Because he knew perfectly well that Camilla would not lie about something like this, Ravi swallowed hard.

This... isn’t a dream, is it?

Dragon magic!

Ravi pinched his own cheeks over and over. His expression kept changing without pause.

Fear, curiosity, and excitement.

The yearning of a mage standing before an unknown realm showed on his face without the slightest concealment.

“......”

Camilla, who had been silently watching him, turned her gaze back to Jishua. He was looking at Ravi with open satisfaction, unable to hide how pleased he was by Ravi’s excitement.

“Brother.”

“What is it, little sister?”

...He really is simple, my brother.

Look at that tone change over a single grimoire. So the random embarrassment is just my burden, is it?

“There’s something I’m curious about.”

“Ask me anything.”

“Your biological father.”

“...My biological father?”

“Yes. Did Mother ever tell you anything about him?”

At the sudden question, puzzlement filled Ravi’s eyes.

While he fell silent, trying to search through his memories, Camilla tilted her head slightly and smiled coldly.

From a moment ago, Camilla had not taken her eyes off Jishua even once. As if she had no intention of missing a single change in his expression.

[......]

The instant his eyes met hers, Jishua’s face stiffened.

[You, don’t tell me......]

His lips, which had plainly shown his shock, soon pressed tightly shut. Jishua’s gaze shifted back to Ravi before Camilla’s eyes.

“Father...”

[......]

At the word father, Jishua’s eyes shook without pause.

“I didn’t hear anything in particular.”

“Really?”

“I heard he died not long after I was born.”

“...Died not long after you were born?”

“Yeah.”

Camilla’s gaze on Jishua instantly turned icy.

This father and that father alike.

Why was there not a single man around here who took proper responsibility for his children? At least the Duke of Esclara had the excuse of having lost his memories.

What’s your excuse?

A clicking sound slipped from Camilla’s tongue. Should she just have King chase him out right now?

You dare throw my brother away?

Damn. If I’d known sooner, I would’ve kept ignoring him. Should I grab him by the collar and shake him even now? Tell him to get out immediately?

“But why are you asking that all of a sudden?”

“Just because.”

I’m not the type to sympathize with people lightly, you know.

Mother...

Life really was something. How did every man she met turn out like that?

“Ugh.”

“What was that sigh for?”

“Just because.”

“What do you mean, just because? You’ve been saying that over and over.”

“......”

“...Why?”

“Why what?”

“Why are you looking at me like that again? Did I do something wrong again?”

“Brother.”

“I get scared every time you call me like that. What is it now?”

“From now on, let’s just eat well and live well, the two of us.”

“...What did you eat for dinner? Why do you keep saying weird—! Fine, little sister. Let’s just eat well and live well, the two of us. Everything you say is right, all right? So move that hand!”

The moment Camilla reached out to snatch the grimoire away, Ravi, who had been wearing an incredulous look, forced a stiff smile onto his face.

Camilla looked at him for a moment as if he were pathetic, then rose from her seat.

“I’m leaving.”

There was no seeing her out.

Ravi, whose entire mind had already been stolen by the book and the magical items she had given him, did not even answer properly. He only flicked his hand at her as if telling her to hurry up and go.

Camilla shook her head lightly as if to say he was hopeless, and her gaze turned back to Jishua.

When their eyes met, he flinched for a moment, then let out a long sigh and quietly followed behind her as she headed outside.

[How did you know?]

“What?”

[That I...]

“That you’re Ravi’s biological father?”

Camilla clicked her tongue repeatedly. Was that really what mattered right now?

“More importantly, how did you know Ravi was here?”

As soon as she returned to her room, Camilla answered Jishua’s question with one of her own.

Hadn’t he said he left his family behind when Ravi had barely even been born?

How long ago was that?

Wasn’t that ages ago?

Mother had wandered from place to place looking for work even after Camilla herself was born. Would it really have been any different in Ravi’s case?

How he had known that they, who had lived like drifters, had settled here was what puzzled her.

[I heard long ago that she had become the Duchess of Sorpel.]

“A long time ago?”

[How much uproar do you think there would be when a commoner became a duchess? The news reached even me after I died.]

After meeting an unexpected death, he wandered for a long time before finally going to find her.

His steps had not been light. Even though he was already dead, he had not the slightest confidence he could face her and Ravi.

But of course, she had already left the place where she had once lived with him, and by the time he heard of her again, she had already passed from the world.

[I heard ghosts snickering about an unlucky woman who became a noblewoman even though she already had another man’s child, then died in an accident not long after. They said she really had the worst luck in the world. But to think that woman was...]

“......”

She really could not deny it. There was not a single thing she could say in rebuttal.

Mother, you really were a woman with the worst luck in the world.

[Anyway, that’s how I learned where Ravi was living. But I never had the courage to go find him.]

He had desperately wanted to know how his son was living, but he had not had the courage to see it with his own eyes.

[What if he wasn’t doing well?]

What if he was being mistreated there?

[I wouldn’t be able to do anything for him...]

There was nothing someone already dead could do for him anymore. He had not had the confidence to bear that helplessness.

“But why come now, all of a sudden?”

Even after learning the full story, Camilla still could not get rid of the thought that he was selfish.

It was Jishua himself who had left despite having a wife and child, all because he wanted to chase after dragon magic and research it. It had been a decision based entirely on self-satisfaction.

No one forced him into it.

And the fact that, even after learning long ago where his son was, he still had not come to see Ravi because he lacked the courage to face his own wrongdoing could only be seen as selfish too.

But...

Camilla did not show that openly.

The way he kept sighing, it seemed Jishua himself already knew that perfectly well.

[I heard about you from Amy. About you being able to see the dead.]

And the way he muttered that he had not been able to stay still after hearing that that person was his son’s younger sister looked so pitiful that it almost hurt to watch.

[Let me ask again. How did you know what my relationship with Ravi was?]

No matter how much he thought about it, he could not figure it out. He had never said a single thing here that should have led in that direction, so how...

“The ring.”

[The ring?]

Jishua looked down at the emerald ring on his hand.

“That’s a couple’s ring, isn’t it?”

[A couple’s ring?]

“I mean, isn’t it the ring you shared with Mother?”

Startled, Jishua’s eyes went wide, and he nodded his head frantically.

Though he had been a capable mage, he had not lived well financially. He disliked being bound, so he had never joined the magic tower, and he had not taken commissions either.

He had lived obsessed with nothing but research, so he had never cared much about money. The only thing he really had that could be called property was this ring, shared as a wedding token.

“I found it while sorting through Mother’s things.”

Camilla pulled an emerald ring from the drawer. She had found it when they were cleaning out the storeroom earlier, and it was exactly the same as the one Jishua was wearing.

“It was in the portrait too.”

The portrait she had given to the Duke of Esclara.

On Mother’s hand, as she sat facing young Ravi with a gentle expression, was the exact same ring.

More than anything...

“G and T. Those are initials, right?”

That lettering carved into the ring had made her sure. If the G stood for his name—

“Then I figured the T was for Tia.”

[...Yeah. That’s right.]

That the family Jishua had turned his face from and abandoned when he left in search of dragon magic was Mother and Ravi.

Mother, really...

Why had she kept wearing the ring that man had left behind?

Hadn’t she also kept the ring the Duke of Esclara gave her when he lost his memories, and then left it to Camilla instead of throwing it away in the end?

She should’ve just sold all this trash.

What kind of memories was she preserving by holding onto things like that?

Even if she had shoved it away in the storeroom, Camilla could not understand it at all. After the ring from the Duke of Esclara, she had even kept the ring from her first husband instead of throwing it away.

Had she still been unable to let go?