Dark Dad’s Rebirth - Chapter 12: A New Tool (6)

“Your Highness,” Gossen called, interrupting Caelius’s casual conversation with Leria. Caelius’s pen, which had been gliding smoothly over the documents before him, paused mid-stroke as his gaze shifted.

“What is it?”

“The young lord of the Marquis of Verha paid a visit to the estate.”

Caelius’s pen hovered briefly before resuming its movement.

“He spoke briefly with Lady Aria before leaving,” Gossen continued.

I no longer want to be involved with you, Father. I’ll marry someone my age and leave the house.

For reasons he couldn’t fathom, those words she had once spoken resurfaced in his mind. Caelius frowned slightly, sinking into thought. A brief silence settled over the room, and even Leria, sensing the shift in atmosphere, refrained from speaking, watching quietly instead.

“Nothing unusual to report otherwise?” Caelius asked finally.

“No, Your Highness. She rarely leaves her room these days, aside from attending a banquet at the Verha estate.”

“And her meals?”

“We send food up regularly, including snacks, but she appears to eat only once a day.”

“Very well. Ensure the guards remain vigilant—no intrusions, no exceptions.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Gossen bowed and exited the room, leaving Caelius’s thoughts to linger on Aria. Her tendency to isolate herself was nothing new; she had often shut herself in her room for weeks at a time, avoiding him entirely. He dismissed the behavior as nothing out of the ordinary.

Leria, however, perked up, curiosity lighting her expression.

“Father, why does Sister’s room need guards?”

Caelius turned his gaze to her.

“There are pests that sometimes find their way in,” he replied dismissively, returning to his papers.

Leria wasn’t naive enough to take him literally. She tilted her head in puzzlement.

Is he talking about assassins…?

Intrigued, she pressed further.

“Father, does that mean I have guards outside my room, too?”

Her voice carried a subtle note of anticipation. If Caelius was so cautious about protecting Aria, surely she, as the favored daughter, would enjoy the same precautions—or so she thought.

Caelius met her hopeful gaze with his piercing eyes, faintly narrowing them as a dry smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

“Guards?”

He chuckled softly, the sound tinged with derision. Leria didn’t know that there were no guards outside her room, no special protections in place for her. But Caelius wasn’t about to tell her that now. Replacing his amusement with a warm, fatherly demeanor, he replied, “Of course.”

After all, with the Adamas Ring in her possession, Leria was unlikely to face any real danger. The power of the royal bloodline might not prevent pain, but it would keep her alive. Caelius saw no reason to assign her additional protection.

“I’m not afraid of a few pests,” Leria murmured, feigning bravery.

“You don’t need to be,” Caelius replied firmly, but without warmth.

Leria’s face brightened. “Father, you’ll protect me, won’t you—”

“With the Adamas Ring, you won’t die to mere pests,” Caelius interrupted curtly, cutting off her attempt at sentiment.

Leria laughed awkwardly, twirling a strand of her hair as the conversation fell flat.

“That’s… reassuring,” she mumbled.

Caelius offered no further response, redirecting his attention to his documents. But try as he might, thoughts of Aria continued to intrude.

“Father, do you love me”

“Why are you like this? You don’t care about me, and yet you confuse me with your actions.”

“I’m a person, too. I have feelings. I wasn’t born to be a tool for your rebellion or to be discarded at your convenience. I wanted to be loved, like a normal child, by normal parents—
—not someone like you.”

“I never asked for this!”

“I used to be so pathetically devoted to you. I didn’t care about the grand mansion or the luxuries. I would have gladly shared cold scraps of bread on a frozen street if it meant being with you.”

The memory of that outburst tugged at him, souring his mood. He hadn’t been particularly annoyed earlier, but now his thoughts felt muddled, clouded with inexplicable irritation.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, a tangle of emotions began to stir, growing harder to ignore.

Caelius, unable to endure the gnawing discomfort within, reached into his desk and retrieved a hallucinogen. As he placed it between his lips, Leria’s curious eyes followed the motion, blinking as though expecting an explanation.

He offered none.

Ignoring her, he struck a flame to the end of the white paper, watching the ember catch and glow. The first inhalation sent a wave of calm rippling through him, but his thoughts, far from quieting, churned even more violently.

Aria’s image surfaced unbidden in his mind, her desolate, defiant gaze that day when Leria had entered their lives.

Perhaps… some part of me wanted her to falter.

His lips twisted into a bitter smile.

How unlike me…

What purpose was there in deliberately shaking an already fragile child? A deeper instinct warned him against his actions, but he had disregarded it, pulling Leria into their lives without so much as a proper explanation.

He resented how Aria had suddenly turned on him, distancing herself so completely. It had been petty of him to retaliate by giving her reasons to feel displaced, yet he had done so anyway.

As the drug coursed through him, Caelius peeled back the veneer of control he had clung to, confronting the raw, ugly emotions buried beneath.

The truth was plain. He wanted Aria to regret. To look at him with the desperate yearning she once had. He wanted her to crawl back, to beg for affection—not to waste her smiles on someone like Leon Verha.

The questions clawed at him: Why? Why did I care? What benefit was there in holding onto her affection? What use was it to me?

