Chapter 5

This was the Empire.

The reason I couldn’t speak properly was that it had been so long since I’d spoken the imperial language.

If that was the case, then maybe my mother was living beneath this same sky, too.

I can meet my mother!

Our home had originally been in the Empire.

It had been five years since I last saw my mother, and I was always worried that I might forget what her face looked like. But if this place really was the Empire, I could go home.

When I returned, my mother would be so surprised to see me that she would burst into tears and hug me tightly.

“—My daughter!”

“—Mooom!”

We would have a tearful reunion just like that.

So, trying to hold back my hiccups, I opened my mouth to tell the man our home address.

“(O-our home address is… Um, uh…)”

“What? What did you say?”

I had been trying to explain, but I just stared up at him like an idiot.

I felt like something terrible would happen if I didn’t hurry up and tell him. The problem was that I couldn’t remember the address.

If I don’t tell him soon, he’ll scold me…

So, the address was…

Uh…

It had already been five years since I left home, so I’d forgotten it.

Of course, Teacher Anne-Marie knew our home address, but I was in no position to meet her right now.

If I don’t know the address, I can’t see Mom.

When I thought that I might never see my mother again because I was stupid, I couldn’t hold back anymore.

“Uuugh.”

The man’s face twitched. He looked as terrifying as an evil old monster, which only made me feel more miserable.

“(I wanna see Mom… Bwaaaah!)”

“H-Hey? Don’t cry. I told you not to cry!”

“(Waaaaaah! Mooooom! Waaaaaaaah!)”

As I burst into tears, the man grabbed his head and lightly banged his forehead against the wall.

“This is driving me crazy. I need to go to the hospital first thing tomorrow morning.”

My mother was in the Empire, but I couldn’t meet her! It was so unfair and heartbreaking.

Tears poured out of my eyes. When I wiped them away, snot started running down my nose.

If my mother were here, she would have hugged me and wiped away my tears and snot. But the man neither got angry nor comforted me or patted my back.

He simply crouched down and stared at me as I cried, looking as though I were giving him a headache.

Stupid Goddess!

I said I wanted a dad! I never said I wanted to be unable to see my mother or to live with a monster of a man!

I kept sobbing, and the man, who had been looking down at me with an exhausted expression, let out a deep sigh.

“This is why I hate kids.”

After muttering something to himself, he suddenly lifted me up.

Maybe he was tired of dealing with a crying child and was going to kick me out.

I missed Teacher Anne-Marie and Uncle Michael.

At times like this, Teacher Anne-Marie would pat my back like a mother, while Uncle Michael would comfort me by giving me candy.

“I need to put something in your mouth. My ears are going to fall off.”

Contrary to my expectations that he would toss me out the front door, the man sat me down at the dining table and brought out a piece of chocolate from somewhere.

“Waaah… Waaah? Huh? Wooooow!”

I stopped crying for just a moment and stared at the chocolate.

It’s enormous!

It was bigger than my face! Much bigger than the man’s hand! It was a gigantic chocolate bar.

There were signs that someone had already unwrapped it, as though he’d been eating it, but that didn’t matter.

Ch-Ch-Chocolate!

As I stared at it with my mouth hanging open, the man spoke.

“Hey, little squirt. If you stop crying, I’ll give you this chocolate.”

“Uuugh, waaah!”

Even though he told me to stop, my sobbing continued.

At the same time, my hand was already reaching toward the chocolate. It was instinct. I couldn’t help it.

Whoosh!

The man swiftly dodged my hand.

I adjusted my reach to follow the chocolate, but it only moved farther away.

The man spoke with a stern expression.

“If you don’t stop crying, you can’t have this chocolate. Stop!”

I wanted to see my mother, but I also wanted to eat the chocolate…

I was sad, but I wanted to eat it.

I had always wanted to see my mother, but this might be my only chance to eat chocolate.

I forcibly stopped crying, although hiccups kept escaping me.

When I reached out my hand for the chocolate, the man snapped off half of the enormous bar and placed it in my hands.

Even after being broken in half, it was still so huge that I had to hold it with both hands!

My friends would have been so jealous if they could see me.

Thump. Thump.

My heart raced.

Carefully, I let a corner of the chocolate melt in my mouth. It was smooth milk chocolate.

Th-This is my favorite chocolate!

Until now, I had hated the Goddess’s listening skills, but for the first time, I thought they might not be so bad after all.

