There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 18

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“Hello.”

“Ah, hello!”

As Philomel greeted her, Elencia hurriedly returned the greeting.

She subtly raised her head, glancing at Philomel’s attire.

“Um… you look like a very important person. What brings you to a place like this…? It’s just a small, unremarkable village. Ah! Was that an inappropriate question? I’m sorry!”

Her wariness couldn’t hide her curiosity, which was endearing. Her clothes were those of an ordinary mountain village girl, but an undeniable air of nobility emanated from her.

“It’s alright. Is that house yours?”

“…Yes. It’s the house where my mother and I live.”

Her long eyelashes fluttered, betraying her unease.

Philomel asked politely, “If it’s not too much trouble, would you mind if I took a look around your house? I happened to be passing by and thought it was very pretty.”

“Our house? Compared to a young lady’s like you, it would be quite humble.”

She knew it was a flimsy excuse.

“Is it not allowed?”

“It’s not that it’s not allowed… it’s just a bit surprising. But if you wish, of course, I should show you around. Please, come this way.”

Elencia, judging that there would be no benefit in refusing a noble’s request, took the lead.

“Madam, please wait in the carriage.”

She instructed Countess Delles, who was a short distance away.

“But…”

“I’ll be right back.”

Philomel brushed aside the Countess’s dissuasion and followed Elencia.

“Mom! I’m home!”

As she opened the front door, the smell of food wafted out, indicating that someone was cooking.

Philomel slowly looked around the house.

The furnishings were simple, but they had everything they needed, and everything was clean. It was an ordinary and cozy country home.

“You rascal! How long has it been since you left? Why are you only coming back now? Were you running around like a wild horse again? Why have you been so troublesome lately….”

The woman who was coming out of the kitchen while scolding suddenly stopped.

“I have someone to introduce. This young lady here wanted to see our house… Mom? What’s wrong?”

The woman’s eyes were filled with shock as she looked at Philomel.

“Y-you are…?”

The woman asked in a trembling voice.

“Hello. I was passing by and asked your daughter if I could look around this house.”

“A house tour… Please, just go back. I don’t want to become a spectacle for noble people.”

She turned away from Philomel.

“Then shall we talk about something else?”

Philomel continued without changing her tone.

“Don’t you recognize me?”

As she took one step closer, the woman swallowed a sharp gasp.

The dark brown eyes of the woman looking at Philomel trembled aimlessly.

Philomel also observed the woman’s features in the meantime.

Her hair was dark brown. She had more wrinkles than her age, perhaps due to hardship, but she was still beautiful. In her youth, she must have been a beauty with a slightly stubborn air.

Her features resembled her own.

The other side seemed to think so too.

“Mom!”

Elencia supported the woman, who collapsed as her legs gave way.

“Are you alright? Are you sick?”

“…I’m fine. Don’t shout, it’s making my head spin.”

“Shouldn’t you lie down?”

“I said I’m fine.”

In every way, they were a close mother and daughter. To them, Philomel was an uninvited guest.

The woman shook off her daughter’s arm and stood up straight.

Philomel said to Elencia, who was standing blankly, “I’m sorry, but could you give us some space? I have something to talk about with your mother.”

“But…”

“Go upstairs.”

At her mother’s firm tone, Elencia hesitated and went up the stairs.

‘So Elencia’s room was upstairs, just like in the novel,’ she thought absently.

Only the two of them remained in the living room.

The woman fidgeted, clenching and unclenching her fists.

“You are, you are…”

“Let me introduce myself. My name is Philomel. It’s a name taken from the mayfly flower that only blooms in this Utina region.”

Elencia had gone upstairs, but Philomel spoke in a hushed voice, just in case.

“P-Philomel…”

The woman covered her mouth with both hands and sobbed.

“Why, why did you come here? This is not a place for someone as precious as you. Go back to where you should be.”

“…You should know best that I have no place to be.”

Philomel replied calmly.

She was a foolish woman.

The woman was blinded by jealousy and changed the lives of two children. It was ridiculous that she made her daughter a princess because she couldn’t become an empress.

And if she was going to raise her as her own daughter, she should have raised her well.

A person who tormented Elencia while recalling the sins she had committed.

