Chapter 52
“Hey, Miss Elinor—”
“Your Highness, have you arranged an assistant to help with the awards at this year’s swordsmanship competition?”
Just as the second round was about to begin, Lady Margaret asked him.
Elinor didn’t even glance at him.
All she could hear behind her was the baby fussing.
Suppressing his rising irritation, Mathias spoke.
“Cornelia will probably handle it.”
“Why do you keep making me do it?”
“Who else could do it besides you?”
Traditionally, it was the duty of the Duke and Duchess to congratulate the winners of the swordsmanship competition. The Duke would hand the winner the trophy, and the Duchess would present a bouquet.
But the previous Duke had passed away, and Mathias, his successor, was still unmarried. So far, Cornelia, the eldest daughter of the late Duke, had been assisting with this duty.
Cornelia quickly interjected.
“This time, there’s someone else who should do it. Miss Elinor—”
“Could my daughter handle this task?”
Lady Margaret cut off Cornelia’s words.
Cornelia asked, bewildered, “Grace?”
“Isn’t it an honorable position to congratulate the winner of the swordsmanship competition? I hope you give Grace the opportunity as well.”
“But Grace never said she wanted to be an assistant,” Cornelia replied.
“Grace is quite shy, isn’t she? She was too embarrassed to tell you directly, so she asked me to help.”
Cornelia thought of her shy friend.
The friend who had long admired Mathias.
But Elinor already has a baby. It doesn’t seem like her brother or mother intends to kick her out.
It was unfortunate for Grace, but her relationship with Mathias was never meant to be. Mathias had to marry Elinor.
Cornelia had planned to find an even more wonderful man for Grace later.
Meanwhile, it seemed Grace had already asked her mother for help.
“Grace has helped the Princess practice a lot already. She knows the program and all the necessary details, so she’ll be very helpful.”
“Grace would handle it well,” the Grand Duchess muttered reluctantly.
“But this is supposed to be the Duchess’s role…”
Mathias’s gaze naturally shifted to Elinor. He was curious to see how she would react.
But Elinor didn’t react at all. She calmly drank the tea that had been given to her.
Mathias, suddenly feeling a surge of emotion, said, “Very well.”
“What? Brother, really?”
“The swordsmanship competition is a very important event with a history of hundreds of years.”
Mathias adopted a solemn tone.
“For such an important event, it’s best that the assistant be someone I can trust.”
“But… it’s such a perfect opportunity to introduce Miss Elinor to everyone,” Cornelia suggested.
“Why would I introduce her?”
Mathias twisted his lips sourly.
“She’s an outsider. She has nothing to do with Hilliard.”
“Brother, why would you say that? She’s been at the ducal residence for over a month now.”
“I suppose,” Mathias replied with a bitter smile. “She doesn’t see herself that way.”
He deliberately spoke with Elinor in mind, yet she showed no reaction.
Feeling slighted, Mathias gritted his teeth silently.
“I’ll leave the task of assisting me at the awards ceremony to Grace.”
“Thank you so much, Your Highness. Grace will be thrilled,” Lady Margaret said happily, as if it were her own success.
Mathias drained his cold tea in one gulp.
Everything was going according to his wishes. Yet, he couldn’t understand why he felt so unhappy.
The candidate Tedian advanced to the semifinals, facing last year’s champion and experiencing a few difficulties but ultimately reaching the finals.
Finally, the day of the finals arrived.
“Waaah!”
A tremendous roar echoed through the stadium.
Even during the preliminaries, there had been almost no empty seats, but today the crowd filled the stands far beyond that.
Elinor let out a small sigh amid the excitement and heat of the crowd.
It’s already the last day.
Tonight, with a magnificent fireworks display, the Hilliard Swordsmanship Competition would come to a close.
That also meant it would be the last day the Five-Colored Garden would be open to the public. The cave had only been accessible during the competition.
Charlotte didn’t come.
Had the place seemed too modest to catch her attention? Elinor had thought perhaps she would come, given it had even impressed the Emperor.
If only Agares had helped, she wouldn’t have felt so uneasy.
At the worst possible moment, Mathias had intervened, and she had lost the chance to hide the baby’s identity.
Where did Agares disappear to?
She expected him to approach her again, since their previous meeting had been interrupted, but there was no sign.
Agares only disappeared when something more interesting caught his attention than Elinor.
Elinor scanned the stadium anxiously, hoping she might spot Agares among the crowd as before.
Just then, the Grand Duchess spoke.
“Are you looking for Mathias?”
“No.”
Why would she look for the Duke, who was always selfish and rude? He never apologized for calling her a flirt who lured men every night. Yet he was extremely cautious, glaring at her whenever they crossed paths.
“Ah, I was just looking around to see if my younger brother might have come to watch the competition.”
“There’s been no word from the Five-Colored Garden.”
“Yes. It’s really hard to meet Charlotte again.”
The Grand Duchess clicked her tongue in regret.
Elinor felt frustrated on many levels. She had graduated top of her class at the academy and could have easily advanced in her career, yet she had given up all her opportunities to protect her niece and disappeared.
The Grand Duchess knew the rumors circulating about Elinor in the estate: wandering at night to meet men, and the baby not even being the Duke’s child. Filled with malice, these rumors seemed to have caused arguments between Mathias and Elinor.
Foolish boy.
There was no need to argue if their relationship was purely cooperative. Rumors about Elinor wouldn’t hinder the search for her sister. In fact, it might even pique Charlotte’s interest in her elder sister’s situation.
A man only gets angry if a woman has another man in her life when he himself has feelings for her.
This foolish son had not realized his own feelings yet.
I really did suspect, but…
In truth, Elinor was not a bad bride. Quite the opposite. She was young, beautiful, intelligent, and even kind.
She had a strong sense of responsibility, willing to take care of her infant niece. Among today’s youth, who often think only of themselves, such virtues were rare.
And she’s not even an unwed mother.
As long as the baby returned safely, there would be no reason she couldn’t have a proper relationship with Mathias.
What remained was keeping a good relationship—yet the problem was the son himself.
