“Ahhh, aaaaah!”

A piercing scream filled a corner of the quiet dawn.

Lutis swung his sword in the air to shake off the blood and wiped off the remaining bloodstains with a handkerchief he was holding.

There seemed to be a hint of red liquid on the flower petals still attached, but it could not be confirmed as he immediately threw the handkerchief into the broken magical tool.

Lutis spoke to the Knight Commander.

“With one arm severed, she can no longer work as a maid. Dispose of the severed arm properly and dismiss the maid. Tell the Head Maid to give her some severance pay and kick her out.”

“…Understood.”

“Furthermore, from this time onwards, the passageways exclusively for servants will be sealed off. Those caught using them will also be dismissed, so inform the Head Maid to warn them as well.”

“…”

“As for the place we were originally going to… It’s already daybreak, so it won’t do. Report your findings to me by the end of today. We’ll go again in the evening.”

“Yes, sir.”

While speaking, Lutis gathered the scattered pieces and turned his back, heading towards the main castle.

He wanted to change clothes and rest a bit.

[This is the timeline separator]

Although that wish could not be immediately fulfilled.

“You foolishly held onto it until your hand became like this?”

“Well, I couldn’t just leave it in the pit of fire, could I?”

What kind of item was it that Aeli, who rarely got attached to things due to easily getting bored of them, had kept for a very long time?

For Lutis, who knew this, it would be stranger if his eyes didn’t roll back.

As Lutis mumbled blankly with his head half-lowered, his voice sounding self-deprecating, the Knight Commander, who was skillfully wrapping and fixing the bandage he received from the physician onto Lutis’s hand, opened his mouth as if frustrated.

“Then you should have at least worn gloves! Didn’t you hear what the physician said earlier? At that temperature, if it were an ordinary person, it wouldn’t have ended with just a burn.”

“Right…”

“You could have at least not clenched your fist. Due to the bleeding and being burnt simultaneously, it might become necrotic if left like this. As soon as the day breaks, we should call the priest-”

“I’ll handle it, so leave it at that and go.”

Lutis, who had been listening to the Knight Commander’s words in silence, knowing they were out of concern, finally issued an order to expel him.

He felt that if he listened to that story any longer, his head would not be left due to the headache.

As Lutis familiarly took out medicine hidden somewhere on his office desk and poured it into his mouth, the Knight Commander paused before speaking.

“…Your Grace. I’m worried because it seems you’ve been taking medicine too often these days.”

“It doesn’t particularly seem that way to me.”

“I’ve seen it myself, more than seven times in the past ten days. I heard you’re looking for stronger ones due to developing a tolerance…”

Relying too much on medicine doesn’t seem to be a good method. It’s just a temporary measure. When the Knight Commander advised that he seemed to be treating his body too harshly in the past few months, Lutis responded with hazy eyes, sparing his words.

A life of not sleeping, not eating, and only immersing himself in work while relying on medicine.

It’s not normal. He wasn’t unaware of it himself.

However, he didn’t feel the need to correct this lifestyle, so he nodded his head perfunctorily. He was too tired to even waste energy on unnecessary arguments.

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

At the response that lacked even an ounce of motivation, the Knight Commander’s lips twitched.

Lutis indifferently passed over that gaze and picked up the clothes draped over the couch.

“You’re going to change here?”

“Yeah.”

“Why not change in the bedroom…”

“The child will be sleeping, so I shouldn’t wake them up, right? It seems like they just fell asleep not too long ago.”

As he said, looking out the window where the dawn was barely breaking, it was about the time the child would have just fallen asleep from exhaustion.

The Knight Commander refuted Lutis’s answer.

“Still, I think it would be better for you to go to the bedroom today… Your complexion is too pale.”

Well, it was natural since he had no room for leisure in the recent situation.

“…”

However, Lutis slowly nodded his head. As he had already said, he needed rest now.

As Lutis, who had changed his clothes, headed to the second-floor bedroom, the knights standing guard stepped back.

Lutis slowly entered the bedroom and moved towards the bed where the child was sleeping. As expected, the child was already asleep.

As he stared at that face absentmindedly.

“…Form an elite unit.”

Suddenly, the assumption that he might have to leave this child alone and head to the battlefield arose again.

He had entered the bedroom to rest, but even though his body was relaxed, his mind was not at ease. Lutis sighed, washing his face with his hands.

Starting tomorrow, if he returned to the Knight Order, he would only return home late in the evening, just like before. There was nowhere near enough time to complete the tasks separately ordered by the Emperor within ten days.

‘…I won’t even have time to come see you now.’

As Lutis thought he should increase the number of escorts and put his hand on the baby’s bed guard.

Perhaps because he had spoken to himself, the child’s eyelashes, which had been trembling, fluttered a few times and then lifted.

“Uwah…”

“…”

It wasn’t like before when they whimpered, and now that they had fully opened their eyes, he thought they would burst into tears in annoyance.