However, she was also the one who eventually opened her heart to the kind child who constantly approached her.

Although it was still in the future, she would reveal the secret of Elencia’s birth a year later, when her daughter turned seventeen.

Even though she knew very well what situation Philomel would be in when her real father found her and the real princess appeared.

‘A truly heartless person. My mother.’

Philomel opened her mouth quietly, but in a firm tone.

“Listen carefully. I am going to take your daughter to the Emperor now.”

Katrin’s pupils dilated.

“…That! How could you!”

“I am going to let a father and daughter who have lived without even knowing each other’s existence meet.”

“No!”

Philomel looked coldly at the weeping Katrin.

“Why?”

“Even though I didn’t give birth to her, Elen is my daughter!”

Daughter.

Philomel felt empty.

Lovely Elencia was loved even by parents who were not related by blood.

“Whether you are her real mother or not is something Elencia will judge after she knows everything.”

“No! That child is already my daughter! How I raised Elen all by myself…!”

Katrin finally began to shed tears.

Philomel sneered coldly.

“You still don’t ask.”

“…What?”

“You don’t seem to be curious at all about how I lived.”

Only then did the woman shut her mouth with a look of being caught off guard.

“T-that’s…! Of course, living in luxury in the Imperial Palace….”

Luxury? Had she been living with such words to justify herself?

“Just as you have no interest in me, I have no interest in the life you have lived.”

Her eyes stung.

Philomel’s voice was trembling slightly. She still couldn’t love that woman, just as she didn’t love her.

“So, if you want to live, run away right now.”

That was the only consideration she could give to the woman who gave birth to her.

“You know better than anyone that neither you nor I will be safe when the Emperor learns the truth, right?”

In the novel, as soon as Eustis learned the truth, he found Katrin and killed her.

Even Elencia’s plea to spare the mother who raised her did not evoke the Emperor’s mercy.

“Then I will take Elencia.”

Despair was thickly laid on Katrin’s face. She seemed to realize that there was no way to stop it.

Philomel passed by Katrin, took Elencia from the room, and came out.

“There is a place to go with me.”

At the concise explanation, Elencia tilted her head.

“Mom?”

“…Follow her. It’s nothing bad, so don’t worry.”

Katrin, sitting in a chair at the table with her head down, said without looking at her daughter.

Elencia followed Philomel, bewildered. In fact, it was a farewell between mother and daughter.

So, inside the carriage returning to the detached palace.

“Um… would it be alright to ask where we are going now?”

Elencia wiggled her fingers uncomfortably.

“We are going to Lake Utina.”

“Ah! Lake Utina is a really beautiful place. I heard there are many villas of nobles nearby. It looks like the young lady came for sightseeing.”

Even in this situation, her bright smile showed that she was raised with love.

“So, um… what is your name?”

“Philomel.”

Philomel did not say the surname that would soon lose its meaning.

“I’m Elencia. Come to think of it! Both Elencia and Philomel are flower names!”

Elencia and Philomel were the pride of the Empire, with flowers that only grew near Lake Utina.

“What a strange coincidence!”

“Indeed.”

It’s not a coincidence.

They were the names that Isabella, who loved flowers, had thought of giving to her daughter when she was born.

It was funny that the two names were accidentally divided between the real and the fake.

“Come to think of it, you have the same name as the Princess. I heard that His Majesty the Emperor and the Princess also visited Utina….”

Elencia’s face darkened as she said that.

“Don’t tell me you are the Princess…?”

“Well, what do you think?”

Elencia, looking distressed at Philomel’s ambiguous attitude, looked at the Countess for confirmation.

However, Countess Delles, who was distracted, did not notice her gaze.

She had been in that state since the moment she brought Elencia and sat her next to her. She seemed to realize who Elencia’s face resembled.

There was no one who frequented the Imperial Palace who did not know the face of the Empress in the portrait.

“…Why are you taking me?”

“I’m sorry, but I can’t tell you right now. You will know soon.”

“…Yes.”

With those words, Elencia did not open her mouth.

A heavy silence fell inside the carriage. Philomel thought that Elencia’s face, with her mouth shut, was as cold as a different person from before.