Chapter 274

Cledwyn realized a blade was flying at him the instant he regained consciousness.

“Die, you monster!”

He didn’t recognize the attacker’s face, but the surroundings were unmistakable—the back of the Kartak Circle swordsmanship classroom at the Noble Academy. What he held wasn’t the Grand Duke’s treasured sword, but an ordinary iron blade.

Swish, thud. Almost at the same time as the sword left its scabbard, his opponent collapsed to the floor in a spray of blood. ‘Yeah, come to think of it, this kind of thing happened often,’ Cledwyn recalled with dull boredom.

Wait. Why am I thinking about it like it’s in the past? he questioned himself. This still happens to me every day…

[Daddy!]

Like a drop of ink bleeding into a vast lake, a ball of light that popped out of nowhere shouted—and instantly blended into Cledwyn’s world. He flinched, then frowned and pressed a hand to his forehead.

“…My memories are fading fast.”

The orb of light, about the size of a baby’s fist, fluttered around him like a butterfly, chirping.

[Daddy, you dummy! You have to be careful, or you’ll get trapped here and won’t be able to get out!]

“Daddy?”

He’d never been called that in his life, yet he knew at once what this thing was. He asked it, his voice oddly strained.

“Are you… my child?”

It sounded ridiculous. He felt ridiculous the moment he said it, and even the words themselves felt unnatural. But he had no other way to ask.

To suddenly speak with a child he hadn’t even known existed until recently—a child he’d never cared to have. Anyone hearing it would think he was trash, and he couldn’t help that.

The orb gave off a faint, flickering light like a star. When it heard his question, it flared even brighter. Cledwyn thought it was happy.

No one had taught him that. He just knew.

[That’s right! That’s right! I’m Daddy and Mommy’s child. You know, you know, Kion told me to guide Daddy. So I’m going to make Mommy and Daddy meet!]

(T/N: Thats soooooo cuteeeee)

That chattering tone didn’t sound like an unborn baby. Cledwyn frowned, unsure how many years it would take for a child to develop like this. The orb asked brightly.

[Why are you frowning, Daddy? Are you sick somewhere?]

“No. …You—why are you so articulate?”

[I’m good at talking, right? Right? I’m not the baby in Mommy’s belly right now, but a bigger baby from a few years later! Kion used a little of the power of time inside the Gray Jewel Eye to send me here. It wouldn’t do if Daddy couldn’t understand me, right?]

“That makes sense. Then what’s your name?”

He accepted it was his child, but he couldn’t keep calling it an orb. If it came from the future, it had to have a name—one he would give it. The orb spun around several times and replied sweetly.

[I won’t tell you!]

“Why?”

[Um…you know,…you know… that’s the rule. Daddy hasn’t named me yet, right? But if you learn my name now, the laws of spacetime will break. So I can only tell you when Daddy finishes everything and goes back.]

The orb flickered, as if grinning mischievously. Cledwyn sighed.

“I understand. …Let’s go meet my wife. I should wash up first.”

His clothes were stained with blood—probably from an assassin Abelus had sent. Come to think of it, that was why he wore only comfortable clothing during this time. The orb floated up and perched on his shoulder. He couldn’t feel any weight, but the spot still somehow felt ticklish.

[Okay! Where are we going?]

“The lake. If we go back to the dorm, my subordinates will make a fuss.”

Judging by the new buds on the trees, it was early spring—a season where you wouldn’t die from washing outdoors. The sun was already high, yet the school buildings were quiet, so it must have been the weekend. Cledwyn headed for the lake with the orb on his shoulder.

The orb chattered without pause.

[You haven’t said you love me yet today!]

“That’s a bit much.”

[Why? Daddy said he loved me from the first time he met me.]

“I haven’t met you yet.”

[Ah, that’s right! Well, Daddy said that. Daddy loved me from the first time he met me, but he loved me more and more as he spent every day with me. It’s okay even if Daddy doesn’t love me yet. I love Daddy, so Daddy has to love me from tomorrow?]

(T/N: Ughhhhh. sooooo cuteeee)

It was amazing. And unfamiliar. A child—whose existence he had never once imagined—had suddenly appeared and was whispering love into his ear. Cledwyn tried not to show how shaken he was.

“Let’s see how it goes.”

[Okay!]

In the first place, is the ‘Daddy’ this child talks about really me? Cledwyn found it hard to believe. He couldn’t picture himself telling a child he loved them. Hadn’t the Grand Duke’s bloodline always been indifferent to their children?

The forest lake where Academy students played in every season already had early birds out boating. But Cledwyn knew a spot where no one would notice him. He reached a small, quiet inlet wrapped in dense trees, stripped off his clothes, and stepped into the water.

With a careless sweep, he washed the fresh blood away. The orb hovered around him, chattering again.

[Daddy, Daddy! Mommy will hate it if you don’t wring your clothes out properly. She’ll say you’ll catch a cold?]

[Wow, Daddy is a good swimmer! I want to play in the water with Daddy!]

[Daddy! Look, there’s a fish! Catch it for me!]

“…What are you going to do with it if I catch it?”

He barely needed to respond, since the orb never waited for answers before moving on to the next demand. But he couldn’t ignore a request like catching a fish, so he asked seriously. The orb flickered as if smiling.

[I’m going to raise it!]

“How are you going to raise it here? I’ll catch it for you next time.”

