Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 52

☆ Chapter 52 ☆

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Count Cantor couldn’t hide his bewilderment.

Was this impudent little princess asking him for a piggyback ride?

“Ouch, my legs.”

She was even patting her short legs with her tiny fists like cotton balls.

He was dumbfounded, but perhaps because he was so dumbfounded, Count Cantor offered his back.

The child hopped on in a flash, as if she had been waiting for it.

Count Cantor staggered for a moment at the unexpected weight.

‘Are children this light?’

He thought she would weigh quite a bit, with her chubby cheeks and plump arms and legs from eating so well.

She really did feel like a cotton doll. The only difference was that she was warm.

“I want to go to my room.”

“…….”

Count Cantor frowned but began to walk.

The short arms that tightly hugged his neck felt awkward. She smelled sweet and sugary.

Light, small, and fragile, but definitely warm.

It felt strange, perhaps because it was unfamiliar.

No one was in the child’s room when they arrived.

Instead, a small tea table was set with raspberry tart and milk.

‘Serves two. She expected me to come.’

Indeed, a Phaerahton by blood. [Phaerahton refers to a member of the Duchy’s ruling family.]

She was no ordinary child.

“Put me down. I want to eat with Grandpa.”

Count Cantor frowned again but silently put the child down.

And then, he was about to sit across from her一.

“…….”

The chair was shaped like a pink scallop.

It might be very, very cute to someone, but it was absolutely terrible for Count Cantor.

“……Did Your Excellency also have refreshments in this room?”

“Yes! I ate with my brothers, too.”

A scallop-shaped chair and a fountain-shaped tea table.

The tea set was aurora-colored, as if it were for a fairy’s tea party.

“Grandpa, are you going to eat standing up?”

Looking at the child staring up at him with wide eyes while sitting on the scallop, whatever he was about to say disappeared.

Count Cantor creaked as he sat on the scallop.

“This is delicious!”

“I have no intention of eating. Answer my question.”

Luatisha puffed out her cheeks and pouted.

But she didn’t grumble and went straight to the point.

“Daphne Naya.”

It was just a name.

But the name crashed over Count Cantor like a huge tidal wave.

It was a name he hadn’t heard in so long.

He endured the shock by slowly closing and opening his eyes.

“……Where did you hear rumors about her?”

When Luatisha sent the arrow picture, he wondered what it was.

But when she sent the olive tree picture the second time, it became clear.

Daphne.

This was a picture about Daphne.

He knew that this impudent little girl rolled around here and there like a hamster.

She must have heard about Daphne somewhere and was trying to use it in relation to him.

Daring to.

Daphne was not a woman to be easily mentioned for such a thing.

To Count Cantor, she was still a fresh wound.

“Um, I don’t know the details. Was that lady Grandpa’s girlfriend?”

A naive question.

The child’s clear eyes looking up at him.

Somehow, he felt drained.

Girlfriend, huh?

When was the last time he heard such a word?

A faint smile crossed Count Cantor’s dry lips.

“Yes, she was my girlfriend.”

“Wow, tell me! I want to hear a love story!”

He was dumbfounded to see the child eagerly begging.

What on earth was this whimsical little one thinking?

“How did you meet? You didn’t bump into each other while running with bread in your mouth because you were late, did you?”

What kind of meeting was that?

“……It was ordinary. We met at an ordinary party.”

“Party! That’s right, it’s a party!”

The child clenched her fists and nodded vigorously, not knowing what she was excited about again.

Looking at her, he was reminded of an old encounter he thought he had forgotten.

An evening party at a noble family’s mansion.

A young lady who came out to the garden for some fresh air broke her heel.

Not knowing what to do, she couldn’t stand her temper and threw the broken shoe…….

Unfortunately, it hit the top of a man’s head who was watching.

The young lady, not knowing what to do, apologized and then got angry, asking why he was just watching and if he was enjoying the spectacle.

“Give me a piggyback ride.”

“…….”

“I can’t go barefoot.”

In the end, the man carried the young lady on his back.

However, the moonlight was so beautiful that day, and the young lady’s long, water-like hair sparkled particularly brightly.

And the jewel-encrusted shoes were very hard.