Surprisingly, the child did not cry. Lutis, who had stopped moving due to a faint tension, lowered his gaze and made eye contact with the child.

Eyelashes still damp from crying all night until dawn. Reddened eyes and bridge of the nose.

The sparkling eyes containing the same violet irises as mine resembled Aeli’s. The white, fine-textured skin, jet-black hair, and the shape of the hands and feet were also the same.

As our eyes met, the child beautifully curved their eyes and smiled brightly.

“…Now that I see it, there are dimples.”

I had closely examined the smiling face because it particularly reminded me of someone, but quite some time had passed, so I had forgotten about it. Lutis, who discovered the small indentations on the child’s cheeks, smiled faintly.

However, perhaps because the weariness was evident despite the smile, the child quickly stopped smiling.

“Ah… ooh, da…”

Instead, the child looked at Lutis and enthusiastically babbled incomprehensible words.

“Da, ba…”

“…”

“…Da, ba.”

Eventually, the child uttered a meaningful syllable.

Surprised, Lutis unconsciously flinched and widened his eyes.

Even though it was clear that the word had come out by chance, he stared at the child, frozen for a while.

“Dada…”

As if driving the point home, the child spoke while making precise eye contact. At that point, Lutis muttered, unable to hide his bewilderment.

“I never taught the word ‘dad’, so how on earth…”

Wasn’t the first word that children usually spoke predetermined?

I heard that most children call for their mother first, unable to ignore the bond of living together for ten months. Those around me who had children also said the same thing.

In other words, unless someone persistently taught them…

[Come on, ……! …… try it? Baby, da… da!] […What are you doing?] [….] [Aeli?] [Ah, uh, well… I, I didn’t do anything?]

“…”

Recalling that, Lutis slightly opened his mouth with a sudden realization.

“…Ah.”

At the time, I simply dismissed it as unimportant, thinking it was just another new game Aeli had learned to play with the child.

Even though it wasn’t just once or twice, when I asked what she was doing, she would stubbornly deny doing anything, so I couldn’t even think to inquire further.

“Dada- owoo, bap… Dadaa!”

Once the child started speaking, they seemed to enjoy it and continued to open their mouth.

The person who taught this to the child was probably…

[Baby. Shall we try saying dad? Dad. Daa- daaa-]

…It must have been Aeli. She must have been holding the child and saying these things whenever she had a chance without me knowing.

Then, when caught, she would play dumb and tease me as usual.

She must have wanted to hear it too.

[Our child will grow up to be as big as them one day, right?] [Probably.] [Hmm… No. Since you and I are both taller than average, they might be even bigger.] [Isn’t it too early for a child who can’t even say mom or dad yet?] [That’s why! When will this child start talking? I want to brag to my family soon!]

In the end, despite enduring all that, the word she taught the child was my title…

“…”

Lutis, who had been blankly staring at the child, hung his head low.

Then, noticing a single flower petal lying at his feet, Lutis bent over and picked it up.

It was the same type as the one he had angrily crushed earlier after confirming that the vase had shattered.

‘The maid must have dropped it while hastily cleaning up.’

Lutis, who was about to reflexively apply force to his grip, looked down at the flower petal on his palm.

It was undoubtedly more insignificant than the previous one.

“…”

Strangely, he couldn’t put any strength into his hand.

In the first place, without even needing to apply force, it would easily crumble just by lightly clenching his fist, but Lutis couldn’t bring himself to throw it away and simply thought.

The child’s first words, crawling and starting to walk, and even running.

We had planned to watch together with Aeli.

The future scenes we had imagined and drawn, of the child going to the academy, graduating, and becoming an adult, just like we did, were too numerous to count.

“But…”

After eagerly anticipating and teaching, if she herself couldn’t even be called once and left.

Lutis, who had been blankly staring at the single flower petal on his palm with his mouth slightly open, raised his head. The bedroom they had decorated together came into view.

Not only the already shattered vase but also the curtains on the windows, the carpet on the floor, the color and patterns of the wallpaper, the bedding, and the couch.

There was nothing that Aeli’s touch hadn’t reached.

The child’s room, decorated much too early. The cozy office. The main castle hall. The banquet hall. The terrace. The garden.

“…”

Every corner was filled with traces of Aeli, to the point where most of his life had originated from her.

Yet, Aeli was nowhere to be found.

“Aaaba-”

Even on this small child, you left your traces abundantly.

Is it really impossible to see you again?

At that moment, Lutis felt his vision blur. As he blinked, warm liquid fell onto his palm, and his vision briefly cleared before becoming hazy again.

“Ah…”

Only then, as if the fact that he hadn’t been able to cry until now was a lie, tears began to fall.

“Boo… Abua.”

“…”

It would be better if his breath stopped like this.

Lutis, who barely supported his collapsing body by grasping a corner of the baby’s bed, trembling, preciously held a single flower petal in his hand.

“Ah, ugh…”

The magnitude of the affection you left behind is frightening.

He didn’t have the confidence to endure it any longer.