I couldn’t see it because my head was lowered, but I could tell.

The atmosphere had rapidly turned chilly.

I hadn’t known Dad and the vassals were coming, but it seemed the heavens were helping me.

Pavo Dorus, who had unfortunately been caught in the act of raising his arm, fumbled to make excuses.

“This crazy woman, why is she whining… Don’t be fooled. This is all an act! How despica-!”

“Enough.”

“M-Master…!”

As I pretended to wipe my tears and slightly raised my head, I saw Dad looking at Pavo Dorus with a stern expression I’d never seen before.

‘I didn’t know he could get this angry?’

Except for when he was with Duke Perdia, this was the first time I’d seen Dad show such emotion.

Dad’s red eyes gazed down coldly at Pavo Dorus.

“Briefly explain the situation I just witnessed.”

“W-well, I was just asking if this guest had permission to enter the library, when suddenly she hit my head-.”

I had no intention of giving that ill-mannered fellow a chance to speak.

Lowering my eyes as if in distress, I interrupted Pavo Dorus mid-sentence.

“I’m sorry. I must have upset the young master.”

When I apologized so readily, Pavo Dorus opened his eyes wide in disbelief.

Thinking I was apologizing out of fear, he quickly became smug.

He’d like that, wouldn’t he?

‘This is bait, you fool.’

“What do you mean?”

I looked up at Dad who was questioning me, hesitated for a moment, then answered.

“…He must have disliked me for bearing the Perdia name.”

At this, Pavo Dorus made an ‘oops’ expression.

“N-no! I just-.”

He tried to make excuses, but Dad raised his hand to stop him.

“Continue, Elodie.”

“He seemed to misunderstand my stay here as an attempt to steal information. He told me to get lost soon… And…”

As I hesitated to continue, Dad asked with a hardened expression.

“And?”

“He said not to get carried away just because I have a pretty face.”

I was confident because I hadn’t made anything up, just repeated what that fellow had said verbatim.

However, I didn’t forget to keep up the act of looking dejected on the outside.

Dad, who had been staring at me with a thoughtful expression, turned his head to look at Pavo Dorus.

“You. What’s your name?”

“It’s a misunderstanding, Master. I never said such things…!”

“I asked for your name. Not your feeble excuses.”

Despite being asked twice, Pavo Dorus remained silent. He must have realized his words were problematic.

As the atmosphere became irreparably tense, one of the vassals standing behind Dad stepped forward.

“He’s my son, Master.”

“Baron Dorus.”

So that man is Baron Dorus?

I looked at the person Dad had addressed as Baron Dorus.

He was a man who appeared to be in his 40s. Quite stern-looking.

Thinking an ally had appeared, Pavo Dorus’s expression brightened. He quickly put on a pitiful face and started whining.

“Father. I’m really being wronged here. That woman first-!”

“I didn’t ask you anything, Pavo.”

“Father…!”

His face filled with despair as if he had been terribly betrayed. Baron Dorus glanced at his son once before turning his gaze back to Dad.

“It seems my immature son has been disrespectful. I will severely reprimand him, Master.”

It seemed he thought it better to apologize cleanly, given that they had witnessed the situation where his son was about to hit me.

The father’s judgment seemed quite good, but the son’s was not at all.

Sadly, it seemed he had failed in raising his child.

“Oh, come on! I’m the one who got hit first!”

Pavo Dorus shouted at the top of his lungs, his neck veins bulging from indignation.

‘Sigh. If he had any sense, he’d be quiet by now…’

I glanced at Dad’s increasingly hardening expression.

Ah, the future of Severes looked bleak…

“Your son shows no signs of remorse at all.”

As Dad spoke, unable to hold back anymore, another vassal interjected.

“I apologize, but why are you protecting an outsider so much, Master?”

Then he glared at me with displeasure.

Presumably, that man also disliked me because I was a Perdia.

But Dad firmly stated:

“She is my guest.”

“Pavo’s words might be true. Why are you taking the outsider’s side so one-sidedly?”

Dad silently stared at that vassal. At that moment, another vassal muttered:

“…Could that article be true?”

Before he could finish speaking, Dad’s fine brow furrowed.

‘He must be talking about that trashy article claiming I’m Dad’s mistress.’

I’ve been involved in so many rumors that I just felt a bit annoyed, but I wonder how Dad felt.

Worried that Dad might be hurt, I raised my gaze and our eyes met.

But Dad, as if he had never frowned, smiled gently at me.

As if to reassure me.

Before I could be surprised by his quick change of expression, Dad’s unexpected action followed.

“I was on my way to the conference room anyway, and since everyone who needs to attend the meeting is here, I’ll make an announcement.”

…Huh?

Placing his large hand on my shoulder, Dad declared:

“This child is my daughter.”

“…!”

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As soon as those words ended, the corridor became noisy with various voices.

“What…?!”

“What on earth… does that mean…?”

“Isn’t she… a Perdia?”

“She’s Elodie Perdia, isn’t she?”

“Since you’ve only recently awakened… could it be that you’re not yet fully recovered…?”

