Episode 98. Christine's Hidden Daughter?
Inside the guest room of the inn.
"I'm really surprised. You're hiding your grown daughter like that!"
Jennifer taunted, and Zimmer quietly said.
"How old would a daughter of that age have to be to have an accident..."
Swish!
Finally, as Christine fiercely drew his rapier,
thud!
Adele, who had just opened the door and entered, slapped him on the back.
Jennifer and Zimmer were shocked by this outrageous action, but Adele went even further and scolded him.
"You'll get hurt, stop joking around!"
Jennifer and Zimmer quickly covered their mouths so they wouldn't burst into laughter.
How could they not let Christine, who was called the God of War, hold a sword for fear of getting hurt?
"Tch!"
Surprisingly, he simply put the sword away and sank into his chair.
"Did you see what I saw?"
“No, it’s not that we’re watching, we’re just worried about you too, Captain.”
Jennifer replied slyly. Zimmer added,
“It’s okay. It’ll get better soon.”
Christine, who had asked her to take off his clothes, had already applied medicine to his wound and wrapped a bandage around his own.
It was no use even if Adele did it for him.
He didn’t want to show his weakness.
Knowing that, Adele pretended not to know.
“But that child is named Leana. What happened to her?”
Adele carefully brought up the story to change the mood.
Leana, who had called Christine “dad” earlier, kept her mouth shut after that.
Isabelle took Leana away.
She left a message saying that they would talk again once she had made up her mind.
“About fifteen? Sixteen? She looked a lot like you. That child, and the person in the pendant.”
“Hmm.”
“Then she might be your blood relative. Aren’t you curious? I wonder if there are more of your family members alive somewhere...”
“If so, she would be being chased by the Vatican. Just like that child.”
Christine put his shirt back on and stood up from his chair.
It meant that he didn’t want to talk about Leana anymore.
“I want you to protect that child. She’s being chased by the Vatican. She looks very sick.”
He looked down at Adele and furrowed his brows nervously.
“Adele, we’ll go to Russwolf as planned. We can live comfortably there. Greenhill will soon be in danger of civil war.”
“Yes, I’ll go to Russwolf too. Tanya and Henry should be on their way there by now, and I miss you all. But you can help the Empress Dowager avoid a civil war. And it would be even better if you took the child with you to Russwolf.”
“That’s enough. That’s the end of the story.”
Adele couldn’t say anything else after Christine’s declaration.
She knew what he had decided.
The decision to think only of their own happiness.
April's bedroom.
"Oh, Your Majesty!"
The maids quickly lowered their heads when they saw Jan.
"What about food?"
The maids weakly shook their heads as they looked at the wagon filled with food.
"She hasn't eaten at all."
"Understood, everyone, leave."
After they quickly said goodbye and left, April and Jan were the only ones left in the bedroom.
"Are you planning to die?"
Jan came up to April, who was lying on the bed.
She hadn't eaten for the past few days and had just been lying down.
It had been since she found out that Stone was a member of the wolf clan.
Jan hesitated for a long time and finally opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know he was such a beast. If I had, he wouldn't have been able to be your partner."
April, who was lying down with her back turned, gave a cold response.
“No. Father would have been okay with anyone if they could get the throne. That’s why he would have thrown me away like prey.”
Jan was furious at April’s words.
It was because of shame. Her daughter had exposed all of her ugly sides.
But he didn’t want to admit it.
“You were the one who couldn’t do anything as a man! Have you forgotten? You pretended to be pregnant with Count Weiss’s child and embarrassed me, and now you’re pregnant with that beast’s child. How far do you plan to go to embarrass your father?”
April also got angry at Jan’s shouting and sat up in bed.
“That was to help Father! The pregnancy was fake..."
“Shut up! You went to his prison and rolled around like a prostitute...”
Clang!
April threw the water glass from the side table.
“That’s right, your daughter is a prostitute. Are you relieved now?”
Jan quickly closed the door and left, looking at his sobbing daughter.
Kwaang!
“Damn it!”
He came out into the hallway and grabbed his head with both hands.
This wasn’t what he was going to do...
In fact, he was very anxious right now.
The plan to deal with Christine and the Duke of Rodwell at once had gone down the drain.
On top of that, Christine and Stone’s whereabouts were currently unknown.
