36.
Aiden could not readily answer that he would.
The depth of her longing to stay with him struck him with a force that threatened to tear his heart apart. Pushing aside his wretched, internal turmoil, he grasped for a practical excuse to maintain his distance.
“Tania, I am a mercenary. I cannot become a knight of a duchy.”
“……What if you could? What if I somehow made it possible for you to become my guard knight?”
Aiden watched her in silence.
He couldn’t fathom what was running through that small head of hers. Yet, she was a remarkably sharp child—one who had survived abandonment in a forest teeming with magical beasts. She had navigated the talent training institute on her own and even snatched the position of the Duke’s adopted child. She must have planned this.
In truth, how he would enter the duchy as a knight was not the real obstacle. The Papiope duchy prioritized raw skill over pedigree, and he was confident that no one could best him in swordsmanship.
Aiden’s true dilemma was whether he could truly remain by Tania’s side in the light of public scrutiny. Could he avoid being caught by ‘that person’?
“Haha……”
Aiden let out a hollow laugh.
He felt a searing resentment at the irony of his situation: he possessed the skill to carve ‘that person’ into pieces at any moment, yet he remained shackled by the inability to do so. He had only ever been desperate for a normal life with his daughter. Why was it so impossibly difficult?
“Tania, I am……”
*I cannot be with you.*
The words he could not bring himself to finish clung to his throat like abrasive sand.
At that moment, Tania buried her face in his neck and confessed in a trembling voice.
“Ajeossi, I am actually scared. I’m afraid my life will be threatened because of the succession battle. What if they send an assassin to kill me? What if they use an Abilitator to finish me off without anyone knowing?”
The succession battle. It was an unexpected variable that posed a lethal threat to her safety.
“……Can’t you protect me, Ajeossi?”
His head spun at the tearful plea.
Aiden’s resolve to keep his distance crumbled away like a sandcastle before the tide. What father could turn away from a daughter begging him to be her shield?
“……Fine.”
Aiden sank to his knees.
“If that is what you wish, I will always watch over your safety from the closest distance.”
Tania.
I will become your solid shield.
I will… I will protect you until my life ends.
✦ ✦ ✦
Seven years ago.
The evening was choked with a drizzling rain. Aiden had received an urgent telegram and rushed to a remote location.
Upon arriving, he found a familiar woman sitting quietly on an old bed, with only an elderly woman keeping watch. A dimly lit oil lamp cast long shadows over the woman’s exhausted face. Aiden’s pupils trembled; she looked as if she had died and been dragged back to life.
If she had chosen to leave, she should have at least built a life for herself—why was she in such a wretched state?
She, who had abandoned him without a word or explanation, offered no greeting, no inquiry into his well-being. She merely held out a bundle wrapped in white cloth, as if she had been waiting for this precise moment.
“Aiden, it’s our child.”
Only then did the reality of what she held take root in his mind. A storm of emotions surged through him; he had never once imagined that she might have been pregnant when she left. He didn’t ask why she had kept it from him. He knew the reason well enough.
“I only found out I was pregnant after I left you.”
“…….”
“At first, I didn’t intend to tell you. I just wanted you to forget me and live on.”
“Ha, then why reveal that it’s my child now?”
“It seems he… has noticed that it is your child.”
Aiden’s face contorted in agony. That was the very reason they had been forced to part.
“Now that it’s been discovered that it is your child, I cannot raise it. He will kill our child.”
The woman sobbed, the mere thought visibly horrifying her.
“I couldn’t even run away with the child. My face is known to the public; if he sets his mind to finding me, it would only be a matter of time before I’m caught.”
She pressed the infant into Aiden’s arms.
“So, Aiden, I entrust the child to you.”
He hesitated. Even though she carried his blood, he had learned of her existence only moments ago. Could he possibly love this child?
But in the end, he accepted her.
Perhaps it was the memory of his father’s final, severe warning: never to have children. His father had drilled that into him since he was young, leaving him both resentful and curious. His younger sibling was allowed, so why not him? He had discovered later that he was born to a different mother—a mother who was a powerful Abilitator. He understood then why his father had been so terrified. Yet, he still couldn’t forgive his father’s logic: if he feared for his children so much, why bring them into the world at all?
Aiden cradled the child in his trembling arms. She was sleeping soundly, unaware that the person holding her had changed. She was so small it was hard to believe she was a living human; only the faint, rhythmic movement of her heart confirmed it. Her face was swollen, wrinkled, and strange, as if she had only just entered the world.
But the moment he held her, the world shifted on its axis.
Other than the basic features of a human, she resembled him in no way, yet he knew instinctively: *She is mine.*
If she hadn’t been his, she wouldn’t have been birthed in such secrecy. A sudden, overwhelming conviction took hold of him—he would do anything for this child. It was an alien feeling, one that seemed impossible for someone who had been childless moments ago.
The woman watched, sobbing, despairing at the knowledge that she would never see her child again. She carried the heavy guilt of offloading the infant onto her former lover, knowing full well this choice meant condemning Aiden to a life on the run.
“……I’m sorry, Aiden.”
Aiden looked down at her with hollow, emotionless eyes. The moment she had left him, he had shuttered his heart. Sympathy for a stranger—regardless of their history—was a luxury he could no longer afford. When she handed him the child, it felt as though she had committed an unforgivable sin.
“The child’s name?”
“……I haven’t named her yet. Because I don’t think I have the right to.”
“I will name the child. You must forget the fact that you ever gave birth to her.”
“Aiden……”
“That is the path for the child’s sake.”
Having said that, Aiden turned his back and left without a backward glance, shielding the child protectively in his arms.
After that day, Aiden sacrificed everything to keep her safe. He abandoned the mercenary group he had built with his own hands and settled in a remote, forgotten village.
At first, it was brutal. The child would cry at the slightest provocation, and he could not tear his gaze away from her for a second. But eventually, Aiden found the happiest time of his life. He learned to smile through her, and he learned how to share love.
Only after three months did he name her ‘Tania,’ after a variant of the red geranium. The flower language of the red geranium is, ‘Because you are here, there is love.’
That deep, tethered affection, which he never would have known without her, became the axis upon which his entire world turned. His daughter had become the center of his life.