Chapter 51
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 6
Chapter Title: Does Not Assert Her Own Claim First
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‘Please...’
A long while later, the Grand Duke finally spoke.
“...You’ve been holed up in your room, and all that’s grown is your sentimentality, Karl.”
“......”
“Withdraw. I’m tired.”
With those words, the Grand Duke rose from his seat.
“Your Grace, I apologize for the poor hospitality right after the patrol. Eisen, haven’t you been talking about retirement yourself? Isn’t it time you rested instead of wasting effort on useless matters?”
The Grand Duke turned his back and headed for the door.
The conversation was effectively over.
Karl bowed his head.
“Father...”
Even so, Karl called out one last time.
The Grand Duke adjusted his collar and replied indifferently.
“It’s urgent, isn’t it?”
“Pardon?”
“If it’s something you’ve thought about so deeply before bringing it up, shouldn’t I at least have half that time to consider it?”
“......!”
Karl’s head snapped up.
I met Eisen’s eyes.
It’s... not a refusal!
He said he’d think about it.
This stubborn man, who had berated him as a disgrace to the family, had avoided an immediate answer and held off.
Proof that the Grand Duke’s heart was shaken.
His son’s sincerity had created a small crack in that icy resolve.
Now, just one thing left...
The Grand Duke’s heart had opened a gap.
Now it needed the decisive blow to pry it wide.
Tonight.
Kairun’s persuasion at Karla’s bedside.
If her words succeeded, the Grand Duke would fully open his heart and permit Karl’s journey to the academy.
“...We’ll take our leave. Rest well.”
Karl offered his trembling farewell.
We quietly slipped out of the study.
Our footsteps echoed lighter down the corridor than when we’d come.
At that very moment, in the Grand Duke couple’s shared bedroom, Karla sat before her vanity, trembling hands adjusting her makeup.
Staring straight at her reflection.
The face of a wife awaiting her husband, and a mother determined to protect her son.
In the deathly silence where even the moonlight seemed frozen, Kairun paced the corridor with anxious steps.
The boy bit his lip, gazing endlessly toward the main building where the Grand Duchess’s bedroom lay.
To save his brother, he had persuaded his mother, and she had accepted the plan.
But as time dragged on, his certainty faded, replaced by rising fear.
Did I... just send Mother to her doom?
His father was the ruthless ruler of the North.
What if he saw through her intentions?
What if he discovered she was being blackmailed by Slokina?
And that she had tried to harm his brother?
The mere thought choked him.
“Young Master.”
Eisen’s calm voice reached him.
Dressed in a nightshirt with a robe over it, he regarded Kairun with worried eyes.
“Master...”
Kairun called out in a quavering voice.
“Will Mother... pull it off? What if Father notices? If everything goes wrong... I...”
“Calm yourself.”
Eisen gripped his disciple’s trembling shoulders.
“Young Master. Now is the time to wait.”
“But...”
“The die has been cast. All we can do is trust that the Grand Duchess will fulfill her part and wait.”
The baron’s voice held no tremor.
That steadfastness eased Kairun’s anxiety, if only a little.
“She is a mother. For her child’s sake, a woman can grow stronger than any warrior. Have faith.”
“...Yes.”
Kairun nodded.
But the guilt lingered.
The boy clasped his hands and prayed fervently.
Please, let this night pass safely.
At the same time, in the Grand Duke’s bedroom, Karla sat on the bed, clutching her hands tightly in her lap.
Her heart pounded as if it might burst.
I can do this. I must.
She repeated it endlessly.
The courage Kairun had given her.
And atonement for Karl.
Her two sons sustained her.
Clank.
The door opened.
Karla hastily composed her expression.
Hiding her fear and guilt behind a mask, she donned the most beautiful, gentle smile of a wife.
The Northguard Grand Duke entered.
In black nightclothes, he looked somewhat fatigued, unlike the imposing figure from the study.
He approached the bedside and looked down at Karla.
“...Not asleep?”
“I was waiting.”
Karla replied softly.
The Grand Duke sat on the edge of the bed, a bitter expression crossing his face.
“It’s been a while. Feels like you’ve been avoiding sharing my bed these past few months.”
“......”
Karla’s heart tightened.
It was true.
For the past few months, she had made excuses to avoid sleeping with the Grand Duke.
For fear her deteriorating body from the poison would be discovered.
To hide her gaunt ribs and the nightly agonies.
“I’m sorry. I haven’t been well...”
Karla lowered her gaze and lied.
“But... Eisen Baron mentioned retirement today, and it worried me since he came in person. I thought you might have much on your mind... I wanted to be by your side.”
“......”
The Grand Duke stared at Karla in silence.
His gaze was so deep and piercing that she held her breath.
But he said nothing more, merely lifting the covers and slipping inside.
Swish.
The Grand Duke reached out and pulled Karla into his arms.
A faint warmth amid the firm, cold embrace.
“Tonight... with a guest here, just hold me.”
The Grand Duke mumbled, burying his face in Karla’s chest.
