Chapter 31

The expression on Enria’s face hardened at Caldeon’s words.

She knew he harbored such suspicions, but hearing it directly immediately sparked irritation.

“No, I haven’t! How could I?!”

She hadn’t been pleased with the fact that he was doubting her on this point from the start.

When he misunderstood that Hayden was a child born from her with another man, without even listening to her, she was both angry and sad, wondering if his trust in her was really that shallow.

Of course, she could understand why he would have such a misunderstanding, as he firmly believed that a child could not be born between the two of them. But shouldn’t he have asked her for an accurate answer first, rather than being so certain?

Enria felt a fresh wave of disappointment toward Caldeon, who claimed her as his woman yet couldn’t trust her.

“Then whose child is Hayden?”

Caldeon asked, subtly furrowing his brow.

‘That’s obviously…’

Enria bit her lower lip, unable to speak about the child’s father because of Silri.

In this situation, anyone could tell Hayden was Caldeon’s child, but the absurd truth that a child could not be born between Caldeon and her stood in the way of that truth.

She thought it would be better if she could just proudly say he was his child, explaining the whole situation and confirming his paternity with him.

At that moment, the genetic test for paternity testing from her original world flashed through her mind—a method that could confirm paternity with just a strand of hair.

The thought made Enria cry out.

“Let’s do a paternity test!”

Caldeon’s eyes widened at Enria’s suggestion.

Paternity testing was something he had been about to propose to Enria, so he was quite taken aback that the words came from her first.

However, that lasted only a moment.

“Ah, maybe they don’t have such a thing here yet?”

Enria muttered to herself.

In the original story, there were no episodes involving such a device, so it naturally never appeared. And having lived here since being transmigrated, she hadn’t heard of such an object, so she worried again about what to do, thinking that perhaps there might be no way to confirm paternity like in her original world.

But Caldeon quickly dispelled Enria’s worries.

“There is.”

Enria looked at him with wide eyes at Caldeon’s words.

“That was what I was going to say, too.”

“…!”

“If you haven’t been intimate with another man besides me, Hayden must be my son.”

He continued, saying that although a God might have arbitrarily impregnated her to give birth to the child of prophecy, Hayden’s appearance and the dark magic he used could not be explained by that alone.

At that, Enria nodded vigorously and told him, “Let’s do it, right now. Because of Silri’s… no, Rahar’s Wind Spirit, I can’t talk about the child’s father, but I swear on God, on Hayden, and on you, that I have never spent the night with another man.”

At Enria’s determined words, Caldeon’s heart began to pound loudly.

Her words meant that there was neither another man whom the Enria he was supposed to kill had harbored feelings for, nor was there another father for Hayden.

It also meant the probability of Hayden being his child was high.

That alone made his heart feel like it would burst, but the sudden mention of Rahar’s Wind Spirit unexpectedly bothered him.

“Rahar’s Wind Spirit?”

“It’s a long story. And it’s not too late to talk about it after we know exactly who Hayden’s father is, so let’s skip it for now.”

Caldeon, who had been looking puzzled at Enria’s words, nodded once.

“So, how can we do the paternity test?”

Enria asked Caldeon, her eyes sparkling.

The paternity testing artifact was a tool that could quickly confirm the father by simply placing a hand on it.

Of course, the suspected father and the child being tested for paternity had to place their hands on the artifact together. Thus, when the child’s father was ambiguous, it was a hassle because several suspects had to take turns placing their hands on it.

But for Enria and Caldeon, there was no other object that could give them greater certainty.

“If both of you place your hands on it simultaneously and the artifact glows blue, it’s a match. If it glows red, it’s a mismatch,” Arsen, who had come to assist with the paternity test, explained.

Caldeon nodded and placed his hand on the artifact.

With Enria’s help, Hayden also placed his hand on the artifact, and the surroundings immediately fell silent.

After a moment, the transparent artifact slowly began to turn blue, eventually being completely soaked in a deep blue.

“B-Blue!”

The excited Arsen shouted, and Caldeon’s eyes widened so much they looked like they would pop out.

“He was really my child…?”

At the single sentence that escaped his lips, a dazzling light spread around Enria’s body before instantly vanishing.

Arsen quickly rushed out to notify Rahar and Roseanne, as Enria had requested before the test.

“Ah, Silri’s magic seems to have disappeared.”

