The Ghost Lady Of The Duke's Family (20 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 9
The child blinked and turned their head.
When their eyes met, Aeli instinctively looked away and spoke.
“It’s getting late, like Mari said—shall we wash up and go to sleep now?”
“Does Ria know our Appa too?”
“Well… I wouldn’t say I don’t…”
“Do you have friends?”
“…Shall we go wash up?”
Aeli couldn’t bring herself to tell the child that neither Mama nor Appa had any friends.
Just as Mari had done earlier, she awkwardly tried to divert attention, and the child, drawing some conclusion in their little head, gave a small nod.
As the child climbed down from the bed with practiced ease to head to the bathroom, Aeli noticed something glinting near their nape and asked,
“This looks new—I don’t think I’ve seen you wear a necklace before?”
“Oh, th-this isn’t anything!”
Startled by the sudden question, the child flinched and hastily tugged at their collar to hide their neck.
Crash—!
“Aidi?!”
Distracted by the pendant, the child hadn’t watched their step and tumbled noisily to the floor, tripped by the slightly uneven wooden planks.
The child lay sprawled out with a surprisingly loud thud, prompting Aeli to cry out in alarm.
“You’re not hurt, are you?!”
“I-I’m… I’m fine…”
Though they insisted in a trembling voice, they certainly didn’t look fine.
In moments like this, it was undeniably clear they took after Lutis.
Though surely in pain, embarrassment seemed worse—they blushed deeply at the ears and neck, quickly wiped away the tears welling in their eyes with their sleeve, and nodded.
Then they tried to get up.
“Oh…”
Because of the fall, the necklace had slipped partly out of their clothes, and the locket looked slightly ajar.
So it’s a locket, Aeli thought, blinking—and in that moment, a single violet petal caught her eye.
‘But I haven’t left the room, so where did that come from? It couldn’t possibly be from me—a ghost.’
Perhaps it had fallen from Mari’s clothes.
In the dim, shadowy room at dusk, that one colorful petal lying alone looked utterly out of place.
Perhaps as much as Aeli herself.
As she stared wordlessly at the petal, the child, sensing her curiosity, followed her gaze.
Just then, the child—who had been clicking the locket shut and struggling to rise—froze in place.
Halfway up, they sank back onto the floor, quietly picked up the fallen petal, and lowered their head deeply.
After fidgeting with the petal for a long while—long enough for Aeli to worry it might wear thin—the child hesitantly asked in a tiny voice,
“Ria… um…”
“Yes?”
“If the fairies weren’t in the garden today… would the flowers in the flowerbed wilt?”
“Flowers?”
“That’s Mama’s favorite…”
At the child’s question, Aeli’s mouth opened slightly, then closed again.
The vase she’d seen before had already been broken and cleared away, so the child couldn’t possibly have seen it.
Even if they had, they were far too young to remember such a thing.
Besides, everyone had assumed she simply valued the vase itself—no one knew she particularly loved those flowers.
There was no one who could have told the child that…
‘…Did Mari tell them, too?’
Unable to think of any other explanation, Aeli suppressed her unease and answered,
“Well, they’ve only just started blooming, so it should be fine.”
“So they won’t wilt?”
“Not for a while, at least.”
“Not for a while…”
Muttering thoughtfully, the child then asked, “How can I keep them from wilting?”
Aeli hummed softly. There were actually many ways to prevent wilting—
She could cast a preservation spell as she’d done before, build a greenhouse with constant temperature control to keep them blooming year-round, or even grow them from seed herself in a pot inside the manor.
But none of that was something she could do for the child right now. It was clear they wished the currently blooming flowers would last.
Carefully choosing her words, Aeli asked gently,
“Is there a reason you don’t want the flowers to wilt?”
“…’Cause…”
“Yes?”
“…’Cause… it’s… like that…”
“I see.”
Seeing the child avoid her gaze and mumble as if they’d done something wrong, Aeli sensed she wouldn’t get a clear answer.
To show she wasn’t scolding them, Aeli softened her voice and said,
“How about we ask Mari to replant them in a pot and bring them to us before they wilt?”
“A pot…?”
“Yes. They won’t last forever, but if Aidi takes good care of them, you can keep them in your room for over a month.”
Maybe the fairies will even come here themselves, happy to see Aidi cherishing the flowers so much.
At those words, the child lifted their head and met Aeli’s eyes.
They’d clearly tried to hide their feelings, but their inexperience made their emotions plain to see.
Reading curiosity and joy in those eyes, Aeli couldn’t help but smile.
Wiggling their toes slightly, the child asked softly,
“…Even after my birthday?”
“Of course. Obviously.”
“…Then I’ll grow them.”
“Let’s go wash up first. We’ll tell Mari before bedtime.”
“Mm-hmm…”
With that, the child spun around where they sat.
Facing away, their small body squirmed as if doing something quietly.
“But… Ria, is it okay with you if the flowers wilt?”
