In high society, an unwed mother was someone to be pointed at. For nobles, who valued appearances above all, it was a fatal scandal.
Which was why there were countless cases of children being quietly abandoned and the truth buried.
But not Viola.
Remarkable sense of responsibility.
Still, he couldn’t simply admire it.
Because he couldn’t even begin to imagine how she must have felt, hiding it alone all that time and finally being forced to reveal it to her family.
How humiliated she must have been.
The nobility called such things undignified, but Cain didn’t actually believe it was wrong.
If anything, wasn’t the truly undignified thing a political marriage?
People blinded by power marrying strangers, having children without love…
Cain himself was a child born that way. And he was not the least bit proud of how he’d come into the world.
He suddenly remembered the look in Viola’s eyes earlier.
A heartbreakingly sad look—longing for someone, resenting them, and struggling so hard to forget.
He might not know what love was, but he knew it wasn’t a simple feeling.
It was a feeling he, born an indifferent Dragonblood, had never even been permitted.
Everything had happened simply because she had loved. So he didn’t think Viola had done anything wrong.
And yet… he couldn’t understand why his hand was shaking so badly.
Drip. Drip. The ink running down his hand soon soaked black into the report beneath it.
“Your Grace? Are you all right? The ink…!”
Conrad asked in a worried voice, but it went in one ear and out the other.
Haa. Letting out a deep sigh, Cain finally asked:
“Why?”
“Pardon?”
“Why on earth would that man do something like that?”
He simply couldn’t understand it. Never mind being the child’s father—did the man lack even the most basic responsibility of a human being?
How could anyone leave a woman like that on her own?
He thought of the woman’s bright, laughing face. Of how good she was with young children. He’d thought she was simply someone who liked children, but…
Behind it lay the fact that she’d had no choice but to raise a child alone.
He muttered again.
“How could anyone do something so contemptible?”
The killing intent steeped in his low voice made even Conrad, standing at his side, tremble.
“You’re asking me that…?”
Caught in a storm he’d done nothing to deserve, Conrad wanted to cry.
At the same time.
A guest room in the ducal residence.
Late at night, I found myself in the middle of an unexpected chase.
“You there, little one who hasn’t brushed her teeth—stop running away!”
“Nnn.”
“What did Mommy say? We brush-brush before bed, remember?”
Melody had been scampering off, but I caught her by the scruff of the neck.
“Hnngh.”
The child heaved a sigh as if she were the most wronged person in the world.
Oh, you. Did she really hate brushing her teeth that much? She did it just fine in the morning, but at night she always put up a fight.
Was it sleepy fussing? Either way, I couldn’t let it slide.
Cavities are not up for negotiation!
I set our things down on the table, took out the toiletries, and marched Melody off to the bathroom.
“Okay, say ahh.”
“Uu-uh.”
“Good girl. Brush-brush.”
“Bleh.”
“Hey, now. Don’t spit it right out—swish, swish, ptoo!“
By the time the battle that was tooth-brushing was over and I’d finished washing up too, it was already well past nine at night.
At last, ready for bed! What a ridiculously long day it had been!
An interview for the physician’s post, a contract with Cain, and I’d even moved all our things to the ducal residence. Honestly, if not for good little Melody and Cain’s consideration, ten of me wouldn’t have been enough.
“Melody, shall we go to sleep now?”
“Uu!”
I picked Melody up and headed for the bed. This was the guest room the servants had shown us to earlier.
“This is where you’ll be staying. The residence rarely receives guests, so if anything is lacking, please don’t hesitate to tell us.”
The words of the head attendant who’d shown us in flitted through my mind. Just letting us sleep here is more than enough, thank you.
I was the one who’d barged in out of nowhere, so of course there wasn’t a room ready. I’d have gratefully slept in a storeroom if that was all they could give us. But, um…
What exactly was lacking here?
“…Wow, what is all this?”
“Waaaah!”
Under the soft lighting, silk bedding glossy enough to gleam, and a mattress like a cloud.
The moment we laid eyes on it, Melody and I lit up and leapt onto the bed at the same time.
“Uu-uu! Hwa-ha? Hee!”
Wow, it’s so soft. We rolled all over the bed, thoroughly thrilled. It was so big that even lying crosswise, I had room to spare.
Coming to the ducal residence really was the right call.
Tears of emotion welled up on their own. A jaw-dropping weekly wage wasn’t enough—now a perfect bed, too.
So this is the majesty of House Asheln?
Such grace…
I burned with loyalty toward Cain, who wasn’t even there.
