Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 111

☆ Chapter 112 ☆

At that moment, Marquis Tarenka believed his daughter was being deliberately deceptive.

Duke Paeraton was not known for his openness; attempts to connect with him often felt futile.

‘However…’

Marquis Tarenka looked up and saw Duke Paeraton.

He was staring intently at Ruatisha as she enjoyed her tart.

Initially, his eyes seemed devoid of emotion, excessively indifferent, and colder than a chilling gaze.

However, upon closer inspection, Marquis Tarenka noticed something different.

He perceived a hint of kindness in Duke Paeraton’s eyes.

“……”

Perhaps his initial assessment was incorrect.

It was the first time he’d entertained such a thought.

* * *

After tea, Duke Paeraton and Marquis Tarenka relocated to a smaller reception room.

Ruatisha was whisked away by her brothers, their eyes gleaming with protective concern.

Silence settled between the two men as they sat on the leather sofa.

Marquis Tarenka broke the silence first.

“I understand Ruatisha possesses no magical power; is this true?”

“It is.”

“So, you’ve been maintaining a barrier all along? Seeing Iksion arrive in the capital, it seems you’ve gained full control over your magical power, but before that…”

Duke Paeraton regarded Marquis Tarenka for a moment.

Magical attacks were ineffective against Ruatisha.

Moreover, she possessed a unique ability to stabilize magical power.

However, he hesitated to reveal this to Marquis Tarenka.

Such an ability could attract unwanted attention and danger.

His late wife had always been sympathetic towards her father.

However, Duke Paeraton struggled to trust Marquis Tarenka, who held a more critical view of the Paeraton family than most.

Ultimately, he changed the subject.

“You seem to be taking a keen interest in my daughter.”

“She is my granddaughter; it’s only natural to be interested.”

“Yet, you haven’t shown your face once in ten years, have you?”

“……”

“I’m not blaming you, Marquis. I am not qualified to do so either.”

“Are you referring to the war?”

“Had I known my daughter would suffer such humiliation, I would never have agreed to go.”

“I heard it was the Emperor’s command.”

Rejecting the Emperor’s order was treason.

Even knowing his son-in-law had no choice, he resented him for leaving so soon after his wife’s death.

“……I made a deal with the Emperor to obtain the Holy Water [a mythical substance believed to have healing properties].”

“Holy Water?”

“It proved useless in saving Inaisse, though.”

Marquis Tarenka paused at the mention of his daughter’s name.

“You made a deal with the Emperor to go to war in exchange for the Holy Water to save Inaisse?”

Duke Paeraton remained silent.

However, Marquis Tarenka interpreted his silence as confirmation.

He had never imagined that his son-in-law’s reason for going to war was to save his daughter.

In Marquis Tarenka’s eyes, Duke Paeraton had shown no interest in his wife.

He had believed his daughter was dying alone and unloved in this vast duchy.

“Was it merely a sense of duty? Did you make such a deal out of obligation to save your wife?”

Marquis Tarenka leaned forward, asking urgently.

“……”

Duke Paeraton’s silence was frustrating.

He pressed again.

“Didn’t you love my daughter?”

Still, there was no answer.

However, Marquis Tarenka waited persistently.

After a long silence, Duke Paeraton finally spoke.

“……Inaisse was the person I could trust most—no, the only person.”

“……”

Marquis Tarenka’s face, previously filled with anticipation, now reflected disappointment.

He had hoped to hear that it wasn’t just duty, that he had loved her.

He resented his son-in-law for not offering even a single empty word to his deceased wife.

But how could he blame him?

While his son-in-law was promising the Emperor to risk his life for his sick wife, what had he been doing?

“I was just standing by.”

He hadn’t even known his daughter was sick and had been resentful, calling her heartless.

“……It’s not your fault, Marquis. Inaisse asked me not to inform you of her illness.”

“If I hadn’t been so stubborn, I would have known sooner.”

“……”

“That’s not all. I didn’t even know my own flesh and blood was being mistreated. If I hadn’t been so out of touch, if I had kept the house in order, I would have known right away.”

He wondered how much pain and fear that child, whom his daughter had left behind, must have felt.

“I heard you collapsed from the shock.”

“Even if I collapsed, I should have gotten up immediately.”

Marquis Tarenka, speaking firmly, looked at Duke Paeraton.

