Cinderella Wasn't Me

His mother, who had been frozen, shook his hand.

“My Lily has nothing to do with you! I told you she was another man’s daughter. If you touch that child, I’ll never forgive you!”

Her desperate cry showed an indescribable agitation.

Not understanding what was happening, I looked alternately at my mother and the man that had blocked my way.

Unlike me, he didn’t seem a bit surprised.

Like a winter lake, my mother, who cried out in cold blue eyes, came to me all of a sudden.

I felt pressure again to squeeze my whole body.

It’s a very bad day.

Immediately after being abandoned by my boyfriend, I was threatened by someone I don’t even know.

My mouth is dry and my heart is beating so fast that I feel like my whole body is trembling. The sun over his head became more deadly and I felt dizzy in front of my eyes.

I’m afraid of death more than this.

I didn’t avoid the man’s gaze, but I looked at him with all my strength. He’s so brazen for being violent in other people’s homes.

At that moment, the energy that had been falling on me diminished and the the man’s mouth stretched out satisfactorily.

What is it?

“If you’re going to insist it doesn’t really matter, you should have made him look more like you.”

I couldn’t understand the meaning, but the strange words shook my mother.

It was a pity that her body trembled as if it had been stabbed in the right direction.

What the hell are you talking about?

“The color of his hair, his face, even his character. There’s no doubt about it.”

“No! Lily has no relationship with you, and the Rihans.”

“No matter how much you deny it, it doesn’t make sense.”

Rihan? The Duke of Northern, Rihan?

It’s a name that everyone in the country knows even though it’s located in the land colder, far from the capital.

That’s what I heard.

To survive in the troubled lands, ordinary soldiers had to know how to deal with mana, and each knight was like a general manager, and the Duke at his peak was a powerful man who could be called a monster.

With their enormous strength, they participated in several wars and made contributions.

Rihan was the family with the most titles and honours in the Empire.

Perhaps because of this, they had the right to the throne even though their priorities were low and, unlike other nobles, they were called ‘His Majesty’ instead of ‘Your Excellency’.

It’s a big family, and there are rumors that the Emperor would keep it secretly at his feet.

But why does that name come up here?

Maybe I heard it wrong, as soon as I was about to turn on him, the man reached out and grabbed me by the shoulder.

It was not an abrupt gesture, but I was surprised and amazed by the following words.

“Terryl Winterglass is my daughter. I know that very well.”

“What?”

Daughter? Terryl Winterglass, then… whose daughter am I?

I was surprised as if boiling water had been poured into my head.

I can’t think straight.

Not understanding the true intent of those words, I turned to my mother.

Her complexion was as pale as her blood was drained.

I could tell by the expression on her face.

What I heard before was not just bullshit. Then truly, this man is my…

“No, wait. Wait a minute.”

No way. From what I heard from my mother. My confused mind started to move slowly.

The tracks I just heard were recombined.

“Lily has no relationship with you, and with the Rihans…”

“Terryl Winterglass is my daughter.”

I remembered the coat of arms of the carriage I had looked at.

I can’t believe I saw it somewhere.

“So you, you… you… you are…”

“His Majesty the Duke of Rihan, you are right.”

Danil Rontar, the man who introduced himself, answered.

“It’s very boring to know now.”

Pathetic, the parties also agreed.

And the words didn’t sound false.

The man in front of me, the one with the arrogant title of King of the North, was surprisingly calm.

Frankly, I was surprised to the point where my heart dropped, but I pretended to be calm.

“You mean you’re the Duke of Rihan, and you say you’re my father, so that’s why you came here?”

“I’m sorry, but it’s the truth, not a lie.”

“No, I was wrong. Because that could never happen.”

I could only say it.

The story of my biological father I heard from my mother came to mind.

I was surprised by the Duke of Rihan, a man who was smiling and disgusted at the same time, raising his eyebrows.

“My biological father was a beast, a man who was jealous that when another man approached his ex-girlfriend, my mother, he threw him off the balcony.”

“…what?”

“Too many excuses to ignore him, if he didn’t had bought her luxury items… She didn’t say anything until just before her engagement, but she unilaterally concealed the existence of the child.”

“….”

“It was a bastard, the lowest human being, who threw her away like a piece of garbage after she got pregnant and was used.”

I was just going to say a few words, but I got so nervous.

When I expressed my emotions, the Duke of Rihan’s face was blank.

It seemed that he was my biological father and had heard abusive language from his daughter, whom he met 20 years later.

“There’s nothing surprisingly wrong with the story.”

“Shut up, Danil.”

“And I heard he was dead.”

Come to think of it, I forgot the most important thing. Uh, I snuck it in.

