#Chapter 25. Our Lucy is Seven Years Old

They wanted the ducal residence to be empty……?

Charles frowned. The lady’s speculation was quite plausible, but there were many parts Charles couldn’t understand.

The fact that they deployed this operation to surprise attack an empty ducal residence meant there was definitely something they had to steal from the mansion.

Of course, there would be many precious items in the residence.

Starting with all kinds of expensive items to jewels passed down through generations…… It would probably be tremendous.

But they wouldn’t have caused such a big incident to steal those money-making items.

“……You’re indeed not ordinary, as they say.”

The figure in the hood who had come out first looked down at Lucy and opened his mouth for the first time. It seemed he was thinking of stopping the attack due to the lady’s story.

Then this was the time. An escape route, quickly……!

Charles pressed down on the wound on his side and observed the personnel around.

If the ducal residence was indeed their target, it meant Lucy and Charles here weren’t.

However, that didn’t necessarily mean they wouldn’t kill them. It was enough personnel to kill both of them.

Thanks to the lady talking, they were buying quite a bit of time, but they didn’t know when the duke would arrive. Moreover, the duke wouldn’t have time to arm himself.

Even a single graze from their blades would result in at least minor injuries like Charles now, or severe injuries at worst.

So before the duke arrived, while the lady was buying time, they had to retreat by targeting gaps.

The capital guard should arrive……! Damn!

“You seem quite impatient.”

Lucy smiled and spoke to the hooded figure.

The remaining figures holding swords glanced at the figure conversing with Lucy as if they didn’t know what to do.

However, the figure actually seemed quite interested in Lucy’s story.

“I thought unreasonable things were happening little by little, but I didn’t know a small strategist was hidden. And as a completely unexpected person at that.”

“I also didn’t know there were more idiots daring to target House Zenova besides Uncle Bruno.”

“……Hahaha!”

The figure burst into laughter.

“Indeed. Then how would it feel to die at the hands of such idiots? Lady?”

“I think I’d be too resentful to leave this world.”

“……It was enjoyable, but now I must stop playing along with the lady’s cute attempts at buying time.”

Charles had been watching and grabbed the lady’s waist as soon as the guy finished speaking. And that was when it happened.

“……Dad!!”

Lucy had been wiggling her fingers and called the duke with tremendous vocalization.

At the same time, along with a horse’s neighing sound, one horse appeared in the air from behind the cathedral’s castle walls.

Charles couldn’t help but be amazed looking at the duke floating in the sky.

The moment the duke’s horse landed on the ground, his sword severed two enemy necks, sending them flying.

Unlike Charles’s worry that the guard would arrive first, the duke began slaughtering enemies in an instant.

Only then did Charles recall the duke’s appearance leading troops and commanding from the front even before dozens of enemies.

To forget just because he came to the Empire……! The duke was someone who survived even that harsh battlefield!

“Charles, take Lucy and go quickly!”

“Dad, that guy’s hand in the center!”

Lucy pointed accurately at the figure, hung on Charles’s shoulder and shouted loudly.

From then on, the other figures began fleeing in panic. Especially the figure Lucy pointed at distanced himself from the duke first.

“……Retreat!”

*

“My child…… My child……”

It was the moment Ariel reached out her arms toward the daughter who was right before her eyes. Then her consciousness suddenly snapped awake.

At the same time, when she frowned at the bright sunlight, she heard the servants’ voices.

“……The madam has awakened!”

“Madam, are you feeling a bit better?”

Ariel blinked her eyes and suddenly sat up at the rushing memories.

She quickly kicked off the blanket and tried to walk out with staggering steps, when the butler supported Ariel.

“Madam, you still need to rest more. And madam, right now……”

“Where’s Lucy?”

Ariel shouted at the butler and asked about Lucy’s whereabouts with a face that seemed about to shed tears at any moment.

“Lucy!!”

Ariel’s cracked voice rang out desperately. The butler swallowed his saliva and slowly answered Ariel’s words.

“The lady is currently sleeping in her room. After spending a hard day yesterday…… Madam!”

As soon as she heard Lucy was in her room, Ariel immediately ran out.

Several maids attached themselves to her staggering figure, not knowing what to do, but no one could stop her.

The butler also quietly followed behind her.