They had disappeared from Bluegale, where the Vatican was located.
Then, just a moment ago, he had received word that an investigator had been dispatched from the Vatican.
Jan was already suffocating with tension, thinking that a thief was suffocating.
If the Vatican had found out their identities, it would have been a big deal.
Both of them were people who had deep ties to Jan, to the point that they were considered as potential sons-in-law.
Would it work if he tried to deny it? Damn it, nothing would work!
“Your Majesty....”
At that moment, Jan turned his head at the voice he heard carefully.
In the shadows of the dark hallway, a man wearing black robes from head to toe was standing.
It was the wizard Kenny.
“What’s going on?”
“It seems a top-tier wizard has appeared.”
“...!”
Jan’s expression brightened.
He had been looking for a top-tier wizard for a long time. He had to burn the ‘blank document’ that was sealed with magic.
That was what made him most uncomfortable when he heard that the Vatican’s investigator was dispatched.
In fact, if he had hidden the fact that Christine or Stone were members of the Wolf Clan, he would have only been punished.
However, if the blank document was discovered...
“So, where is the wizard now?”
“I’m looking for him. The Vatican’s mana moved abnormally a while ago, and it seems that the power is gradually approaching Greenhill. If I feel any abnormality in the flow of mana again, I’ll find out right away.”
Mana was a supernatural power used by wizards.
“I’ll find him at all costs!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
When Kenny greeted him and stepped aside, Jan barely managed to sigh.
“There’s no law that says people should die.”
The flames were burning fiercely.
It grew bigger and bigger and began to devour people.
And eventually, even her father...
Even as he was engulfed in red flames, his father's blue eyes remained focused on Leana.
Father...
Krrrr...! Krrrr!
Then, the flames soon transformed into a brown wolf and growled.
The brown wolf ran towards her fiercely and opened its mouth wide, drool dripping down.
Leana was so surprised that she couldn’t move.
At that moment, a cool blue light flew in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t see anything.
“Ouch!”
Clang!
Leana screamed and opened her eyes.
The blue light and the brown wolf were gone.
She was lying in the middle of a fancy bed, covered in sweat.
“Ha, it was a dream...”
Leana brushed her sweaty hair away.
A chill came over her involuntarily as she recalled what had happened in the Vatican’s prayer room.
The screams of the priests being bitten by the beast, the cruel and horrific scenes.
And the brown wolf that had rushed at her with its mouth wide open.
‘Was it trying to eat me then?’
‘Or was it asking me to take it with me?’
However, it had completely disappeared, so there was no way to know.
Ironically, it was Maurice who had saved Leana at that time.
Of course, he probably didn’t save her on purpose.
Leana muttered, hugging her trembling body.
“It’s my fault. I committed the taboo of reviving dead lives...”
After that incident, she had exhausted all her strength and could not even use magic properly.
Fortunately, however, her strength seemed to have returned.
Judging from the fact that the balcony window next to her bed was shattered into pieces.
She had used attack magic during a nightmare.
Beyond the broken glass, the night sky and the pale moonlight were calm.
As if nothing had happened. As if everything was really okay.
“Are you awake?”
When she turned her head, Isabelle, dressed in black and with her hair down, was approaching her.
She looked a little surprised at the sight of the messed-up balcony window.
“It seems like my magic has awakened as well.”
“Where is this?”
“This is the Duke of Rodwell. You lost consciousness as soon as you arrived.”
Ever since she escaped from the Vatican, she had been feeling dizzy and nauseous.
It seemed to be the aftereffects of using magic with all her strength.
She didn’t even know how she got here.
Even in the midst of all that, one thing remained vivid in her memory.
The man who looked so much like her father...
“That... who was the man I saw at the inn?”
“Count Weiss?”
“Count Weiss...”
“Doesn’t he look a lot like him? Your father is in the pendant.”
“...”
The moment Leana saw Christine, she really thought her father had come back to life.
However, she couldn’t say anything rashly.
Even if he was a member of the wolf clan, there was no guarantee that he would be on her side.
Most of the wolf clan members who were captured and executed by the Vatican were arrested due to betrayal by their own clan.
“He’s probably a member of the wolf clan.”
As expected.
“Are you a member of the wolf clan too?”
“No.”
“Well, I don’t care.”
Then Isabelle touched Leana’s forehead.
