Well, that was what I was curious about.

How could a woman who loves Bonita so much have abused the child in the past?

It was an unsolvable mystery.

“I—”

“If you’re thinking of denying the abuse itself, I wouldn’t recommend that approach.”

He rubbed his brow as if tired.

“I’ve already investigated where you lived. It was in the slums near Champs-Élysées Street.”

Aria’s lips froze.

He continued speaking.

“Because you and Bonita stand out, many people remembered you clearly. That made the investigation easier.”

“……”

“Bonita wasn’t beaten by villagers or ill-mannered outsiders. Isn’t that right?”

Aria gave no answer.

Luke spoke with a frustrated feeling.

“From the start, all the wounds on Bonita’s body were traces that a woman would likely have made. The doctor said that if an adult male had beaten a child like that, her bones would have been broken and healed incorrectly long ago.”

At those words, Aria’s eyes twisted with anguish.

It was not the face of a criminal caught in the act, but rather that of a mother belatedly hearing about what happened to her child and suffering.

It was truly ironic to think that this woman was the one who had committed the abuse.

His chest felt painfully tight.

“Why did you do it?”

He asked, as if spewing out his emotions.

“Why did you take my daughter, make her so unhappy, and only now start loving her again?”

The more he spoke, the more his suppressed anger and sadness overflowed.

For 7 years, he didn’t even know Bonita existed in this world.

While he was struggling with the grief of losing Elodie, while he was dabbling in black magic to try to save her and tasting countless frustrations, while he thought about giving up everything in drunken stupors on the anniversaries of his wife and child’s deaths.

Bonita was alive.

Not in some distant foreign country, but within a few hours’ carriage ride.

And during that time he didn’t know, Bonita must have spent it very unhappily.

With only one person to rely on in the world, thinking of how Bonita must have just craved love no matter how that person treated her made his heart ache and filled him with anger. Self-loathing for spending those years so foolishly also crushed him.

Just because she loves Bonita now doesn’t erase what she did in the past.

It’s just buried for now, but will eventually explode.

The problem was that Luke had no idea how to deal with her.

Her high rank and the fear she inspired in others were not at all important right now.

He was just a human being.

Not an omnipotent god or a great magician of comparable skill. Hadn’t all the black magic he had studied so diligently failed in the end?

Far from resurrecting Elodie, he had foolishly failed to find his living daughter.

And now, there was only one thing he wanted.

For Bonita to be happy.

He wanted to give back everything Bonita should have naturally had as his and Elodie’s daughter. Of course he had to do that.

Because Bonita was his child.

Luke wiped his eyes.

Fortunately, the area around his eyes was dry.

Perhaps because so many emotions had whirled through him in a short moment, an intense fatigue washed over him. He spoke in a drained voice.

“I… she is too precious to me. That’s why I’m keeping you around. I’m afraid Bonita would be unhappy without you.”

To be honest, he had considered just turning a blind eye and letting it go forever.

Thinking that since Aria had wronged Bonita, it was right to leave the judgment to the child.

But seeing how she didn’t even know her own birthday made that resolve waver.

To some, it might seem like a small thing to ask “Why does that matter?” After all, not knowing one’s birthday doesn’t greatly impact one’s life.

However—

“Did… did I do something wrong?”

Seeing her face that didn’t understand the unfair treatment she had experienced at all made him change his mind.

The reason Bonita loves Aria despite suffering severe abuse is not because Bonita has forgiven her.

It’s because there was no one to teach her that it was wrong, that no one should treat her that way.

Luke voiced all those thoughts. Then he added:

“Just because you sincerely cherish Bonita now doesn’t make what happened then disappear. Yet Bonita had no choice but to accept you.”

“……”

“Because back then, you were Bonita’s entire world.”

Having said that much, Luke felt like he didn’t know what meaning there was to this action of his.

Aria was just listening without any reaction, while he was just pouring out words one-sidedly.

This wasn’t a conversation.

Moreover, he couldn’t just cut her off after this.

It was a situation that served no purpose other than self-satisfaction.

He sneered at himself.

