Translator and Editor: Skye and Nabi

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Chapter 23

Carlaudin was in the office in a hurry.

He is trying not only to rule the duchy, but also to move the political landscape of the entire Empire. Although he’s still a little weak now, if he’s a little stronger, no one would dare to stop him in five years.

The aristocracy will disappear.

The problem is the Imperial family, but he couldn’t think of a way to hold and shake them off other than marriage.

‘That’s how important Elanie is, as the figurehead of the Imperial family.’

The emperor is still young, so he is not the front runner right now, but everyone expected her to grow into an influential figure.

Then, he heard a knock.

“Father, it’s me Laria.”

“Come on in.”

The door crept open, and Laria came in.

“Thank you for the gift, Father.” Laria smiled and bowed her back.

“I’m wearing my father’s dress, hair accessory, and necklace!”

Carlaudin doesn’t have any sense of fashion with women’s clothes, so he just nodded bluntly.

It didn’t look much different from what she wore yesterday.

Laria had a harmless and cute impression no matter what she wore. Rolling her eyes and often wandering around as if she was a squirrel.

Maybe it’s because she is sick, but I think she is shorter than her age.

Compared to Evan, who is a year younger, she is rather small. No matter how tall Evan is, there is a big difference in their physique.

“So, I was thinking about what I should do to express my gratitude.”

With Laria’s words, Carlaudin smirked and said.

“That’s enough. You can tell the chef, not me.”

“…What?”

“You said thank you.”

“Ah!”

Laria gave a look of oblivion for a moment and then laughed.

“Ahhhhhhhahaha! Father, that’s so funny. Hahahaha!”

Laria, who had been laughing for a long time, held out a piece of paper to him, who was somewhat proud.

“It’s a little bit shabby, but I prepared this for you.”

Laria stuck out a piece of paper to him, who was lost in thought. At first, Carlaudin didn’t recognize it at all, but now he was somewhat able to.

‘Dad, thank you very much.’

It doesn’t look like him at all, but three people…

“Is this me?”

“…No, that’s Evan.”

“Then, this is me?”

“Oh… you’re wrong again after all.”

Laria drooped her shoulders. “I drew it because I thought father liked it.”

From the first time he saw her, he thought it was good because she is a weak and insignificant girl, who seemed to have no ability, but she is strangely cute.

‘Come to think of it. I went out with Evan for the first time, thanks to Laria. I haven’t had any contact with Evan ever since.’

Evan is a complex being that he didn’t want to think very deeply about.

At first, he was not in a state where he could pay attention to his son after losing Matilda. Then, they became awkward to get along with his son, who grew up so suddenly. However, it was not that Evan is not precious enough for him.

Evan, of course, is the reason why he is working hard to make up for all this.

Though, after Matilda left, he had never thought about a harmonious family or anything.

Warm and bright families, as he thought, are not possible without Matilda. But surprisingly, very surprisingly, the daughter-in-law was able to make it happen…

“Daddy.”

Laria had her eyes round to him.

“You know what? Come to think of it, the three of us haven’t been together since the race track.”

“…I don’t get to spend time with Evan.”

“But we’re family.”

That one word solved everything. Laria tilted her head and said. “It’ll be fine.”

“We each spend so much time alone that we don’t even feel the need to get along with each other.”

“It’d be nice if we could cheer for each other, even in our alone time!”

Laria clapped her hands as if she had an excellent idea and asked excitedly.

“Evan worked very hard in sword training. I think he’s doing well. Do you want to go watch him with me?”

“That’s enough.” Carlaudin cut her sentence at once.

He knew that Evan was training swordsmanship in the Knights, but he didn’t pay much attention.

He only thought that Evan went through the same growth process because he also liked swords as a child.

Carlaudin heard he won first place in any competition he went into, and if Evan is his child, he would skip the compliment because he thought it might be embarrassing to hear. But anyway, he is a child who looked like him in many ways.

“But I really want to see him… after Evan met the Knight Commander General, he came in late and went out at dawn. I can’t even see his face properly…”

“Then, just look at him because I’m busy. There’s no time to watch a child swing a sword.”

“Evan’s not a child!”

“He is thirteen and is always in love with everything.”

“Of course, that’s true, but…” Laria fiddled her painting and murmured in despair.

“We’re a family of three…”

“…”

“When I was at the Earl of Rostry, my family didn’t get along very well. But I really wanted to get along here, so the three of us could make a lot of good memories together.”

“…”

“I didn’t even see Evan last tea time. It’s just so saddening… Cough, Cough, Cough!”

Her voice, which had become less and less energetic, was eventually buried by her violent cough. Laria covered her mouth with a handkerchief for a while and coughed like crazy.

“Lisa says, cough! She didn’t even see Evan in the Knights, Cough! I told her not to look for him, cough cough! So, snooze! I can’t go alone…”

Holding a handkerchief to her mouth in a hurry, the corner of her dress looked to have stained from blood again.

