She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

As May and Diego exchanged playful words while heading in the carriage, Jed, who remained alone at the Arcsenter, recalled May’s words.

‘Find out what’s lacking inside you and fill it in. That’s something to do before pursuing a relationship.’

If he couldn’t fill the lack on his own, he had been told to find a woman who could fill that gap.

Jed found these words hard to believe. He had always thought of himself as near-perfect.

But if there were indeed areas of lack, and if May could see those lacking parts that he himself wasn’t aware of, then shouldn’t she be the one to fill those gaps?

No matter how he looked at it, the destination seemed to be May.

If I were going to pretend to like someone, I should have pretended to like them no matter the situation.

If I had done that, when the moment to genuinely like them came, I wouldn’t have been hurt like this.

* * *

Eventually, I took a day off and returned to the Arcsenter to confirm the alternative training with the assistant.

If only I had succeeded on my first try, but due to interruptions, I spent three hours and still couldn’t succeed. I wanted to grab Jed’s head and squeeze it with my fists when I saw him.

Well, at least I got a good physical workout.

With the alternative training over and some free time until the regular training, I went to Nazret and made cookies with Stella.

While doing cookie icing, we chatted, and the topic was about Zed.

“Why did he suddenly want to start dating? He’s such a funny person.”

“Exactly. Does he think marrying a woman from Flotina is worth that much… One thing for sure, he doesn’t seem to like me.”

“Even if he does, don’t give him your heart. You two don’t match.”

“I’ve already moved on from that. There’s no chance for rational affection.”

If rational affection were to arise, it wouldn’t be for Jed…

I suddenly thought of Diego and shook my head. What am I even thinking right now?

I pushed him out of my mind and changed the subject.

“By the way, it’s a relief that Maruis Heint and Milo have become brighter. Especially Milo, when we first met at Penso’s, he was cold and aloof. I never expected him to have such a gentle personality.”

“Milo takes after his dad. That’s probably why he’s so kind. He always takes care of me, calling me ‘Sister’ and he listens to me well too. But Milo seems to want to marry you, right?”

Upon hearing the last statement, I was so surprised that I accidentally squeezed the decorating pen, ruining the cookie art.

“Marriage…?”

I looked at Stella with a bewildered expression. Stella was nonchalantly decorating the cookies, seemingly unfazed.

“His Grace is pushing for legal changes to allow women to inherit titles as well. Milo said that the law might change within a few years, and he told me to become Nazret’s successor. He said he plans to go to Flotina and marry you, who will inherit the title. Since he can’t inherit a lesser title if you have a higher one.”

After hearing the detailed plan, I didn’t know how to react and just rolled my eyes in confusion.

Is Stella hoping I’ll marry Milo…?

It could be possible if she’s aiming for a title.

I cautiously revealed my feelings.

“But I’ve never imagined marrying Milo…”

“Don’t worry. I’m not pushing you to marry Milo. I actually don’t want to become a Marquis and lead a busy life.”

“Oh…”

I felt relieved by her words.

“Milo is wonderful and kind, but I don’t think I have romantic feelings for him.”

“I know, I know. You like me the most.”

“Well, that’s a bit…”

I was decorating the cookies again when I suddenly realized that I hadn’t talked about the most important thing.

“Oh, right. There was something important I was supposed to tell you, but I almost forgot.”

“What is it?”

“You can apparently go to a different dimension.”

I proceeded to tell Stella about Floa, Mirocagon, and Passabea.

I had met Passabea in my past life, received anonymous letters that Iris and Cassius are suspected to be from Passabea, and even informed her about the book containing the portal to a different dimension.

Stella had a surprised expression the whole time she was listening.

“So lately, Floa has been traveling around the country with Iris and Cassius, searching for the book.”

“It must be difficult to find. Some places might be closed off, and someone could have borrowed it.”

“Yeah… That’s probably why Floa hasn’t been around for the past few days.”

Stella paused her cookie decorating and asked me.

“If you could go to a different dimension, what would you do?”

“Huh?”

“Do you have the intention of going back to where you used to live?”

Her question about whether I had the intention of returning to my previous world didn’t easily roll off my tongue.

The reason why an immediate answer didn’t come out was that I had never even thought about the possibility of going back to where I used to live.

