Chapter 51
‘Please....’
After a long while, the Grand Duke opened his mouth.
“...You've grown more sentimental from being cooped up in that little room, Karl.”
“......”
“Withdraw now. I am tired.”
With those words, the Grand Duke rose from his seat.
“Your Highness, forgive me for not giving you proper hospitality, as I have just returned from patrol. Eisen, now that you’ve started talking about retirement, shouldn’t you be resting as well? Don’t waste your strength on pointless matters.”
The Grand Duke turned his back and headed for the door.
The conversation was effectively over.
Karl lowered his head.
“Father....”
Even so, Karl called out one last time.
The Grand Duke answered indifferently as he adjusted his collar.
“You’re in a hurry.”
“Pardon?”
“If you spent that long thinking before bringing this to me, wouldn’t I need even half that time to think about it as well?”
“......!”
Karl’s head snapped up.
Eisen and I exchanged glances.
‘It’s not... a refusal!’
He said he would think about it.
That inflexible man, the one who had berated Karl for being a disgrace to the family, had avoided an immediate answer and deferred it.
It was proof that the Grand Duke’s heart had wavered.
His son’s sincerity had made a small crack in that icy heart.
‘Now all that remains is... one thing.’
The Grand Duke’s heart was open.
Now they needed a decisive blow to exploit that opening.
Tonight.
Karla’s pillow talk, which Kairen had persuaded her to deliver.
If she succeeded with a single word, the Grand Duke would open his heart completely and permit Karl to go to the academy.
“...I will take my leave. Rest well.”
Karl greeted him in a trembling voice.
We quietly left the office.
Our footsteps in the corridor were much lighter than they had been on arrival.
And at that very hour, in the shared bedroom of the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess, Karla sat before the vanity, touching up her makeup with trembling hands.
Staring straight at herself in the mirror.
With the face of a wife waiting for her husband and a mother trying to protect her son.
* * *
In a silence so cold and still that even the moonlight seemed frozen, Kairen paced anxiously through the corridor.
The boy bit his lip and gazed endlessly toward the main building, where the Grand Duchess’s bedroom was located.
He had persuaded his mother for his brother’s sake, and she had accepted his proposal.
But as time passed, his certainty faded and fear welled up in its place.
‘Have I... sent Mother to her death?’
His father was a ruthless ruler of the North.
What if he noticed his mother’s intentions?
The fact that she was being threatened by Slokina.
And what if he learned that she had tried to harm his brother?
Just imagining it made it hard to breathe.
“Young Master.”
Eisen’s calm voice reached him.
Eisen looked at Kairen with concern, wearing a robe over his pajamas.
“Master....”
Kairen called in a tearful voice.
“Will Mother... be able to do it? What if Father realizes... If everything goes wrong... I....”
“Please calm yourself.”
Eisen placed his hands around his disciple’s trembling shoulders.
“Young Master. Now is the time to wait.”
“But....”
“The die has already been cast. All we can do now is trust Her Grace the Grand Duchess to do her part and wait.”
There was no wavering in the count’s voice.
That firmness soothed Kairen’s anxiety somewhat.
“Her Grace is a mother. To protect her children, a woman can become stronger than any warrior. Trust her.”
“...Yes.”
Kairen nodded.
But his guilt did not disappear.
The boy folded his hands and prayed earnestly.
Please, let tonight pass safely.
* * *
At the same time, in the Grand Duke’s bedroom, Karla sat on the bed and clenched the hands resting in her lap.
Her heart pounded as though it would burst.
‘I can do this. I have to.’
She repeated it over and over.
The courage Kairen had given her.
And her desire to atone to Karl.
Both of her sons were holding Karla up.
Clack.
The sound of the door opening rang out.
Karla hurriedly composed her expression.
Hiding her fear and guilt behind a mask, she wore the smile of the most beautiful and gentle wife.
The Northgard Grand Duke entered.
Wearing black pajamas, the Grand Duke looked somewhat tired, unlike the imposing figure he had been in his office.
He approached the bedside and looked down at Karla.
“...Were you not asleep?”
“I was waiting.”
Karla answered gently.
The Grand Duke sat on the edge of the bed with a bitter expression.
“It’s been a while. You seemed to have been avoiding sharing my bed these past few months.”
“......”
Karla’s heart tightened.
Because it was true.
For the past few months, Karla had made excuses and avoided sleeping with the Grand Duke.
Because she feared he would discover that her body was deteriorating from ingesting poison.
To hide her gaunt ribs and the pain that came every night.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been feeling well....”
Karla lowered her gaze and lied.
“But... I was troubled that Count Eisen, who had mentioned retirement, came in person today. I was worried you might have a lot on your mind... so I wanted to be by your side.”
“......”
The Grand Duke silently looked at Karla.
But his gaze was so deep and piercing that Karla stopped breathing.
The Grand Duke merely lifted the blanket and got inside.
Swish.
The Grand Duke extended an arm and embraced Karla.
A faint warmth could be felt within his firm, cold embrace.
“Today... since we have a guest, just hold me.”
The Grand Duke mumbled, burying his face in Karla’s chest.
At her husband’s childlike behavior, Karla raised a trembling hand and stroked his hair.
I love this man.
That was why the fact that she had to deceive him was more painful than death.
Silence stretched, and then the Grand Duke spoke first.
