Chapter 76
Lloyd had returned.
The moment he saw him, Pablo ripped off the suffocating mask and wig that had been choking him and asked:
“Your Highness. Are you going to accept it? Marriage—this is way too sudden!”
Without answering, Lloyd staggered over to the seat where Minerva had been sitting and collapsed onto it.
“We’ll talk later.”
“Y-yes, sir……”
Though still unsatisfied, Pablo didn’t press further and left.
Lloyd was alone, yet his mind grew even noisier than before.
He had thought of helping Minerva regain her position.
But marriage? That was a method he had never considered.
And the reason wasn’t for her reinstatement, but because of Aslan.
Lloyd still remembered the face of Minerva’s husband.
That portrait hadn’t been among her belongings when she moved.
“She’s remarrying to protect Aslan… even though she hasn’t forgotten him yet…”
As a child, Lloyd had been dragged by Priscilla to a party only once.
That was also the day he suffered a severe fit in the hall.
Minerva had been there too.
Though she was around his age, and bore heavier burdens than him, Minerva had been unshakably strong even as a child.
Growing up hearing Priscilla’s words—“Be like Minerva”—Lloyd came to vaguely admire her.
Even envied her.
But the moment he saw her in person, for the first time, he hated her.
Because she proved that even at a young age, one could be perfect.
Because Priscilla’s obsession with making him into that kind of person was the very reason he suffered so much.
Someone like Minerva was extraordinary from the start.
Though it seemed Minerva didn’t even remember that event.
“In the end, that’s just proof she’s an ordinary person too.”
He hadn’t realized until the emperor ordered him to watch over her.
Confined Minerva enjoyed a peaceful daily life.
Becoming her neighbor by accident, exchanging words with her, and watching her live made him realize she felt the same way he did.
She was someone who could cry, laugh, and get angry like anyone else—yet was forced to always remain calm and composed.
A complicated ache stirred inside him, his heartbeat slowly quickening.
At this rate, it would happen again…
Lloyd clutched his chest and hunched forward when—
“Father!”
“Uncle!”
The children burst in through the door and rushed to Lloyd.
“Is it true? That Mother proposed to His Grace the Grand Duke?!”
“Did the Grand Duke Uncle say yes? Is he really going to marry Mom?”
Two little heads tugged on his arms, smelling faintly of sun and oddly of milk, wrapped in warmth.
As calm returned to his heart, what came instead was embarrassment.
“How on earth did you two…?”
Before he could even ask, How did you know? his mind had already given him the answer.
Those little devils. Of course.
He had expected them to eavesdrop, which was why he had kept his eyes on the door.
It had never opened, so he had been careless.
“No, seriously—how did you hear it?”
“I only heard it from Aslan…”
Ayla glanced sideways at Aslan, fidgeting.
Whether Aslan even understood that eavesdropping was rude, he chirped brightly:
“If you put your ear against the wall, you hear everything.”
…Sigh.
Lloyd hung his head.
He should’ve sent Aslan and Ayla out to the garden from the start.
Not that it would’ve mattered—they’d never have listened anyway.
He suddenly realized how easy Ayla had been to raise all this time, and how hard it was to raise an ordinary child.
“So Uncle! Are you gonna marry Mom with the Grand Duke? Really?”
Lost in thought, Lloyd’s arm was tugged hard.
Aslan was anxious—not because he didn’t want a father, but because he hated the idea of his mother being forced into marriage.
Awkwardly, Lloyd shook his head.
“No, nothing’s been decided.”
“But Mom already proposed! Our mom always follows through! They’ll definitely get married!”
That was true.
Minerva had brought an offer far too sweet for the “Grand Duke” to refuse.
Even Cat’s Eye hadn’t predicted she would promise to free him from Priscilla.
To everyone else, Lloyd and Priscilla looked like a close mother and son.
Priscilla appeared as a caring mother, while Lloyd was the pitiful son who still depended on her even after becoming Grand Duke.
No one could imagine that Lloyd wanted to break free of Priscilla.
