Chapter 109: Peace Begins at Home
“Have a child?”
Armand looked at Evelia with a confused and slightly embarrassed expression, instinctively stepping half a step back.
“W-Why are you suddenly talking about that?”
“Is it not allowed, Mr. Armand?”
Seeing him step back, Evelia seemed to take it as a challenge and stepped forward.
“Don’t you want a child?”
“It’s not that… I just don’t get how the conversation suddenly turned to this…”
“I just wanted to know what you think.”
The two of them kept talking like that, one sentence after another, Armand kept stepping back, and Evelia kept getting closer.
Even though Armand looked awkward, the closeness between them and the strange topic made the air around them feel less “awkward” and more… “romantic.”
Their eyes locked as if they were playing a staring contest. But Armand quickly lost and turned his head away slightly. He just couldn’t keep looking into Evelia’s golden eyes.
From their angle, it looked like a tug-of-war or some kind of flirtation, and maybe they were even enjoying it.
But for the third person there, things were very different.
What’s wrong with these two??
That was the honest thought running through Rachel, who was still being held in Armand’s arms.
If she were really just a three- or four-year-old child, maybe it’d be okay. She wouldn’t understand what was happening, and she could just innocently sit there between two ridiculously good-looking adults.
But she wasn’t.
Not only was she not a child, she was actually much older than both Armand and Evelia put together.
After becoming an alchemist, Rachel rarely talked to people unless she had to buy materials. But that didn’t mean she didn’t know about these kinds of things.
In fact, because of some rare materials, she had gone on long and dangerous trips to find things like mermaid scales, mountain troll fingernails, and fresh spider silk from human-faced spiders. She didn’t like socializing, but she was a proper adventurer who had seen many things and visited many places.
Even though she didn’t get involved in people’s drama, her life experience was much richer than either of these two.
But even with all that experience, she had never seen anything like this.
One of them, Evelia, was supposedly a cold assassin called “Red Crow” sent by the second prince, who used to be a man and didn’t seem to understand basic social behavior. The other, Armand, was the knight commander under the empty-headed first prince.
How did these two end up together?
And now they’re even talking about having a kid?
Let’s not even get into whether they could actually have one, who would raise the kid?
Rachel herself was lucky, her body was made through alchemy, so she was tougher than most.
Even after starving for so long and being mistreated by Evelia, she was still okay.
But if it were a real human child? They’d probably be dead after being taken care of by this crazy woman.
Ugh… she didn’t even know when she could escape this nightmare. Maybe she should try to make a new body and sneak out that way…
She felt like just staying between these two idiots was already hurting both her life span and IQ...
“Having a kid… that’s something far in the future,” Armand said.
“Not far at all, Mr. Armand,” Evelia replied calmly. “It’s right in front of you.”
“Ah—right, I get it. You’re talking about Rachel.” Armand’s voice was a little stiff as he spoke. “Let’s just keep the child.”
Just moments ago, Rachel was stuck between the two of them, overwhelmed by their sticky, almost romantic atmosphere. Suddenly, Armand lifted her up like a human shield, using her to block Evelia, who was getting closer and closer.
…Seriously? Are you for real?
Seeing Armand trying to dodge like that, Rachel had nothing but helplessness written all over her face.
Putting aside Red Crow’s gender and identity, Rachel was confident that Evelia’s carefully crafted form, a beautiful girl with soft pink hair, was enough to captivate any man’s heart.
After all, when the second prince created her, he specifically requested a “very beautiful girl”. So Rachel had put a lot of effort into her appearance.
But—
What’s going on? Is Armand not into this type?
This “Red Crow” clearly came here ready to throw herself at him! If he just went along, it would all be done already!
But instead… he picked me up like a shield?
Come on, are you even a real man? Go for it! Just go already! She’s practically offering herself! The mood is perfect!
Now’s the time to kiss and cuddle and fall in love or whatever!
You have such a handsome face, your mouth wasn’t made for refusing people. It’s made for kissing! So kiss her already!
Even just sitting on the sidelines, Rachel was about to explode with frustration.
Captain, come on! You really can’t be this useless, right?
Wait... don’t tell me you’re just a pure, innocent boy? Could the rumors be true that you only like horses, not women?
