……That’s right.

‘A button engraved with the coat of arms of Landgritz…..’

There was no need to examine the circumstances further. That alone was enough.

Swallowing dry saliva made my throat sting. The child who saved me then…….

‘To think it was really Lord Joseph.’

For a moment, I couldn’t pinpoint what emotion I should feel.

I had long tried to find the child who saved me then, but had essentially given up. Because there was no way.

Grandfather and Teacher Rosier had also told me that child might already be dead.

‘Yet that person was right beside me.’

My heart felt like it was being pounded with two hammers.

I quickly turned my head to check Lord Joseph’s face. His expression was calm.

Ah, right. He said he would block out the sound. He wouldn’t have been able to hear what Dorothea was saying now.

To him who was looking at me with a puzzled gaze, I turned my eyes back to Dorothea to convey that it wasn’t time yet.

It would be better to calm my excitement for now.

Let’s postpone the urge to carefully examine his features to find traces of his childhood appearance.

“……Couldn’t Joseph have just stolen that button?”

“Hehehe, that dimwit thug? That worm who can’t even pickpocket the pockets of passing fools?”

“Did you have him pickpocket?”

“Well, noble lords like you probably don’t know, right? For those born in the slums, that level is just everyday life. But that brat was too weak from the start. He couldn’t even beg properly, let alone pickpocket.”

As her story continued, I could only feel relieved at my foresight in suggesting that Lord Joseph block his hearing earlier.

Every word she used to describe Lord Joseph was no different from treating a defective product full of flaws.

It was extremely unpleasant…… but nevertheless, I listened to her words.

Just in case other information might come out through her mouth.

“Ha, talking about it is irritating. How unfair it is to me. I put in so much effort to mold that face, only for the one who emerged to be just a pretty face half-wit.”

“……You say you molded?”

“Yes. Damn, I was going to use him as a successor, but I didn’t expect him to just trail after women. He too ended up being a failure in the end.”

A series of very unpleasant sounds followed.

At that, Dorothea seemed to be excited by my disgusted reaction, even though she couldn’t see.

“Kekeke, why? Do you noble-born think that those wallowing at the bottom don’t struggle to breed offspring to pass on what they have? Well, it might be a bit different. We’re not interested in our descendants living well after we’re dead like you are. We just need a successor for our own comfortable retirement.”

Words I hadn’t even asked came pouring out of her mouth.

“Besides, you might not know, but the name Mistress Dorothea is known to everyone in this world. My wealth is even greater than those of those puny barons or counts from the Empire…… Ah! I have as many enemies as I do wealth. So I need a successor for my comfortable retirement.”

The fact that she possessed an enormous amount was information I had already grasped through the letters the children had sent.

‘It’s natural for someone who has risen to an executive position in a world where dirty money changes hands.’

Above all, the evil deeds she had committed to reach such a position would be nauseating to list one by one.

It was understandable that she had made enemies to the point of endangering her life.

And Dorothea was clearly aware of this point as well.

Thus, she said she had wanted an heir stronger and more vicious than anyone else from early on.

But not everything in the world went according to her plans.

……From here on, it’s a somewhat disgusting story.

Dorothea said she repeatedly got pregnant countless times to obtain an heir.

Her partners ranged from passing drunkards to fellow organization members, and eventually even the organization’s boss, she said.

However, all the children born that way failed to meet her conditions.

The first child was ugly, the second child was stupid, the third child had mental problems, the fourth was deformed…….

In this way, as many as five children were born and abandoned over a period of 15 years.

‘Joseph’ was the last child to be born.

But even Joseph failed to meet Dorothea’s standards. It was because his nature was too weak.

When Joseph was about three years old, Dorothea said she contemplated. Whether it would be better to ‘dispose of’ this child like the others.

The son who should protect himself more cunningly than the devil and more viciously than a monster, had everything else but was excessively frail.

From Dorothea’s perspective, such a child was nothing but a useless mouth to feed, she said.

Above all, in the underworld, such overly kind ones couldn’t even earn their own keep.

Nevertheless, the reason she couldn’t abandon Joseph was because she thought he was the most exquisite work she could create in her life, she said.

“Ah, there was one more reason. I was diagnosed as infertile after giving birth to Joseph.”

“……”

In an instant, coldness spread from my fingertips to my toes. Lord Joseph, who had been watching me until then, tightly grasped my hand.

Thanks to that, I was able to maintain my self-control while hearing words that made my teeth grind.

“Still, wouldn’t a dimwit improve with education? If you beat them like a dog, that is. People can become as vicious as needed if they want to live. Kekekeke.”

It was the moment that explained the marks all over ‘Joseph’s’ body when I first met him.

“The problem was that stupid son just wouldn’t improve at all. I even thought about bashing his head in to make him an idiot, so I could at least use him as a pretty puppet.”

……Yet she speaks so proudly of abusing her child like that?

It was a mindset I simply could not understand.

I, who wanted to believe it was a lie, began to frantically look for contradictions in her words.

“……I understand that much, but there’s a part that doesn’t make sense. Perhaps there’s a slight problem with your memory? 15 years, you say. Even considering that I met you 20 years ago, you only look to be in your late 30s at most.”

If so, 20 years ago, she must have been at least in her mid to late 30s.

In other words, it means she should be in her mid to late 50s now.

But that appearance definitely did not look like that. Of course, it could be dismissed as simply due to superior genes.

But I too was overwhelmed by the continuous barrage of shocks.

I wanted to think that she was exaggerating about something, anything. But…….

“Late 30s?”

Dorothea suddenly gritted her teeth.

“Damn it, are you saying I’ve become some wrinkled old hag now?”

For a moment, such a murderous intent burst forth from her that I unknowingly stiffened in surprise.

“My face that I’ve been maintaining with the ointment of the Age of Magic? It’s become like that just because I haven’t applied it for about a month?”

The ointment of the Age of Magic!

The word I was going to ask about anyway finally popped out of her mouth.

The problem was that the situation had become awkward to ask her questions right away.

The veins in her eyes stood out so clearly that blood seemed about to drip from them as she contorted her face ferociously.

“Those damned, son of a bitch bastards! The red-haired thief who stole my ointment! That idiot-eyed bastard! That ointment was originally mine! It was mine!”

“The ointment, you mean that was the item from the Age of Magic?”

“Damn it, that cursed bastard was a problem too. I told him to bring me anything from the Age of Magic first no matter what, knowing this would happen! That blind fool who got tempted by a few coins and put it up for auction……”

“Items from the Age of Magic? Are you saying there’s someone who consistently deals with them?”

“I’ll kill them! That bastard and this bastard and your bastard, I’ll cut off all their limbs and throw them in the sewer, then gut them……”

Ah, well. That was the limit of my patience.

“Lord Joseph!”

To avoid hearing any more, I called out to Lord Joseph loudly, then hurriedly raised both hands to my ears.

Immediately, an agonized scream of “Argggh!” erupted from Dorothea’s entire body.

And fortunately, with that as the end, Dorothea’s torturous voice was no longer heard.