It was Luke who broke the silence.
“I didn’t know that Sir Felix would come to meet me.”
“That child is my youngest brother’s daughter. If she has been rude to His Highness, she deserves an apology, but considering she is still a child, please return her to us.”
As soon as the man finished speaking, the air around him froze.
The surroundings became quiet due to the tense fight between the group guarding the Prince and Colin's group.
Dorothea was waving her legs with a bored expression even in that bloody atmosphere.
The Prince, who had been silent, slowly spoke to the man who claimed to be her uncle.
“The power of the Highclere family is amazing. I never thought they would bring in knights and show force. You seem to care for your niece very much. But that’s right.”
“...”
“Do you know where I met this child?”
Something like ridicule appeared in the young Prince's drowsy eyes as he looked at the silent middle-aged man.
“Can you tell me why your niece, whom you cherish so much, came across me in a shabby outfit in the middle of the night in a distant border area?”
The Prince's injuries are a military secret.
The fact that a child from an ordinary farming family found the injured Prince can be dismissed as a coincidence.
However, the fact that the daughter of a central nobleman encountered the Prince who was injured and was taking refuge during the battle could be interpreted differently.
Despite the harsh questioning, the man called Felix answered without any signs of embarrassment.
“That child is my sister’s child who went missing. Colin, who is here by my side, was on his way to inquire about the whereabouts of his sister's daughter and bring back the child who had lost her mother. She was lost.”
The man demanded again in a clear voice that was neither loud nor soft.
“Please return the child. Now at the mansion, my mother is anxiously looking forward to meeting her granddaughter. If the child has even the slightest problem, it will be a great pain to the elderly person.”
Luke's eyes turned to Dorothea.
The girl's complexion turned pale again as if she had overexerted herself in this short period of time.
He looked at Dorothea, who was breathing erratically and nodded calmly.
“Why do you write an old lady like that?”
The young Prince glanced at Dorothea again.
His eyes took in the details of her bruised wrists, thin neck, and bony legs.
Then, he opened his mouth to the man with a dry and calm expression who had come to pick up his beloved nieve.
“The Lord will have to enter the palace in the near future and explain her existence. I will personally speak to His Imperial Majesty and spare her the trouble of serving me.”
The slow words contained a lot of meaning.
That the imperial palace would be aware of the girl's existence.
With just a few words from the Prince, the Highclere family can no longer treat Dorothea carelessly, no matter what they think.
Because you have to think about the respect of the great nobles.
The man lowered his head, pretending not to notice even though he understood Luke's warning.
“Yes, thank you for your generosity, His Highness the Prince.”
In addition to giving the Prince the freedom to meddle in family affairs, the existence of a child who should have been secretly brought in was revealed to the world.
Even in a twisted situation, the man who expressed gratitude seemed calm.
Dorothea blinked, looking at the situation in front of her that felt like a play.
'His face is a very strange thing.'
No one could tell what the man who was his uncle was thinking when he lowered his head.
Luke lightly tapped Dorothea's head when her small body was momentarily hidden from Colin, who had come to pick her up.
The slightest hint of playfulness lingered in the eyes of the fifteen-year-old, blunt ‘God of Battle’.
“We have a conversation we haven’t finished yet, so come to the palace later. I will finish the story in my palace.”
“I have nothing to say.”
The expressions of surprise at the Prince's informal conversation were greater than those who frowned at the child's reckless answer.
The Prince slowly bent down and whispered.
“You must take responsibility.”
A faint smile appeared at the corner of his mouth and then disappeared.
“You have to take responsibility for arbitrarily stringing together my tough life.”
What.
Dorothea turned her head with a sullen expression and slowly walked towards those who were looking at her.
From behind, the sound of horses' hooves was heard loudly, as if the Prince was disappearing with his soldiers in tow.
Colin naturally reached out and hugged her.
The man who introduced himself as ‘uncle’ calmly looked at Dorothea and said hello.
“This is my first time seeing you like this. You... You must be Thea.”
“It’s Dorothea. Dorothea Everly.”
After staring for a while, she briefly corrected him.
“Dorothea Highclere. You will be called that from now on.”
Without listening to his niece's answer, he raised his hand toward the knights behind him.
The knights who saw the hand signal lined up in perfect order and turned back.
Colin whispered to the people surrounding him as if they were marching.
“Did you run out of there just to see someone upset? I almost handed you over to the Prince because I couldn’t make it in time!”
Dorothea didn't care what trouble Colin went through or how he brought someone into the family.
She was annoyed that she was discovered by the Prince sooner than expected and was unable to properly look around.
After all, things in this world always go according to nature.
“I haven’t seen it properly yet. I want to take a look.”
Colin's face distorted again at the girl's whisper.
He growled and answered in a suppressed voice.
“This is the end of today’s outing, you troublemaker.”
Dorothea was offended by Colin's scolding and turned her head.
'Now let's see what kind of faces that great family will make to greet me.'
