IDMWE 27

Chapter 27

Dex’s scheme had hit its mark.

“How about this? What do you think, Silion?”

“Good! Very cool!”

Leona and Silion quickly grew close, thanks to their common ground as weapon enthusiasts.

Of course, Silion—who was afraid of women—was still hiding behind Dex, but he had at least progressed to the point where he could hold a conversation with Leona from a distance.

“Dex! Silion says he wants this one.”

“Excellent. As expected, Leona’s eye for quality is superb.”

Leona had already become comfortable enough with Dex and Silion to drop formalities. She’d told them both to speak casually to her as well, but they both said they were more comfortable with how things were.

“How does it look?”

“It suits you!”

Silion struck a pose with the greatsword Leona had picked out for him, and Leona clapped her hands together, laughing gleefully.

Dex watched the scene and smiled with satisfaction.

In his eyes, it looked like a pair of adorable lion and wolf cubs tumbling around playing together.

As they finished their enjoyable shopping trip and were about to leave the blacksmith, Dex opened his mouth, trying to appear as natural as possible.

“Since Leona went to all this trouble for us, I’d like to treat you to a meal as thanks—”

“Oh? Really! That’s perfect, I’m getting hungry. Let’s eat meat, meat!”

“Meat good!”

Just as Dex let out a hollow laugh at how easy these two were—

Suddenly, the street in front of the blacksmith began to fill with people.

“Ah, is it already this late? They said His Majesty the Emperor would be inspecting the commercial district this afternoon.”

As Leona said, the commercial district was becoming crowded with citizens hoping to catch even a glimpse of the Emperor.

“There’s a shortcut through that alley that leads straight to the tavern district. Let’s go that way.”

The moment the three stepped into the alley, following Leona’s lead—

“U-ugh…!”

A faint voice came from somewhere, and Leona stopped in her tracks.

“Wait. Do you hear a strange sound?”

At Leona’s words, the two lowered their voices and listened closely.

Silion, a beastman with keener hearing than humans, quickly identified the source.

“It sounds like a child crying.”

At that, Leona’s expression turned serious.

“They must have lost their parents in the crowd. Let’s go!”

Without a moment’s hesitation, Leona began running toward the direction of the child’s voice.

Silion and Dex followed closely behind, their expressions tense.

The three ran through the winding alleys for a while.

And what they found was—

“Mama!”

A silver-haired little tyke who, upon spotting Leona, came toddling over and threw himself into her arms—someone who looked exactly like *him*.

“…Leona, didn’t you say you weren’t in a relationship with Rigan?”

“Then this is Leona’s baby?”

Caught off guard by the sudden development, Dex and Silion asked in surprise, but Leona didn’t hear them.

Because she was too busy being horrified by the appearance of the little brat who kept clinging to her—who she presumed was a de-aged Rigan.

‘Wait, didn’t the Angel and the Constellations say they couldn’t come for a while?! When did this happen?’

And seeing Leona flustered, the child cried even more pitifully and tried to burrow deeper into her arms.

“*Hic*, Mama, MAMA!”

“What do I do! Rigan’s brain must have turned into a child too! He’s calling me ‘Mama’!”

Leona was on the verge of genuinely losing her mind.

‘I’m going out of my mind!’

Leona awkwardly hoisted the child—presumed to be Rigan—into her arms.

As far as she was concerned, whether his brain had regressed or not, she wasn’t thrilled about hugging Rigan, but she had no choice.

“*Hic*, *sniff*.”

Because the child was clinging to her and crying so heartbreakingly.

Leona was too soft-hearted to turn her back on that sight.

“Goochie goochie goo!”

Leona racked her brain for every bit of knowledge she had and began trying to soothe the child.

Dex and Silion watched her with expressions that said, ‘Is that really going to work?’

And surprisingly, that clumsy attempt at comfort actually worked.

“Hehe, Mama!”

As if he’d never been crying at all, the child began beaming in Leona’s arms.

Having gotten past the first hurdle, Leona quietly whispered in the child’s ear, out of earshot of the others.

“Hey, Rigan. Did the Angel really do this to you? Please, just say something.”

Leona still held onto a sliver of hope.

Who would have thought the day would come when she’d be praying to hear that insufferable voice tell her to “Shut up!”

Leona gazed at the child’s mouth with earnest eyes, waiting for it to open.

“Anhel?”

“Yeah! That’s right! You know the Angel, right?”

“Hee, Mama! Anhel!”

The child smiled brightly and rubbed his face against Leona’s chest.

At that innocent sight, Leona pressed a hand to her forehead.

“Good grief.”

The child’s giggling laughter snatched away Leona’s last remaining hope.

‘I mean, he’s cute, but when I think about how this is *that* Rigan Clanford…’

Leona shuddered and quickly rubbed her arms.