At his childlike gesture, Karla lifted a trembling hand to stroke his hair.
She loved this man.
That was why deceiving him hurt more than death.
Silence fell, and the Grand Duke spoke first.
“I wrote the recommendation for Princess Elishia.”
“Ah... Well done.”
“I’ve been thinking of pairing her with Kairun. Bastard or not, she’s imperial blood. And the Fourth Prince backs her.”
The Grand Duke casually revealed his political calculations.
“If I bind Kairun to imperial lineage, it’ll be a great asset when he inherits the duchy later.”
A political marriage for Kairun.
Normally, she might have opposed it as too harsh for a mere child.
But now, it was an opening.
Karla carefully chimed in.
“A fine idea... Even with Northguard’s deep historical ties to the imperial family, reinforcing them once more wouldn’t hurt.”
She did not assert her own claim first.
Agreeing with his view, she naturally opened the path for conversation.
The Grand Duke looked up at Karla.
“Unexpected. I thought as a woman, you’d want Kairun to marry for true love.”
“Mine was a political marriage too... yet here I am, loved by you.”
Karla forced a smile.
“You showed me that a cold beginning can end in warmth. Kairun... could have that too.”
The Grand Duke gave a wry smile.
“At first... it wasn’t like that.”
“Your Grace...”
“When I lost my first wife and was lost in grief... you came from Slokina. I didn’t want you. It was just a transaction for the family’s gain.”
The Grand Duke confessed honestly.
“I gave you no part of my heart. I planned to leave the spot beside me empty forever.”
“I know...”
“But... Karl.”
The Grand Duke’s voice softened.
“The boy who should have grieved his mother’s loss most... approached you before his own father did. He clung to your skirts, called you ‘Mother’ in his childish lisp, and you embraced him.”
Karla’s eyes grew hot.
She remembered.
A foreign land of strangers.
A cold husband.
Hostile gazes.
The only one who shared warmth with her: that small child.
“Karl... has always been a better son than I deserved. Because he accepted you, I could love you too.”
The Grand Duke took Karla’s hand.
“Seeing this hand scarred from burns yet cherishing him like your own... that melted my heart.”
“......”
Karla bit her lip.
That love now tore her apart.
Her most precious son.
The child who had bound her to her husband.
The fact that she had tried to kill him with her own hands was unbearable agony.
The Grand Duke’s confession continued.
“The day that child injured his leg in the carriage accident... my world crumbled.”
His grip tightened.
“Yet when he succeeded in rehabilitation and stood again... I acted gruff on the outside, but inside, I can’t describe my joy. I thanked the gods over and over.”
“......”
“Perhaps... I was jealous of my own son. At my age, I wasn’t as resilient. That unbreakable will to rise after his leg shattered... it shone so brightly, I couldn’t even look straight at it.”
The Grand Duke’s voice trembled.
The mighty Northguard Grand Duke showed weakness before his wife for the first time.
“But... seeing such a child collapse again from some unknown illness, growing feeble...”
Karla’s eyes stung.
“I couldn’t bear to watch. My pride, my hope, withering away... I couldn’t take it in. So... I was harsh. Better he vanish from my sight.”
A father’s flight, too loving to witness the ruin.
Tears finally spilled from Karla’s eyes.
“Hic...”
All her fault.
She had stayed silent, knowing Slokina—her homeland—plotted the carriage accident.
And now, poisoning him with her own hand.
She had ruined her husband’s love, her son’s life, the family’s happiness. A sinner.
“There, there.”
The Grand Duke held the weeping Karla, patting her back.
“You’re tender-hearted... Karl’s pain must feel like my fault to you. You loved him as much as Kairun.”
That gentle comfort burned her like a red-hot iron.
Karla sobbed into his black hair, unable to meet his eyes.
And amid those tears, she resolved.
No more.
For this man’s sake too, she must save Karl.
With tear-wet eyes, Karla took in the Grand Duke’s black hair—so like Karl’s and Kairun’s.
The Grand Duke silently watched his wife.
After a long silence, he spoke again.
“Today, Karl said he’d rise again... He wants to go to the academy.”
His expression hardened bitterly.
“But I’m afraid. Afraid he’ll be hurt and broken again under the empire’s gaze.”
Fear that he’d crumble where he couldn’t protect him.
Karla caressed the Grand Duke’s cheek with trembling fingers.
“If it’s Karl... if it’s that son who takes after you, he can do it.”
Karla spoke with conviction.
“Please... trust him and let him go.”
The Grand Duke silently watched his wife.
And after a long moment, he murmured lowly.
“As expected... you seem to know Karl better than his own father.”
His voice was gentle.
But.
Swish.
The Grand Duke’s hand rose to Karla’s throat.
It wrapped softly, not squeezing.
Yet that heavy touch brought an inescapable pressure, slowly tightening her breath.
“Y-Your Grace...?”
Karla asked in panic.
The Grand Duke’s eyes changed.
“Then why... did you try to cripple Karl’s leg?”
Red eyes, icily cold.