She Is a Daughter Raised As the Son of a Duke

Chapter 94

‘May Flotina, there’s nothing more important to me than managing the household.’

The harsh words he once said to me seemed to come to his mind as well, and he had become a stranger’s face.

“But since I spent a lot of money… I have to repay it, right? The reward for capturing Gliw-gon should be more than enough to cover twice the cost of raising me. I’ll repay you with that.”

Still unable to say anything, I bowed my head politely to him.

“I’m grateful for raising me all this time. From now on, I’ll live without the Flotina name. So, Your Grace, please apply for a disownment and remove me from the family register. That’s why I came here today to talk about.”

As I lifted my head to look at him again, I noticed the moisture in the corner of Persis’ eyes. He seemed to have expected me to come out like this, as his eyes were already slightly red from tears.

What am I making him show such a sad face for? I’m not even his blood-related daughter, and I don’t bring any benefit to the family. What am I doing?

Seeing his face, my heart ached, but I persisted with my farewell until the end.

“Thank you for the birthday wishes. Goodbye, Your Grace.”

I walked towards the carriage, and it seemed like he didn’t follow me. However, when I had barely taken ten steps, Persis rushed in front of me, blocking my path.

“No. There’s nothing more important than you now, May.”

His usually expressionless face was now a mess, overwhelmed with emotions. His eyes were filled with unfamiliar tears.

He struggled to speak as if trying to hold back the tears.

“I don’t… I don’t need anything without you.”

I was a little surprised. I never thought I could make him show such an expression.

However, my decision to leave Flotina was not a sudden one. I had always felt the desire to leave, and my relationship with Persis was not so deep as to sway my determination.

“Please step aside, Your Grace.”

“Father was wrong.”

His sincere apology, which I had never heard before, didn’t comfort me as much as I had expected. Instead, seeing his tears made me feel like crying too, so I quickly turned my head away.

“Step aside, please.”

“No matter what anyone says, you are my daughter.”

“Step aside, please…”

“May, please…”

It was difficult to see him beg like that, and harsh words came out of my mouth without thinking.

“I don’t need you as my father anymore.”

I held back tears and stabbed his heart with each word.

“I don’t think of you as my father anymore…”

So, please don’t hold me.

Without looking at his face until the end, I slipped away and walked towards the carriage as if escaping. Even though I had said what I wanted to say, I still felt uneasy and wanted to shake off this suffocating feeling as soon as possible.

But this time, instead of Persis, Floa followed and grabbed me.

“Why are you trying to leave?”

I couldn’t ignore her pleading voice and turned around.

Floa’s face at the end of my gaze was pale.

“Persis is sincere. He won’t force you to act like a man anymore and won’t make things difficult for you.”

“Leaving Flotina has been my plan for a long time. Floa, you know that.”

“But you forgave him. We have many memories together, and Persis has changed, so why are you trying to leave?”

“Floa.”

He slowly fell silent at my call.

I remembered a passage that left a deep impression in the novel ⟨The Adopted Daughter of Persis⟩. It was one of Passabea’s quotes.

“… Although I easily forgave Floa.”

Floa released the mental magic that my life depended on just because it was annoying.

As a result, I ended up in an orphanage and was almost sold into slavery by a swindler.

“The reason I forgave him easily was that I had a goal to accomplish.”

Floa must have heard this directly from Passabea, so he knew what I was talking about.

The reason I forgave her easily was that I had a goal to accomplish. I didn’t care if the other person underestimated me.

As long as I achieved my goal, I wouldn’t see that person again.

I could see in Floa’s eyes that his world was crumbling with emotions.

Being forgiven and building memories were not important. I shouldn’t have given him a goal to leave in the first place.

I hoped Floa would realize this. Even if he couldn’t, it didn’t matter much since we wouldn’t see each other again.

“Now I won’t dress as a man anymore, so please undo the mental magic. And… thank you for being my swordsmanship master all this time.”

