Dark Dad's Rebirth - Chapter 10. The Real Aria (9)
Chapter 10. The Real Aria (9)
* * *
It was a tedious meeting, as usual. The familiar arguments among the vassals played out, and Caelius passed the time by meditating.
Glancing out of the window, he noticed the sun had already set. Sighing with weariness, Caelius returned to the manor and placed his papers down, turning to Goshen.
“Where is my daughter?” Caelius inquired.
“She hasn’t returned home yet,” Goshen responded.
The response was unexpected; she should have been home by now. As the evening approached, Caelius sensed something was amiss.
“…she’s still not back?”
“Yeah.”
“Who went with her?”
“They took the First Knight.”
After a moment of tapping on the desk, Caelius recalled something and abruptly stood up.
“I’ll leave you for a moment.”
He hurried straight to Aria’s bedroom, his steps betraying impatience. Pushing open the door to the unoccupied room, he searched through her desk, seeking the notes she had hastily hidden. Yet, there was no need for a search. Aria had left the note on the table as if expecting him. Caelius wasted no time in opening the notebook, and the first thing he saw was a brief letter, handwritten by Aria herself.
And when he read it, Caelius’s face turned ashen.
“Goshen!”
He cast the note aside and rushed back to his office, practically galloping.
“Release the knights to the Hevitz estate immediately!”
“Yes, sir?”
With those words, Caelius strapped his sword to his waist and rushed straight to the stables. As if he didn’t have the time to wait for someone to bring his horse, he entered the pungent stables himself.
“Me, Your Highness?” The panicked stablehand called out to Caelius, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he leaped onto his horse and started galloping away.
Something was amiss.
Except when he was pretending, the typically stern and arrogant Caelius now had a dangerous desperation in his face. It was a more profound emotion than what he had experienced when, at the tender age of twelve, he had been ordered to fight.
* * *
Caelius reined in his horse like a madman, determined to gallop to the Hebitz estate.
[Dad, I’m coming].
As he rode, all he could think about was her letter.
[By the time you see this, I’ll probably be, um… being taken away by slavers].
Gritting his teeth, he tightened his grip on the reins.
[I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before, but I knew if I told you all this, you’d never approve].
“F*ck-!”
[First of all, don’t freak out, I’m going to be kidnapped by a human trafficking organization that’s actively trading in the Heavitz estate, and I’ve personally confirmed that the imperial family is aware of their existence and is turning a blind eye. Of course, they don’t turn a blind eye. But, unlike my expectations of a simple cash transaction, it wasn’t cash that was being exchanged in return].
Caelius’s mind went blank and empty. He had never felt this way before.
[The blue one, the one that only comes from the East, you know, the one that only comes from the East].
His vision blurred with tears, feeling like he was about to vomit.
[The only thing that stops the Sword Masters from becoming auras or swordsmen, is the Blue Crystal Stone. It’s secretly traded between the imperial family and human traffickers].
His hands trembled. He didn’t even know how to hold the reins himself.
[Why would the imperial family trade it? The only Swordmaster in the empire is my father…….]
Caelius didn’t understand. He felt like he had to run and run like a madman to catch his breath, nervously wondering if he was too late.
He just kept running and running.
[There’s not a single thing I did that wasn’t for you, I just did it for you, whatever that is, everything].
He knew he knew, he knew, he knew that she only knew him, and he knew that she wouldn’t act like that if it wasn’t for him, but this isn’t it. He never wanted her to love him enough to throw herself into slavery.
[I’m afraid you’ll doubt me, but I only have you, and whatever I do, I don’t mean to disturb you in that action].
There was nothing left where he had passed but a patch of dirt and the steed’s footprints, yet Caelius felt nervous and anxious nonetheless. He was afraid. Afraid that he would never see her laugh again. That she would no longer exist in this world.
[Actually, my dad would have known from the first time I tried to hide the note that something wasn’t right, but the dad I know would have looked the other way, and that’s why I acted the way I did. I’m sorry, are you upset? To be a little honest, um… “I think I’d be happy if my dad was angry because if he looked at me like I was paper, I don’t think he’d be angry, he’d just let me die.”].
My heart was thumping, thumping, racing. Something was wrong here. There’s no reason for me to be this angry, even though Aria’s letter said so.
[If you’re coming to retrieve it, I think you can come to the coal mine cave under the first trail in the Alts Mountains, north of the Hebitz estate. Hmm… Otherwise, I think we can simply investigate the carriages traveling to and from the Imperial Palace and the Heavitz Estate. I’m going to try and get as far inside the main camp as I can, and investigate their conversations, purposes, etc… Maybe this stuff won’t be too useful, since I’m already getting enough information to help my dad just by exchanging blue spirit stones].
The last paragraph of Aria’s note raced frantically through Caelius’s mind.
[But, I just want my dad to come save me, I’m sorry, I’m being spoiled, aren’t I?]
He chewed his lip hard, internalizing the words further.
