DYTDWSY - Chapter 4

Do Parents Choose Their Children? Then Why Can’t Children Choose Their Parents? Children Can Choose Their Parents, Too

— Having been shown, with the permission of the Creator God, a vision in which the Spirit King and the higher spirits displayed to me how, in just one month because of the country and those people, neighboring nations would invade and the Lionhead Kingdom would meet an irretrievable, tragic end... I was filled with deep regret. Because I learned that the death I had wished for would be utterly wasted.

The higher spirits of Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Darkness, and Light. Sable-sama. How should I have acted? How should I have lived my life? Please tell me the answer...?

And then, before I knew it, I found myself back in my childhood, living at the country residence, the time before I was chosen as the Saintess and before my mother died.

It turned out that clairvoyance was something the Spirit Kings and the higher spirits used when they blessed and protected their beloved child: around when the child begins to become aware, at about three years old, they show how that power might be used in the future, whether it would be used compassionately to help others, or selfishly with malice for personal gain, to judge the child’s temperament and heart.

Indeed, there were those who would use the spirits’ blessings and favors for wicked, selfish ends. Those people were given no power at all; their memories of the future-vision were taken away so they could live an ordinary, mundane life.

But apparently I was recognized as someone who would use that power rightly; the Spirit Kings saw in me a kindness that made me hurt at others’ words and actions, and so they were satisfied.

They granted my request: they gave me their blessing and favor but taught me how to suppress that power and how to hide my hair color, eye color, and divine power.

So before meeting my father again, I changed my hair to a reddish color and my eyes to sky blue. I told Trianta and Habana that my hair had “sun-bleached” as I’d grown. For my eye color I feigned that they’d simply been mistaken.

Next: the matter of my mother’s death when I was seven.

Thanks to the fairies’ intelligence-gathering, I discovered that my father and stepmother and my half-sister had plotted to make her death look like an accident, but the fairies had been protecting my mother when she was with me. Ultimately it turned out that they had bribed maids and doctors and poisoned my mother, making her postpartum recovery look poor and turning her death into murder.

To prevent such a fate, I guarded against doctors’ medicines, drinks from servants I couldn’t trust, or anything in the kitchen unless the fairies had confirmed it. I also fed my mother herbs and berries that would strengthen her. As a result she became much healthier than in the future-vision.

Once I confirmed she had recovered enough to endure long travel, we went to my grandfather’s estate under the pretext of convalescence, to distance ourselves from my father and stepmother.

When my grandfather — surprised at how the marquisate had become — asked, I said, “Father will see to things,” and insisted that I wished only for Grandfather and Mother to be healthy. Grandfather consented to let us stay in the domain.

At the ten-year temple ceremony, because I had learned how to conceal divine power, I dodged my stepsister’s impatient shove and touched the crystal lightly, so I was judged to have only ordinary magical power. Thanks to that, I was neither chosen as a Saintess nor selected as the Crown Prince’s fiancée.

Instead, a duke’s daughter with abundant magical power became the fiancée candidate.

Huh? Not my stepsister, then. Different from the future-vision. Oh well.

After the ritual, although in the future-vision I’d been embarrassed by my ceremonial attire and distracted trying to placate the fairies, this time I took the opportunity to speak to the duke. It seemed he, too, had taken note of me; after the rite finished and I slipped away, his contracted fairy guided me to a quiet place where the duke awaited.

“Please permit me to greet you first. As your niece, may I be allowed to address you? It’s been so long, my lord.”

“Lilac, it’s been a while. I’ve received messages through the gardener. I’ve been worried about how the marchioness and you have been treated. I even disguised myself as a gardener’s apprentice and observed once. You’ve grown into a fine lady.”

“You couldn’t be deceived by the fairy-magic that hides my hair and eye color, Uncle.”

“The fairy magic over your hair and eye color, and your ability — I could tell. There must be a reason for it.”

