When she couldn’t answer and trembled, Pablo spoke more arrogantly.

“I should have never let you learn letters from the beginning. Isn’t it because your mother did unnecessary things that you’ve become so conceited? Ha, a magician? What’s so great about that magic that you’re putting on airs?”

“Stop bringing up Mother. Who was it that squandered all the wealth Mother brought when she married, dragging the Vasquez name through the mud?”

“How dare you mention Vasquez? You useless wench!”

His eyes blazed red even in the darkness. He raised his hand high. Cordelia squeezed her eyes shut.

“Many eyes are watching at Yebo Delim, Margrave Vasquez.”

“Ahem.”

“Especially at a Saracen banquet.”

Leonard firmly grasped Vasquez’s wrist. Recognizing him, Vasquez cleared his throat and turned away. Cordelia barely managed to steady her rough breathing.

Leonard released Vasquez’s wrist and said,

“This is the first time we’ve met face to face. Let me introduce myself. I’m Leonard Atilei.”

“Ah, yes. Atilei. I’m Pablo Vasquez.”

Pablo extended his hand. Leonard merely stared at the offered hand without taking it. It was somewhat rude, so Pablo frowned and withdrew his hand.

“I don’t recall you coming to Yebo Delim often.”

“I absolutely detest crowded places like the capital.”

“It seems so. Vasquez is the only one who doesn’t even keep a townhouse in the capital.”

Vasquez’s face twisted as if the words were an insult. However, he couldn’t express his anger as openly as he had with Cordelia.

Pablo spoke, trying his best to suppress his voice:

“We’re in the middle of a conversation with my daughter. Would you mind stepping aside? It’s been a while since I’ve seen her, and we have a lot to talk about.”

“Does Margrave Vasquez always converse with his daughter by striking her cheek? It doesn’t seem like this is the first time. What a brutish habit.”

“It’s better than leaving an ill-mannered child unchecked.”

Vasquez snapped, glaring at Cordelia. His eyes overflowed with undisguised contempt.

“I don’t know why you took such an arrogant thing as your disciple, but you’ll regret it, Atilei. How can one who doesn’t even respect her own father respect her master?”

“Father, please!”

“You be quiet. You can’t even tell when to butt in and when not to.”

“Margrave Vasquez.”

Leonard spoke in a very low and dark voice. It was also a rough tone, like an anchor scraping the bottom of a deep sea.

“You may think magic is just showing off, but it’s quite important to me. And Cordelia is my one and only disciple who will inherit all of that.”

“Ahem.”

“So why don’t you go back now, before I start showing off to the Margrave Vasquez whom I’ve just met today.”

Leonard’s first thought upon seeing Cordelia’s swollen cheek was an uncontrollable, powerful desire to kill.

Even when he saw Cordelia at the Abrams’ with her head bowed, drenched in wine, he wasn’t this angry.

Yet, he suppressed his anger because the man was Cordelia’s biological father.

“I just remembered I have some business to attend to, so I’ll be going now.”

Pablo, noticing the cold anger in Leonard’s expression and tone, made an excuse and left.

A long, heavy silence fell over the space where only the two remained. Leonard walked up in front of Cordelia.

He grasped her chin and lifted it. Her cheek, clearly bearing a handprint, was severely swollen and looked as if she had been hit to anyone who saw it.

“You forgot the barrier magic I taught you again, didn’t you?”

“I guess so. I forgot.”

Cordelia forced a smile, pretending nothing was wrong.

He stroked her cheek with his thumb. Along with a brief light, the swelling subsided significantly, but the wound didn’t completely disappear.

She muttered, looking at the space her father had left:

“I told him not to tarnish his own face and to go back to the Abrams.”

“Did you?”

“I clearly told him. That I’m Master Atilei’s one and only disciple. I thought that even if he wasn’t proud, he’d at least acknowledge it if I said I was your disciple. I, I……”

Anger, frustration, sadness, misery.

All of these mixed together, and even she couldn’t tell what this emotion was. Just a formless waterfall of emotions engulfed Cordelia.

“What am I to Father?”

If it was going to be like this, why did you give birth to me? If you were going to despise, ignore, and loathe me like this, why did you bring me into this world?

Cordelia screamed a silent scream.

She hadn’t shed a single tear in front of her father, but facing Leonard, tears burst forth all too easily.

Cordelia tried to cover her eyes with her sleeve and somehow stop the tears, but it was useless.

Leonard raised his hand and cupped her wet cheek. Just seeing her cry made a corner of his heart ache.

“What shall I do for you?”

“Hic.”

“Shall I cut off the hand that struck your cheek, one joint at a time?”

