Chapter 74. You Like Children

“Who’s taller?”

“Huh?”

“I’m taller than Cathy, right?”

Eddie stood in front of Catherine and innocently asked. They started arguing about who was taller, causing a commotion.

Aster looked perplexed, unsure whose side to take in this obvious contest of height. It was Camilla’s turn to step in.

“Cathy, Eddie, come here.”

The two children ran over and stood back to back as instructed. Camilla measured their height while Catherine and Eddie stood straight with tense faces.

“Lower your heels, Cathy.”

Caught trying to cheat, Catherine pouted. After a moment, the winner was decided by a narrow margin. Camilla announced.

“Cathy seems a bit taller.”

It was a moment of mixed emotions. Catherine’s eyes sparkled, while Eddie’s eyes grew gloomy.

“Yay!”

“Hmph. I’ll grow taller! I’ll drink lots of milk!”

As Eddie clenched his fists with a determined face, Catherine began to tease him.

“What are you saying, shorty?”

“I’m not short!”

“If you’re shorter than me, you’re a shorty!”

“No! If I’m a shorty, then Cathy is a super shorty!”

“You little!”

After the height contest, they started arguing about who was the shortest. Being twins, Catherine and Eddie always compared and competed with each other.

What started as a joke often turned into a fight.

As the mana fluctuated and the humidity around them noticeably increased, Camilla, sensing the signs, clapped her hands.

“Cathy and Eddie, you’re about to turn eleven, and you’re still fighting over height?”

“We’re not fighting.”

“She called me short first, Sis.”

At Camilla’s intervention, both kids backed off, as if they had never been angry. The combination of Eddie puffing and Catherine looking sheepish was utterly adorable. Camilla tried to suppress a smile and scolded them sternly.

“You’re about to turn eleven and will soon be officially recognized for your abilities. How long will you keep fighting over strength?”

As soon as Camilla finished speaking, the water droplets that had been increasing the humidity around them popped and disappeared. An unexpected reaction followed. Catherine and Eddie started to watch Camilla’s reactions closely.

“Sis, we weren’t showing off our strength.”

“No, definitely not.”

They seemed to feel guilty because Camilla didn’t have any abilities. But Camilla didn’t mind at all.

She hadn’t cared much even when she thought she had no abilities. Lacking abilities didn’t mean lacking other skills. In fact, not having abilities had made her work twice as hard to achieve success.

Moreover, she now knew she had abilities. For some reason, her mana core wouldn’t open, likely an aftereffect of that day’s accident.

Just as the forgotten memories returned, the lost abilities might also come back someday.

Camilla smiled and ruffled the children’s hair.

“Behave during the approval ceremony. Show the dignity of Francis.”

“Yes! I won’t talk and will stay still!”

“I’ll stay away from Cathy. I get nervous and make mistakes when she’s around.”

“Good, good. That’s my good kids.”

While she was doting on her younger siblings, Aster, who had been watching her gently soothe the children, spoke softly.

“You like children.”

“Of course. Don’t you, Aster?”

“I like them too.”

Aster smiled and whispered in her ear.

“I think I’d like our children even more.”

“!”

Camilla’s face turned bright red at Aster’s whisper. It was a shameless and sly comment, hard to believe it came from the man who had cried on the cruise.

He smiled, as if he was discussing future plans for children.

“Of course, I’ll wait until you’re ready, Camilla.”

“Who said anything about that?”

Camilla answered coyly, fanning herself. Since confirming their feelings, he had become bold.

‘How could this be the cute subordinate Ash?’

The innocent Aster who used to follow her around must have only existed in childhood. Or rather, he had grown to follow her around in a different, more overwhelming way.

If not for Catherine and Eddie, she might have been dragged to the bedroom. His eyes already looked like they were devouring her.

As Camilla touched her burning cheeks, Catherine asked.

“What did you talk about that made your face red?”

“Nothing.”

Camilla evaded with a faint smile, but Catherine looked suspiciously between her and Aster.

