Dark Dad’s Rebirth - Chapter 16: Mistakes

Caelius, who no longer desired anything from life, thought he could close his eyes in peace. He didn’t fight the heaviness pulling his eyelids shut.

The muffled voices of the knights surrounded him. Of course, there would be commotion—the emperor had just been killed. But none of their words registered clearly to Caelius. His life was slowly fading away.

Until a voice, one that shouldn’t have been there called out desperately to him.

“Dad!!”

The knights’ murmurs were incomprehensible, but Aria’s frail, trembling voice was crystal clear to his ears.

At first, Caelius thought it was a hallucination.

‘So, in the end, I’m hearing her voice before I go,’ he thought bitterly, a faint, self-deprecating smile curling on his lips.

“No! No!! Open your eyes! Dad!!”

But the voice, which should have been a figment of his imagination, grew closer and sharper. Caelius had no choice but to open his eyes again.

‘It must be a hallucination,’ he told himself.

If I’m hearing things at the end, it would be nice to see a final illusion too.

With that thought, Caelius weakly turned his head, his gaze wandering as he sought any trace of Aria.

“…Riri.”

Even like this, he wanted to see her face one last time.

‘If I could turn back time, I would truly make you happy,’ he thought.

As the thought formed, an unfamiliar fragment of memory suddenly surfaced in his mind.

“The future I dreamed of with you wasn’t like this.

The throne. Yes, the throne is fine.

But the future I truly longed for… was one where we lived in the south, where snow never fell, with roses blooming in front of the house. You once begged to raise a cat or a dog. I wanted to live like that—just an ordinary life, like other people.

Why couldn’t I have been a little more honest?

The throne, power, ambition—what were they worth?

Why did I ruin everything? You, me, and everything else.”

Through his blurry vision, Caelius saw Aria drawing closer. Her image was hazy, and he could no longer tell if it was real or a hallucination.

When he could no longer breathe, as though the gods themselves were punishing him, his life flashed before his eyes in fragments. Memories of his past played before him, one after another, like a relentless torrent.

Why? Why return it all now?

If they had given it back just a little sooner, he wouldn’t have made the same mistakes as before. If he could have been spared the memories altogether, at least he wouldn’t have to endure this torment.

As all his memories came flooding back, Caelius regretted this choice. No—he regretted every moment of this life.

“Ah… ahh…”

But at this point, there was nothing he could do. All he could manage was a faint, indecipherable groan as he lay submerged in the blood that was slowly solidifying around him.

“Dad… Dad!!”

A small hand touched his cold, lifeless cheek. But Caelius’s eyes would not open again.

* * *

When Aria awoke, she was utterly bewildered.

She had expected to find herself on the grand duchy’s bed, being nursed back to health by a haggard Caelius. Instead, she was inside an ordinary-looking carriage. Outside the window were shabby buildings, indicating that she was leaving the capital’s center.

If Caelius had miscalculated anything, it was the speed at which Aria would regain consciousness. He had assumed she would remain unconscious for several days due to her weakened state. But Aria, being a royal by blood, had a resilience he hadn’t accounted for. Now that she had regained her will to live, she quickly collected her thoughts.

“Where’s Dad?”

Still unaware of her situation, Aria asked one of the familiar servants accompanying her. However, the servant merely offered an awkward smile, avoiding her gaze.

“I asked you a question. Where is he? And why am I here?”

Frustrated by the incomprehensible situation, she demanded answers once more. At last, the servants began reluctantly revealing the truth piece by piece.

The more she listened, the more her expression hardened. Trembling, Aria frantically touched her stomach.

“What about the baby? What happened to the baby…?”

She hadn’t asked with any hope of a positive answer, but hearing the truth was no less devastating. Aria couldn’t accept that the child, whom she had only just begun to open her heart to, was gone without even a proper farewell.

“No… No!! AAAHHHH!”

She screamed and tore at her hair, overcome with grief. The panicked servants scrambled to calm her, stammering assurances.

“The duke will follow soon. Please, my lady, I know this is difficult, but you must rest and recover…”

At their words, Aria froze. She stared blankly at the servant who had spoken.

He’s… following me?

Lies. That’s a lie.

Caelius would never send her away like this on her own. He had always feared for her safety, so much so that he rarely even left the mansion unattended. Why now, of all times, would he suddenly send her away?

Nothing made sense. It felt as if the world was mocking her.

Is this a dream?

The child who had appeared in her life so suddenly was gone just as quickly. The man who had suffocated her with his constant presence had abruptly set her free, as if opening the door to her cage.

Whose cruel joke was this? She couldn’t tell. This reality was too much for Aria to endure.

Dad… Where is Dad right now?

Her breathing became labored as if something was pressing on her chest, allowing her only shallow, gasping breaths. The overwhelming anguish left her paralyzed. But crying and thrashing wouldn’t change reality.

It meant she had to piece together the scattered fragments of this chaotic puzzle herself.

Even her grief for the child had to be set aside for now.

Think. Why would Caelius do this all of a sudden?

Why send her away alone? Think, Aria. You have to think.

If there was any solace to be found, it was that Aria knew Caelius better than most. Piecing the puzzle together wasn’t difficult.

But the unfortunate truth was that the picture the completed puzzle formed was anything but hopeful.

Once her thoughts reached their conclusion, Aria’s heart raced uncontrollably. She couldn’t calm the tattered remnants of her emotions, nor could she ignore the dread pooling in her chest.

She had no choice but to order the carriage to turn back toward the imperial palace.

Yes, she had wanted freedom from Caelius. But not like this.

Not like this.

Never—not in the past, not now, not for a single moment—had she wished for Caelius to die this way.