Chapter 176
A quick, sidelong glance.
Chesha checked his expression.
“…….”
Blue eyes were fixed on her, unblinking.
Large hands held her in a tight, seamless embrace.
At that moment, Chesha sat with Hailon inside Duke Ibroiel’s private lounge.
She had been meant to wait with Karha, but Hailon’s sudden appearance had changed everything.
She had expected him to bombard her with questions the moment they were alone, yet Hailon simply sat there in silence, arms wrapped firmly around her.
Because he truly asked nothing at all, guilt pricked at Chesha’s conscience until she fidgeted and spoke first.
“Um…”
With just that single word, Hailon understood exactly what she wanted to say.
“You’re back. That’s enough.”
He answered cleanly, then whispered in a low voice.
“Don’t leave again.”
Chesha simply nodded.
She had no words to offer—even if she had ten mouths—so nodding was all she could do.
Feeling awkward, she reached up and toyed with his hair.
The strands that had always shimmered like silver were now dyed black, an unfamiliar sight that somehow fascinated her.
‘Black suits him too.’
Of course any color would suit him, but the black hair made him feel strangely like a member of House Basilian.
Hailon tilted his face slightly so she could touch his hair more easily.
After playing with it for a long while, she asked.
“Are you… going to the banquet hall?”
The blue eyes stared straight at her.
At the look that clearly asked why she was bringing it up, Chesha added in a mumble.
“Because it’s dangerous.”
She already knew Hailon intended to end the Pope at the birthday banquet.
He was a man who had risen from orphan to inquisitor.
He had always achieved whatever he set his mind to, so he would surely succeed this time as well.
But she had no idea what might happen along the way.
She hoped Hailon would not be put in danger.
Especially since House Basilian was entangled in his rebellion…
‘But there’s no way for me to follow him.’
She could still conceal her presence to some degree, but the banquet hall would be far too crowded.
The risk of bumping into someone and being discovered was too great.
‘If I weren’t stuck in this body, I could have gone into the banquet hall too.’
Chesha clenched and unclenched her small fist in dissatisfaction.
Then Hailon laid his finger gently on her palm.
Without thinking, Chesha gripped his finger tightly and looked up at him.
“I won’t do anything that worries you. And I have to bring it to an end…”
Gazing at the tiny fingers, Hailon murmured softly.
“So I can meet your mother again.”
His faith that he would see Lichesia once more had never wavered.
Chesha’s heart grew heavy; she still had not solved the problem of her body growing on its own.
She was sinking into gloom without realizing it when—
“…….”
Hailon’s eyes narrowed.
He set Chesha down on the sofa at once and rose to his feet.
Chesha’s own eyes widened a moment later.
Someone was approaching.
No one would dare intrude carelessly on Duke Ibroiel’s private space.
The three brothers had already entered the banquet hall, so they would not come here either.
‘It must be someone dangerous.’
Because her fairy powers had greatly weakened, her ability to sense others’ presence was clearly duller than before.
‘Normally I would have noticed first.’
Chesha pouted.
Her pride stung a little, but the only cure for that feeling was to regain her strength quickly.
Hailon lightly adjusted the bracelet on his wrist.
No one could enter the palace armed.
Hailon did not carry his usual holy sword either, yet he was someone who needed no weapon.
Clink. A faint sound of chains brushed past her ears.
Hailon pressed a hand firmly on Chesha’s head and said.
“Wait here.”
He quietly concealed his body and vanished.
Left alone in the room, Chesha sat obediently for a moment.
She had intended to keep waiting quietly and properly until Hailon returned.
If only she had not seen it.
“…?”
She rubbed her eyes with small hands.
‘Did I imagine it?’
Chesha slid off the sofa and trotted to the window.
But she had not been mistaken.
On the glass window bathed in soft moonlight, a fairy symbol was faintly imprinted.
An old, faded mark left long ago.
The power of the fairy who had left it had already vanished completely, so the symbol looked like nothing more than settled dust.
