I Became the Villain’s Lost Daughter Chapter 84

“… Aaron.”

 

Aslan lost control, and the oozing life drained out of him.

 

Then, with an effort, he pulled back his grim expression and walked toward his son.

 

“…I’m coming with you.”

 

The emotion in his red eyes, like mine, told me that Aaron already understood the whole situation.

 

Seven-year-olds are intelligent, and it was Aslan’s fault for not hiding his emotions in front of him.

 

Aslan looked at Aaron momentarily, then pulled him into his arms.

 

“Aaron, my son.”

 

“Father, I want to come with you, please?”

 

Aaron’s face shook uneasily, but he insisted, even though he knew Aslan’s answer.

 

“…It’s still cold outside, so Father will go and get your mother and sister. Sleep soundly, and they’ll be back soon. Okay?” 

 

All Aslan could say to his son was that they’d return soon.

 

But his promise to bring back his mother and sister was only half-hearted.

 

Aslan teleported straight to the coordinates Kyle had sent him, and what he saw was devastating.

 

“Serbia…”

 

The woman he loved most in the world was wandering the streets, her fine dress stained with blood.

 

Her breath came in faint gasps.

 

“Bring more potions!”

 

“Our divine powers are not enough! Strangely, no matter how much we pour, only so much is absorbed. She’s not just wounded, this needs the High Priest to come!”

 

Although he had been acting like a dutiful father in front of his son earlier, he could no longer fake a nonchalant demeanor.

 

“When is the High Priest coming?”

 

“They say there’s a plague in the western part of the Empire right now, and he’s on his way there, but it’ll be at least three days before he reaches us…”

 

The news was hopeless.

 

‘Three days.’

 

A long time for someone whose life depended on it.

 

Potions, holy power, healing magic. All of them had eased the pain and slowed the progress, but none of them had actually cured her.

 

“First, let’s hold out until the High Priest arrives!”

 

It was only after a few hours that Serbia’s condition stabilized.

 

Even then, she was still in a state of flux, but it was much better than when she was gasping for air.

 

Part of me wanted to stay with her until she woke up.

 

But there was no sign of my wife’s sweet little daughter, who was supposed to be at her side.

 

Aslan left the temple with an inexorable stride and galloped out.

 

The carriage Serbia and Erita had ridden in was in pieces, and the bodies of the Grand Duke’s knights lay around them.

 

“…Have you found Erita yet?”

 

“I apologize, my lord. …It’s my fault.”

 

Hearing those words, Aslan felt his heart sink.

 

Serbia’s life is in danger, and Erita’s whereabouts are unknown. He was the Grand Duke, but he couldn’t protect his family.

 

“I— it!”

 

The two wizards who had done this bloody thing had poisoned themselves, and there was no way to find out who was behind it.

 

The Grand Duchy of Krovachatz was a neutral family, and Aslan himself had left the capital and stayed in the Grand Duke’s residence.

 

He didn’t see the need to stay in the capital when the Emperor was so closely guarded.

 

But who dares to touch Krovachatz!

 

There was no one here to vent his anger.

 

“…Scour their surroundings. Sweep the empire, the continent, the entire land, and find everyone involved, even if it’s just by the collar.”

 

All he could do was give the order to dig around the poisoned wizards and find out who was responsible.

 

But they say misfortune does not come alone.

 

“Don’t, cough, ugh, blame yourself.”

 

“…Stop talking. The High Priest said he’s on his way, so we just have to hold on a little longer. Okay?”

 

Before Serbia could find out the child’s whereabouts, a sense of death descended on her.

 

When the hell was the High Priest going to come?

 

Aslan’s frustration didn’t change the situation.

 

“I was so happy… I was so happy because I loved you.”

 

“Serbia, please!”

 

“Aslan, take care of our children, please, and love them, even for my share.”

 

Serbia finally breathed her last, a look of relief on her face. She didn’t realize that Erita’s life or death was unclear until she closed her eyes.

 

As the warmth drained from Serbia’s body, the High Priest arrived.

 

“Your Highness. …it appears that a curse has been placed upon the Grand Duchess.”

 

“Did you say curse?”

 

“Yes. You said that holy power, potions, and healing magic all failed to work.”

 

“Yes. They slowed the deterioration, but did not cure it.”

 

“…It is my opinion that it was a curse. So even with my presence, the outcome would not have been much different.”

 

Curse. A long-forbidden discipline.

 

It’s been extinct since three hundred years ago, and now it’s manifesting itself in my wife!

 

“How dare anyone… how dare they.”

