‘Even though I’m neither the newly elected aide nor the youngest one in the Oval Office.’
Lyndon finally stood in front of Raven with a rueful look on his face. As soon as a big shadow had loomed over, Raven’s sharp eyes instantly shot up.
“What is it?”
“Well—well, My Lord…”
No matter how rude Lyndon could be, he was strangely nervous right at that moment. Lyndon stuttered a little before closing his eyes and spouting out the words which needed to be said.
“My Lord, could you please proceed with the work.”
All of the people in the office immediately looked at Lyndon, who uttered those remarks, with such dreadful stares.
You said too much!
Someone had assumed that the Duke was not working properly at all. Raven’s forehead instantly turned to a frown, perhaps without even knowing the meaning in itself.
“Lyndon, are you sick?”
“It’s not that……… really.”
Lyndon scratched his head as he hesitated before he started to continue.
“No matter how much you love the Duchess, you are still overreacting.”
“What are you doing?”
“What?”
“Lyndon, what am I actually doing?”
Those harsh words that spewed had left Lyndon hiccupping internally.
“Oh, well—that’s…”
“It’s not just Lyndon who feels that way. I am also quite worried to hear that the Duchess is unwell, but it’s still better to finish today’s portion of work.”
In the end, Terrance helped a little as he could no longer stand it anymore. The two of them were already determined to be punished by Raven, but he, on the other hand, was confused about something else on the inside.
‘What am I doing? Love?’
His confused eyes trembled after quite a long time.
Raven Linerio wasn’t that ignorant in regard to women.
There were people who considered his family to be of a low profile, but still, they had approached him persistently. In any case, there were only two families that had earned the title of the Duke within the empire and the Linerio was one of the two.
Therefore, the intentions of those who had approached were as plain as day. They might have looked friendly in front of him, but they were laughing at him behind his back. Or worse, they even steered clear while they were in front of him.
“You must be strong—wherever you are.”
“Because the very same blood is flowing through those veins as well.”
There was a time when the vassals of the family were not properly informed beforehand. The Young Master, who was led by his own father, had been enough to be preyed upon by those people.
As the Duke became more actively engaging in politics, his mother had increasingly become more isolated. And thus, at the same time, the Duchess was often being laughed at in the social world.
The Duchess, who was already tired of such social circles, exhausted herself from day to day. It was to the extent that she could no longer care about her own young son as she tormented herself in what she was lacking from. There it was then, a Duke who cared nothing about the house, a Duchess who was never in a position to take care of others and a young child—that got caught in between the two—who was never properly loved.
He had learned to be wary of strangers even before he learned the feeling of love. He also realized that there would always be criticism behind all of those smiling faces.
It was rather impossible for him to be aware of the right feelings while having to live such an unenviable life ever since he was young. As he became devoted to the duality of the nobles, Raven eventually hid his own self. He learned how to conceal his feelings even before he got to learn to express his own affection.
When he was asked to behave in a polite manner and be considerate as he had learned before, he held back his nausea while imitating it. He learned how to suppress his own emotions at first, and then, he became a Duke.
The child, who always hated dealing with people, pursued martial arts before plunging into the battlefield. Several contributions and notable performances had made the Duke of Linerio shine even much more.
The more it shone, the more it stuck even closer. In order to avoid the same kind of marriage which he had been seeing steadily in full due to his parents’ own marriage, he had chosen a political marriage in the end.
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