“……Lucy.”

Only after entering the room and seeing Lucy sleeping soundly on the bed did Ariel collapse on the spot.

“……Madam. The floor is cold.”

“Is the child…… alright?”

Ariel thoroughly scanned Lucy’s body with her eyes and asked.

“Yes. The physician came by and said there were no major problems. We’ve arranged for another examination when she wakes up.”

“I see…… That’s good. Really, really…… thank goodness.”

Ariel gently stroked the child’s forehead and kept nodding at the butler’s words.

Fortunately, only peace remained on the face of the child who slept knowing nothing.

“Ariel.”

Ariel had been looking at Lucy and turned her head at Damian’s voice.

“Damian……”

As soon as she saw him, tears flowed down from Ariel’s eyes.

Between relief and guilt, Ariel needed her husband to confide her heart to.

“Damian…… Our Lucy…… Our Lucy…… Despite being a mother, I couldn’t even notice that…… I……”

When Ariel cried while blaming herself, Damian strode toward her.

Damian gently held Ariel’s face that had grown thin in a short time and wiped away the tears flowing down her cheeks.

“It’s okay. Don’t blame yourself. More than that, you haven’t eaten anything since yesterday. Lucy is sleeping, so you should eat something in the meantime.”

Ariel nodded at Damian’s words and leaned her body with his support.

Then Ariel suddenly remembered the tutor’s words and began voicing questions while leaning on his arm.

“Oh, Damian. Did you hear the story from the tutor? Sir Charles also came because of Lucy’s words, right? Lucy asked Sir Charles…… No, more than that, Bruno…… You didn’t know either, did you?”

The story that Bruno had bribed the tutor to do this.

Since things were moving so urgently at the time, she couldn’t hear the details, but the tutor definitely said Bruno had bribed him to enter the ducal residence.

Of course, it seemed like Lucy knew and still went along with the kidnapping. For some reason, Ariel wanted confirmation from him.

The story that Sir Charles had been infiltrating as a knight strangely made Ariel uneasy.

“First…… eat something. Eat, recover your strength a bit, then listen to the story.”

Ariel stared intently at Damian’s face and stopped walking.

“……Damian. Tell me the story.”

Ariel grabbed his arm.

“If you eat…… I’ll tell you if you eat.”

Ariel couldn’t let go of the arm she was holding and looked up at his eyes.

“You…… surely…… Surely, did you know? Did you know Lucy would do that…… Did you know? No, more than that, Bruno…… Did you know Bruno was trying to do something?”

Along with a trembling voice, Ariel’s completely wrinkled eyes shed tears again.

Damian couldn’t answer easily, met Ariel’s gaze and opened his lips.

“Yeah…… I was suspecting it.”

Ariel slowly closed her eyes and let go of Damian’s arm she had been holding.

Her snow-white arm that slid down swayed powerlessly in the air.

Even while suspecting such a thing would happen, she couldn’t believe that Damian, as a father, had let Lucy handle this matter.

“Our Lucy…… is seven years old.”

Ariel was crying with her eyes closed, but she didn’t look up at Damian or anything. She only moved her lips with closed eyes.

“You, exactly…… Surely that’s why…… Sir Charles was also with her because of you, not Lucy?”

“……”

Because of Damian’s lack of response, Ariel opened her eyes. Her upturned green pupils glared at Damian.

“You…… Bruno and Lucy right now…… that…… Ha.”

“……”

However, to Ariel’s questioning words, Damian again had no answer. Ariel punched his chest with her fist and wailed.

“Right now, our seven-year-old daughter—exactly… exactly how far do you plan to push her!”

Ariel’s breathing became labored.

“Ariel……”

He urgently grabbed her wrist while calling Ariel’s name, but she swatted away Damian’s hand.

“Our…… daughter. She really, really resembles you a lot…… She’s our daughter.”

In Ariel’s bloodshot pupils, tears that seemed like they would never end kept flowing down.

“Our daughter…… exactly…… exactly!!”

Ariel’s trembling lips failed to finish the sentence and closed again. 

Completely filled with anger and sadness, she irritably swept her hair back. 

Biting her lower lip slightly, she glared at Damian.

“Now…… she’s my daughter. Not your daughter…… Where in the world is there a father who drives his daughter into danger.”