“…Sob. M-Master.”

“Just say the word. Or just nod.”

He whispered as sweetly as if he had sugar on his lips. It seemed as if he would run off right away to cut off her father’s wrist and hand it to her.

Should I nod?

Should I ask him to kill the father who sold me to hell?

Cordelia’s eyes were blurred with tears. She buried her face in his chest, gripping his clothes tightly.

“…I want to go home.”

Though she had only stayed for a few days, home for Cordelia was neither Vasquez nor Abrams Castle, but Atilei’s townhouse.

He took a short breath. Then, holding her shoulders firmly, he said,

“Alright. Let’s go.”

She was more important than his anger towards Vasquez. Leonard struggled to suppress his rage.

“Ouch!”

After walking a few steps, Cordelia staggered. If Leonard hadn’t been holding her shoulders, she would have collapsed right there.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I twisted my ankle.”

A tingling pain rose from her toes. She limped, holding up her injured foot. Seeing this, Leonard briefly bit his lip.

The fact that Cordelia, who had been dancing just fine until now, had injured her ankle meant that it was her father’s doing.

The murderous intent he had barely suppressed surged again. He wanted to run back right now and cruelly crush that man’s ankle.

But instead of expressing his anger, he knelt in front of Cordelia.

“Master!”

“Hold out your foot.”

Cordelia cried out in surprise, but Leonard neither saw nor heard anything.

She hesitated before carefully extending her injured foot. Leonard grasped her ankle. The sprained area felt hot, perhaps due to inflammation.

“Ugh!”

“Magic isn’t omnipotent. Receiving healing magic this frequently lowers your body’s own recovery ability.”

“…Yes.”

With a brief light, the pain in her ankle subsided significantly, but like her cheek, it wasn’t completely healed.

Still, it was much more bearable to walk now, so Cordelia limped forward with his support.

Leonard let out a short sigh and then easily lifted her up.

“This won’t do.”

“Master! What if someone sees?”

“Is that what you’re worried about right now?”

“Put me down. I’ll just walk. I can walk.”

“Be quiet.”

As they left the garden, as she had feared, people’s gazes fixed on them at once. Cordelia didn’t have the courage to open her eyes, so she buried her face in his chest, pretending to have fainted.

At that moment, light footsteps were heard along with Lydia’s voice.

“Leo! I’ve been looking everywhere for you… Cordelia?”

“We’ll talk later.”

“What on earth happened? Did Cordelia collapse? Is she sick? Should I call for a physician now…?”

“Lydia Elfenbaum. Didn’t you hear me say we’ll talk later?”

His voice was too cold and sharp for Cordelia to hear. And it seemed Lydia felt that emotion too.

Instantly, Lydia’s voice became smaller.

“…I’m sorry. I was just worried about Cordelia.”

“Move aside.”

He passed by Lydia without explanation and headed for the main gate. Many people were surprised to see Leonard carrying Cordelia and whispered, but he paid no attention at all.

A servant standing near the main gate recognized his face and hurriedly called for Atilei’s carriage.

Cordelia was only able to open her eyes after she was placed in the carriage. Leonard, sitting across from her, asked out of the blue.

“Did he do it often?”

“Pardon? Do what?”

“Your father. Did he often lay hands on you?”

“……”

Cordelia’s expression darkened. She pondered what to say for a while before finally opening her mouth.

“It wasn’t like that from the beginning. But after Mother passed away, our family fortunes declined rapidly. That’s when Father started drinking.”

At first, it was just that the scoldings became more frequent. And those scoldings gradually became too sharp for young Cordelia to bear, soon turning into verbal abuse, and finally, hands were raised.

“Not long after Mother passed away, I thought Father was struggling a lot, so that’s why he acted that way. I thought if I did better, if I tried harder, things would change.”

“You thought?”

“I guess it was my delusion. Father drank more and more, and the reasons for hitting me became more diverse.”

Because she was a useless girl, because she resembled her mother, because she was an eyesore, because he was in a bad mood, because there were dark clouds in the sky.

Cordelia touched her still slightly swollen cheek with a self-deprecating smile. The burning sensation was still there.

“Perhaps the reason I could endure such humiliation at the Abrams was because I had been hardened by Father.”

A sudden realization flashed through Leonard’s mind.

The humiliation she endured at the Abrams must have been unimaginable, yet Cordelia bore that insult too familiarly.

At that time, he foolishly thought she was just enduring it, but it was because she had already experienced such things from her father.

“You…”

“Yes?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

He bit his inner molar hard. If he opened his mouth now, he couldn’t guarantee what words might come out.