I nodded, my mouth hanging open blankly. I didn’t really understand what Tina was saying, but I went along with it anyway. Honestly, it wasn’t any of my business, since I would be leaving once I got my child support money. So I just treated it like an interesting story I was hearing about someone else.

Then Daddy... must’ve raised his sons himself. I was a little jealous. The daddy that I’d just met was intimidating, but he didn’t seem like someone who would abuse or hit you. He probably fed them well too. And he probably dressed them warmly, right? No, I shouldn’t be jealous. Our lives are completely different. That isn’t something I can change.

After a while, Tina put me back in the bathtub, filled with fresh water and soft, foamy bubbles that tickled my body. The warm water was an unfamiliar sensation, but so amazing that I stayed still. So still.

Just as I was thinking that I could die happy in this bath, Tina spoke. “I’m sure you’ll get to meet Masters Kyen and Abel soon.”

“Kaiyen...”

So my eldest brother’s name was Kyen. I’d only known about my second brother. I practiced saying “Kyen.” It had a nice sound to it. After practicing his name a few more times, I stopped, realizing how pointless it was. What good was memorizing his name? We’re not going to be a family.

I hadn’t come here daring to dream of being part of their home. I didn’t want to force my way into a perfect family—I’d only come to sell the information I had. So I had to complete the transaction quickly, while I still had Daddy’s attention.

After my bath, Tina brought me a warm cup of milk.

“Iss swee’...” (It’s sweet...)

They chuckled gently. “Isn’t it?”

I cocked my head in curiosity but finished the entire cup. Had milk always tasted this sweet and buttery? When I finished the milk, I saw something white and cloudlike at the bottom of the cup. “Whas dis?” (What’s this?)

“Oh! That’s a marshmallow, my lady. It must not have melted completely.”

“Mushmeww...”

I’d never had a marshmallow before. There was no way anyone in House Evelan would have given me anything this delicious. The marshmallow melting on my baby tongue felt like an unimaginably heavenly sweetness.

“Now then, you need to get a good night’s sleep so that you can grow big and strong, my little lady. Your hands and feet are still like a baby’s.”

“But...wha’ abou’ Tis Gwace?” (But... What about His Grace?)

I was supposed to meet him when I was finished bathing. I wanted to leave this place before I got used to it. I liked the first warm bath I’d ever had. I liked the marshmallow milk, and I liked the soft bed. I felt like I’d be able to face the world bravely with the help of these shining memories. But I couldn’t get used to these good things, because... Well, they weren’t mine.

“His Grace is probably just a little busy. He was on the battlefield until recently, you see. He has a lot of things to take care of, and I heard he also has somewhere to pay an urgent visit to.”

“Mmkay.” My head drooped with gloom. Would he still have time to listen to a tiny kid like me when he was that busy? What if he didn’t? Would the no-good count make someone else kill Abel in my place?

I hope Daddy can stop him. I didn’t want Abel to die. I hoped he wouldn’t. Feeling again like my head would overheat and burst, I blew out a deep breath.

Hearing my sigh, Tina pulled the blanket up to my neck and tucked me in, whispering tenderly, “I’ll make sure to tell His Grace how much you want to see him, my lady. How is that?”

“I’d wike dat.” (I’d like that.)

“Then don’t worry about anything, and sleep tight so you can grow nice and tall.”

“Tank’oo, Tina.” (Thank you, Tina.)

Tina’s name was easy to pronounce. Their eyes crinkled with a smile at the sound of their name, then they blew the candles out.

Long after Tina had left, I carefully climbed down from the bed and lay down on the hardest part of the floor I could find. To be honest, it wasn’t very uncomfortable, because I couldn’t resist pulling the thick, fluffy blanket down with me. There was a carpet under my back, too.

I’d given up on the bed because it was too luxurious. This isn’t my home. I stubbornly reminded myself once more that I absolutely couldn’t get used to it, and then closed my eyes.

That night, I dreamed of Count Evelan’s suffering.