I asked Sable-sama whether the duke could be trusted, and when Sable confirmed, I briefly related the vision — perhaps unbelievable, but a part of what I had seen — and explained how I wanted to act going forward. The duke agreed to help.

“I see. So that explains why the fairy contracted to you behaved oddly. And it’s well-known among those who contract fairies that fairies and spirits sometimes reveal future things. I believe your tale,” he said.

Through him and my grandfather, we contacted the Empire regarding the multigenerational treaty that had been used to bind the marriage. We persuaded the imperial court, arguing:

‘Two generations have passed since the peace was established; there’s no reason to force marriage ties between the current imperial family and the kingdom’s royal family any longer. The imperial side has permitted love matches in their own ranks for two generations — why not allow the same freedom?’

The current Emperor of the Empire, Lord Linerlander, appeared to be very tolerant. He sent a message saying he looked forward to meeting my mother and in a sense, me, soon.

By those connections, my grandfather was sent early to the Empire for medical care, because the Empire’s medicine and pharmacology were more advanced. A few trusted servants who cared for my grandfather in the marquisate, and Havana the maid — who might need to stay in the Empire as she had no family and was ready to die there if necessary — accompanied him.

Although in the vision, Havana had been dismissed, in this life she was not. Given the trouble she might face from my stepmother and step-sister, she went with Grandfather. The servants who accompanied him were trustworthy: many were old, widowed, or single, and didn’t mind settling in the Empire.

I assured Havana not to worry: the butler, the steward, the cook, and the gardener would remain, and of course the dukes and fairies would watch over us. The Emperor of the Empire promised to take good care of Grandfather and the servants on arrival.

Then, when I turned twelve, I promptly fled from the mansion and escaped to my mother’s homeland — the neighboring Empire where women receive better treatment.

That was because, in the kingdom, when you turn twelve you gain the right to choose your parents.

After being forced to see future-visions, to avoid the worst possible outcome I had the fairies hide my appearance and had them alter my looks so I would be mistaken for another person; I even disguised myself as a maid or lady-in-waiting. My apprenticeship as a maid from the future-vision paid off: I frequented out-of-the-way rooms in the marquis' house and the Royal Library under the pretext of studying noble etiquette, and also researched the language of my mother’s home country and, especially, its laws.

In short, whether commoner or noble, there are children abused by parents or guardians or treated like slaves. At some point a past king, troubled by this, decreed that from the age when a child can judge their own situation — twelve years old — they gain the right to select another guardian and run away.

Of course, one needs minimum proof of abuse, such as a doctor’s diagnosis, and testimonies from servants to consider false accusations. The chosen guardian must agree to take the child and be at least a distant relative or have some blood relation.

Importantly, neither the birth parents nor current guardians’ consent is required. Using this law as leverage, in this life my mother and I proved the neglect, abuse, and near-violent mistreatment we’d suffered at the hands of my father, his mistress, and that mistress’s daughter to my grandfather and to Check Frosty, the house steward who was skilled and also a lawyer.

Yes. They did the same as before. Before the ten-year temple ceremony, when Mother and I returned from the domain, we’d worked to prevent taxes from increasing and to keep half the household staff employed so we could live in the country residence. But servants my step-sister had hired, and my step-sister herself, came by and subjected us to violence and tampered with our food.

The cook Tan scolded them harshly when he found out and told them not to waste food.

Although Mother and Father caused considerable trouble, with Duke Befaren Silverfox and Check Frosty mediating, we were able to carry out a unilateral separation; my name was removed from the marquis rolls.

For the time being, my new guardian would be my mother, and she had the backing of the Emperor of the Empire and the dukes — my true father (by blood) among them — so I became their adopted daughter. Of course, as my new mother’s betrothed, the Empire’s Duke Belgianehr Argentblanc (the young duke formerly known in my memories as Jean Blanc) applied on our behalf, and we succeeded in changing the future.

---

And now a story I heard from my grandfather and the fairies.

