Hansel’s Enchanted Fairytale: Fill Me Up With Magic! - Chapter 95
Afterward, what Hansel could return to Dante would be decided gradually, starting with receiving an apology.
Even Dante seemed slightly surprised this time. His eyes widened as he gazed at Hansel.
Margaret, however, appeared far more shocked than Dante. Her trembling eyes, as if wounded, made Hansel almost scoff.
Dante, who had been silently staring at Hansel, glanced once at Margaret before returning his gaze to her.
Then he spoke her name.
“Hansel.”
“No!”
Dante’s calm call and Margaret’s sharp exclamation rang out simultaneously. In an instant, Margaret kicked her chair back and lunged at Hansel, pulling her into an embrace. She clutched Hansel’s head as though to block her ears, her entire body shaking like an aspen tree.
“I won’t forgive you, Herodt. How dare you, my daughter…!”
“Let go of me!”
Hansel forcefully pushed Margaret away. Margaret’s pupils widened in shock, as though she had not anticipated such resistance.
Hansel looked down at her mother, now sitting on the floor.
“No magic can harm me. Not even from this man—the strongest under the heavens. Dante is no exception. The one person he cannot kill in this entire world is me. Only me.”
Her voice trembled faintly as she forced the words through her clenched teeth. Hansel couldn’t even tell herself why she was so overwhelmed.
“If Mother hadn’t always dismissed me, you would have realized long ago. I have never been lacking. You made me hate myself because you hated me first. I couldn’t love myself because you didn’t love me.”
Margaret froze in place as if turned to stone.
“I will keep demanding your apology. Since it seems we can’t have a meaningful conversation today, I’ll be leaving now, Madam Arsinoe.”
Hansel turned away from her mother without a hint of hesitation.
“Let’s go, Dante.”
Dante quietly took Hansel’s hand. Startled by this unprecedented action, Hansel froze and looked back at him.
Dante remained seated, staring at her intently. Slowly, he turned his head to glance again at Margaret, who sat dazed on the floor.
“Hansel.”
Every time Dante called her name, Margaret flinched like someone struck by lightning. Her face was pale, as if drained of all blood.
“The head of the family doesn’t hate you.”
“…Don’t bother trying to reconcile us. I don’t have any attachment to this house anymore.”
“Your mother loves you.”
“Dante, please, that’s enough—”
“She apologized to me. Long ago.”
“……”
Dante slowly retraced his memories, recalling the words Margaret had spoken to him when he first met Hansel. He repeated them exactly.
“I apologize. For you, for your mother… for the terrible things you’ve endured. I’m sorry. I truly am, Lord Dante Herodt.”
“……”
“You can kill me. But spare my child. I beg you—please.”
Dante murmured in a low voice, then looked at Hansel again.
“That’s what she said to me.”
***
Eighteen years ago, about a month after Margaret became the head of the Arsinoe family, an invitation arrived from the Herodt family.
The letter celebrated the birth of a new head of the family and requested her presence to honor the momentous occasion.
Margaret traveled with her father, the former head of the family, and her eldest daughter Hansel, who was to be the next head, in her arms.
Visiting the Herodt estate for the first time in over a decade, Margaret found it as gloomy as ever. Guided respectfully by the Herodt mages, Margaret entered the family head’s chambers.
A golden curtain obscured the bed.
Margaret sat down in a chair before it, placing Hansel on her lap.
“Look, Hansel. The person behind that curtain is the new head of the Herodt family.”
“Bwah?”
Hansel tilted her chubby cheeks, her lace bonnet bobbing with the movement.
Her appearance seemed to encapsulate every ounce of cuteness Margaret lacked in her own sharp features. Hansel was so endearing Margaret could spend an entire day just gazing at her.
Children were such lovable beings. The Herodt family must have been thrilled to welcome a new baby after so long.
Margaret’s father, Helmut, snapped his fingers sharply.
“Focus, Margaret. Remember this day well if you are to stand firmly as the head of a mage family.”
“My apologies, Father.”
Margaret bowed her head respectfully, then turned her attention to the scene before her.
The view was blocked by the Herodt family’s signature gold curtain. Behind it was the first new head of the family to be born in thirty years.
What kind of extraordinary individual would emerge? She wondered as the curtain began to part.
