BCDRF 06

Chapter 06

“What are you doing, Anette? Your mother is sick, so you should go to your room for today….”

“Mooom!”

Like an innocent child, I approached the Duchess with both hands wrapped around the mug. Fortunately, she seemed to be conscious.

“Mom, drink this. You’ll feel better soon.”

As I held out the mug, Duke Aubrey suddenly grabbed me by the shoulder.

“You!!”

At his thunderous voice, my shoulders instinctively stiffened.

“What are you doing right now?!”

His shout echoed loudly throughout the room.

It was the first time I had seen him raise his voice like that, so I held my breath for a moment before smiling brightly again.

“It’s okay, Father. I’m a genius because I take after you!”

“Anette…. Cough. Give it to me, my daughter.”

At the voice that came from behind me along with a dry cough, I quickly turned around.

“Yes, Mom. Here.”

“Rosana….”

“It’s the first thing my daughter has given me. How could I refuse?”

The Duchess smiled gently but spoke firmly.

Then, without a shred of hesitation, she put the cup to her lips and drank.

“Mmm, it’s sweet. Sweet… and slightly bitter.”

“Yes, it’s delicious, right? Then I’ll go back now. Get well soon, Mom.”

“Yes, I have to get better soon. Then we can go out together and go shopping.”

“Yes.”

I bowed to Duke Aubrey, who still looked displeased, before turning around and leaving the room.

Thud.

After closing the door, I immediately leaned against it and took a deep breath.

My fingertips were trembling slightly.

“You!!”

“What are you doing right now?!”

I clenched my fists tightly.

‘It’s okay.’

This wasn’t the mad scientist’s laboratory. Even if I made a small mistake, I wouldn’t be experimented on.

‘It’s okay. It’s okay. It doesn’t hurt.’

This was a peaceful place, and small mistakes didn’t result in pain.

After standing still for a long while, I slowly raised my head and saw Mary and Gold staring at me with surprised expressions.

‘Oops….’

I had made a mistake.

I smiled brightly, pretending to be an innocent little child who knew nothing, and pressed my index finger against my lips.

“Actually, that was the first time an adult had ever scolded me.”

It was a lie.

I had constantly been scolded both at the orphanage and in the mad scientist’s laboratory.

“This is a secret, okay?”

I murmured with a smile before taking Mary and Gold back to my room.

“Dear, why did you get so angry with our daughter whom we finally found?”

“…I only got angry for a moment because she was trying to give you something strange to drink.”

“Even so, that little girl brought it because she was thinking of me. No matter how unfamiliar you are with her because you haven’t seen her for so long, don’t speak so harshly to her again. It’s a bad habit of yours.”

“…I understand.”

Shakol Aubrey answered Rosana in a quiet voice as she gently reprimanded him.

“…Rosana, your coughing has stopped. Is there anything wrong with your body?”

At Shakol’s words, Rosana’s eyes widened.

“Huh…? Come to think of it, breathing doesn’t feel difficult anymore, and I’m not coughing either. My body feels warm, too, so I don’t think I’m cold.”

Rosana rubbed her own body several times as if she couldn’t believe it herself.

‘Did it really work?’

Shakol Aubrey frowned.

He had told the child that Rosana was sick, but he hadn’t told her what illness she had.

This was an incurable disease to begin with.

‘I’ve never seen medicine with an effect like this.’

How had she obtained something like this in such a short time?

‘Coincidence?’

No. The child had said she was a genius, as if she were certain of it.

Shakol narrowed his eyes and arrogantly crooked one finger.

“Pedro.”

“Yes, Master.”

“Bring me Mary and Gold, the ones who prepared this drink for Anette.”

“Yes, understood.”

Shakol sat on the edge of the bed and slowly took Rosana’s hand.

“Go to sleep while you’re feeling comfortable, Rosana.”

“Mm, Anette… Make sure you apologize to her….”

“…I will.”

As expected, Rosana soon fell asleep, probably because she had overexerted herself today.

Shakol slowly brushed back her fallen hair.

“Anisha….”

As he looked down at the sleeping Rosana, Shakol’s eyes slowly darkened.

He had decided to adopt Anisha from the moment he saw her picture.

Rosana’s condition was getting worse with every passing day.

