52

"How are you?"

"…!"

The middle-aged man who was keeping his mouth shut asked Elena how she was doing. In the most affectionate tone.

"You look quite lady-like in your school uniform."

"…"

"If your mother in the sky had seen you, she would have been very pleased. My daughter grew up well."

'Mom? Daughter?'

For a moment, Elena's eyes opened and came to her senses. Her head, which was not spinning as if it was clogged, turned quickly. The kind words, the lonely circumstances behind them, the warm gaze… the various circumstances allowed her to guess the identity of this man.

'Emilio, the head of the Castol Corporation.'

And.

'Lucia's biological father.'

Elena grasped the situation at once. At the same time, she couldn't help but be surprised. It was surprising that he was standing right in front of her, who should not be in a hurry to treat Lucia, who was suffering from a fever, but he leaked his identity by mentioning the relationship in front of Elena, whom he had never met.

'Why are you helping me?'

She suddenly wondered, but Elena stopped thinking.

'Let's not think.'

Elena judged that it was more urgent to avoid the current situation, although she does not know what happened.

"Oh, Father."

The word "father" came out of Elena's mouth with a small but clear pronunciation.

"Yes, my daughter. Do you know how worried I was?"

Emilio approached and hugged Elena. He whispered in Elena's puzzled ear.

"He suspects."

"…!"

Emilio quickly stepped back with a hug. His warm gaze was that of a father who was truly worried about his daughter's safety. Elena acted naturally, hiding her confusion.

"How did you get here? Without a word."

"I heard that something urgent happened to you, so I left the top job and ran."

"To me?"

Emilio nodded and looked at Ren. Ren's face was distorted in a good way. The picture he wanted was not this, and he was clearly displeased. Either way, Elena and Emilio focused on creating a good-looking father-daughter relationship.

"I'm doing well…"

"I see. It's just about your personal affairs, so I ran back and forth."

"…"

Elena's eyes turned cold. The rough situation had been identified somehow. Ren even called in Emilio in the north to reveal Lucia's identity.

"Oh, this is ridiculous. Are you two biological father and daughter?"

Ren witnessed it himself and wondered if he could believe it. It felt a little awkward to call it a touching reunion, but it was ambiguous to point out.

"Sir, can you tell me now? What is the skit that I have to come to and argue over?"

Emilio's tone was polite. But the nuance in the words was close to interrogation.

"Your daughter has never attended a lecture."

"And."

"She unpacked her luggage in the dorm but no one saw her? So you're worried about her, aren't you?"

Ren's eyes glistened sharply, though he was acting cute. His eyes were full of suspicion.

"You only called me for that?"

"Only? That?"

Ren asked back reflexively without realizing it. This is because Emilio's attitude of accepting academic life that is not normal was not understandable.

"Yes, is there anything particularly strange about it?"

"…!"

Ren's eyes shook. Things were going very differently from what he had thought.

Sect 9. The Salon of L

"Lucia has a congenital chronic disease. It's much better now, but once it comes back, she has to rest for a month or two. That's probably why."

"So she skipped classes, didn't she go into the dorm?"

Ren asked back as if he was dumbfounded. There were strict rules in academic institutions. It was prohibited to stay outside the dormitory and attend lectures.

"Yes, I have notified the academy and even received permission to receive outside treatment if her health deteriorates."

"I don't believe you?"

Ren remained suspicious until the end. He went to the academy to find out about Lucia, but he'd never heard of this before.

"They probably kept it a secret because of the equity issue. It's against the rules of the academy."

"Wow, that's crazy. The academy giving her a break?"

Ren put his wavy hair back roughly. He looked very angry that things were not going as he wanted.

"Did you two dig?"

"You know, I didn't arrive in the capital until last night after receiving a call from the young sir. Do you have anything to say between a parent and their child?"

Elena couldn't take her eyes off Emilio with a blank face. His voice and expression were persuasive enough to convince anyone to believe the lie. Emilio's rigid expression unraveled when he saw Elena.

"I was nervous, but it's nice to see my daughter. I didn't have a chance to do it because I was busy working at the top."

"I didn't pay much attention during that time either."

Elena responded appropriately to create a good father and daughter mood.

"I'm sorry. But I'm here now, so please forgive me."

"Pft, fine."

Ren looked alternately at Elena and Emilio, still in disbelief. He examined their eyes and noses one by one and expressed his doubts.

"You don't look alike at all?"

"Because I look like my mom."

Elena smiled and deftly responded. Then Emilio said a word.

"She didn't fall short of my wife's appearance. You see, isn't she a pretty and lovely child?"

