Chapter 94
It was clearly cold, and cold enough to be heartless.
To outsiders, they would seem so frigid that it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call them sworn enemies.
“Yes. I’m crazy. With a crisis like this approaching, do you think I could endure it without going mad?”
“A crisis? You call something like that a crisis?”
“Yes. What did my mother do so wrong?”
“I don’t know where or what you heard, but stop this and leave. My patience ends here.”
He let out a breath as if he were about to say something more, then barely managed to calm himself and waved his hand.
“Patience? My patience has reached its limit as well. How much further do you intend to go?”
“…What?”
“Bringing in the twins out of nowhere and claiming they’re Father’s children was the problem to begin with. They were born outside—how do we even know if they’re truly Father’s children or not!”
“……”
Though the silence had a different reason, Ron seemed to think his words were getting through and did not stop speaking.
“Even so, my mother embraced those children. Even me, an orphan. And yet… and yet you drive Mother out.”
“Ron.”
“Yes.”
“Do you have anything more to say?”
“Yes. I have a lot to say. A great deal. Since it has come to this, I’ll say it all. Mother devoted her entire life to the Grand Ducal House. She even embraced children who came here for no reason other than resembling Father, children whose origins we don’t even know. She even gave love to that rude, ill-mannered child… Why, why!”
The Grand Duke set down what he had been holding and quietly stared at Ron.
“I can clearly tell who told you that. It seems the Grand Duchess told you everything. That she is the wronged one.”
“…Is that what matters?”
“Yes. It matters. Thanks to you, I’ve learned that the woman called the Grand Duchess still refuses to acknowledge even a single one of her faults.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“At the very least, before running here, you should have asked others. To think that someone who received an education in the Grand Ducal House would act this foolishly. Tsk. I’ll have to replace every so-called teacher before educating Rohen and Lari.”
To the Grand Duke, Ron already seemed to be someone of no importance at all.
And unless he was a fool, Ron must have realized that too.
“…What am I mistaken about? Everyone who could relay Mother’s side of the story is locked up, so I couldn’t ask anyone.”
“In other words, they are also sinners. The Grand Duchess included, and everyone who was there. If you carry your head for more than decoration, you should be able to think that far. No matter how much you wish to take your mother’s side.”
The Grand Duke no longer held back. He had never been one for many words, but not now.
“You hate Mother—that’s why you’re doing this. Even if I’m young, I know enough. You didn’t marry her for love and always intended to cast her out someday. You oppressed her.”
“Ha! That’s truly amusing. Oppressed? I didn’t want to bring up the past, but after becoming Grand Duchess, the one who oppressed me was your mother. I didn’t marry her for love, but I did my best. And she devoted her life to the Grand Ducal House? She couldn’t even manage the household as well as an eight-year-old child. What exactly did she do?”
“……”
“And embrace the children? Someone who intended to embrace them tried to kill the twins?”
“She said that was a misunderstanding. That it was all a misunderstanding.”
“What misunderstanding? That someone else framed her again, is that it?”
Ron trembled and pointed at me.
“Isn’t it obvious? It must be her.”
“You speak exactly like your mother. What could an orphan girl possibly do? And how could an orphan girl… cultivate a plant whose import is forbidden, beneath the palace where your mother resides? And how, exactly how, could she put it inside all of Lari’s dolls? If you’re so confident, explain it. Ron.”
“That’s… how would I know that!”
“Truly… foolish. You don’t resemble me at all. In the end, you whine worse than a child.”
Ron moved his mouth desperately as if trying to corner me, but his childish stubbornness only made the situation worse.
“If everything is a misunderstanding as you claim, you should have brought evidence instead of acting like this. Foolishly. Truly foolish.”
“…The foolish and ignorant one is you, Father.”
Perhaps he had truly lost his mind, because Ron said what he never should have said. Startled, I dropped the quill I was holding. Black ink slowly spread across the pure white paper.
“Me? I am foolish and ignorant? That’s a fresh remark. You may be the only one who dares speak such arrogance to me.”
“In the end, you will come to realize that no one values this Grand Ducal House as much as Mother does.”