Loyalty! Loyalty! Your Grace, I’ll work really, really hard.
More importantly…
“Pfft.”
We must have gotten a little too into rolling around. When I lifted my head, Melody’s hair and mine were both a wild mess.
Melody’s hair was puffed up with static like a dandelion clock, and I burst out laughing at the sight. We giggled for a long time before we finally calmed down.
“We had a good time playing, so shall we sleep now?”
“Uu.”
Click. When I turned off the lamp, the bright room went dark in an instant.
Lying side by side with the child and gazing up at the unfamiliar ceiling, it finally sank in. That this was where we’d be living from now on.
Melody seemed a little dazed too, blinking for no reason.
She must feel unsettled.
On the way to the ducal residence, I’d explained the situation to Melody in broad strokes.
That from now on, Cain would protect Melody, the Saintess, from the Temple. And that our life would be very different from how it had been in Heiron village.
Thankfully, clever Melody had understood it all, but at the same time, I felt sorry for her. She’d loved life in the countryside so much.
I squeezed the small hand wriggling beside me.
“Melody.”
“Uu?”
“Starting tomorrow, let’s give it our all, okay?”
When I said it in a low voice, the child burrowed into my arms. Her warmth seeped into me.
“Mommy, uu-uu.”
I love you, Mommy.
They weren’t clear words, but I could still understand exactly what she meant. I smiled softly.
Mumble, mumble…
Before I knew it, Melody had fallen asleep, and I could hear her sweet little breaths beside me.
The next morning.
Knock, knock. At the sound, I went to the door and found a new face.
“Excuse me, Miss Viola. May I come in?”
“Of course.”
I answered as if it were nothing, but inside, my eyes were shining.
It’s… him, isn’t it?
I discreetly looked the man’s face over.
Long brown hair tied up high, thin silver-rimmed glasses. He looked familiar, like a supporting character from the original.
“How do you do. My name is Conrad, and I serve as aide to His Grace the Duke.”
Wow. I wondered, but it really is him. It struck me all over again that this was the world of Future Saintess.
Conrad was the scene-stealing comic-relief character of the story.
The aide who suffered eternally at the hands of a Duke turned doting father… and, in effect, the man who became Melody’s number-one fan!
Cain’s closest confidant, in other words.
“His Grace has told me everything. Where is Miss Melody—hup.“
Conrad broke off in the middle of speaking and clapped a hand over his own mouth.
Because Melody, who had been hiding behind my skirt at the arrival of a stranger, had peeked her head out.
Conrad immediately bent his knees to lower himself and carefully greeted Melody.
“Hello, Miss Melody. My name is Conrad.”
“Hehe.”
The child smiled shyly and waved at him. Conrad pushed his glasses up sharply and straightened. Going by his rigidly set mouth alone, you’d think he was angry, but…
Mm-hm. That look is definitely that.
The look of a grown-up who finds a child unbearably cute but is gritting his teeth and holding back with everything he’s got, for fear that grinning like a fool will scare the child to tears!
Melody is pretty cute.
I could relate, so I rubbed under my nose. Having worked at a kindergarten for years in my past life, I knew that feeling very well.
“More importantly, Miss Viola. I’d like to take you to the young master right away, if that suits you.”
“Yes, of course.”
Just then, the maids who had agreed to look after Melody arrived at the room.
“You have to listen to the nice maids, okay?”
“Uu.”
Melody thumped her chest as if to say, Leave it to me. She really did have a bit of a show-off streak.
But thanks to that, I was able to leave with my mind at ease.
And so, I followed Conrad from the annex toward the main building.
He was explaining the residence to me as we walked when—
“The floor just above is where Young Master Jayden resides.”
“What is the young master like? I thought it might help me get along with him.”
“Hmm, well…”
Conrad, who had answered everything without a hitch until then, hesitated for the first time.
“Well…”
“Please, speak freely.”
“Allow me to apologize in advance on his behalf. The young master is a bit—no, quite a lot—on edge.”
“He’s a patient. I can understand that much.”
I answered readily, but a gloomy look settled on Conrad’s face beneath his glasses.
“Well… it’s probably more than you imagine.”
Just how bad is it?
The original had described him as sensitive, too, but it hadn’t gone into much depth, so I couldn’t quite picture it.
But in less than five minutes, I found out why.
“I said I don’t need it. I told you to get lost!”
Along with a voice full of temper, something came flying fast and landed right in front of me.
Crash!
What had shattered was a glass vase. Sharp shards went skittering every which way across the floor.
