When Arthur hurried back to the Felice Kingdom, it was after two things that were hard to believe had already happened. Arthur forgot the King’s face for a while. He jumped out of the carriage and ran across the palace in a glance.
“Father?” Evelyn’s eyes were wide open, surprised by Arthur, who opened the door.
“Is the news true?”
“Have you heard it already?”
“I heard it! so I asked if it was true??”
“Yes.” Evelyn nodded.
“I didn’t know what’s going on either. But His Majesty said that he didn’t want to watch the famine on the continent. It wasn’t his plan to block the trade road. And he had already sent the crop remedy to the south.”
After the Empire stopped the trade routes, Arthur had already imagined for the worst. He even had to be prepared to give up trading with the North. However, the Emperor’s will was different from him, and it was shocking to know that he was also actively trying to stop the famine in the south.
“Sigh…..” Arthur sighed, leaning his tired body on the sofa.
“Your Majesty has promised that there won’t be an exploitation or tyranny in trade anymore. It will be a fair deal.”
Arthur didn’t know the whole story, but it was a good news. However, Fabian’s intention to deliver such news in person was suspicious.
“Is that all?”
“Yes, it’s just… ” Evelyn blurred the end of her sentence. She thought there was no need to worry her father.
“Fortunately, Sir Liam offered to serve His Majesty himself, so he went to the Duke of Akshire.”
“That’s great.”
It wasn’t relieved to leave Fabian in the same palace as Evelyn without King Arthur. Of course, Liam would have done more than that.
“I don’t know if it’s good or not.”
“As long as he isn’t in the Felice Palace.” said Arthur.
“Not that, but Sir Serus, His Majesty’s aide, went with him to the Akshire.”
“Of course he’s His Majesty’s aide.” Arthur replied, but suddenly he opened his eyes wide as he answered in the wrong way.
“Sir Serus, isn’t he the second son of the Duke of Perth?”
“Yes… That’s why!”
“······that Imperial’s man…..”
There was Lady Rebecca in Akshire, who had been divorced from Serus’ older brother even though Fabian knew that Evelyn didn’t understand why the Emperor allowed Serus to accompany him or why Serus agreed to follow him.
“For Lady Rebecca, Serus is like a pain in the ass.”
Evelyn swallowed her worries in her heart, wondering what would happen if the two met together. She only hoped that there wouldn’t be bloodshed against Serus in Akshire.
“It’s all right. There’s Sir Liam.”
“Yes, the Duke of Akshire is always reliable.”
However, the two hadn’t yet fully realized that Rebecca was stronger than Liam.
“Oh, more than that. Don’t you have more important news?” Arthur asked, with his eyes wide open.
“Huh? I just told you everything, ·······.”
Even though Evelyn’s words were over, Arthur made a worldly face as if there was a great misfortune in the Felice Kingdom.
“Adrian, my dear Adrian!” he said.
“······Ah, that’s…..”
“Why? When I was away from the palace, did he start talking again? Of all things! Why!”
Seeing her mourning father, Evelyn felt complicated. Adrian’s mother was her, but Arthur always blamed her.
“Please, Father, let those people report only urgent matters at the palace. “
Arthur sighed deeply, “For me, Adrian is more urgent than anything else!”
“Okay, I get it, I get it….. I didn’t tell you everything. But now I’m in a hurry. So listen to the rest from mother.” Evelyn tried to escape. But Arthur looked up Evelyn with sore eyes.
“Adrian called you by name, huh? Good for you, · · · · ·.” Her father’s eyes, filled with sincere jealousy, were bothersome.
“That’s a problem, too. Adrian should learn etiquette.”
Of course, Evelyn’s heart had melted away at the time. But looking back, Adrian had a problem with his manners. She didn’t want to hear that he grew up as a spoiled child because he was pampered and raised in a room. That’s what the people of the Empire used to say.
“We still can correct his lack of respect later, but we can’t let him call an adults only by name.”
“Evelyn! Adrian is only a child with ten teeth now.”
“No, … Adrian called my name like that probably because of the influence of the two of you.”
“Why are we!”
“You always call me Evelyn, so Adrian must have seen and learned that.”
As soon as Arthur closed his mouth to her word, he immediately looked at Evelyn. “Then should I call you a Princess?”
“That’s not it……”
“Huh, time will solve it. Adrian can call me ‘father’ soon! Then the ordering will be natural. Or you want me to call you a servants!”
“Where you’re going…? Don’t tell me.”
Arthur got up from his seat, “I’m going to take a bath. So I can hug Adrian cleanly.”
Later, before Evelyn’s sigh was over, Arthur had disappeared. She felt as if there was a storm coming. She understood Arthur’s disappointment and half-hearted jealousy. But it was also true that Adrian was particularly sulky with Arthur when he devoted himself to it.
