown up, but Ariel will still be a kid even years from now.”
Not that Elicia herself disliked being treated like a child, either.
Rachel gave a helpless little laugh at Elicia’s words.
Then she added a word of caution.
“Please make sure you leave anything dangerous to someone else.”
“Hahaha.”
Elicia burst out laughing at Rachel’s very Rachel-like warning.
“Especially things related to the Duke…”
Rachel knew that Elicia had been feeding Duke Parthin drugs.
That’s what made her even more worried.
“Don’t worry.”
Once again, Lizbeth was still with Elicia. So, she definitely wouldn’t recklessly do something alone.
“All the young ladies are precious to me. It might sound arrogant, but… they’re like daughters to me.”
“I feel the same. There were so many times I thought of you as a mother.”
“That’s why I don’t want to leave either of you alone.”
“I understand. I’m asking you to go because I don’t want Ariel to be alone, either.”
The conversation between them was warm.
It was clear that the deep affection wasn’t one-sided.
“I told Ariel this too, but once everything is over, I’ll head up to the Empire.”
So, go on ahead.
Elicia was indirectly saying she would kill Duke Parthin.
“If anything happens to Ariel… Rachel, I want you to make the best decision you can. And make sure you contact me.”
Of course, if she killed Duke Parthin before then, Ariel’s Awakening would likely pass without incident.
Once the Tower was informed, and Ariel started taking lessons to become a mage, there would be no risk of her going berserk.
Still, Elicia gave Rachel this warning just in case.
Rachel, thinking Elicia was only worried about Ariel, silently nodded.
Then she added,
“You must contact me too if something happens, all right?”
At Rachel’s worried words, Elicia tightened her arms around her.
“Yeah, I will.”
And then, a month later, a carriage carrying Rachel and Ariel departed the mansion.
Two years passed.
Elicia’s face as she looked out the window had grown noticeably more mature.
Her eyes darted quickly.
Each time they did, the commotion outside grew louder.
Clang—
A longsword flew through the air.
At the same time, Dale clutched his wrist and collapsed to his knees.
Blood dripped heavily through his fingers. Even though his hand had been severed, he didn’t let out a single groan, only gritted his teeth and endured the pain.
In front of him, Lizbeth was breathing heavily.
“Oh my. Are you hurt?”
With a calm voice, as though it were unintentional, Lizbeth approached Dale.
Dale glared up at her with sharp eyes.
It was over.
Elicia, who had been watching their sparring, placed her hand against the window.
Now there were no more of Duke Parthin’s men left in this mansion.
To Elicia, the voice of Dale, who had lost the hand that held his sword, mattered less than that of a passing stranger.
Now, nothing stood in her way.
‘I need to increase the dosage even more. Even if Ariel awakens as a mage now, there’s nothing to worry about.’
Duke Parthin lay on the bed, looking as though he didn’t even have the strength to speak anymore.
His limbs were withered, and his face was full of wrinkles.
He looked like someone whose aging had been accelerated.
Elicia dragged a chair over and sat beside the bed where Duke Parthin lay.
“If you’d tried even a little to keep me in check, you wouldn’t be dying so pathetically.”
Her plan had only been possible because Duke Parthin had underestimated her.
A smile, impossible to read, curved Elicia’s lips.
She reached out, took the teacup from the nightstand, and sipped.
Then she waited.
Waited for Duke Parthin to stop breathing.
It wasn’t a boring wait.
The thought that the finish line was near left no room for boredom.
“Hhh—hhh—”
Elicia sipped her tea as she watched Duke Parthin’s intermittent gasps.
She’d imagined hundreds of times what it would feel like to wrap her hands around that throat and strangle him to death.
But today, that thought didn’t even cross her mind.
There was no need to exert herself—by the end of today, he would be dead anyway.
“Hhh—”
Elicia crossed her legs and leaned back against the hard chair.
More than three hours passed.
The tea in her cup had gone cold.
“……”
The sound of breathing ceased.
The teacup slipped from Elicia’s hand.
As the sound of shattering porcelain filled the room, Elicia screamed.
“Father, Father! Father!!”
Tears poured down Elicia’s face like rain.
Amazingly, she was crying with all her heart. But they weren’t tears of sorrow.
Through her tears, Elicia poured out her joy and ecstasy.
“No…! No, you can’t die! Father!!”
Finally, she was free.
Elicia and Ariel both.
Just like in her past life, in this life too, Elicia killed her father and claimed her freedom.
This time, it was complete freedom.
Once Duke Parthin died, the nobles all turned their eyes to Elicia.
To Elicia, the new master of House Parthin.
But none of their gazes held even the slightest suspicion that Elicia had killed Duke Parthin.
A sudden, incurable disease of unknown cause.
A daughter who had devoted herself to caring for her dying father for years—it was unthinkable to suspect her.
Except for one house.
“My lady. Lady Maden says you must make time to meet her today…”
Roah, now Elicia’s personal maid in Rachel’s stead, spoke as she handed her a green envelope.
“Tell her I’m busy with the moving preparations.”
Elicia didn’t even glance at the envelope as she checked the luggage for anything left behind.
“Goodness… It’s been a whole year since the former Duke passed, and yet Viscountess Aste is still so persistent.”
The letters that came nearly every week were tiresome not only for Elicia but for Roah as well.
At Roah’s candid grumbling, Elicia laughed as she replied.
“She must have really wanted her child to take the duke’s seat.”
But that seat already belonged to Elicia.
She was the first female head of House Parthin in its entire history.
It wasn’t a position she particularly liked, given all the work, but it gave her the power to crush the Aste family.
Without it, they would surely have tried to push marriage proposals onto her and Ariel again.
“Speaking of which, my lady, there have been lots of other letters too—from other houses.”
Roah shuffled through the pile of letters on the table.
“They’re all proposals.”
Of course, becoming a duke didn’t completely free her from marriage troubles.
“They really don’t know their place, do they.”
All of them were young lords trying to marry Elicia and claim the ducal title.
“What should I do about the replies?”
“Ha…”
Elicia threw down the clothes in her hand and let out a deep sigh.
“Tell them I’m very picky about men.”
“Just that?”
“That should be enough to make a few of them back off.”
“My lady, if I may say something?”
Knowing full well that Elicia had zero interest in marriage, Roah cautiously asked for permission.
Elicia tilted her chin as if to say, go ahead.
“If you only say that… most of them will just think you’re playing hard to get.”
“What…?”
“There are some truly strange people in this world, my lady.”
As someone with a few more years of life experience, Roah offered her sincere advice.
Of course, she thought she was phrasing it nicely, but ultimately, it meant there were plenty of clueless fools out there.
Elicia stared at her with a dumbfounded expression.
“They won’t get it unless you say exactly what you don’t want.”
Roah pressed her point one more time.
Finally, Elicia folded her arms and started seriously thinking.
Should she just say she had no intention of ever giving up the headship?
No, that was too blunt.
After a short moment of thought, Elicia opened her mouth.
“Write that I like men who are jaw-droppingly handsome—and not nobles.”
Just saying she didn’t like nobles would have been enough, but she insisted on mentioning looks as well—it was her last bit of pride and stubbornness.
“Yes! That’s perfect! That’s an unmistakable rejection!”
Perhaps because she’d grown more comfortable after serving Elicia for a year, Roah clapped her hands and praised her.
With no one there to stop them, Roah sent off the replies just as Elicia ordered.
Thanks to that, for quite some time, Elicia’s taste became the talk of the noble gossip circles.
