Fortunately, the wait was short.
It happened a few days later. The carriage, having resumed its journey, had just entered the outskirts of the Superion territory.
"...Um."
Relia, seated across from the carriage, cautiously broke the silence.
Seeing this, Duke Superion felt the moment had come. In truth, he had already noticed her fidgeting anxiously with her fingers for a while.
After swallowing nervously, Relia spoke.
"There is something I need to tell you."
At the very least, she had to tell Duke Superion the truth.
For the past several days, Relia had been worrying about how to bring it up.
If he asked how she knew she was her mother's daughter, she would have nothing to say.
'I can't exactly say I know because I reincarnated into a novel.'
She had imagined all sorts of excuses, but none were suitable.
They were all far too absurd, and would likely raise suspicion instead. Still, Relia decided to do her best.
'But perhaps...'
Perhaps, even without explaining the reason, he might believe her just as she was.
Throughout the journey, Duke Superion and the knights had treated Relia kindly.
Those gentle adult attitudes were both comforting and frightening to Relia.
If she confessed the truth only for Duke Superion to dismiss it as a lie... all the kindness she had seen would vanish.
Perhaps she would even be driven out.
'Of course, even if I am driven out, there will be ways.'
Aside from becoming a fugitive, it wouldn't be so bad. Besides, Relia had her mother's necklace.
After hesitating for various reasons, Relia finally made up her mind and opened her mouth.
"I am... officially, that is, Princess Iris's daughter. My name is Relia."
"Princess Iris..."
Duke Superion frowned at Relia's words. He would certainly know that Princess Iris had tormented Elizabeth.
"But... my real mother is former Crown Princess Elizabeth."
"..."
"The wet nurse who raised me told me. She said my mother gave birth to me and begged Princess Iris."
"Continue."
"She said Princess Iris's baby was stillborn. My mother begged for my life. So Princess Iris switched the babies..."
"..."
"She said it was to deceive Emperor Lydios."
Relia spoke with her head bowed.
No response came from Duke Superion.
'So he doesn't believe me after all...'
Relia cautiously raised her head to check his reaction.
But the moment she lifted her face, Relia bit her lip hard.
Duke Superion was weeping with a face full of despair, as if his world had collapsed.
His eyes, once fierce as a lion's, now looked terribly frail.
"It's my fault... Because I couldn't protect her. I let that child..."
Duke Superion crumbled as he wept.
Relia's heart ached too. She couldn't even begin to fathom what it felt like to lose a child. It must be a grief that made one wish for death yet continue living.
"Very well, then where is that wet nurse now?"
Duke Superion asked after composing himself from weeping. Relia answered cautiously.
"She left the imperial palace when I was young."
"What? Then..."
Duke Superion's brow furrowed. The unspoken question was: then how on earth did you survive?
"I lived alone..."
"Did Lydios neglect you?"
"...Yes."
"That bastard deserves to die!"
Duke Superion's face transformed terrifyingly, like an angel of death. One could see how deep his hatred for Lydios ran.
Even though he had already killed Lydios and avenged Elizabeth, the bruise of blood congealed in his chest would never fade until his death.
That was the nature of revenge.
Relia kept silent about the fact that Lydios had sent her to the temple. If she spoke of it and violated the spell of forbidden speech, she would die.
"Poor thing..."
Relia smiled faintly as she looked at Duke Superion gazing at her with pity.
"But... I was okay."
"...You poor child."
Duke Superion held Relia and stroked her hair. Holding his granddaughter for the first time, he shed tears as if his world was falling apart.
"..."
Relia wiped away the tears that kept falling and smiled.
She had worried she might be suspected, but it was an unnecessary fear.
To think he believed her words without a single doubt. Relia was even moved.
Moreover, held in her grandfather's broad embrace, she had the illusion of being held in her mother's or father's arms.
Enough to make her want to act like a spoiled child.
'But he's my grandfather, so it should be fine, right?'
She thought it wouldn't hurt to be a little childish.
"Tell me more details, won't you? How you've lived all this time, more specifically."
"..."
Relia cautiously began to speak.
Since she couldn't speak of going to the temple, she lied.
She told him about secretly going in and out of the palace and meeting good friends.
She chattered about how many fun memories she had made with those friends.
Also about how they called her "boss," how they made wicked adults squirm, and how they ate lots of delicious food.
She slightly modified the only happy memories she had.
She didn't want to speak of the unhappy past.
Being so hungry she swallowed leaves and dirt, being kicked by Crown Prince Leo, having her shelter taken by the twin princes and being forced to apologize to Uriana.
She couldn't bring herself to speak of things so terrible she wanted to forget them.
Because bringing up those stories would only make her grandfather's heart ache that much more.
She wanted to keep those facts secret forever.
As granddaughter and grandfather comforted each other's wounds, the carriage approached Duke Superion's castle.
After the carriage stopped.
The Duke stepped out with a hardened expression, as if he had never cried. However, he couldn't hide his reddened eyes.
Perhaps because of his fierce appearance, fortunately, the Duke looked more angry than like he had been crying.
