Weren’t You the One Who Was Dying? Chapter 116

For a little while longer, I sat absentmindedly as the carriage rolled on. Only just before getting out did I take a deep breath.

“Shall we?”

“Gladly.”

Ehit answered my deliberately spirited voice with a smile.

My home.

The home I was returning to after a year.

After leaving Aileta, I hadn’t come back even once.

I wonder if they’ve forgotten my face.

I came without telling them.

How would they react?

Knowing my carefree, unpredictable parents, they might just laugh and joke, Well, who do we have here?

We stepped into the garden.

Pruning the garden together in the late afternoon had always been one of my parents’ routines, so before entering the mansion, I looked around the garden first.

Then I spotted two people standing in front of the lush cypress trees, talking with serious expressions.

“My dear, trim this part a little more.”

“How much more do you expect me to cut? Are you trying to get rid of the whole tree?”

“It won’t disappear just because you trim it a little—”

“Mom! Dad!!”

The moment I entered the garden, I shouted three times louder than before.

My parents, who had been arguing so intensely, froze.

Their eyes turned toward me at the same time.

“…”

“I’m home!”

“…”

“Mom? Dad?”

They just stood there without saying a word.

Did they not recognize me?

I waved both hands energetically.

Even then, they remained so motionless they could’ve been mistaken for garden statues.

Wondering what was wrong, I hurried toward them.

“Daphlen…”

I saw my mother’s lips quietly form my name.

Then both of them rushed toward me.

Watching them sprint at full speed as though competing with each other, I actually wondered for a moment whether I should run away.

“Daphlen!”

They both wrapped me in a tight embrace.

“Uwah!”

The force nearly knocked me over.

If Ehit hadn’t silently steadied me from behind, I would’ve fallen.

The strength of their hug was incredible.

Have they been exercising or something?

“Ugh… Mom, Dad. Look at my face first! My face!”

Despite my protest, they only hugged me tighter.

At first I thought they were simply teasing the daughter they hadn’t seen in so long.

Then I heard quiet sobbing beside my ear.

The crying continued for so long that I couldn’t even tell whose tears they were.

“Thank you for coming back, Daphlen…”

My parents held me and cried for a long time.

“We’ve always been waiting for you. Every single day.”

“…I’m sorry.”

With my family, we’d always been more used to laughing over silly jokes than having serious, tearful conversations.

So I’d planned to greet them the same way I always did—with playful banter.

But their tears were filled with longing.

As though years of pent-up emotions had finally burst free.

I found myself sniffling too.

They continued thanking me in choked voices as they held me.

Then, all at once, they looked past me and stopped crying.

“Son-in-law of Cloyden?”

My mother suddenly cleared her throat and spoke.

“M-Mom! Who are you calling the son-in-law of Cloyden?!”

I cried out in horror.

Smiling awkwardly, my mother completely ignored me and hurriedly gestured to Ehit.

With his long legs, Ehit crossed the distance in just a few strides.

Even that seemed to delight my parents.

“So you’ve come as well.”

“Yes. Have you both been well?”

“You kept your promise. Thank you.”

A promise?

Even though my face clearly asked what they meant, my parents only smiled knowingly.

Ehit did the same.

“Well then, let’s not stand around out here. Come inside. Goodness, if we’d known you were coming, we’d have slaughtered the duck today instead of tomorrow.”

“My dear, let’s tell Reuben to move it up to today.”

“Absolutely! Right away!”

“That won’t be necessary,” Ehit said. “I brought ingredients with me. These should suffice. One cup of the tea you served me last time will be more than enough.”

He looked at me.

“That’s alright with you, isn’t it, Daphlen?”

Listening quietly, I leaned closer and whispered,

“I thought you said this was your first time here.”

“I briefly forgot.”

Ehit whispered back with complete composure.

“It isn’t.”

“Come inside! Daphlen! Son-in-law of Cloyden! Hurry in!”

Judging by how naturally my parents called him that, and how familiar the title sounded coming from them, he’d clearly visited more than once while I’d been away.

An endless stream of ingredients came out of Ehit’s blanket-sized bag.

“…?”

“I should’ve brought more.”

“How in the world did you carry all this?”

“I simply carried it.”

Meat for roasting.

Cooling packs to keep everything fresh.

Herbs, spices…

Even after one of the count’s servants came to help, it took three people just to carry everything inside.

While I stood there staring, my parents—who had disappeared for a moment—returned and ushered Ehit and me into the drawing room.

