“No.”
Roselyn answered briefly.
"...No?"
"Yes. If I had only thought that way, I would have already run away from home."
Cherty's shoulders twitched again.
He looked at Roselyn with a somewhat shocked expression.
"...I don't know what love is."
"Huh? Father did everything with Mother to have me, and then makes a comment like a teenage kid going through puberty saying he doesn't know what love is... cough."
Cherty looked flustered and covered Roselyn's mouth with his large hand as Roselyn spoke fluently.
"Where on earth did you hear such strange things..."
"Lobe..."
Roselyn, with her mouth covered, made a mumbled sound.
Cherty, realizing belatedly that he was covering Roselyn's mouth, turned pale and snapped his hand away.
"From which book on earth..."
He took a long step back and muttered softly.
"Father, perhaps love is platonic, excluding the physical..."
"Stop."
Cherty reflexively reached out but stopped mid-air and spoke firmly.
Roselyn stared blankly at the large hand hovering in the air, unable to even think of touching it, and then grabbed one of his fingers.
"Father, I'm fine."
Roselyn smiled broadly. Cherty paused at that radiant smile.
"As long as Father controls his powers properly, I won't die."
Cherty opened his eyes wide at Roselyn's harsh words.
It was when he was trying to pull his hand away from Roselyn's grasp.
"If you don't want to kill your only daughter, control yourself. I'm going to cling to you every time I see you, Father. You love me, don't you?"
Cherty nodded awkwardly and opened his mouth.
"Stop... Stop... talking such wicked words!"
It seems his social skills were even worse when he was young.
Roselyn let out a sigh openly.
"And Father, you are much more gloomy than I remember. I am embarrassed to go out with you, so I would appreciate it if you could dress up a bit."
"... What?"
"Then I'm going to sleep, so please hold my hand until I fall asleep."
The child lay down on the bed, grabbed the hand of the timidly standing Cherty, and closed his eyes.
Not long after, the large hand completely wrapped around the small hand.
***
'...It really is my original world.'
Roselyn let out a sigh as she spent the past three days looking into past events one by one, including newspapers.
"Excuse me, was there a peddler here today?"
"Ah, yes. How did you know, Miss?"
"If you bought anything from that peddler, just go get a refund right away; it's all a scam."
"Yes?"
"Hey, did I get scolded for visiting my father's room in the basement on my birthday a week ago?"
"...Ah. It’s not that the youngest young master dislikes the young lady..."
"I know my father doesn't hate me. So I went?"
"In that room... maybe you remember..."
"No. It happened. You'd better not go outside tomorrow. It's going to hail huge hailstones."
"Is Grandfather returning from the Duchy tomorrow by any chance?"
"Ah. Yes, that's right! But according to the temple forecast, heavy rain is expected tomorrow, so I'm worried. I hope you make it back safely before the meeting."
"Ah, they probably won't be able to make it on time. The stream is swollen, so they won't be able to cross."
Whenever she had the chance, she stopped passing maids and tried to gauge the time period in her memory.
Roselyn had many worries after going to a parallel world with Garen.
Even though it was a parallel world, aside from the main plot, the minor details were slightly different.
The gift received on a birthday wasn't necessarily a doll, and on a certain birthday, it might have rained in this world but not in the other world.
It meant that the shops that existed in Roselyn's world might not exist in that world.
Nevertheless, the main trunk was also quite similar.
If war broke out, war broke out, and if the country destined to lose was predetermined, that country was defeated unless someone intervened.
As a result, Roselyn deduced that this world was the past of her original world.
'...What on earth could it be?'
Roselyn sat on the edge of the bed, stomping her feet while awkwardly crossing her short arms.
"Rose, your Abyss is an Abyss that can only be awakened by dying."
"... What."
"It's complicated to explain in detail, but you can think of it as a kind of Resurrection Abyss. After dying, you can return to the past and live once more in someone else's body."
Sansar called her Abyss the 'Resurrection Abyss'.
The Abyss where you must die to awaken.
'So, does that mean I'm dead after all?'
Roselyn remained silent.
However, there is a part that is equally difficult to understand.
'Sansar said that after my Abyss dies, I am an Abyss who can return to the past, possess another person's body, and live one more time.'
That's where the problem arises.
If she died, Roselyn should have possessed another person's body, as Sansar said.
However, she entered her own body, just as Garen Wilbreed had moved to a parallel world.
'...Has the me in this world already died?'
Roselyn frowned.
"After you die, you will become stronger than any Kaluta."
"...What on earth am I supposed to do after I die?"
"I like all worldlines, but I still love the worldline where I met you the most."
Sansar said that after her death, she would become a being stronger than any Kalutain.
However, in reality, she was still sickly and could not take a single step out of bed without permission.
What on earth am I supposed to do with a body that heats up after walking for just 20 minutes?
Roselyn was overflowing with the desire to do it, but her father and others did not allow it.
In other words, there was a high probability that Roselyn was not dead.
'Is this one of my Abyss's abilities after all?'
Roselyn has already died and come back to life once.
However, instead of possessing another person's body under the conditions, a force was generated by Garen's Abyss, and she entered her own dead body in a parallel world.
Anyway, since the condition of death was met, she thought that a part of the Abyss might have bloomed.
'Because the Abyss isn't a simple thing.'
It means that just because you possess the Abyss of Fire, you cannot light a fire.
It could warm a person's body temperature and could also be applied.
It became possible to tell stories such as Roselyn's Abyss activating and taking over a body in another parallel world.
'I don't know the exact cause...'
When she was about five years old, Roselyn once fell into the water while out for a walk in the garden.
And she remembers hearing from the maids that there was a time when she was unable to regain her senses for nearly a month and was hovering between life and death.
Judging by the timing, it seems that now is likely within that month when she fell into the water and hovered between life and death.
'The maids always told me this and that out of consideration for me when I was sick.'
That was also when she heard stories about the peddler being a swindler, the Duke failing to return to his mansion in the capital from the Duchy on time because the valley water had risen, and her father’s Abyss going berserk while he attended the meeting in the Duke’s place.
"Miss, time is up... Are you really going to leave?"
"Yes."
"Are you feeling okay?"
"It's okay"
She has a slight fever, but that’s something she's always lived with.
"Miss, I'm thinking of using the money I've saved to invest in a business... what would be better?"
Suddenly business?
Roselyn narrowed her eyes as she watched the maid adjusting her clothes.
'Why are you asking me that?'
Roselyn clicked her tongue.
"I'm not a businessman, so why are you asking me that?"
"Come on, there's a rumor going around that you're far more skilled than a famous fortune teller. Really?"
She really hated seeing a grown adult squirming and acting cute in front of a child.
Roselyn looked at her with dark eyes, then saw the two papers she held out.
It was a business manual.
Not all businesses can receive patronage from the nobility.
What happens to the numerous businesses that cannot receive patronage from the nobility?
It was simple.
It is to receive even small investments from ordinary people or the wealthy.
Then, if the business goes well, dividends are paid, and if it fails, well... just like anywhere, it's bankruptcy.
However, since they do not receive patronage from the nobility, there are countless cases where businesses receiving such small-scale investment fail.
Roselyn's eyes widened slightly as she looked closely at the paper.
'So this business received investment around this time.'
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