I Start with a Bad Hand!

I reconsidered my previous disdain for using appearance to determine parentage. In a world where DNA testing isn’t readily available, using physical resemblance is their best option. Even I felt a certain conviction when I looked at the woman before me.

‘Is this what Dietrich would look like if she hadn’t died and had grown into middle age?’

Though it was hard to say she was an exact match, the stranger’s face bore many features I had seen in Dietrich over the past year. But still…

‘Who is this woman?’

…Could she be Dietrich’s biological mother? Her appearance made me think so, and my steps faltered. Why had she suddenly appeared now? The black dress fit snugly over her solid frame. When our eyes met, they briefly wavered before becoming calm again. She approached me and extended her hand.

“Victoria Godwin.”

Her impeccable manner and outstretched hand caught me off guard. Beneath the leather glove, her hand firmly grasped mine. Agnes, who had sidled up to me, whispered with a wary look.

“She’s the one I mentioned, the one who looks like your mother.”

She said she didn’t know you, but suddenly she’s asking for you. Suspicious. Agnes’s breath tickled my ear, making me shrug slightly. Icarus stepped forward, shielding us.

“Are you from the Kingdom of Lucero?”

Godwin’s eyebrow arched slightly, an ambiguous reaction that could have been either agreement or annoyance. She then bowed politely to Icarus.

“…I am the Governor of the Central Bank of Lucero. It’s been a long time since I left the Empire, so I didn’t recognize a member of the Imperial Family. Please forgive my rudeness.”

Originally, I am from the Thomple Empire. Now it was Icarus’s turn to raise an eyebrow. How did he know that? I couldn’t understand. After exchanging just a few words, they had already discerned each other’s identities. The middle-aged woman who introduced herself as Godwin looked directly at me.

“I would like to have a conversation.”

“…With me?”

“Dietrich Degoph. You are the adopted child of the Degoph Barony, correct?”

When had she found out about me? As I slowly nodded, Godwin called over someone who appeared to be her assistant and whispered something.

“A carriage is waiting.”

Her assistant, with a strong accent, smiled at me. At that moment, Agnes gently pulled me aside to a corner.

“Are you going?”

“Are you going?”

Agnes and Icarus asked simultaneously. They exchanged a brief high-five upon realizing they had spoken in unison. What was that about?

“…I’m curious about what she has to say.”

The two of them leaned in so close to me that it was almost embarrassing. They whispered, perhaps overly cautious in front of Godwin.

“Do you want us to come with you?”

Agnes asked, her eyes silently urging me to say yes.

“It’s dangerous to go with a stranger without anyone accompanying you.”

Icarus added, backing up Agnes’s concern. Their gentle pressure surrounded me, but I shook my head. Who knows what she might say? It could be something I wouldn’t want to share with my friend and someone who’s sort of a friend.

“It’s fine. I’ll go alone. You both saw her take me, didn’t you? And besides, I’ll suggest we talk in a public place. The apple pie shop next to the cathedral.”

“Still,”

“I’ll tell you about it when I get back.”

At my words, Icarus and Agnes exchanged glances. Surprisingly, they nodded in agreement without further protest.

***

“…Uh, Governor, I apologize, but.”

Despite talking for a long while, our apple pies remained untouched. Victoria Godwin, Governor of the Central Bank of Lucero, sister to Rosamund Elexion, Roxanne’s mother. She had left her family at a young age, nearly excommunicated, making it impossible to get any information from the ducal house.

“I’m having trouble understanding why you sought me out.”

I cautiously asked Godwin, who firmly believed that Dietrich was her niece. It was awkward to ask, given the striking resemblance, but I couldn’t just accept, ‘Wow, I must be your niece. No wonder we look so alike,’ without any proof.

‘Being Godwin’s niece means Dietrich is actually an Elexion duchess.’