“Fortunately, your fever seems to have gone down.”
“...Why are you being so kind to me? You hide me even though you know I’m being chased.”
Leana blinked her blue-gray eyes and asked.
At times like this, her face looked as innocent as a little girl’s.
It was hard to believe that she was the murderer who shattered that large window and was being searched for by the Vatican priests.
The more this happened, the more important this child became to Isabelle.
“Because I’m a good person.”
Isabelle smiled as she looked at Leana’s expression full of distrust.
“Yes, if I tell you the truth, I might need your help. I’m about to have a big fight.”
“Is Count Weiss on the same side?”
“Probably not?”
“Can we meet again?”
“Do you want to meet?”
“I’m just a little curious.”
Inside the guest room of the inn.
"I'm really surprised. You're hiding your grown daughter like that!"
Jennifer taunted, and Zimmer quietly said.
"How old would a daughter of that age have to be to have an accident..."
Swish!
Finally, as Christine fiercely drew his rapier,
thud!
Adele, who had just opened the door and entered, slapped him on the back.
Jennifer and Zimmer were shocked by this outrageous action, but Adele went even further and scolded him.
"You'll get hurt, stop joking around!"
Jennifer and Zimmer quickly covered their mouths so they wouldn't burst into laughter.
How could they not let Christine, who was called the God of War, hold a sword for fear of getting hurt?
"Tch!"
Surprisingly, he simply put the sword away and sank into his chair.
"Did you see what I saw?"
“No, it’s not that we’re watching, we’re just worried about you too, Captain.”
Jennifer replied slyly. Zimmer added,
“Since your hidden daughter was discovered, I wonder if you’re okay.”
“It was exactly the same.”
Jennifer and Zimmer teased Christine to death.
“It looks like you’re having a lot of fun.”
When the two turned to Adele, she was laughing sinisterly.
“Didn’t I tell you? How I beat up those guys who teased Chris since we were kids.”
Then, Christine made a horrible expression and pretended to slit his throat, and Adele pulled out the pistol stuck in the garter on her thigh.
“If it were me, I’d run away right now.”
Before she could finish her sentence, Jennifer ran out as if he was going to break the door, and Zimmer had already climbed over the window and escaped.
“Your men, they seem to be getting cuter by the day.”
She chuckled as she put the pistol back in.
“Me?”
“You’re a cute kid.”
“You listen to all sorts of things.”
But his lips went up loosely.
“I’ll change your bandage, so take off your clothes.”
Adele opened a small box on the table. Mark had packed various medical supplies for her before leaving.
“I'm a patient, so you take them off.”
“You’re cute and handsome, so I’ll let you go.”
With a cold glare, Adele took off his shirt and untied the bandage covering his wound.
Then, she grimaced without realizing it.
The wound from the arrow had almost healed, but the wound from Stone’s bite was covered in blood and pus.
It was just as Mark had said that if Christine overworked himself, the wound would reopen.
It looked a little more serious than when she had changed the bandage in the morning.
“Why?”
“I think you overworked yourself. I think it would be better to stay here today.”
“It was exactly the same.”
Jennifer and Zimmer teased Christine to death.
“It looks like you’re having a lot of fun.”
When the two turned to Adele, she was laughing sinisterly.
“Didn’t I tell you? How I beat up those guys who teased Chris since we were kids.”
Then, Christine made a horrible expression and pretended to slit his throat, and Adele pulled out the pistol stuck in the garter on her thigh.
“If it were me, I’d run away right now.”
Before she could finish her sentence, Jennifer ran out as if he was going to break the door, and Zimmer had already climbed over the window and escaped.
“Your men, they seem to be getting cuter by the day.”
She chuckled as she put the pistol back in.
“Me?”
“You’re a cute kid.”
“You listen to all sorts of things.”
But his lips went up loosely.
“I’ll change your bandage, so take off your clothes.”
Adele opened a small box on the table. Mark had packed various medical supplies for her before leaving.
“I'm a patient, so you take them off.”
“You’re cute and handsome, so I’ll let you go.”
With a cold glare, Adele took off his shirt and untied the bandage covering his wound.
Then, she grimaced without realizing it.
The wound from the arrow had almost healed, but the wound from Stone’s bite was covered in blood and pus.
It was just as Mark had said that if Christine overworked himself, the wound would reopen.