“Do you get sick of showing too much affection? Even a child can get tired of it.”
She figured that Arthur would rub his rough beard and that Adrian would inflate his cheek, nodding his head.
There’s something unexpectedly bothering her. Arthur said that soon Adrian would call him Father. It was already decided from the beginning, and Evelyn agreed with that.
“But······.”
In her mind, she understood it. Still, she couldn’t erase the thought of sinking like a heavy stone somewhere in her heart. Of all things, the memory of meeting Adrian’s real father today overlapped and scattered Evelyn’s heart. If it weren’t for some reason, Adrian would have been raised to know and follow Fabian as his father.
“No, no.” Evelyn shook her head. There was nothing good about drawing more thoughts. If Fabian knew in the first place that Adrian was his son, Adrian couldn’t grow up like this. Far from watching the growth process like this, and Evelyn wouldn’t have been able to name him.
“He’s still too young. I can’t believe he would send such a child to another mansion…”
It was too bitter about imagining it. It was a sacred duty for nobles to raise the Imperial family, so it was impossible to express affection privately or adore their cuteness.
“It’s so sad.”
The young Imperial family was always the subject of education and was asked to do the same thing as adults.
“Like him…..”
Fabian’s calm face came to her mind. That was the moment when he said his childhood was just fine. He didn’t mind it, but Evelyn’s heart ached at sight. If she could, she wanted to go back in time and hugged Fabian in his childhood.
“It’s very hard.”
But it wasn’t Evelyn’s job. Sometimes they had a very sad relationship. When Evelyn was on Fabian’s side, she couldn’t read the loneliness hidden under his cold attitude. At that time for Evelyn, hugging her loneliness was already a burdensome thing, how she could see him properly.
“Even though I turned back once, it’s still hard.”
Evelyn had already withered once and returned in time after her death. She put down the Empress’ crown, which was only painful, and everything changed. She regained her freedom, and she was able to hug Adrian.
Evelyn had changed, because of that, now she could see Fabian’s solitude. Being noble since he was born, he was boundless lonely, cold, and sad. He was alone all his life, so he couldn’t even realize he was lonely.
“I don’t deserve your sympathy.”
Fabian didn’t know about love. Evelyn left him sick by such a thing. Evelyn wasn’t mean. There’s a good reason for that, and it’s a great choice. And in the end, she was right to leave him.
★★★
There was dinner at Akshire’s residence to welcome the Emperor, and the atmosphere was very bizarre.
First of all, the former Duke of Akshire, Liam’s father, didn’t show his face with an excuse for old age. The main character, the Emperor, didn’t want to participate in dinner without Evelyn, so he went to his room immediately. However, nobility’s etiquette was a rule that had to be prepared even without the main character.
“It’s an honor to have Your Majesty at the Duke of Akshire. … …although Your Majesty is not here.” Sitting at the end of the long table, Liam said in his capacity as the host, and those thorny words were addressed to Serus.
“Your Majesty will also be glad to see Akshire’s sincerity….” Serus couldn’t be too hostile to Liam. His loyalty to Fabian from childhood was great. So, he couldn’t help but accept Liam’s words about the Emperor.
“Then, let’s say that glory and sincerity have been achieved.” Rebecca quietly opened her mouth and a cold sensation riding on Liam’s back.
“Let’s find out what’s here, shall we?” Rebecca’s red lips twisted and smiled coolly, and her fingers were holding the thin wine glass so tightly.
“Sir Serus, I have an uncomfortable feeling as a host of Akshire. No matter how the Imperial man is not concerned with the past, I want to know why Sir Serus, the second son of the Duke of Perth, came to our Duke of Akshire with pride.” Liam did his part wonderfully after a long time.
“Sir Liam, I am.” Serus opened his mouth calmly.
“He has no idea. It’s the basic principle of knowing feelings , emotions, and atmosphere.” Without waiting to hear his answer, Rebecca’s cold voice suddenly rang, and she stared at Serus with her green eyes.
“Well, I haven’t said anything yet. Lady Rebecca, as you know, as I have served His Majesty as a member of the Black Knights, I have given up my position as Duke.”
Only
“Oh, my Goodness. It’s not just thoughts, feelings, and concepts, you also don’t have a status either!”
Liam had begun to realize that his decision was wrong. He wasn’t supposed to bring Serus to his home, as expected.
“And still, if you show your face here, it means you don’t have any pride, right? At this point, I wonder what you have. Well, there’s nothing, of course.”
“I have a mission to serve His Majesty.” Serus said calmly, but he seemed to have fallen into her provocation.
“What Lady Rebecca has to say…”
“How dare a man from Perth calls my name!” Without a moment of hesitation, Rebecca stood up and poured red wine on Serus’ face.
Serus blinked a few times as if the time had stopped. And the same thing was true of Liam. His time seemed to have stopped.
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