Worried about his further questions, Camilla changed the subject.

“By the way, your birthdays are coming up soon. Is there any gift you want?”

At the mention of gifts, Catherine and Eddie’s suspicious eyes sparkled with excitement. They were her simple and adorable siblings.

* * *

It was late afternoon when the Duke of Francis arrived at the castle. Having already been briefed about the events on the cruise, he spoke seriously.

“So you’ve confined the remaining assassins in the underground prison?”

“Yes. We gagged them to prevent suicide.”

“And no injuries?”

The Duke kindly asked, checking Camilla’s complexion. Though there were no injuries, not everything was fine, so Camilla smiled awkwardly.

“I’m not hurt. But… my memories have returned.”

At her words, the Duke’s face noticeably paled. He urgently grabbed her shoulders and asked.

“Are you really okay?”

Judging by his expression, he seemed to have an idea why Camilla had lost her memory. Camilla glanced at Aster.

“Could you stay with the twins for a moment? I need to talk to Father alone. I’ll call you when we go to the underground.”

“Understood.”

Sensing the serious atmosphere, Aster left. Once alone, Camilla spoke. It was the question she had wanted to ask most when she met her father.

“Right after my memories returned, I felt my mana core was sealed inside me.”

“Camilla.”

“Did you do it, Father?”

At her somewhat certain question, the Duke of Francis pursed his lips. When her memories first returned, she felt her mana core was unusually rigid.

She thought it was because she had no abilities, but knowing the truth, she realized someone had intentionally sealed her mana core.

And the only person strong enough to do such a seal was her father. She could infer this because she had once heard from her father about the secret techniques of Francis.

Camilla placed her hand over her heart and spoke.

“You once said there are things that should be covered and moved on from.”

“Camilla.”

“I always felt hurt when you told me not to get involved in Mother’s affairs. But now that my memories have returned, I think I understand why you said that.”

Her heart pounded. The still tightly closed mana core showed no signs of opening, no matter how hard she tried. Camilla continued.

“When my memories were about to return, my heart hurt. And after I fainted, all my memories came back.”

“Such…!”

“Something went wrong during that accident, didn’t it? Please answer me, Father.”

At her urging, the Duke of Francis made a pained expression. When Camilla was first found, he thought she was dead.

Her heart wasn’t beating. Meanwhile, her mana core had expanded greatly, absorbing the surrounding mana.

It was a mana rampage. If left unchecked, he would lose his daughter forever. The Duke of Francis had to save his daughter, even putting aside the grief of losing his wife.

Francis was a family blessed by the World Tree with the power of water. Water primarily governed life and death.

The primal source of that power was the seal. Thus, the head of the Francis family was traditionally taught the sealing techniques.

It was an ancient secret, known to have sealed an evil dragon in the past. The Duke of Francis first attempted this sealing technique on his daughter.

It was because the evil energy inside Camilla’s body was killing her. The power lodged in her heart and refusing to leave was indeed evil energy.

It was the kind of energy found in the core of a demonic beast. However, it was a thousand times more malevolent than ordinary evil energy. Normally, it could have been fatal, but Camilla survived because she was a Francis.

But it wasn’t entirely safe. The power that had already fused with her body was lethal enough to eventually take her life.

Thus, there was no choice but to seal the mana core itself. To prevent the malevolent power from killing Camilla, he had to use all his strength to seal it.

In the process, Camilla’s memory loss was an aftereffect. There was a possibility that her memories could return over time, but he hoped they never would.

‘Dad, because of me, Mom, Mom…!’

It was a decision he made when his daughter, who blamed herself even while on the brink of death, smiled brightly after recovering from a fever, remembering nothing.

‘Dad! Look at this! Hehe.’

He wanted to protect Camilla’s smile. Even if it meant never clearing his wife’s injustice, he thought it was the right thing to do.

But it seemed that decision had hurt Camilla instead. The Duke of Francis sighed deeply and spoke to his daughter, who was pressing for the truth.

“Yes. I did it.”