“If she valued it so much, would she have carried another man’s child and claimed it as mine, then tried to raise that child as the Grand Duke’s heir?”
“What kind of absurd nonsense is that?”
“Out of lingering affection, I had no intention of revealing the truth. But now… I can’t allow it. I cannot watch someone insignificant slander my children and try to place all the blame on the child who risked her own life to protect them. I took care of a mongrel, only for it to bare its teeth at my children?”
His tone became astonishingly calm.
And watching him, I became calm as well. Should I even be hearing this? I wanted nothing more than to leave immediately. But the two men seemed to have completely forgotten my existence and continued speaking of things no one else should hear.
“Right now… I understand none of this. The ones who are not your children are those twins.”
“Among the blood of the Grand Ducal House, the one who excels at nothing and does not resemble me in the slightest is you. Ron, who grew up being called a dullard.”
“…That’s because I haven’t yet… my power hasn’t…”
“Have you never wondered why you possess no power at all?”
“Mother said I’m just a little slow… that I would bloom even greater for blooming late.”
“It’s not that you’re slow. It’s that you’re not my child, so you could not manifest any of the Grand Ducal House’s power. Didn’t you find it strange? I raised you from a very young age, yet why you could never become the Grand Duke’s heir?”
Ron’s lips trembled. He looked deeply shocked by something he had never anticipated, then suddenly began laughing like a madman.
“So now you’re trying to discard me like this? Just like Mother? After seeing those twins of filthy blood whose origins you don’t even know… have we become unnecessary?”
“Good.”
“……”
“I like that rebellious spirit. Yes, that’s right. If you simply accepted it… I might have misunderstood and thought you already knew. Listen carefully, Ron. The one whose origins are unknown is you. I didn’t believe it either, just like you. Who would imagine that the Grand Duchess would carry another man’s child and pass it off as mine?”
It was something I had already expected. Somehow, having always been by the Grand Duke’s side, I had predicted it all too well.
“Mother would never have done that!”
“I believed so too. But the man claiming to be your father came to see me himself. Repeatedly. Your mother was thorough enough to find someone with the same hair and eye color as mine, but since she failed to kill that wretch, everything came to light.”
“No. That’s not true.”
“He deliberately stayed around the Grand Ducal estate, spreading all sorts of rumors in taverns… there was no way I wouldn’t hear. So I investigated everything. It matched perfectly.”
“No!”
“He even knew the exact location of a mole on your body that I myself didn’t know.”
Ron’s face turned deathly pale.
“That’s… that’s impossible.”
“Go ask your mother. Ask whose child you are. Whether you are truly of the Grand Ducal House.”
“……”
“Now get out, Ron. Unless you wish to live locked in a room like your mother, it would be wise not to commit such rudeness again. The courtesy I would extend to someone who is not my child ends here.”
Ron, at a loss, finally turned his gaze toward me. Just moments ago he had been cornering me, but now, with a resentful expression, he turned away.
“If this isn’t true…”
“And if it isn’t, what will you do, Ron? Foolishly, you are neither the Grand Duke’s heir nor the Grand Duke himself. What can someone like you possibly do?”
“……”
Like his mother, Ron was made entirely of wounded pride. Born into privilege with nothing of his own, he had taken everything for granted. But all of it was only possible because he was within the Grand Ducal House.
Once outside—without any backing—he and I would be no different.
In the end, Ron stared at us with a flushed face before turning away.
“If you truly cannot believe it, ask your mother directly. If you wish, I will even summon your father. Just say the word.”
“……”
“And tell your mother as well. If she dares pull one more foolish stunt, it will not end so lightly next time. Make sure you deliver that message.”
That was all. Knowing that saying more would only worsen his position, Ron finally left.
“Foolish brat. If he had just stayed still… Ah! You were here.”
Clicking his tongue, the Grand Duke finally seemed to notice me and raised his brows.
“Didn’t you know I was here while you were speaking?”
“I did. As expected, you’re quick-witted. Far better than Ron, who was educated in the Grand Ducal House his entire life.”