“But you seem different today.”

From saying it wasn’t your fault to saying you couldn’t help it because you collapsed from the shock.

Wasn’t this complete consolation?

It wasn’t like Duke Paeraton to say such things.

Even his attitude was more polite than usual.

Wasn’t he the type to say everything he wanted to say, even in front of the Emperor?

Duke Paeraton tilted his head slightly and said.

“My daughter said I should treat my father-in-law like this.”

*K-Confucian girl’s sermon!* [referring to Ruatisha’s influence]

“I couldn’t fully understand the reason, but I am acting that way because my daughter wants me to.”

“……I see.”

Marquis Tarenka slowly nodded.

It was typical of Duke Paeraton not to understand the reason for the consolation or the reason to be polite.

However, doing it because his daughter wanted him to, even without understanding why, was not the Duke Paeraton he knew.

*Duke Paeraton does not know sadness; when he cries, the blood of others flows instead of tears.* [a common saying about the Duke’s ruthlessness]

That was the saying, and Marquis Tarenka was the person who agreed with it the most.

But today, that thought was gradually being shattered.

Marquis Tarenka fell silent, filled with complicated emotions.

Duke Paeraton stared at him for a moment and then spoke.

“If you go to the central garden, Ruru will be there.”

*I can’t get used to that Ruru sound.*

Thinking that, Marquis Tarenka rose from his seat.

“……Thank you.”

* * *

Ruatisha was lying on the grass, basking in the spring sunshine.

Even though there was a gazebo nearby, she insisted on lying on the grass, just like her mother used to.

As he approached, the child, who had been closing her eyes, opened them wide.

“Marquis.”

He stopped the child from getting up and sat beside her.

Silence fell.

Marquis Tarenka had so much to say that he didn’t know where to start.

But in the end, the first thing that came out was a single word.

“……I’m sorry.”

Ruatisha raised her head.

“I was wrong.”

“About what?”

“For neglecting you.”

“……Did you know what happened when I was at my uncle’s house?”

“Not knowing is no excuse.”

“It’s good that you’re not making excuses. But I’m curious about your position.”

“……After your mother passed away, my health deteriorated significantly. I didn’t even know you had been entrusted to Tarenka Manor.”

“I see.”

“It was only after hearing the news that Nicholas had committed mana stone mine fraud that I learned about you. By then, you had already returned to the Duke’s family.”

“Even then, you didn’t know how I was living at Tarenka Manor?”

Considering that Marquis Tarenka had been angry at Clatie in the Imperial Palace, it was clear that he didn’t know.

But Ruatisha wanted to confirm it directly.

“……I thought you were doing well because I knew you had magical power.”

Marquis Tarenka recalled what Nicholas, who had been summoned to the territory at the time, had said about Ruatisha.

“She is exactly like Duke Paeraton. So are his other children. They have no emotions.”

“Magical power? Duke Paeraton has been maintaining a barrier to prevent it from leaking out. So, it seems fine. We don’t know much about magical power……”

“Even if I joked about the child support, would I have starved or not clothed the child? I have enough wealth to raise the child without needing child support……”

“I had a hard time raising her! Paeraton said the child doesn’t seem like a child, and that’s exactly right. One of the young masters caught a monster at the age of two, but I thought I was going to be caught!”

Even hearing those words, something felt off.

He separately ordered the employees who worked at the Marquis’s residence to inquire.

But the only reactions were that they didn’t even know the Paeraton’s daughter was at the Marquis’s residence.

Marquis Tarenka recalled his grandson, whom he had seen only once.

A grandson who never smiled at his mother, a spitting image of his father.

That child also extremely disliked people approaching him.

If his youngest granddaughter had such a side, it was understandable that the employees didn’t even know of her existence.

Paeraton said that emotional exchange was not necessary, so she would grow up well anywhere.

That’s what he thought.

He wanted to go back to the past and grab himself by the collar.

“If you knew I had magical power, you must have thought I would definitely not be mistreated anywhere.”

It was only after Ruatisha returned to the Paeraton Duchy that words slowly spread that she had no magical power.

As Marquis Tarenka had closed his ears to the outside world and secluded himself, it was understandable that he didn’t know.

‘He wasn’t turning a blind eye even though he knew I was being abused.’

