Chapter 76
Lloyd returned.
As soon as he appeared, Pablo hastily removed his stifling mask and wig, and asked:
“Your Highness. Are you going to accept it? Marriage, it’s too sudden!”
Without answering, Lloyd staggered to where Minerva had been sitting and collapsed onto the seat.
“Let’s talk about it in a bit.”
“Y-yes…”
Although unsatisfied, Pablo left without pressing further.
Lloyd was now alone, but his mind was even noisier than before.
He had intended to help with Minerva’s reinstatement.
But marriage was truly an unexpected measure.
And the fact that the reason wasn’t reinstatement, but Aslan, was even more surprising.
Lloyd still remembered the face of Minerva’s husband.
And there was no portrait of him among Minerva’s belongings.
‘Remarrying to protect Aslan… Even though she hasn’t forgotten him yet…’
When Lloyd was young, Priscilla took him to a party just once.
It was also the day he had a major episode at the venue.
Minerva was there that day too.
Despite being of similar age, and in a position with even more responsibilities, Minerva had been steadfast from a young age.
Growing up hearing Priscilla’s words to become someone like Minerva, Lloyd had vaguely admired her.
He had envied her.
But the moment he first saw her in person, he began to hate her.
Because Minerva proved that she could be perfect even at a young age, and because of Priscilla’s attempts to make him like that, he was suffering so much.
In the first place, people like Minerva were special.
Though Minerva didn’t seem to remember that incident.
‘I guess it’s proof that she’s an ordinary person too, after all.’
He didn’t know until he started watching her on the Emperor’s orders.
The confined Minerva enjoyed a peaceful daily life.
Becoming neighbors unintentionally, conversing with her, and observing her lifestyle, he realized that Minerva had felt the same way he did.
Despite being a person who could cry, laugh, and get angry normally, she was always forced to maintain a cold and calm demeanor.
As he felt conflicted, his heartbeat gradually quickened.
If this continued, again…
Just as Lloyd clutched his chest and hunched over, it happened.
“Father!”
“Uncle!”
The children burst through the door and rushed to Lloyd.
“Did you say the Duchess proposed to the Grand Duke?!”
“Did the Grand Duke say he’d marry Mom?”
The crowns of the two children tugging at Ide’s arms from both sides smelled of sunlight.
There was also a faint scent of milk, and a warm feeling.
As his mind gradually settled, the emotion that surfaced was bewilderment.
“How did you two…”
Before he could finish asking how they knew, his mind supplied the answer.
These little rascals, it was obvious.
He had expected them to eavesdrop.
That’s why he had been keeping an eye on the door, and since it hadn’t opened once, he had let his guard down.
“No, how exactly did you hear?”
“I just heard it from Aslan…”
Ayla glanced sideways at Aslan, fidgeting.
Whether she knew eavesdropping was rude or not, Aslan said brightly:
“If you put your ear close to the wall, you can hear everything.”
Hah…
Lloyd dropped his head.
He should have sent Aslan and Ayla out to the garden or somewhere.
No, that’s a pointless assumption since they wouldn’t have listened anyway.
He suddenly realized how easy Ayla had been to raise until now, and how difficult it was to raise a normal child.
“So, Uncle! Are you really marrying the Grand Duke and Mom?”
Lloyd’s arm was pulled strongly as he was lost in thought.
Aslan seemed anxious, either disliking the Grand Duke despite wanting a father, or disliking the idea of her mother being forced into marriage.
Lloyd shook his head awkwardly.
“No, nothing’s been decided yet.”
“But Mom proposed! Our mom always does what she says she’ll do! She’ll end up getting married, for sure!”
It was certainly true.
Minerva had come with a proposal too sweet for the ‘Grand Duke’ to refuse.
Even he hadn’t expected it, but the offer to free him from Priscilla was truly unexpected.
To others, Priscilla and Lloyd’s mother-son relationship appeared quite affectionate.
Priscilla was a mother worried about Lloyd, and Lloyd was an incompetent son who relied on his mother even after becoming Grand Duke.
So no one would know that he wanted to break free from Priscilla.
‘Surely she doesn’t remember that incident… If she did, she wouldn’t think of me as Ide.’
At that first and last party.
When his jealousy towards Minerva peaked there, his body stopped listening to him.
