Still feeling light-headed, Camilla was led down the stairs by the beautiful young woman who claimed to be her daughter, Deidre. The scenery below was unfamiliar, yet the people who hurried toward her were not.
The cook, the gardener, the maids, the butler. All of them were the servants who had once served the baronial household. They had aged, but there was no mistaking them.
“My lady! To think you would truly awaken…!”
“All of us have been waiting, from the bottom of our hearts, for this day.”
“His lordship will surely be overjoyed!”
As Camilla stared in disbelief at the servants laughing, crying, and shouting all at once, Deidre, who had been clinging to her arm, smiled softly.
“Everyone has been looking forward to meeting you again, Mother. I have as well. And Father, too.”
“…Are you truly Deidre? My Deidre?”
Her voice came out strange and unsteady as she asked. The young woman nodded, her dark gray hair swaying.
“Yes. I am Deidre, the one you protected fifteen years ago. You must be confused. Please, come this way.”
Guided by Deidre, Camilla was led into the living room. There, a maid who had once helped Camilla dress brought tea with eyes swollen red from crying. She had been a young girl back then, but now she was a grown woman.
“There is much I wish to tell you, Mother. But first, I will explain what happened to you.”
Deidre spoke as they drank their tea.
From the day Camilla collapsed protecting Deidre, fifteen long years had passed.
Those who had targeted Deidre that night were agents of the queen.
On the day of the banquet, the queen noticed Gerald’s interest in Deidre’s blue eyes. Behind her smile, fear had taken hold.
Between Gerald and the queen was the crown prince. He was not incompetent, but he was gentle, mild, and not especially fond of study. Loved for his affability, yet to the queen, his lack of brilliance was a constant source of anxiety.
Then Camilla arrived with her niece.
Deidre, though only one year old, was remarkably calm, and she possessed the blue eyes that the queen’s son had not inherited.
Delicate and prone to worry, the queen feared that Deidre might someday replace her son.
If the prince failed to shine while Deidre grew into a clever woman, people might begin to say that the intelligent baron’s daughter with royal blue eyes was more suited to rule than a mediocre prince.
And so, to protect her son, the queen decided to erase Deidre.
Luke was due to return in ten days. Once he did, it would become far more difficult to target Deidre. Before then, everything had to be settled. The sudden death of a small child was not unheard of, and the order was given to inject poison and make it appear natural.
But Camilla’s sudden intervention thwarted the plan.
The order had been to eliminate Deidre Beresford. When Camilla interfered, the agents hesitated, then decided that if the princess stood in the way, she too should be removed. They used a forbidden magical artifact carried for emergencies.
The queen had been so desperate that she had armed them with an outlawed tool.
The artifact was meant to kill both mother and child, but only Camilla was affected. Her skin lost its luster, and her body hardened like stone.
Whether “petrification” was truly the correct term, no one could say.
When Deidre was rescued from Camilla’s rigid arms, she showed no abnormalities. Even Camilla’s clothing remained soft. It seemed that only Camilla’s body had been affected.
Because magic itself had long since vanished from the world, no one knew how to undo the effect. In the end, Camilla was laid in a clean, safe place, and they waited for the magic to fade naturally.
“That is why Father moved your body here.”
Deidre gestured toward the meadow visible through the window.
“This is the Beresford county estate.”
“…A count’s estate?”
“Yes. Father worked tirelessly, and our family was granted the title of count.”
Deidre smiled quietly.
“The house in the capital where I was born was torn down after the attack. But Father loves you very much, so he had your room recreated exactly as it was in this estate.”
“…He loves me?”
Only then did Camilla realize she had forgotten to ask about Luke. At last, her mind felt fully awake.
“Luke. Is he well?”
“He is. As you know, Father is quite handsome, and there were noble ladies who wished him to remarry. But Father believed you would awaken, and he had no interest in any woman but you. He refused them all.”
Camilla found herself at a loss for words.
Luke loved her. He had no interest in anyone else.
She had felt their distance close through letters, but she had never imagined something so deep.
“…I see.”
“You should hear the rest from Father himself. He is in the capital at present, but he will return soon.”
Deidre poured more tea into Camilla’s cup with her own hands.
Fifteen years ago, Luke had ridden alone, desperate to see his wife and daughter even a day sooner. He arrived just before Camilla’s condition was fully set, yet he could not save her.
Luke captured those responsible, interrogated them, and uncovered the queen as the mastermind. Through relentless effort, he forced a confession and had her confined to a desolate tower on a remote island.
Even Gerald had not expected his wife to go that far.
Ashamed, and believing himself responsible, Gerald entrusted the throne and his son’s upbringing to a relative and withdrew from public life. The man who succeeded him named Gerald’s son as heir, and it was said that once the prince turned twenty, the crown would pass to him.
Luke aided in reforming the Shamrock family, served as an advisor to the king, trained the crown prince in swordsmanship and tactics, and helped reform the knightly order.
Through his own efforts, he earned the title of Count Beresford and became a pillar of the Kingdom of Lapladia as a knight-count with a princess for a wife.
Deidre had grown up watching her father’s back.
“Father is very kind to me. But he is not just kind. When I am wrong, he guides me back to the proper path.”
Her blue eyes were gentle as she spoke.
“Even so, there were times when I rebelled. Times when I felt tired of living. Whenever that happened, I went to your room and greeted you. I looked at your arms.”
“My arms?”
“You were petrified while protecting me. You remained frozen in the posture of holding me, just as I was at one year old.”
Camilla remembered. She had held Deidre tightly, unwilling to let go, and when her body hardened, she could not pass her daughter to Luke.
“There was space within your arms, where I had been. Every time I saw it, I felt your love. And I told myself that for the sake of the mother who protected me, I could not give in to despair. I had to live strongly.”
Tears welled in Deidre’s blue eyes.
“I prayed every day in your room. I prayed that you would wake. I promised I would be good. That I would become a proper count’s daughter. I begged God to save you.”
“Deidre…”
“That is why I am truly happy to see you, Mother. I wanted to speak with you. I wanted you to call me Deidre. I wanted you to hold me.”
“Deidre.”
Camilla could no longer bear it. She stood and wrapped Deidre tightly in her arms.
In Camilla’s heart, Deidre was still the one-year-old who had just learned to say “mama.”
While her daughter grew so tall and strong, Camilla had not been there.
She had not protected her. She had made her worry.
“I wanted to protect you even if it meant dying. But I wanted to see you again. My precious Deidre.”
“Mother.”
Deidre sobbed openly in Camilla’s arms.
Camilla stroked her trembling back, and Deidre clung to her, crying out.
“Mother!”
(I did protect her.)
Holding her daughter, now nearly her own height, Camilla let a single tear fall.