“The letter of recommendation for Princess Elysia... I wrote it.”
“Ah... You did well.”
“I’m considering pairing that girl with Kairen. She may be illegitimate, but royalty is royalty. Besides, the Fourth Prince stands behind her.”
The Grand Duke laid out his political calculations matter-of-factly.
“If I tie Kairen to the imperial bloodline, it will be a great source of strength when he inherits the grand ducal seat in the future.”
A political marriage for Kairen.
Under normal circumstances, she might have opposed it as too harsh for such a young child.
But now, it was an opportunity.
Karla cautiously chimed in.
“That’s a good idea.... No matter how deep Northgard’s historical ties with the imperial family are, we do need to strengthen that relationship once more.”
She did not put forward her own position first.
By agreeing with the Grand Duke’s opinion, she naturally opened the conversation.
The Grand Duke raised his head and looked at Karla.
“Unexpected. Since you’re a woman... I thought you would want Kairen to marry someone he truly loved.”
“Mine was a political marriage as well... but you love me now.”
Karla forced a smile.
“You taught me that even if a beginning is cold, the end can be warm. Kairen... may find the same.”
At that, the Grand Duke smiled bitterly.
“At first... it wasn’t.”
“Your Grace....”
“When I was grieving after losing my first wife... you came from Slokina. I didn’t want you. It was merely a transaction for the good of our families.”
The Grand Duke confessed honestly.
“I did not give you my heart. I intended to leave the place beside me empty forever.”
“I know….”
“But... Karl.”
The Grand Duke’s voice softened.
“That little child, who should have been grieving most after losing his mother... approached you before I, his father, did. He clutched your skirt and called you Mother in his clumsy pronunciation, and you took him into your arms.”
Karla’s eyes burned.
She remembered.
A strange foreign land.
A cold husband.
Hostile gazes.
The only one who had shared any warmth with her was that little child.
“Karl... was always a better son than I was. Because he accepted you, I was able to love you too.”
The Grand Duke took Karla’s hand.
“Seeing your hand become covered in burn scars as you cherished Karl like your own son... my heart melted too.”
“......”
Karla bit her lip.
That love was tearing her apart now.
That precious son.
The child who had brought her and her husband together.
The fact that she had tried to kill him with her own hands was unbearably painful.
The Grand Duke’s confession continued.
“The day that child injured his legs in the carriage accident... it felt as though my world had collapsed.”
The Grand Duke’s hand tightened.
“Even so, when he succeeded in rehabilitation and stood again... I acted gruff on the outside, but I cannot say how happy I was inside. I thanked God, and thanked Him again.”
“......”
“Perhaps... I was jealous of my son, too…. I was not as strong as that when I was his age. That fierce will to rise again even with broken legs... was so dazzling that I could not bring myself to look straight at it.”
The Grand Duke’s voice trembled.
The mighty Northgard Grand Duke was showing weakness before his wife for the first time.
“And yet... to watch that child sink down again and become helpless from an illness of unknown cause....”
Karla’s eyes stung.
“I couldn’t bear to look. I couldn’t bear to see my pride and hope wither away before my eyes. So... I was harsh. I told him to disappear from before my eyes instead.”
A father fleeing from facing his beloved son’s deterioration because he loved him too much.
Tears finally burst from Karla’s eyes.
“Sob....”
Because everything was her sin.
She had remained silent despite knowing that her homeland, Slokina, was behind Karl’s carriage accident.
And now she was the one feeding that child poison with her own hands.
A sinner who had ruined her husband’s love, her son’s life, and her family’s happiness.
“Cry.”
The Grand Duke held the weeping Karla in his arms and patted her back.
“You’re tenderhearted... so Karl’s illness must feel like it’s your fault. You loved that child as much as Kairen.”
That tender consolation seared her more fiercely than a red-hot branding iron.
Karla sobbed, unable to look at the Grand Duke’s black hair through her tears.
And amid those tears, she made a decision.
‘No more.’
For this man’s sake if nothing else, she had to save Karl.
With tear-filled eyes, Karla gazed at the Grand Duke’s black hair, the same black hair as Karl and Kairen.
The Grand Duke watched his wife silently.
After a long silence, he opened his mouth again.
“Karl said today that he would stand again.... That he would go to the academy.”
The Grand Duke’s expression hardened bitterly.
“But I’m afraid. I’m afraid that under the Empire’s scrutiny, that child will be hurt and broken again.”
The fear that Karl might collapse in a place where the Grand Duke could not protect him.
Karla touched the Grand Duke’s cheek with a trembling hand.
“If it’s Karl... if he’s the child who takes after you, he can do it.”
Karla said with conviction.
“Please... trust him and let him go.”
The Grand Duke silently gazed at his wife.
After a long while, he muttered in a low voice.
“As expected... it seems you know Karl better than I do, even though I’m his biological father.”
The Grand Duke’s voice was gentle.
But.
Swish.
The Grand Duke’s hand rose to Karla’s neck.
His hand gently encircled her neck.
He did not squeeze.
Yet beneath that heavy touch, Karla felt an irresistible pressure, as though it were slowly constricting her airway.
“Y-Your Grace...?”
Karla asked in alarm.
The Grand Duke’s gaze changed.
“Then why... did you hold on to Karl’s legs?”
Though his eyes were red, they were chillingly cold.