Chapter 168
Thump, thump, thump.
Something pounded fiercely in her ears.
Cheshire realized belatedly that it was the sound of her own heart racing.
Why?
How?
Why was her mother’s portrait hanging here?
She wasn’t even thinking in terms of confusion.
Her mind was simply blank.
Without realizing, Cheshire stumbled backward.
She retreated unsteadily, nearly tumbling down the stairs, but Hata caught her just in time.
“……”
The hand gripping Cheshire firmly was trembling finely.
His wavering eyes looked at her.
Hata was in a state of shock no different from Cheshire’s.
Cheshire stared at Hata for a while, then turned her head back to the portrait.
Kierne’s sweet greeting voice lingered in her ears.
“I’m back, Rose.”
The woman in the portrait must be the late Countess Basilian.
There couldn’t be two or more people—or fairies—in the world with such identical faces.
Naturally, one single possibility arose.
‘If the Countess Basilian was the previous fairy queen and my mother.’
But if that were the case, nothing added up.
Lichesia had been abandoned at the orphanage as a baby and lived there until she manifested as a fairy.
After the orphanage burned down, she’d fled from slave hunters and grown into adulthood that way.
All her memories up to becoming an adult were vivid.
It couldn’t be dismissed as her own delusion.
Because Hailon had witnessed Lichesia’s growth.
‘I was born before the three brothers of the Basilian family.’
Yet the Countess Basilian had been pregnant with her youngest just before death.
Cheshire had to be the youngest of the Basilian family for the order to make sense.
The timelines were completely mismatched.
Inexplicable facts rampaged chaotically within her.
To the point of faint dizziness accompanied by nausea.
She wasn’t in a state to think properly.
The urge to escape this place surged intensely.
It was the moment she tried to tell Hata they should leave.
“You followed after all.”
A low voice reached them.
Cheshire and Hata turned sideways simultaneously.
Kierne stood at the top of the stairs, coat and jacket shed, clad only in a shirt.
Arms crossed and leaning against the wall, he was in a relaxed attire with a couple of shirt buttons undone.
His neatly combed forelocks now fell naturally over his forehead.
With a light smile, he asked.
“Beautiful, isn’t she?”
Cheshire and Hata were still concealed.
Though nothing should be visible, Kierne gauged their positions and continued, staring accordingly.
“My wife.”
A subtle pride underlaid his words.
As if he wanted to boast to the entire continent.
Yet despite such evident pride, he himself spared not a single glance toward the portrait.
As if terrified it might accidentally enter his vision, he didn’t even tilt his head carelessly, gazing only straight ahead.
His elegant long fingers danced lightly.
Shadows rising from beneath the frame seized the cloth and pulled it down.
The portrait of the Countess Basilian was veiled in white once more.
“I wanted to brag, but there was nowhere to do so. Lately, that is…”
He murmured languidly, and only then did she realize.
Why Kierne had left the pursuers be.
He’d wanted to boast about his wife.
To let unknown scoundrels into the mansion just for that.
He wasn’t sane.
But it was also very much like Kierne.
Confident he could subdue whatever they did, he’d allowed them to follow.
Though unlikely, if they turned out to be beyond his handling and put him in danger.
‘He’d think it doesn’t matter if he dies.’
Because he always had that look in his eyes.
However, sympathy for Kierne didn’t linger.
“Anyway, time to show yourselves.”
He approached Cheshire’s direction slowly.
“I don’t know how you’re hiding…”
Playfully snapping his fingers—snap, snap—each time, the mansion shook.
More precisely, not the building, but the darkness enveloping the mansion trembled.
Kierne smiled brightly and said.
“You’ll show if you die, right?”
The alley attack earlier had been him holding back.
Cheshire’s face paled as shadows surged like black waves.
Of course, once he realized it was Cheshire, Kierne would retract the shadows as if nothing happened.
They’d have a joyous reunion, filled with delight.
But.
‘I don’t want to see him right now.’
Any other time would be fine.
But at this moment, she lacked the confidence to face Kierne.
Her tangled mind felt like it might explode.
Darkness crashed over like a tidal wave.
A faint ticking hallucination brushed her ears.
In this urgent moment, the pocket watch from Kierne’s illusion came to mind.
The letters engraved on the pocket watch lid.
‘Was Mother’s name Rose?’
Suppressing the sudden curiosity, just as she tried to evade the attack somehow.
Hata suddenly peeled the flower from his forehead.
“W-we’re sorry!”
At Hata’s cry as he revealed himself, the charging shadows halted abruptly.
Both Kierne and Cheshire stared at Hata with surprised eyes.
Hata, shivering in tension and fear, forced himself to continue.
“Hata was c-curious about the beastkin potion… So he followed.”
Hata had seen the portrait of the Countess Basilian too.
Having been together so long, Hata sensed Cheshire’s feelings more keenly than anyone.
Realizing Cheshire was in turmoil and wanted to avoid Kierne right now, he’d deliberately stepped forward.
Though his neck could fly off from an angry Kierne, Cheshire’s dog was brave.
He sought to protect Cheshire’s heart from harm more than his own life.
“…The seductress’s dog.”
Kierne muttered shortly, then let out a hollow laugh.
“You’re that skilled? How did you know about the beastkin potion?”
“I smelled the potion by chance at Miya’s boutique…”
“Ah. Same beastkin, and a potion maker—makes sense.”
Hata disliked Miya and avoided her boutique, but he’d visited a few times, so it was a plausible lie.
“I won’t tell anyone what I saw today.”
Hata said, swallowing dryly.
Kierne rubbed his chin thoughtfully with his hand.
“I should kill you or erase your memory…”
With each murmured word, Hata’s shoulders jerked—twitch, twitch.
“But I want to make a good impression on my daughter’s birth mother, so I’ll let it slide.”
Anyway, she’ll need to know my identity eventually, Kierne showed an uncharacteristically lenient side.
Cheshire, who had been ready to step in if needed, sighed in relief inwardly.
“But on one condition.”
Of course, he wasn’t letting him go for free.
“As you know, I’ve lost my daughter. Perhaps the seductress could find her…”
Drawing out his words slowly, Kierne appraised Hata up and down like a tailor.
“I want to meet the seductress, so bring her here on the first day of the week after the Palen Emperor’s birthday banquet ends.”
Since Cheshire had been missing for a year, naturally Lichesia had been untraceable too.
Demanding a meeting with the seductress no one could find, Kierne spoke as if it were utterly natural.
His eyes flashed bright red.
A question that hadn’t considered refusal from the start fell.
“You can do that much, right, pup?”
