There Is No Place For Fakes [EN]: Chapter 129

I just realized.

The memories of that day resurfaced, and everything became as vivid as if it had happened just yesterday.

Shock, fear, helplessness, sadness.

I had reverted to the child who could only tremble behind the door.

‘I thought it was just a past event, but it wasn’t.’

It was as if time had only piled up on top of an unhealed wound. Just because it wasn’t visible on the surface didn’t mean it was overcome.

Now I knew. That the Emperor cherished me like his own daughter.

Also, I readily admitted it. There were definitely happy moments during the time I spent with him.

But that didn’t erase the memory of that day, seven years ago. The wound existed independently. So vividly.

Philomell enunciated each word carefully.

“I hate Your Majesty.”

I know this will be like a dagger to him.

But it’ll be okay. You must have known I would be hurt when you said those words too.

“I don’t want to see Your Majesty’s face ever again. Let’s not see each other and live our own lives.”

She left the man, who was as stiff as a stone, and headed for the door.

“I’ll be leaving for the Magic Tower soon with my real father. I came here today to tell you this.”

“……Wait, Philomell!”

Philomell ignored him and tried to leave the office. But then.

Thud!

“It was my fault.”

Justis knelt down. The Emperor of the Vellerop Empire himself knelt on the floor.

“I’ll do anything to make you feel better.”

“Please don’t do this.”

“Philomell, please……”

Philomell’s expression twisted.

“If you do this, it makes me feel like I’m the bad person for not being able to forgive Your Majesty.”

The man’s face hardened.

“Please don’t make me the bad person.”

Philomell stepped back and fled from the office.

“Philomell! Don’t go!”

A voice echoed from behind, like the cry of a beast, but the Emperor remained rooted to the spot. It seemed like he couldn’t move.

Philomell ran.

“Philomell!”

The cry echoed through the hallway like the wail of a beast. Philomell’s pace gradually slowed. By the time she left the Imperial Palace, she was moving slowly.

She composed herself and put on an expression that was no different from usual.

I won’t be shaken by something like this. Not by something like this.

But an unexpected guest was waiting for her at the Imperial Palace.

“It’s been a while, Lady Philomell!”

“Countess Delles.”

It was Countess Delles, who had worked as Philomell’s lady-in-waiting and returned to her territory several months ago.

Next to Countess Delles was a young woman who resembled her.

“Lady Philomell, it’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Emma Delles.”

“You’re the Countess’s daughter.”

“Yes. I’ve heard a lot about you from my mother. As she said, you are a person of overflowing dignity.”

“You flatter me.”

Philomell greeted them as if she were happy to see them, but she felt a slight sense of dismay.

‘I just want to rest and do nothing right now.’

However, she couldn’t show her displeasure to the Countess and her daughter, whom she hadn’t seen in a long time.

Philomell served tea to the two women in the drawing room.

The two said they planned to stay in the capital for the time being.

Countess Delles looked embarrassed.

“I’m sorry for coming to visit without notice. Originally, we were just planning to take a light tour of the capital with my daughter today, but my daughter insisted on seeing Lady Philomell……”

Philomell smiled and responded.

“It’s okay. What kind of formalities do we need between you and me, Countess?”

“That’s right! Excessive politeness is old-fashioned. But my mother is always nagging me……”

“Oh, you!”

“Ouch! It hurts, don’t hit me!”

Emma, who had studied abroad in Elita, was a witty person. She had a knack for selecting interesting topics and leading the conversation smoothly.

Thanks to Emma, Philomell was able to blend into the conversation appropriately. She also skirted around the issue when they asked about her Magic Tower Lord father.

Before she knew it, the topic of conversation shifted to Philomell’s childhood. It was because Emma was curious.

Countess Delles smiled warmly and reminisced about the past.

“You were so adorable. I mean, one day, you brewed sansalcho tea [a type of herbal tea] to relieve His Majesty the Emperor’s hangover and brought it to him……”

‘Ah…….’

This was the last topic I wanted to hear about right now.

Philomell tried not to let her expression crumble as she listened to her.

Hiding emotions behind a mask was her specialty. She had been doing it to death for the past seven years.

But the Countess, who was speaking, looked closely at Philomell’s face.

“Um, Lady Philomell.”

