A Secretly Capable Child Is Seeking For Her Dad (Novel) - Chapter 100
Chapter 100
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Translated by Sylph
Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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She wanted to cry.
But she could not cry.
That was because her mother’s words kept growing clearer and clearer in her mind.
‘Do not cry. Smile. And if you cannot do that, then remain silent instead.’
Smile, smile.
But she could not smile either. So Adeline remained silent.
Reginald showed himself only belatedly.
He stared at Adeline’s expressionless face, then invited her into his reception room, saying they should have a brief talk.
‘Adeline. My one and only niece. Are you fearless, or are you stupid?’
Adeline lifted her wandering gaze and looked at Reginald’s face.
At the sight of his face wavering in the candlelight, her insides twisted.
‘Are you bitter because you were one step too late? Should I have kept her alive a little longer by any means after all… ah, what I mean is, should I at least have tried life-prolonging treatment?’
He wanted to strangle the neck of the shamelessly smiling Reginald.
He was no longer even trying to hide it in front of Adeline.
That he had harmed her mother.
‘Good. Let’s stop the useless small talk. You will soon be an adult too. Is that why you came back, perhaps?’
But something was strange.
The deeper her anger grew, the calmer her heart became.
Adeline felt her head coolly settling down.
Smile. And if you cannot do that, then remain silent instead.
Right now Adeline was floating on the vast open sea.
Holding on to the plank her mother had left behind.
Adeline could not bring herself to throw away that plank and sink.
For Mother’s sake as well, she could not do that.
He gave Reginald an awkward smile.
‘That is not it, Uncle.’
As if flustered, with a gaze that could not stay still, anxiously tearing at her nails.
‘How could I ever become a lord? I can’t do it. I, who disgraced myself in the imperial palace and was dismissed from my position as a maid, what could I possibly….’
What Mother had left behind was true.
Because the moment Adeline smiled, a faint curiosity appeared in Reginald’s eyes.
‘Dismissed from your position as a maid?’
‘Ev, everyone said I was tactless and stupid….’
Adeline deliberately rubbed the nails that had started bleeding against the hem of her dress.
‘This is why I didn’t want to go. But Mother kept insisting that I had to become Her Highness the Princess’s maid….’
‘Are you saying your mother said that? That it wasn’t your own opinion?’
‘I didn’t want to go, Uncle. I wanted to stay here all along. Every day I spent in the imperial capital was a nightmare. Just thinking of Mother, who sent me to such a place, makes me so upset, sob….’
To deceive Reginald perfectly, he had to cry.
But as if her body had broken, no tears came.
Adeline sneered inwardly.
She cannot cry when she needs to cry, and she cannot smile when she needs to smile either.
No, what kind of time was one supposed to smile, and what kind of time was one supposed to cry?
Unable to answer, she simply lowered her head and hunched her shoulders.
‘I did nothing but resent Mother in the imperial capital… I think it was all because of me. Why am I like this.’
‘Ha, hahaha.’
‘Someone like me doesn’t even deserve to remain in my hometown. Father trusted me, but I, I am still this pathetic….’
‘Hahahaha!’
On that day, Reginald’s laughter rang on and on without end.
Of course, Adeline knew it.
That even while laughing, he was worrying inside.
Whether to kill her, or whether to leave her alone.
“I lied that I was thinking of my dead parents.”
In the end, Adeline, who had stayed in the lord’s castle for a few days, made that excuse.
“I also said that every night Mother appeared in my dreams and tormented me.”
When she said she did not think she could stay in the castle any longer.
Reginald had seemed wary.
She deliberately said that she would set up a new house not far from him, in the place where the villagers lived together.
“I could have just run away altogether… but my feet wouldn’t move.”
Was it because she had done nothing but suffer?
Or because she had done nothing but have things taken from her?
Even in a situation where she never knew when Reginald might try to harm her, Adeline could not completely leave the territory.
