#61

When Stephen was a teenager, his house burned down. The noble family tree he had at the time was also burned. According to what I determined, all of Stephen’s family members lived shortly due to the inherited genetic disease within the Douglas family’s members. In other words, there were no relatives left. Moreover, it was impossible for Edgar to have a pedigree that belonged only to his closest descendants.

Edgar stretched his shoulders confidently with a proud expression. Then he nodded his head towards Henrick as if he had prepared it in advance. The butler was already attached to Edgar and carried a shoulder-width painting covered with a cloth.

“See this? When my brother and I were young, we took a family portrait with our parents.”

A portrait is evidence that is shown. Anything that could be made up like such a portrait.

Butler Henrick carefully unrolled the cloth and held it up for us to observe the picture in detail.

“I am on the left, and the man on the right is the late Baron Douglas Stephen.”

We squinted and took a closer look at the portrait of six people. It was a work that was sincere enough to be contrived. I ran my finger down the center of the painting and checked if any paint was still wet.

‘It’s sophisticated. I guess I’ll try another business with this kind of sincerity.”

Fraudsters are more diligent.

When I rubbed my finger and snorted, Edgar raised his eyebrows as if he was offended by my attitude.

“Hey! What are you doing?”

“Nothing. Just in case. I was wondering if the paint was still wet.”

It wasn’t a bad painting.

“Can we investigate how long it’s been since this painting was made?”

Edgar and Henrick glanced at each other. 

‘What should we do?’

‘You can also bribe the investigator with money.’

In such a brief time, I could catch a glimpse of their thoughts. They were con artists who could see clearly.

“Well, I’ll do it! Rather than that, I’ll look for the right bystanders myself.”

“How can we trust you? We will search for ourselves. His work was hung in the hallway of the imperial palace, and the academy recruited a high-level artist who was currently a professor. I happen to be a reporter, so I have some connections in that field.”

In contrast to Edgar who blinked, the butler quietly pressed his shoulder. He showed his willingness to take care of everything.

‘Am I crazy? Leave the fish to the cat.’

If left to the butler, it would definitely produce manipulated results. I would leave the matter to my people in order to buy some time for myself.

“Well, since the image checking will take approximately two weeks. Shall we meet again in three weeks?”

Perhaps, because it gave him more time to get ready than expected, Edgar quietly wiped the sweat from his forehead and heaved out a sigh of relief.

“Alright, but when the painting turns out to be real, I’ll have to talk to my lawyer.”

When the imposter, Edgar, and the butler left the living room, Gloria asked me with a worried look.

“Haley. What should I do? Shouldn’t I share some of my wealth with that man? If there are any lawsuits that shouldn’t be….”

“Gloria, do you believe me? He’s obviously a fraud. I’ll prove the truth.”

I shook my head at my worried friend and convinced her to trust me.

‘Don’t worry. I don’t have guts for this. But I will lose this fight by myself.”

* * *

Looking for the red-haired angel was his hobby in the human world.

Humans living in a different world and bickering with petty emotional games, looked quite fun to him.

“That man likes adventure.”

Adventurous humans eventually face a ridiculous death as a challenge. However, despite such experiences, the soul was reborn as a human with a strong spirit of challenge and lived the same life.

The angel regretted, admired, and envied their lives.

Although they was an angel, they could not get involved in the lives of humans or prevent their misfortunes. The only thing they could do was look at each soul’s life.

Looking around so much, one day I dreamed of how it would be like to live in that small world. The reason the red-haired angel had such a dream was simple.

“This is so strange.”

One soul caught her eye one day. That soul refused to be reborn. The other souls started their next lives within 6 month as the earliest to 5 years at the longest. As time passed, only this one soul refused to be reborn.

With an uneasy feeling, the angel looked back at the life of the soul who refused to be reborn. And the angel could see why this soul refused.

The soul had no parents to rely on. No, the soul had parents, but it was worse than not having them.

“You’re an adult now. Give up on your brother.”

 

“Why are you so childish?”

Parents have always been annoyed by their children since they were young. When they quarrel over lack of money, they will relieve the mounting stress by scolding and ignoring their daughters. Immature adults need wealth to blame. It has become their routine to blame the children for family disputes.

“Tsk tsk. Look at this pitiful and careless girl. Because of you, this family is in a chaos.”

 

“What about the academy? I don’t have money to eat or die, so just go to college by your own money, and when you get married, don’t bother your parents ever again.”

When their daughter grew up as a 10 years old, they talked about her future, which hadn’t happened yet, and brought her despair. On the other hand, they lavished endless love and support on their other children. Initially, this child followed what her parents wanted because she wanted to be loved, but as she realized that her efforts were in vain, she gradually lost the will to live.