Yes: Mother truly was the daughter of Princess Saten SilverMartin — the former Emperor’s sister — and my grandfather, Sir Fajilopp Brande, a younger son of the Brande ducal family who had been a knight. Before Mother was born, there had been a period when the Empire and the Kingdom, over trifling matters, had clashed and slid into small-scale war.

My grandfather, as a second son and a knight, had no guaranteed title to inherit, so he’d gone to war as a low-ranking knight and had been gravely wounded.

My grandmother — the imperial princess and the former Emperor’s sister — had a heavy heart whenever her country’s soldiers and beloved people were injured. Though a princess, she had been tomboyish since childhood and, disguising her rank, had joined a makeshift medical unit and helped with nursing. It was there she met my grandfather, who had been mistaken for one of the Empire’s low-ranking soldiers due to his humble armor.

As they earnestly nursed the injured, they fell in love. When it became known they were from opposing nations, they were forced apart. Yet their love helped to bring about an end to the prolonged war; pleas from exhausted medics and my grandmother to stop wasting soldiers’ lives had helped push peace forward. A few months after they were separated, the war concluded.

After my grandfather returned home, my grandmother learned she was with child. They agreed that, whether boy or girl, they would name the child Cinnamon.

After the peace, as recognition of his service, the Brande ducal family allowed my grandfather, the duke’s younger son, to take the Polish marquisate as his own.

Furthermore, as a sign of the peace treaty and to strengthen the alliance, my grandmother — the imperial princess — was married off to the kingdom in a state that was, in effect, almost like a hostage. Since the Lionhead King already had a principal queen and consorts and the Crown Prince was already married with a proper wife in place, marrying a princess would look like looking down on the Empire. Therefore, though her rank fell by marrying into a marquis house, the Brande family’s younger son — my grandfather — was chosen.

My grandmother gladly married my grandfather, but after the formal marriage and wedding, an early childbirth caused suspicion regarding their union.

However, because my grandfather became the rightful successor and because the imperial princess had married into a marquis family, my mother Cinnamon (Shinamon) was recognized as one of the few female marquesses acceptable in the post-war order.

To strengthen ties further, and because the treaty had required some linkage between the royal houses and imperial houses, there was once consideration that my mother might be engaged to the Crown Prince Jerseywooly Lionhead. But because my mother had been rumored to be illegitimate and the Crown Prince had already fallen in love at first sight with the green-haired, green-eyed Lady Harlequin — who soon became his betrothed — the Crown Prince refused the match. High-ranking nobles who might have married into the marquisate also declined, and with so many of the eligible high nobles choosing other alliances, it was decided that my mother should be forcibly married to a baron — the man who would become my legal father — as a political marriage.

At first Grandfather strongly objected, but after my grandmother died suddenly of a rampant illness and Grandfather’s health declined from grief, the marriage was forced through in the ensuing turmoil.

However, my mother had already met and fallen in love with the man who would become my true father: the imperial duke’s heir, Belgianehr Argentblanc, who had been studying in the kingdom incognito and called himself Jean Blanc at the time.

Yet when the duke’s father fell ill and summoned his son back, Jean Blanc had to return to the Empire. He promised, “When things settle down, I will come back for you! If it’s a boy or a girl we’ll name them Lilac either way!” But after that his whereabouts were lost. Letters between them were intercepted by hostile factions among the Brande and Polish marquisate and jealous elements, so contact was severed.

My mother, already carrying me, believed she had to secure some semblance of legitimacy. Thinking it better to at least have a proper wedding night than raise a child without a father, she married my legal father quickly. She even staged it so that people would think she’d been made drunk and forced into a one-night affair, and, with my father and his mistress not coming near the country house, she managed to conceal the pregnancy until the birth month to avoid suspicion.

But in the vision, my mother had been plotted against by my legal father and the mistress to make her death appear as an accident, and if she had survived, later they would have poisoned her to make it look like she died of a disease.

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