“Ah, Father?”

Based on the time, he seemed to be ready for bed, dressed in sleepwear.

But that was something Aeli noticed a little later.

Of all places, she had to run into him in her own room, causing Aeli’s mind to spin.

At this hour, in the room of his already deceased daughter, there was a woman whose identity was not exactly known.

Putting aside how she found the room without being told, if he were to ask about her identity or get angry, there would be no way to handle it.

“Am- am I going to be kicked out now?”

Her very existence was already suspicious, so running into her father like this was very unfavorable.

To others, she should be grateful to even be kicked out with her limbs intact. Aeli felt a chill run down her spine.

“My parents were so focused on Adi that I couldn’t even find the timing to bring up the topic of being recorded in the family registry as a branch member!”

My goodness. It seemed she wouldn’t even get a chance to open her mouth about the most important main point.

Aeli rapidly blinked her eyes and waved her hands in the air, trying to express her lack of ill intent.

– Footsteps.

“……?”

As she was lining up excuses in her head, hoping to somehow avoid the ending of being expelled, the former Count passed by Aeli just like that.

Aeli’s throat moved greatly in the incomprehensible situation.

She had unknowingly swallowed her saliva, but due to being so tense, it felt as if she had made a mistake.

Aeli raised her hand and touched the corner of her mouth, then lowered her head.

It was to check if the brooch Noel had given her perhaps had a concealment magic engraved that would hide her appearance in an emergency situation.

“No, it’s not there……?”

But to her surprise, let alone the expected concealment magic formula, there wasn’t even a brooch on her chest.

Come to think of it, when she secretly went through the secret passage to see the child – she couldn’t wear the brooch over her sleepwear, so she naturally left it behind.

She had worn the bracelet Noel had given her in case of any unexpected situations, but even that was not on her now as the child had begged to see her face and she had taken it off.

“…….”

Then what was it, really?

Aeli, who had been half bowing her head, raised it to look at her father.

At first, she was too flustered to notice, but looking closely now, his walking seemed somewhat awkward.

Thud!

Even when he bumped into a table placed in the middle, he showed no sign of pain.

“…… In the first place, even if it’s night, how can a person with their eyes wide open bump into a table that is clearly visible in front of them?”

Moreover, as mentioned earlier, her room was structured in a way that let in moonlight or sunlight very well.

Even without lighting a single candle, there was enough brightness to distinguish objects.

Aeli, sensing something strange, mustered up the courage and took a step towards where her father was standing.

As expected, despite purposely making noise to indicate her presence, her father did not turn around.

Aeli opened her mouth.

“…… Count?”

“…….”

“…….”

“…… Can you perhaps not hear me?”

“…….”

Though she kept the honorific just in case.

Again, there was no response.

At that point, there was only one thought that came to mind.

“…… Sleepwalking.”

She had heard of sleep disorders where people wander aimlessly in an unconscious state while asleep, but it was her first time actually seeing it.

And the subject was her own father.

Aeli narrowed her brows without realizing it, feeling troubled.

As far as she could remember, her father did not have such a sleep disorder.

“It doesn’t make sense to say he hid it, considering how many years he has lived in this mansion without me knowing.”

Even if she didn’t know, it should have been discovered by the knights on watch or the occasional servants wandering around at night.

Naturally, if such a scene was witnessed by someone, rumors would have spread.

– However, in the nearly twenty years she had lived in the mansion, she had never heard such rumors at all.

“Then that means it started at least after my surname changed to Ratliffe.”

There was nothing else that came to mind.

…… No, it wasn’t that there was absolutely nothing, but.

Aeli, who consciously excluded the hypothesis close to certainty that came to mind because she couldn’t bear to acknowledge it, looked straight ahead.

The place where her father, who seemed to be going somewhere, stopped was none other than in front of her bed.

She quite liked lying in bed, despite making a fuss that she would go crazy if she couldn’t go outside.

[Aeli. Daddy will give you a present, so can you close your eyes for a bit?] [Eh? I have to go find Lutis now-] [It will only take a moment, so close them. You will definitely like it too.]

It was probably around when she was ten years old. Not a very young age, but not old enough to go to the academy yet.

Unable to resist her father’s urging, she closed her eyes, and he led her somewhere just like that.

[Judging by the fact that he’s making me walk with my own feet, it seems to be inside the mansion at most, but what kind of present is it?]

She had such thoughts because it was questionable why he would make her walk with her feet when it would be quick to tear a movement scroll or use teleportation magic.

After climbing stairs and walking down a corridor for a bit, her father finally removed the hand covering Aeli’s eyes.

And it was inside her own room.

[What, it’s my room.] [That’s right.] […… The present?] [Isn’t there anything different about the room?] [Now that you mention it, the structure seems a bit different- Wow……!]

Did she mention that when she was banned from going out as a child, she broke the wall of her room with a magic tool?

After that day, repair work was done, but the room being empty was inevitable.

