LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 49
“Come here, my dear.”
On a night bathed in gentle moonlight, a chilly breeze seeped in through the slightly ajar window.
“If you open the window on a night like this, you’ll catch a cold.”
A small-framed girl walked over and closed the window.
“You must think more about your health, my lord.”
“Hehe… Elma, didn’t I tell you there’s no need to speak so formally?”
As the man in the bed smiled, Elma shyly lowered her head.
After a moment, her lips began to quiver.
“Ah… Father…”
“Yes, my daughter.”
The man’s small, frail hand rested on her ash-gray hair.
“Is it alright for me to call you that…?”
“Don’t worry. This old man thinks of Elma as his precious daughter always.”
Elma’s big, sparkling eyes examined the man’s face.
‘Ah…’
His face grew thinner as the days passed.
His slightly long black hair fell over the nape of his neck, even as he was trapped in that sickly body.
“So, what story shall we read tonight?”
An endlessly shining person.
A man possessing the noblest of souls.
That was none other than “Leo Aldeir.”
*
The child of a concubine.
It was a label that followed Elma like a shadow.
In literal terms, her birth stemmed from a concubine’s seed.
Not just any concubine, but one of a lowly male slave.
“How dare she get pregnant by the head of the family before the legitimate wife!”
She was destined to not be born, to vanish from existence.
But Carbon, the head of the Aldeir family, was unable to have children.
To prepare for the possibility of the head dying without leaving any heirs, Elma was born into this world.
“Waaaaah! Waaaaah!”
“It’s a girl! It’s a girl! My lord!”
“Well, I suppose it’s not for nothing that I bore a child.”
Elma immediately became legally recognized as the head’s child upon her birth.
For reference, her biological father, the slave, was executed the moment Elma was born.
It was a crime to have gotten pregnant by the head before the legitimate wife.
“Pick up the sword, Elma.”
As soon as she took a step, Elma was given a sword to hold.
“Ugh… I….”
“Did you really think you could shoulder the Aldeir family with such skills?”
Carbon taught her more strictly than anyone else.
Even as her delicate, chubby skin tore and blood flowed freely, there was no leniency shown.
“Stand up.”
“C-can’t I rest just a moment…? It’s too hard and painful…”
“How dare you utter weak words before me.”
Thud!
“Ugh!”
“Stop whining and get up. A woman shouldn’t easily shed tears.”
Every day was a struggle and a sorrow.
However, it wasn’t all bad.
“Today must have been tough too. Come, lie down. I’ll read you a fairy tale tonight.”
Every night, Elma dragged her exhausted body to the bedroom.
“My lord…”
“It’s alright. Just call me father.”
He was always there on that bed.
“Have you received proper treatment? I’m sorry. Our man has been harsh…”
“No, please don’t say that!”
Leo Aldeir.
The person who would become Carbon Aldeir’s legal spouse, and the mistress of the Aldeir family.
He always welcomed Elma with a smiling face.
“My lord… Don’t you hate me?”
“Hmm? Why would I?”
“I… I don’t carry your blood. In fact, I made your situation more difficult, didn’t I?”
“Haha! Our daughter, where did you inherit such mature thoughts?”
Whenever she worried with a face full of tears, Leo would always stroke her cheek with warm hands.
“Elma, you are a gift from God.”
“Yes…?”
“As you know, I’m not in good health. Your mother also finds it hard to conceive. So, I was giving up on having an heir. But look, you’re here with us now.”
“…!”
“Thank you, Elma. For being born. For existing. For letting me feel the joy of being a father.”
At those words, Elma felt something melt away in her heart.
“Ugh… Sniff…!”
It was painful.
It was hard.
She didn’t understand why she had to be born in such a place and suffer.
But he taught her.
Her reason, her responsibilities, her worth of existence.
Leo showed her.
“Ugh… Waaaaah…!”
“It’s okay, it’s okay. You can cry as much as you want.”
That day, Elma cried all night, cradled in his large arms.
*
Leo was a wonderful and lovely person.