“Yes, Countess.”

“I might be wrong, but you don’t seem to be in a good mood lately……”

“……Pardon?”

“I don’t know if it’s just me, but your expression doesn’t look good……”

There was one thing Philomell had forgotten. Countess Delles was the one who had been by her side most closely for the past seven years.

Philomell unknowingly blurted out her true feelings in a hollow voice.

“I guess it was a bigger shock than I thought.”

Tears flowed from her eyes.

“Oh my! Lady Philomell!”

“What on earth is going on……”

Philomell calmed the two people who were flustered and didn’t know what to do.

“It’s okay. It’s nothing.”

She had just realized it while listening to the Countess Delles’s reminiscences. That she had been thinking about it all wrong.

Why did the young Philomell bring sansalcho tea to the Emperor?

Simply to gain the favor of the powerful in order to survive?

No. I wanted to be loved.

She denied it herself, but that was the truth.

‘Even after hearing those words seven years ago, I still wanted to be loved.’

The child who wanted her father’s affection continued to live and breathe inside her.

When she ran away and returned to the Imperial Palace, she vehemently denied the Emperor’s words that he regarded her as his own daughter for a similar reason.

She didn’t want to admit the hope that remained within her, the desire she believed she had already abandoned.

‘But I stayed in the Imperial Palace.’

The main purpose was to find the truth about . But can I really say that there wasn’t another motive at all?

Philomell finally admitted it.

She was just a child who thought she had cut off all her lingering feelings. Philomell and Justis’s relationship had finally broken down.

* * *

A long time ago. Isabella pondered over the name of the child in her womb. Which flower’s name should she give to her child, out of the two flowers she liked?

Justis told her to give both names. There was a custom that the high priest would decide the middle name of the royal family, but if she wanted, there was nothing he couldn’t break.

Isabella shook her head.

“I’ll just name her Elencia. The flower language of the Elencia flower is ‘happiness.’ I want our child to be happy.”

Then she added.

“Because the flower language of the Philomell flower is too sad……”

Even he, who was ignorant of flowers, knew it well because he had heard it from her.

Life is fleeting, ephemeral youth, the futility of good times. The meanings contained in that ephemeral flower were hard to say good even as a formality.

“I see,” Justis said, agreeing with Isabella’s opinion.

In fact, he didn’t care either way. After all, even the child was born because Isabella wanted it.

As the due date approached, Isabella longed for her hometown. Justis sent his wife to her hometown. And his wife returned as a cold body. Leaving behind only one newborn baby.

He gave the child the name ‘Philomell’ instead of ‘Elencia,’ which his wife had decided on. Because that was a name that suited their short and beautiful love. The child grew up. She grew up even as he indulged in alcohol and wasted his days.

As he had feared, he did not find the child lovely. To him, family was not a being that shared love with each other, but a rival to be killed and killed.

He didn’t have the confidence to love his child. When he confessed these feelings, Isabella gently stroked his hand and comforted him.

“It’s okay. I’ll show you what parental love is.”

Even that wife was now gone.

He sometimes imagined.

‘If that child had looked exactly like Isabella, would I have been able to love her?’

But even if that were the case, it wouldn’t be the ‘parental love’ that Isabella spoke of.

To have love divided by whether the child resembled his wife or not.

Justis simply gave up. He thought it would be enough to fill it with something other than love.

He allowed the child to obtain anything she wanted, except for one thing. Whether it was an object or a fiancé.

“Father, if you’re okay with it, would you like to have dinner with me today……”

But still, the child approached him. Even if he refused or ignored her, she continued to do so.

He was anxious. He was also annoyed.

He was reluctant to demand emotions that he thought were impossible for him. He hated the desperate look in her eyes, as if it were pointing out his flaws.

“Living like a dead mouse. So that there’s nothing to pay attention to, so that I don’t even know you’re there.”

But he shouldn’t have said those words.

The faint presence that had been felt behind the door disappeared.

Blaming it on the alcohol was a poor excuse. Justis was simply avoiding it. In the worst way possible, leaving a deep scar on the child’s heart.

And that night.

“I…… will be a good child…… So…… don’t…… kill…… me.”

That night, when he felt that the child resembled him for the first time.

His view of Philomell slowly began to change.