So the next day, Emilia picked another large bouquet of flowers and ran to give it to Cardan, but he flinched and told her he did not need any more flowers.
Emilia smiled and asked whether, if Papa was not busy, he would have a meal with her.
Looking at the spread of food laid out before her, Emilia had to remind herself to hold back and not overdo it.
Spotting the red-haired maid from the day before among the servants, Emilia decided she needed to deal with this first. She pointed straight at the woman and said, "That girl there tried to drag me off to the dungeon, Papa. And that man over there, this one only ever gave me stale bread. In winter, she wouldn't even give me coal to keep warm. This is the first time in my life I've seen a meal like this."
Cardan stood beside her, his face darkening like a storm cloud. Furious, he used his magic and demanded that the steward confirm whether he had truly cared for the manor as instructed these past two years. The steward went pale, unable to utter a word.
Cardan turned to her and asked, "Last winter, on your birthday, did the servants celebrate with you? Were you ever taken to have new clothes made?"
Emilia had no idea she was ever supposed to have received such treatment.
Cardan, seething, said, "Then there's nothing more to ask."
Hearing the commotion, Elvin rushed into the room. Cardan, seeing him arrive at just the right moment, ordered him to go bring Emilia's nanny.
Emilia, thinking he meant to punish the nanny, cried out in fear. "The nanny is my family. She never did anything wrong. She's cared for me with love every single day."
Cardan, breaking into a sweat, quickly explained that he only had a few questions for her.
And so the nanny was brought before him. The moment she saw the woman, Emilia ran to her in fear and clung on tight.
Cardan asked coldly how the two of them had been living while he was away.
It turned out that before going off to battle, Cardan had regularly received reports from Elvin about how she was doing. Back then, she and the nanny had still been living comfortably. But once Cardan left for the distant northern front, the estate became rudderless. The servants assumed Emilia had been abandoned, so they skimmed off her allowance and even cut off the nanny's ability to reach anyone. Powerless and unable to guess what Duke Cardan wanted, the nanny had no choice but to endure it silently alongside Emilia.
Hearing this, Cardan finally just gave a cold laugh, then told the nanny to take Emilia back to her room.
After returning to her room and finishing her meal, Emilia gazed out toward the setting sun, thinking that Cardan must be terribly lonely.
That night, the nanny noticed that Emilia still was not asleep and asked if she would like to take a stroll in the garden. Bored and restless, Emilia went with her, walking through a sea of purple flowers.
That was when she spotted Cardan standing there, and he said sadly, "I'm afraid to be near you. I worry that the moment I get close, you'll disappear too, just like she did. If I get close to you, you might meet the same misfortune."
"That would never happen," Emilia said, alarmed. "Then if I never see you again after this, will you be all right, Papa? Right now, I get to see you and give you flowers every day. Doesn't that make you happy?"
Taking hold of Cardan's hand, she smiled and said, "As long as I have you by my side, I'm happy. I hope you're happy having me around too, Papa."
Cardan's eyes welled up as he apologized to Emilia. He had always assumed that keeping his distance was the only way to keep her safe. And yet she had been living so happily all along.
And so father and daughter stood together in that sea of flowers, talking for a long, long time.
From that day on, Emilia reclaimed every right owed to a young lady of her station. Every guilty servant was arrested and replaced, with more than half the old staff who had served back when Rainer was alive brought back, the steward included. They looked at her with tears in their eyes, clearly having suffered through hard times of their own.
But what made her happiest of all was getting to spend so much more time with Cardan.
Even though his words were still as blunt as ever, Cardan told the nanny to find a tutor to teach Emilia etiquette and history. Though he figured there was no need to rush it, Emilia quickly promised she would study hard.
And so a tutor was brought in.
The tutor told her about the man who protected this empire. Lord Fess, a mage of extraordinary talent, had helped the emperor build the empire itself. But somewhere along the way he had touched a forbidden sacred relic and been cursed by the gods for it. He was forced to live an eternal life, never able to die, bound forever to protect the empire.
Emilia could not help but feel for him. Immortality was not a blessing at all. It was a punishment.
If that was true, then this man Fess must still be alive to this very day. Living alone for hundreds of years. Truly a pitiful fate.
The tutor mentioned that if she was interested in history, she could visit the royal library to read up on it.
Hearing that, Emilia rushed off to ask Cardan's opinion. As it happened, Cardan also had business at the palace that day, so Emilia begged him to let her come along. She promised she would behave better from now on, and Cardan agreed.
The next morning, father and daughter happily got ready to set off. Looking at Cardan, Emilia flattered him. "You look so dazzling today, Papa."
Cardan just laughed, lifted her up, and urged, "At this rate the sun will set before we even leave. We'd better hurry."
The carriage carried all three of them into the royal palace.