The carriage sped forward in silence.
The sounds of pounding hooves, the coachman’s commands, and the soft turning of wheels...
All of it might as well have been hallucination. Inside the carriage, the silence was sharp, cutting, almost frigid.
“......”
“......”
Connie and Mia couldn’t even open their mouths.
It was too great a secret to offer comfort as if it were nothing. Yet to curse the one responsible felt cruel when Leonia’s wounds were so deep.
All the two maids could do was look at her.
The young lady who always smiled brightly with boundless energy—the one who would even boldly play tricks on the master of the house—had now fallen into despair.
And despair was a word that never should have belonged to a child.
But if that word alone could sum up what Leonia was feeling, perhaps that would have been a relief.
This was far beyond despair.
‘How could sothing like this happen...’
Connie squeezed her eyes shut.
She couldn’t bear to look at Leonia, who looked monts away from shattering.
‘This can’t be real...’
It was so absurd she couldn’t even muster a laugh. The chill that had run down her spine still hadn’t gone away.
Connie unknowingly rubbed her arm.
‘How... how could it be her...!’
She’d even had tea with Conniee.
She’d visited the orphanage with Leonia a few tis, laughing and chatting like friends just because their nas were similar.
But it had all been a lie.
She had sold off the very children she was supposed to protect.
‘Then what about the people in the underground prison?’
The orphanage director, the teachers, the staff—those who had been locked away in the mansion’s underground prison by Ferio—had all shown signs of abuse toward the children. They had committed unforgivable cris.
And suddenly, the thought crept in—what if Conniee had been the one behind it all?
“Urgh—!”
Connie quickly covered her mouth, suppressing a wave of nausea. A glance to her side revealed Mia, contorting her face in a similar grimace.
It wasn’t just shock anymore—it was betrayal.
No, it was fear.
All this ti, Leonia still hadn’t spoken a single word.
Her dark eyes, without even a single tear, looked dry and hollow.
Her two small hands were clenched tightly in her lap.
“...Dad...!”
At last, Leonia called out to the only adult she could still trust.
***
“Housekeeper!”
One of the servants ca running for Kara.
“It seems the young lady has returned. The carriage just arrived.”
“She made it back just before dinner.”
“Then I’d better tell the head chef to get the water boiling.”
Madam Felica smiled softly and headed toward the kitchen.
It was to prepare warm tea for Leonia when she returned from her outing before dinner.
“You, co with .”
Kara stepped outside with the servant to greet her.
They brought out the small footstool Leonia would use to step down from the carriage and prepared a lighter indoor cloak to replace her outdoor mantle.
“She’s a bit late today,” the servant said cheerfully, watching the approaching carriage.
“Hope she didn’t snack too much before dinner.”
“That might be a problem.”
Kara gave a wry smile.
The head chef had been brimming with anticipation about preparing the young lady’s favorite—chicken simred in a creamy sauce.
“The chef might cry.”
The servant chuckled.
Soon the carriage arrived, and the servant placed the stool below it.
“Young lady, welco ba—ahh!”
As he opened the door to greet her, a small figure burst out, startling him enough to make him fall on his backside.
Leonia, cloaked in black, sprinted straight into the mansion.
“Young lady, wait!”
“You’ll get hurt running like that!”
“Soone stop her, please!”
Mia helped the fallen servant to his feet while Connie shouted.
Kara, startled, instinctively stepped in front of the entrance.
But Leonia slipped straight through the housekeeper’s legs like a shadow.
“Please, soone stop her!”
Connie scread so loudly a vein bulged in her neck.
Nearby servants reached out toward Leonia in confusion.
But she dodged them all effortlessly.
Her speed was sharp—like a wild animal. After all, she’d once had to run for her life from orphanage teachers, and now, with a stronger body, no one could stop her.
“Dad! Dad!”
Slipping through the chaos of adults, Leonia ran through the mansion, calling for Ferio.
She checked the office, the parlor, the study.
But he wasn’t anywhere.
She even looked into Lupe’s room, just in case—but it was empty.
“...Dad...”
After all that running, Leonia finally gasped for air.
Her lungs burned. Her breath tasted like blood.
She had run up and down the massive mansion’s floors, dodging adults the entire ti. Of course she was exhausted.
“Dad...!”
Collapsing on the spot, Leonia cried out desperately.
