Chapter 33: It Was Truly a Good Thing to Break It Back Then part 1
“Anyway, the story spread little by little, and now there are quite a few nobles who request paternity testing from this Mage Tower instead of the Grand Temple. After all, the process is the same, but it’s much easier to hold the Mage Tower accountable than the Grand Grand Temple if something goes wrong, isn’t it?”
Holtdayne’s argument made sense. Even if the Grand Temple failed to handle something properly, it would be hard to say anything against it later.
“The only reason people don’t say it outright is that they’re afraid of straining their relationship with the Grand Temple.”
“I see. Thanks for letting me know, Holtdayne.”
“It’s nothing.”
Despite saying that, Holtdayne was smiling ear to ear.
Since Lucius the mage arrived, Fay, who used to stick by his side, had been noticeably alone lately. And how beautiful Fay looked, lost in thought while holding Undine close….
Gulp.
The mage, unwilling to give up on his hard-won first love, hesitated for a moment.
Wasn’t this the perfect moment to be a man, muster up the courage, and confess his feelings? If he said, ‘I like… you…’ right now—!
But before he could finish his thought, the words he longed to say spilled out, though not from his lips, but hers.
“Fine.”
“What? Huh?! What the—”
Holtdayne froze, stunned, as Fay suddenly stood with a resolute expression.
‘No way…!’
The once confident Holtdayne could only groan in dismay. He had just discovered a critical issue.
When they first arrived at the Magic Tower, his and her height had been nearly the same. She had been slightly, just a tiny bit, taller, but it was negligible.
But now…!
“Holtdayne, I think I need to investigate something. Thank you! Because of you, I have a new research topic to work on for a while.”
“W-What?”
He couldn’t bring himself to stop Fay as she walked away. Once she was gone, all he could do was head to the cafeteria with a frustrated look and place this order:
“Add a bottle of milk to my breakfast. The biggest one. Starting tomorrow.”
“Yes, understood.”
I will grow taller, no matter what! Men can grow even at my age, right?! Alright, let’s do this!
— — —
Fay’s footsteps quickened as she felt herself getting closer to uncovering the truth of her past.
“Haa… haa…”
She had been too complacent. The family she had abandoned, the ruby pendant she destroyed in a fit of rage – she had ignored the truth and neglected to seek it out. That much was undeniable.
The people of Duke Klein’s household, Lord Kassel…. No, this was not the time for weakness. Even if she had chosen to distance herself from them, there were things she needed to know.
Back in her room, Fay fell into deep thought.
‘Let’s go back to the beginning. I don’t have many memories of living at the Grand Temple with my nanny. I just recall being told often that I was frail, sickly… that I needed to be careful. Was I really like that?’
After her injury, she had grown up at Grace Monastery, and nothing of the sort had happened there.
If that was simply because her wounds had healed, then why was there no record of her being born with any significant illness or condition? Were they overly cautious just because she was a noblewoman? But if she had been perfectly healthy, why would she have spent nearly five years at the Grand Temple instead of at the Duke’s residence after her birth?
For now, she set those questions aside and retrieved the broken ruby pendant from the depths of her drawer.
‘Dott stole only the silk robe, yet she was acknowledged as the Duke’s daughter.’
Where exactly had this pendant come from?
‘Why did they bother switching out the ruby pendant back then? Why did they not consider it important this time and simply disregard it as a lost item? Surely just the silk robe I wore should have been enough….’
The more Fay thought about it, the more suspicious certain individuals and places became. And her suspicions pointed not to Duke Klein’s household, but to—
‘The Grand Temple… and Saintess Kaphia….’
It was something beyond her area of comprehension.
When Morgana had the results of the paternity test delivered and Dott was acknowledged as the Duke’s daughter, could that have succeeded without the Grand Temple’s cooperation?
At the very least, even if they hadn’t orchestrated the deception, they must have knowingly turned a blind eye to it.
Yes, everything that had happened to her – all those terrible schemes.
No matter how cunning Dott had been, it was impossible for her to go through this long and intricate process without ever being caught. Even the incidents where she hired others to attempt murder multiple times, they, too, should have left traces that eventually led back to her.
‘Even if I generously assume that the Truth Seeker’s Stone was used on a silk robe instead of a person, it’s still suspicious. Above all, this ruby pendant wasn’t just a mere token. It was a device that thoroughly suppressed my magical power.’
If Duke Klein had handed her the pendant because he didn’t want his daughter to become a mage…
Even if Dott had been recognized as the daughter, there was no way they wouldn’t have checked for magical talent.
Even if the Grand Temple confirmed her identity as a legitimate child, it still didn’t make sense. Magic that one was born with doesn’t simply disappear as one grows up. Tiana’s magical power was key to disproving the paternity test or revealing that Dott wasn’t truly the Duke’s daughter.
This led to one of two conclusions: Either Duke Klein didn’t know about the pendant’s existence, or he didn’t understand its purpose.
‘If that’s the case, then my ruby pendant didn’t come from the Duke’s household but elsewhere. And in the end… it all points back to the Grand Temple.’
