She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

When I rushed to the lake, I only found the shoes that were presumably May’s left on the shore.

“Damn it…!”

May could have drowned and died due to the dream’s wave, yet why did he enter the lake? Was there something he knew that made him enter it despite the danger?

I didn’t have time to think about that. I jumped into the lake without hesitation.

The inside of the lake was pitch-dark, and I couldn’t see things clearly. Quickly using my magic to light up the area, I found May lying unconscious on the lake bottom.

Faint waves of dreamlike light surrounded her. They seemed to be quite sturdy, indicating that she had not moved for a long time.

Diego anxiously crossed the water and grabbed May’s hand. As he tried to pull her up to the surface, the dream waves followed.

Diego used his magical power to dispel the dream from taking over.

His mind was in turmoil. How long had he been underwater? How long had he been unable to breathe?

After struggling against the dream waves that tried to pull May down, he finally managed to bring her up to the surface.

As soon as Diego laid May down, he checked if he was breathing.

But even though he had come out of the water, he couldn’t hear his breathing.

Diego cursed under his breath and immediately started cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

He pressed his chest about thirty times before giving two artificial breaths. Then, as he was about to start chest compressions again, Diego began unbuttoning May’s shirt.

He felt like the chest compressions weren’t working properly. As he undid the buttons, he found bandages wrapped tightly around his chest.

“Why on earth is he wearing bandages?”

In a hurry, Diago quickly untied the bandages.

Suddenly, he stiffened.

His mind went blank, and he couldn’t say anything.

Only his pupils shook restlessly.

It was because the chest in front of him was not that of a man’s.

Diego averted his gaze from the chest but then looked at it again. He even rubbed his eyes with force.

But he hadn’t seen wrong. The curves of the white flesh could never belong to a man.

“Cough, cough-“

Just then, May took a breath and woke up, coughing as she spat out water.

May slowly opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry. Someone had come into her sight, but she couldn’t exactly recognize who it was.

“Jed…?”

She called out a name she wanted to call, but as the person in front of her became clearer, she realized it wasn’t him.

“Your Highness…”

Her vision gradually became clearer, and Diego’s face became distinct. For some reason, he looked shocked and frozen.

May propped herself up and felt a sense of emptiness in front of her. When she saw that her shirt and bandages were removed, she quickly turned around.

‘Why, why am I in this state…? I remember picking up the brooch and trying to come up to the surface…’

Suddenly, the dream vividly came back to her. It was a dream where a woman who had once liked Persis advised him that I was not his biological child.

It seemed like she had dreamed while submerged in the water due to the waves of the dream.

‘It seems like Diego saved me in that situation.’

However, how did he know? May wondered, but she brushed it off, thinking that he must have known when he saw the discarded shoes. It wasn’t important right now.

May quickly wrapped the bandage and put on her shirt again. She only had the thought that she needed to dress as a man again before someone arrived.

From behind, Diego’s voice came. His voice was trembling.

“You… You were a woman…?”

But May replied dully, in contrast to Diego’s confusion.

“Yes.”

Diego felt like his heart stopped beating and couldn’t do anything.

Leaving the shocked Diego behind, May looked around. She almost forgot something important. Why had she crawled on the lake’s bottom?

‘The brooch! Did I bring it?’

Fortunately, the brooch was neatly placed beside her.

Relieved, May picked up the brooch and fastened it to her shirt. The sunflower brooch sparkled and shimmered in the moonlight.

Unlike May, who was nonchalantly doing her work despite having just barely survived underwater, Diego couldn’t move.

His shocked face was filled with complex emotions that he couldn’t put into words.

‘He wasn’t a man, but a woman…’

It felt like he was hit in the back of his head. He had forced himself to ignore his feelings for her, thinking she was a man, but now she turned out to be a woman.

Why did he treat her that way?

Leaving the still-dazed Diego behind, May stood up from her spot.

“I’ll consider your rescue as an apology.”

