Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 197

The scene was too much to bear.

Lady Aisel fled from the carriage, Muriel Chavonne leisurely following, mocking her.

Even as she groaned in pain, Lady Aisel didn’t lose the light in her eyes.

Regret, despair, resentment, indignation, and grudge flashed through her. But even in that moment, she thought of the future.

“I… love you, Mom and Dad…”

“Ugh, ahh, ahh…”

Lady Aisel’s mother, unable to breathe properly as she watched her daughter’s plight, finally collapsed. A sound that was neither words, nor cries, nor groans flowed from her mouth.

Earl Aisel held his wife’s shoulders, unable to take his eyes off his daughter’s face.

“She wasn’t a very trustworthy child, but still, I…”

“I am, I am, ugh, proud… of myself.”

“If I’m born again, I’ll definitely be… a daughter Mom and Dad can be proud of…”

“I love you.”

Lady Aisel’s pale face, completely wet with tears, smiled brightly as she swallowed the video stone whole.

Even long after the crystal turned black, Earl Aisel couldn’t take his eyes off it.

“Ophelia…”

It was a sound like a thread so thin it was almost invisible being pulled out—a groan that couldn’t even be called a voice, forcibly squeezed from a tightly constricted throat. But like a hairline crack in a massive dam, that name, which couldn’t even resonate properly, finally broke Earl Aisel.

The stoic face twisted, and the body of the middle-aged man, who had been like a weathered mountain, crumbled.

“Ophelia! Ophelia, my daughter…”

Ah.

I cannot dare to know what the heart of a parent who has lost a child is like. But just hearing Earl Aisel’s lament made my whole body lose strength and my stomach churn. A sight I never want to experience, not even indirectly.

But I stood firm on my feet and watched Earl Aisel. He wept like a collapsed fortress.

* * *

Much later, Earl Aisel finally raised his head, his face still wet with tears. In an instant, he seemed ten years older.

“My daughter was a truly amazing child—much more than me, much more than someone like me. She was such a strong child.”

Even though he had wailed until all the strength in his body was gone, his voice was firm, as if some strength remained. A light that had not been seen before flowed from his eyes.

“It was me who didn’t recognize her, who blocked her potential, who set her limits…”

A realization that pierced him struck Earl Aisel’s chest.

‘But…’

It’s too late. Those words lingered on the tip of his tongue. If he had acknowledged it, if he had recognized it when Lady Aisel, his daughter, was still alive…

“…”

However, Earl Aisel himself would feel it more keenly than I thought—that it was too late.

He raised his head and looked at me. “The Princess’s words were right. Foolish me, I couldn’t recognize my own daughter even with my eyes wide open.”

“…”

“And then I got angry at the Princess, who recognized my daughter. I’m sorry. And… thank you.”

He lowered his head to me. It was a very different appearance from when he apologized desperately earlier. He was sincere then, but now I felt a different heart than then.

“…Don’t you resent me?”

I couldn’t help but ask that. Regardless of what Earl Aisel had done to me and my family, he was Lady Aisel’s father.

“Resent?”

The answer came from elsewhere. Lady Aisel, who had fainted and been moved, came into the room with the support of a maid.

“How can you even ask that? Of course, of course I resent you! How could I not resent you?”

Her pale face was like a ghost. “If she hadn’t gotten involved with the Princess, if they had lived without knowing each other, she would have lived a little longer. She would have gotten married and had children, like that, like that…”

Tears flowed from Lady Aisel’s eyes again. I couldn’t bear to look at her face, so I lowered my head.

“Don’t lower your head.”

Where she got such strength from, Lady Aisel gripped my hand tightly. “Don’t, don’t lower your head. Say it proudly—that it’s not something to resent.”

The eyes she faced were shining brightly. “Ophelia, my daughter, says she doesn’t regret it. The regret she has is that she should have listened to you.”

“Please tell the Princess what I said… This is entirely my choice. It would be a lie to say I don’t regret it, but that regret is that I should have listened to the Princess.”

