Chapter 108: A False Alarm
"Yes, that's right. That child is Miss Evelia's—"
Before the knight outside the gate could finish his sentence, Armand had already walked briskly past him, so fast it stirred up a gust of wind.
Even though his legs weren’t technically running, he was basically running.
“…adopted…”
Because of that, Armand completely missed the last word the knight said.
Rachel hadn’t realized yet that someone was rushing straight toward her. She was still laughing and running around with the other young maids.
After all, who doesn’t like pretty, lively young girls?
Seeing them play like that made even this century-old alchemist feel like she had returned to her younger days for a moment.
Though, speaking of her childhood, Rachel wasn’t this outgoing back then. If there was a word to describe her younger self, it would be “bookworm.”
Ever since she learned about alchemy from a book, she had thrown herself into studying it.
Her childhood dream was a simple one, to loudly declare, in her small but determined voice, “I want to become a powerful alchemist!” But chasing that dream wasn’t as easy as it sounded.
Still, Rachel stuck with it all the way. Even now, she didn’t think of herself as a powerful alchemist. She simply believed she had a gift.
Thud.
“Yaaah!”
Lost in thought, she accidentally bumped into something. It didn’t hurt, but it was enough to snap her back to reality.
Rubbing her forehead and squinting a little,
she looked up and realized, she had run into someone’s leg.
“Eeep…!”
Lifting her head, she locked eyes with a tall figure.
Armand, though usually kind around children,
was still frowning deeply. He simply couldn’t understand why Evelia had a child.
He looked down at Rachel with a puzzled expression. His tall figure completely blocked the light in front of her.
With the sun behind him, his shadow was a little scary, especially given the height difference between an adult and a child. Anyone in her place would feel a little overwhelmed.
“Master of the House!”
The nearby maids quickly bowed their heads when they saw their estate’s owner had arrived.
“You girls go for now. I need to talk to Eve about something.”
“Yes, sir.”
Even though they knew Armand wasn’t the kind of noble to be strict with his servants,
they still felt nervous seeing his furrowed brows.
They were scared they’d done something wrong by goofing off, what if they got punished for leaving too slowly?
And since Armand had directly told them to leave, they didn’t dare stay a second longer and quickly walked away.
“Mr. Armand, is something wrong?”
Once the maids were far enough, Evelia stepped forward to speak with him.
“Who is this child?”
Though he was still full of questions, Armand gently picked Rachel up.
Compared to Evelia, who had never dealt with children before, Armand’s actions were much more gentle and practiced, likely thanks to that one time when Carle asked him to take care of his daughter for a while.
“Rachel,” Evelia answered calmly, stating the girl’s name.
At the same time, she kept a close watch on Armand’s expression. If Armand didn’t like the child, Evelia wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of her and find another one.
“Rachel…” Armand repeated softly.
While saying the girl's name, Armand held her gently in his arms and lightly touched her short hair.
From how the hair was cut, it was obvious it had been trimmed by someone unskilled, just like what happened to his rose bushes once. The ends had been chopped off quickly with no care for looks or detail.
This must have been Evelia’s doing. If this child cared about looking pretty, she’d probably cry the moment she saw herself in the mirror.
“Is this… your child?”
“Yes, Mr. Armand.”
Even though she had picked the child up off the street, Evelia thought, since she had already decided to adopt her, saying she’s hers shouldn’t be a problem.
“…Huh?!”
Armand’s heart skipped a beat.
This really is Evelia’s child? She’s already old enough to have a child this big?
The little girl looked like she was around three or four years old. But Evelia’s records said she was only 18.
Maybe the documents were fake. But if they were true, then—
“That’s a crime!!”
He suddenly yelled, so loud that Rachel jumped in surprise. Luckily, Armand was holding her tightly, or she might’ve fallen over.
“What’s wrong, Mr. Armand?”
Evelia tilted her head, completely unaware that what she’d just said was easy to misunderstand. She really didn’t get why Armand was reacting like this.
“You—you’re so young! How do you already have a kid? Who’s the father?!”
This kind of thing couldn’t be ignored!
How could someone let a girl this young have a child?!
“Father?”
“Yes, Eve. Who’s the father of this child?”
“Her father, huh…”
Evelia thought for a moment, then turned to look at Rachel in Armand’s arms.
“Do you know who your father is?”
“Huh?”
Rachel blinked.
Of course, she still remembered her real parents’ names, but this was definitely not the right time to say who she really was.
“...I don’t know.”
So she simply pretended to be a clueless child and decided to go along with whatever was happening.
“I see,” Evelia said, then turned to Armand again. “I don’t know who her father is.”
“…?”
Now it was Armand’s turn to be confused.
Who asks their own child who the father is?!
But then again, knowing how strange Evelia could be sometimes, he thought maybe this was something she would actually do.
Still, hearing this made Armand even more upset.
She was so young, and already a mother to a child this big, and she didn’t even know who the father was?
That meant some monster must’ve taken advantage of her…
“Mr. Armand, do you not like this child?”
Evelia noticed the deep frown on his face and stepped forward, gently stroking Rachel’s cheek, almost like she was showing off an item.
Her touch was light, but to Rachel, it felt like a warning.
It was as if she were saying, ‘If Armand doesn’t like you, you’re useless.’
And in this case, "useless" didn’t mean "free", it meant dead.
Because of that, Rachel decided she needed to quickly win over the favor of this knight commander.
She tried to use her cute appearance and curled up pitifully in Armand’s arms, rubbing her head against his chest like a little lost kitten.
But for some reason, after doing all that, she felt that Evelia, who was standing nearby, was looking at her with an even colder gaze. Rachel could even feel a kind of murderous intent aimed only at her.
“N-No, it’s not that I don’t like her…”
Armand gently patted Rachel on the head, letting her lean more into his chest.
“I just didn’t expect you to already have a child at such a young age.”
Maybe Armand was just trying to comfort the child out of habit, but to Evelia, this was enough to raise alarm bells.
“If you don’t like her, you can throw her away.”
Even if Armand didn’t throw her away, Evelia already planned to do it. Of course, when she did, Rachel definitely wouldn’t be alive.
“No, that’s not what I meant... I just... sigh, I didn’t think you had ever given birth.”
Armand even felt a little sorry for this “single mother” in front of him.
“Ah,” Evelia paused for a second. “I actually never gave birth to a child.”
She even seemed a bit troubled by that fact.
“…Huh?”
Armand was completely stunned.
“Then this child—?”
“I picked her up.”
“Picked… picked her up?”
The change in story was so sudden that Armand had trouble believing it for a moment.
“Of course I picked her up, Mr. Armand.”
Even though her tone was the same as usual, Armand felt that with Evelia’s straightforward personality, she wouldn’t lie about something like this.
In fact, he realized he had just been overthinking everything.
Ahh...
Now Armand finally understood.
So stupid… why did he jump to that conclusion?
Of course the more reasonable guess is that she found the child, not that she gave birth to her.
What was he even getting so worked up about?
“Whew, ahh, I see now. I was thinking, no way could that be true…”
Armand let out a long breath. Rachel could even feel how his arms around her had relaxed compared to before.
“Then… Mr. Armand—”
Hearing what he said, Evelia leaned in a little closer. Now the two of them had Rachel stuck right between them.
“—Do you want me to have a child?”