Thinking that he really seemed pathetic lately—

“Wha…”

But when he turned to look at Aria again, Luke couldn’t help but be shocked.

She was crying.

Without making a sound, tears were falling drop by drop.

Every time she blinked, thick droplets rolled down her cheeks.

Soon they began to wet her skirt in round spots with a pattering sound.

The image of her crying face burned painfully clear on his retina.

Luke stood frozen as if nailed in place, holding his breath as he watched Aria’s tears.

She opened and closed her mouth several times while crying. But no words came out.

Luke inadvertently let slip:

“Why…”

Why are you crying like that?

The latter part didn’t follow.

Not understanding his own emotions, he hurriedly rose from his seat.

He felt like he shouldn’t keep looking at Aria any longer.

Bonita was doing the letter-writing homework Hindley had given her on the bed. As she read along with the alphabet and copied each letter one by one, Bonita made an “Ugh” sound.

‘Why are there so many letters?’

It wasn’t that memorizing itself was difficult. But to Bonita, the boundary between pictures and letters still felt blurry.

Still, the math problems were a bit more doable. It was thanks to the tip Hindley had given.

“If small number calculations are difficult, think of it like this.”

Bonita opened the workbook.

13+5=

13+6=

13+7=

“He said to think of addition like combining loose change on both sides…”

Bonita glared at the problem and began her own ‘translation’.

Then she could solve it right away.

After finishing the three pages assigned for today, Bonita lay sprawled on the bed and flipped through the textbook.

‘He said he’d teach division next time. I wonder how you calculate that?’

Hindley said that learning math would allow her to understand various objects.

For instance, even the nature of the gears inside carriages that Bonita was curious about was fundamentally math.

Hearing that certainly made her want to learn a bit more.

Though studying letters was still boring.

‘But I want to try writing a letter.’

Just as Bonita closed the math textbook and started reading the alphabet book again.

“Mom?”

The door opened.

Bonita, who had raised her body from the bed at the familiar blonde hair, ended up facing Aria directly.

“…Mom?”

Aria was a complete mess of tears.

Her eyes were red and swollen from crying so much.

“Bo— ahem, Bonita.”

Meanwhile, Aria was very flustered at running into Bonita.

She had returned to the bedroom to spend time alone, thinking Bonita would naturally be in the playroom.

But to be caught with a face like this.

“Were you crying?”

Bonita grabbed tightly onto Aria’s skirt, as if worried she might run away without a word.

It was a clever strategy.

No matter how small and weak the force, Aria couldn’t brush off Bonita’s hand reaching out to her.

In the end, she sighed and picked Bonita up.

Bonita, with her raised viewpoint, wrapped her arms around Aria’s neck. She plopped down on the bed.

Sitting next to Aria, Bonita glanced at her nervously. A small voice came from Bonita’s lips.

“Mom…”

The moment she heard those words, tears flowed from Aria’s eyes again.

Bonita began to panic and fret.

“Mom, what’s wrong? Are you hurt somewhere?”

“Ah, no. It’s not that. Just…”

“Then what?”

As Bonita looked up at Aria questioningly, the next moment she was pulled into a tight hug by her mother.

With every inhale, a soft fragrance filled her nose. Bonita held onto Aria’s arms tightly while trying to roll her eyes up to see her mother’s face.

“Daughter.”

It had been a while since she’d heard that term.

Feeling Aria’s hand on the back of her head, Bonita snuggled a bit deeper into her embrace.

A choked voice reached Bonita’s ears.

“Mom is… sorry. So very…”

Sadness permeated each syllable that broke off.

Bonita couldn’t understand what her mom was so sorry to her about.

Come to think of it, mom was like this when they first met too.

She said she was sorry for dying and leaving her alone for 7 years.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…”

So Bonita had no choice but to ask.

“Why?”

It wasn’t an accusation or interrogation, just pure curiosity.

“I don’t really understand why you’re apologizing to me, Mom.”

Bonita, who had slipped out of Aria’s arms, looked up at her intently.

Seeing her mom cry made her feel upset. Bonita chewed on her lip, then dropped a bombshell on Aria.

“It’s not your fault that you died, right Mom?”