It might have been somewhat cruel to the child, but he wanted to save his wife. To do that, the most important thing was to stabilize her mentally and emotionally.

Rosana had been relatively healthy apart from being somewhat physically weak. But she had suddenly begun to fall ill ten years ago, after an incident in which they lost their child.

More than a decade ago, an anti-nobility movement had raged throughout the Empire for some time.

The cause could be traced back to the foolish rule of the previous Emperor.

The previous Emperor was the worst tyrant in history, a piece of trash who not only indulged in extravagance and pleasure but also enjoyed war. He forcibly conscripted soldiers from among the common people every day.

Whenever he needed more money to wage war and indulge himself, he endlessly raised taxes and extorted money from the nobles.

The nobles had no choice but to increase the taxes imposed on their people to make up for the money.

Yes, the anger of the Imperial citizens, who had lost their only children, parents, and families because of the horrific rule and endless wars that had continued for roughly twenty years, eventually exploded.

Whenever they saw even a single noble, everyone threw stones.

Even when nobles threatened them with swords, the Imperial citizens who had already lost their precious loved ones had nothing left to fear.

Whenever the nobles beheaded people to intimidate them, the people only became more enraged and sometimes attacked their estates.

Uprisings broke out everywhere, and they soon turned into brutal acts of retaliation.

One of the crimes that emerged during that time was known as ‘child stealing.’

It was a crime born out of revenge: I lost my child, so you should lose yours, too.

As a result, the number of children from noble families disappearing increased.

Duke Aubrey strengthened the security around his estate and carefully selected the people who were allowed to stay near his child.

Even so, he failed to protect her.

Yes. Shakol Aubrey had failed to protect his daughter.

He had never imagined that the nanny who had been loyal to his family for so long would harbor thoughts of revenge after losing her own son.

Meanwhile, the only son of a prestigious marquess family was kidnapped and later found torn to pieces and dead.

The Marquess wailed in grief after losing his son.

Afterward, nobles whose lives had been threatened and nobles who had lost their children overnight drew their swords, led by the Marquess.

It was a coup d’état carried out with the barely fifteen-year-old Crown Prince at its forefront.

Fueled by both the anger of the Imperial citizens and the fury of the nobles, the coup fortunately succeeded.

Once the tyrant was gone and the country slowly began functioning properly, the missing children also began returning one by one.

But there were children who never returned.

His daughter was one of them.

So was the son of the Argo family, the family of the Ruler of Blue.

Fortunately, the Argo family had found their child not long ago.

But not long after the coup ended, Shakol Aubrey found a small child who had been burned completely black, still wearing the family insignia around his neck.

He couldn’t tell anyone.

Especially not his wife, who still believed that their child would someday return.

‘That was why I brought her here in the first place.’

A girl with green hair, around the same age as his daughter.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Your Grace. My name is Anisha.”

The moment he first met her, he thought that his daughter had truly grown up and returned.

If she had grown up safely in his arms, he imagined she would smile with that same face and speak with those same expressions.

“Sniff… Are you really my mother? Are you really… my mother…?”

Even the way she burst into tears,

“Ah, yes, ye-es….”

Even the way she shrank back awkwardly because everything was unfamiliar.

He thought that if they really found their child and brought her home, she might truly act like that.

“Just meeting Father and Mother like this feels like a dream. Thank you for finding me without giving up.”

That was why he was surprised.

He had never imagined that she would say the very words he had only ever heard in his dreams.

“It’s ridiculous. It’s all nothing but an illusion.”

That child was a fake.

He must not forget that fact.

Rosana had never properly seen Anette because she had been recovering after childbirth, so she wouldn’t remember, but Anette’s eyes were a pale violet, just like his.

‘Unless she underwent some kind of experiment, there’s no way her eye color could have changed.’

He lightly shook his head.

Knock, knock.

The knock on the door was polite.

“Come in.”

“Yes, Master.”

“What happened with that tea?”

“Ah, it’s tea made by grinding dried ryehwa and mixing it with sugar. Young Lady said it would be very good if she gave it to her mother….”

“She said that?”

“Yes.”

Mary lowered her head as she answered.

If the child had given such precise instructions, he couldn’t believe she had acted without knowing anything.