For the first time in a long while, Caelius was faced with emotions he couldn’t name or categorize. They were visceral, untamed, and foreign.

“If another daughter were to appear, or if I had another child… would you treat them with the same kindness?”

“Riri. I need no one else, son or daughter. If you keep pushing me like this… I’ll find those nonexistent children and kill them myself.”

“But what if—”

“If another child appears—golden-haired, golden-eyed, boy or girl—I’ll kill them on the spot. Without hesitation.”

“Promise me. If someone claims to be your son or daughter, even if they’re real, you’ll kill them. Right?”

“If that’s what you want, I’ll tear them apart in front of you. Whether they’re truly mine or not, it doesn’t matter. All I need is you, Riri.”

A conversation from the past surged to the forefront of his mind, vivid and disorienting. His heart pounded as though in protest, each beat an echo of an unbearable truth.

Did I… really say such things?

The words felt distant yet undeniably familiar. A deep frown etched itself into his face as his grip on the pen tightened. His vision wavered, the room spinning slightly as nausea clawed at his gut.

“…Damn it,” he muttered under his breath, the tremor in his voice betraying his growing unease.

Could it really be that I… love her?

He couldn’t be certain. The very idea of love was alien to him, yet his erratic thoughts and the throbbing pain in his chest felt anything but ordinary.

Even so, confusion and discomfort alone weren’t enough to change the dynamic between them.

Grinding his teeth, Caelius forced his gaze back to the documents before him, trying in vain to reestablish control.

His heart continued its erratic rhythm, and the phantom ache in his chest refused to abate. Even the hallucinated echoes of past conversations gnawed at his resolve.

But he endured. He ignored it all.

Such was the pride of a man steeped in arrogance, unwilling to yield even to himself.

* * *

Aria spent her days and nights in the oppressive darkness of her room, indifferent to the passage of time. She only stirred when she remembered that Leon was due to visit soon, her anticipation tied solely to the dwindling supply of hallucinogens.

The increased potency of the drugs Leon provided had left her in a worse state than ever before. Her unfocused golden eyes stared blankly at the unlit chandelier overhead, her vision blurred and unfocused. Yet, without reason or warning, laughter spilled from her lips.

“Pfft… Haha…”

Her giggles turned into a cascade of laughter, her voice echoing through the vast, empty room. She laughed as though she had seen the most amusing thing in the world, though she herself didn’t know what it was that amused her so. Her joy seemed hollow, her laughter filling the void in the room like a ghost haunting its own demise.

“Ahaha… Oh no… this is just too funny,” she said between gasps, her voice high-pitched and breathless.

Then, as abruptly as it started, her laughter ceased. Her expression turned still, almost grave, and she closed her eyes.

“Father… I miss you,” she whispered, the words fragile and barely audible.

The thought of him conjured an image in her mind—Caelius, smiling gently, his face softened in a rare moment of kindness. Despite knowing somewhere deep down that it was nothing more than a hallucination, the illusion felt vivid and real, as though she could reach out and touch him.

“Father…”

A faint smile tugged at her lips, and her voice quivered with affection.

“Riri loves you so much.”

Her words, spoken into the void, hung in the air like a mournful melody, dissolving into the quiet emptiness of the room.

* * *

“Lady Aria.”

The sound of knocking roused Aria from her dazed stupor. Her blurred mind couldn’t discern whether she was dreaming or awake, and her unfocused eyes slowly rolled toward the door.

“Young Lord Verha has come to visit.”

The words barely registered. Only the name Verha sparked a flicker of awareness, triggering a series of sluggish, disconnected thoughts.

Leon Verha. The man who brought her the hallucinogens. The hallucinogens that made her feel good. Her mind followed this simple chain of reasoning like a child connecting dots.

“Leon…”

His name fell softly from her lips as she attempted to rise from her bed. But her body, ravaged by her deteriorating state, refused to cooperate. The room seemed to tilt and spin, as though the ground itself was undulating beneath her feet. Aria slumped back onto the bed, realizing she couldn’t make it to the door.

“Bring Leon here…” she managed, her voice hoarse and breathless.

The maid standing outside the door froze in shock. Had she heard correctly? Aria was asking to summon Leon to her bedroom.

“L-Lady Aria… Are you saying you want Young Lord Verha to come to your room?” the maid stammered, her voice tinged with disbelief.

Her hesitation was justified. It wasn’t proper—no, it was downright scandalous—to invite an unrelated man into a lady’s private quarters without dire cause.

“Just… just bring him here,” Aria demanded, her tone urgent and unsteady.

The maid hesitated, noticing the abnormality in her mistress’s voice. Concerned, she asked cautiously, “Lady Aria… Are you feeling unwell?”

“I said stop your useless chatter and just fetch Leon!” Aria snapped, her sharp words cutting through the maid’s tentative concern.

The maid flinched at the outburst. Though her instinct was to question further, Aria’s venomous tone left her no room to object. Bowing her head silently, the maid retreated to summon Leon from the drawing room.

Meanwhile, Aria slumped back into the bed, her chest rising and falling heavily. Her once-vivid thoughts of distrust—of Caelius, of Leon’s intentions, of rebellion—had long since faded into a distant haze. All of it had been swept away, along with her willpower, in the curling smoke of the hallucinogens.

* * *