Chapter 11
Chapter 11
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 11
Chapter Title: The Impostor Child
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Last summer. It was around the time they were spending their vacation at the summer villa in the northern territory.
A strange woman came to see him, bringing along a boy she claimed was his son.
"My child?"
The unfamiliar woman insisted as much.
"Yes!"
Under normal circumstances, she would have been stopped by the guards before even reaching him.
But the temporary palace they were staying at for the summer vacation had somewhat lax discipline.
When he asked Juliet what she wanted to do during the vacation, she said she wanted to go boating on the lake.
Having spent the past three days cooped up in the bedroom, he agreed without a second thought.
While Juliet, beaming unusually brightly, stepped out briefly to prepare for the outing,
A dim-witted rookie guard mistook the stranger for Juliet and let her in.
He lounged on the bed like a languid black panther, greeting the uninvited guest.
"He's your son, Your Grace. See for yourself."
The woman—who he couldn't recall the name or face of, some actress's maid—said as much.
She proudly presented the boy, dolled up like a doll and treated like an ornament.
The boy, dressed in a flashy blouse with a brooch, shorts, and a hat, looked about ten years old.
For some reason, the boy was trembling and couldn't even meet his eyes.
Lennox gave a disinterested appraisal.
"He's a bit big for seven years old."
"Th-that's because... he's your child, Your Grace! Eric takes after you and will make a fine knight!"
After a moment of fluster, the woman shoved the boy toward him with renewed bravado.
Then, as if to prove her point, she yanked off the boy's hat.
"Look at this hair and these red eyes. You'll know. Eric is your son."
Lennox stared impassively at the terrified boy.
It was a fact known to everyone in the empire.
Children of the Carlyle Ducal House were all born with black hair and red eyes.
A chilling ruby red, like a drop of blood on a white pigeon.
That was the reason their bloodline's legitimacy had remained unscathed through centuries of bloody succession wars.
And the boy this vague-faced woman had brought did indeed have red eyes and black hair.
"My son."
"Pardon?"
Lennox placed a hand on the boy's shoulder, smiled faintly, and called out to Elliott.
"More than that, Elliott, come here and take a look. This boy claims to be my son?"
"Y-Your Highness."
"What do you think? Does he resemble me?"
Lennox Carlyle bent down to meet the frozen boy's eyes.
"Your name is Eric?"
His voice was far kinder and gentler than expected.
His handsome features worked even on children. And the moment the relaxed child unwittingly smiled and nodded back at him—
Lennox's hand snatched the large brooch pinned to the boy's blouse in one swift motion.
"Th-that...!"
Before the woman could cry out in shock—
Crack.
The brooch shattered in his grip.
At the same time, the boy's true eye and hair color were revealed.
"Not bad. You used your head."
Lennox murmured, gazing down at the brooch reduced to powder.
It was a cheap magic tool that altered eye and hair color.
came echoing, but he ignored it.
Yet before he could take more than a few steps, Lennox Carlyle spotted a woman standing dazed at the hall's entrance.
She was leaning against one of the marble pillars at the doorway.
As if she might collapse otherwise.
'...Juliet?'
He paused, about to ask how long she'd been there.
Juliet wasn't looking at him.
Her gaze was fixed on the woman being dragged away and the wailing child.
"Y-You're making a mistake, Your Grace! This boy is your son!"
The woman shouted to the very end as she was hauled out.
Lennox realized he had unconsciously clenched his fist.
He had been watching only Juliet, but Juliet hadn't been watching him.
Juliet couldn't tear her eyes away from the hat being dragged out, as if entranced.
Once the guards had dragged them all away and the screams echoing through the hall finally died down—
The vast hall held only Juliet and him.
Only then did Juliet lift her head.
Their eyes met briefly, but he said nothing.
Juliet merely gazed at him in silence, her face pale and unreadable.
There was no accusation or shock on Juliet's ashen face.
She simply stared at him steadily with her calm, quiet blue eyes.
As she always did.
**
To Lennox Carlyle, it was merely a farce not even worth mocking.
Children weren't born so easily in the Carlyle line to begin with. Whether due to the legend of non-human blood from a distant ancestor, who knew.
Despite being a bloodline mad with all sorts of desires, the lack of sprawling collateral branches was thanks to that as well.
Bastards were a foreign concept in the ducal house.
Moreover, he had never maintained a long-term relationship with any woman. The sole exception was one person: Juliet Monad.
But the frauds had no way of knowing that. Countless con artists came swindling, clinging only to the tale of red-eyed children in the Carlyle Ducal House.
Yet at that moment, had he explained the situation to her? The Juliet who remained there hadn't chased after him demanding answers either.
'Even though she'd been excited like a child over something as trivial as a boat ride.'
When he said she should return, the woman boarded the carriage without asking why.
Even with her sitting silently by the window the whole way back, he said nothing.
Damn it.
Their relationship had been like that from the start.
He never explained anything, and Juliet never asked him for reasons. And for far too long, he had taken that for granted.
A relationship doomed to end anyway.
A woman he could send away anytime with a careless farewell.
He thought brief, light kisses were enough instead of bothersome words.
But maybe that wasn't right.
Even if she didn't ask, should he have grabbed her and demanded to know what she was thinking?
Lennox realized too late what possibility he had overlooked.
Perhaps the Juliet who came looking for him hadn't seen the moment the woman's lie was exposed.
Maybe all Juliet saw was him ordering the crying child and woman dragged away.
Perhaps only the back of a man coldly turning away from his own flesh and blood.
After the man passed her without a word of explanation and left, Juliet had remained alone there for a long time.
What thoughts had run through that quiet woman's mind as she stood there by herself?
Clenching his teeth atop a horse madly galloping down the road, he wondered.
"Just..."
"Please let me go."
"Haven't I done well enough until now?"
A faint smile, an attitude that seemed hasty as if hiding something—though he had no idea what to do, one thing was clear.
He had to see Juliet.
He had to meet her and ask.
He had to ask what she was so afraid of that she ran away.
No matter what worst-case scenario she imagined, he had to explain it wasn't true.
The fine black horse of noble blood covered the vast distance in an instant at startling speed, arriving at the ducal residence.
No sooner had he arrived than Lennox dropped the reins of the heaving horse and leaped down.
The front courtyard of the mansion was in chaos with servants loading carriages and luggage for the departure north, as he had ordered.
"M-Master?"
The mansion's steward spotted him and came running in surprise.
"Where's Juliet?"
"Pardon?"
"I asked where Juliet is."
"Ah... The lady just went to the annex..."
Lennox didn't wait, bolting straight for the annex.
"My lord!"
By the time his knights caught up and reached the inner courtyard, he had already flung open the annex door and was bounding up the stairs to the second floor.
Bang.
"Juliet?"
But when he threw open the door to the lit room on the second floor, her bedroom was empty.
A room without its owner.
Only a single butterfly scattering a bluish glow fluttered about.