The angel, who saw the memories, unconsciously clenched his fist and encouraged the child.

“Why don’t you stay away from your parents?”

Did the angel’s wish work? The child went to college, lived a social life, and it wasn’t until she was far away from her parents that a sense of love for herself developed. The angel wondered if she had finally lived a normal normal life, but jeez! Wouldn’t he be killed suddenly by the stalker who was bothering her?

“Geez, even I should refuse to be born again.”

A very futile ending. The child lost the flower of her life without ever see it bloom. The child’s soul, which had long been hurt mentally and physically by this unnatural emotional persecution, was hesitant and afraid to live a new life again.

“What a pity. If I were this child’s parent, I would do better.”

A poor soul who strangely used her heart. The angel continued to check the human world to see if her soul was reborn. His behavior were quickly noticed by the other companions.

“What are you doing?”

A dark angel, also called a devil according to humans.

He freely enters the human world and often causes disasters such as earthquakes and explosions.

The devil dropped his gaze into the soul the red-haired angel was looking at and wondered what was so special that he had affection for.

“Oh, I just feel strange.”

The angel shrugged and told him not to worry, saying that it was nothing, but the devil took it differently.

“If you care so much, why don’t you come down to the human world?”

The demon’s words made the angel’s face shine.

“Huh? Can you do that? Is that alright?”

For a moment, the devil who was about to answer, ‘How is it possible?’ changed his mind. 

‘I think I’m going to mess with him a bit.’

“I’ll help you. You know that, right? Sometimes I come and go to the human world without my superiors knowing.”

“I know. That every time you go down and come back, the human world is destroyed. That’s why you get summoned and scolded every day.”

Despite knowing that devil would never get a good ending, at that moment the angel’s heart trembled. 

‘It doesn’t seem like he was scolded too much. Should I go too?’

At that moment, the angel felt lighthearted by that. The devil, who saw the angel’s wish, burst out laughing.

“You can go back without your superiors knowing. I’ll let you go.”

“That’s…. nevermind.”

‘I want to make this soul reborn. The world you’re in is just bad luck. There will be better days in life. I want that child to feel it.’

“But can I descend into the human world and interfere with its contents? I don’t know much about the human world.”

There might be big trouble if angels get involved. The devil whispered to the worried angel.

“There are witches close to me in the human world, so don’t worry. I will ask that witch to educate an ignorant child like them. You can learn the human world before this soul is reborn.”

He shouldn’t be tempted.

* * *

There was a reason why I had three weeks to meet the imposter Edgar again.

He knew that the family portrait he presented as evidence was a precisely crafted painting. On this occasion, I was thinking of catching them both. Edgar and the other servant with a devious mind, Henrick.

When I returned home, I sat opposite my mother with the table in between.

While drinking a cup of tea, I watched the witch mother.

Strangely, when I asked my mother something, I felt something stir in my stomach.’

I licked my lips while glancing at my mother. Then quickly turned my gaze elsewhere and wondered how to get the words out of my head. My mother let out a chuckle.

“Do you have any question for me?”

“Huh…? How did you know?”

“How did I know? You can’t stand still and looked as if a calf on fire at the hips. It was stupid not to notice. You think I’m not your mother? I can see what you’re thinking inside your little head, so don’t ever lie and just tell me.”

The one side of my chest stung. Why was I always touched by my mother’s words? I guess it was because I compared her too much to my parents in my past life. Normally, my witch mother’s reaction would be normal.

‘My parents in my previous life had no interest in what I was doing.’

Oh, bad memories. I shouldn’t have let it get to me. What’s important to me now is to solve the crisis in front of my friend, Gloria.

“Mother, can witches identify their fathers? I have to check who the biological father of a pregnant woman is.”

Mothernarrowed her eyes at my words.

“Are you making trouble? You don’t know who the father is?”

“No! What do you think I am?! I’ll check someone else!”

I know you’re joking. I’m going to cancel what touched me. Mother shrugged and spoke as if it was no big deal.

“It’s not hard to confirm. No one will believe that it belongs to a witch.”

The people of this empire tended to dislike magic or something like that. There was a reason why it wasn’t scientific, and most importantly, the first emperor worthy of respect, Royan, abdicated because of my mother. There was a spreading rumor. Witches deserved to be hated.

“It’s fine. I just need to find out who the father is.”

“What did you see last time? It can investigate what happened to that person. But I need the hair of the pregnant mother or baby.”

“Hmm. Don’t worry.”

If I wait, it would appear in front of me by itself.