Following behind, Relia stepped down with red eyes and nose. The knights' expressions were filled with shock.
'Looks like he made her cry.'
'Yes... I thought he was being too lenient. He's not one to be generous with children.'
Looking at Relia's obviously tear-stained face, the knights thought.
However, the moment Relia stepped down from the carriage, she firmly grabbed Duke Superion's hand.
The Duke looked down at Relia and gave a small smile.
Relia looked up at the massive castle with a trembling heart.
As befitting a great noble family that had stood with the empire since its founding, the castle's scale was enormous. It felt intimidating, and Relia felt her heart shrinking.
As she entered the castle with a fearful heart, servants lined up and waiting bowed their heads simultaneously.
And standing among them was a beautiful woman in a white uniform.
As Duke Superion, holding hands with some unknown young girl, approached, her expression twisted.
When he came within arm's reach, her face turned red and pale.
"Father! Who is this child? Surely you didn't bring home a child you fathered at your age?"
"Seeing you spout nonsense the moment you see me, I assume you've been well."
"...I'm asking who she is, Father."
The brown-haired woman frowned as she looked down at Relia. Her eyes held wariness and a trace of malice.
Relia avoided that gaze, frightened by it.
Duke Superion, now carrying Relia in his arms, headed somewhere.
Behind them, the brown-haired woman followed, huffing in irritation.
"Father, who on earth is this child?"
"Where are your brothers?"
"The eldest brother isn't here yet. You arrived earlier than planned, Father. Brother Carius arrived a few days ago, so he'll come soon. He said he drank heavily yesterday."
She answered the Duke's question curtly.
Held in the Duke's arms, Relia cautiously looked around. The interior was even more splendid than the exterior.
Seeing the inside decorated like the imperial palace's main castle, Relia clicked her tongue internally.
By the time she came to her senses, she was seated on a soft sofa. It appeared to be a drawing room.
"Wait here for a moment."
"...Yes."
Duke Superion said that and went somewhere.
"Father!"
The brown-haired woman followed Duke Superion, huffing with irritation.
Left alone, Relia swallowed nervously.
'I really made it all the way here. Without being caught at the checkpoint too.'
Perhaps this was the safest place from the imperial palace's pursuit. Emperor Perseus was wary of Duke Superion, after all.
'And he would never imagine the Superion Duke's family would hide me.'
Thinking that, she felt somewhat at ease.
However, the Superion Duke's household was not a place to be trifled with.
'I can't reveal my identity to everyone. Then the Emperor would find out... But Grandfather seems to intend to tell them.'
Relia worried about what to do. But more than that, the fatigue from the journey began to overwhelm her.
A little time passed.
At the sound of the drawing room door opening, Relia, who had been nodding off, bolted upright.
"..."
The door opened, and what entered was the brown-haired woman from earlier, supporting an elderly woman.
The moment Relia saw the old woman's face, her body stiffened. Then her eyes grew red-hot.
"..."
The old woman, looking frail, stopped walking the moment she saw Relia. And she narrowed her eyes in disbelief.
Behind her, Duke Superion also entered the drawing room.
The elderly woman with luscious red hair took a deep breath and ran toward Relia.
"Oh, Elizabeth... my daughter... Elizabeth..."
And she pulled Relia into a tight embrace.
"Elizabeth... my daughter..."
Relia, blinking blankly, finally couldn't hold back her tears and sobbed.
The red-haired old woman was the same. She held Relia's back endlessly, murmuring without cease.
"My daughter... my daughter..."
"...What is this, Father?"
And the brown-haired woman, the Duke's youngest daughter Artias, watched the scene with a scrunched face.
"Father...?"
Artias turned her head to look at Duke Superion. She couldn't believe it. Was her father crying right now?
Duke Superion was an extremely cold-hearted person. He might show weakness before his wife, but never before his children.
Artias looked at the young girl her father brought, unable to understand.
'Elizabeth...?'
Elizabeth was her deceased older sister. She had only seen her when very young and never met her, so her memories were faint.
'Is she a child who resembles her?'
Artias tilted her head. Perhaps her father had deliberately found a lookalike child and brought her.
Her mother's health was poor.
Her mother's health had deteriorated after her sister Elizabeth, who had gone to the imperial palace, died.
Duchess Lysandra, who had been holding Relia all this time, turned her head to look at the Duke.
She spoke in a voice filled with ecstasy.
"Dear, Elizabeth has returned! See, our daughter couldn't have died. She came back healthy like this."
Lysandra wiped the tears from her wrinkled cheeks and looked at Relia.
Then she gently stroked Relia's cheek.
"My daughter, I'm so glad you've returned. Truly glad. This mother has nothing more to wish for now. Hmm?"
Relia's tearful expression gradually hardened.
She looked at Duke Superion with a questioning face. He said nothing, only shedding tears.
Unable to watch, Artias walked toward the Duchess.
"Please calm down, Mother. Please sit down first. The physician said excitement isn't good for you."
"...Yes, yes, Doctor. I'm fine now. Our Elizabeth has returned, so everything is fine."
"..."