No matter how much additional furniture was brought in, there was a limit to what could be added, such as a couch, table, cabinet, bedding, and so on.

Resigning to her own karma, she had been just using it, but the bed had become bigger. It seemed to be about three times the size of the original one.

He had told her to leave her room for a week and stay in the guest room.

She thought it was a punishment for mixing a hair growth solution she had made herself into the shaving cream her father used just a few days before being expelled to the guest room, causing his beard to grow out a lot, but she didn’t expect this.

[Do you like it? I tried redecorating to match the size of the room and brought in a new bed.] […… Am I perhaps by the goddess’s side right now?] [Oh dear, unfortunately not. Our daughter still has to live more with daddy.] [Daddy……] [Yes. Since you like it-] [I will only play pranks once a week from now on!] […….]

No, I’d rather you just not do it at all.

Although not spoken out loud, thinking about it now, her father’s expression at that time, which was indescribable in words, seemed to roughly mean that.

“No, that’s not it.”

So this was the conclusion.

“…….”

“…….”

Her father was staring intently at the bed in Aeli’s room.

It was the very bed he had specially made in the past, saying if she was grateful, she should give him three kisses on the cheek.

[This is the timeline separator]

How much time had passed since then?

Without lying down, sitting, or even touching it, her father, who had been standing still for several hours just looking at the bed, slowly turned his back.

Checking the time, there were roughly two hours left until dawn.

Aeli, who had been gazing at the back of the person leaving the room without touching a single thing, had a grim expression.

“This is…….”

This is really not it.

Something was wrong. She was not unaware of it, but she was at a loss as to where to start and couldn’t even muster up the courage.

Aeli quietly followed behind at a slight distance to make sure her father safely returned to his bedroom.

A little later, when they had almost reached the bedroom.

At the sound of the door opening, she hurriedly hid her body behind the corner of the corridor.

“Rey.”

“…….”

“Did you go to Aeli’s room again?”

“…….”

“I told you to stop now. It’s been several years-”

“…….”

“…… No.”

Should I go in? The early morning air is cold. She heard a familiar voice, and not long after, the sound of the door closing.

Aeli, left alone in the silent corridor where not even an ant passed by, pressed her lips tightly together.

Judging by the fact that the door opened as soon as her father approached the bedroom, her mother must have been waiting in front of the door.

Just seeing her mother gently reprimanding her father who had returned without directly coming to find her, it was clear that this was not something that had been going on for just a day or two.

In the first place, her mother had mentioned how many years this had been going on, so the timing could be roughly inferred as well.

“If you’ve seen everything, go now.”

“……!”

Aeli was startled by the sound coming from the side and quickly turned her head.

Noel, who had been leaning against the corridor wall at some point, looked down at her and let out a small sigh.

“The servants will start moving soon. According to your grand claims, you shouldn’t be unaware of that.”

“…….”

“The guest room you are staying in and the bedroom used by the former Count and Countess are on different floors, so if the knight on watch discovers this scene, the mansion will be turned upside down.”

Aeli lowered her gaze to the floor, unsure if Noel was mocking her or not.

The content seemed to be mocking, but his tone was only matter-of-fact.

Aeli, who had clenched her hands into fists, opened her mouth.

Right now, that wasn’t what was important-

“…… How did you know I was here-”

“You’re not even a mouse, yet you rummage through the secret passages like that. How could I not know?”

“…….”

“I left it alone for now, worried that your parents might notice, but you couldn’t even hold back for that short time. Impressive.”

…… So he knew all of that.

Come to think of it, as a Mason skilled in magic, it was likely he had engraved a few invisible tracking spells in the passages.

She only knew of the existence of the secret passages and had never used them herself before this time, so she couldn’t have known.

Thinking about how he must have struggled alone to erase those traces while she wandered around knowing nothing, she had nothing to say.

As Aeli closed her mouth, Noel continued.

“I warned you when we were in the capital.”

[Until it is certain that you are Aeli, keep your identity hidden from the former Count and Countess.]

Aeli slightly nodded her head at the words that naturally came to mind.

Noel quietly folded his arms and closed his eyes while leaning against the wall.

“This is why I told you not to open your mouth recklessly.”

“…….”

“Even if your claim is absurd, I know it’s not at a level that can’t be believed at all. But if you mention it hastily and by any chance it’s not true-”

“…….”

“I won’t be able to face your parents.”

Putting aside the fact that it would be like driving two more nails into their hearts, Father probably wouldn’t be able to endure it any longer.

Rather than her, who claims to have died and woken up- the family who is clearly alive right in front of their eyes is more precious.

“So once your business is taken care of, go back obediently.”

“…… Okay.”

She couldn’t argue any further with the story being told in a harshly withered and exhausted face.

“This is not it.”

This is really, really not it……

She herself didn’t know exactly what wasn’t right.

The sky, which had begun to dimly dawn, was shining on the two people.