“No way she remembers… If she did, she wouldn’t mistake me for Id.”
At that first and last party—
When his jealousy of Minerva peaked, his body had stopped obeying.
His breath had grown shallow, like sinking underwater with a stone tied to his feet.
It was Minerva who had first noticed his panic.
“Are you all right?”
He remembered nothing after that.
Like a snapped thread, his consciousness had cut off.
Priscilla had raged at him afterward.
She must’ve been humiliated.
Minerva probably thought of him as no different from Priscilla.
Or maybe she thought, Good thing that pitiful boy won’t be Grand Duke when he becomes emperor someday.
When talk of marriage surfaced, things had become so awkward he avoided her.
Later, when Aslan forced them back into contact, Lloyd had been terrified she might recognize him.
If it came to that, he had even planned to bribe her with whatever she wanted in exchange for silence.
But she hadn’t recognized him.
“…Well, anyone with eyes can see the current Grand Duke is basically a puppet. Of course the Princess would think so too.”
Unlike Lloyd, Priscilla was deeply engaged in politics.
Even after passing the title early to him, she kept socializing with politicians and running businesses.
So people still believed Priscilla was the real Grand Duke—and indeed, she continued to manipulate Lloyd behind the scenes.
Even though all authority was his now, even the affairs of his own domain seemed to bend to Priscilla’s will.
That was why he had considered the Cat’s Eye business.
To finally cut her control completely.
But so far, nothing had progressed.
“In the end, I’ll have to accept Her Highness’s proposal…”
Alone, he realized he could do nothing.
Just as he leaned toward acceptance, a practical problem hit him.
“Wait. If I accept… who holds the wedding? Me—or Pablo?”
The thought of Pablo standing beside Minerva, even as a double, felt wrong.
But it was impossible for Lloyd to play both Id Mente and the Grand Duke.
Frustrated at the dead end, Lloyd rubbed his face dry again and again.
Just then, Aslan suddenly sniffed and pointed at Lloyd’s hand, blinking.
“Uh… Id Uncle’s hand…”
“My hand?”
Ayla stiffened.
The one who injured his hand saving Aslan wasn’t Lloyd, but the Grand Duke.
Which was why Lloyd had been careful never to remove his gloves until the wound healed.
He was still wearing them now.
“W-what about my hand?”
Ayla tried to cover, but Aslan ignored her and yanked off Lloyd’s glove.
The bandaged hand was revealed.
“The Grand Duke Uncle hurt his hand there too…”
Lloyd swallowed hard.
“I—I injured it while helping His Grace with something…”
Aslan’s eyes narrowed.
Lloyd’s eyes twitched nervously, like prey caught in a predator’s gaze.
Aslan grabbed his collar.
“A-Aslan?”
Ayla gasped, and Lloyd—helplessly caught by a child—froze.
Aslan sniffed again.
It was the familiar scent of “Id.”
His gaze shifted to the mask and wig strewn about nearby.
Picking them up, he buried his nose in them.
The smell of “Id” and the “Grand Duke” were mixed together—but the “Id” scent was far stronger.
Aslan concluded:
“Id Uncle. You’re the Grand Duke.”
His round, innocent eyes had sharpened.
“How on earth did he figure it out?”
Like before a wild beast, Lloyd couldn’t move.
The fact that Aslan had even noticed the bandages beneath the glove was already suspicious.
He had sniffed—had he really known by scent?
“Impossible. He’s not an animal.”
No matter how he reasoned, the truth didn’t change: he’d been found out.
Aslan took Lloyd’s silence as confirmation.
He would have taken any reaction as confirmation anyway.
The wounded hand, the mask and wig drenched in his scent—
The evidence was too clear.
Aslan clutched the disguise and stomped the floor with resolve.
His mind was filled with only one thought:
“Mom! I have to tell Mom too!”
It was far better for her to marry someone they knew than someone they didn’t.
And if that person was “Id,” even better!
Minerva would surely be happy.
Aslan dashed toward the door to run out.
But just as he reached it, he was seized and lifted into the air.
“Not allowed!”
