The Tyrant Won’t Let Me Go – Chapter 62

Author: Nikss

The silver letters glowing in the air were a surprise.

[You and Jack Marr are not related by blood, I’ll tell you more when you come to the Magical Research Department today at five o’clock. — Rukia]

For about three seconds, I stared blankly at the words floating in the air.

Then the words gently dispersed into the air, leaving the note blank again.

‘Five o’clock…’

After repeating the time Rukia had said in my mind, I took a shaky step forward.

⚔️

When the time was up, I went to see Rukia, and he explained everything to me.

He said that after the incident where my biological mother threatened me, he felt bad that I was struggling with the issue.

He thought it was likely that she was lying or that someone had manipulated her memory, so he thought it would be a good idea to do a paternity test.

The problem was that a paternity test required the magic of two people, and he didn’t know where to get Jack Mar’s magic.

A solution flashed through his mind.

I remembered that Jack Mar had used the shackles I had put on after I had used the Lightning Strike and collapsed.

Since he was the last person to wear the shackles before I did, there would be a small amount of Jack Mar’s magic left in them.

In the end, Rukia took the magic from the shackles, filtered out my magic, and extracted Jack Mar’s magic.

— ‘I apologize for the rashness of the test, but I hoped it would ease your mind a little.’

He confessed that he hadn’t intended to tell me the results once the test showed that he was in fact the father.

However, as he expected, the test concluded that he was not the father, and so he told me.

— ‘So you can rest easy now, you don’t have the blood of a traitor or anything.’

I sighed, remembering Rukia’s face as she showed me the results and kept telling me that it was fine and to forget what the woman had said.

‘I do feel a little better, that’s for sure.’

Cedric, who had been told that I might be Jack Marr’s daughter, except for Rukia, who had interrogated the woman directly, said that it didn’t bother him at all. My biological father was the one who had tried to murder him.

In fact, after that day, he treated me as usual.

But I still felt a heavy weight in my heart whenever I saw him.

“It’s okay now…”

“Yeah, what?”

As I muttered to myself, Cedric walked into the room.

“Ah, when did you get here?”

“Just now. I just got out of a meeting.”

“You did well.”

I smiled at him, feeling more relaxed.

“Yeah, Ciel had a good day, too.”

And Cedric smiled back.

What a sculptured face, and such a pretty little speech.

How I wish he could stay like that forever.

It’s so much better than the way he looks when his eyes are all glazed over with obsession.

[At least he looks like that a lot in front of you, not in front of anyone else].

Caliberne spoke in her head.

‘Um, no, he was smiling in front of Persephine.’

[I looked, and his eyes weren’t smiling then.]

‘Oh, is that so?’

I thought, ‘Are these two really alright?’

“Ciel, what are you thinking?”

Cedric asked, sitting on the couch and scratching his head.

I looked into his childlike red, clear eyes, and for some reason I was speechless.

“Is something wrong?”

He leaned in close and asked softly.

“I met Rukia today.”

“Oh, right. She asked me not to tell anyone, just to pass on her note to you. Did you two have a nice meeting?”

“Yeah.”

I shook my head and quickly added, “She says I’m not related to Jack Marr.”

Cedric’s red eyes widened slightly as he listened.

“I see.”

His voice was flat and bland, with no real agitation.

And yet, for some reason, the voice seemed to exude gentleness.

“My biological father is a completely different man, and as I suspected, they either manipulated my mother’s memories, or they did something to the portrait they first showed me.”

“Yeah, I thought so.”

“Anyway, so, um…”

I scratched my cheek awkwardly, looking at Cedric, who was still listening, watching me intently.

“I just wanted to tell His Majesty, so that’s why I told you.”

“Thank you for telling me.”

His ruby-red eyes curved in an arc. It was a soft, ticklish smile, reminiscent of cherry blossoms on a spring day.

Smiling back, he stepped forward and slowly put his arms around my shoulders.

“Your Majesty?”

A familiar scent wafted through the air as his arms held me close.

“Thank goodness.”

“…”

“You’ve been through a lot.”

I cringed at the sound of his gentle voice.

No tears were shed, but the bridge of my nose was twitching.

The pat on my back was so warm. I thought I hid it well, but he knew.

“You can stop hiding that now.”

Right… Life was too good to waste.

It’s time for me to break free from the shadow of my birth mother and the Orphanage.

“Right.”

Composing myself, I smiled broadly at Cedric.

He smiled back, pleased.

“So now you’ve completely run out of reasons to say you don’t want to be with me, huh?”

Huh? Wait a minute.

“You know, Ciel, you told me the other day that you were worried that I might start to resent you for being Jack Marr’s daughter, which, of course, I told you I didn’t care about at all.”

“Uh, yeah… right.”

“Well, now that you’re completely unrelated to Jack Marr, you realize that there’s no reason for me to dislike you, let alone hate you.”

Okay, this kind of scares me.

A moment ago, Cedric looked like a young man who had just fallen in love, standing shyly under a pink cherry tree.

Now, he had the eyes of a male lead in a bloody novel, reveling in a blood feast in front of the bars that imprisoned the heroine.

“Well, for now.”

“Isn’t it?” Cedric said, smiling brightly with satisfaction.

Not the cherry blossom kind this time, hmm… More like a very pretty but poisonous wisteria.

“By the way, Your Majesty.”

“Why, Ciel?”

“Just in case.”

“Yes.”

“What would you have done if I were really Jack Marr’s daughter?”

Without a second’s hesitation, Cedric replied, “I would have treated you the same as usual.”

His camellia-red eyes stared straight at me.

“I would have thanked her for telling me, and I would have told her I didn’t care. Isn’t that what I’d have said the first time I heard it from her?”

Cedric clasped their hands together, his face somber.

“And I bet I asked you again. To stay by my side because I really don’t care.”

There was a pause as he finished.

“…You’re so consistent.”

The words were barely out after the silence.

Cedric answered with a smile.

“How could I change my mind with you by my side?”

⚔️

It was eleven o’clock when Ciel returned.

In a room dimly lit by candlelight, Cedric stared down at his papers with red eyes that were anything but warm.

Paul, standing in front of him, interrupted.

“They say a search party will be organized tomorrow.”

The hand gripping the quill stopped moving, and the piercing red eyes glowed.

“I’m glad you were quick about this.”

“Yes, it shouldn’t take long to identify the killer.”

“That’s true. It was pretty scoped to begin with.”

Cedric put down his quill pen and looked up at Paul.

“Ever since she mentioned the artificial limb, I had a feeling it was him.”

“I thought you said that Minerva herself suspected that Tekarke was behind this?”

“Yes. She told me that Tekarke would be the most likely person to think of preying on her weakness, and now that the truth has come out today, she told me again that Tekarke would be the only one who would go so far as to falsify information.”

“Yeah, right, and it’s not just about blackmailing Minerva, either, since it turns out he’s the head of an illegal drug distribution organization.”

“Yeah. I hear they’re excited about the opportunity to get rid of the drugs.”

“That’s understandable, after all the trouble they’ve caused me.”

Stripped of all his possessions, deported, and holed up in a relative’s house in another country, I never thought he’d do something this dirty.

‘I would have been willing to take the risk in the first place.’

If he didn’t, he was a fool.

With that thought, Cedric handed Paul the completed paperwork.

“Yeah, that’s it for today, right?”

“Yes.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. I’ll have the papers delivered.”

“Yes, thank you.”

Returning the quill to its place, Cedric headed for his bed and was about to leave the room when Paul stopped him.

“Paul, wait.”