It looked a little more serious than when she had changed the bandage in the morning.
“Why?”
“I think you overworked yourself. I think it would be better to stay here today.”
“It’s okay. It’ll get better soon.”
Christine, who had asked her to take off his clothes, had already applied medicine to his wound and wrapped a bandage around his own.
It was no use even if Adele did it for him.
He didn’t want to show his weakness.
Knowing that, Adele pretended not to know.
“But that child is named Leana. What happened to her?”
Adele carefully brought up the story to change the mood.
Leana, who had called Christine “dad” earlier, kept her mouth shut after that.
Isabelle took Leana away.
She left a message saying that they would talk again once she had made up her mind.
“About fifteen? Sixteen? She looked a lot like you. That child, and the person in the pendant.”
“Hmm.”
“Then she might be your blood relative. Aren’t you curious? I wonder if there are more of your family members alive somewhere...”
“If so, she would be being chased by the Vatican. Just like that child.”
Christine put his shirt back on and stood up from his chair.
It meant that he didn’t want to talk about Leana anymore.
“I want you to protect that child. She’s being chased by the Vatican. She looks very sick.”
He looked down at Adele and furrowed his brows nervously.
“Adele, we’ll go to Russwolf as planned. We can live comfortably there. Greenhill will soon be in danger of civil war.”
“Yes, I’ll go to Russwolf too. Tanya and Henry should be on their way there by now, and I miss you all. But you can help the Empress Dowager avoid a civil war. And it would be even better if you took the child with you to Russwolf.”
“That’s enough. That’s the end of the story.”
Adele couldn’t say anything else after Christine’s declaration.
She knew what he had decided.
The decision to think only of their own happiness.
***
April's bedroom.
"Oh, Your Majesty!"
The maids quickly lowered their heads when they saw Jan.
"What about food?"
The maids weakly shook their heads as they looked at the wagon filled with food.
"She hasn't eaten at all."
"Understood, everyone, leave."
After they quickly said goodbye and left, April and Jan were the only ones left in the bedroom.
"Are you planning to die?"
Jan came up to April, who was lying on the bed.
She hadn't eaten for the past few days and had just been lying down.
It had been since she found out that Stone was a member of the wolf clan.
Jan hesitated for a long time and finally opened his mouth.
"I'm sorry. I didn't know he was such a beast. If I had, he wouldn't have been able to be your partner."
April, who was lying down with her back turned, gave a cold response.
“No. Father would have been okay with anyone if they could get the throne. That’s why he would have thrown me away like prey.”
Jan was furious at April’s words.
It was because of shame. Her daughter had exposed all of her ugly sides.
But he didn’t want to admit it.
“You were the one who couldn’t do anything as a man! Have you forgotten? You pretended to be pregnant with Count Weiss’s child and embarrassed me, and now you’re pregnant with that beast’s child. How far do you plan to go to embarrass your father?”
April also got angry at Jan’s shouting and sat up in bed.
“That was to help Father! The pregnancy was fake..."
“Shut up! You went to his prison and rolled around like a prostitute...”
Clang!
April threw the water glass from the side table.
“That’s right, your daughter is a prostitute. Are you relieved now?”
Jan quickly closed the door and left, looking at his sobbing daughter.
Kwaang!
“Damn it!”
He came out into the hallway and grabbed his head with both hands.
This wasn’t what he was going to do...
In fact, he was very anxious right now.
The plan to deal with Christine and the Duke of Rodwell at once had gone down the drain.
On top of that, Christine and Stone’s whereabouts were currently unknown.
They had disappeared from Bluegale, where the Vatican was located.
Then, just a moment ago, he had received word that an investigator had been dispatched from the Vatican.
Jan was already suffocating with tension, thinking that a thief was suffocating.
If the Vatican had found out their identities, it would have been a big deal.
Both of them were people who had deep ties to Jan, to the point that they were considered as potential sons-in-law.
Would it work if he tried to deny it? Damn it, nothing would work!
“Your Majesty....”
At that moment, Jan turned his head at the voice he heard carefully.
In the shadows of the dark hallway, a man wearing black robes from head to toe was standing.
It was the wizard Kenny.
“What’s going on?”
“It seems a top-tier wizard has appeared.”
“...!”
Jan’s expression brightened.
