C108
"Grandpa...?"
Liena couldn't understand what Roland had just said, so she just blinked.
"Liena! Are you okay?"
"What are you doing?"
While Leheim checked on his sister's condition, Duke Cassius was furious and lashed out at his father.
"It's me who wants to ask you what you're doing, you bastard!"
Roland didn't seem intimidated but yelled loudly and waved his staff.
"Do you have nothing better to do, so you take in an orphan peasant girl into your family as your daughter?"
"Why...?"
At that moment, Liena, still lying on the ground, let out a cry.
"Grandpa, why are you suddenly doing this to me?"
She then grabbed the hem of her grandfather's pants and pleaded.
"You always called me a little bunny and made me feel pretty."
"A bunny? More like a bloodsucker than a bunny."
Liena's face colored with surprise at that cruel tone. The hand holding the hem of her pants withdrew.
"That's too much!"
Duke Cassius shouted as if he truly didn't understand.
"Why are you like this all of a sudden? Sometimes, even if I don't like it, you come and go from Cassius Castle to see my daughter!"
"Don't even talk about what happened back then! It's terrible that I loved something so ugly!"
Roland trembled and looked at his son.
"It must be some kind of black magic! They've brainwashed me all this time!"
"What a ridiculous excuse!"
"Wake up! If I were sane, would I have liked a peasant girl?"
"......"
Edman was speechless. Roland's words and actions were absolutely unacceptable, but his current words were in line with the doubts he had been feeling for some time.
The man he knew, Roland Cassius, was a man who couldn't truly love others. Would he act differently with a commoner with no blood relation? At least in Duke Cassius's opinion, the way he ignored and scorned Liena was much more in line with Roland than before when he took care of her a lot.
But why did Roland like Liena so much? And why did he suddenly change his attitude now?
"Please stop that!"
Liena shouted as if to dispel those doubts.
"I understand that my grandfather talks badly about me."
Liena stood up, staggering, tears streaming from her eyes.
"Because you've been through hardships over the past few days trying to fulfill my wish of becoming the owner of that mine."
The moment he saw his daughter's pitiful appearance, the Duke's heart broke, and his mind went blank at the same time.
"You're being loud! You, monster!"
Then he came to his senses due to an urgent shout.
Roland simply stepped back in silence, distrusting Liena, who cried helplessly.
"Are you trying to bewitch me again?"
"What do you mean?"
"You've been bewitching me for the past twelve years!"
"Grandpa, no matter how angry you are, please don't speak like that. It hurts my heart a lot."
"Dad, don't get any closer!"
"You really worried about me, didn't you?"
"I told you to stay away!"
Roland finally turned around and headed toward his carriage.
"Just wait and see! One day, I'll expose your true evil colors!"
Finally, he left a message to his son as well.
"Edman! If you don't want to ruin the Cassius I raised, expel her from the house immediately!"
Thus, Roland Cassius disappeared from the sight of the three people.
"Don't cry, Liena."
Leheim handed his handkerchief to his sister.
"Has Grandpa gone senile? Whether it's black magic or brainwashing, I think he's a bit crazy. Isn't that right, Father?"
"......"
Liena glanced sideways at Duke Cassius, who didn't respond, and murmured sadly.
"It's okay; I'm used to being hated."
The Duke and Leheim, surprised by those words, looked at Liena.
"Thanks to the overwhelming love I received from my father and my older brothers in Cassius, I had forgotten. But looking back, I endured and overcame worse situations than this."
She referred to when Liena was in the orphanage.
"So I'm fine, brother. This is nothing compared to the time my biological parents abandoned me, and the orphanage director mistreated me."
"Liena..."
Leheim's throat warmed at seeing his younger sister speak calmly with a sad voice and even a faint smile.
The Duke did the same.
The always cheerful and bright Princess of Cassius had occasionally shown a shadow like this since she was a child.
At times like that, the people of the duchy's eyes filled with tears at the thought of the cruel experience this little child had gone through.
"What was I thinking until now?"
A sense of self-destruction sprang up inside Edman.
He regretted the past when he suspected that Liena was hiding a secret side and that this side might be detrimental to Cassius.
How dare he think that way? Isn't Liena nothing less than his daughter, whom he raised for a long time?
His mind went blank again. He didn't want to have more annoying and uncomfortable doubts.
"Dad."
Liena, whom Leheim was consoling, approached the Duke and gently leaned against him.
"Still, I'm a little sad."
This was also the childish behavior that the trusting girl showed whenever something sad or difficult happened.
"Will you comfort me?"
"Of course."
The duke stroked his daughter's head.