Mother had said that, if it were to protect her, she could give up everything.
But Adeline could not do that.
Yet not long after that, another incident occurred.
“Uncle made an announcement. He said the lord’s will that he had been keeping had disappeared.”
Raul and Enzo let out hollow laughs.
“A lie. It wasn’t that the will disappeared, he destroyed it himself!”
Adeline thought so too.
The words Father had left were clearly written in the will.
‘Until Adeline Caldenvine reaches the age of adulthood.’
That he would delegate the authority of lordship to Reginald precisely until that time and no longer.
“As soon as milady drew near adulthood, suddenly the will disappears? Nonsense. When you acted as though you had no interest in the lord’s seat, the bastard must have relaxed to some degree.”
“That’s right. When you said you would leave the castle, he must have thought it was strange that things were going too easily.”
Adeline agreed.
“Yes. In fact, I was under surveillance around that time.”
While Adeline remained in the castle, some strange presence always followed behind her.
Instinctively, Adeline thought it must be an assassin.
Enzo said with a rigid face,
“There is only one possibility. At that time, for some reason, Reginald decided to keep milady alive.”
And he continued in a grave voice.
“But he still must have felt uneasy. So to solidify the situation beyond doubt, he destroyed the will.”
To completely erase the proof that Adeline was the legitimate heir.
“…That must have been it.”
After that, she was able to leave the castle safely.
When he truly opened a pub in the bustling area where the territory’s residents gathered, Reginald relaxed his guard all the more.
To the point that even his occasional practice of sending people to check on her condition had now stopped completely.
The one fortunate thing was that she had the excessive money she had received from the princess.
With that money, she had been able to make up the villagers’ tribute amounts until now.
Reginald seemed pleased that he was squandering her property on buying back things like coal.
But that was all. That was all Adeline could do.
As for anything beyond that, even if she wanted to do it now, she no longer could.
Adeline smiled again.
“That is why I didn’t want to do this, the old story.”
By now her eyes were full of deep fatigue.
“Because they are stories that are only hopeless and suffocating.”
Silence fell over the room.
Adeline let out a sigh.
“Anyway, the reason I know the structure of the castle is because of such….”
“Then does that mean big sister Adeline was supposed to be the lord?”
At that moment, a careful voice was heard from beside them.
When they turned their heads, Tie’s curious eyes were shining before they knew it.
Adeline answered with a faint smile.
“If things had gone as they should originally have gone, yes. But that isn’t the case now.”
“Because the will disappeared?”
“Yes.”
But even if the will had existed, the result would not have been greatly different.
Reginald was a clever man.
He had taken a capable magician as his wife and made her firmly one of his own.
And he always invested part of the levies he collected into his army.
So that no one would even dare think of taking his place.
So even if Adeline had wanted to reclaim her seat, in the end she would have had to face Reginald and his army regardless.
Naturally, the possibility of winning was slim.
“But then, was the thing following big sister around in the castle really a watcher?”
Then Tie asked another question.
Adeline was so tired that she failed to hide her dark expression and let out a sigh.
But it was only natural that children of that age should have vigorous curiosity.
She nodded evenly.
“I think so, since I felt its presence every day.”
“Uum….”
“Whenever I ate something, whenever I rested, whenever I slept. I always felt that someone was following me. Uncle must have been keeping me under surveillance.”
For some reason, at those words Tie avoided Adeline’s gaze.
“But….”
The child looked troubled for some reason.
Soon the child hesitantly looked behind Adeline and parted her lips.
“Big sister, actually.”
Sensing that something was strange, Adeline narrowed her brows.
“What is it?”
Tie, who had kept her mouth firmly shut, answered softly.
“Actually, since a little while ago, behind big sister….”
“Behind me?”
“There’s been a person standing like this, and no matter how I look at it, I think that person is the one who kept following big sister and following big sister….”
Adeline’s expression went blank.