“If I had taken the Princess’s advice to make a careful and safe choice, to not move for the time being, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“It’s the life my daughter chose to live. So, so proud, so proud…”

“It was an action I chose and judged, and this is the result. Although it ended in such failure, I am proud of the life I chose to live…”

“Ah, ugh, Ophelia, why, why…”

Lady Aisel slumped down as if sliding. She pounded her chest hard enough to bruise it and wailed, then suddenly turned her head sharply.

“Don’t say you did something to be resented. Don’t regret it. My daughter told you not to.”

“But she will surely regret it and torment herself, because she’s a kind child.”

“My daughter thinks the Princess was her salvation.”

Salvation?

Isn’t it the opposite?

“I… I’ve been watching her live for almost twenty years, but I’ve never seen her shine so brightly. I wondered what was going on. I thought she had someone she liked in the Imperial Palace.”

Lady Aisel smiled with a frown. “The person who breathed life into my daughter’s life was the Princess.”

“…”

“Now that she knows how to live like that, how could Ophelia have just married into a so-so family and lived on?”

Tears streamed down Lady Aisel’s cheeks as she smiled. “The future we showed her as parents meant nothing to her, but the future the Princess showed her gave her so much.”

“…”

“So much that she wouldn’t let go of that future even as she was dying…”

“…”

“Resent… I resent you. How can I not resent you? I resent myself, I resent my daughter who went ahead, I resent my husband, my family, everything in this world.”

I quietly looked at Lady Aisel. Her eyes seemed to have melted in tears. Her eyes were bloodshot, her eyes were sore. But only the gaze looking at me was clear.

I slowly opened my mouth. “I… I don’t regret it. It’s the life Lady Aisel chose and was proud of, so I can’t regret it.”

Yes, so.

“I’ve decided not to regret it.”

Lady Aisel smiled and closed her eyes. The tears that had welled up flowed down her tired cheeks.

“I will no longer receive anyone’s resentment.”

Lady Aisel opened her eyes and looked at me. She moved her lips. As if the words didn’t come out properly, she nodded several times before her voice came out.

“…Yes. Please do. Please…”

* * *

Earl Aisel silently watched Ruatisha handing warm water to his wife.

To be honest, it was really unexpected that his daughter had joined hands with Princess Paeraton and revealed the secret history of the Imperial Palace. His daughter had accomplished a feat that he could never have achieved in his entire life. He was proud of such a daughter—proud, admirable, amazing, and 기특하고 [admirable/praiseworthy in a touching way].

“…”

Missing her.

Resenting her for why she went first.

Regretting why she didn’t tell him.

But the reason why his daughter couldn’t tell him was ultimately…

‘Because of me.’

Because I was a bad father who only scolded her.

In the end, the worst thing was himself. He was consumed by hatred, anger, and sorrow, and tried to kill even this child without seeing the truth, filled with revenge.

Earl Aisel clenched his fist tightly.

“I am sincere about giving my life. It’s something I’ve been prepared for since before.”

Earl Aisel knelt before Ruatisha. Lady Aisel also stopped drinking the water she was drinking and knelt beside her husband.

“I forgot my position as a sinner earlier and said presumptuous things to the Princess. I have not forgotten my sin. Please punish me along with my husband.”

Earl Aisel looked at his wife. Her slender profile was more full of strength than ever before. He sees many aspects in his frail wife that he has not been able to see before.

‘Ah, Ophelia took after her mother.’

She didn’t resemble her incompetent father, but resembled this strong mother, so she was so brave.

“…It would be easier to die.”

“…”

He couldn’t deny it. Of course, the instinctive fear of death is inevitable. But what’s the point of living any longer? Now I wanted to go to my daughter’s side.

“Lady Aisel told you not to; she told me not to receive resentment.”

“…”

“Now it’s your turn.”

At Ruatisha’s words, Earl Aisel and his wife raised their heads.

“Would Lady Aisel want you to die for trying to kill me for revenge?”

