The air froze the instant my words left my lips.
His arms were still wrapped around me, unyielding and warm, but my careless slip had struck like a blade. Slowly, with a stiffness I had never expected from him, Alaric Dorian Lioran drew back just enough to look into my face.
"You… don't recognize me?" His voice was a low, fractured thing — the voice of a man who could command an empire, yet trembled at the thought of losing his daughter.
Inside, I cursed myself. Of course I know who you are. You're Alaric Dorian Lioran — Duke Lioran. The man who controls more than half of the empire's economy. The man even the royal family treats with caution. The father who doted on his daughter because she had no mother. My father.
But I had already blurted it out: Umm… who are you?
What a fool.
The duke's stern brows drew together, but instead of anger, his large hand rose to cradle my cheek, careful as though I were made of porcelain. "Are you in pain? Does your body still hurt?"
The gentleness in his tone unsettled me. This was not the man the world feared — this was the father who had raised his daughter like the sun rose and set with her smile.
"I-I'm fine," I stammered quickly, forcing a small laugh. "Just… startled."
His gaze lingered, heavy and searching, before he exhaled and allowed some of the tension in his shoulders to ease. "When you collapsed, I thought the worst. Don't ever do that to me again."
The words were sharp, but beneath them was nothing but devotion.
And in that moment, the memories from the novel struck me like a knife.
In that story, Alaric had loved Seleria too much. He had defended her when no one else would. He had stood for Seleria against nobles, courtiers, even the crown itself. He had refused to abandon her, no matter how much pressure bore down on him. And for that loyalty, for that unshakable devotion, he had been condemned alongside her.
They had been executed together, father and daughter, on the same scaffold. Their blood had soaked the same stage. Their screams had ended in the same silence.
And with their deaths, the mighty House Lioran, once untouchable, collapsed into ruin.
My throat tightened painfully.
I had pitied you once, when I read those words on the page. But seeing you now, hearing you call me "daughter" with such trembling devotion… I can't let that ending happen again. I won't.
He pulled me into his embrace once more, this time fiercer, as though vowing to shield me from fate itself. "You are everything to me, Seleria," he murmured. "Do not forget that. Even if the world turns against you, I never will."
My breath caught. The very words that, in another life, condemned you both.
When at last he pulled away, he was once again Duke Lioran — tall, commanding, a man whose very footsteps carried authority. But in his eyes lingered that unshakable devotion.
At the doorway, he paused. "I have some matters to handle. Rest well."
The door shut behind him, leaving me in silence.
I pressed trembling fingers to my lips, my heart pounding in my chest.
In the novel, you had always stood for Seleria, Father. Even when the world turned against her, you never bent. You stood for her until the very end — and for that, you were executed with her. With your death, House Lioran fell.
My fists curled tightly in the sheets.
This time… I won't let you stand alone. This time, I'll protect you too.