Agnos said in a calm voice.

“Fortunately, I am not too late.”

He turned and looked at Devoir.

Devoir alternately looked at the Lord and me, and his eyes fluttered slightly.

He kept his mouth shut and lowered his head.

Even anguish came from the distorted expression on his face.

However, the Lord’s gaze was terrifying as he looked at Devoir, who had slumped after the fight.

The cold gaze made Devoir’s body tremble slightly.

Devoir, who could not say a word, got up and tried to leave the room.

The Lord called him up.

“Devoir.”

Devoir, who was about to go out at the Lord’s call, stopped suddenly.

The droopy back was very pitiful.

It was so shabby that I could hardly look at it. 11

But it seemed I was the only one who thought so.

A voice colder than ice came from the Lord’s mouth.

The voice didn’t sound like he was talking to his son.

It sounded like criticizing a hound who had failed to do his job properly.

“You have let me down.”

Devoir’s shoulders flinched at his words.

The fist he had been clenching so hard lost strength and fell straight.

But he left the room without answering or making any excuses.

The servants who were behind him followed.

It was because of a slight scratch on Devoir’s face, perhaps from being hit by a fragment earlier.

The bruise on his white cheek was red.

The afterimage flickered in front of me, and I kept worrying about it.

He looked around with his cold gaze and began to give orders. 

“Call the priests of Lerothia.”

“Yes!”

“I can’t believe it’s breaking and trespassing into the family again.”2

He mutters to himself. He soon shut his mouth.

Then he asked me with a different expression from before.

“Are there any injuries?”

“—–I’m fine.”

“That’s a relief.”

At the end of those words, his big hand rested on top of my head.

Then, as if trying to comfort me, the hand gently stroking my hair was cautious.

It was a delicate gesture as if wiping away the thin mist that had formed on a glass of ice.

A heavy question flowed from his mouth, which had been silent for a while.

“You must have been surprised.”

“No.” 33

I think Devoir must have been more surprised than me.

But I couldn’t spit those words out, so I kept my mouth shut.

Sweat was seeping from my hands.

Drops of sweat rubbed the hem of my skirt.

I was also surprised, but my body trembled.

In the meantime, I heard a rush of footsteps.

“Huh, what’s going on!”

It was Jien.

The Lord turned around and looked at her while she turned pale from fear.

“She must be surprised, so call a healer.”

“Yes.”

“I need to change the place where she sleeps. Tell the butler to give her a bedroom on the fifth floor of the mansion.”

“Yes, yes?”

At the end of Jien’s words, there was little doubt.

It was the same for me.

The 5th floor of the Ardelos mansion was one of the deepest places.

To some extent, it was a place that even Devoir, the only heir of the Ardelos family, could enter only with the permission of the Lord.

But he walked away with those words.

It was as if he had no intention of overturning his words any longer.

I was held tight in his arms.

Devoir was seen in the distance.

Ar’s face was pale.

He looked sick.

I looked at him with worried eyes.

But suddenly, my body became strange.

The intruder’s energy, which he thought had been absorbed into his body, reacted sharply.

An energy that I had never felt before ran through my body.

I barely caught my breath and clenched my fist hard.

Fortunately, it wasn’t enough to spread somewhere.

Perhaps noticing an abnormal reaction, the Lord stopped walking.

He turned his head to me.

I was terrified by his gaze without realizing it.

‘I wonder if he felt the energy of Deldea from me.’

Looking up at him in a wary manner, compassion was seen in the eyes of the Lord.

Soon he spoke in a quite severe voice.

“I put you in danger.”

“— What?”

“I just left the weak child unattended. I was conceited because I was in the house.”

“Yes?”

“Even though It’s late, I have to get things done. If your parents hadn’t appeared so far, that would be fine too.” 44

What he said was somewhat significant.

I didn’t know what his intention was.

But before I could say anything more, he had already opened his mouth.

The voice of the Lord echoed through the hallways.

“I plan to enlist this child into the family at the welcome ceremony. To Prepare.”

What?

I wasn’t the only one who was surprised to hear that.

Everyone opened their eyes wide with their mouths open.

The Lord declared that he would adopt me after the welcome ceremony.

Even his voice was plain as if he was discussing the lunch menu.

However, he did not even add an additional explanation.

He just put me down and walked through the hallway.

Without even paying attention to the fact that the dozens of people who had gathered there became frozen like ice and forgot even the existence of the intruder.

After the Lord left, Jien looked at me with a surprised expression.

The round eyes were wide open as if she had heard something unbelievable.

Admiration soon erupted from her mouth.

“Oh my god! What’s going on?”

Her face was bright.

She couldn’t help but cover her mouth with both hands.

However, her eyes, already burning with excitement, showed how surprised she was.

Soon, the sound of clapping and applause echoed through the hallway.