Chapter 129 – Reverberations of Autumn.

Lyudmila called Philip in a trembling voice, but there was no response from him. She just closed her eyes and remained still, on her knees to Aeolus. She couldn’t comprehend what had happened, but she sensed from their appearance and mood that her father had made a great mistake. She wanted to grab her father and ask what he had done, but she realized that wasn’t her answer.

“Aeolos-sama, my father. What did my father do wrong?”

It seemed like he was trying hard to put up with it, but the bite and trembling felt in his youthful voice were not something that could easily be hidden.

“Check it out for yourself.”

Rather than explain his sins one by one, Aeolus handed her a document documenting them one by one. It wouldn’t be difficult for her to read that list if she had learned from her father’s work from time to time. Lyudmila’s only hand, as she received her papers from him, trembled a little with difficulty, but she nevertheless did not take her eyes off them. She just looked at each of her letters as if to carve them into herself. When she finally turned over the last paper, she had tears in her eyes.

“What is this? What is it! Say something!”

Lyudmila clenched her teeth and shouted. Soon after, she gasps and swallows a rough breath.

“Is money really that important?”
“Okay.”
“You knew that normal people were sold into slavery?”

In fact, he didn’t do anything himself, but that didn’t make her not his fault. He was able to take a fairly high position with the help of Aeolus, and he almost held onto the commercial district in this area. If he said that he was not involved in such things, he was even more unbelievable. If he had tried to stop it, he would have been able to stop it long ago. If he had acted a little tougher, he could have eradicated such a thing in this area. But he didn’t.

He bought and acquiesced to other merchants illegally importing goods even though he knew that he could make more money if he closed his eyes a little. It was not unusual for those who knew that to engage in illegal activities to earn more money. As a result, objects of unknown origin roamed the territory, and the survivors who barely survived from the monsters lived as slaves.

It all happened because I just closed my eyes.

“…Ludmilla, the world is not as beautiful as you think.”
“Dad made that!”

She glared at her with eyes that looked like they would shed tears at any moment, but she didn’t shed a tear at all, so she returned the papers she was holding to Aeolus.

“Sorry for the fuss. Ugh, can I go back?”
“That’s right.”

He listened to Lyudmila, who was trying to swallow her tears.

“I’ll never, never live like my dad.”

At her words as she mumbled as she went outside.

“I’m glad.”

Philip’s words of reply did not reach him. After Lyudmila went outside, Aeolus opened his mouth.

“Are you sure your daughter is okay? Now keep your promise. Why did you do that, Phillip?”
“I see. Why did this happen?”

Philip couldn’t hold back the laughter that flowed out of his blood as if he was crying or laughing.

“…Do you remember how my wife died? Aeolus?”
“She’s your wife. She was said to have died of an incurable disease.”

She couldn’t find the right cure, so she was just suffering, and she remembered that she died, leaving her young daughter behind after barely surviving with all kinds of medicines.

“It was not an incurable disease.”
“What?”
“There was a cure. I heard that it was endemic in a distant country.”

Still, the news that the cure was in Lantua gave him hope.

“If, of course, the other guilds didn’t have the cure.”

It didn’t matter until then. No matter how much he asked for or what kind of unfair contract he asked for, he didn’t care as long as he could save his wife. But the problem was the guild itself that had the cure. He didn’t know then. What a pointless struggle he was. Even at that time, he was not to the extent of holding the commercial power in this area. Even if he helped Aeolus, growing as a top tier was another thing.

The guild was one of the largest guilds at the time until he took control of the business. I had to pay a lot to get a cure from them. From small contracts to big deals. But they continued to delay giving the cure. His wife’s condition was getting worse, and by the time he was getting more and more anxious. I found out belatedly that they had a grudge against me, not a grudge.

They were feeling a sense of crisis that their profits were dwindling as his top tier grew bigger and bigger. Then, by chance, he realized that his wife was suffering from an endemic disease in another country, and she obtained the cure faster than anyone else. Then, he deliberately delayed giving the cure until his wife’s condition worsened. They had no intention of giving him a cure in the first place. As it is, he thought that if his wife died, his company would lose momentum and disappear.

Upon learning of this, he hired assassins. If they didn’t intend to give the cure, they should have taken it away. It was a cure that was barely obtained at such a high price. He thought he might be able to save his wife. But he couldn’t save his wife in the end. Even before he injected the cure, his wife couldn’t overcome the disease. All he was left with was his daughter, exhausted from crying beside her cold wife, a cure that no longer had any value, and himself who had fallen into binge.

The cure shattered in his hand.

“Heath, did you know?”

After the story, Aeolus asked Heath as he entered the office. Philip had already been taken to prison on his orders. I know that there are pitiful circumstances, but that doesn’t mean that what he has done has gone away.

“No. My brother always tried to figure things out on his own, and he never confided his troubles to anyone.”
“…Seems like blood can’t be faked in that respect.”

He muttered and looked at the paperwork. It is true that Philip condoned the circulation of illegal goods, but was it because of his remaining conscience that he did not do it himself? Or was it because of his ego? That was unknown.

“Are you the child’s guardian?”
“Yes, I’d like your permission.”
“You don’t even have to ask for my permission. Let’s do it.”

About half of his fortune will be recovered for breaking the law, but Heath will manage the other half until the child grows up.

“Ryuda. Get some rest. I’m going to collapse if I do this.”
“Because it’s fine.”

Three days have already passed since then. At first, Ludmila couldn’t hide her melancholy, then grabbed his pen and started studying. He said he wouldn’t even want to do it if it wasn’t at home. Usher was a paperwork full of difficult words that made his head dizzy just by looking at it.

“Because it doesn’t sound good.”

He scratched his head when he saw Lyudmila, who couldn’t let go of the pen and paper. Usher also heard the news from Mediah. It wasn’t even a fuss because the things her father had been doing up until now were revealed. She says she has little direct involvement, so while she may be forgiven, she will not be able to avoid punishment. But the biggest problem was Lyudmila herself. It’s been that way ever since that happened.

If she didn’t take care of her meals, she skipped them, and unless she had to go to the bathroom, she wouldn’t get up and sit in front of her desk. Seeing the dark under her eyes, I wondered if she was sleeping properly. Because of her diminutive body, she felt like she would collapse at any moment. It was at a time when everyone was growing their worries. Didn’t the girl who had been watching Lyudmila get up and approach her, and then grab her hand, which was still holding her pen?

“Sss! Wait! What is this doing!”
“I need to rest now.”
“But I…!”

Lyudmila tried to shake off the hand that was holding her, but her Belka hugged her first.

“It’s not your fault.”
“But…, But!”
“You don’t have to pretend to be strong. You don’t have to force yourself to say it’s okay. You can cry if you want to cry. Crying is neither embarrassing nor scary.”

Even if you cry here, no one will say anything. She blankly hugged her girl and met her eyes with them standing behind her Belka. As Usher and Medea nodded, Lyudmila finally burst into tears. Outside the window she looked out of the window, it was pouring rain. The sound of crying was buried in the sound of rain and quietly hovered around the room without leaking outside.