Lord Baby Runs A Romance Fantasy With Cash [EN]: Chapter 53

53

☆ 53 ☆

“He’s alive.”

Ruatisha’s small hand tightly gripped the Count’s cold one.

Alive.

Strength returned to the Count’s fading eyes.

Ruatisha was impressed by the sight.

‘Count Kandore regains his composure very quickly, faces reality, and then thinks about the future.’

“…Do you want to meet him?”

Instead of answering yes immediately, Count Kandore looked at Ruatisha with sunken eyes.

Ruatisha made an offer he couldn’t refuse.

To let him meet Daphne and his child.

So.

“What do you want from me?”

“Hmm, that’s a lot…”

The child, who had been tilting her head, soon smiled brightly.

“But I’ll help you meet him even if you don’t grant me a single thing I want.”

“…May I ask why?”

Ruatisha had already had several opportunities to demand what she wanted from Count Kandore.

The necklace, the documents containing the truth about Daphne’s death, the culprit who killed her, and now even his child.

Why hadn’t she used them to make a deal?

“It’s about parents meeting their child.”

The words that fell were unexpected.

Count Kandore raised his eyes to look at the child’s face.

“I was also separated from my dad and stayed with my uncle’s family. My uncle hurt me, and I didn’t even know my name.”

“…What are you saying?”

He had heard that Ruatisha hadn’t lived a very affluent life due to the embezzlement of living expenses.

‘But abuse? And she didn’t even know her name?’

The retainers in the Duke of Paeraton’s residence knew about it, but Duke Paeraton had thoroughly silenced them.

Therefore, Count Kandore was unaware.

“So I know. Not having a dad or mom is so sad.”

“…”

“It’s about a child meeting their dad, so if you don’t grant me what I want, I won’t help you. I’m not that trashy.”

Count Kandore lowered his head in shame.

‘I’m the trash.’

The child was so pure.

Just because she was smart didn’t mean she wasn’t pure.

It was a great misunderstanding, but unfortunately, there was no one to correct him.

“Anyway, do you want to meet your child? You won’t abandon them, will you?”

“Of course. I want to meet them right away.”

“Think carefully. They lived as a test subject from the time they were in the womb. So… can you imagine what they might look like?”

“I don’t care. They are my child.”

“They might not be mentally sound.”

“I am grateful to that child just for being alive.”

“Are you really okay with whatever they look like?”

Count Kandore was silent at Ruatisha’s repeated confirmation.

‘How miserable must the child be for her to ask this much?’

He suppressed the reddening around his eyes and said.

“Young Lady, I’m not that much of a scumbag.”

* * *

After Count Kandore left.

“I told you.”

I said to the closed inner room.

“Your dad wants to meet you.”

The closed door didn’t move.

“I checked several times because I thought you wouldn’t believe me. You heard, right? He said he doesn’t care what you look like.”

After a moment of silence, the door opened with a click.

A boy in his early teens appeared through the gap.

He was a boy who looked exactly like Daphne in the necklace portrait.

“…Do you really think so even after seeing this appearance?”

Count Kandore’s son was in his thirties, but his appearance was strangely young.

‘I know he’s a total old man, but because of his appearance, I keep calling him oppa [an affectionate Korean term for ‘older brother’ used by women].’

If Viscount Dier, who is younger and being called an old man, knew, he would feel wronged.

This excessively young appearance was consistent with the reason Daphne was kidnapped and became a test subject.

‘Because Daphne wasn’t human.’

Pregnant with Count Kandore’s child, she was anxious that she would be found out to be not human.

Because anyone would think it was strange if the child was born.

Count Yozenheim approached her and told her that he knew her identity and listened to her concerns.

After she lowered her guard and gained trust, he kidnapped her.

Of course, this story was not written in the experiment report.

It was all told by Daphne and her son, Count Kandore’s son.

Of course, the experiment report also contained information about him.

‘When I showed it to Count Kandore, I gave it to him after blacking it all out.’

It wasn’t me who erased it, but oppa himself.

Anyway, after encountering the test subject ‘8’ in the report, I looked through Count Yozenheim’s property seizure list, wondering if it was possible.

