"That little bitch." Barak shook his hand, which Irina had stomped on, in the air, his face twisting in displeasure.
He was now forced to believe that she had no lingering attachments to the Duchy, no intention of taking April's place. The Irina he saw today was not the Irina he thought he knew.
She wasn't the child who trembled at the thought of being cast out of the Duchy, nor the one who hovered around him, desperate for his attention.
"Then why the hell did she come back?"
He couldn't understand it. Did she have absolutely no pride? Even if she wasn't born a noble, after living in the Duchy for nearly ten years, she should at least be able to act like one.
The Irina he remembered was more like a noble than anyone else. She had to hate everyone in the Duchy.
Barak, his face a mask of confusion, ran a hand roughly through his hair with his injured hand.
As Barak left the study, intending to head to his own room, he saw a figure approaching at a rapid pace.
"Brother?"
He'd been giving Lian the cold shoulder these past few days, as Lian was one of the people who had brought Irina to the Duchy, but right now, he was so taken aback that he couldn't help but call out to him.
The ever-composed Lian was rushing past him, looking utterly frantic.
"What's going on?"
He looked as though he was on the verge of tears. Barak gave a short, incredulous laugh as Lian hurried past.
He didn't seem that upset even when April got hurt. What could have happened?
Barak tilted his head slightly, then grabbed Cliff, who was following behind.
"Sir Cliff."
"Ah, Young Master."
Cliff looked as though he'd just arrived, his travel gear still on.
Barak looked Cliff up and down, then gestured with his eyes towards the direction Lian had run.
"What's wrong with my brother?"
Cliff couldn't answer Barak's question. To be precise, he didn't know how to answer it.
Duke Alexis hadn't given him permission to speak, and he couldn't easily imagine the fallout if he repeated what he'd heard.
Especially since there was no telling what Barak would do.
"I'm sorry."
"Sorry?" Barak frowned, but Cliff remained unfazed.
"Father!"
Lian burst into Alexis's study without knocking, prompting Alexis to slowly look up.
Unlike his younger brother, Barak, Lian had never raised his voice in the house. The fact that he had barged in suggested something was seriously wrong.
Even when he and his wife had decided to send Irina away, their son had calmly tried to reason with them.
Alexis's brow furrowed as he watched Lian struggle to catch his breath.
"What is going on? You knew about this, didn't you?"
"What are you talking about?"
Lian was struggling to maintain his composure. He took a deep breath, seeing that his father didn't understand what he was saying.
He wanted to explain the situation calmly, but he couldn't stay calm.
The words swirling in his mind were disorganized, threatening to burst out of his mouth.
His father looked at him with frustration, prompting Lian to take another deep breath.
"Mother killed Irina's father??"
"...What?"
Alexis's expression froze as the unexpected words left Lian's mouth.
Not twisting in anger, not showing shock, but simply freezing over. He stood up, wearing an expression that could only be described as frozen.
Killed? Who?
He wouldn't have been surprised if Irina's biological father had simply died. He looked frail even when they first met him.
After almost ten years without hearing news of his death, he'd even thought he was doing surprisingly well. He had also cursed the man for never contacting his daughter, calling him heartless.
He thought the man was someone who pretended to care about his daughter, but was, in the end, concerned about his well-being...
But this was unexpected.
"What are you saying?"
Not just dead, but murdered? And by…
"Who killed who?"
Lian's anxiety eased slightly as Alexis rose slowly from his seat, but he was disgusted by his own pathetic response.
The fact that his father was unaware of this, that his late mother had acted alone, gave him a sense of relief.
'You wretched guy.'
Even 'wretched' was an understatement.
"I overheard your instructions to Sir Cliff, Father. ...I insisted on accompanying Sir Cliff on his mission."
"I'm not asking about you going along."
"......"
"Who killed who?"
"Mother, Irina's father."
He wanted to dig up the grave of the deceased. He wanted to dig up the grave and ask Angelica what happened.
Duke Alexis clutched his chest, feeling a sensation that squeezed his heart.
It was a pain he felt when he was shocked beyond what he could bear.
He recalled how his wife, Angelica, had gone completely insane when Barak lost April in the capital city.
She would harshly blame Barak for losing their daughter, then, on other days, dote on him just because he was her son.
When he was experiencing excessive depression, anger, and joy, he had met Irina, who looked exactly like his lost daughter.
"It seems that she sent someone to her biological father shortly after Irina came to live in the Duchy."
"......"
"All the servants who lived with her told me everything."
Alexis sat heavily in his chair, his eyes tightly closed, hearing Lian's voice tremble.
Damn it. How much has Irina been mistreated?
Sending her out in the middle of winter because they found their biological daughter was an unforgivable mistake, but the fact that his wife killed the child's biological father meant that their relationship was irreparable.
"What if she wants to go back to her biological father?"
He recalled Angelica, teary-eyed, saying those words the night Irina finally decided to come to the Duchy.
Angelica considered Irina a substitute for April, but at the same time, she cherished her like her biological daughter and feared her for a long time.
That Irina wanted to see her father, and that she might change her mind again and want to go back.
From some point on, she didn't seem anxious anymore, so he thought she was getting better...
"Ha..."
In reality, she hadn't improved, but had made things worse.
She was so afraid of her returning to her father, so how could she say that they should send Irina back so easily?
"...Irina knows everything, Father."
And how disgusting and hateful would their words be to have her return to the Duchy?
Alexis bit his lip so hard that blood trickled down.
"Irina, really......"
Lian muttered in a low voice, with his head bowed. Wouldn't it be okay someday? If I apologize and apologize again...won't it get better at least a little?
He was ridiculous for having hoped that even if they couldn't live like a family like before, they could still somehow get their relationship back. There was no way that the child hadn't noticed that he had these hopes.
How absurd and funny would it have been? Even when he met Irina, he couldn't hold back the tears he had been holding back until the end. Lian swallowed hard as teardrops fell down.
"Die quickly for the future of your daughter, who will become my daughter."
"These are the words your mother said."
Alicia's angry voice still rang vividly in his ears.
"Did she come to the Duchy simply to earn money?"
The answer to Lian's question is 'no'.
But that didn't matter now. Whether she came because she was simply having a difficult time, or whether she came back to the Duchy for other reasons.
"What does that matter?"
Alexis sighed. Yeah, what does it matter now?
No matter how wrong they think they are, even if Angelica didn't know she would do that, the wrong doesn't go away, and the child's dead biological father doesn't come back.
They were the ones who made Irina an orphan.
Alexis ran a hand over his rough face.
"I will bring Alicia back again."
His voice was weak. Even if Alexis said no, it was also a declaration that he would bring him.
Alexis looked at Lian with a dazed look without saying anything.
Lian wiped away his tears roughly with the back of his hand, raised his head, and continued.
"Isn't that the only family member left for Irina?"