[Promise? Pinky swear!]

“You don’t have a pinky.”

[Then pinky swear later too!]

“Okay.”

If he could get out of here safely, if Nerys could wake up safely and give birth to this child… if that was possible, what promise couldn’t he make? Cledwyn paused, then asked—

“The fact that you were born and are growing up well… that means this ends well, right?”

[I don’t know!]

“Why?”

[Well, how do I explain it to Daddy? The future isn’t set in stone. So when Kion used magic, she attached a kind of assumption. I didn’t come from just any future—I came from a future where ‘Daddy succeeded, Mommy woke up safely, and everyone was happy.’]

“I feel like I understand, and I don’t.”

[It’s hard unless you’re a magician! I can understand because I’m the one who was summoned here with that magic. Um, anyway—if the laws of the world see what Daddy’s doing and decide Daddy failed, I’ll disappear, and in return, Kion will lose a lot of her lifespan.]

At the word “disappear,” Cledwyn stared at the orb. It dimmed slightly, its glow turning gloomier.

[Maybe it’s okay if I disappear because the Daddy here doesn’t love me, but… um… you still love Mommy, right? So please do your best.]

Cledwyn let out a long breath.

“The fact that I haven’t met you yet doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to disappear.”

The orb brightened again. Cledwyn glanced at it as it buzzed around like a bee, then checked the clothes he’d spread over a branch. From what it was saying, it was still young. Was it really fine for its first moments with him to be scenes of Daddy killing people?

Just then, he heard small footsteps. Someone was coming this way.

Cledwyn quietly swam away from shore and hid himself among the drooping willow branches nearby. From the sound, it was a child… and only one. It didn’t feel like an assassin, but he still had to be careful.

After a moment, a girl emerged through the dense trees by the lake.

A small, slender blonde girl.

Sunlight filtered through the thin leaves, scattering across her platinum-blonde hair. Cledwyn’s lips lifted when he saw her.

So soon.

‘Cute.’

From her appearance, Nerys was twelve now. Unlike her usual self, her hair wasn’t neatly styled, so that beautiful color looked almost ordinary—like the fluff of a newborn chick. Her clothes were wrinkled here and there, but her innocent eyes, as if starlight lived inside them, were undeniably lovely.

Cledwyn was about to step out and speak to her at once.

Then his body wouldn’t move.

As he panicked, Nerys sat down in the grass. She opened the book she’d brought onto her lap and began to read.

The moment she opened it, she sank completely into the story. Her small, delicate face reacted only to the pages—smiling, crying—while the breeze lifted her side hair and fluttered her skirt. The pages turned quickly.

After a while, Cledwyn felt his body begin to move—carefully.

Not by his will.

First his hand, then his foot, shifted on their own toward the shore.

‘Is this body possessed?’

For a moment he was horrified, but fortunately, instead of walking out of the water naked, his body used the bushes and willow branches to conceal itself and moved toward the clothes he’d laid out earlier. While his body dressed, Nerys never once lifted her eyes from the book.

‘How focused is she?’

Cledwyn smiled in his mind, knowing that when his wife fell into a book, she stopped hearing the world. Only in his mind—because his body didn’t smile along.

And he was irritated.

He needed to get Nerys out of here quickly, but why was this body acting on its own? Was it because he was inside her memory?

He’d wrung the clothes out well thanks to the orb’s nagging, and with the sun overhead they were mostly dry. Still slightly damp, but not unpleasant.

Just as his body turned its head as if to leave the area—

A strong gust of wind swept through.

Nerys let out a small, flustered sound.

“Ah……”

Flap, flap, flap. The pages whipped so violently it became impossible to read. A paper bookmark tucked between them tore free and flew toward Cledwyn—slipping through branches pried open by the wind.

Cledwyn’s eyes met Nerys’s.

Her clear Violet Eyes widened. His body stiffened. He tried with everything he had to call her name, but his lips wouldn’t open.

A moment later, his body turned and ran—on its own—away from the lakeside.

Only Nerys’s young voice, exhaled like a sigh, lingered behind him.

“Elf…?”

Only after he was completely away from the lake did Cledwyn regain control of his body. Before charging back recklessly, he asked the orb—

“What happened? I couldn’t move the way I wanted.”

[That’s because the Daddy Mommy remembers at this time acted like that!]

“Me in her memory?”

Nerys had said she’d had no contact with him in her previous life. But had they crossed paths like this?

“So from now on, I can’t do what I want here?”

[Um… because this is Mommy’s time, only things Mommy remembers can happen where Mommy remembers. Daddy can act more freely where Mommy doesn’t know. What happened earlier was probably a very early, insignificant, blurred memory for Mommy—almost forgotten. But it still exists properly in her subconscious. Other than that, only when Mommy can’t recognize it at all!]

“Then how do I take her out?”

[Kion said it! Daddy, you dummy! You have to find Kion here.]

“I need her to free the dragon.”

[No, Daddy. You don’t necessarily need Mommy.]

“What are you talking about? I was with her, so I….”

Cledwyn cut off—and realized what the orb meant.

Yes. It had been said there was only one time. One time the Seal was broken, in Nerys’s previous life…

“No.”

The word came out firm, before he even finished thinking.

Wait for her to suffer through everything—then be murdered?

“No. I’m going to take her out somehow, before that.”