Chapter 9: The Origin of the Cursed Daughter
“Sorry, Miss Helos took me out for a walk this afternoon.”
Julius’s voice was calm, but it made the maid in front of him suddenly freeze.
Her pupils contracted slightly, and her lips trembled faintly, as if she had heard something unbelievable.
“H-Helos… Miss Helos…?”
Her voice unconsciously dropped in volume, and her gaze instinctively darted around, as if the name itself carried some sort of taboo. “Are you saying… you spent the entire afternoon with the Second Miss?”
Julius nodded slightly.
He noticed the maid’s gaze wavering and her fingertips unconsciously twisting the edge of her skirt.
Her lips opened and closed several times, as if weighing the right words.
“Your body… didn’t feel anything strange, right?”
***
After a moment, she finally spoke, her voice low and guarded, as if afraid someone might overhear.
“Hm?”
Julius instinctively touched his chest. “It should be… all normal.”
The maid’s tense shoulders visibly relaxed, and she let out a long breath, muttering to herself repeatedly, “That’s good… that’s good.”
In the gradually darkening twilight, her eyes flickered with a complex emotion.
“If I may speak frankly…”
She hesitated for a moment, then mustered the courage to look Julius directly in the eyes. “If there’s nothing urgent, you should try to limit your contact with Miss Helos as much as possible.”
“Why is that?”
Julius frowned involuntarily.
In his impression, the silver-haired girl was nothing more than a little mischievous, no different from ordinary people—if anything, she was even livelier and more interesting than most noble daughters he had met.
If it weren’t for the fact they were in the Duke’s Mansion, he might not even have recognized her as a noble lady.
The maid did not answer immediately.
At the end of the corridor, a Magic Lamp flickered several times.
“If you want to know the reason… you’d better ask Miss Eleanor.”
“I’ll take my leave now.”
She simply shook her head, lifted her skirts, and hurried away with a bow.
The fading footsteps echoed through the empty corridor like a silent warning.
***
Julius stood outside Eleanor’s door, his fingertips hovering above the door panel, hesitating to knock.
The corridor’s Magic Lamp cast a long shadow of him, faintly swaying on the luxurious carpet.
“Julius?”
As if sensing his presence, a soft call came from inside, tinged with a hint of curiosity. “What are you doing standing outside the door?”
He finally snapped back to reality and gently pushed the door open.
“Pardon me, Miss Eleanor.”
Eleanor was sitting by the window in an armchair, the setting sun casting a warm glow that haloed her golden hair.
She closed the book in her hands, her sapphire eyes full of concern.
“You seem a bit distracted.”
She tilted her head slightly, the Silver Hairpin in her hair gently swaying. “Did something happen?”
Julius froze for a moment.
How should he begin?
Should he mention the silver-haired girl smiling in the sunlight, or the maid’s hesitant warning?
A gentle breeze blew past, and the wind chimes outside the window rang clearly, as if urging him to answer.
“Nothing,”
he said cautiously, carefully choosing his words. “Just… I ran into some unexpected things in the mansion today.”
Eleanor’s gaze lingered on his slightly disheveled collar for a moment before her slender fingers gently closed the book.
“Is it related to my sister?”
She lifted her eyelashes, her voice as soft as the evening breeze outside.
“How… how did you know?”
A knowing smile curved Eleanor’s lips.
She rose and walked toward the window as moonlight began to replace the sunset glow, flowing over the hem of her pure white dress.
“Well… after all, she’s the only one here who looks a bit unusual.”
She stared at Julius, her blue eyes holding an elusive emotion.
“My sister… doesn’t look like a child at all, does she?”
Julius’s gaze flickered between Eleanor and the moonlight outside the window.
“You two are very similar in that regard.”
He carefully chose his words. “You both seem very mature.”
The young man looked at Eleanor’s reflection in the window glass and quietly added,
“It’s just that Miss Helos gives me a somewhat different feeling.”
“That’s normal.”
Eleanor walked slowly toward the desk, her skirts brushing the polished floor like flowing water.
She made an elegant ‘please sit’ gesture to Julius, and after he sat down, she lightly lifted her dress and sat across from him.
Moonlight poured through the French windows, giving her golden hair a silver sheen.
She reached for the teapot and personally poured a cup of rich Red Tea for the young man in front of her.
“You know my mother—the Olivius Duchess?”
Her voice was soft, as if afraid of disturbing some sleeping memory.
Julius nodded.
“I’ve heard of her.”
“The Church officials often say that your mother was a strong yet gentle woman.”
“Many people admired her even more than the Duke.”
“That’s right—I heard the same.”
Eleanor gently set down the silver teapot, gazing at the rippling surface of the tea.
The tea reflected her slightly trembling eyelashes.
“My mother died in childbirth on the day we were born.”
Her fingertips traced the edge of the cup as if recounting someone else’s story. “But that childbirth came without warning.”
The girl paused when raising the cup to her lips; the rising steam blurred her expression.
“Or rather…”
Eleanor took a light sip of the Red Tea. When she set down the cup, the faint clink of the cup against the saucer sounded.
“According to all the Church’s examination records, there should have been only one child.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means,” facing Julius’s puzzled gaze, Eleanor lifted her eyelids and gently traced the rim of the cup with her fingertips, “one of us was a ‘child that should not exist.’”
“I was the firstborn. According to their records, mother was still able to joke with father after delivering me.”
“But just when everyone thought it was over, mother suddenly turned pale—”
Julius saw Eleanor’s fingertips unconsciously clutch her palm.
“It was only then that the midwives realized there was still another life in her womb.”
Eleanor’s voice grew softer.
“A life that no magic detection could find…”
“Mother barely had any strength left when she gave birth to her.”
The girl’s eyelashes cast shadows across her face. “But when the midwives tried to use Healing Magic…”
“The magic… failed at that moment.”