The Baby Isn’t Yours

Simon couldn’t remember the day he first met Kalia.

To be more precise, he had no recollection of the day Kalia had rescued him from being kidnapped and dragged into a dark alley.

While returning from the royal ball, Simon and the Duke were on their way when the Duke’s carriage suddenly stopped in front of a pound cake shop, an unplanned and impulsive visit. Even so, the kidnappers had expertly and leisurely captured young Simon.

Speculations circulated among the public that it wasn’t a mere coincidence that notorious ruffians, who were often seen by the aristocracy, had impulsively kidnapped the young duke, but was that truly the case?

At the time, Simon’s mother, Helena, entered the cake shop and stayed inside for a while, and the Duke got out of the carriage to pick up his wife, momentarily leaving Simon alone in the carriage.

The coachman and a few servants remained, but a sudden gust of white smoke, which paralyzed everyone’s senses, quickly entered the carriage, making them unable to prevent young Simon’s kidnapping.

After being kidnapped, Simon was held captive for about a week, but he had no recollection of that week’s time or the moment when the little girl had rescued him.

Worried that the shock of being rescued might drive his young son insane, the Duke had asked a magician to bury those memories deep in Simon’s subconscious.

However, their tender care only went as far as their own child.

They didn’t extend the same depth of care to the little girl who had saved their precious son.

In fact, by providing her with a corner of their mansion and ensuring that she was well taken care of until she grew up, they had more than generously compensated the girl. To be precise, it was the girl’s plea, although it didn’t sound like one, to ensure her a safe haven, where she didn’t have to worry and could have warm meals.

It didn’t matter if she had her own room, and it was okay for her to sleep in the stables; she just pleaded that they wouldn’t send her back to that dark alley.

The girl was on her knees, perhaps without realizing, and her palms became creased from crawling for a long time to rescue young Simon.

Her body was covered with unidentifiable scars that had been there for who knows how long, and her body was marred with countless bruises.

However, there had been no sadness, fear, or despair on the girl’s face.

The girl, with her clear wit, requested from the Duke that she didn’t know how to use such a large sum of money, so instead of money she didn’t know how to spend, she needed a safe place to stay and warm meals she didn’t have to worry about. So, she earnestly implored, ‘Please let me stay in this mansion.’

It didn’t matter if she had to work; it was alright if she slept in the stable. The girl’s plea, though not really a plea, moved the Duke to accept her.

He didn’t hand over treasures made of gold and silver but gave her a single room and provided her with decent meals every day, and she was more than grateful.

So, the girl, who had saved the young duke, lived quietly away from public attention inside the Duke’s mansion.

She was so quiet that even Shaiman, who was rescued by her, forgot the girl’s existence.

Then, Simon was reminded of that child again when he heard surprising news one day three years later.

He only remembered her three years later, when one day he heard some surprising news.

Takoon, the Commander of the Duke’s Knights, had a prideful son named Mike.

Mike was exceptionally large compared to his peers, and his strength often troubled the knights.

However, there was a ‘girl’ who had defeated him.

A young girl, who had been wielding a sword for only three years, had managed to defeat Mike!

What was even more surprising was that the girl who defeated him was the very same girl who had saved him three years ago.

“…That girl?”

During a brief visit to the Duke’s mansion during his academy vacation, Simon overheard the news.

And so, he curiously headed toward the knights’ training grounds.

He was just curious.

He wanted to know how the tiny child who had saved him was doing and, belatedly, curiosity overwhelmed him.

Almost all of his memories from that time were sealed, but he could faintly remember a hazy figure. The back of a little girl with dirty, tangled, pale yellow hair and a body marred with bruised spots was etched in his hazy memories.

When she had rescued him, he was bedridden and slowly recovering, and he recalled the Duke’s voice saying affectionately that the girl had saved him.

With tired, half-closed eyes, Simon looked at the girl and was taken aback.

‘…That small child saved me?’

At that time, Simon was seven years old.

And that girl was merely six.

The memory of a little girl no larger than a hand with eyes brimming with life and vivid vigor came to him faintly.

With a somewhat excited heart, Simon was about to enter the knights’ training ground, driven by curiosity, but something flew quickly next to him and rolled on the floor.

Swoosh, a sound and a thud nearly simultaneously hit Simon’s ears.

Simon was startled and quickly identified the source of what had flown past him.

Surprisingly, it was a person.

A girl, no older than Simon, with a fresh lemon scent and pale yellow hair tied high, was rolling around on the ground.

The girl had such delicate features that they seemed barely hidden under her dirty face.

As Simon stared at the girl for a moment, she didn’t move at all. He was a bit worried.

‘Is she unconscious, or is she dead?’

The training of magicians and knights was fundamentally different, with the physical intensity being quite distinct. Even if magicians underwent high-intensity training, it was more akin to a mental exercise.

In any case, magicians didn’t typically roll around like this. After rolling around like this, most magic students would already be unconscious, and they wouldn’t wake up for days.

So, Simon unconsciously looked down at the girl who had fallen beside him with pity.

Then, at that moment.

“Kalia!”

At someone calling her name, the girl’s head snapped up.

She quickly used the recoil to spring up and bowed, lowering her body as if on alert.

Her lemon-colored hair, which was tied high on her head, swayed softly as she moved.

The girl didn’t have a very expressive face. On the contrary, her sharp gaze made her look fierce.

However, Simon was somehow captivated by the girl’s nonchalant smile, which spread over her face as she casually wiped the blood from her torn lips.

“…Now I can try.”

With a voice so soft it was almost inaudible, the girl mumbled those words, and the sound stuck vividly in Simon’s ears.

Unknowingly, Simon kept his eyes on her movements.

The girl nimbly leaped among the much larger knights. Her movements were surprisingly agile.

Light and fast things were usually fragile, but the girl seemed to be quite strong. Many of her strikes caused the bodies of the knights to hit the walls.

No one seemed to notice that Simon was there as intense training continued.

Three against one. And the difference in physique was considerable, but she never lost. She had the spirit of a girl who didn’t look more than ten years old.

Even though there were no words exchanged, that girl’s imagician from that time was etched deeply into Simon’s mind.

The glint in her eyes as she faced her opponents, the nonchalant smile on her lips as she wiped the blood away, her confident demeanor as she faced three men—these memories kept coming back to him.

The girl’s name was Kalia.

“Kalia.”

Simon thought about the girl repeatedly.

Simon, who had never felt the desire to be friends with someone before, was inexplicably drawn to those sparkling emerald eyes.

‘Do I really want to be friends with her?’

Simon was someone who had never taken the initiative to make friends with anyone.

He was the heir to the Empire’s most powerful Ducal family, a pretty little boy who would draw everyone’s praise with just one look, and although only a small part of him, he had imperial blood.

There were many people, both adults and children, who wanted to be even a little closer to him.

And yet, he wanted to see those sparkling pale green eyes that didn’t even spare him a glance.

“Kalia. Kalia…”

Young Simon repeated her name dozens of times to remember it, and eventually, when he had memorized her name to the point where he spoke it in his sleep, he went to visit the Duke.

Starting from the next semester, Kalia enrolled in Simon’s academy swordsmanship class, sponsored by the Duke.

Kalia, who was sponsored to attend school and was asked to be Simon’s personal escort, took all classes with Simon except for the required major classes.

From then on, the two of them were always together.

…Until now.