It was a family that had ignored a sick child for a long time. She wonders if there will be anyone who will welcome her warmly.
Since there was a warning from the Prince, maybe she will be treated better than she thought.
She thought of her ‘family’ who would be looking for her by now.
The young maid who is worried and crying, the honest father who is wandering down the street with a stern face, and even her own legs, which grumble but are more sincere than anyone else.
'Come quickly.'
For some reason, she missed them a lot.
***
“Call me Uncle Felix.”
The man who said that got into a nice-looking carriage with Colin holding Dorothea in his arms.
A tired look appeared on his face, which had always looked calm.
Felix's eyes turned to Colin.
“When we return to the family, you and Aiden will have to be reprimanded for the mess that you arbitrarily created.”
"Yes."
The air inside the carriage suddenly became cold.
Dorothea wasn't that scared, but she grumbled inwardly at the uncomfortable atmosphere.
Felix seems like an insensitive man. What can she do if she reveals that she lives in a place where there are children?
Even in silence, a fast-moving carriage stopped in front of a large mansion.
When the door opened, there was a murmur and the eyes of many people were focused on Dorothea.
Among them, an elderly woman supported on both sides caught Dorothea's eye.
Her wrinkled face, which had not been able to escape the passage of time, still had a pretty face reminiscent of her youthful beauty.
The moment the pale-complexioned old woman saw the girl in Colin's arms, her lips trembled.
A trembling hand touched Dorothea's cheek in Colin's arms.
Despite her gentle, careful touch, Dorothea still just stared blankly at the unfamiliar old woman.
“Ellen... Our Ellen. My baby.”
What was clearly heard through the muffled pronunciation that was difficult to understand properly was the name ‘Mom’.
The old woman could not control her emotions as she looked at the last life left behind by her little daughter, whom she gave birth to but had to ignore.
“This mother was wrong. It’s all my fault.”
So it's too late to say, come back.
Because her daughter Ellen no longer exists anywhere in this world.
Behind several women wiping away her tears, an old knight with a beard could be seen staring at Dorothea and then turning around.
'Is he the owner of this mansion?'
This person's maternal grandfather, and the one who kicked her mother out of the mansion.
Dorothea, who was watching the old knight run away, began to doze off in front of the old woman.
Her weak stamina had long since been depleted, so none of those who were crying were very impressed with her.
'If it was that important, you should have come in person.'
Before ‘Colin’ from the past caused Ellen’s death by engaging in estrangement and manipulation.
They said they were family, but they turned away.
Dorothea calmly watched these people pouring out their desperate emotions, neither accepting nor rejecting them.
As time passes, she will naturally find out.
Who among these people is ‘pretending’ with fake crying and emotions?
Whether a person is good or bad depends on their status and situation... And she doesn't care about the environment.
Whether it is a noble lady wearing a dress of fine fabric wrapped around her body and wearing jewels, a maid in shabby clothes, a knight with many medals on his chest, or a servant holding a horse feeder in his hand.
She started to get bored with the play and slowly laid her head on Colin's chest.
She closed her eyes and fell asleep.
Felix, who saw Dorothea unable to keep her head up, calmed her mother like the eldest son and ordered her to take the child.
“It’s okay, mother. I’m going to call a therapist to check on Dorothea, and mother needs to rest as well.”
“Why don’t you put the child in a room close to me? “I’ll have to take care of it myself.”
As Dorothea was losing consciousness, the old woman's voice could be heard faintly.
“I won’t send you anywhere now. This child is just like mine...”
Her consciousness sank to the bottom when she heard a voice promising in her dream.
***
In the middle of the night, Dorothea, who was lying on a soft bed, opened her eyes.
When she turned her head, she saw a neatly dressed maid sitting down and dozing off.
Deep night had already arrived and there was silence everywhere.
Dorothea wiggled her small body out of bed and headed for the door, avoiding the eyes of the sleeping maid.
She could see a knight standing guard through a small gap in the door.
'Hmm.'
As she thought for a moment and looked around, she noticed that there was another small door next to the door.
The door, which was too small for adults to enter, appeared to be an outlet for dishes containing food or water for washing.
Dorothea's small body was easily able to fit through the hole.
She carefully breathed in front of the door first.
Shhh...
Her fingers answered the call, capturing waves in the wind.
Residual heat energy (餘熱泄氣)
Here and there (餘氣作金)
It wasn't that great of a talent.
All it does is put the knight's senses into a state similar to sleeping.
As it was a light liquor, it would easily break at the slightest disturbance.
'One, two, three.'
She counted the numbers in her head, crouched down, and carefully passed through the small door below.
She could see that the eyes of the knight guarding the door were blurred with sleep.
As Dorothea was excitedly running down the hallway, a shadow appeared in front of her eyes.
The old knight, the head of the Highclere family, who had left the scene as if running away at the moment of their reunion, was looking down at her with dark, murky eyes.
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