After seating us on the sofa, they personally brewed tea for us.

“They’ll be here soon, so we’ll all be able to have dinner together.”

“Who’s coming?”

“Daphlen, your brothers. Since you’ve come back to Aileta, we should all have our first dinner together.”

Hearing my mother’s gentle words, I smiled a beat later.

“What is it, Daphlen? Don’t you want your brothers to come? Shall I send them home?”

“No! Of course not!”

The part that caught my attention wasn’t that my brothers were coming.

It was what she said afterward.

You’ve come back to Aileta.

Had I…

Returned here?

I’d wanted to see my parents again after the year I’d spent running away.

I knew I needed to.

But I’d never really thought about whether that meant I was coming back to Aileta.

It felt… uncertain.

I’d already left the Aileta family once.

And I’d never originally belonged here in the first place.

There’s somewhere we need to go together.

To your real family.

Besides, if the place Ehit had spoken of truly was where my birth family was…

Then where did I belong?

Just then, the doorbell rang.

“It must be your brothers, Daphlen!”

My parents stood with bright smiles and hurried outside.

As I slowly followed them, Ehit took my hand.

“You don’t have to rush your decision.”

“Hm?”

“Whatever it may be, there’s no need to decide while wearing such an anxious expression. Take all the time you need. Think it over carefully.”

“Everyone will wait for you.”

“…Did you read my mind?”

“Perhaps.”

“I thought you said you couldn’t use foresight anymore. Did you suddenly develop a new ability?”

Ehit chuckled and gently pulled me along.

By the time we reached the first floor, the heavy doors were already opening.

“…D-Delphi!”

The moment Enric saw me, his jaw dropped.

He looked ready to burst into tears.

Elzers pretended to wipe his face, but he was already crying.

Even Adlen, who glared at me as always, had eyes that were already red.

“Go.”

Ehit released my hand.

My brothers, who had been walking toward me slowly, suddenly picked up speed.

At first they’d tried to approach with composed dignity.

But when I held out my arms as if telling them to hurry, they all broke into a run, racing each other.

The three of them crashed into me at once.

Once again, if Ehit hadn’t silently supported me from behind, I would’ve been knocked flat.

“Daphlen… you haven’t changed at all.”

“Uwah… g-ghk…”

“That’s right. Anyone could tell you’re our Daphlen. I’m just so grateful we got to see you again before you’d changed too much.”

“You guys look like you’ve changed a little…”

“Delphi, haven’t you ever heard of a white lie?”

“Okay, okay. You all look exactly the same.”

After the playful exchange, we stayed wrapped in a warm embrace.

Watching us, my parents hurried over and joined the hug as well.

It was warm.

Comfortingly warm.

***

 

As the afternoon sun slipped below the horizon and the moon climbed across the sky, we continued talking.

After all, it had been an entire year.

We chatted until several logs in the fireplace had burned down to ash.

At one point my mother groaned,

“Oh dear, my mouth hurts!”

The whole family immediately agreed.

Yet not one of us seemed willing to stop.

“Ehit, you must be tired. Do you want to go rest first?”

This lively atmosphere was natural for me, but it had to be unfamiliar for Ehit.

Concerned, I asked him.

Instead, he shook his head as though wondering why I was trying to chase him away.

“Are you planning to enjoy all the fun by yourself, Daphlen?”

“Then while you enjoy yourselves, I’ll go take a nap…”

“No.”

It wasn’t until after midnight that someone finally yawned.

We’d spent hours talking, and there was an endless amount to catch up on.

Most of it was ordinary updates or funny stories we’d been saving.

But there were heartfelt conversations mixed in as well.

“To be honest… I never realized… that Mom, Dad, and all of you wanted to see me this much.”

“How could you come up with something so ridiculous?”

“Well… none of you ever came to find me.”

“Our Daphlen, what are you talking about? We wanted to find you more than anything. But we never knew where you were staying. Do you know how frustrating that was for us?”

“Huh?”

I tilted my head.

I’d always believed my parents knew where I was living.

I turned toward Enric.

“Didn’t everyone know where I was?”

“Huh?”

At my words, Enric suddenly lowered his gaze.

Everyone in the room turned to look at him.

He looked like someone who’d just been hit by an arrow, guiltily lowering his head even further.

“Enric, what does she mean? You knew where Daphlen was staying?”

“Uh… well…”

“Enric!”

“…I was planning to tell everyone once we’d found Daphlen’s real family.”

Enric’s voice trailed off until it was barely audible.