“I’m not talking about Rachel, Mr. Armand,” Evelia said. “I’m saying… I think we…”
Seeing Armand lift Rachel up and increase the distance between them, Evelia, who was already annoyed by how Rachel clung to Armand earlier, now saw the girl as nothing but an obstacle. She reached out her hand without hesitation to push Rachel aside.
Luckily, Armand was quick and turned his body to dodge with Rachel in his arms. Otherwise, no matter how tough Rachel’s body was, she would’ve been in real pain, either caught by Armand like a falling ball or landing head-first on the ground.
While Evelia frowned at missing her target, Rachel’s brain went into high gear. She quickly switched from “front row audience” mode to full-on analysis mode, trying to figure out what the heck was going on.
What do we know?
These two are from opposing sides.
Red Crow was turned into a beautiful girl by the second prince and sent here on purpose.
From her tone and actions, Red Crow was clearly way more forward than Armand, so forward it looked like she was just giving herself away.
But it was obvious that someone like Red Crow wasn’t truly capable of such feelings.
Also, the fact that she picked up Rachel might have been random, but adopting her seemed completely planned. This Red Crow obviously wanted a child.
But Rachel was also sure that Evelia wasn’t some warm-hearted woman who just wanted a child because she was lonely. So Rachel guessed that she must serve some kind of purpose to Evelia, there must be some benefit.
Then she thought about how Red Crow was acting so boldly earlier…
— ‘I get it now! This is a classic honey trap!’
Rachel thought it through and suddenly saw the whole picture.
The second prince made Red Crow into a beauty so she could seduce the knight captain, make him fall in love, steal important information, and then betray him with a knife to the back!
It all makes sense now!
And right now, what they needed was something to act as a “bond of family.”
And she, the genius alchemist, must become that bond if she want to stay alive!
Seeing that Evelia still looked annoyed by her and was about to wave her hand to push her aside, Rachel quickly thought of an idea.
She wiggled around in Armand’s arms, then wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Waaah—Mom is so mean! She’s mad again!”
Of course, this was all fake crying.
But Rachel really gave it her best. She even bit her tongue a little so that her eyes would look watery and she could squeeze out real tears.
“There, there, don’t cry. Look at you, Eve, you scared the child,” Armand said as he gently patted her back, trying to comfort her.
The sudden sound of a child crying and that word “Mom” made Evelia stop for a moment.
“Mom?” She frowned slightly, repeating the word that was both simple and complicated.
“Yeah,” Armand replied. “Maybe because you’re the one who found her and brought her back, she sees you as her mom now.”
“……”
Evelia thought about it for a moment. It kind of made sense, if she picked up the child and raised her, then she would be the “mom.”
Even though to Evelia, this was just a word, when Rachel actually called her “Mom” in a sweet childlike voice, it made her heart feel strangely complicated, like it reminded her of her own mother, someone whose face she could no longer remember.
“Hey… Dad.”
“Hm?”
Hearing Rachel suddenly call him “Dad,” Armand looked around without thinking, checking if someone else was nearby. Then he looked down and saw Rachel’s eyes looking straight at him, and realized she was talking about him.
“Dad, Mom’s upset and angry. You should go comfort her.”
“Comfort…?” Armand looked awkwardly at Evelia. “Comfort how…?”
“With a hug, of course! Dad, give Mom a nice big hug!”
Rachel even reached out her small hand and tugged on Evelia’s sleeve, pulling her a little closer.
“Ha…” Armand gave a dry laugh. “Eve, do you… need comfort?”
“What do you think?”
To Evelia, there really wasn’t anything that needed comforting. But when Armand asked the question, she actually hesitated for a second, and her answer turned vague, like she was throwing the question back at him.
“…Alright, alright.”
Faced with Evelia’s silence and the little child in his arms, Armand could only give in. He held Rachel with one arm and gently put his other arm around Evelia, making them look just like a warm, happy family of three.
“Does that feel better, Eve?”
“Much better. Thank you, Mr. Armand.”
Armand didn’t say anything else. He just stayed in that position.
Evelia also didn’t move any further. She simply stood there, quietly enjoying the gentle “comfort hug” from Armand.
Once again, the two of them were lost in that almost romantic atmosphere.
Only Rachel, who was very different from the others, let out a long sigh of relief.
Even though she thought her acting was kind of embarrassing, she figured at least she had saved her own life for now.
And maybe, just maybe, if she kept working hard…
She could actually keep the whole world at peace.
If this country loses me… it’s doomed for sure!