Chapter 1
I absolutely cannot accept this kind of father
“Abubu!”
She was a baby who was loved just by breathing.
Born into a poor but happy family, her parents loved her even when she ate, slept, or simply… did her business.
When she first learned to hold her head up, they threw a celebration. When she first started crawling, they clapped like seals.
When she took her first steps, her parents cried while holding her hands.
“Mmmaa!”
“Oh my god, our daughter might be a genius!”
They laughed at her clumsy attempts to speak.
“Ueeehh… Mom! Dad! I can’t poop!”
“What do we do? What do we do?! Oh no!”
When she suffered from constipation, they panicked and cried.
Looking back, it was ridiculous—so over-the-top it was almost absurd. But because she had parents like that, she was happy.
So she absolutely could not accept this kind of father!
“Zenith, this is your real father….”
Fernando tried to introduce them.
“I refuse to accept him!”
“I don’t like it!”
The answers burst out at the same time.
“Why don’t you like me!”
“If you’re an old man, do I have to like an old-man kind of dad?”
The man—whether his name was Garen or some dog bone—flared up in anger, and Zenith shot the question right back at him.
“What’s wrong with me? I’m quite handsome, you know!”
“Hah, sure you are.”
“Hey! I’m a duke, you know that? Do you even know what a duke is?”
“I do. A stupid bird that spreads its tail feathers and shows off whenever it sees a female!”
“……That brat!”
The father clenched his teeth.
So what if you’re angry? Bleh!
Zenith rolled her eyes and turned the situation upside down.
“Stop it! Stop it! She’s only seven!”
“Does she look seven to you? I’d believe it if you told me there’s a seventy-year-old man inside her!”
“She just lost her parents recently. Of course she’s upset! Why are you so immature? Honestly, that temper of yours…!”
Fernando tried to mediate.
“Is she really even my daughter? Who does she take after? Even if I generously assume I have a child, she wouldn’t have that personality. She must have been switched!”
“Nonsense.”
“I don’t want an old-man father either! Absolutely not! Not ever!”
“Zenith, please!”
Fernando pleaded, even pretending to beg with both hands.
“Hmph!”
Fine, I’ll let it slide just because of that old man’s face!
Zenith turned away with a huff. Garen also turned away with a scoff.
Honestly, there was no need for a paternity test. Anyone could see they were father and daughter. How could their tempers be so identical… Fernando sighed.
Claudia, Zenith’s mother, had given birth to Garen’s child and entrusted the baby to Fernando before she died. Fernando then left the child with the Baker couple, old acquaintances of his.
The Bakers, who had no children of their own, raised Zenith with immense love.
So much so that even Fernando, who occasionally checked on her, thought maybe she could just keep living like this.
Garen had no idea the child existed. Even if he did, it was not a situation where he could easily accept it. Memory loss patients should not be subjected to extreme shocks.
Zenith’s situation was unfortunate, but Fernando was Garen’s friend. And so one day became two, then months… then seven years passed.
Then one day, a letter arrived from the Bakers.
If something happened to them, please take care of Zenith.
A few days later, Fernando received the news that the couple had been murdered.
When he rushed over, he found Zenith alone in the empty house, sitting by the entrance waiting for her parents.
In her small hands, she clutched a piece of their clothing. She couldn’t even cry properly—until someone tried to take it from her.
“Don’t take it. Don’t steal it! It’s my mom and dad’s! I can smell them here!”
The child’s grief was so raw that Fernando broke down crying while holding her.
He had intended to raise Zenith until Garen regained his memory and then return her to him.
But then a problem arose.
Garen was planning to adopt an heir.
If a legally adopted heir was recognized first, that child would inherit Garen’s title and wealth.
Even if Zenith was his biological daughter, she was born outside a lawful marriage. If an adopted heir came first and Zenith was recognized afterward, she would have no right to inheritance.
Those rights were supposed to belong to Zenith.
Fernando knew it was early, but he had to act. And that was exactly the moment they were in now.
“I’ll live with the uncle. I’ll happily accept you as my daughter. If a kind and pretty child like you becomes my daughter, I’ll be truly happy. There’s even a child around your age at my house—you’ll have a friend. But Zenith, could you meet your father just once? I think… he might cherish you a lot.”
Zenith, kind as she was despite everything, accepted it.
The problem was Garen.
“Are you dreaming? Are you insane? A child? What child? I get hives just from looking at women!”
“Do you even know how old I am? You’re saying a seven-year-old child? I studied at the academy and supposedly had a child there? Do you even know the academy is a women-free zone?! Ask anyone! Which sounds more believable—me having a bastard child at the academy, or me being gay?!”
Rumors about him had been circulating for years. In fact, all sorts of ridiculous gossip spread through high society.
It was probably the reason the old general and his wife allowed him to adopt an heir.
“Bullshit! So you want my title and fortune too? Just say it. If it’s your child, I’d even adopt them myself.”
Garen sneered at Fernando, but Fernando was telling the truth. Zenith was Garen’s child, and Claudia was her mother.
After repeated persuasion, Garen finally agreed to meet the child.
“You idiot! You got fooled by a scammer!”
He believed Fernando had been deceived. But he was confident that once he saw the child’s face, things would change.
However, when he met Zenith…
“Hello…”
“Modern scammers are skilled. She even looks similar. Where did you find this one?”
Then, immediately after seeing her face—
“Hand.”
“Ow! It hurts!”
“This won’t kill you.”
He drew her blood without warning to conduct a paternity test.
And when the result confirmed their relation—
“She’s not my daughter, right? Maybe she’s my father’s child? Yes, that makes sense. She’s not my daughter—she’s my younger sister. I can accept that!”
“Garen!”
“That doesn’t make sense! How can I have a daughter I don’t even know about?! You know I hate women. Even touching hands gives me hives. My body rejects it!”
It was true—his body physically rejected women.
“…Is she a chimera? A chimera? She’s not human!”
Garen’s imagination ran wild. Watching him, Zenith’s face gradually darkened.
After barely calming him down and trying again to introduce them—
“Idiot. Can’t even tell a human from a chimera.”
Zenith, who resembled him in temperament, launched round two.
Fernando wiped his face.
“Alright, both of you calm down. Let’s start over. Garen—this is your daughter Zenith. And Zenith—this is your real father….”
“I refuse to accept him!”
“I don’t like him!”
No one cooperated.
Even Zenith, who had been somewhat willing, now deeply hated her father after ten minutes of watching him.
Fernando wanted to cry.
It was a war-like first meeting.
Zenith immediately came to hate her biological father.
Trash of a man! If you didn’t want responsibility, you shouldn’t have caused the problem in the first place!
She hated irresponsible men like him.
He was just like her father in her past life—Min Kyung-tae.
Min Kyung-tae was the worst of the worst. A married man who pretended to be single, seduced an underage girl, and abandoned her when she became pregnant.
The girl’s life spiraled from there.
She worked herself to the bone—factory by day, restaurant at night, construction on weekends.
She destroyed her body, and when her daughter reached high school, she was diagnosed with cancer.
Worried about her daughter’s future, she eventually went to find Min Kyung-tae.
He insulted and humiliated them.
Years later, a man appeared asking the daughter to donate a liver in exchange for money. She cursed him out in her mother’s place, and he insulted both her and her deceased mother.
Then came the moment when everything changed.
Revenge finally became possible.
The daughter became a prosecutor, while Min Kyung-tae became the son of a famous politician.
But strangely, when everything collapsed, she felt nothing—only emptiness.
And then, the accident happened.
Seeing the incoming car and the face of her father inside it, she smiled.
Because ten years after her mother’s death, she had already lost all reason to live.