He had been looking for a top-tier wizard for a long time. He had to burn the ‘blank document’ that was sealed with magic.
That was what made him most uncomfortable when he heard that the Vatican’s investigator was dispatched.
In fact, if he had hidden the fact that Christine or Stone were members of the Wolf Clan, he would have only been punished.
However, if the blank document was discovered...
“So, where is the wizard now?”
“I’m looking for him. The Vatican’s mana moved abnormally a while ago, and it seems that the power is gradually approaching Greenhill. If I feel any abnormality in the flow of mana again, I’ll find out right away.”
Mana was a supernatural power used by wizards.
“I’ll find him at all costs!”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
When Kenny greeted him and stepped aside, Jan barely managed to sigh.
“There’s no law that says people should die.”
***
The flames were burning fiercely.
It grew bigger and bigger and began to devour people.
And eventually, even her father...
Even as he was engulfed in red flames, his father's blue eyes remained focused on Leana.
Father...
Krrrr...! Krrrr!
Then, the flames soon transformed into a brown wolf and growled.
The brown wolf ran towards her fiercely and opened its mouth wide, drool dripping down.
Leana was so surprised that she couldn’t move.
At that moment, a cool blue light flew in front of her eyes, and she couldn’t see anything.
“Ouch!”
Clang!
Leana screamed and opened her eyes.
The blue light and the brown wolf were gone.
She was lying in the middle of a fancy bed, covered in sweat.
“Ha, it was a dream...”
Leana brushed her sweaty hair away.
A chill came over her involuntarily as she recalled what had happened in the Vatican’s prayer room.
The screams of the priests being bitten by the beast, the cruel and horrific scenes.
And the brown wolf that had rushed at her with its mouth wide open.
‘Was it trying to eat me then?’
‘Or was it asking me to take it with me?’
However, it had completely disappeared, so there was no way to know.
Ironically, it was Maurice who had saved Leana at that time.
Of course, he probably didn’t save her on purpose.
Leana muttered, hugging her trembling body.
“It’s my fault. I committed the taboo of reviving dead lives...”
After that incident, she had exhausted all her strength and could not even use magic properly.
Fortunately, however, her strength seemed to have returned.
Judging from the fact that the balcony window next to her bed was shattered into pieces.
She had used attack magic during a nightmare.
Beyond the broken glass, the night sky and the pale moonlight were calm.
As if nothing had happened. As if everything was really okay.
“Are you awake?”
When she turned her head, Isabelle, dressed in black and with her hair down, was approaching her.
She looked a little surprised at the sight of the messed-up balcony window.
“It seems like my magic has awakened as well.”
“Where is this?”
“This is the Duke of Rodwell. You lost consciousness as soon as you arrived.”
Ever since she escaped from the Vatican, she had been feeling dizzy and nauseous.
It seemed to be the aftereffects of using magic with all her strength.
She didn’t even know how she got here.
Even in the midst of all that, one thing remained vivid in her memory.
The man who looked so much like her father...
“That... who was the man I saw at the inn?”
“Count Weiss?”
“Count Weiss...”
“Doesn’t he look a lot like him? Your father is in the pendant.”
“...”
The moment Leana saw Christine, she really thought her father had come back to life.
However, she couldn’t say anything rashly.
Even if he was a member of the wolf clan, there was no guarantee that he would be on her side.
Most of the wolf clan members who were captured and executed by the Vatican were arrested due to betrayal by their own clan.
“He’s probably a member of the wolf clan.”
As expected.
“Are you a member of the wolf clan too?”
“No.”
“Well, I don’t care.”
Then Isabelle touched Leana’s forehead.
“Fortunately, your fever seems to have gone down.”
“...Why are you being so kind to me? You hide me even though you know I’m being chased.”
Leana blinked her blue-gray eyes and asked.
At times like this, her face looked as innocent as a little girl’s.
It was hard to believe that she was the murderer who shattered that large window and was being searched for by the Vatican priests.
The more this happened, the more important this child became to Isabelle.
“Because I’m a good person.”
Isabelle smiled as she looked at Leana’s expression full of distrust.
“Yes, if I tell you the truth, I might need your help. I’m about to have a big fight.”
“Is Count Weiss on the same side?”
“Probably not?”
“Can we meet again?”
“Do you want to meet?”
“I’m just a little curious.”
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