I Became The Stepmother Of An Irrevocable Dark Family

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Chapter 74

“Seems like Rere already made up her mind.”

A fierce gaze that I’ve never seen before touched me.

“…Rere, you shouldn’t think of it too lightly.”

“Why? Why can’t I do that? If I said I don’t want it, then I don’t want it.”

“The thing is…”

“Daddy also doesn’t do things that you hate, right? Even if Rere told Daddy to treat Mom nicely, Daddy never listens and pretends to be clueless. So why would Rere have to do something that Rere hates?”

Rere did not stop moving her small mouth, while he only stared vacantly at the child.

“Even if your mom doesn’t want it, you can still go with Daddy without your mom, right?”

“Even so, I don’t want it!”

“There’s a lot of things you haven’t seen in the Imperial Palace….”

The Duke was busy persuading Rere using excessive hand movements. However, Rere was not easily convinced with such things.

Rere was a child who never does what she hates.

“…Ha. Daddy, are you crazy?”

“Huh?”

“Why do you keep forcing me when I say I don’t like it? You’re doing exactly the same as before! That’s what I hate the most!”

“…That’s not it…Anyway, His Majesty said he wanted to meet you more often after seeing you in person. I think you’ll get along so well with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

I couldn’t help but laugh bitterly.

“You can’t even respect your daughter’s wish. How can you call yourself a father? Don’t you see she hates it so much?”

“…Because she hasn’t met His Highness the Crown Prince properly…”

“No! Stop talking about it! Stop! Stop! I hate you, Daddy!”

Rere, who had not been angry recently, poured out her feelings at the Duke and suddenly lay down in my lap.

“R-Rere! What’s wrong?”

“Because of Daddy…my stomach feels stuffy…it hurts all of sudden…”

I hurriedly touched Rere’s flushed cheeks. I could feel her skin burning as if something bad happened to her.

“Rere! Are you okay?”

“I’m not okay…I’m so angry because of Daddy…”

Perhaps he couldn’t calm himself down even in the moving carriage, the Duke hurriedly got up from his seat and approached us.

“Go away! It hurts more when I see Daddy’s face.”

“R-Rere…!”

“I hate it…don’t force me to do it…”

Holding Rere in my arms, I glared at him.

“Are you satisfied now? Are you satisfied that you’ve hurt your child!”

“….”

“Don’t come close! You really haven’t changed at all.”

There were a lot of things I wanted to spew, but Rere was my priority now, so I only glared at him and bit my lip.

Looking at Rere’s condition, he lowered his head as if he finally suppressed his ego. Instead, he released his emotion by knocking on the small window behind the horseman.

“Hurry! Go faster!”

“Yes Sir!”

Thanks to him, the carriage arrived at the mansion much earlier than expected. But Rere’s physical condition was still troubling, so as soon as we arrived, I rushed inside while holding the child.

Whether they already expected that we would return early, the nanny and the maids who were waiting outside came to our side
.
“Madam, what’s wrong with our little Miss?!”

“Call the doctor immediately! Hurry!”

“Y-Yes, Madam!”

May ran right away and the nanny moved faster than me to open the door.

“This way!”

“Thank you.”

As the nanny pulled the blanket back on the bed,

“Rere, are you alright?”

I quickly laid the child on the bed and swept Rere’s hair away from her face.

“Rere….”

“Don’t worry. I’m strong…but Big Bunny’s crown is gone now….”

“Oh…I’m sorry, Rere. I think I dropped it somewhere. I’ll look for it later.”

“No, don’t go. It doesn’t hurt when Big Bunny is next to me.”

Perhaps her vision was blurred due to a fever, but Rere lifted her hand in the air and finally grabbed my arm.

“Don’t go anywhere. Just stay here, okay?”

“Okay. I’ll stay with you.”

Meanwhile, the Duke paced around in front of the door, hesitating to come inside.

Because of the incident earlier, I just glared at him, and only then did he take a step back. The nanny, who was looking at us alternately, closed the door.

He would normally say something, but he easily backed down as if something weighed on his mind.

Soon after, a doctor entered the room sweating profusely.

“Oh, my! Who’s sick this time? Is it you, Madam?”

“No. It’s Rere this time. She has a fever. Rere, are you feeling sick anywhere?”

“Yeah. My vision is a little blurry.”

“It’s probably because of the fever.”

Sighing, the doctor made the medicine without even looking.

“What else happened today? Did you get agitated again?”

His question was really strange. I swept Rere’s hand while looking at the doctor.

