She’s Not Our Daughter! - Chapter 34

Chapter 34 – Hanael’s Identity

Hanael was observant and could quickly notice all the vigor and fierce gazes around her.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

She was about to point her cheeks, all puffed up.

A woman in a maid’s uniform called Hanael’s name and approached her.

“Hanael! I was so worried when I thought you had disappeared…!”

“Huh? Is that so?”

“Of course!”

At the maid’s words, Hanael waved her arms toward Ijel and waved goodbye.

“Then don’t do it! Mister, I’ll leave now!”

“…Mister? Who are you?”

The maid, who had been holding her breath for a while, finally faced Ijel, bowing warily.

He shrugged and made himself look as harmless as possible.

“I’m just a passerby.”

“Ah.”

The maid’s eyes narrowed. In fact, no aristocrats had been harmed yet, but kidnappings often occurred in the capital these days.

“This man had a funny conversation with me!”

Hanael said cutely.

The maid shook her head and hugged Hanael tightly.

“…You can’t talk to strangers freely.”

“Why?”

“Because he could be a bad person. Oh, farewell.”

She glanced at Ijel and held Hanael tight in her arms as she walked away.

Ijel frowned slightly and rubbed his chin.

“Hmm…”

He hummed, looking at Hanael’s retreating figure. If the child wasn’t lying, the blue energy probably meant the mana of the water that dominated his entire body.

Mana came from a total of five elements. Water, fire, soil, wind, and stone.

Among them, the most powerful was water mana, and only a few had it.

‘If water mana exists in that child…’

He looked at Hanael.

‘…For now, I will need to do research.’

Maybe that baby had something to do with ‘Project X’ he had been working on for years.

Ijel bit his lip as he stared. Her cheeks were so plump that she looked like she was about to explode from behind.

“You look cute.”

He looked at Hanael’s back with that strange gaze and rubbed his forehead.

“I’ll get going.”

He had a feeling that he would see her again soon. There were situations in which there was no choice but to explore instinctively and intuitively. Come to think of it, the maid’s uniform belonged to the Ideos household. If it was a child of the Duke Ideos… Was it in the bloodline? Was there anyone in that family with that kind of energy? Or maybe that kid…?’

Ijel felt an unfamiliar, subtle nervousness. He tore his gaze away from Hanael and walked into the salon. Although he was an uninvited guest, it would have been possible to infiltrate the interior by targeting a gap. And when Ijel entered the salon, the party was about to end.

There must have been a bit of a commotion, as all the nobles were frozen.

* * * 

Sierra ended the messy social debut party with Cassius. Despite riding in the carriage with him, Sierra’s mind became more complicated.

“Hmm…”

Cassius acted like a baby bird imprinted on Sierra at first sight. It seemed that the attachment he had to her was a little stronger than expected.

“What’s wrong, Sierra?”

She sighed. If Cassius had not misunderstood Hanael as his daughter, she would not have come to the duke’s mansion.

‘I mean, my heart keeps pounding.’

Sierra looked at him, doing some self-examination. What was really strange was her own mind. “It’s nothing.”

“Your expression is bad. You look deep in thought, Sierra.”

Sierra paused, noticing the subtle satisfaction of listening to Cassius. She didn’t expect it to be so much fun to hear him speak so deeply and seriously.

“It’s really nothing. It’s just because I’ve been thinking a lot.”

“What did she say to you?” Cassius’ gaze grew sharper.

“No, I just heard that I was your first love, except I had thought she was.”

The gaze that had been staring at Sierra suddenly slipped to the floor. Sierra saw his earlobes burning hot, and suddenly remembered Cassius’ days at the academy and smiled.

‘Well, you look shy…’

Sierra coughed as she openly lowered the curtains of the carriage.

Cassius raised his head.

“…I just learned her name for the first time.”

“Well…”

“I have only you, Sierra.”

He looked deeply into Sierra’s eyes.

“I want you to tell me what you’re feeling. I’ll take care of it.”