[The world I know is so small and insignificant compared to the world you’ve seen and learned about. My world is all about you. I just want to find a place for … daddy where he belongs].
By the time he had run and run and run, finally reaching the location mentioned in Aria’s letter, Caelius was almost half out of his mind.
[The current emperor is incompetent; the position should have been my father’s to begin with].
He unsheathed the sword at his waist, and the moment it made contact with his sword energy as if there was nothing left to see, he surged toward the cave Aria had mentioned.
[Dad I love you, I do].
Suddenly, Caelius was afraid.
That he had a weakness.
The saccharine sword left a massive imprint on the mountain. He didn’t know how long it had been since he had left the battlefield, how long it had taken him to build up his strength to this level, but he swung and swung and swung, controlling his power just enough to prevent Aria inside him from getting hurt.
With a loud crack, the entire mountain nearly shook.
Caelius swung his sword countless times, and with each swing, mountain beasts howled in instinctive terror, fleeing, trees were cut down, and eventually, the mountain disappeared, leaving the cave deserted. One by one, those inside began to emerge.
Caelius, seeing nothing more to see, thrust his sword into their bodies. There was no hesitation in his actions. This was a man who had once been called a battle-horse and a killer. He didn’t pause or even flinch at the killing, just stabbed, slashed, and headed into the cave to find Aria.
“…….”
The muffled voice echoed eerily in the cave. Unsurprisingly, there was no reply. Caelius continued to repeat Aria’s nickname.
“Lily……”
Countless caged slaves emitted muffled screams, desperately calling out to Caelius to save them. But he didn’t bat an eye.
“It’s not Lily.”
A thousand and one thoughts raced through his mind. Was she not there, or had she been taken somewhere else? The tip of the sword dropped limply, dragging on the cave floor. The cave filled with the sound of the dragging blade and the cries of the slaves pleading for redemption.
There was no sign of Aria. The aurors attempted to follow her trail as they opened up, but the sheer number of trapped slaves made it impossible.
“…to eat.”
How much deeper she must have gone.
“…Daddy?”
A faint, muffled voice caught Caelius’s attention in the noisy cave.
“Lily?”
The voice was tiny, but Caelius didn’t miss it. He turned his gaze to the source of the sound, and there was Aria, the woman he had been searching for.
Her waist-length blond hair was a mess from being unceremoniously cut, and her face was swollen from being dragged and beaten. For the first time in his life, Caelius felt an uncontrollable rage at the sight of Aria. The blade in his grip began to become imbued with the Dark Auror once more. Black energy pulsed and flowed from his blade.
“Lily.”
A low, sullen voice descended on him, pungent as the cold winter air.
“Who did that?”
Aria panicked. Surely, she should be impressed that he’d come to get her, but the aura emanating from Caelius was so unfamiliar she couldn’t even speak.
“My daughter, what’s wrong with your face.”
A high-pressure atmosphere weighed down the air around them. Seeing Caelius this furious for the first time in her life, Aria trembled, unable to speak. This was completely unexpected.
“You’re this upset about…? No way. Did you do this for me?” She had never seen Caelius this angry before, to the point where she felt like she couldn’t face him. Her mouth went dry.
Caelius turned to Aria, taking another step toward her. The bars of a spear stood between them. For a moment, Aria was glad for the bars, but as if to mock her, Caelius cut them down with a wave of his hand. The black energy that flowed from his fingertips was overwhelming as if it were not human.
‘Right now, my dad doesn’t even have the strength of an imperial family…….’
Even so, if he was this strong, what was he like in his prime? She couldn’t even imagine. Certainly, Caelius was worthy of Azekrisis’ fear. He was a predator himself. Stepping over the slashed bars, Caelius approached Aria.
She should have been happy, but her legs gave out, and she stumbled backward, eventually falling flat on her back against the wall. It was then that she understood. Who did she dare to try such a crude trick, to fake her love, to play the same tricks on him?
“What if I had met my dad like this first…? Would I have been able to express my feelings to him the way I do now?”
The answer is no. If she had met Caelius first, she would not have treated him as lightly as she did.
For the first time, Aria realized why Caelius was called a battlemaster, why he was called a killer: his deep black eyes were filled with killing intent, and his icy gaze was as cold as a blade.
Aria swallowed dryly, shivering at the intensity of Caelius’ aura. She had prided herself on being the closest to him. Still, the blatant presence of his energy made it hard to breathe.
“Oh, Dad…….”
“…….”
“My bad, my bad…….”
The words of apology spat out instinctively, and whether he realized it or not, Caelius sheathed his sword and reached for Aria. Aria’s eyes narrowed as she saw his hand move closer.
It wouldn’t surprise her at all if he grabbed her by the throat and twisted her around. But what she didn’t expect was to be pulled back into a warm embrace. Startled, she stiffened and opened her eyes slowly. Then she found herself being hugged by Caelius.
“You know you did wrong.”