I spent the entire evening struggling with the nameless little squirt before finally falling asleep.

They said that when you were tired, you fell unconscious without even dreaming, but Cassian was an exception.

The woman appeared in his dreams again, just as she always did.

“Cassian. Please die. Just once. Please…”

The woman pleaded through her tears.

Cassian willingly decided to give up his life.

A life like his was nothing.

Compared to what the woman was trying to accomplish, it meant absolutely nothing.

The finely honed weapon pierced Cassian’s chest precisely.

With every beat of his heart, blood gushed out of his body.

He could feel it clearly throughout his entire body, in every single cell—his life was fading away.

The woman whispered through her tears.

“I’m sorry. But…”

Don’t cry. Don’t apologize.

His consciousness was growing hazy, and he could no longer say anything.

He wasn’t afraid of death.

There was only one thing he feared.

That the woman’s magic would fail.

His vision darkened. His final breath escaped between his lips.

The woman stole that final breath from him.

After that, Cassian fell into complete blackness.

“Gasp!”

He awoke, feeling his heart pounding as though it were about to burst through his chest, the very same heart that had been pierced in his dream.

“Hah… Hah…”

His entire body was damp with cold sweat.

For a while, Cassian struggled on the sofa, unable to shake off the lingering effects of the dream.

Iris…

He groaned in agony.

It had happened years ago, yet there wasn’t a single day when he didn’t dream about it.

Whether his eyes were open or closed, whether he was drunk or perfectly sober, Iris came to mind whenever he had a spare moment.

Her golden eyes, her jet-black hair, and her delicate hands.

Swallowing a string of curses, Cassian weakly rose from the sofa, thinking that perhaps a drink would make him feel a little better.

“What the…”

For some reason, the little squirt was sleeping on the floor.

She must have been exhausted yesterday. After eating the chocolate, she’d started nodding off at the dining table, so he had tossed her onto the bed in his room.

No matter how terribly he lived, he wasn’t so awful that he would make a little child sleep on the sofa.

“Ha… Right. You’re still here.”

Forget drinking or anything else. His first priority was getting rid of the little squirt.

Cassian left the house immediately.

And the place he arrived at was—

“Could you write me a certificate confirming that I’m impotent?”

The hospital.

“You definitely had it cut, right? If that kid turns out to be my daughter, you old geezer, you’re going to be in serious trouble. I’m sending her to an orphanage, you hear me?”

“I told you, I’m absolutely sure! Have you spent your whole life getting cheated on or something?!”

Having asked the doctor for confirmation two, three, and even four times before leaving the hospital, Cassian held up his certificate of impotence to the sunlight.

This wasn’t just a piece of paper.

It was practically a free pass proving that he had no responsibility, obligation, or burden when it came to raising children.

His gloomy mood from that morning had vanished, leaving him feeling so refreshed he could practically float away.

“Ahaha! Now we’re talking!”

Perhaps his disastrous loss at the card game a few days ago had simply been the bad luck he needed to achieve today’s result.

Once he got home and sent the little squirt to an orphanage, his childcare duties would be over for good.

In high spirits, Cassian bought some spicy grilled chicken—the kind he liked to eat whenever he was in a good mood—on his way home.

“Hey! Little squirt? Are you awake? Still sleeping?”

He returned home in a wonderful mood and woke the little squirt, who was still sleeping even though the sun had risen high into the sky.

“Hey, little squirt. Let’s eat. You’re going to a nice place now, too.”

“Mmm…”

He forcibly sat the child, who couldn’t even open her eyes, at the dining table.

Even if you were going to admire a mountain of gold, you had to eat first. He would feed her before taking her to the orphanage.

It was a small act of kindness from Cassian, who had grown up in an orphanage himself.

A good child was supposed to eat well without being picky.

I glared at the chicken the man had bought. It was covered in bright red sauce and looked incredibly spicy.

I can’t eat spicy food.

I quietly sidled up beside the man to inspect the food.

The spicy smell stung my nose, making my shoulders tremble.

Is he trying to torture me with food before sending me to the orphanage?

He’d given me milk chocolate, so I’d thought he was a stupid but kind man. But perhaps he was actually a very mean person.

As I continued glaring at the red chicken, the man pressed a hand against my forehead and gently pushed me away.

“You can’t eat this. Yours is over there.”

My gaze followed the direction of his chin, and I spotted a familiar dish.

The moment I saw it, my face scrunched up without me even realizing it.