“I heard you got a letter saying that he’s coming back,” Viscount Perelman spoke indifferently. “Maybe he’ll be healthy, but if there’s any problem, please contact me.”

“Yes.”

I got a short letter from Erhan at dawn today.

It was said that he would come to the Duke’s Castle as soon as the route was established. I knew he was doing well through the letters sent by pigeons, but I’m still vaguely nervous thinking that I would have to confirm if he was dead or alive with my own two eyes.

“Don’t forget to check his health first.”

“Just leave this job to me. You know I’m capable of that.”

Viscount Perelman’s face, leaving for a long trip again, was not very good. After all, it has been 18 years already. It was obvious that he would be exhausted from the repeated failures.

“I really hope you find your daughter this time,” I said the same thing that I had already said a hundred times.

“When you come back, I’ll be working on a breakthrough paternity test method. I also bought new ingredients.”

“Dragon’s claw…, you bought something expensive.”

“Is it a waste?”

“You should have bought the wings of the dragon. Didn’t the heart come out for sale?”

“You know that the nails have the most mana.”

“Still, if you’ve already used someone else’s money, you should have spent it as much as you can thinking that the one who gave you was a very generous person.”

It wasn’t very nice advice to listen to, so I shut my mouth tight and didn’t answer at all. Diel was forced to hold back his laughter while listening to our conversation.

“Haven’t you reached adulthood this summer?”

“Yes.”

Viscount Perelman’s eyes became lonely. His daughter was also coming of age this summer.

When apprentices reach adulthood, they become full-time medical practitioners who can open a clinic or sign a contract to become personal doctors.

As to me, a commoner, there was no significance in reaching adulthood other than that, but in the case of aristocratic young ladies, it was a little different.

Perelman would have provided an extravagant debutante ball more than anyone else for his daughter.

“Lise.”

“Yes.”

“Since you’re the longest assistant that stayed under me… Would you like me to be your godfather?”

“What? There’s no need.” I shook my head instantly. “I’m a commoner so it’s okay for me not to have a godfather. Besides, I’m already making a good fortune with my current job.”

Viscount Perelman’s face showed slight regret, but he didn’t pursue the subject anymore because I do have a point.

I’m a person who knows my position in society very well.

No matter how much I lived like an aristocrat in the duchy, I was not a nobleman.

Under the laws of the Empire, I could not marry a nobleman or attend various banquets unless I made special contributions to the empire. Therefore, it was meaningless to pretend to be an aristocrat with such things as godfather and godmother.

A huge victory banquet was scheduled to be held in early summer for the crown prince’s return for perfectly sweeping the pirates.

The Duchess, Erhan, and even Viscount Perelman could all attend the banquet, but not me.

In order not to feel deprived in such a situation, I always had to condition myself to think that way.

“Very well.”

Viscount Perelman shrugged and muttered.

“I’d said it just in case. It’s just that I’m a little sorry to leave the whole paternity research to you.”

“It’s for me, too.” I coldly pointed out the truth. “You might’ve been forgetting it, but I’m looking for my parents too.”

“You could try looking for them harder.”

“I’m searching hard for them, too. I just don’t look around in person, but I meet everyone who comes. I’m also desperate.”

Viscount Perelman’s lips were slightly stiff.

Diel sensed a strange atmosphere and laughed lightly, but Viscount Perelman said, snorting.

“If I find my daughter, I’ll be very nice to her.”

With the intention of not losing, I also praised myself.

“If I find my parents, I will be really filial.”

“I’ll give her everything she wants and raise her more preciously than the princess.”

“If they say they need any money, I will give them all the salary that I have saved.”

“I won’t let her dirty her feet on the ground.”

“If they say that they want something, I will do it all.”

“Don’t regret it when you realize my coolness as a parent and ask this Perelman to be your godfather later.”

“You’ll feel betrayed when you see me do my best to find my biological parents. Then you’ll think it was a good thing you didn’t become my godfather.”

We looked at each other and poured out words, groaning with each other.

It was Diel who broke the silence.

“Well…”

Viscount Perelman and I looked at him fiercely.

“What?”

“What?”

Diel carefully opened the carriage door.

“We have arrived. We’ll only see you off this far.”

His face had a lot of relief that it was over.

***

It was a long journey, so we saw Perelman off until he was pretty far.

And since it’s been a long time since I came to town, Diel and I went to the cherry buffet that Esther recommended.

“Can I put this on Viscount Perelman’s name?”

“Of course.”

I said, pointing out the most expensive drink on the menu. Diel quickly ordered the same thing as me.

We had a conversation over a meal without much sophistication.

“Will Master Erhan come back once the route is re-opened soon? Wow, it’s been five years,” Diel mumbled.

“Right.”

“He must’ve grown quite big now, right? The predecessors and the madam are also tall.”

“Well. The last time I saw him, he was shorter than me.”

Memories are always glorified, and when I think of the depressed little boy back then, I feel sad again.

Come to think of it, I took care of a 13-year-old kid well, fed him every day, played with him, ran together, held his hands every night to put him to sleep…

‘I raised him. I did.’

He seemed pretty cute when the long eyelashes cast a shadow on his white cheeks. It was a little disappointing that I couldn’t see that anymore. I’m going to be a little sullen about his adult appearance.

The sun had already set when I came back to the castle after strolling with Diel.

I returned without thinking that I had to do the research tomorrow, but Esther was restless and immediately jumped.

“Miss!”

“What’s the problem?”

Esther, blinking her eyes, hurriedly answered my question.

“A man who lost his youngest daughter by the river 18 years ago came. He runs a butcher’s shop in the village of Rivello.”

The village of Rivello was not part of the Duke of Casseus but was located upstream of the river that flowed in front of our day care. There have been quite a few people like this so far, so I wasn’t really looking forward to it.

“He wants to have a paternity test.”

“Let’s have one.”

Still, I couldn’t help but have hope.

As Esther guided me, I went into the drawing room to meet the other person who must have been waiting for me nervously for hours today.

It was almost all gone, but he has the same brown hair and gray eyes, a middle-aged man was sitting with a basket of cherries.

“I’m Hans Smith.”

The middle-aged man, who simply said his name, stared at me and cried.

“18 years ago, my first child was bathing my youngest daughter in the stream…”

I looked at Hans quietly.

So far, many people have gone through paternity testing and have not passed even the first step.

“I was told that there was a girl in the Duke of Casseus looking for her biological parents.”

Hans pricked his nose with tears.

“My family really worked hard to find her… If you’re really our Mary…”

If I were his daughter, I would be Mary Smith, not Lise Estelle. Lise was the name of the day care teacher’s aunt, and Estelle was the last name of the day care director.

Like others, it was not a name given by my real parents as a natural inheritance.

I spoke calmly, “Let’s do the first step of the paternity test first.”

The first step was the hair test. It was a simple test that only needed to be put into the first stage reagent, and it was a way to see the degree of match of blood ties.

Usually four out of five people would go home right from here.

I put my hair and some brown hair that only existed under the crown of Hans in the first stage reagent brought by Diel carefully.

The darker the color, the higher the degree of kinship.

“Oh, oh my.” Esther, who was watching, exclaimed.

I was just staring, but I couldn’t help my heart beating fast without realizing it.

The reagent in the beaker containing the two hairs turned red.

It was a great match.

It was the color I only saw in books.