…Does that even make sense? My mind was overloaded with information, making it hard to process. Most of all, Dietrich’s body felt entirely indifferent. There was none of the shuddering revulsion I had felt when I first met Logan, nor the queasiness I experienced upon learning that the baron and baroness were safe. There was nothing at all.

‘If this secret of her birth were Dietrich’s lingering attachment… shouldn’t there be some reaction now?’

While I was utterly bewildered, Dietrich’s body showed no signs of disturbance. Seeing my incredulous expression, Rosamund began to speak in her characteristic clipped accent.

“I understand your confusion. However….”

Rosamund pulled out a letter from inside her jacket. The envelope was old and worn, as if it had been handled many times.

“Please, read it.”

I took the envelope and carefully opened it. Among the lengthy greetings, a particular passage caught my eye.

「…I felt sorry for my sister. When the baby was born with black hair, I was startled because neither my husband nor I had that color. But when I first looked into the baby’s eyes, I cried harder than the baby did. How could I not think of my sister when I saw those eyes?」

Godwin waited patiently as I read the letter. When I finally managed to speak, my voice was trembling.

“What if… I’m not your niece? Why show me such a precious piece of evidence?”

“…It’s interesting that you doubt, given how certain I am.”

Godwin replied without changing her expression. …This world, full of crazy people, has made me paranoid. Facing Godwin felt strange, almost like confronting a future version of Dietrich. Was it because of their similar faces? Even their voices sounded quite alike.

When I briefly looked away, unable to meet her gray-blue eyes, the bell above the café door rang. Two figures in deep, suspicious-looking robes entered. Their appearance was so conspicuous that they looked like bank robbers about to reveal guns from under their cloaks. The two, who had a noticeable difference in build, glanced around.

‘What’s with those two?’

My gaze returned to Godwin as she began speaking again.

“My eyes are a characteristic of the Bancamp side of my family, my maternal side. My grandmother, from whom I borrowed my surname when I went to the Kingdom of Lucero, had the same eyes.”

Not only Elexion has unique traits. Godwin added briefly, but even in that short remark, there was a hint of animosity towards Elexion.

‘Not to the prince, yet to the ducal house of Elexion.’

At that point, I felt a strange sense of camaraderie. It was reassuring to know I wasn’t the only one who found the Elexion family off-putting. But I couldn’t let myself be swayed by that feeling. There were still many questions left unanswered.

If Godwin was really Dietrich’s aunt, why was she appearing only now? If she had that letter, she must have met the original Dietrich.

‘If that were the case, Dietrich wouldn’t have been so completely alone.’

“…How did you find out about me? Not many people in the Empire know that I was registered with the ducal family and then disowned. How did you know about my existence? And… why only now?”

Crash—. Just then, there was a sound of a ceiling collapsing behind us. I turned around to see the smaller of the two robed figures clumsily picking up broken glass.

‘What’s going on?’

“It wasn’t difficult to find you with the contents of the letter. Your appearance was clearly described, and as I mentioned, gray-blue eyes are rare.”

Godwin responded lightly but didn’t address my last question. Sensing my gaze, she slowly lowered her eyes.

“…Receiving the letter was something that happened a long time ago. At that time, I didn’t leave my family or the Empire on good terms. The last time I parted from Rosamund was under the same circumstances. So, when I finally received this letter, I left it untouched for a long time.”

“Then what made you decide to open it…?”

“I heard news of a young girl winning the Imperial Hunting Festival.”

For a moment, her cold eyes seemed to be filled with longing.

“Rosamund also won the same festival at the same age.”

If it hadn’t been for that news, I wouldn’t have opened the letter. By that time, I had completely forgotten about it.

“That event rekindled my interest in Thomple and Elexion, where Rosamund was. However,”

Godwin took another sip of her tea.

“After several years, I received news that my family had been wiped out, and Rosamund… had died under mysterious circumstances.”

Her cold eyes seemed to sharpen.

“And the only daughter of Elexion looked remarkably like the duke.”

…That can’t be true.

Clang, another sound of something breaking came from behind us.