"There's no way to check, and I'm going crazy."

Emilio, who looked at Elena lovingly, asked Ren sarcastically.

"Do you have any questions left? I'll answer anything you want, because you're so concerned about Lucia."

"Me, too. Thanks to you, I want to repay you for allowing me to see my father."

Elena smiled broadly and joined Emilio's arms as if she were teasing him. No matter who saw it, Ren's feelings were distorted because they truly were like a friendly father and daughter.

"The food here is good, but I can't digest it at all."

"Are you going?"

Ren, who was going to leave the room holding the door handle, turned around.

"I feel like I don't belong in this touching father-daughter reunion."

"You do know that it's thanks to you, right?"

"I've done such a good thing for others again. You finish the rest. You'll be punished if you leave it."

Ren shook his hand and left the room as it was. Elena relaxed only after confirming that Ren was leaving the restaurant through the terrace.

"Thank you. If you hadn't noticed, I'd have been stuck."

Elena finally expressed her gratitude. It was embarrassing to meet suddenly, but there was no situation because it happened in a moment to play a friendly father and daughter.

"It's right for me to say thank you."

Emilio straightened out his disheveled clothes and bowed his head as if his waist was bent.

"I just want to thank my benefactor. Thank you for saving my daughter."

"…!"

Elena was surprised. Even without specifying the sender, Emilio seemed to know that Elena was the one who sent the cure for the fever.

"How could it be me?"

"You wrote this in the letter. Even if she gets better, she needs to rest for a year or more."

Elena certainly wrote that. The reason was that Lucia's behavior would be hindered if she were to return to the academy midway through her full recovery.

"But, she didn't have to. Malone, the grassland tribe, said that when it was cured, the recurrence rate was low and there was no problem with daily life in a month. Didn't the person who knew more about the disease's treatment know how long it would take? I didn't think so."

"…"

"Personally, I even found out that the letter's first origin was near the academy. In the meantime, that man had sent me a letter. He said that something unusual had happened to my daughter. I was convinced at that time. I would be able to meet the benefactor who saved my daughter by sending a letter."

Elena was compelled to admire his keenness in her heart. How could he analyze such a few circumstances and make a near-perfect deduction? Well, it was felt that Emilio's fame was not a false name to the upper echelons of the Castol Chamber of Commerce, who went back and forth between the three country coalitions to the empire in the southern part of the continent.

"I won't deny it since you've recognized it. Yes, I did."

Elena admitted it without hesitation. Even though she was not his daughter, he pretended to be a father and daughter and helped Elena not to be discovered. He was trustworthy enough.

"I thought you might be a student at an academy, but it's even more surprising to see you in person. It's late, but I really wanted to say thank you. Thank you very much for saving my daughter."

"Me, too. Thank you so much for today."

Elena also bowed her head to express her gratitude. Without Emilio's wise handling, she would have been in trouble by now.

"This is fate, so would you like to have dinner with me? The course here is pretty good."

"It's an honor."

Emilio accepted in a polite manner. The newly ordered course meal came out and slowly savored them. Perhaps because Ren left, it was the same dish that she had before, but the flavor and texture were very different.

"But you never asked."

"What do you mean?"

Elena put down her fork and knife.

"Who am I, what am I doing, why did I impersonate Lucia."

"I don't have to know."

Emilio wiped his mouth with a napkin and continued calmly.

"You're a benefactor who has saved my daughter, who is everything to me. If you'd like, I'd like to offer you the castol company. No, I can give it to you now."

Elena looked up and looked him in the eye. His sincerity came out of his eyes and expressions as much as his sincere speech. Indeed, he was the man who threw all of his life away to cure Lucia in his past life.

"I'll just accept your heart. You've paid me enough for what happened today."

"No, I couldn't pay you back."

Emilio's determined expression showed something of an inscrutable stubbornness.

"If you'd allow me to say a few more words, would you mind?"

"As much as you want."

They are two people whose age was quite different to believe that they are actually father and daughter. However, when looking at the actual conversation, Elena seemed to naturally treat him as a subordinate, and Emilio was respectful.

"I've been looking at you since I first met you. Oh, don't get me wrong. It's a habit for me to look after people as the basis of trade between merchants is people."

"I didn't misunderstand."

"Speech, gestures, how you eat, word choice… It's trivial, but we judge people through all of those things. We can't change the behavior of our body with our consciousness. There's another atmosphere. They're made to be acquired, and they're born to be."

Emilio moistened his throat with water and asked carefully.

"Are you not a part of the imperial family?"