He looked at me with the same expression as Persis, who had lost everything.

“Take care, Floa.”

I got on the carriage, and neither Persis nor Floa could stop me.

* * *

After sending off his daughter, Persis stood frozen in place until the rain came. When raindrops fell on him, the bewildered butler hurriedly brought an umbrella and rushed him inside the mansion.

The butler asked if he wanted to change his wet clothes, but he didn’t answer. The servants wiped off the water with towels instead.

Only after a while did they realize that the liquid on his face was tears, not rain. The servants didn’t know whether to keep wiping his tears or not, but since he walked somewhere, they let him be.

The corridor Persis walked was quiet. The servants saw his distressed expression but didn’t make a sound. It was their consideration for their master.

Persis entered the library alone. A distant memory brought him there. He lay down on the long sofa inside the library and closed his eyes.

Whenever he needed peace of mind, he had always rested here for a short nap. Now, he needed peace of mind more than ever.

However, sleep didn’t come. The conflicting desires of wanting to sleep and wanting to hold his daughter battled within him. In the midst of this struggle, the library darkened, and it was time for it to be completely dark.

When he came to his senses, the faint moonlight had entered, slowly dissolving the darkness.

He remained dazed on the sofa for a few minutes. Then he regained enough strength to think.

…He had raised a child who might not even be his own daughter in a luxurious mansion, providing her with education equal to her peers and giving her everything she wanted.

He believed that this was all a father could do.

But… it wasn’t like that.

Persis recalled an event that had happened six years ago.

He had fallen asleep here for a brief moment and had a dream about that woman. It used to be a nauseating nightmare he had every day. May was the one who woke him up from that nightmare.

When she woke him up, she undoubtedly called him “Dad.”

At that time, May hadn’t yet been recognized as his child. However, that little girl called him with such warmth and familiarity as if she had always known he was her dad.

May and him looked nothing alike, yet the little girl didn’t seem to care about that at all.

To such a pure child, he said:

“No matter what you prove, you can never be someone I need. So give up and go to the orphanage.”

Tears rolled down Persis’s eyes as he reminisced about the past. Come to think of it, today was the first time he shed tears since the day he was abandoned by Viche.

When he was abandoned by Viche, how did he feel? Wasn’t he sad, crying, and in pain?

He had suffered for a long time, unable to forget that day, yet he had so easily thought about abandoning the child he considered his daughter.

Just a ten-year-old little girl.

The little girl who considered him her dad.

The child born to the woman he had loved.

And how did that child react?

‘I would have been raised as a son if I wasn’t a daughter, right?’

To avoid going to the orphanage, she willingly lived as a boy.

It took Persis six years to realize that. With this realization, tears streamed from his eyes once again.

May had lived as his son not by her own choice, but by his coercion.

* * *

“My lady, Young Lord Flotina has come to visit you.”

“Really?”

Stella, who was leisurely reading a novel, brightened her eyes at Anne’s words and placed the book on the table before getting up from her seat.

“Yes, but it’s confusing me a bit…”

“What’s confusing?”

“It didn’t feel like this until yesterday, but now it seems like Lord Flotina is a woman… No, he’s definitely a woman. His appearance and voice leave no doubt about it. How did this happen?”

While Anne was greatly confused, Stella remained surprisingly calm in her eyes.

“Did you release the Mental magic…?”

“Mental magic? What’s that?”

“I’ll explain later. Where is May right now?”

“He’s in the reception room on the first floor.”

Stella immediately went downstairs to the reception room and met May.

Today was May’s birthday, and she was crying as if she hadn’t received congratulations from anyone, feeling like she was born without anyone’s care.

“Stella…”

Feeling sorry for her, Stella let out a soft sigh, approached her, and hugged her.

“Did you talk with the Duke?”

“Yeah… you told me to come if it’s too difficult… Did I come too early?”

“No, it’s good that you came.”