* * *

In a garden lit with scarlet lanterns was Grand Duke Khalid Passar Durndevre, who had chosen not to attend the victory party held in his honor that day. Instead, he was walking through his garden, listening to his aide’s report.

“And the child?”

“Asleep, my lord. Tina confirmed seeing a butterfly mark while bathing the young lady.”

“So it’s highly likely that she is my daughter,” Khalid murmured slowly. He was truly confused.

He knew for sure how his two sons had come about, and from whom. He may not have been living with their mother, but they still occasionally kept in touch, and he’d raised the children well with a father’s love.

Kyen and Abel’s mother wasn’t a particularly possessive or monopolistic devil. She wouldn’t have had any problem with it if he’d courted other women after her, but he hadn’t, restraining himself on the off chance that doing so would hurt his sons as they grew up.

When parents entered a new relationship, they were bound to pay less attention to their children, and he’d wanted to avoid that, as his parenting philosophy was to raise children with plenty of attention. But suddenly a daughter had appeared out of nowhere, even though he had no recollection whatsoever of having been with another woman.

“I do have one guess.” The war had gone on for five years. Recalling his memories from before then, Khalid said in a low voice, “House Evelan. How is the monitoring going over there?”

“Yes, there is something unusual regarding them, my lord. It was reported that knights of House Evelan were roaming the backstreets today.”

“Don’t the neraphim say that the backstreets are where the poor and filthy demon spawn live? And yet they were wandering around there?”

“Yes, my lord. The humans we planted at the pawnshop also thought it unusual, since walking around like that when they don’t even patrol that area attracts a fair bit of attention. According to the humans, it looked like the knights were searching for something.”

“How foolish.” Khalid’s face instantly turned cold. He’d begun to piece together the situation. “Investigate Arcilla Evelan.”

“Is Your Grace referring to the ninth daughter of God?”

“Yes.”

“If I recall correctly, you only came face-to-face with her once, my lord. And even at that time, I remember you saying nothing happened.”

“It was right before I went to war.”

“Yes, my lord. I thought that it was strange that she secretly came to see you.”

Publicly, the houses of Evelan and Durndevre were mortal enemies, but in actuality Khalid didn’t truly think of Evelan as his foes. They were too insignificant for that. He saw no reason to waste his thoughts on them or pay them any mind.

The only one of them with at least enough holy power to be worth something had been Arcilla Evelan, who was chosen as the ninth daughter of God. And that same Arcilla had come to him boldly demanding he spend the night with her. He’d let her into his office to hear what she had to say, but the moment she stepped inside she’d said, “You’re single, so it doesn’t matter, right? Sleep with me.” He still vividly remembered how dumbfounded he’d felt at that moment.

“I think Arcilla Evelan probably stole my essence from me that day.”

“I beg your pardon...?”

“The age fits the time frame, and if we infer that the child was in House Evelan, the situation seems clear. It seems like she took my essence into her womb and went through the pregnancy and birth on her own.”

Levius’s jaw dropped. “What an... incredible human.”

Demons could conceive through physical relations, but there was also a way for them to conceive without any physical contact whatsoever by planting their energy, or their “essence,” into the mother. He didn’t know how Arcilla Evelan stole that energy, but she was God’s daughter. She must’ve found some way.

“Then did she mean to use the child as a tool?” Levius asked, swallowing hard at the thought.

Khalid recalled Arcilla Evelan. As far as he knew, there was no woman better than she was at putting on an act of fragility. On the surface, she looked as unfathomably delicate as sleet a moment from melting away, but in fact, she was as aloof and unyielding as a dense, unmelting ice cap.

And Arcilla had been sick and tired of her life as God’s daughter. She’d wanted to be done with it. She’d come to him, knowing that corruption was the only way out, but Khalid had refused her. The neraphim prized God’s daughter above all else. If he helped her corruption, war could break out earlier than he’d planned, and the headache would be his to deal with.

But for her to have conceived a child?