There was a sense of deja vu at this similar yet unfamiliar conversation.

‘Tell me if it bothers you.’

‘Well… Isn’t it too burdensome?’

‘I’m worried that I’ll feel like I’m only relying on you…’

Sierra sighed inwardly at the afterimage of the past that suddenly came to mind and patted Cassius on the shoulder. Cassius smiled softly like a puppy again with that one touch of hers.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea to take care of each other.”

Sierra drew a line like a sword. Still, Macbeth’s words about Cassius crossed her mind again. When she remembered the words, something almost made her heart tingle.

“…Well, then I’ll grant you whatever you want, just as long as you’re by my side.”

Cassius, who had hardened his expression a little, smiled hopefully again. These were words that only a man who could truly grant everything could say.

“So, shall we open another salon next time?”

“Well, I’m worried.”

Cassius’ current behavior seemed to show that he would follow her around and show no interest in making friends, even if they opened another salon.

‘…Should I make someone other than a friend?’

Like a family love? Not knowing Sierra’s growing anguish about whether or not to reopen the salon, Cassius asked, practically wagging his tail like a puppy.

“The salon, was it fun?”

“Hmm… I think it was a bit of fun. But after thinking about it, it would be better not to open the next salon. It was refreshing because it was the first time that nobles treated me like that, even to a commoner… I mean, a semi-noble like me.”

Cassius’ expression turned cold for a moment.

“Nobles are arrogant and sarcastic. They may have hurt you unconsciously, Sierra.”

‘No. Most of the people I saw today were worshipping my feet…?’

However, after seeing Cassius’ wretched expression, she was unable to utter all the words in her heart.

“If there is someone you don’t like, tell me…”

Cassius grabbed her hand with a gentle look in his eyes, worried that Sierra might have been hurt.

‘No, I think I just heard an auditory hallucination.’

Sierra was a commoner, and she wasn’t hurt. She simply enjoyed the experience of being escorted by him in front of nobles. She was having fun, and she just wanted to try something else.

“Uh… Yes…”

Sierra, who read not a mere sympathy in Cassius’ eyes, but a deep passion, pondered seriously. Before his feelings deepened, she should leave the mansion as soon as the paternity test results came out.

But when would they come out?

* * * 

After a few days, Sierra gave up her quest to make friends for Cassius. It seemed she was the only one he saw. The only thing that existed was the godfather and blood relatives.

‘It would be better to be close with your blood relatives.’

Among school ties and blood ties, the strongest are blood ties. Sierra grinned as she recalled Cassius’ relationship with the godfather.

‘If you become close with the godfather, you can feel the love of family.’

Contemplating how to make Cassius close with the godfather took over her mind while she was walking into the doctor’s annex.

She decided to supplement the answer to the message about the disease that the doctors asked a while ago. Sierra wrote a brief note to be handed over to them and made her way to the front door of the annex.

[ I am absent for urgent business. Please write the project on a note and put it in the basket. ]

The timing was bad, but she was glad that she wrote the note. Sierra recalled the contents of the letter she had brought, and tapped the note into the basket.

‘If the contents of this note are correct, they will contact me again.’

Sierra smiled contentedly, convinced of her genius ability.

‘Isn’t that right, twin doctors?’

In fact, Sierra had been vaguely aware of the sender of the bizarre note from the moment she received it. Doctors from Hippo were the only ones who could test her skills.

It was the twin doctors of the kingdom. She smiled after confirming that the memo was well placed in the basket placed in front of the annex’s door.

‘Fun. It’s like solving a riddle.’

Sierra looked at the basket again and walked out of the annex with light steps. On the way to the main building after passing through a memory filled with Cassius, she ran into the maid.

“Where have you been, Sierra?”

“Ah, I’ve been to an annex.”

The maid smiled broadly at the mention of it.

“Did you hear about the results of the paternity test?”

“Huh?”

The maid smiled repeatedly at Sierra. Sierra looked at her with a puzzled expression.