Considering all the torment he had put her through, she couldn’t bring herself to say words of gratitude. So, she decided to take his rescue as a substitute for an apology.

After all, he would never apologize for what he had done to her. That’s the kind of person he was.

Leaving behind cold words, May departed. Diego remained alone in that spot.

Now he gazed at the tranquil surface of the lake and lost himself in thought. Could this situation be a dream? Was it a crazy dream brought about by his excessive fondness for her?

That’s it, isn’t it? How could May Flotina possibly be a woman?

That little kid…

As he recalled May in his mind, she didn’t have the appearance of a man. To anyone, she was undoubtedly a woman. Even her chest, which he had just seen, clearly belonged to a woman.

“Why…?”

Why didn’t he realize it? Jed had even told him, but why did he unquestioningly believe she was a man? After all, there was no reason for Jed Bloche to lie about such a thing.

However, what was more serious than not knowing that May was a woman was the fact that he had made her suffer.

Memories of the past passed like a revolving lantern.

Memories of picking fights with her, getting angry, and planning ways to ridicule her. The person he saw in those memories was nothing but trash.

“Why did I do such things?”

He felt furious with himself in the memories. He wanted to kill himself right away.

However, what made him even more despicable was the fact that he felt relieved and grateful that May turned out to be a woman in this situation. He no longer had a reason to hide his feelings and deny them.

“I need to apologize.”

He had to cling on and seek forgiveness. He had to restore their relationship.

As long as May was a woman, he couldn’t let anyone else take her away. He didn’t want to leave her like that.

But… What if even after doing that, he couldn’t be forgiven?

Knowing how much he was at fault, he couldn’t easily get up from where he sat.

* * *

As I came out of the lake, I headed straight to the ballroom. Water was dripping down from my soaked clothes.

“Is it because I’m all wet? It’s cold.”

Feeling cold, I wrapped my arms around myself as I walked, and I saw someone waiting for me.

It was Stella.

She had been waiting outside the ballroom, and when she spotted me, she called out in a loud voice.

“May!”

Stella ran up to me and worriedly looked at my drenched appearance.

“What happened? Why are you wet? You’ll catch a cold.”

Stella wrapped me tightly with the shawl she was wearing. I could feel her warmth from the shawl.

“I was picking up the brooch at the lake. The Penso siblings threw it in front of me.”

“Are they crazy? Have they lost their manners?”

While Stella ranted behind me, Heint and Milo also noticed me and came towards me. Heint tearfully held my hand.

“May, I heard everything from Milo. I don’t know what to say to you… Thank you so much for saving our son.”

Seeing him so moved and thanking me, my heart was heavy. I should have comforted him earlier if I knew he would be this happy. Then I could have directly sought revenge on Gleygon. Instead, I ended up apologizing.

“No, I couldn’t tell you first… I’m sorry. And you must have wanted to take revenge yourself…”

Heint shook his head.

“No, it’s thanks to you that I could meet Milo a day earlier. I’ll never forget this favor.”

Milo also expressed his gratitude next to him.

“Your Grace, you are my benefactor.”

I looked back and forth between them and felt secretly proud. I was glad that I had resolved the tragedy from the original work and that I could be of help to Heint, who had always treated me kindly.

“But, May, why is your hair and clothes all wet?”

Although I hesitated for a moment at Heint’s question, I eventually told him about the Penso siblings’ actions. Milo, who learned about the situation posthumously, became angry.

“Those wicked people… To even touch Your Grace…”

Milo clenched his fist tightly, as if he would never let them get away with it.

“By the way, Milo, do you know where the Penso siblings are?”

“They must have gone to the royal prison. Even though they are mere puppets, they were exposed for imprisoning and abusing slaves. They will go through the proper legal process and receive a severe punishment.”

“Then they will have a criminal trial…”

I paused for a moment, lost in thought, before speaking again.

“I want to give Clara Penso a different punishment. If His Lordship and Milo allow it, I would like Clara Penso to receive a different punishment alone. Would that be possible?”