The nobles’ expressions expanded progressively—and their enthusiasm was, apparently, exactly what Papa had been hoping for, because his nostrils were expanding right along with it.
“……”
Watching the two sides back and forth, I looked at Calypse from the side with a softly squinting gaze.
‘Father. Was this how much you wanted to boast? And here I am, your embarrassingly unworthy daughter, as your source of pride…’
It was just as that thought passed through my mind.
‘…Whether you’re my blood or not. Whoever your mother is and whatever purpose you were created for—none of it matters. You are my daughter.’
Calypse’s words struck me from behind like a sudden realization—sweeping through my mind all over again.
No matter where I had come from—Papa was this happy simply because I was his daughter. This genuinely, openly happy.
And I…
‘…Here I am feeling embarrassed and calling him a show-off…’
A wave of guilt washed over me and I closed my eyes.
The more I felt his love, the more flustered I became by it—and I had been reflexively pushing it away, as though in defense. That wasn’t right.
I needed to receive the love he expressed so honestly. And give it back.
This was no time to be standing here embarrassed.
Papa was bragging about me like this. And as his golden-seed daughter, I could not afford to be the one shrinking back.
‘Do it. Be. Your father’s. Proudest daughter.’
“…That’s right.”
At my voice, every staring noble shifted their gaze to me at once.
I opened my previously closed eyes wide—as wide as they would go.
“I am Papa’s real daughter!”
And with a little hamster-blade of a hand, I swept the hair that had fallen across my face back in one clean motion, and announced to everyone within earshot—
“Calypse Krost’s eyes—red. Me, Aisha Krost’s eyes—also red. I am the daughter who has returned to Calypse Krost after five years. I am Aisha Krost—!”
Aisha Krost—
—Krost—
The declaration rang out like a battle cry and echoed back as a resounding wave.
Like the roar of a lion cub from The Lion King, the startled nobles’ mouths dropped open in perfect unison—and
“Move it. Applaud.”
Calypse issued the command with unwavering finality.
The nobles, snapped back to their senses with rapid shakes of their heads, broke into simultaneous applause.
Clap, clap, clap—
“Your Ladyship! I knew it from the very first moment I met you! I always felt you were something different—!”
“And His Grace as well. To have recognized her even through dark magic… truly, blood cannot be deceived.”
“Yes indeed. It was as though fate drew them together! The bond between the two of you is simply breathtaking.”
The nobles’ raptures went on at length. We watched them with profound satisfaction before moving on.
But the boasting did not end there.
“…Oh—Your Grace—”
“My daughter. Red eyes.”
The explanations were growing simpler by the moment.
And yet more and more nobles kept appearing from around every corner to peer at this peculiar father-and-daughter pair, until the palace corridors rang with unbroken applause.
Calypse even reached under my arms and hoisted me straight up above his head.
“As of this moment. Aisha is my true-born daughter. Eyes for reference.”
Dangle—
With Father’s declaration, my legs dangled freely in midair.
I felt rather like a discount apple being held up for sale—but.
‘Be proud of it. Pride, self.’
I pried my eyes open as wide as they could go and showed the entire world my red eyes, as instructed.
“Wh—what is happening? Why is Duke Calypse holding Lady Aisha up like that?”
“Well, apparently Lady Aisha turned out to be his real daughter.”
“What?!”
“Look at her red eyes. It seems Duke Foss placed dark magic on her when she was a newborn and…”
Whispers here. Whispers there.
At this rate, by the end of the day every single person in the palace would know I was Calypse’s biological daughter.
It was slightly embarrassing—but I was Papa’s proudest golden daughter.
‘More, faster. Let everyone know.’
I was starting to look around for a particular someone.
Thanks to my perch on Papa’s shoulders, I could see quite far even through the crowd.
And there—
‘There they are!’
With determined eyes I tapped the top of Papa’s head with purpose.
“Papa.”
“What.”
“There is a newspaper reporter over there.”