“I’m sick, and I’m lying down most of the time, so I want to make a lot of good memories, especially when I can move around.”

Carlaudin took the painting from Laria’s hand and looked at her.

After he put the paper on his desk in the office, sighed and nodded his head.

“COUGH! COUGH! COUGH! COUGH! I’m… I’m telling you, Evan and father…COUGH!”

Laria is now coughing violently, almost falling again.

He recalled when he decided to let Laria in as his daughter-in-law.

“Matilda, I came because I had a hard time.”

He went to Matilda’s grave, there was a woman who came before him. She was crying and muttering. It was Countess Rostry.

“My husband is so busy cheating on me, the son who was defying him has been kicked out to the East, and you, my best friend, have died so early.”

She referred to Matilda as her close friend.

He knew it right away.

“And my daughter, Laria could die soon as well. She’s had numerous complications with her garba lung disease. Even if she lives long, she will only last until she is in her early twenties. I couldn’t tell anyone because I was so scared.”

He hid his words and waited quietly for his wife’s friend to say everything she wanted to say.

“What are we going to do with Laria… my heart breaks whenever she coughs blood.”

Then, Countess Rostry died suddenly in a carriage accident with her husband. Upon hearing the news, Carlaudin immediately brought Laria and married her to Evan. Laria had nowhere to go anyway, and rather than wander from place to place and die miserably, Carlaudin took her in instead.

He thought it would be better.

Evan was at the Academy, and there couldn’t have been a proper wedding, and he just submitted the marriage documents.

First of all, he thought it would be perfect if she could just die when it’s appropriate.

“All right, let’s go.”

She is a child who would die young, though he could not turn a blind eye to such a request. These days, whenever he sees Laria’s face, he feels unknown guilt. No, maybe it’s not guilt, but…

“Let’s go make those damn good memories.”

Laria’s cough slowly stopped as though it was a lie.

He looked into Laria’s sparkling eyes and murmured as if he were talking to himself.

“It’s not that I want to do it.”

His plan was to make Elanie the Empress.

Without the Imperial’s cooperation, his secret long-cherished desire could not have been achieved. He can’t let his mind weaken now.

Carlaudin has never thought about seeing his son’s sword training. He thought Evan would do well on his own because he is a son who was just like him after all.

“Yes, Father! Let’s go!”

With only half his waist height, Laria excitedly grabbed him by the arm. She’s taking him away pretending he can’t win over her.

Laria led him to the strange side.

“Laria? Not that way.”

Naturally, he frowned, but Laria shook her head with her eyes wide open.

“No, they say Evan’s taking solo lessons. It’s from Ludva!”

“…This way?”

“Yes. I’m sure it’s behind the rose garden.” Laria smiled as if she knew nothing.

Carlaudin was forced to follow her with unwilling steps.

‘The rose garden is a place that Matilda had taken care of and hasn’t been touched since she had passed away.’

It was because it pains him to see the roses that had lost their caring owner.

‘And if it’s Ludva…’

He was initially the one who looked at Matilda with an unhappy look.

When Matilda said she was leaving the city, three people escorted her but two of them suddenly left out of nowhere.

So, Ludva and Matilda went out together, and he felt awful about it. This is because he thought Ludva, who had been looking at Matilda, intentionally orchestrated it.

If Matilda hadn’t stopped him, he would have prevented her from leaving with Ludva right away.

Of course, everyone was complaining that it was his obsession, rather than Ludva’s fault. Carlaudin was obsessed with Matilda, so…

Then, after Matilda died, he was entirely not that interested in Ludva.

And when the knights recommended Ludva as the next knights’ commander ahead of his retirement, he approved it without much thought.

Since then, Ludva hasn’t caused any trouble. In addition, he didn’t do anything against him. Although, it was the first time he heard that he was teaching Evan individually.

The Duke and Duchess knew Carlaudin wasn’t particularly interested in Evan, so they only spoke very little about him. He had a lot more important issues than Evan, in the duke’s mountains of work.

But he didn’t feel good because it was a private lesson with Ludva.

It was around the time when he heard that Evan was going to the smoke field, Carlaudin thought he should have asked him in more detail instead of passing it indifferently.

“Daddy.” Laria whispered.

“Don’t let them know we’re here, just watch secretly. I want to see if Evan is really good. If he’s aware that we’re here, it could interfere with his training.”

He didn’t come because he wanted to, anyway. So, he didn’t reply anything after Laria had begged him, so he nodded his head gently.

Indeed, from afar, Ludva and Evan were seen wielding swords.

They even lowered their footsteps and sneaked up slowly. A few steps back, Lisa and Serena were seen following, while quarreling outside the duke’s office. Though they noticed what Laria and Carlaudin have been doing, and both shut their mouths up.

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