Chapter 78
Lloyd spent the night wide awake after sending the letter to Minerva.
‘I should… tell her.’
He wanted to continue being Ide Mente in front of Minerva.
That’s why he hadn’t planned to accept the marriage proposal.
But from the moment she acknowledged that Lloyd Eckhart wasn’t pathetic, that he was trying, his heart had instantly tilted.
He tried to rationally right the tilted scales, but with Aslan added to the balance, there was nothing more he could do.
It was his complete defeat.
‘If I tell her I’ve been hiding my identity, she’ll surely feel betrayed.’
They had met in Mente County while hiding their identities from each other.
But Minerva had hidden her identity for her child’s sake.
It was different from Lloyd’s reason.
She might resent me for deceiving her all this time, for pretending not to know while knowing.
“You’re trying to break free even though you’re afraid of Priscilla. You haven’t completely given up. You’ve taken in me and Aslan despite the trouble it’ll bring. Isn’t that brave? You’re already being a great help to me.”
Perhaps she would retract this evaluation too.
If it was going to be retracted anyway, he might as well use it now.
Lloyd kept repeating Minerva’s words, chanting them as a spell of courage.
‘I am a brave person. Brave people don’t run away.’
Even if he was hated, knowing Minerva’s nature, she would only hate him and not Ayla.
That should be… that should be enough…
‘…No, it’s not!’
Lloyd banged his head on the desk.
No matter what, she was the first neighbor he had befriended, and as a single parent, she had been a great support.
The thought of Minerva giving him the cold shoulder made even his budding courage wilt.
Should he tell her, or not?
As he spent a long time pondering whether he could speak properly without his mask if he did tell her, dawn broke before he knew it.
The candle he had lit had long since melted to the bottom of the candlestick and lost its light.
He felt pathetic that he hadn’t decided anything despite worrying all night.
‘I wish someone would push me from behind at times like this.’
Relying on Ayla would make him, a grown adult, look too unsightly.
In the end, as he was steeling himself to muster courage alone and rising with his stiff body, it happened.
“B-big trouble, Your Highness!”
The door burst open without a knock.
Lloyd, who had reflexively covered his face with his palm, frowned when he confirmed the intruder was Pablo.
“I told you to knock…”
“Pri-Pri! Pri! Coming!”
Pablo spat out incomprehensible words as if he had lost the ability to speak, slapping his own cheeks.
Finally, Pablo sounded the alarm in a complete sentence.
“Lady Priscilla has arrived!”
* * *
He rushed to the main building, panting, and there she really was.
The mint-colored hair pinned up.
Blue eyes colder than glaciers.
The wrinkles around her mouth that made her look stern.
Her stubborn lips, meticulously painted with dark red lipstick, held a tobacco pipe.
Standing firmly in the middle of the stairs connecting the first and second floors, with her back to a huge curtain, she exhaled smoke as soon as she saw Lloyd.
“It’s been a while.”
“…Mother.”
It really was Priscilla.
Lloyd nearly lost strength in his legs but barely managed to stand.
“What brings you here without any notice?”
“I must be getting old, my son. Since when has there been a problem with me coming to my own castle? Rather, you seem much more like an outsider, unable to be at ease in your own home.”
Priscilla pointed out his ridiculous state, as she always did.
Lloyd couldn’t bring himself to refute her words.
It was true, as she said, that he couldn’t show his face even in his own home.
Normally, a tedious lecture would have followed, but Priscilla tapped her cigarette ash into the ashtray her butler held out and asked:
“Is my room ready?”
“Won’t you tell me why you’ve come?”
“You’re still as impatient as ever. I don’t remember teaching you that.”
Priscilla handed her cigarette to her butler with a look of regret and turned around.
“I’m a bit tired from the long carriage ride. Let’s talk after I rest for a while.”
Her butler bowed apologetically and followed behind her as she walked away.
It felt as if a huge storm had just passed.
Lloyd sank to the floor, literally sliding down as if there was nothing to hold onto.
“Your Highness!”
His heart was beating wildly, and he felt like he was about to lose consciousness again.
But now was not the time for this.
Pushing away Pablo who tried to support him, Lloyd gritted his teeth and said:
“Pablo. Tell Her Imperial Highness immediately. Tell her my mother has come, and that she and Aslan should not leave the guest house for the time being. If possible, Ayla too should not come out… That woman, if we could just lock her in some underground prison, and never let her out…”
Priscilla still wielded significant influence in political circles.
No matter that she was his birth mother, Aslan’s existence must not be revealed to such a person.
And Ayla too, it wasn’t time for her to be seen by Priscilla yet.
Pablo, who had grown up watching why Lloyd had become like this, nodded gravely.
* * *
As I was returning from a walk to calm my complicated feelings after talking with Ide, I noticed a commotion near the main building.
What’s this? Did a guest arrive?
Wondering, I opened the door to the guest house, and there was an unfamiliar man pacing inside the mansion.
He spoke to me with a face that said he had been looking for me for a while.
“It’s an honor to meet you, Your Imperial Highness. I am Pablo Barnes, the Grand Duke’s aide. I’ve come with a message from His Grace.”
Seeing my bewildered face, he poured out the Grand Duke’s message as if he was pressed for time.
“Lady Priscilla has come?”
“Yes, so we’d like you to stay within the guest house for the time being.”
Even if asked to stay in the guest house, I hadn’t gone to the main building, nor did I have any plans to.
Above all, I too would find it awkward to face Priscilla.
“Alright.”
“Thank you for your generous understanding. And I apologize for this request, but… could we ask the same of Miss Ayla for a while? She should be with Lady Aslan now.”
My eyes narrowed at those words.
“…Ayla? What about Lord Mente?”
“Well, as you know, he’s acting as the Grand Duke’s mouthpiece. He’s closer to Lord Mente than I am.”
“Hmm…”
My head tilted up involuntarily in derision.
No matter how strict that man is, he wouldn’t concern himself with a subordinate’s daughter.
These people must have been in quite a hurry.
Priscilla’s notoriety was still effective even in the Grand Duke’s household.
Of course, I had some idea, but if they were evacuating my daughter and Ayla to this extent, it was a different story altogether.
“I’ve changed my mind. So, your name was…”
“Yes, yes. Pablo Barnes.”
“Right, Lord Barnes.”
The Grand Duke fears Priscilla.
He must subconsciously know that with just one successful business venture, he can’t escape that woman’s shadow.
‘But it’s different if I’m with him.’
Though our deal was based on trust, it wasn’t officially sealed yet, so I had been anxious about whether the Grand Duke might change his mind.
Let’s make it so he can’t back out now.
I smiled slyly at Pablo, as if to confirm that what he was thinking was correct.
“She came all this way at her age to see me, shouldn’t I go out to greet her as is proper?”
“Pardon?”
Pablo’s expression contorted in an amusing way.
Without realizing it, the sneer that Minerva often wore appeared on my face.
“I said it’s not polite to pretend not to know when we know she’s here. Above all, if we pretend not to know about the relationship between myself and Lady Priscilla, how disappointed would she be?”
Ah, I can hear it, I can hear it.
His silent scream, unable to refuse because it’s the Imperial Princess’s order.
My resentment towards him was somewhat relieved.
I smiled cheerfully as I flung open the mansion door that had just been closed.
“Now, lead the way.”
