I Wish My Husband Were Dead - Chapter 56



Only Krnovel

Father’s Daughter
2023.12.26.

When she couldn’t answer and trembled, Pablo became even more aggressive.

“You shouldn’t have taught me to read from the beginning. Isn’t it because your mother did something useless that you’re so foolish? Huh, a wizard? What’s so arrogant about that little magic?”

“Stop mentioning your mother. Who was it that squandered all the money your mother brought when she got married and threw Vasquez into the mud?”

“You dare put Vasquez in your mouth? You worthless woman!”

His two eyes glowed red even in the darkness. He raised his hand high. Cordelia shut her eyes tightly.

“Yebo Delim has many eyes. Elector Vasquez.”

“Ahem.”

“Especially at the Saracen banquet.”

Leonard grabbed Vasquez’s wrist tightly. Vasquez recognized him, coughed, and turned around. Cordelia barely managed to catch her ragged breath.

Leonard let go of Vasquez’s wrist and said,

“Is this the first time you’ve seen my face? Say hello. My name is Leonard Artilei.”

“Oh, yes. Artilei. Pablo Vasquez.”

Pablo held out his hand. Leonard just stared at his hand and didn’t take it. It was a bit rude, so Pablo frowned and put his hand back.

“I don’t remember you coming to Yevo Delim very often.”

“I hate crowded places like the capital.”

“I guess so. Vasquez is the only one who doesn’t even have a townhouse in the capital.” Vasquez

’s face twisted as if his words sounded like an insult. However, he couldn’t immediately express his anger like he did with Cordelia.

Pablo tried his best to suppress his voice and said,

“I’m talking to my daughter, so could you please step aside? “ I have a lot to talk about since I haven’t seen my daughter in a long time.”

“Elector Vasquez slaps his daughter when he talks to her. It seems like it’s more than once or twice. What a bad habit.”

“It’s better than letting her be.”

Vasquez snapped at Cordelia. His eyes were filled with contempt that couldn’t be hidden.

“I don’t know why you took such an insolent person as your disciple, but you’ll regret it, Attila. If you don’t respect your own father, how can you respect your teacher?”

“Father, please!”

“Be quiet. You don’t know what to do or not to do.”

“Elector Vasquez.”

Leonard spoke in a very low, dark voice. His tone was rough, like an anchor scraping the bottom of the deep sea.

“You think magic is a virtue, but it’s a very important value to me. And Cordelia is my one and only disciple who will inherit all of that.”

“Ahem.”

“So, how about we go back now so that I don’t have to campaign to Elector Vasquez, whom I met for the first time today?”

Leonard’s first thought when he saw Cordelia’s swollen cheeks was an unbearable murderous intent. He

hadn’t been more angry than this when he saw Cordelia with her head down and pouring wine on her at Abrams.

Nevertheless, the reason he held back his anger like this was because he was Cordelia’s biological father.

“I just happened to think of something to do, so I guess I should go now.”

Pablo noticed the cold anger in Leonard’s expression and tone and left the place with an excuse.

A long, heavy silence flowed in the space where only the two were left. Leonard walked in front of Cordelia.

He grabbed her chin and lifted it up. Her cheek, with its obvious handprint, was so swollen that it looked like she had been hit.

“You forgot about teaching me the shield magic again.”

“That’s right. I forgot.”

Cordelia forced a smile, pretending that nothing had happened.

He ran his thumb down her cheek. The swelling had subsided considerably with the brief light, but the wound had not completely disappeared.

She muttered as she looked at the space her father had left.

“I told you to stop smearing your face and go back to Abrams.”

“Really?”

“I told you clearly. I’m Attila’s only disciple. I, I thought you would acknowledge me even if you didn’t think much of me as your master’s disciple. I, I…”

Anger, frustration, sadness, misery.

All of it was mixed together, and even she herself couldn’t tell what it was. A waterfall of indefinable emotions washed over Cordelia.

“What am I to you, father?”

If you were going to be like this, why did you give birth to me? If you were going to despise, ignore, and hate me like this, why did you give birth to me?

Cordelia screamed incoherently. She

hadn’t shed a single tear in front of her father, but tears came out so easily when she faced Leonard.

Cordelia covered her eyes with her sleeve and tried to stop her tears, but it was no use.

Leonard raised his hand and cupped her wet cheek. Just seeing her cry made his chest ache.

“What should I do?”

“Sob.”

“Should I cut off each hand that hit you?”

“… … Black. S, Master.”

“Just say one word. Or just nod.”

