“Is it true that Hestia is trying to kill you?”

Thanks to Iris and Cassius, who came to the training ground in the morning, we were able to have a private conversation easily. I told them about what I heard last night.

“Yes. Mirocagon told me. There’s no reason for that monster to lie, so I think she’s really after me.”

Cassius sighed deeply.

“It’s possible if it’s Hestia. She loves her lovers so obsessively.”

“But even so, to try to kill a child….”

Iris touched her temple with a puzzled expression, unable to understand.

Cassius grabbed my left arm and cast a spell.

“I’ll place a tracking spell on you. It’s a spell that lets me know where you are at all times.”

A golden magic circle appeared on my forearm and disappeared in an instant.

“If you find yourself in a dangerous situation, press your forearm hard. Then I’ll receive the signal and come to where you are.”

“Thank you, Cassius.”

Iris hugged me, telling me not to worry.

“For now, let’s try talking to Hestia. Don’t worry too much.”

“Thank you, Iris.”

After saying goodbye to Iris and Cassius, I headed to the training ground to start my practice.

As I glanced at my magically marked forearm, I felt a presence and stopped in my tracks.

What’s this? I feel someone’s gaze on me, as if someone is secretly watching me.

Could it be…

I drew the sword at my waist and aimed it at where I sensed the presence.

At the tip of the blade was Materosin.

Materosin was surprised and then looked embarrassed as he faced me.

“Marquis…?”

When I lowered the sword, Materosin apologized with a bitter tone.

“You told me not to come, and I’m sorry for coming anyway. I was planning to just see your face secretly.”

“…Marquis.”

I sheathed the sword and approached him.

“Yesterday, I accidentally met Mirocagon and heard that Hestia is trying to kill me. Did you know about this?”

Materosin’s forehead creased in surprise, then settled low.

“I knew.”

“I want to talk to Hestia. If I tell her I won’t live as your daughter, maybe she’ll change her mind. So please take me to where Hestia is.”

The Marquis might know where Hestia is.

Materosin seemed to hesitate for a moment, then nodded his head.

“Alright. Let’s go and talk to her.”

I obtained permission from the instructor and left the training ground.

When I got on Materosin’s carriage, I felt familiar eyes on me, but I ignored them.

Even if that person is who I think they are, there’s nothing I can do for now.

Above all, it was urgent to talk to Hestia.

“Yah!”

The carriage started with the whip crack.

Inside the carriage, it was quiet but tense.

I planned in my mind how to defend myself if Hestia tried to kill me.

I can calmly make such a plan now because I trembled a lot all night.

The time for fear has passed, and now I must confront her.

Of course, it would be best to resolve it through dialogue.

But the circumstances were different now.

Materosin  broke the silence and spoke to me.

“Are you really… not planning to become my daughter?”

His appearance was somewhat bitter, but I had already firmly made up my mind.

“Yes. I’m sorry.”

In this situation, I have no desire to become his daughter.

“….I see.”

Materosin smiled bitterly and gazed out the window.

His lips gradually tightened, and an expression of coldness, one that he had never shown to the girl in front of him, formed on his face.

In his eyes, the same blue as the girl’s, there was a hint of tears.

* * *

Iris and Cassius put all their schedules aside and went to Hestia’s castle. They waited anxiously in the reception room until Hestia appeared.

With an innocent expression, devoid of any scheme, she greeted them, “Oh, Iris, Cassius. You came to my castle without any notice… What brings you here?”

Iris asked seriously, “Are you planning to kill May?”

“What are you talking about?”

Her response was a beat too late. Soon, Hestia’s face showed that they had seen through her plan.

“You heard it from Mirocagon, the monster you carry with you. That you told him to kill May”

Hestia clicked her tongue, annoyed by Mirocagon’s loose talk.

She looked around for Mirocagon but couldn’t find his shadow anywhere.

Hestia was frustrated but tried not to show it.

“We came to warn you. If you really plan to kill May, stop it. After all, she doesn’t want to live as Materosin Kiesel’s daughter anyway.”

Iris tried to reason with her in the kindest way possible, but it didn’t seem to get through to Hestia. Instead, she replied irritably.

“You don’t know anything, so just go. Whether I kill her or save her, it’s my freedom.”

“Hestia…!”

Ignoring Iris’ attempts to persuade her, Hestia left the reception room.

Iris and Cassius followed her out, but she had already disappeared.

* * *

At that moment, the Marquis’ carriage arrived not at Hestia’s castle, but in a village of unknown location.

In this quiet village, where it was hard to find anyone, there was a large mansion. The carriage stopped in front of the mansion’s gate.

I looked out the window and asked Materosin, “Huh? Where is this? Isn’t this Hestia’s place?”

I thought we were going to Hestia’s castle, but apparently not.

Materosin remained silent. When he got off the carriage without saying a word, I followed suit.

In the front yard, there was only grass, as far as the eye could see. Passing through a desolate garden, we entered the house. There was no one and no furniture inside, and it had a eerie and unsettling atmosphere.

Seeing the dust and cobwebs, it seemed that no one had lived here for quite some time.

“Follow me.”

Perhaps it was just my imagination, but his voice sounded drier than before. It was almost as if he was sulking because I said I didn’t want to be his daughter.

It was when I felt something strange that we descended into the mansion’s basement.

‘Why is he leading me to a dark place?’

Materosin was using his magic to create a light as we went down the dark path to the basement.

The fact that we were going through a dark path probably meant that there was no one at the destination. I came here to meet Hestia, but Materosin seemed to be taking me somewhere Hestia wasn’t present, which was very strange.

So, as we descended the stairs, I cautiously asked him, “Marquis, why are you taking me to this dark place?”

“Because there’s something I wanted to tell you.”

Though suspicious, I decided to follow. If I found myself in danger, I could call for Cassius, and I also had my magic to defend myself.

There was one room in the basement. Instead of walls, there were iron bars like a prison cell. The door had a lock to prevent it from being opened.

Through the iron bars, I could see traces of someone having lived in that room.

“Curious about where Viche Yuriette lived in this house? This is it.”

I was astonished and asked, “My mother stayed here?”

It couldn’t be true. Viche Yuriette lived in a place like this? No, it couldn’t even be called a room; it resembled more of a prison cell. Why?

Then an unbelievable voice pierced through my ears, making me feel nauseous.

“I kept her in this room because she wanted to break up with me.”

He made sure that she had nowhere else to go. So that she would remain my woman forever.

“But one day, she managed to escape when I briefly opened the door.”

Thump, thump, thump. The sound of my racing heart was deafening, and the disgusting voice only added to the torture.

“But after running into Viche on the street by chance two years later, I changed my mind. There’s no flower more beautiful than her, even if she’s been tainted. So, I decided I had to have her. That’s why I imprisoned her here again.”

“Stop it…!”

With my eyes wide open, my white pupils turned red.

I recalled that adjusting my magic was about emotions, not thoughts.

As the red pupils filled with tears, the silver energy surged slowly from my body.

Materosin came closer to me, almost as if he was taunting me with a repulsive expression.

“After two or three months, she screamed, threw things, and caused a scene before making my left eye look like this and then escaped.”

The hand pointing at his false eye trembled with anger.

He grinned disgustingly in front of me.

“And now, after over ten years, there’s a daughter between Viche and me?”

He laughed like a madman, spitting out saliva, making it impossible for anyone watching to stay sane.

The trembling in my body intensified.