It was because I remembered seeing an item called ‘8’.

Sure enough, it was on the list, and of course, I could summon it.

‘I didn’t think it would be a real person.’

I thought they were just putting numbers on monsters.

It was hard to call a person ‘8’, so I’m calling him oppa.

I fed, dressed, and put oppa to sleep, and then we had many conversations.

“Why are you asking me if your dad said he’s okay with whatever you look like?”

“Seeing it in person is different. Aren’t I disgusting to you, miss?”

“Um, oppa is handsome, though? Your skin is smooth, and your hair is shiny.”

“Ah…”

He blushed shyly and didn’t know what to do, then lowered his head.

“Thank you…”

Oh, a fresh reaction.

I plopped down on the sofa and said.

“Come on! If being different from others is disgusting, what about my family?”

“N-No one would dare…”

“There are many people who fear and are afraid of magic. There must be people who gossip behind our backs.”

I shrugged.

“The funny thing is that I’m being pointed at for not having magic.”

“Miss…”

“They pointed fingers at me for having magic, and now they’re pointing fingers at me for not having magic. It’s only a loss for me if I keep paying attention to things like that.”

“There’s no reason for you to be pointed at.”

“I’m not normal either. There’s no way there’s a five-year-old like this. There must be a lot of people who say it’s disgusting because a child isn’t like a child, right? That’s really funny too. What is it, they don’t like a child who doesn’t fit their standards?”

People like that would say to kill that disgusting thing even if Kim Si-seup, who wrote poetry in Chinese characters at the age of three, was born.

“It’s natural for you to be outstanding. The blood of Paeraton is special.”

I was waiting for this to come out.

I smiled brightly.

“Then oppa is special too.”

Oppa opened his mouth and then closed it again.

“Am I disgusting to you?”

“No!”

He shook his head firmly as if that could never be the case, hesitated, and then said.

“…You are very lovely.”

“Thank you.”

I smiled brightly.

“I was born into a family with magic without magic, and in the meantime, my intellectual ability is like an adult’s. But oppa says I’m lovely, right?”

“Yes, you are very lovely.”

“Looking younger than your age is nothing compared to me.”

I stroked oppa’s water-colored hair.

“Strange bastards have been bothering oppa too much, so you keep thinking that way! The more you do, the more you shouldn’t give up! If oppa is disgusting, then I’m disgusting too, okay?”

Oppa nodded his head.

Good, good.

“What would you like me to do, miss?”

“My thoughts don’t matter.”

I held oppa’s hands tightly.

“From now on, oppa has to think and decide for himself.”

Oppa was silent.

But he was listening to me with very, very serious eyes.

“Maybe that’s really hard. It’s hard to take responsibility for your decisions, and it’s painful to be anxious about what to do if my decision is wrong.”

Anxiety permeated oppa’s face.

“But if you make decisions one by one, you’ll soon not want to listen to other people’s words.”

I grinned.

“If that happens, you’ll have to learn how to listen to other people’s words.”

“You know a lot.”

“Actually, I don’t know much either. I’m learning too.”

Oppa nodded at my words.

“You said before that you have to experience it to know it.”

“Yeah, thanks to that, I found out that pudding is delicious, right?”

“Pudding…”

Oppa, who was muttering blankly, nodded as if he had made up his mind.

“I’ll meet him. F…ather.”

I smiled brightly at oppa, who was pronouncing it awkwardly.

“Yeah!”

* * *

“Hmm, what kind of picture should I send this time?”

Unlike before, Count Kandore would come even if I just said let’s meet.

But I’ve been sending messages with pictures, so I want to match it the same way this time.

Golden arrows and lead arrows.

Laurel tree.

The pictures I sent to Count Kandore before were all related to the legend of the nymph Daphne.

Apollo, who was hit by Eros’ golden arrow, falls in love with Daphne at first sight.

But Eros shot Daphne with a lead arrow, and Daphne came to hate Apollo.

The legend is that Apollo continues to court Daphne, and Daphne turns into a laurel tree to avoid Apollo.

As a world that refers to K-Romance, there was a legend similar to Earth here as well.

‘And even Daphne is really a nymph.’