He whispered sweetly, as if he had sugar on his lips. It seemed as if he would run over and cut off her father’s wrists and hand them to her.

Should he nod?

Should he tell her to kill her father who sold her to hell?

Cordelia’s eyes were clouded with tears. She held onto his clothes tightly and buried her face in his chest.

“… … I want to go home.”

Although they had only been there for a few days, Cordelia’s home was not Vasquez or Abrams Castle, but Atilei’s townhouse.

He took a short breath. Then he held her shoulder tightly and said,

“Okay. Let’s go.”

She was more important than his anger toward Vasquez. Leonard managed to suppress his anger with difficulty.

“Ouch!”

Cordelia stumbled after walking a few steps. If Leonard hadn’t been holding her shoulder, she would have collapsed.

“What’s wrong?”

“I think I sprained my ankle.”

A sharp pain shot up from the tip of her foot. She limped with her injured foot up. Leonard bit his lip briefly at the sight.

The fact that Cordelia, who had been dancing just fine, had hurt her ankle meant that it was her father’s doing. The murderous intent that he

had barely held back surged back up. He wanted to run over and brutally crush that man’s ankle right now.

But instead of expressing his anger, he knelt before Cordelia.

“Master!”

“Put your foot out.”

Cordelia shouted in surprise, but Leonard could neither see nor hear anything.

She hesitated and then carefully extended her injured foot. Leonard grabbed her ankle. The sprained area was hot, perhaps because it was hot.

“Ugh!”

“Magic isn’t omnipotent. If you receive healing magic this often, your body’s own healing power decreases.”

“… … Yes.”

The pain in her ankle also subsided significantly with a brief flash of light. However, like her cheek, it wasn’t completely healed.

Still, she was able to walk much better than before, so Cordelia limped forward with his support.

Leonard let out a short sigh and lifted her up easily.

“No.”

“Master! What if someone sees?”

“Do you care about that right now?”

“Please let me down. I’ll just walk. I can walk.”

“Be quiet.”

As she stepped out of the garden, people’s eyes were fixed on her as she had feared. Cordelia didn’t have the courage to open her eyes, so she buried her face in his arms and pretended to faint.

At that moment, she heard light footsteps and Lydia’s voice.

“Leo! I’ve been looking for you for so long… … , Cordelia?”

“Let’s talk later.”

“What the hell is going on? Did Cordelia collapse? Where does it hurt? Call the doctor right now… … .”

“Lydia Elfenbaum. Can’t you hear me telling you to talk later?”

His voice was too cold and sharp for Cordelia to hear. And Lydia seemed to sense it too.

Lydia’s voice suddenly became quiet.

“… … Sorry. I’m just worried about Cordelia.”

“Get out

of the way.” Without any explanation, he passed Lydia and headed for the main gate. Many people were surprised to see Leonard carrying Cordelia, but he didn’t care at all.

The servant standing near the main gate recognized his face and quickly called for Atile’s carriage.

Cordelia was finally able to open her eyes after getting into the carriage. Leonard, sitting across from her, suddenly asked, “Do you

do that often?”

“Yes? What?”

“Your father. Did he often touch you?”

“… … .”

Cordelia’s face darkened. She struggled to figure out what to say before finally opening her mouth.

“It wasn’t like that from the beginning. But after my mother passed away, the family fell into a predicament. My father started drinking then.”

At first, he had simply been scolding her more. Then, the scolding became sharper and more difficult for young Cordelia to handle, soon turning into verbal abuse and eventually raising her hand.

“I thought it was because my father was having a hard time because my mother had passed away so soon. I thought that if I did better and worked harder, things would change.”

“I thought so?”

“I guess I was mistaken. My father drank more and more and the reasons he beat me became more varied.”

Because I was a useless woman, because I resembled my mother, because I was an eyesore, because I was in a bad mood, because there were dark clouds in the sky.

Cordelia smiled self-deprecatingly and put her hand on her still slightly swollen cheek. The burning sensation still lingered.

“Maybe it was because I was trained by my father that I was able to endure such humiliation at Abrams.”

A sudden realization flashed through Leonard’s mind.

The humiliation she had endured at Abrams was hard to imagine, but Cordelia had endured it so familiarly.

At the time, he had thought he was just enduring it like an idiot, but he had already endured it because it was something he had already endured at his father’s hands.

“You… … .”

“Yes?”

“No. It’s nothing.”

He clenched his inner molars hard. He couldn’t be sure what would come out if he opened his mouth now.