Chapter 14

Chapter 14

* * *

Kallen’s father, the late Duke Lewelton, had been envious of his son, the magician who had surpassed him.

“You are a monster! You’re nothing more than a manifestation of the beast that has been lurking in our family’s cursed bloodline!”

Kallen had received no support from his father. He had been hungry. He had craved mana. If he was starving, he could make do with animals. But, ultimately, it was humans he craved.

“You summoned a demon lord that even I can’t form a contract with?”

Kallen’s father both envied and feared him. His mother was his only source of love.

“It’s all right, Kallen. Mommy’s right here for you. I will always love you. I’m sorry I can’t be stronger.”

When Kallen’s father struck him like a rabid dog, his mother shielded his cowering body with hers. There were even times that she endured the beating for him.

“I’m sorry, Kallen. Forgive me.”

On the day his mother died, Kallen’s entire world crumbled beneath his feet. And he felt the same way now. He held the young Lae in his arms and felt his memories wash over him like a drowning tide.

“Why?” he whispered. He looked down at the beggar girl, the young child named Lae, whom he had adopted without much thought. This child had saved his life. She had seen him kill someone, but instead of showing disgust, she had taken an arrow for him.

Mother… The name he had tried to forget flooded his mind. He could see the echo of his mother in the child, where she lay bleeding and unconscious. Lae had run to his side and taken his place. The arrow had missed his body and pierced her shoulder instead. When she’d fallen unconscious, he’d felt reason leave him. Only when Jade and Sion shouted was he brought back to reality.

“Come on, wake up!”

“Lady Lae!”

Kallen stared at them with cold, sunken eyes. “Sion,” he said, his tone quiet and cold. “Seize him,” he ordered, looking over at the fortune-teller, whose head lay in a pool of his own blood. Then he turned to his son. “Listen carefully, Jade. I’ll attempt to stop the bleeding. But it may be painful, so place something in the child’s mouth to keep her from instinctively biting her tongue.”

Jade ripped off his sleeve, rolled it into a ball, and placed it in Lae’s mouth. Black magic bloomed like some kind of dark miracle from Kallen’s palm. A swarm of black butterflies emerged from his fingertips and took flight, passing into the young girl’s wound. Gradually, the bleeding stopped.

“We should move her somewhere safe,” Kallen declared.

“How about a Lewelton hotel?” Sion suggested.

“There’s one near here.”

* * *

Lae was relocated to a hotel room. Fortunately, Lewelton-owned hotels boasted some of the finest facilities, and a doctor was in residence. When summoned, the doctor dashed to the room and began to administer emergency treatment.

Meanwhile, Sion had set out on horseback for the city in search of a surgeon. Jade stared numbly as the girl lying in bed was checked over. Kallen, too, was in complete shock.

“We won’t know the full extent of her injury until the surgeon arrives, but I believe she’ll live,” the doctor explained. “The arrow was not poisonous and, thankfully, it missed her heart.”

“That’s how it should be,” Kallen said. “If this child dies, all the city’s doctors will join her in the grave.”

The doctor shuddered. “I will care for her to the best of my ability until the surgeon arrives,” he pledged with a bow.

Kallen nodded and took a seat beside the bed. He stared down at the pale-faced child. “I assumed you were either a spy or a target of that red-flower bastard. So I assumed that the vague information you provided me tonight was either a trap or a genuine coincidence.”

But then you called me Dad.

“I never imagined that you would be hurt in my stead. I…” Kallen trailed off. “Even if this is a trap, I can’t help but want to dote on you. Just who are you to do such a thing?” He caressed the child’s doll-like cheeks. “First, you must survive. After all, you need to answer for what you said. You called me, Dad. The bond between us as father and daughter is sealed.”

He clutched her right hand in his. It was the hand that was uninjured. He questioned whether the child was even human—does anyone have hands this small?

“It matters not if you were once the daughter of someone else. I will simply bundle you away and lay my own claim to you,” he whispered. “When you wake up, we’ll need to make some changes to your schooling. I must raise you myself—raise you into an arrogant and selfish child. Then you won’t blink an eye when I’m shot with an arrow or stabbed with a knife before your very eyes. I will keep you at home and spoil you always. This will make me feel more at ease, I believe.”

Lae remained motionless.

“Please wake up soon.”

* * *

After Sion returned, the surgeon stated the same thing: Lae’s wound was not life-threatening. They quickly set up an operating room in the hotel, and Kallen only stepped outside after the surgeon and nurses had begun the surgery.

In the meantime, Jade was resting in another hotel room. It had taken a lot of convincing on Sion’s part to get the young master to finally leave Lae’s side. It surprised the butler to see his two masters so agitated.

“Did you also send someone to the temple?” Kallen asked him suddenly. “While doctors can treat her wound, high priests can cast pain-relieving spells. Go and summon them.”

“I’m afraid the majority of the high priests are at the royal palace today, Your Grace. The palace is hosting a temple soirée of some kind. Lady Marianne is there as well. But at first light tomorrow, I shall make sure to—”

Kallen chuckled. His red eyes were calm, like ocean waters when some great predator lurks beneath. “Please kindly relay this message to the king,” he growled. “He is to send every single priest in attendance to this hotel. If my daughter dies of shock before then…” He paused and glowered. “I will visit the palace and repay the same agony on the first royal member I come across. Believe me, His Majesty will know exactly what I mean.”

Sion had never seen Kallen with such a look on his face. He blinked at the duke in surprise, then lowered his head. “I shall see to it right away, Your Grace.”

* * *

Should I have her stuffed like Popo? Jade stared at his adopted sister, Lae, who lay in bed as if already dead.

“Jade, this cat is a chimera. When you die, it dies with you. If you take proper care of it, you too will be able to live.”

Popo had been a chimera cat that Jade had raised when he was younger. Kallen had brought the chimera home one day with the hope that it would help his son, who had been suffering from melancholy.

But it was all a lie, Jade thought. The young Jade had been fascinated by his cat, Popo. It had a good appetite and enough energy to run around endlessly. Taking care of Popo lifted his spirits. However, one day, when Popo had fallen fatally ill, Jade had realized that his father had lied—that Kallen had tricked him into believing their fates were tied together. He was furious about being deceived, but he had already grown to adore the small, warm animal.

When you’re sick, you look even more like Popo, he thought, picturing the beautiful cat with wings and shining eyes. But there are differences. Jade just wished to see Lae smiling and babbling again.

That’s it. You’re different because you’re so unpredictable. He fixed his gaze on the tiny form lying on the bed. This weak, scrawny girl was even less informed than the average child, much less a magician.

How did this small thing do what I couldn’t? He remembered how Lae had jumped in front of an arrow to save his father. To Jade, she was the ultimate conundrum—a shimmering candy coated in mystery.

Why didn’t I trust her? Why did she put herself in danger to save Father’s life? She isn’t even his blood-related daughter. So why? Who is she? Where did she come from? Jade felt some affection for his father, who was his flesh and blood. But Jade was just another Lewelton, and all Leweltons placed themselves in the highest regard.

Could it have been me who was injured on behalf of my father if I were as small as Lae? If I were as uneducated? If I were as reckless? Jade kept asking himself these questions, but the answer was simple: he couldn’t have. In the end, Lae was a braver child than he.

I feel strange, Jade thought, tilting his head. My heart hurts. The feeling was, at first, unfamiliar, but then he remembered the day Popo had died. He remembered the day his mother had abandoned him to go abroad, where she would eventually breathe her last. The stabbing sensation he felt in his heart was not so unfamiliar after all.