"I'll become healthy now too, Doctor. Right?"
The Duchess murmured incomprehensible words. Artias, as if accustomed to this, said "Yes, yes," and seated her on the sofa.
Seeing the two, Relia realized.
'She has dementia.'
In the original work, it wasn't detailed, so she had thought she had already passed away.
Once again, tears welled up.
Duke Superion spoke to Artias.
"Artias. When your eldest brother arrives, send word for him to come to the main castle."
"...Yes, Father."
"Tell him to come alone, without his wife and children."
"...Understood."
Artias nodded and rose to send the letter.
Even as she did, she kept glancing at Relia as if she couldn't understand.
"My daughter, come here. Why have you grown so thin? Hmm?"
Lysandra pulled Relia onto her lap. And she began stroking Relia's hair and cheeks.
When Artias left the drawing room, Duke Superion approached and sat across from them.
"...Grandfather."
When Relia called him while looking at the Duchess, he gave a small nod.
"...Yes, that is your grandmother. She fell ill after losing Elizabeth."
"Illness?"
"Yes. It's a disease that sometimes appears in elderly people. Since it cannot be cured with divine power, it is called 'divine illness,' meaning an illness granted by the gods."
"..."
Relia narrowed her eyes.
Divine power with healing abilities was not all-powerful, as she had long known.
It could not raise the dead, regenerate severed body parts, or cure long-progressing illnesses.
Also, it could not heal mental problems related to the brain, which led to the emergence of heretics who doubted divine power in the past.
To evade suspicion, the temple created the term 'divine illness.'
They declared that raising the dead was not the will of the gods but the act of heretics, and considered the inability to regenerate body parts to be the gods' will.
Also, illnesses that had progressed too long to cure with divine power were considered 'divine punishment.'
Similarly, mental conditions like depression, anxiety, and dementia could not be healed with divine power, so they were dismissed as 'divine illness.'
It wasn't a punishment from the gods, but because it was an inevitable illness granted by the gods, it was called divine illness.
That was why among the families of those suffering from mental illness, quite a few researched alchemy or were devout believers. Some truly fell into heresy.
"I met many alchemists to cure my wife, but there was no particular solution from that side either."
Duke Superion seemed to be the same.
Being a person with strong power, he would have had no difficulty contacting alchemists while avoiding the temple's eyes.
Seeing Relia's worried expression, Duke Superion gave a benevolent smile as if to tell her not to worry.
"...I knew my wife would recognize you at a glance when she saw you."
At those words, Relia turned her head to look at Lysandra, who was holding her.
In her red hair, white strands were visible here and there, and her face was lined with wrinkles. Yet she was remarkably elegant and beautiful.
Relia gazed at Lysandra, searching for her mother's appearance.
Among the people remaining in this world, the Duchess likely resembled her mother the most.
Feeling a strange envy and happiness, Relia embraced Lysandra.
"Yes, my daughter. This mother missed you. Why did you take so long, hmm?"
Lysandra, as if returned to the time when Elizabeth was Relia's age, coaxed and comforted Relia, pressing her lips to her forehead.
Relia enjoyed that happiness without worry for a moment.
Before long, the Duchess who had been holding Relia fell asleep in that very position.
Relia carefully slid down from her lap.
"She must be tired from crying so much."
At Relia's words, Duke Superion nodded.
"Grandfather, will you tell all of Mom's siblings the truth?"
"Yes. Don't worry. The Emperor Perseus will never find out."
"..."
"...I can never send you to that man who has no qualification as a husband or as a father."
Duke Superion declared firmly. He seemed to hold much resentment toward Emperor Perseus.
Relia hesitated for a moment, then spoke.
"...Grandfather. May I live in this territory until I become an adult?"
"You ask something obvious. This old man has no intention of sending you away even after you become an adult."
At his affectionate words, Relia felt relieved.
One of the resolutions she made when leaving the imperial palace was accomplished. To live safely until she became an adult.
Now Relia had one remaining goal.
To find the other half of the holy relic that the original male protagonist would obtain and break the spell of forbidden speech.
Then, she wanted to find her friends, confess the truth, and ask for forgiveness.
'But to do that...'
Relia looked at Duke Superion, who looked stronger and more reliable than anyone.
'I have to change the future described in the original work.'
Since she had already prevented her own death, unlike in the original, this too would be possible.
Relia roughly knew the reason why the Superion Duke's family, called the Immortal Fortress, would be destroyed.
Duke Superion stroked her hair with a look of pity as he saw Relia's worried expression.
"Don't worry about anything. This old man will risk his life to protect you."
"...Yes, Grandfather."
Relia nodded and made her resolve.
Then I will break the spell of forbidden speech and risk my life to protect this family's future.
She wanted to change the future as soon as possible and meet her friends.
'Everyone, don't be too sad and wait just a little. I'll definitely come to ask for your forgiveness.'
Sending words she couldn't speak to her friends in her heart, Relia nestled in Duke Superion's embrace.
Her grandfather's embrace, her grandmother's embrace, was just as warm as her mother's cabin. Enough to make her want to cry out loud.