When Chesha touched it lightly with her hand, it crumbled away at once.
As if it had waited a long time for someone to find it, the mark disappeared cleanly, without lingering regret.
“…….”
The symbol was similar in shape to her own.
And Chesha’s mother… Countess Basilian had once entered the palace.
‘It’s Mom’s trace.’
Chesha threw the window open wide.
Cool night breeze poured in. She looked down, then jumped out without hesitation.
There might be other traces left.
They would help her piece together her mother’s past.
Chesha moved wherever her instinct led.
With everyone inside the banquet hall, the outdoor garden was quiet.
Only a handful of people who disliked crowds strolled among the paths.
Chesha walked briskly and soon stood before a rose bush.
Here too, her mother’s trace remained.
The roses, drenched in cascading moonlight, were breathtaking.
They were as red as pigeon’s blood—so vivid that touching the petals seemed likely to stain her hands crimson.
While gently stroking a bloom, Chesha pricked her finger on a thorn.
She jerked her hand back, but droplets of blood had already welled up on her fingertip.
The sweet scent of blood rode the wind.
Fairy blood carried the fragrance of flowers.
It was also why slave hunters would deliberately wound their valuable fairy merchandise—to track any who tried to escape.
“…….”
Recalling a past she preferred not to remember, Chesha wrinkled her nose and wiped the blood on a tree leaf.
Then, in place of the flower she had accidentally snapped while pulling her hand away, she coaxed a new bloom onto the rose stem.
The freshly opened flower was incomparably more beautiful than the rest.
It stood out a little, but since this was a rarely visited spot, it would probably be fine.
An ordinary gardener would never notice.
Still, because it was a place marked by her mother’s trace, breaking the flower left her feeling a pang of guilt.
Fairies usually left symbols to track something or mark a location.
But they also left them to commemorate places filled with happy memories.
Perhaps her mother had wanted to remember something good that had happened here.
‘She must have been with Kierne.’
Chesha still had not decided what to do or how.
She could not yet accept that he was her real father.
Caught between wanting to see him and not wanting to see him, she gazed at the rose in complicated silence.
That was when a cracked voice reached her.
“…Chesha.”
For an instant, Chesha forgot how to breathe.
She froze, then slowly turned around.
Wind stirred the rose blossoms.
Amid the lavish floral scent stood Kierne.
The man who might be Chesha’s true father.
“Chesha…….”
When she gave no response, he called her name again.
Kierne came closer step by step, then knelt before her.
“Chesha, my daughter, why won’t you say anything? Answer Dad…”
At the desperate whisper, something surged up inside her chest.
Feeling emotions rise like a blazing flame, Chesha called to him.
“Dad.”
The moment she faced Kierne, every worry she had carried turned to ash and vanished.
Nothing else mattered.
Whether Kierne Basilian was her biological father or not.
Chesha was his family, and she was a Basilian.
“I’m back.”
The moment she greeted him, all strength left Kierne’s body.
“…Yeah.”
Kierne smiled with eyes that looked ready to spill tears at any second.
“Welcome home, my daughter.”
Looking into those red eyes scarred by countless wounds, Chesha bit her lower lip hard.
Her heart pounded.
Kierne, Belzeon and the twins, Hailon…
She hoped none of them would ever be hurt or tormented again.
The wounds already there could not be undone, but she wanted to make sure no one could ever lay a hand on them in the future.
At the very least, she wanted a body that could at least hold them.
‘They’ll… love me no matter what I look like.’
So she wanted to become someone strong enough to protect them.
A fierce wish spread through her entire being.
“…!”
Chesha’s eyes flew wide open.
Her whole body was wrapped in brilliant light.
Fairy flowers bloomed, and butterflies made of pure light sparkled and scattered in every direction.
Kierne startled violently and seized her.
“Chesha!”
Fearing she might vanish, he gripped her with desperate strength.
But when the light finally faded—
There stood Chesha, fully grown.