Enria spoke, spreading her hands.

“Then I can finally say that Hayden is your child, Caldeon… Ah, it’s true. Caldeon, you’re Hayden’s father.”

Now that she could truly speak, Enria told Caldeon in a slightly excited voice.

Caldeon looked at Enria, then reached out and pulled her into a hug.

Suddenly embraced in Caldeon’s arms, Enria let out a strained gasp as Caldeon tightened his hold on her.

Hayden, trapped between them where she was holding him, also whimpered and squirmed as if he couldn’t breathe.

“Hay-Hayden… Hayden,” Enria said, worried about Hayden caught between them, and pushed Caldeon’s chest with her arm.

Caldeon loosened his tight embrace on her and let out a deep sigh.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? If you had told me from the start…”

“Did you give me time to talk? You were so certain he was another man’s child from the beginning.”

“…”

Just then, Roseanne and Rahar burst in, having opened the door without knocking.

As soon as they entered, they rejoiced, asking if Caldeon finally knew.

The three of them didn’t dare remind him that Silri’s magic had sealed their lips.

They knew that given Caldeon’s personality, if they mentioned it now, he would surely go find Silri and cause a scene.

“Anyway, I’m glad we can finally talk about it openly now,” Enria said.

Roseanne and Rahar both nodded in agreement.

“Exactly. It was so frustrating.”

“I’m telling you. I would have known right away, but Caldeon is so stupid…”

“What? You already knew?”

Caldeon frowned at Rahar, who chuckled awkwardly.

“I also suspected for a moment at first, but I completely dismissed the idea after Hayden was born. He’s practically your spitting image.”

As Rahar spoke while looking at Hayden, Caldeon’s gaze also turned to Hayden in Enria’s arms.

Indeed, Hayden looked very much like him.

Even if he hadn’t seen Hayden use dark magic right before his eyes, he thought he would have been able to suspect he was his child just by looking at those jet-black eyes.

‘Why didn’t I even suspect it until now?’

Caldeon frowned at his own stupidity.

It was probably because he had looked into various things when he wanted to bring Enria in as the Grand Duchess in the past.

At that time, he had been very disappointed by the reality that they couldn’t conceive a child, thinking that if Enria just had his child, he could put her on the Jupiter family register, just as his father had wanted to do.

He had no intention of just making her a mistress and putting only the child on the family register like his father, but having a child would allow them to ignore various obstacles to accepting the Saintess as the Grand Duchess.

Regardless, Caldeon felt his heart swell with emotion at the fact that the child he had so desired was truly his.

And then.

“Daddy, daddy.”

He realized that Hayden, who was cooing a word like that while looking at him, was saying ‘Daddy.’

“Ah.”

Caldeon’s eyes became moist.

He lamented the moments he had not understood that Hayden was calling him ‘Daddy’ and had dismissed it as unimportant babbling.

He also felt regret, thinking how frustrated the non-speaking child must have been when his own father didn’t understand him calling out to him.

When Caldeon spread his arms towards Hayden, Hayden reached out his arms to Caldeon as if he had been waiting.

Caldeon hugged Hayden tightly and rubbed his lips against his head, his eyes growing wetter.

Arsen, Rahar, and Roseanne were shocked and wide-eyed at seeing Caldeon on the verge of tears for the first time, and Enria’s eyes also grew moist like Caldeon’s.

“I’m sorry, Hayden. I’m truly a foolish father.”

Caldeon, who had whispered with his lips pressed to Hayden’s head, turned his wet eyes toward Enria.

Seeing Enria’s eyes were moist like his, Caldeon reached out his hand to her.

Enria took his hand and embraced him.

Caldeon tightly held Enria’s head, pressing his lips together to keep from crying, and Enria buried her face in his chest, sobbing softly.

Roseanne, watching them, silently motioned to Rahar to leave.

As they all quietly left the room, leaving only Caldeon, Enria, and Hayden, Enria finally let out the tears she had held back.

“Hnggg.”

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Enria.”

Caldeon gently stroked Enria’s head and whispered.

A large tear also plopped from his eye.

Hayden, nestled between them, looked up at the two with his large, black eyes.

After a moment, Hayden’s small lips moved, drawing a clear curve.

“Mommy, daddy.”

Enria and Caldeon looked at Hayden in surprise at the same time.