Chapter 250
“Don’t open it! That’s Nova’s Mama! Don’t touch her!”
The Arcturus knights, realizing who the child was, paled at her words.
But the child herself, undaunted, shouted at the top of her lungs even before fully armed knights.
However, the moment she saw Izar, her eyes widened in fear.
“Hic.”
“……”
“Hiccup… hic…”
Clearly terrified, the child hiccuped, the small sound echoing across the still underground lake.
Izar looked down at the trembling child with dry, expressionless eyes.
He had searched for this child for a very long time…
Not knowing whether she was alive.
Not even certain she had ever been born.
He didn’t know if it was longing or a senseless obsession anymore…
He just hoped she had never ended up in some orphanage, fighting for her life over a piece of black bread.
He had desperately hoped that the child begging in the streets hadn’t been his.
But even so, each time a child cried out in his dreams, saying ‘Papa always disappoints us,’ it had crushed him.
And yet the child before him was not some merciless phantom, but a frightened little girl, crying.
His daughter.
In the haze brought on by Freesia’s death, he had let it slip from his mind, but this was the daughter he had searched for all along.
“…Ah.”
Izar’s brow furrowed. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
“…Haha.”
In his imagination, she had Freesia’s pale green eyes.
But unfortunately, the child resembled him more.
From head to toe, She was adorable, thanks to the parts she inherited from Freesia. But her eyes, unfortunately, were the same golden hue as his.
‘She didn’t even like my eyes.’
Izar reflexively touched the corner of his left eye.
The scar Freesia had made—he had tried hard to keep it from fading, and it was still there.
But Freesia hadn’t killed the child who bore his eyes.
If she had truly hated him, it wouldn’t have been surprising if she had abandoned a child who resembled him.
His heart, which he thought had long stopped, now pounded painfully.
He had truly meant it when he thought, just moments ago, that it was time to give up.
But now, seeing this child, he could breathe again.
“Take the child. Prepare to move Freesia’s coffin as well.”
“Yes, Milord.”
At that, Mathilde resisted more desperately.
“N-No, Your Grace! This place is under the care of His Highness the Imperial Prince…!”
“And that child is mine.”
Izar looked coldly down at the kneeling maid and spoke.
“You hid the fact that my daughter was alive. You hid the fact that my wife was lying here.”
“Th-That’s…”
“Even from His Majesty the Emperor.”
The maid trembled with fear.
The Duke was terrifying, of course, but if the Emperor—grieving and sick over the loss of his granddaughter—were to hear about this…
Her terror was interrupted by the sound of footsteps echoing down the stone steps leading to the underground lake.
“Duke!”
It was none other than Riegel’s voice.
No matter how much the Arcturus knights tried to delay him, there was no way to hold the Imperial Prince off for long.
Riegel’s face had gone pale, and when he saw Izar staring at him with such murderous intent, his expression hardened.
“Duke Izar.”
“…Riegel.”
Izar abandoned all courtesy and approached slowly
His bloodlust shimmered like a mirage—strong enough to make even a veteran knight’s legs give way, but Riegel only furrowed his brow and asked quietly,
“Are you here to kill me tonight?”
“My hands alone are more than enough to twist your neck.”
Izar had no intention of giving his sword the honor of tasting this man’s blood.
What he truly wanted was to squeeze out the very last breath out of this deceitful bastard with his bare hands.
“Did it amuse you to see me lost in hell? Did you think I deserved it? Is that why you just let me rot?”
Each word he spoke scraped painfully at his chest.
Betrayal, rage, despair, hatred, bloodlust, all these filthy emotions burned through him, veins bulging from the back of his hands.
“You tricked your own cousin. So what? Did you think I had it coming?”
“Duke Izar…”
“Then how! How could you hide the fact that my wife came to you—and died?”
“……”
“Go on. Try to explain yourself, Riegel!”
The final words came out as a strangled cry.
But just then, Nova cried out desperately.
“U-Uncle!”
She had been quietly watching with her fist in her mouth, trying to stifle her hiccups.
But now it felt like something terrible might happen to her uncle.
Nova, quick to notice even while crying, saw how the Arcturus knights, despite their fearsome armor, were treating her like something sacred.
Not like the knights here, who would hover nervously around her.
So she shouted through her sobs,
“Go away! I said go away!”
The child’s tearful scream echoed across the cavern, and the dangerous tension in the air faltered.
Even the murderous aura in Izar’s eyes wavered for a moment.
Riegel massaged his brow and exhaled a heavy sigh.
“Izar. Please—just give me some time to explain.”
“Time…? You took three years from me.”
“…Even so. If, after hearing what I have to say, you still want to kill me, then do as you wish. But there’s one thing you must understand.”
Riegel had known this day would come
That Izar would eventually uncover the truth and explode like this.
He also knew how cruel it had been to remain silent all this time
There was no excuse for it.
But the woman lying in that glass coffin…
“Freesia is not dead.”
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