âThey look exactly the sameâ¦â¦â
Jeez.
I scratched my head when I saw a portrait of Cayden Crawford.
âThere is no doubt about it.â
The only difference between the two was only the hair. Cayden Crawford is Kirch with blond hair.
âYou canât lie with blood.â
Lord Patreonâs boast that I would recognize him by looking at his face only.
That wasnât a lie.
Since they look exactly the same.
Having checked Cayden Crawfordâs face myself, I weighed in on other possibilities.
âI heard that the third son of Crawford died early.â
Cedric was the only surviving of the three brothers of the Crawford family who went to war.
It was reasonable to suspect Cedric as the criminal who twisted the situation like this. Rather than the third son who I donât even know his name.
âHow come he himself is unaware about this fact?â
Does that make sense?
Cedric didnât even suspect that I was his biological child.
âThat makes me even more annoyed.â
In the end, the responsibility was entirely up to the woman.
Why would Camilla, a daughter of a prestigious duke, come all the way to the West and marry Count Crawford.
âItâs because of Adrian.â
Because she gave birth to an illegitimate child and was kicked out as a disgrace to the family.
Furthermore, Joanna, who was the only daughter of Duke Chester, must have been desperate alone to find out that she was pregnant with Selina.
I dared not fathom what it must have been like before she decided to marry Cayden Crawford in a hurry.
âI canât forgive you.â
Selinaâs tragic fate, it was Cedric who brought it upon her.
âºâºâºâ¼â»â»â»
âHave you checked everything, uncle?â
Cedric stared at me, contemplating like the criminal who ran into the police.
âI see that youâve done it.â
Smiling, I entered his study and closed the door. And I sat on a chair and looked around.
Just like his personality, his study was neat without any unnecessities.
âHow could I use a magic toolâ¦â¦ Did you leave it on purpose?â
âOf course. You canât put something like that carelessly.â
I was also the one who told William to open the door of my bedroom if Cedric came.
âYou must have had a lot of worries. I was wondering why you were so late because William just came and left.â
Cedric sighed a little.
I sat leaning against the sofa and watched his figure leisurely.
âUncle, you know what?â
ââ¦â¦â
âIâve taken poison once. Have you ever heard of a poison named Eternal Rest? Itâs quite expensive.â
ââ¦â¦â
âPenny collected some coins from my mother without using them, so I bought them with that money.â
Cedric gave no answer to my words, which made me continue to talk without difficulty.
âYou didnât know that I didnât get a single pocket money, did you?â
Cedric, who closed his mouth, slowly lowered his head.
âYou didnât even know why I took poison, did you?â
ââ¦â¦â
âThe woman you loved was pregnant with a childâ¦â¦ You didnât even know that, did you?â
His hand holding the kin reader trembled.
Standing up from my seat, I approached Cedric and lifted the magic tool as if taking it away.
âIt really showed two lines.â
Ha⦠really.
He was going to hide the result away if I hadnât come, wasnât he?
Judging from his reaction now, it seemed that way.
As I loosened my hand, the kin reader fell to the floor.
Clank!
The kin reader broke into pieces, but neither I nor Cedric cared.
âPenny managed to swapped the poison without me knowing that I managed to survive. But since then Iâve become a different person, Uncle.â
Cedric, who flinched at the word âpoisonâ, finally raised his head again.
âBecause I feel like I was living too beggarly.â
Now I was angry at the contradiction of him wearing the face of a sinner.
He knew Camilla was abusing me, but he only stood by on the sidelines.
Pretending not to know, deceiving himself, deceiving everyoneâ¦â¦ with such hypocrisy.
âSelina wouldnât have been like that if you had just acted as her real uncle.â
Cedric Crawford.
As I was immersed in reading about the heroine of , Cedric was the supporting character I hated the most.
âWhy didnât you let me rely on you? Why have you never supported me?â
ââ¦â¦â
âYou could have paid me a little attention. Then I wouldnât have even stuttered.â
If Cedric cared about me, Camilla wouldnât have been able to treat me so badly.
âDid you sit on the sidelines on purpose? Why?â
I twisted my lips in disgust at his cowardly self-defense, which chose silence.
âI really hate you, Uncle. As much as Mother.â
A shocking light flashed in his green eyes.
âDo you know why I hate you?â
I used to hate you because you were a bystander of abuse, but now I have a more definite reason than that.
âBecause you are such a hypocrite.â