Chapter 60
“Am I making you uncomfortable?”
“Oh, n-no, why would you think that?”
“It’s because Lady Aisha was staring at me so intently.”
“It just felt strange that you assigned Selex— no, Sir Rex—to me.”
At those words, he smiled pleasantly.
“Not only the Young Duke and the Young Duchess, but His Grace the Grand Duke himself seems to pay quite a bit of attention to Lady Aisha as well. Perhaps that’s why?”
“I see…….”
“Where would you like to go?”
“I want to visit the library.”
“I will guide you.”
Then he held out his hand toward me. I stared at him, wondering if he meant for me to take it.
“Ah. I’m sorry. It’s become a habit from doing this with my younger sibling.”
“Is it okay if I take it?”
“Of course!”
Rather, he seemed pleased by my action. A truly simple, guileless man. But one whose life afterward would not be so peaceful. When I took his hand, he beamed like a child and swung our joined hands back and forth.
“My sibling doesn’t really hold my hand very often.”
“If I can substitute, I will.”
“Rather than a substitute, let’s call it practice. I’ll take good care of Lady Aisha, and with that experience, I should be able to take good care of my sibling as well. I’m quite disliked, you see.”
After that, we didn’t talk much, but Selex Teroban—Teroban of Selex Teroban—was a character important enough to be mentioned in the novel. Strictly speaking, it was his original family, the Marquessate of Pelleus, that was mentioned.
Selex Teroban. He was of the bloodline of the Pelleus Marquessate.
However, his father died young before officially becoming the marquess. Helftel Pelleus. A mysterious death at the young age of twenty.
From the age of nineteen, he had suddenly begun to suffer from an illness of unknown cause. He had no fiancée, but there was a woman he loved.
That woman was Brellin, Selex Teroban’s mother. Brellin, who had become his lover from the age of eighteen. Before she could even formally become Helftel’s fiancée, she learned that he had suddenly fallen ill. Though they were already deeply involved, she could not embrace Helftel as he vomited blood. Becoming the wife of a man who was going to die—if a husband died of illness, the woman who became his wife was deemed unchaste and was cast out even from her own family.
Fearing that, Brellin broke up with Helftel.
Not long after, Brellin learned that she was pregnant. The pregnancy of an unmarried woman. But marrying a man who was clearly going to die of illness would undoubtedly ruin the rest of her life.
So she had the child she bore adopted as her older brother’s child, and she herself married another man. She felt no guilt toward the child. To her, the child was nothing more than a byproduct that would ruin her life.
‘That’s why the Teroban family never thought much of Selex.’
He was strangely gifted. His appearance had taken entirely after the Teroban family, so it was impossible to identify his father, yet he was born a genius swordsman in a family that, historically, had never produced a single person skilled in swordsmanship.
‘In the end, Selex became the ugly duckling of that family.’
Baron Teroban did not like Selex. He especially disliked his younger sister, who had not married, dumped a child on them, then met various men as she pleased before marrying a man from an insignificant family. So from Selex’s childhood, he loudly proclaimed to the entire family that Selex was not his biological child, to the point that even outsiders knew.
Though not his child, Selex looked exactly like the baron, so there was no way people wouldn’t know that Selex was the child his younger sister had brought with her.
‘In the end…… even the baron’s young daughter frequently ignored him.’
Selex, who grew up under such a man, loved his family dearly despite all that injustice. Especially his younger sister. Even though she snapped at him whenever she saw him and told him not to act familiar since he was a child picked up from somewhere, he cherished her greatly.
Until he was formally adopted into the Pelleus Marquessate.
Rodion, who had become marquess by surpassing his deceased older brother, had failed to produce an heir for twenty-five years and thus faced the danger of the family being taken over by collateral relatives. In the end, he found Selex and acknowledged him as his own child.
His reputation improved thanks to the perception that he had taken in his brother’s child, and he avoided losing the family, so it benefited him as well.
‘Even after going there, Selex tried to somehow raise up the baronial house. And the baronial house tried, by any means, to gain benefits through Selex…….’
This is the point from which the novel begins to mention things. Eventually, Selex asks his adoptive father to have his younger sister, Regina, entered into the marquessate. Rodion Pelleus, the marquess who could not have children anyway, takes Regina in. It wasn’t a bad choice as a tool with ambition. He intended to marry that child to the Crown Prince.
‘Selex said it shouldn’t be done, that the Crown Prince already had a woman he loved, that it shouldn’t be done…… but they didn’t come to their senses. Rodion Pelleus also wanted Regina to marry the Crown Prince.’