He gradually felt suffocated, as if sinking into deep water with rocks tied to his feet.
Minerva was the first to notice Lloyd’s panic attack.
“Are you alright?”
He couldn’t remember what happened after that.
Lloyd’s consciousness snapped like a tightly stretched thread breaking.
Priscilla was furiously angry afterwards.
She must have been terribly embarrassed.
Minerva probably thought of him no differently than Priscilla did.
No, perhaps she thought it fortunate that such a person would be Grand Duke when she became Emperor.
When marriage talks were going on, he passed by her as if ignoring her, their relationship having become irreparably awkward.
When he had to approach her because of Aslan’s situation, he was nervous about whether she would recognize him.
He was prepared to give her whatever she wanted and ask her to keep quiet if necessary, but she didn’t recognize him.
‘Well, anyone with sense knows that the current Grand Duke is little more than a figurehead, so the Imperial Princess probably knows too.’
Unlike Lloyd, Priscilla was very interested in politics.
Even after unexpectedly handing over the position to Lloyd early, Priscilla continued to interact with political figures and even do business.
Because of this, people still think Priscilla is the real Grand Duke, and Priscilla is still secretly controlling Lloyd.
Even though all authority is now his, it feels like even the situation in the territory he directly manages is flowing as Priscilla wants.
That’s why he had the cat’s-eye business in mind.
To completely cut off Priscilla’s interference.
But so far, nothing has progressed.
‘In the end, I’ll have to accept Her Imperial Highness’s proposal…’
There’s nothing I can do alone.
Just as his heart was leaning towards accepting the proposal, a practical problem hit him.
‘Wait, if I accept the proposal, will it be me getting married, or Pablo?’
Imagining Pablo standing next to Minerva, even as a stand-in, didn’t seem right.
But it was impossible for him to act as both Ide Mente and the Grand Duke.
As Lloyd repeatedly rubbed his face in frustration at the situation where he could do neither, Aslan suddenly started sniffing and pointed at Lloyd’s hand, blinking.
“Oh, Uncle Ide’s hand…”
“Hand?”
Ayla felt unnecessarily guilty.
It wasn’t Lloyd who injured his hand saving Aslan, but the Grand Duke.
That’s why Lloyd had been careful not to take off his gloves until his hand healed completely.
He was still wearing gloves now.
“Wh-what about the hand?”
Ayla tried to cover for him, but Aslan ignored her completely and pulled off Lloyd’s glove.
The bandaged hand was exposed.
“The Grand Duke Uncle was hurt here too…”
Lloyd swallowed hard.
“W-well, I also got hurt while helping His Grace the Grand Duke…”
Aslan’s eyes narrowed.
Lloyd’s eyes trembled finely enough to stimulate hunting instincts.
Aslan pulled at Lloyd’s collar.
“A-Aslan?”
Ignoring the surprised Ayla and Lloyd, who didn’t know how to react to being grabbed by the neck by a child, Aslan sniffed.
It was the familiar scent of ‘Ide’.
She also turned her attention to the mask and wig carelessly strewn about.
She picked them up and buried her nose in them, sniffing.
The scents of ‘Ide’ and the ‘Grand Duke’ were mixed, but ‘Ide’s’ scent was much stronger.
Aslan came to a conclusion.
“Uncle Ide. You’re the Grand Duke.”
Her usually round, sparkling eyes sharpened.
‘How on earth did she figure it out?’
Lloyd froze as if facing a wild beast.
It was strange from the start that Aslan noticed the bandage under the glove.
She was sniffing, did she figure it out by smell?
‘That’s impossible. She’s not an animal.’
Whatever assumption he made, the fact that he had been found out remained unchanged.
Aslan took Lloyd’s silence as confirmation.
She had intended to take any reaction as confirmation anyway.
The hand wound, the strong scent of Lloyd on the mask and wig!
Isn’t the evidence too clear?
Aslan picked up the mask and wig and stomped her foot hard on the floor.
There was only one thought in Aslan’s mind right now.
‘Mom! I have to tell Mom too!’
It’s better to marry someone you know than someone you don’t know, right?
Especially if it’s ‘Ide’!
Minerva would surely like it too.
Aslan hurried to run outside.
But just as she reached the door, she was lifted into the air.
“No!”