If he’s not a con man or a madman, the Duke of Rihan’s eyebrow has been damaged.

“There’s a lot to correct, but we’ll do it later. If you’ve heard that, your mother can no longer deny it.”

“Then… are you admitting that it’s you?”

“I don’t know why I would deny it. Have you even looked at yourself in the mirror?”

The offended man tapped his finger.

Danil Rontar came over and gave me a hand mirror.

Why was he carrying a mirror? I was shocked, but unwittingly, I took the mirror and looked in. Of course I could see my face.

A woman with navy blue hair and silver grey eyes, cold face with eyes upright.

I didn’t lose all that teenage glow, so I frowned at the face it was still a child’s.

So, what about my face?

At that moment, he took the mirror away from me. I saw the Duke of Rihan again.

Dark blue hair and light eyes, but not silver. Cold expression with raised eyes…

I opened my mouth without realizing it.

The atmosphere was tense, but I wondered why he hadn’t noticed, as much as I was right in front of him.

It was a persuasion more powerful than a hundred words.

“Mother, really this person…”

“No, Lily! Your father is dead. That man is only like you.”

“Are you treating your daughter like a fool?”

“Rashed!”

“You finally call my name. I’m glad to hear that, but let’s postpone the meeting until later.”

When the Duke waved, the carriage door opened.

“Now that the game of hide-and-seek is over, it’s time to go home.”

Without giving him time to deal with it, he picked up my mother.

I tried to stop the duke, but my eyes couldn’t move even the buds of my fingers at once.

The strange inflexibility arose only when the Duke put my mother in the carriage.

A redheaded gentleman approached me when I was free. He said politely, bending his waist.

“How do you do, miss? My name is Andorra Greenel, and I’ll take you to the carriage.”

His words and deeds were polite, but he was really a threat.

My mother was already in the carriage, so I had to follow him.

I got into the second horse-drawn carriage with a rigid expression on my face.

“Where are we going?”

“The destination is Whitefall.”

Whitefall… The northernmost Duchy of Rihan in the Empire?

Are you out of your mind?

I opened my mouth hurriedly to protest, but as soon as the door of the carriage, the horse started running as if it was too late.

What’s going on, what the hell?

* * * * *

“Is it a dream?”

Outside the window, I could see a white, icy land.

Big, leafy trees and frozen lakes.

Amazing that it was summer, it was winter where I touched all the snow.

I was in the Dukedom of Rihan of Whitefall now.

It was a journey from the heart of the empire to the far north, but we arrived only four hours after getting into the carriage.

It was amazing that he used a portal or a magic passage.

I had no sense of reality.

“What was happening in the morning?”

After seeing the newspaper where it said that Jemon was engaged to another woman, I was just thrown out and abandoned by him.

Then my father, who didn’t even know I was alive, came and dragged me and my mother to Whitefall.

It happened in such a hurry, I hardly brought my handkerchief.

“Besides, he’s the Duke of Rihan.”

My father is the most powerful man I’ve ever heard of.

It was a scenario that could only come from a child’s dream.

Soon after I arrived, I heard what happened between my mother and the Duke, but the content was so new that it was harder to accept.

I sighed. The frost clung to my light breath.

At that moment, a light brown hair was caught in a corner of my vision.

The person who runs out of the castle crying and who follows her.

It was my mother and the Duke.

My head went cold in an instant, so I tried to kick the window of Immediate.

But this one was on the third floor.

The floor level was quite high.

I had no choice but to leave the room and go down the stairs.

In a moment of determination, the Duke, who finally caught up with my mother, hugged her from behind.

The anger was intense, and my mouth opened without my knowledge.

“Oh…!”

But my cry lost its power in the middle.

As soon as the Duke embraced him, my mother turned and slapped him on the cheek.

No, she hit him.

Although her personality is gentle, she is quite strong and I could hear the sound from here.

It wasn’t even just a punch.

“…uh.”

I heard the sound of my mother’s voice fading away, but the Duke didn’t even frown.

He continued to hug my mother with a gesture that seemed desperate, and her spirit gradually softened.

My mother, who stopped crying and screaming, rested her hands on the Duke’s cheeks.

Their faces are getting closer.

And I closed the window quietly.

I felt I saw something I shouldn’t have.

“I must have seen wrong.”

I opened the curtains tightly, speaking awkwardly as if I were reading a book.

But that night, I realized the tragic fact that I had not seen wrong.

My shy, smiling mother and the Duke of Rihan, the murdering devil, have admitted that everything I’ve seen and heard is true.

Terryl Winterglass turned overnight in Terryl Rihan.