Chapter 49
Above all, wouldn’t that disqualify her as the protagonist? At least, she didn’t take after Julie—she resembled Ernst more.
Gazing at the sleeping child’s face under the dim light, Julie sighed softly and smiled.
“The protagonist buff is truly…”
For reference, the protagonist here is Lilian Kaltblüter. And since Lilian, the most beautiful woman in the world, resembles her father, it means he is the most handsome man in the world too.
Age was irrelevant. People couldn’t help but stare when he walked down the street. When his status was high, no one dared to look at him, but after leaving the Grand Duchy, he often had to wear a robe or mask to avoid attention.
Moving as a hunter to avoid suspicion without a proper status, his well-toned body remained youthful. Who would dare believe he was the father of a sixteen-year-old?
“Huu, Julie. Spread your legs more. I’ll eat you out.”
“Huh, ah… ugh, haah!”
“The child might hear, okay? Lilian can hear us.”
Not to mention his nighttime stamina. He was insatiable.
When Lilian was a baby, he would seize every moment to hold Julie. As the child grew and understood adult matters, he found ways to enjoy the situation differently, making Julie shudder.
He would take advantage of Lilian’s absence to hurriedly undress Julie and make love to her, or he would send Lilian on errands just to have a quickie with his wife. Sometimes, he would even make her beg him to finish quickly, covering her mouth and thrusting fiercely, fearing the child might return.
When Julie tried to hold back, he would get even more excited, nearly making her faint. It was incredible that they never got caught.
Well, she later understood why after meeting Marquis Elva again after all this time.
“Soldiers are sensitive to sounds, you know. Especially snipers.”
He was trained to react to even the smallest noises. The fact that he could detect the sound of leaves rustling amid other noises amazed Julie.
What amazed her even more was that he used this extraordinary ability to have their nightly activities without their daughter noticing.
‘Goodness, what a fool.’
But thanks to that, they had lived peacefully all these years. Now, what would they do? Julie sighed softly and kissed Lilian’s forehead as she slept soundly. Just as she stood up to move to the next room, she heard a voice.
“Where are you going?”
Wasn’t he supposed to be asleep? And when did he enter the room?
“Were you awake?”
Julie, startled, tried to hide the note, but he grabbed her wrist and looked at her inquisitively. She lowered her head, understanding what his gaze meant. He then unfolded the notes on the table and read them one by one.
“…….”
To someone unaware of the future, those notes were merely advice and reminders. They should have been just that. But after reading them for a while, he finally looked up and asked,
“Julie, why did you suggest we leave without telling Lilian?”
His question dropped like a bomb. Their bags were already packed. If they left at dawn, Lilian would wake up to an empty house, confused and searching for them.
Though he had agreed to leave before dawn without understanding why, he had to ask eventually.
“Why are you leaving these notes for Lilian?”
The truth was dreadful.
Their daughter would come to know that the woman who gave birth to her wasn’t her real mother, and the man who raised her wasn’t her biological father. Her real mother, a maid abandoned by the Grand Duke, had been killed by an assassin sent by the Grand Duchess long ago. The man she believed to be her father wasn’t her real father.
Lilian, who had grown up loved by a taciturn but affectionate hunter couple, would find a letter and a seal revealing her true identity just before her sixteenth birthday.
Imagining Lilian finding these in the morning and bursting into tears, he clenched his fists, veins bulging.
“Why must we hurt her like this?”
Even if they had raised her to be strong, like a son, his fatherly heart was no different from any other. He couldn’t bear to see her hurt.
“We don’t have to do this, Julie.”
For once, he opposed her wishes. There was no need for this. They could simply take her with them. Why inflict such pain with this lie?
“Is it because of your promise to Luina?”
Yes, she might be disappointed if the promise wasn’t kept. But so what? Was anything more important than his wife and daughter? He had told her already—the empire wouldn’t last long in its current state.
No father would willingly send his daughter into such danger. So, whatever she was thinking, they should stop this. Just as he was about to persuade her otherwise, she spoke.
“Because we need to meet again.”
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