“Please... Dad...”
“You little troublemaker.”
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
A voice ca from above her.
Leonia scrambled to her feet, startled.
“What are you doing in front of Lupe’s room?”
Ferio stood there, looking down at her, breath unsteady.
He looked as neat as always, but a closer glance revealed his sleeves and pants were wrinkled.
There was a faint sll of mildew... and blood.
“Dad...”
Leonia’s voice quivered.
“It’s not true... right?”
Ferio’s expression hardened.
He instantly realized—Leonia knew.
“C-Conniee... she didn’t... right?”
“Leo.”
“Just say it’s not true!”
She pleaded as if she were coughing up blood—but all she got in return was silence.
The kind of silence that ant confirmation.
Leonia’s body collapsed. The tension she’d held onto since the orphanage finally snapped.
Ferio reached out and caught her quickly. Her skin was ice cold.
“Leo.”
Before speaking, Ferio steadied his breath.
A heavy, serious air settled between father and daughter.
Gently, he pulled the cold child into his arms.
“Leo.”
And instead of speaking the truth he still couldn’t bring himself to say, he repeated her na softly, again and again.
Ferio hesitated.
He didn’t know whether he should tell Leonia everything he knew—or if he should protect her from it all.
Even the decision to adopt her had been a reckless impulse. He wasn’t sure what the right thing was.
“...Dad...”
Leonia clutched his sleeve, sniffling.
The truth had crashed into her without warning, grabbing hold of a child who had just begun to build a happy family.
“Leo.”
Ferio made up his mind.
“My daughter.”
And he spoke.
“Just rember this one thing.”
Before telling her anything else, he reminded her of the one truth she must never forget.
“No matter what happened to you... you are the only daughter that I, Ferio Voreoti, love and cherish.”
***
“I want to talk to her.”
Leonia’s only request of Ferio was simple.
“I want to hear it... all of it... from Teacher Conniee’s mouth.”
She wiped her tear-streaked cheeks with her sleeve and spoke as if nothing had happened.
“...Alright.”
With a quiet sigh, Ferio agreed.
“But you’re not going down to the underground prison.”
Instead, he said she could et her in an unused annex.
The prison’s current state wasn’t sothing he {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} could allow Leonia to see.
“I’ll have the Gladiago Knights posted inside and out.”
“...The knights...”
“Mono and leis will be stationed inside.”
They were the only two in the order who knew Leonia’s full situation.
Everyone else would wait outside.
Leonia quietly reached out and held Ferio’s hand.
“When did you find out?”
She asked.
It felt like Ferio had known about all of this for a very long ti.
“I suspected it from the start.”
“Why?”
“Because of the black.”
Ferio answered while gently holding the child in his arms.
Leonia had never seed so small to him—so fragile and pitiful.
“The black you carry.”
Soon, a small annex ca into view.
Unlike the dark and gloomy main mansion, this annex resembled a brick house out of a fairytale.
“Only those with the blood of Voreoti can carry black.”
It was a fact Leonia had heard so many tis it had beco a refrain.
And as soon as Ferio said it, a mory flashed in her mind.
The day Ferio had checked for the Fangs of the Beast within her.
The day he had said she was his niece.
"Black is a hereditary trait found only in the Voreoti bloodline."
The exact sa words echoed now.
Leonia’s breathing beca uneven.
Ferio gently stroked her cheek and looked into her eyes.
She looked as if she might burst into tears at any second.
“Rarely, a child outside the Voreoti bloodline is born with black hair and eyes.”
A phenonon so rare, it had only been recorded a few tis in all of imperial history.
Fewer than five individuals.
And they had all possessed enormous mana or had the potential to beco Sword Masters.
Ferio had once thought Leonia might be one of them.
“But it’s extrely rare.”
Most people who saw black hair and eyes assud the person belonged to House Voreoti.
It was a common truth—one passed down since before the founding of the Bellius Empire.
So those rare exceptions had always undergone confirmation of blood ties with the current Voreoti head.
Just as Ferio had done—with the resonance of the Fangs.
Because all Voreotis born with black features also possessed the Fangs of the Beast.
“Then why...”
And that was the very question that had plagued Ferio.
“If that orphanage had a child with black... why didn’t they ever contact ?”
The aning behind those quiet words was vast.
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