Unrequited Love
Five days had passed since Darin and Kael returned from the victory parade.
Darin had locked herself in her room and spent several nights weeping. After enduring such torment more than once, the woman felt her mind growing a little clearer.
No matter how wretched she felt, the lady of the house could not go on presenting nothing but a haggard face. With her husband away, it fell to her—as the mistress—to pull herself together.
A noble’s indolence was the people’s suffering. She could not afford to neglect them simply because she herself was sad.
She ordered an outing at once. The maids hurried in, helped her bathe, straightened her clothes, and added a few simple ornaments.
Ever since returning to the castle, Darin had washed her body over and over. In ordinary times she would have bathed only lightly for the son who loved his mother’s scent; now that she knew why he craved it, she wanted no such thing.
Especially between her legs—she scrubbed with extra care whenever the maids looked away. That was where the fragrance her son loved most rose from.
“Mother, good morning. And it’s been a while.”
Click. The moment she pushed the door open to go out, the white-haired beast stood squarely in her path. Even so, this was mild. Originally Kael had been unable to restrain his lust and had tried to storm her bedchamber from the second night onward.
Kael, please! You wouldn’t want a broken woman either, would you? Just give your mother a little consideration so she can gather herself!
When she pleaded with genuine anguish, he had kept his face out of sight for a short while. The words she had spoken—You’re just like your father—still circled in his head as well.
“Hmph!”
Darin swept a cold glance over her son, turned her head away without mercy, and strode toward the study. Kael followed with a faintly wounded smile.
Before long an old man appeared in front of the mother and son who were hurrying along at a distance. He offered them a good morning, then turned a puzzled face to the mistress and asked,
“My lady, have you perhaps quarreled with the young master?”
“…No.”
Alred, the chief butler, had just returned today after a holiday with his grandchildren. The servants had told him the mother and son had grown distant, and as a loyal retainer he found it hard to let the matter pass.
Yet to the vassal’s worried question Darin only answered that it was nothing.
“I tried not to interfere if I could help it… but the other servants say my lady has spent several nights weeping.”
“Ah, Alred…”
“The other servants must have been deeply concerned as well. Being commoners, they simply dared not speak. So if it is not too forward, might you ease our anxiety?”
“I—it’s really nothing…”
“…Hmm.”
Under the old butler’s gaze as he stroked his beard, Darin could only glance about uneasily. Among all the servants he was one of the few who could freely voice an opinion to his lord.
If Baron Doston, head of the Huscarls, was her husband’s right hand, then Alred—who managed every major and minor affair of House Bayorn—was the left. Though only a baronet, his eighty years and long service meant even Baron Doston treated him with care.
And of all the servants, Alred fretted over Darin the most. His youngest grandson had once had orange hair like hers and had died young in an accident; ever since, Alred had looked after her with special tenderness, and she had trusted and followed him like a grandfather.
How could she tell a man who was practically her foster grandfather that her own son had raped her? If her husband retired soon, Alred would serve Kael; when Alred passed, his grandson would serve Kael in turn. Should he incur the future lord’s resentment, the whole family would suffer.
“But why do you look so downcast? When my lady is this sad, this old man cannot help but worry.”
“Th-the truth is… we just argued a little over marriage. Kael says he prefers some country noblewoman even though a princess has shown interest… hic!”
Feeling that simply saying “it’s fine” again would sound awkward, Darin cobbled together a rough story. She tried to keep her composure, yet the moment she saw the old man’s worried face the tears burst out of her.
Yes—this was the right way. Telling anyone that her son had forced her would only plunge House Bayorn into chaos.
I just have to keep my mouth shut. Just me…
Chief Butler Alred’s face hardened at the sight of his weeping lady. He immediately began to scold Kael beside him, and Kael declared that every word of his mother’s was true. He added that he would certainly apologize to her later and asked the old man not to worry too much.
“Very well. The two of you have always been so close; I am sure you will settle it yourselves. And young master—if this old man may speak out of turn—whatever other parents may be, my lady is a mother who deserves every respect. Even if there was some clash of opinion, I hope you will lower your head with a generous heart. They say there is no parent before a child, yet that is not how House Bayorn does things, is it?”