Considering May’s age, she was nine years old when I possessed her body, and now she’s sixteen. It’s been about seven years since I’ve been living in this world.

So many things have happened during that time that I can’t quite remember what it was like where I used to live. I just remember that place had its own difficulties.

In that moment when I was about to answer, Milo entered the kitchen where we were.

When Milo and I made eye contact, he approached with a smile.

“Lady, you’ve come. You look beautiful as always.”

Seeing Milo reminded me of the marriage conversation Stella had earlier, but I tried to erase that thought from my mind, feeling embarrassed.

“Thank you.”

Among the wrapped cookies, I presented him with a snowman-shaped cookie.

“This is for you, Milo. I thought of a snowman when I saw your silver hair.”

It was a basic butter cookie in the shape of a snowman, decorated with white and cherry-colored icing.

“Thank you.”

He joyfully accepted the cookie and took my hand, lightly kissing the back of it. Getting a kiss on the back of my hand made me truly feel like a noble lady.

Between my initial shyness from the first hand kiss, Milo scanned through the wrapped cookies and pointed to one.

“Whose name is on that big heart?”

His gaze seemed guarded, as if he was concerned that the cookie might be intended for another man.

“Oh, that one is for my father.”

Calling it “father’s” seemed to relieve Milo, as if he was glad it wasn’t for some outsider.

Stella looked at the big heart cookie and shook her head.

“It’s going to be tough for May to get married.”

“Why’s that?”

“I feel like His Grace won’t permit your marriage. You’ll probably remain a doting daughter for a long time.”

Upon hearing that, Milo’s expression became sullen.

“No, if you find someone you love, His Grace will permit the marriage, won’t he? He did suggest you get married last time. Just make it as late as possible.”

“Yeah… I agree with that too. Get married as late as possible. So we can spend time together often.”

Stella playfully smiled and displayed some aegyo, and I handed her a cookie. ﹤ Cute behavior﹥

“Here, this one’s yours.”

Stella blinked as if surprised, then her lips curled into a small smile.

“I made this with you, why are you giving it to me? Silly.”

Despite her words, she seemed pleased.

“You’re the snowflake cookie. Snowmen and snowflakes are family.”

“Oh, that’s touching, isn’t it? Can you make one for me too?”

The cookie Stella gave me was none other than a cookie shaped like my face.

“What’s this? When did you make this?”

“Just a moment ago. Hehe, didn’t I do a good job?”

It was just a simple cookie with short platinum hair and facial features drawn, but it was so cute that it felt almost a shame to eat it.

“Thank you. I’ll keep it and eat it later.”

“You have to eat it yourself, okay?”

“Yeah.”

Nodding, I looked at the wrapped cookies.

I should distribute them at home.

Thinking about how delighted they would be, I began to feel excited like a child.

* * *

For the past few days, Floa had been traveling around the country with Iris and Cassius. They were searching for books containing information about dimensional teleportation magic circles.

While there was no guarantee that drawing magic circles would truly allow them to travel to different dimensions and find Passabea, Floa still wanted to do everything he could to find him.

Although they had anticipated that finding books about an unfamiliar topic like magic circles would be challenging, they couldn’t easily locate the books they needed. Even after visiting dozens of places, they hadn’t come across books with relevant content.

“It doesn’t seem to be here.”

“Let’s try somewhere else.”

Amidst their difficulties, they stopped by a small library in a rural village.

As they entered the library, they split up to search for books. While they were diligently looking, a librarian approached them.

“Are you looking for a specific book? I can help you find it.”

Iris asked the librarian if they had any books on dimensional teleportation magic circles.

“Dimensional teleportation magic circles… Let me see for a moment.”

The librarian seemed to recall something and brought out a book catalog to check.

“Do you happen to know a Dr. Red?”

“Dr. Red?”

Floa, as well as Iris and Cassius, didn’t recognize the name.

“He wasn’t extremely famous, but he was a scholar who conducted various magical research during his lifetime. He’s also the one who founded this library.”

The librarian showed them a list of books authored by Dr. Red.

“All the books listed here are by Dr. Red. They are unique to our library, as they are the only copies in the world. I wonder if the book you’re looking for might be among them.”

While looking through the list, Iris spotted a title that seemed to correspond to the book they were searching for.