RUSP 11

CHAPTER 11………………………………………….

“Then why the second son…? So, what are you planning to do from now on?”

I let out a short hum in response to Allen, who had turned the question back on me.

I had said as if I would fix April’s leg, but I didn’t have the slightest intention of doing so.

This time, I planned to make sure April could never appear in front of people again.

Though it was real, she wouldn’t be able to step forward, leaving only betrayal and despair for April and the entire duke’s family.

It would be amusing, too, to watch her live hidden behind a double, while still being real.

For that, April needed to be in the duke’s family mansion, not this villa, and she had to know that I was currently there.

I still vividly remembered when my father tried to send me to the duke’s house.

I knew our family—my father and my late mother, specifically—were far from ordinary citizens of the empire.

The fact that we built a house not in a village but a cabin deep in the mountains, never once went to a crowded area…

And my father had always been excessively weak and timid. Back when I was younger than thirteen, I even thought maybe my father had abandoned his title and run away like the protagonist of some cliché novel.

“Irina, you’re no longer a child, so I’ll tell you. Perhaps you’ve already noticed.”

At that time, the duchess had tried to forcibly drag me away while I stood next to my father.

She was a completely different kind of madness compared to the beautiful, lonely figure she hung in the hall.

“Mom and Dad are fugitives.”

I remembered the face with ash-gray eyes, just like Duke Alexis’s, filled with tears of apology.

“That’s why, Irina, we cannot tell anyone that you are our child.”

After my mother’s passing, my father had never shed a tear. That day was the first and last time he cried.

“Go to the duke’s house.”

“Father.”

“If I send you to the duke’s house, they’ll cover my medical expenses there.”

“……”

“So please, go to the duke’s house—for me.”

But what my father said was a lie.

He sent me to the duke’s family not for himself, but for me.

If your parents are fugitives, your child can only be one too. You couldn’t even use the name Irina Devin openly.

But I didn’t mind being a fugitive; I just wanted to be with my father and family.

Living in a mountain cabin was fine too.

Yet, I had no choice but to go to the duke’s house.

Blood ties don’t break, so if the duke’s house paid for my father’s treatment, I thought we could live under the same sky.

I thought sacrificing myself a little would make many things better. I had even been told at the duke’s house that “sending letters to Father is allowed.”

I thought the ties wouldn’t break.

Replies to my letters came steadily.

“Irina.”

Alicia’s voice, and the tears falling from her olive-colored eyes, were vividly imprinted in my mind.

“…The duke’s house never kept its promises.”

Even though I had been kicked out, I could regain my composure quickly because I still had somewhere to return.

During my stay at the duke’s house, news about my father had consistently come through the duchess, and I hadn’t heard anything about his death.

And… when I returned home, what Alicia said while shedding tears was pure despair.

“Daniel died just a few months after Irina went to the duke’s mansion.”

“They never sent the promised medical fees.”

“The duchess came and told Daniel, and her own daughter, that a father is unnecessary. He’s only a nuisance.”

That was the first time I truly understood what it felt like for the sky to fall.

When I slowly opened my eyes, instead of Alicia’s face, Allen appeared before me.

“What are you going to do?”

“…Pardon?”

“I’ll return it.”

As much as the duke’s house had given me.

“They gave too much.”

I forced a smile, lifting the corners of my mouth.

“And the princess has to remain unhealed to keep wanting me.”

“The duke’s house? Or the princess?”

A perceptive question.

I didn’t answer verbally, but clever Allen probably realized the answer to his question was “both.”

He may not have known, but I had been eagerly waiting for this day.

I thought he might be displeased or hesitant because of the duke’s authority, but I read no such sign from Allen.

There were moments when I couldn’t read the meaning behind his deep, wine-colored eyes staring at me.

When our gazes met, he smiled faintly and approached, taking my hand.

“Is there nothing I can do to help you, Miss?”

With a gentle voice, his lips briefly touched the back of my hand before pulling away.

“To help me?”

“You saved my life, Irina. What could I not do to help you?”

Watching Allen’s sly smile, I let out a thin laugh.

So, the kindness I had shown on a whim in the past was returning in this way.

Even though we knew nothing about each other, he was willing to help just because I had saved him—it was astonishing.

Allen asked many questions annoyingly, yet never asked what had happened at the duke’s house.

And I liked that enough to keep him close for a long time.

“Then first, get close.”

“Pardon?”

Kneeling, he slowly blinked up at me.

I leaned close to him, whispering quietly, just in case someone might hear, even though it was just the two of us.

I hoped that by my returning to the duke’s mansion, the expectations of the duke’s household would burst like a balloon rising high into the sky.

“With whom?”

“With the princess you just saw.”

Although her treatment had been completed by sexual energy, Allen would still watch over her for some time.

While fidgeting with his hair with one hand, I brushed his cheek and whispered softly.

“Form a bond with the princess. One where you can rely on each other—friends, in other words.”

“……”

“She’s probably in a very fragile state, so it won’t be too difficult.”

“If I do that, will it help you, Irina?”

“Of course.”

He lightly kissed my hand that had touched his cheek.

“It’s something only you can do.”

“Then I’ll do it.”

Allen had never refused me before, and this time, his answer was just as affirmative.

He nodded and stood up.

“You’ll see me more often than before. And there’s no need to send letters anymore.”

“…Yes…?”

Now that we were living in the capital, he no longer needed to search for me desperately. I didn’t explain this and simply got up.

I gave him a small smile as he gazed at me blankly and went to open the store’s door.

“Oh, right.”

I realized I hadn’t said the most important thing.

Turning back, I saw Allen, wide-eyed like a startled cat, and spoke.

“Thanks to sexual energy, your body has fully healed.”

I recalled his state when I first saw him.

His body had been in complete ruin—‘trash’ was too kind a word.

Repeated marks of beatings, debilitated physical abilities that seemed almost nonfunctional, even his trembling hands and feet as if he were addicted to something.

It was astonishing that he had run to the mountains in such a state.

Sexual energy had restored his broken bones and battered body, but

“I can’t fix the mental effects of drug addiction either.”

I repeated this to Allen, who had frozen at the words “drug addiction.”

“So don’t touch anything like drugs again.”

With that, I quietly left the store, leaving Allen behind.

By the time I returned to the duke’s mansion, dawn had already fully broken.

I was slightly tired from moving around without proper sleep.

Covering my mouth, I let out a small sigh as I entered the mansion.

Though I had left through the doghole, all the servants were already awake, so I entered proudly through the main gate.

All the servants who saw me looked surprised.

“Irina?”