Always respectful to everyone, courteous, and with a kind disposition.
While a noblewoman might have a lofty nose, he always maintained a humble attitude of learning from others.
“Definitely different from other noble scum drenched in elitism, right?”
All of Aldeir’s servants held him in high regard.
Of course, Elma looked up to Leo as well.
“Father! Look! I folded this colored paper into a butterfly!”
“Hehe, it’s cute. Hmm, could you give it to me as a present? It would look really beautiful decorated in my room.”
“Of course!”
He was like a star.
A quietly shining star that effortlessly lifted people’s heads.
Elma admired Leo. She loved him and followed him.
However.
“Cough! Hack…!”
“Ah… Father!!”
Sadly, the heavens did not grant him much time.
“B-blood! Blood is mixed in my cough!”
“It’s… nothing… just a little tired…”
Leo wiped away all the crimson blood he had coughed up with a white towel.
“I’m sorry… I can’t take you on a picnic…”
“Please… don’t say that.”
Whenever such things happened, Leo would gaze out the window with vacant eyes.
Those two eyes must have held passionate desires once.
An intention to overcome this body, to one day walk out on his own.
But, his body was already beyond saving.
“Haa… Haa…”
Simply surviving had become an excessive desire.
*
“Congratulations!”
Good news came to the Aldeir family.
It was that Carbon had begun to show signs of pregnancy.
At that time, she had received an urgent summons while staying in the Central Continent, delivering the news via letter.
Timing-wise, it was a child conceived from their last encounter.
Ever since Elma’s birth, Carbon had severed all relations with men.
So this child conceived now was undoubtedly Leo’s.
“…Indeed.”
Upon hearing the news, Leo only showed a faint smile.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy.
But.
“Cough! Hah! Haa…”
At that point, Leo was already like a dying ember.
His body was nothing but skin and bones, frighteningly hollow, with cheeks that sunken in like a skull.
He would cough up blood multiple times a day, panting dreadfully.
“Father…”
“E-El… ma…”
His hand, holding Elma’s, felt disappointingly cold.
The warmth he once had was nowhere to be found, only the stark sensation of cold death was palpable.
“Hehe… our daughter…”
But his spirit remained the same as it always was.
Neither withered by death nor frozen by despair.
His spirit was greater than death itself.
“Father, I will protect your child. As an older sister, I will strive so that she does not suffer like I did.”
Her tightly clenched fist trembled.
Something hot surged from deep within her chest.
As she felt this—
Thud!
Leo reached out to pat her head.
Just like the first time.
For a daughter with no blood ties.
An incredibly pure love.
“You don’t have to… push yourself too hard…”
“……”
“That child, as she is… Elma, you just have to live your life… Don’t dedicate all of yourself to that child…”
“…Sniff.”
“But if I have a small selfish wish…”
Leo smiled.
“Please love that child. Just like the love I gave you… pass that love on to her… share warmth with that poor child who has no one to hold her…”
“Yes… I will definitely do that! Everything I received from you! I will give it to her!”
“Thank you… Hehe… indeed, my daughter… reliable…”
His last breath escaped.
“I’m sorry.”
The last words of a man respected by all were, ironically, an apology.
“Father…! Father! Waaaaah!”
“Miss, it’s time to stop…”
“No… no… don’t go… please… Sniff! Waaaaah!”
Before his closed eyes and his corpse, Elma cried out desperately.
The funeral was simple.
Carbon did not attend.
She merely looked at the small grave built when she returned to her family.
“How shabby.”
She spat out a word like that.
No tears, no change of emotion.
“……”
Elma was not given enough time to mourn Leo’s death.
“Hoh, your sword has sharpened quite a bit.”
“……”
“Was there a catalyst for some sort of awakening?”
“Not really.”
After that, however.
Elma’s sword became even sharper.
Unbelievably so for just a four-year-old child.
“The sword has found its direction.”
Carbon nodded in satisfaction.
The sword’s direction.
The one it aims to cut.
“…Thank you for the compliment.”
Elma realized whom she must wield her sword against.