She was one of the many people in the novel who interfered with the love between the Crown Prince and the female lead.
The reason I remember Selex is because he ended up caught in an awkward position midway.
Regina disliked the twins who were obsessed with the female lead. But thinking that only by separating the female lead could the Crown Prince become hers, she pretended to be close to the twins and incited them.
“Kidnap her. And keep her by your side. If you do that, she’ll see only you and come to love you.”
After the Grand Duke died and the twins ascended to his position, she incited them in that way and also set her older brother, Selex, in motion.
Selex was one of the few people who stood on the Grand Duke’s side to the very end, rather than the Grand Duchess’s. And it was Regina who moved even such a Selex. In the end, Selex watched as the twins, incited by his own sister, kidnapped the female lead.
When that caused the twins to fall into a difficult situation, Selex was consumed by tremendous guilt. Declaring that he had no right to remain in the Grand Ducal house, he suddenly disappeared, saying he would take responsibility no matter what.
He truly cherished the Grand Ducal house, but he was also someone who loved his family just as deeply.
“What are you thinking about so intently?”
A pitiable person. I quietly looked up at him.
“Nothing! I was just curious what kind of person Selex is.”
“Me…….”
The person the Grand Duke trusted to the very end. The person he earnestly told the twins that this one person, at least, could be trusted.
Knowing how exceedingly kind Selex was, and knowing well that he was someone the Grand Duke trusted, I looked at him with curiosity.
“I am simply myself. Perhaps I was chosen because I have a younger sibling around the same age as Lady Aisha?”
“Maybe.”
“While we were talking, we’ve arrived. This is the Grand Ducal family’s library.”
Usually, a library would have at least one person guarding it, but there wasn’t a single one. As soon as he opened the door, the smell of books that seemed poorly maintained wafted out.
“Ha ha, since no one comes here, it’s become quite worn. I heard that His Grace the Grand Duke used to come often when he was young, but…… after that, no one really came…….”
“Doesn’t His Grace the Grand Duke come either?”
“No. They say he’s already read all the books here. But to think it would be so poorly managed. I’ll have to tell His Grace. I thought Her Grace the Grand Duchess was managing it…….”
He swept his gaze around with a rather regretful expression.
There must be many such things. Things she claimed to manage as Grand Duchess, but in reality managed nothing. Most of the money given to manage the Grand Ducal house was probably spent by her on other things.
‘She must have given quite a bit of money to the orphanage director as well. No matter how much of a Grand Duchess she is, she wouldn’t be able to squander the Grand Ducal family’s money so openly.’
It wouldn’t be just one or two places. On the surface, everything looked fine, but inside, nothing was being managed at all.
‘Should I start by finding things like that…….’
“If there’s a book you’d like to see first, I’ll find it for you!”
After looking at him, I walked around myself to examine the shelves. First, I picked out books on history that would be easy to learn, as well as letters and etiquette, for the twins. And in between, I also gathered a few abridged plant books.
“I think this should be enough!”
“Is that so? They all seem to be books for the Young Duke and the Young Duchess?”
“Yes!”
“You’re truly a kind person. To think you’d teach the two of them yourself. Even though you’re the same age, people can be this different.”
Smiling as if somewhat moved, he lifted all the books I was holding in one go.
“I’ll carry these myself.”
“Yes!”
“Then let’s head back now.”
Because we spent quite some time choosing books, more time had passed than expected.
I opened the library door myself and stepped back outside. Selex kept moving his mouth energetically, apologizing that he couldn’t hold my hand on the way back like he had on the way in, as if trying to make up for his guilt.
“My sibling is very ill-tempered.”
“Really?”
“Yes. That’s why I worry. They’re such a pretty child. When they were first born, I adored them so much…… but I wonder where they learn such cruel words…… as an older brother, I’m very worried.”
I should tell him that that sibling would ruin his future, that they would exploit his kind heart—but I can’t say it.
“Um…… then…….”
“It would be so nice if they were like Lady Aisha.”
“Ah!”
“What is it?”
“Would it be okay if you asked them to come over sometime? The twins will need friends anyway, and you said they’re the same age as me.”
At that, he opened his eyes wide in surprise.
“You’re right. There was such a good solution! His Grace the Grand Duke has been looking for friends for the young master and young lady lately as well. I should mention it while I have the chance.”
“Yes!”
It was then. As Selex happily chattered on to me about this and that, a maid stepped in front of us, blocking our path
