LADAD Chapter 24

Finally, the carriage carrying Amelia stopped in front of the temple. They had been traveling for three full days.

"You've had a hard journey."

Until the coachman knocked to ask if it was okay to open the door, even Louise couldn't hide her tired expression.

"Open the door."

As soon as Louise's order was given, the carriage door opened. Beyond the open door, Aaron, who had been waiting, extended his hand instead of the coachman. Louise first calmly accepted her cousin's escort and stepped down from the carriage.

"Holy Maiden, what's with the baby?"

Surprise flashed across Aaron's face as he looked at Amelia, who remained awkwardly in the carriage holding Ian. It was an incredibly shameless attitude. This was someone who couldn't possibly not know the identity of this child.

"Could it be..."

"A newborn child was abandoned on the roadside. She wouldn't be the type to ignore such a thing."

Louise answered as if Aaron was asking something obvious. Before Amelia could even open her mouth once, the entire story was created and became fact.

"You couldn't ignore another pitiful child."

Then admiration and emotion appeared on Aaron's face. It was such thorough acting that Amelia felt like she was being mocked.

"There are many people here who can be companions to this child, so you've brought him well."

Aaron reached out as if he would take the child immediately. Amelia reflexively shrank back so Ian wouldn't touch Aaron's hands.

"...I'd like to care for him a bit longer."

A chilling aura passed through the eyes of the smiling man. Amelia unconsciously stuck out her tongue to moisten her lips as she made excuses.

"It seems you've grown quite attached during the journey."

Then Aaron nodded as if he could understand.

"For now, you must be tired, so please go inside. I'll escort you personally."

She wanted to say it wasn't necessary. But she couldn't dare refuse Aaron's escort in front of everyone. It was the result of brainwashing and also a habit ingrained in her body.

"Since the Holy Maiden has returned safely, everyone please return to your places and do your work."

Aaron first turned around, sending away those who had come to greet Amelia back to their positions. Then he began walking through the people who had parted like a divided sea. Amelia also began following behind him like a cow being led to slaughter.

At that moment, Amelia had only one wish. She just hoped the path back to her quarters would be eternal. But it was impossible to realize.

"Is the child that precious to you?"

It was just as they entered the reception room attached to the bedroom. Aaron, who had been watching Amelia still unable to let the child go from her arms, asked.

"Well, they say one instinctively loses their heart when seeing something young."

She couldn't tell when Aaron might take the child away, so her heart was shriveling with fear. Even as he casually spouted nonsense, Amelia couldn't let down her guard.

"I want to rest. Please leave now."

She couldn't even go to the bathroom while Aaron and Louise were there. Amelia pulled the child deeper into her arms and half-turned her body away from Aaron. Although she was pretending to be calm, the fingertips supporting Ian's body were trembling slightly.

"Very well."

Was he going to leave obediently? A faint color returned to Amelia's face as if she had found a glimmer of hope.

"If only my questions are resolved."

Aaron mocked that small hope and crushed it in an instant. Amelia swallowed, feeling as if her throat was being strangled.

"I heard you haven't allowed anyone to touch the child all this time."

"Because I didn't like it."

Amelia lifted her chin defiantly and answered.

"You, Louise too. I didn't like you touching my child. What's wrong with that? We're not on good enough terms to face each other and laugh ha ha ho ho."

She exposed their uncomfortable relationship, arguing for the legitimacy of her attitude all this time. Unlike Louise, who reflexively frowned, Aaron just nodded as if that could be the case.

"That could be so. I failed to consider it."

Aaron said he hadn't considered Amelia's uncomfortable feelings, not that he couldn't. The difference between "couldn't" and "didn't" seemed small. But in that tiny tiny distinction, their view of Amelia was clearly revealed. She was, through and through, someone to monitor and use. Even talking back was only possible because they had permitted it—a clear establishment of their relationship.

"There's one more thing I'm curious about."

It was an attitude that he would stop with the unimportant matters.

"I heard you didn't even allow Louise to properly look at the child."

"Louise has seen me holding the child countless times."

Amelia retorted immediately. In fact, Louise had only been unable to touch Ian but had seen him and heard his crying.

"Anyway, the midwife would have told you all about the child's characteristics and gender."

It was a final struggle. Throughout her confrontation with Aaron, Amelia hoped desperately that she could just get through this moment. If she could do that, she would find a way to spirit this child away.

"I don't know what you're so curious about."

Amelia was now a mother. Like her own mother, who had once been eager to send her beyond these walls. She wasn't going to wait helplessly for someone to help her like she used to, grasping at clouds.