At the loyal retainer’s blunt words Kael nodded in acceptance. Being a noble himself, he did not use honorifics with Alred the way Darin did, yet he knew the man was one of the servants his mother cherished most and truly respected him.
“I will take it to heart. I was careless. Marriage is a delicate matter, and I lost my temper with Mother without realizing it. I will take care never to let it happen again, so I ask you to overlook it this once.”
Kael bowed his head in apology to Alred as well as to his mother. Alred waved both hands, insisting there was no need for such formality toward himself, then looked at the lady and continued,
“My lady, the young master seems to have reflected sufficiently. Might you not forgive him?”
“…All right.”
Darin nodded helplessly. The vassals watched the young lord earnestly accept the butler’s advice and praised him as expected of the young master. Alred himself showed no outward emotion, yet his eyes held quiet gratitude that the young lord had listened.
What mother, looking at a son who commanded the absolute loyalty of every vassal, could scream, “This mad bastard raped me!”? Acceptance was the only answer.
Setting her own dignity aside, even wounded as she was, Darin was still a mother; she could not block the smooth road of her son’s life.
Is this really my child? How can he act so completely unbothered…
She was relieved they had gotten through it safely, yet the son who performed so calmly while she suffered filled her with loathing. She was the one who ought to be raging, yet because he was her son she could not. The heated Viscountess simply strode once more toward the study.
—Click, click.
The mistress entered the study under the butler’s guidance. Once the servants confirmed that mother and son had gone inside, they bowed and withdrew.
The reason the noble lady had come to the Viscount’s study was simple: whenever her husband was away, every duty of House Bayorn fell to Viscountess Darin. Now that the young lord had returned from the Demon King’s subjugation, that authority was in the process of being transferred to Kael.
Yes. Darin had come for nothing more than that. She had not yet finished the handover to her son. And that was precisely why she had kept putting the day off—because she was afraid of being alone with him.
“……”
Silence settled over the study the two of them had entered. Kael stared out the window without a word, then—
—Sss.
—gently enclosed his mother’s small hand and spoke the first words.
“I missed you, Mother.”
“……”
“Why won’t you answer? That hurts.”
“Sit down first. We have matters to discuss regarding the Surdland Count family, our rival territory.”
The Surdland Counts, like the Bayorn Viscounts, were vassals of the Northern Grand Duke. They had been a knightly house that clashed with the Bayorns back when the latter were still an independent petty kingdom rather than nobles.
That history continued to the present day. The Surdlanders dismissed the Bayorns as barbarians; the Bayorns dismissed the Surdlanders as soft weaklings.
Therefore the points of conflict with them were something she absolutely had to pass on to Kael. Lately the Surdland Counts’ movements had been anything but ordinary.
“The Surdlands… that is important, of course. But there is something more important.”
Unlike his mother, the son seemed to regard it lightly. Darin blinked at his words and sent him an uneasy look, wondering what he meant to say. From the start his lower body had been so massively erect that looking away was impossible.
“How many nobles outside Bayorn Territory know of Mother’s existence? Can you tell me?”
Fortunately the question he posed was relatively normal. Abrupt, yes—but compared to a son asking his own mother to offer her hips, it was positively civilized.
“…Nobles who know your mother’s face? Fewer than ten, and the only one with real influence is the Northern Grand Duke, lord of the North.”
Even while feeling relieved, Darin’s eyes kept drifting to her son’s straining cock. How could they not? He was so aroused that clear fluid was already seeping through his trousers.
“Ah, Mother, pay it no mind. I’ve been suffering lovesickness for days because of one woman who treats me so coldly…”
Sensing the girl’s gaze, Kael merely smiled faintly. She could not begin to guess what was going through his mind.
Only then did Darin meet her son’s eyes. Kael was staring at her while breathing hotly, as though enduring something of his own.
There was nothing she could do for him. All she could do was play dumb and hope that, at least inside the mansion, her son would not rape her. Looking at that throbbing erection, it seemed he had not even masturbated—yet she could not fathom why.
So Darin simply pretended not to notice and listed the items for the handover.
Kael, for his part, let a strange nuance hang in the air as his eyes slowly traveled over his mother’s body.