So that insufferable jerk had been this adorable as a child.

‘Just what on earth happened to him in his childhood to make him turn out like that?’

The question nagged at her mind, but Leona quickly shook her head to dispel it.

Right now, rather than such useless curiosity, she needed to figure out how to get out of this crisis.

And Leona was the type to act first rather than overthink things.

Making a quick decision, Leona called out to the child.

“Alright, kiddo. Hold on tight!”

Then she wrapped the child’s arms—who was squirming in her embrace—around her neck and immediately started running.

“L-Leona! Where are you going?”

Dex and Silion, who had been watching Leona do all sorts of things—from being surprised to looking serious to whispering with the child—called out in shock.

Without looking back at them, Leona ran and shouted her answer.

“The Papal Office!”

Leona’s reasoning was simple.

‘This seems like the Angel and the Constellations’ doing, so I’ll just go ask them directly!’

They’d said they couldn’t come for a while, and yet here they were, stabbing her in the back just a day later.

Who knew divine beings could be so underhanded.

‘If they don’t show up, I’ll make them show up somehow.’

She planned to go to the Papal Office, ask Nathaniel to say a prayer, or just lie down and make a scene until they appeared—at the very least, she wanted to go somewhere filled with divine power and get this resolved.

Leona channeled ether throughout her body and quickly exited the alley, with Dex and Silion following behind her.

“Why are you two following me!”

“You looked like you needed help.”

“…Uh, everyone’s going, so should I go too?”

“Wheee!”

In response to her question, the three males—two men and one little boy—each answered.

Though he said that, Dex simply didn’t want to let go of something that could become Leona’s weakness.

‘You never know when it might come in handy.’

Silion, on the other hand, had no thoughts at all.

And the little brat was just thrilled to be riding in Leona’s arms, feeling the wind.

“Ugh—”

Just as Leona opened her mouth to tell them to just go, Dex, noticing, quickly threw out a question.

“I’ve been suspicious ever since you sent the bill to the Clanford Duchy at the blacksmith… but is that child really yours and Rigan’s?”

“Mine, my foot! I told you that’s not it!”

Leona jumped and vehemently denied Dex’s words.

How dare he say something so horrifying!

“Even by common sense, that doesn’t make sense, right? Normally, the first thing you’d think of would be Rigan’s cousin or nephew or something, wouldn’t it?”

Having experienced the angels’ and otherworldly gods’ antics firsthand, Leona was firmly convinced that Rigan had been de-aged. But an ordinary person would have thought of relatives first.

As Leona shouted loudly, Dex’s expression turned strange this time.

“…The Clanford Grand Duchy is famous for having few heirs. At present, the only surviving Clanfords are the Grand Duke and the Young Duke…”

Ordinary people might not know, but anyone with a foot in the Empire’s noble society would be aware of that fact.

“Oh, r-really?”

But Leona—who had never once attended a social gathering like tea time as a count’s daughter, having instead rolled around in training grounds and socialized through swordsmanship—was hearing this for the very first time.

‘Come to think of it, I don’t really know anything about that bastard Rigan, do I?’

Even after clashing with him for years, Leona knew very little about Rigan’s family background.

As Leona’s pace slowed while she was lost in thought, the child leaning against her chest lifted his head and tilted it.

The child soon tugged at Leona’s red hair and urged her on.

“Hee, Mama! Go fas!”

“Hey, this isn’t a game…!”

Whether Leona was troubled or not, the child kept shouting “Mama, hurry!” and giggling.

“You get along well with the child.”

“No, really! I’m telling you, I don’t know this kid!”

Leona hurried to continue before she got caught up in an even more horrific misunderstanding.

“T-There could be another woman in Rigan’s life, you know!”

In the end, Leona decided to throw Rigan’s chastity under the bus.

She had to—who would believe her if she suddenly claimed Rigan had been de-aged?

Even Leona herself would have dismissed it as nonsense if she hadn’t seen the ‘Infantilization’ option on the otherworldly gods’ roulette wheel last time.

‘But wasn’t that roulette supposed to end with that Omega business?! Ugh, this is so unfair!’

The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt.

No, she was more disappointed in herself for trusting the otherworldly gods and letting her guard down.

Leona bit her lip hard in frustration. She bit down so fiercely that her eyes started to water slightly.

Seeing that, Dex and Silion came to a tremendous misunderstanding.

“…I apologize. I didn’t mean to bring that up to hurt you.”

“I’m sorry!”

The two quickly apologized, having misinterpreted Leona’s frustrated expression.

Suddenly turned into ‘a woman who just discovered her beloved man had a child with another woman,’ Leona roared.

“Ugh, I’m telling you, that’s not it!”