"Ah, that midwife."

Aaron sighed as if remembering something he had forgotten.

"Well. She's already dead, so I wonder what she could possibly tell us."

Amelia flinched. This was someone who had helped with Amelia's birth with a kind face and had even promised to help hide the child's gender. But she was already dead even before the secret was discovered?

"...You killed the midwife?"

"In this world, you are the only one with black hair and black eyes, Amelia Escliffe."

Even if they don't know you're the Holy Maiden right now, who knows when they might find out—we can't leave such a risk factor, can we? That's how Aaron was asking back. Amelia couldn't bring herself to continue speaking and could only move her lips. It was because she sensed that the countless names that had disappeared from her side, faces she couldn't even remember properly, had vanished in this very way.

"Well, there was something she said before dying, so naturally I believed that what you gave birth to was a girl with black hair and black eyes."

"..."

"But what Louise saw was blonde hair."

However, Aaron paid no attention to the shock Amelia had received. In fact, it was right that it wasn't surprising. He was always someone who wielded and trampled on Amelia like this. As if Amelia's sorrow was his joy.

"Please show me the child's hair."

Aaron commanded while pretending to make a request. Louise stood beside her elder cousin, watching the entire scene. Her face showed not a trace of pity or guilt.

"If there's nothing troubling your mind, there's no need to hide it, is there?"

Amelia unconsciously stepped back. At the same time, even the one layer of fake smile that had been disguising the composure on Aaron's face was stripped away.

"No, I don't want to...!"

She instinctively wanted to run away. Amelia unconsciously turned her body and grabbed the door handle. But Aaron approaching to grab Amelia was faster than opening the door.

"No!"

Amelia screamed as if struggling. However, Aaron paid no heed and snatched the child from Amelia's arms. The suddenly empty embrace felt hollow and cold.

"...Blonde hair."

The first thing Aaron did was remove the hat covering the child's head. The hat that had been put on under the pretense of maintaining body temperature fell helplessly to the floor, and Ian's hair was completely revealed.

It was vivid blonde hair, resembling his father.

"Good heavens..."

Louise was also at a loss for words. In fact, although she had told Aaron because Amelia's behavior was very suspicious, she had hoped desperately that the hair color she had glimpsed briefly was something she had seen wrong. But what Louise had seen was neither an illusion nor false.

"Is it that damn bastard's?"

Aaron asked through gritted teeth. It wasn't certain. He didn't know the exact appearance of the man Amelia had met. Under the hood he wore, only the brilliant blonde hair remained vaguely in his memory.

But that intuition seemed to have hit the mark, as Amelia began to tremble.

"When did you have your fun behind my back?"

Aaron shook the small body he was holding carelessly with one hand, as if he might throw the child away. Louise, startled, approached and took the child from Aaron's arms.

"Louise, check the child's gender too."

"Pardon?"

"I told you to undress the child and check the gender. Since she hid the hair color, she might have hidden the gender too."

Louise glanced at Aaron and placed the child's body on the table, beginning to unwrap the cloth around the body. Not long after, the child's naked body was revealed. Naturally, Ian had the characteristics of a male child.

"Take the child away, Louise."

"Yes? Where to..."

Louise gathered the child's clothes and asked hesitantly.

"Since it's going to die anyway, does it matter where you take it?"

Amelia's face turned pale as a sheet. Aaron watched that face and twisted his lips.

"I, I was wrong!"

"..."

"Just the child, just save the child, can't you? I don't have to raise him."

Amelia suddenly fell to her knees. And she begged and pleaded. All the spirit she had shown while confronting Aaron seemed to have completely disappeared, swept away like a wave.

"I told you to get rid of that useless thing, Louise."

Aaron commanded through gritted teeth. Louise, who had been watching Aaron's mood, was about to take Ian and step away.

"This is a sacred place where no unauthorized person may enter!"

The corridor leading to Amelia's bedroom was in commotion. Someone had burst in without warning, and it seemed the guards couldn't restrain him roughly either.

"Louise."

Aaron, who had been seething with anger until just before, instantly became calm. When Aaron gestured toward Amelia's bedroom, Louise tactfully hid inside with the child. Meanwhile, Aaron silently pulled Amelia's arm to lift her from her seat.

"Even if you are His Imperial Majesty..."

"Move aside."

At the same time, the door burst open and the intruder revealed himself.

His name was Ivan Wade Escliffe. A dazzlingly handsome man with brilliant honey blonde hair like the sun and emerald eyes that sparkled like jewels.