She was a water fairy.

I pondered for a moment and picked up a crayon.

* * *

Count Kandore heard a sound tapping on the window of his office.

It was the news he had been waiting for.

When he quickly opened the window, a small long-tailed tit was tying a piece of paper larger than its body to its feet.

Count Kandore untied the paper. It was a piece of paper folded twice.

“Cheep!”

“Okay, I got it.”

Count Kandore gave it a few grains of wheat.

The long-tailed tit put the grains of wheat in its beak and chewed them a few times…

Thwack!

No, did it spit it out?

I shouldn’t be able to read the long-tailed tit’s expression, but somehow I could.

“Cheep cheep!”

That’s a curse, definitely a curse.

“I deliberately prepared it for you, thinking of you.”

But the long-tailed tit turned its head away and flew to the office desk to peck at the refreshments.

‘Is it okay to give this to a bird?’

I had doubts, but it always ate snacks like that.

The long-tailed tit, which had filled its stomach to some extent, tapped the desk with its bird legs as if it were threatening.

“Cheep!”

And then it flew out the window.

“…Its temper is just like its owner.”

Count Kandore shook his head and unfolded the folded paper.

“Is it a picture that the youngest princess gave you again?”

The head maid, who had come in to change the cold tea, opened her eyes wide.

“She keeps giving it to me even though I said no.”

“Oh my? The princess must really like you.”

“Ahem, I don’t know.”

“It’s certain that she keeps giving you pictures like this!”

“Come to think of it, she asked me to carry her on my back the other day.”

“Oh my, oh my? Are you showing off now?”

“Showing off what.”

Count Kandore turned his head awkwardly.

‘I must be getting old.’

“Let’s see, today there are two yellow snakes? Haha, the youngest princess isn’t afraid of snakes either. She’s brave.”

The head maid, who approached Count Kandore, smiled warmly, smoothing out her wrinkled face.

Count Kandore frowned.

“Where does this look like a snake?”

The head maid looked at the picture again carefully.

“It looks like a snake no matter where you look at it. If it’s not a snake, what is it?”

“It’s two golden arrows.”

Count Kandore said in a tone that he couldn’t even recognize that, but the head maid still tilted her head.

“Even if you look at it upside down, even if you look at it while running, it’s a snake.”

Count Kandore clicked his tongue, looking at the head maid’s back as she muttered and left.

But a faint smile was already on his face as he looked at the picture again.

No lead arrows, two golden arrows.

The meaning was clear.

* *

Count Kandore straightened his clothes for no reason with a trembling heart.

It had been so long since he had felt this way that he himself was unfamiliar with it.

“Grandpa!”

A small pink rabbit came hopping from afar.

“What are you doing? You’re handsome anyway.”

“Ahem.”

Count Kandore, who had become embarrassed, coughed for no reason.

The Count was led by the child’s hand to the east garden.

In the middle of the east garden, an elegant and delicately soaring gazebo was shining brightly.

Cold winter air and warm heat met around the gazebo, and a light fog rose like a fantasy.

Beyond the pillars visible through the fog, there is my child.

Thump, his heart made a loud noise, dropped, and then bounced back up.

I don’t even know how I’m walking.

If it weren’t for the child’s hand leading him, he would have just stood there awkwardly.

Finally, Count Kandore’s foot crossed the edge of the gazebo.

Count Kandore’s hand, holding Ruatisha’s hand, tightened.

However.

“…”

No one was there.

The gazebo was empty.

His pounding heart sank coldly.

At that moment,

“Ah, Father.”

A small voice was heard from behind.

I thought I had to turn around.

But my body didn’t move.

Tension, expectation, fear, and excitement squeezed his heart.

Slowly, very slowly, Count Kandore turned his body.

The moment he captured the figure of the boy standing anxiously, his silver eyes shook violently.

Light water-colored hair sparkling through the fog.

Eyes that seemed to have scooped up the lake and put it in.

A delicate face with different lines from himself.

Long and straight limbs.

Maybe.

Maybe he took after his mother so much.

Ah, he’s really Daphne and my son.

‘My son.’

His throat was so tight that no words came out.