Perhaps he was hit in the head too hard.

At least, it was enough force for a man to fall in love.

It was a very ordinary meeting, and a very ordinary romance followed.

“Ah, it’s so fateful……. It’s like a romance novel.”

Seeing the child muttering with a dreamy expression while clasping her hands together, he let out a hollow laugh.

Count Cantor was surprised at himself.

To think he could talk about Daphne so casually.

He thought that taking out memories that only left scars would be poisonous.

But it wasn’t.

There was still happiness left there.

Happiness that brought a gentle smile just by thinking about it like this.

“Grandpa, you were surprisingly a romantic.”

Count Cantor paused at Luatisha’s words.

“You were surprisingly a romantic.”

The voice from old memories was revived.

What Daphne had said.

“……I used to be. But I guess I couldn’t be that way until the end. Seeing that she left me.”

“The lady left Grandpa?”

He thought they were a happy couple.

He even thought their love was special.

But he was wrong.

One day, Daphne suddenly disappeared. Without a trace.

There were no signs, so Count Cantor couldn’t accept it.

He searched and searched, and kept searching.

He knelt before the late Phaerahton Duke, saying he would do anything if he could just find her.

Then one day, mercenaries brought Daphne’s belongings.

The ring he had given Daphne.

It was said to be mixed in with the spoils of the monster tribe.

“……She actually had a lover. She was attacked by monsters while going to another city with that man and died.”

Count Cantor’s eyes darkened.

“Did someone who went out to subjugate monsters bring this necklace?”

“No.”

Luatisha shook her head.

“I stole it.”

Count Cantor’s expression crumbled at the unexpected answer.

“……Did you say you stole it?”

“Yes, I stole it from someone else. In the first place, this necklace couldn’t have been in the hands of a monster.”

Count Cantor’s expression hardened.

Luatisha met his eyes and said each word clearly.

“Daphne Naya didn’t die from monsters.”

“W-What do you mean by that.”

Count Cantor composed his trembling breath and glared at Luatisha with a fierce gaze.

“If you’re making fun of this old man, I will never forgive you. Even if you are a direct descendant of Phaerahton.”

“Grandpa.”

But instead of being frightened, the child sighed as if she was frustrated, “Haa一.”

“I may have extorted some money from my uncle and thrown the auditors and their backer grandpa in jail, but.”

“…….”

“I’m a good kid.”

Luatisha thumped her chest.

“Ah, yes…….”

Luatisha pouted at the lukewarm answer.

“At least I’m not a bad kid enough to throw someone else’s precious memories into the gutter.”

Count Cantor stared at the child’s face.

It was such a soft face that he wondered how such a thing could have come from the Phaerahton Duke.

But he shouldn’t take her lightly.

This child’s skills were by no means those of an ordinary five-year-old.

‘Nevertheless, I have to agree that she’s not that bad of a kid.’

He, who always judged people in a binary way, was giving such a lukewarm evaluation.

Had he already been drawn in by this child?

“I think it would be better for Grandpa to check it himself than for me to tell you.”

Luatisha, who had gotten up from the scallop, took something out of the inner room.

It was a stack of documents.

Count Cantor, with slightly trembling hands, but without hesitation, unfolded the documents.

“T-This is…….”

He was prepared not to be surprised by whatever was written.

But the contents of the document were far beyond his imagination.

It wasn’t that Daphne had another man, nor that she had run away from Count Cantor.

It was an abduction.

And she was subjected to human experimentation.

The contents of the horrific experiment were such that humans could never endure it.

He involuntarily ground his teeth.

How could she have endured these numerous experiments, that fragile woman?

The woman who couldn’t even walk barefoot in the garden because her feet hurt.

‘All of this…….’

The knuckles of the hand holding the document turned white.

In the end, Daphne died from the cruel experiments.

Count Cantor didn’t know whether he should be relieved that her pain was over or be angry and sad about her death.

Only one thing was certain.

When Daphne was suffering like this, he couldn’t do anything for her.

He couldn’t find her, and he knelt before the false evidence and story.

He wanted to kill himself for despairing like a tragic protagonist betrayed by love.

Even at that moment, Daphne was suffering like this.

“Shall I help you?”