I had fully expected that a reporter would be waiting somewhere for us to show our faces.
At my words, Calypse’s expression went sharp—and he issued a command.
“Aisha.”
“Yes sir.”
“Open your eyes.”
“Yes sir!”
Opening. Eyes. Wide!
At the command I used my short fingers to hold my own eyelids open.
And with that, we advanced on the reporter with absolute aggression.
* * *
A few days later.
“Have you seen the newspaper?”
“Of course—naturally! I’ve actually been carrying it around with me in case anyone hasn’t seen it yet.”
In the great courtyard at the back of the palace, leading to the rear gate—a stretch of dry dirt that those nobilities accustomed to paved stone or soft meadows would never ordinarily set foot on was crowded today with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of nobles.
A breeze swept through and raised a thin scatter of dust, but the gathering paid it no mind and carried on their heated conversations without pause.
“I was so astonished. I saw Lady Aisha in person—only her eye color had changed, and somehow she looked distinctly like Duke Calypse, in a way I couldn’t quite put my finger on before—”
“So the adopted daughter turned out to be the real daughter all along?”
“Good heavens. It’s like something out of a novel.”
Thanks to a non-threatening piece of persuasion by Calypse and Aisha, news of Aisha’s red eyes had made the front page of every newspaper.
But the reason so many nobles had gathered here today was something else entirely—
“His Majesty the King and Her Majesty the Queen Consort arrive!”
At the chamberlain’s announcement, those who had been murmuring turned and bowed in unison toward a single point.
Arjen and Grace entered to receive the greeting and stepped up onto the raised platform. Immediately, Arjen called out in a booming voice.
“At this hour—Duke Foss Kray is sentenced to death!”
It was the execution of Duke Foss.
* * *
Shortly before the arrival of the king and queen consort.
“Oh—there is Lady Aisha of House Krost.”
“Her eyes are truly red. So they were always that same shade as the duke’s—and Duke Foss deliberately concealed them, they say.”
“And using dark magic, which is forbidden throughout the entire kingdom. He deserves this immediate reckoning.”
Today was Duke Foss’s execution day.
The scaffold where the sentence would be carried out had been erected in the rear courtyard of the palace, and gathered to witness it were nobles from every corner of the kingdom—
And my back, sitting in the very front row reserved exclusively for high nobility, was burning as though it had caught fire.
Every single person standing behind me was watching me.
“Mm…”
“What is it.”
I let out an inadvertent groan, and Calypse—sitting beside me—turned to ask.
“…Nothing.”
Nothing. I just felt strangely complicated inside.
I had been afraid of Duke Foss’s vengeance. I had been afraid of the look Calypse would give me when the truth finally came to light. I had been afraid that after everything was revealed, the way he treated me would change.
And yet. The man who had made me tremble with fear was mounting the scaffold, and I was sitting in the front row to watch it happen.
People were cursing him—and I was the only one feeling something like pity.
I couldn’t help it. I had been a spy, but not really a spy—and every wrong had been committed by Duke Foss. The fault was his alone.
A reality I had never once imagined was disorienting me—and at the same time, the resentment I felt toward Duke Foss, for making me live through things I should never have had to live through, was real.
Against me. Against Ariana. Against Calypse. He had committed crimes that no amount of dying could wash clean.
But more than any of that.
“Duke Foss turned out to be nothing, in the end.”
When I pictured that figure—the one I had been so terrified of that I once triggered hyperventilation just by being near him—now being held in the grip of knights, stripped of all his dignity—
I felt hollow. Bewildered that I had ever been unable to move because of him.
And on top of all that, at the moment of his ending, the people here were paying attention only to me. Not to him. To me.
To the true young lady. To me.
Sniff.
I touched my nose out of vague awkwardness, and Papa gave a brief smile and ruffled my head.
“Of course. This was never a place you needed to be.”
“Hm?”
“You can leave right now if you’d like. Papa will escort you home.”
“…Huh?”
He followed on so quickly that I blinked in surprise.