“Don’t you usually ask if she’s doing too much activity, or anything else? How are you so sure that the child gets sick because she’s getting too agitated?”

“Yes, I’m sure. She’s always sick whenever there are severe emotional changes. What was the cause this time?”

“It’s true that she was agitated. Come to think of it…”

Rere’s sickness last time was definitely associated with agitation. It was kind of strange to call it a disease.

“Are you sure she has a disease?”

“A disease is a disease. But it’s definitely different from a general disease. Ahem, can I explain a little more, Madam?”

Somehow his eyes sparkled.

“What is it? What are you trying to tell me?”

“It is indeed a disease, but it’s hard to call it a disease. I’m a fairly competent doctor, so I know quite a lot of things.”

While shamelessly speaking of his prominence, he finished making medicine.

“First, let’s feed her medicine.”

“Rere.”

“Uhh…..”

“You need to take medicine and sleep. After you take medicine, Mom will massage your arms.”

“Hng…”

Only then did Rere spring up with my help and take the medicine given by the doctor.

It must be so bitter, but I wonder how disoriented she was to be able to eat the medicine well.

“I want to lie down….”

“You should sleep now. Mom will stay next to you.”

“Yeah….”

“I’ll put Ugly next to you, so sleep well, our little Miss.”

As soon as the nanny finished speaking, she put Ugly next to Rere and massaged Rere’s body. In the meantime, May brought a handkerchief soaked in cold water and put it on Rere’s forehead. At one point, I could hear her sleeping sound.

“So what were you starting to say earlier?”

“It’s about little Miss’ disease. She’ll get better if she consumes highly nutritional supplements instead of medicine.”

“Highly nutritional supplements?”

“In conclusion, it didn’t matter what medicine she ate—as long as it contained ingredients that were quickly absorbed by the body, it was always effective. It is quite a strange condition.”

I stared at him silently.

“So for a while, I thought the medicine was effective, so I kept feeding it to her. But if she takes medicine for a long time, she’d grow tolerant of it, so I had to pause the consumption.”

“I see.”

“But we can replace the medicine with highly nutritional supplements during the pause, and it works pretty well.”

“Hmm…”

I wonder why?

“Isn’t it because it contains certain ingredients?”

“Little Miss’ condition usually gets better in a week to fifteen days, so I can’t say that it has a great effect, but it is still better than nothing.”

“It’s alright as long as she can eat everything, right?”

“That’s right. The condition in which she collapses whenever she gets agitated is definitely different from the common one.”

Is it better to drink something that is easy to get absorbed by her body? Regardless of what medicine it is?

Is it just a stress-induced disease?

“Was the Duke aware of the child’s malady?”

“About that…His Excellency said that it’s ridiculous and only asked me to get better herbs.”

Was it because of that?

In the novel, the Duke couldn’t get medicine to cure Rere’s affliction.

“Did you find out anything other than that?”

“No, not yet.”

“Alright, thank you.”

“There must be medical records for patients with this disease somewhere….even I, as the member of the doctor council, can’t find such records.”

He slightly rolled his eyes from left to right.

“Where can I see such medical records?”

“No one can see it. It’s in the temple, but only those permitted by the High Priest are allowed to see.”

That must be harder than I thought, but I didn’t have any other choice. I have only gone to the temple once since I was born. However, the doctor did not give up easily.

“But the temple is said to like high-ranking aristocrats. His Majesty also comes and goes there often. Wouldn’t it be a different story if the Duchess went there?”

In short, I was curious but I couldn’t go there, so I told you to find out in my stead.
“….Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

“Yes! I’m sure the records are hidden somewhere. Someone must have had a similar infirmity, after all.”

“Okay.”

The doctor looked quite pleased and took the medicine bottle out of his bag to make the medicine again.

“This is the medicine you can take for dinner tonight. Then I’ll get going first. The fever will go down soon, so please rest assured. She’ll regain consciousness by the time her fever is gone. I’ll be back every day to check.”

“Thank you.”

The doctor withdrew after saying that. As soon as he left, the Duke entered as if he had received the baton.

“…Is the child alright?”

“So you knew that the child would faint if she was provoked?”

“….”

“Did you still provoke your child even though you knew?”

“I was sure that he was a fake doctor.”

“…Fake, huh? You’re a fake father.”

“What….?”

“There are 100 unbelievable things. Even so, parents won’t do anything that goes beyond that in fear that it will harm the child.”

He shut up for a moment.

“But how about you? You still blamed the doctor even when you clearly heard what made her faint!”

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