Murmurs and whispers.

The vassals were so impertinent as to even doubt the Master’s mental state.

“Impossible. That wench… the Master’s daughter?!”

Even Pavo Dorus shouted, pointing at me.

Of course, I was just as surprised.

‘To think he’d say it like this, here. I didn’t expect it, but Dad, you have quite an impulsive streak…’

Although I had been told that he would announce me as his daughter at the meeting soon, I didn’t expect it to happen like this.

Dad reaffirmed to the vassals who were denying reality.

“Yes. It means she’s a direct descendant of Severes.”

Only then, realizing that Dad’s words weren’t some kind of joke, the vassals’ faces turned pale.

“Master!”

There was even someone who shouted in a shrill voice as if scolding.

“Are you asking us to believe this?”

“Yes. That’s right. We cannot accept this. Absolutely not!”

Among their protests, which Dad had been silently listening to, there was one statement that instantly depleted his patience.

One of the vassals, with a reddened face, opened his mouth and-.

“So in the end… with that commoner woman…!”

“Silence that mouth.”

Dad choked the vassal’s throat with one hand in an instant.

“Kugh…!”

The eyes of the vassals watching Dad were filled with both awe and fear.

***

There was no way we could go to the conference room in such a chaotic atmosphere.

Dad first took me away from that place.

‘I can imagine how much they’ll gossip about us when we’re not there.’

As soon as we entered a nearby empty drawing-room, Dad closed the door and examined my body all over.

“Let me see, Elodie. Are you hurt anywhere?”

“Huh? What?”

I was bewildered by Dad’s genuinely concerned attitude.

I thought he would have noticed that I was acting, of course.

I thought he was just playing along, but he wasn’t. Dad was utterly sincere.

“Dad. How do you plan to survive in this harsh world being so naive…”

“What do you mean?”

Seeing Dad still asking innocently, I let out a quiet sigh.

‘It can’t be helped. From now on, I’ll have to protect Dad.’

I showed my tightly clenched fist to Dad and said proudly.

“I’m not the type to just get beaten up anywhere, you know.”

“That’s… truly a relief.”

Dad made a genuinely relieved expression. It made me feel strange.

“Actually, what that Pavo guy said is true. I hit him first.”

I told the truth, prepared to be scolded.

At least I didn’t want to pretend or lie to Dad.

But Dad didn’t scold me.

“Well done. I’m proud of you.”

He praised me instead.

Surprised by this unexpected response, I hesitantly asked.

“…Aren’t you disappointed?”

“Hmm.”

After pondering for a moment, Dad looked down at me and smiled.

“My daughter is not someone who would harm others without reason. I’m sure Baron Dorus’s son must have provoked it.”

It was a certainty.

A strong conviction that I wouldn’t have done such a thing without reason.

“I can rest assured even if I leave you alone. Though I won’t leave you alone, of course.”

Dad gently caressed my cheek with one hand. Then, with a sigh, he uttered one sentence.

“At least in that aspect, Duke Perdia seems to have taught you well.”

“…Pardon?”

Your Grace, Duke of Severes who can’t tolerate injustice, where did you go?

The more I got to know him, the more Dad was different from my first impression. Of course, I didn’t dislike this side of him.

No, I rather liked it.

I was happy that he treated me as if I was an exception as if I had really become his precious daughter.

“Don’t worry about anything, Elodie. I’ll persuade the vassals.”

“Yes, Dad.”

I could fully feel Dad’s intention to reassure me somehow.

But I could predict that it wouldn’t be easy, given the old-fashioned nature of the vassals.

‘Anyway, isn’t it enough just to get their acknowledgment?’

The method doesn’t necessarily need to be humane!

It seemed I might need to intervene just a little bit.

***

“How can we accept a baseborn wench who rolled in from Perdia as a direct descendant of Severes!”

“That’s right. It’s nonsense. How dare a Perdia use the sacred name of Severes.”

“Even if she’s the Master’s biological daughter, how can the lowly blood of her mother disappear?”

The atmosphere in the conference room, in the absence of the Master, was highly heated.

They were loudly sharing opinions about the Master’s surprising announcement from earlier.

In a place filled only with those who despise Perdia, all sorts of blatant criticisms were exchanged.

Amidst the ongoing clamorous atmosphere, Duke Severes finally made his appearance.

As soon as Richard took his seat, several vassals expressed strong dissatisfaction.

“We cannot accept the Master’s unilateral announcement. That is our opinion.”

“We will not accept Elodie Perdia as a direct descendant of Severes.”

“Also, how can we be certain that she is the Master’s biological daughter?”

Their stance was quite firm.

Richard, who had been quietly listening to them, calmly opened his mouth.

“You’ll know when you see her. She is undoubtedly my daughter.”

“…Ahem.”

At those words, no one could deny it.

They had eyes to see.

The Master and that child stood side by side earlier.

Even they couldn’t claim they were strangers, given how similar the two looked.

Elodie Perdia and Richard Severes.

Richard declared once again.

“She is my daughter.”

No one else’s, but my daughter, he said.