That can’t be. In the first place, the target of revenge was wrong. No, even if they killed Muriel Chavonne and died for that sin, it would be the same. That wouldn’t be the ending his daughter wanted.

“Live on.”

The five syllables could not have been more resolute. Ruatisha’s face was clearly imprinted in Earl Aisel’s eyes.

‘Ah…’

Ruatisha is not speaking easily with short thoughts. Look at that face. It was the face of someone who knew what kind of weight it was to carry the share of those who had gone ahead and move forward.

“And reveal it.”

“…”

“What Lady Aisel didn’t give up on and tried to reveal even in the moment of her death.”

“That is—”

Isn’t that what Ophelia left to Ruatisha? But Ruatisha’s eyes did not waver.

“The Aisel family must reveal it. And give it to Lady Aisel’s glory.”

“…”

“Never let Lady Aisel’s death be in vain. Otherwise, I will not forgive you, because I have to send the Lady to that high place.”

Earl Aisel was silent for a moment, looking at Ruatisha. As a central aristocrat, he had participated in court politics for a long time. He has seen countless people—those who fly and crawl, those who are so skilled that they stick out their tongues, politicians with the charisma to win people’s hearts.

But.

‘I see why Ophelia was fascinated by this child.’

Why his daughter changed, why she was able to sprout the potential hidden within herself. At this moment, I could feel it clearly. There was light in this little child—a light that makes it impossible to take your eyes off no matter how dazzling it is. I can say with certainty that the child in front of me is the only child who is so strong.

Earl Aisel changed his posture—from a posture of kneeling and begging as a sinner to a posture of swearing allegiance to a monarch.

“Usher Aisel, the head of the Aisel family, I swear allegiance to Princess Paeraton, Ruatisha.”

Ruatisha looked embarrassed.

“You can refuse. But even if you refuse, I will pledge my allegiance. This is to continue the will of my daughter Ophelia, and at the same time, it is my will.”

Ruatisha looked down at him as if displeased, then sighed deeply.

“…If it’s Lady Aisel’s will, I can’t refuse.”

Earl Aisel smiled as if he knew it would be.

“Politicians are…”

Ruatisha, who grumbled briefly, asked, “Are you okay? Seeing that you sent Lady Aisel to the Empress’s maid, you must have connections with that side.”

“If we are to reveal the truth that Ophelia found out, we will have to completely turn our backs on the Empress anyway. And…”

“I can never forgive the Empress. Now that I see it, she knew that Muriel Chavonne killed my daughter, but she pretended not to know and helped deceive us that the Princess was the culprit.”

A venomous look appeared in Lady Aisel’s eyes.

“Okay. But I won’t forgive the Earl.”

“Of course.”

Earl Aisel couldn’t face Ruatisha and lowered his head.

“That’s why I can’t reveal that video stone now.”

“Yes? What do you mean…”

“Prince Sidrian went to the Demon World instead of me.”

“Yes? What do you mean…”

Ruatisha said quickly without any expression. Demon World? What Demon World? Earl Aisel’s expression turned strange. What on earth did Muriel Chavonne do? I was embarrassed when the building collapsed.

“Until he comes back safely, I can never forgive you.”

“The word that the video cannot be revealed means…”

“Even if I reveal it while Prince Sidrian is missing, it won’t be a decisive blow.”

“If it is known that he is missing, Prince Esteban will be the only child of His Majesty the Emperor…”

Ruatisha nodded. “Prince Sidrian rarely appears in social circles, and he often leaves the palace for a long time and suddenly returns, so no one has noticed his disappearance yet.”

“But if it gets longer…”

Earl Aisel swallowed the rest of his words. It was a story that everyone knew what would happen even if they didn’t say it out loud.

“So, no matter what happens, I will bring him back.”

It was as if she was telling those words not to Earl Aisel, but to herself. Ruatisha’s gaze was directed far away.

‘I’ll definitely find you again.’

I will definitely find a family for that child to set foot on, so that he can never leave.