It was a secret whisper.

Count Cantor raised his head sharply.

The child was looking at him with a strange expression.

“There’s someone who kidnapped Daphne, experimented on her, and created false evidence to make you give up because you kept looking for her.”

Count Cantor sighed.

Yes, there was still work to be done.

“Shall I help you with that revenge?”

“I appreciate the offer, but there’s no need to help. That’s something I have to do entirely on my own.”

“……When the work is done?”

A child is sometimes too sharp.

“Are you thinking of dying, Grandpa?”

“……There’s no reason to live any longer.”

Count Cantor answered calmly and carefully examined the documents, excluding emotions.

There were blacked-out marks all over the documents.

“Why are the phrases erased?”

“I don’t know either.”

It was obvious that they had been erased recently.

“Are you not going to tell me who the culprit is?”

Count Cantor’s eyes sharpened.

Was she trying to trade with him using the identity of the culprit as bait?

“No. I didn’t erase the culprit’s name. I can tell you who the culprit is. However…….”

Luatisha looked at him with a sullen look.

“There’s no evidence. There’s no name written on the document either. You have to believe what I say. Will you believe me?”

Count Cantor was silent.

Having obtained these materials, he would be able to find out who the culprit was if he investigated step by step.

There was only the date of the experiment here, but no place or person involved, so it would take quite a while, but he would definitely be able to catch the exact culprit.

So, it was right to shake his head without believing the uncertain words.

But.

“……I will believe you.”

Luatisha looked at him for a moment and then opened her mouth.

“It’s Count Yozenheim.”

At that moment, all sorts of thoughts swirled inside Count Cantor.

Was it true? Was she trying to use him to eliminate a political enemy? No, was there any reason to eliminate him to this extent? He was already in prison. Why did Count Yozenheim do that to Daphne? But the two of them had a good relationship.

Unlike the torrent of thoughts, his head nodded.

“……I see.”

He was surprised at how convinced he was.

“I stole Daphne’s necklace from Count Yozenheim. I thought it was a spirit’s necklace, so…….”

It was a reason that he didn’t know whether to call absurd or childish.

“I saw the portrait in the locket and realized it wasn’t. So I stole the experiment report about Daphne.”

“How did you steal it?”

“With the help of the Arentwell tax law…….”

Arentwell tax law?

What was that supposed to mean?

But he understood her desire not to reveal how she obtained it.

“……Daphne thought Grandpa had abandoned her.”

How could he dare to say no?

He completely believed that she had betrayed him.

“Count Yozenheim said that. That you wouldn’t come to save her. That you were already married to another woman and had children.”

“That’s ridiculous……!”

“Did Grandpa not get married because of Daphne?”

Count Cantor was a person who was more than excellent.

Ability, charisma, skill.

There was nothing that wasn’t the best.

Moreover, what about his family?

The Cantor family was a long-time vassal family of Phaerahton, with a long history and high reputation.

As such, they were closely related to the core of the duchy.

With tremendous ability and a strong background.

The reason why he didn’t become the head of the Council of Elders was for two reasons.

The first was that he didn’t build his own power by putting up walls around him.

The second was more important, because he was unmarried and had no successor.

The reason why people weren’t rallying around Count Cantor as the center of attention now that the position of head of the Council of Elders was vacant was also because of the second reason.

“……That’s right. Because I thought I was betrayed by her, I came to hate love.”

But if that was really the case, he should have had a political marriage with a suitable partner.

Slowly, Count Cantor’s lips opened.

“Actually…… I didn’t want to love anyone other than her. I couldn’t have any woman, even if it was just a formality, as my wife.”

It was his own inner thoughts that he was finally facing properly.

“Then, then is that why Grandpa didn’t adopt anyone?”

“……That’s right. It’s a foolish stubbornness, but.”

Luatisha licked her dry lips with her tongue.

She carefully opened her mouth.

“If, if Daphne had a baby in her belly.”

A baby in her belly.

At those words, Count Cantor raised his head sharply.

“Are you saying that Daphne was pregnant with my child?!”

“Yes.”

“T-That child…….”

The Count couldn’t bring himself to speak.

The mother died from human experimentation.

Then the child was probably一.