She wasn’t abandoned.

That fact deeply resonated with Ruatisha.

“……Tell me about our mother.”

“Your mother was quite a tomboy. Once she insisted on something, no one could stop her.”

This was something she didn’t know at all.

Ruatisha perked up her ears.

“But she was just as warm, generous, and courageous.”

“I see.”

“She was so smart. I thought your mother would become the Marquis of Tarenka.”

“You must have been sad that Mom came to Paeraton.”

“Yes, the word ‘sad’ was not enough. I even felt betrayed by my daughter.”

“But love cannot be stopped.”

“Love?”

Marquis Tarenka looked at Ruatisha, surprised by the unexpected word.

Ruatisha shrugged nonchalantly.

“Of course, isn’t it obvious? Dad and Mom loved each other and got married.”

Marquis Tarenka’s eyelids fluttered.

How much he had wanted to hear those words.

But to say this fact would be trampling on the heart of an innocent child who was shouting, ‘Our mom and dad love each other!’

Marquis Tarenka chose silence.

Ruatisha narrowed her eyes as she looked at him.

“Don’t tell me, Marquis, you thought Dad didn’t love Mom?”

“……”

“No way, that can’t be.”

“When I asked if he loved my daughter, that guy… no, your father, said Paeraton had no such feelings.”

He regretted saying it as soon as the words left his mouth.

What was he saying to the child…

But Ruatisha nodded nonchalantly.

“Dad must have thought so because he doesn’t understand emotions well. He’s like someone with a burn.”

“A burn?”

“After a burn heals, you don’t feel pain even if you touch it, so you just think it’s okay. But your senses become dull.”

“That’s right.”

“You can’t feel it properly even if you rub it lightly. There are many times when you don’t even know what it was even after feeling it.”

“……”

“Dad… no, not just Dad, but my brothers too.”

“……”

“Even if there is a change in their hearts, it’s hard for them to feel it properly, and even if they feel it, they don’t know what emotion it is.”

Ruatisha tore at the innocent grass between her fingers.

“Magical power is said to be a power that transcends humans. Just as humans gained great power after handling fire, magical power is the same.”

“It means that it can hurt the person who handles it like fire.”

Ruatisha nodded.

“I want our dad and brothers’ burns to be completely healed.”

Marquis Tarenka looked at his granddaughter for a moment.

No one had ever looked at the Paeraton Duchy like this.

Everyone was busy envying, fearing, looking up to, and hating them.

This insight wasn’t just because she was smart.

‘It’s possible because she is a very kind, gentle, and strong child.’

Marquis Tarenka raised his hand to stroke his granddaughter’s head, then hesitated.

He quietly lowered his hand, and his eyes, looking at his granddaughter, were very affectionate.

He thought that it was because Ruatisha was such a child that his son-in-law and grandsons had changed so much.

When he looked at them treating Ruatisha, they were properly feeling and expressing their emotions.

That method was a bit… clumsy, or should he say violent; anyway, it wasn’t normal.

‘Ruatisha, you are healing your family’s burns.’

Ruatisha put her chin on her knees and glanced at Marquis Tarenka.

“What did Dad say about Mom?”

“……He said she was the most trustworthy person.”

Marquis Tarenka told her honestly, thinking that his granddaughter might be disappointed.

But Ruatisha smiled brightly.

“See? Our dad loved our mom.”

“Love?”

“Grandfather doesn’t know what it means to Paeraton to trust someone completely.”

He had never thought about it.

But now, reflecting on the newly discovered aspects of Duke Paeraton…

“……That must be a very special meaning.”

“Dad doesn’t say empty words. You know that too, Marquis.”

Marquis Tarenka’s throat felt rough.

“Yes… Your dad loved your mom. He didn’t even know properly if he loved her, but your mom knew it. Yes, how could such a smart child not know that.”

Marquis Tarenka’s hand tightened.

His daughter met a loving person, had children, and had a happy married life.

‘That’s right, that’s right. That’s enough.’

Marquis Tarenka closed his burning eyes.

But a word that shattered his sentimental mood was heard from the side.

“Marquis, really. You were worried about nothing. Honestly, they had four children, and unless their marital harmony was pretty good….”

Marquis Tarenka looked at his granddaughter with a dumbfounded face.

*What on earth is this young chick saying?*