 

His voice was thick with venom.

 

In response to Aslan’s cold fury, the High Priest replied calmly.

 

“There is no way to identify the caster at this point. …The curse is a lost knowledge, and the temple is paying attention, but we have yet to catch the tail.”

 

He had lost a loved one, a beloved daughter.

 

All he has remaining is a young son, seven years old, exhausted from crying over the loss of his mother, and blood-stained with grief.

 

And the tenuous hope that his little girl, who had just begun to talk and call him ‘Daddy’, was still alive.

 

💫

 

It’s been six years since they lost the child.

 

The outlines of the people he would bring to the point of his sword were becoming clearer and clearer, but there was no sign of the child he longed for.

 

“Where the hell is she…”

 

Starting in the capital, he searched everywhere for the dark-haired girl.

 

As time went on, the need to find the child turned into a desperate wish to stay alive.

 

Six years passed before even the faintest spark of hope was fading.

 

“This is…”

 

A familiar wave of magic faintly resonated in his heart.

 

For a fraction of a second, it was faint, as if it had originated far away, but to Aslan it was louder than thunder.

 

It was not his or Aaron’s, but the power of his family’s power.

 

Aslan and Aaron aside, there was only one other remaining Krovachatz bloodline.

 

“Erita…”

 

His daughter, whose violet eyes were as lovely as his wife’s, was still alive and breathing somewhere in the land.

 

“You’re alive. … you are.”

 

Aslan was grateful for the first trace of his daughter he had felt in six years.

 

“…Hang in there, I’ll find her, this wretched father.”

 

Aslan whispered quietly to himself as he looked out the clear window.

 

May this fervent wish reach his little girl.

 

💫

 

It has been a year since I felt the magical surge.

 

He hadn’t felt it again, but the small flame of hope was not easily quenched.

 

Unlike before, when I focused my search around the capital, I spent the past year searching the ends of the empire and other countries.

 

He’d searched all the remote mountains.

 

“My lord, this is the last place.”

 

“…That’s right. If it’s not here, it’s in another country.”

 

There was now only one place left in the Empire where a girl with purple eyes and dark hair had been seen.

 

A closed village near the Empire’s borders, where he had traveled with one last hope.

 

Stepping into the village, which was neither very large nor small, Aslan clenched his fists hard.

 

If she’s not here, it means the chances of my child being inside the Empire are slim to none.

 

‘Give this wretched father one more chance, Erita.’ 

 

If I find my child, I promise to never let anyone touch her again.

 

No threat ever touches her.

 

That’s what Aslan vowed to do.

 

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

 

A small child bumped into Aslan and stumbled, revealing a head of jet-black hair peeking out from beneath the hem of a hood that had been blown back.

 

And the familiar surge of magic as the child’s hand brushed against his.

 

Aslan asked cautiously, trying to keep his voice from trembling.

 

It was a question he already knew the answer to, but he wanted to hear the child’s voice just a little more.

 

“Can you tell me your name?”

 

The child’s pretty, violet eyes fluttered anxiously as she looked up at him.

 

“…My name is Rita, but I don’t have a last name.”

 

After a moment’s hesitation, the child opened her tiny lips and answered in a thin voice.

 

It was the moment I found the daughter I had been searching for.

 

But the joy was short-lived.

 

While she was away from me, my little girl was abused.

 

At only nine years old, she was smaller than a seven-year-old, and her tiny hands bore the marks of the unjust abuse she had suffered.

 

“…I am the child of a slave.”

 

The child with the most exalted status in the empire, outside the imperial family, said she was the child of a slave.

 

Dark hair, the symbol of a proud family, had become a reason for the child to be despised by others.

 

His trembling voice asked if she truly had a family.

 

“My, the only daughter of Aslan Krovachatz. I am your father, Erita.”

 

As she burst into tears in his arms, Aslan vowed to himself.

 

‘…I will repay the pain and sorrow you have suffered a thousandfold.’

 

It was bad enough that his wife had been taken from him, but he would never let those who had caused his little child to suffer for seven years die in peace.

 

Fortunately, the child has settled in well at the Grand Duke’s mansion.

 

Though still awkward around him, Aslan was happy just to be able to lay eyes on the child.

 

The occasional anxious look in her eyes bothered him, but unless she confided in him, all he could do was hug her tenderly.

 

“Instead, I’ll do what I can.”

 

Aslan made that promise to Aaron, who was worried about his little sister.

 

He succeeded in finding out who was behind it.

 

It was enough that he had failed to fulfill his promise to his son seven years ago.