The child suddenly turned and asked. Taken aback by the unexpected question, Aeli blinked rapidly, then thought.
If they were asking whether it was alright—well, there wasn’t much she could do about it anyway.
‘I can’t preserve them with magic like I used to.’
It would be a lie to say she wasn’t disappointed they wouldn’t bloom year-round, but it simply couldn’t be helped.
After all, it was only natural for flowers to wilt after blooming.
Trying to sound casual, Aeli began,
“It’s a shame, but there’s nothing we can…”
Wait—she stopped herself mid-sentence.
Her eyes widened in shock as she looked up at something fluttering down.
Semi-transparent—just like her own form—petals drifted down from somewhere off to the side.
An unnatural, luminous glow brightened the dark room.
Even more unbelievable than the glow, however, was its source—right before her eyes.
“…Sweetheart, did you do this?”
The child gave a short nod.
She didn’t even need to ask—it was obvious.
A faint light, similar to the one above Aeli’s head, faintly connected all the way to the child’s palm.
“You looked sad…”
“Me? No—but wait, I’ve never taught you magic. How are you doing this?”
“I studied really hard.”
This clearly wasn’t something achievable through effort alone. Stunned into silence, Aeli could only stare—until the child declared earnestly,
“I… I can show you.”
“Huh?”
“Since Ria told me how to make the flowers last longer, I’ll give flowers to Ria too.”
“…”
“They’re not real, so they don’t smell or feel like anything… but still…”
But still, I can make them appear right in front of you whenever you want to see them, the child said.
Clearly unaware of just how extraordinary this was—since they themselves wanted real flowers.
What had Aeli’s maiden name been again? Not anything else—‘Mason.’
The Masons—one of the Empire’s founding noble houses, descendants of a legendary archmage.
Though she’d lost every trace of magic after childbirth, her bloodline remained unchanged.
Yet even she had never heard of anyone her age casting such refined illusion magic.
Unthinkingly, Aeli reached out a finger toward the petal before her.
‘It doesn’t vanish even when touched…’
The petal drifted through her finger as if nothing had happened and floated gently to the floor.
…For reference, illusion magic was supposed to vanish the moment it was touched.
Unaware of Aeli’s shock as she stood frozen with wide eyes, the child beamed and said,
“When I see flowers, I feel happy. I want Ria to be happy too.”
“…”
“So let’s live together for a long, long time.”
“Aidi…”
Aeli opened her mouth, at a loss. She had so much to say.
That she was actually their mother—and already dead, no longer among the living.
That she didn’t understand how she could stay by their side like this, and might vanish as silently as she’d appeared, without warning—unpredictable even to herself.
She had to tell them. For the child’s sake, to spare them greater pain later, it was the right thing to do.
“Hm?”
“…”
…but somehow, the words wouldn’t come.
Over the past month, whenever the child finally fell asleep and she was left alone, the same question arose naturally.
With no need to eat or sleep in this form, her thoughts inevitably turned inward.
‘Why did I have to die? Why…’
Why me, of all people?
She’d woken up one morning to find herself a ghost. Even after realizing it, it hadn’t felt real.
Of all the people in the world—why her?
Aeli simply couldn’t accept it.
Whenever that half-ignored reality weighed heavily on her, she sometimes failed to manage her expression—even in front of the child.
She also knew that a small, persistent gaze always followed her during those times.
“…”
“You’ll do it, right?”
She truly hadn’t expected this.
To the child, she was someone they’d only just begun to recognize.
Yet they’d somehow learned magic on their own—without being taught—and secretly practiced until they could present it so beautifully, just to cheer her up.
She’d never imagined such a thing.
…If she had, she would have run away by any means necessary.
“Ria?”
“…Yeah.”
Even as the child’s pure, unknowing smile pierced her deeply,
her heart ached too tenderly for words to form.
She’d done nothing for them—yet felt almost unworthy to accept such a gift.
“You won’t go anywhere else, right? You’ll stay with me?”
“…Yeah.”
I want to stay too. Aeli finally yielded helplessly to the swelling emotion.
Flower petals drifted down—a kind she’d never seen before.
For some reason, it carried a faint, familiar fragrance from her childhood.
And so, Aeli felt as if she might cry.
‘…Truthfully, I wanted to live, too.’
Despite all her resentment, only one face came to mind in this moment.
‘Lutis…’
Where are you now?
She missed Lutis terribly.
It was a sorrow she could never share with anyone.
[This is the timeline separator]“Your Grace, that was the last warp gate.”
“…I see.”
And the next morning at dawn,
he returned on a day of drizzling rain,
carrying a stench of blood utterly unlike before.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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Chapter Comments (2)
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As she recounted the memory, the boy had already fallen asleep—leaving Aeli alon
Whaatt? Did he see her or something? (･o･;) ㅤㅤㅤ
“…!”
HE. SAW. HER. He saw her! He must be in such shock.
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Okay, so he can see her. Does it have something to do with the petal (・o・)
It turns out he actually hears her voice, I’m surprised.