Chapter 024
Sioden followed Merwen into the castle.
The woman skillfully commanded the household staff. “Sezna, could you go and prepare the tea?” He heard her instructing the maid who had accompanied Evelyn to the north.
Since Evelyn’s death, Merwen had gained full authority over Raslet’s internal affairs. It was a right bestowed by Lerox.
They entered the reception room and sat facing each other. Sioden spoke to the woman who was staring intently at him.
“I’m getting married.”
Although it was news already conveyed through the messenger, Merwen widened her eyes as if hearing it for the first time.
“Is that so?”
Sezna entered with the tea. Sioden watched as his mother’s maid placed the teacups according to another woman’s instructions. It was not a pleasant sight.
After dismissing Sezna, Merwen offered him tea and asked, “What kind of woman is she?”
Sioden did not know what kind of person Iella Rowen was.
The information he thought he knew—her crescent-shaped dimples and the golden cascade that flowed when she leaned toward him—became meaningless in light of her silence.
Sioden recited the only unchanging information given to him.
“Lady Rowen.”
Merwen smiled habitually. “Oh.”
“The hearts of the two Rowen lords must have been quite pained, then?”
It was a cliché line. Sioden turned his gaze away, not agreeing. The flames of the roaring fireplace caught his eye. Despite the intense heat, he did not feel comforted.
The voice of the deceased woman brushed against his memory.
“Spring has come to the capital.”
The time when Sioden wanted to understand Evelyn’s words had passed.
Yet, the words she used to describe her hometown came to mind. Dew-covered leaves, flowing rivers, and the smiling cheeks of people. A golden hue enveloped all of it.
The bright red flames seemed to threaten to consume all that fresh and soft language.
Sioden stared at the fireplace for a long time.
He was confused about whether he wanted to throw the words Evelyn had left inside it or if he had come to empathize with them late.
Before he could be sure of either, Iella arrived in the north.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
At that time, Sioden had left the castle. There had been disturbances at the orphanage he operated.
The only orphanage within the outer walls of Raslet was one of his welfare projects.
It did not provide him with practical help in his situation. The orphanage was an institution meant to protect orphans and impoverished children, and the voices of those without were weak.
However, the orphanage had been running since before he came of age.
In the past, Lerox had given his son, who was not yet in his mid-teens, an assignment.
“Create something that will prosper the family.”
At that time, Sioden was twelve.
Although he was not very old, it was enough age to realize that he could not respect a father who committed dishonorable acts.
Upon receiving Lerox’s assignment, Sioden expressed that he had no intention of following the ‘noble’ methods his father taught.
He grasped a handful of wealth and distributed it to the poor. He harbored a hopeless wish that the family would go bankrupt as he freely scattered money without expecting anything in return.
At that time, he could not easily hide his rebelliousness, and he was simple enough to wish for his father’s decline, thinking that if Lerox lost everything he had, he would inherit nothing, and thus there would be no need to maintain or pass on what he had inherited.
Even then, Ben, who followed him around, tried to inform the young master that even if the family went bankrupt, the name would not disappear, and inheriting a fallen family would only double the responsibility for its revival.
He, being a foolish teenager, did not pay attention to his advisor’s words.
In the end, Ben modified his plan to at least avoid the accusation that his master was wasting the family fortune without a plan.
At that time, the man, who had his own notable experience, hurriedly established an institution to give a plausible name to his spending. It was an orphanage that he would claim was an investment for the future to Lerox.
“You must say it was established with the future in mind.”
Sioden casually nodded at the flustered advisor, who was pacing outside Lerox’s office.
And in front of Lerox, he said exactly the opposite.
“I had no plan.”
Since he was still using a casual tone, it sounded even more provocative.
“Who knows how a person will grow? Believing that education guarantees the future is foolish.”
It was not sincere. It was natural, as he focused solely on sounding ignorant and arrogant.
At that moment, Sioden wanted to pull out any lies and mock his father. He wanted to instill the anxiety that his son was a failure and that once he died, all his legacy would be buried in the muck. He wanted to make things difficult for a man who cared about the family in a way that seemed inappropriate.
Lerox, who had lived nearly three times longer than his son, immediately realized what he was thinking.
That day, Lerox slapped his son without saying a word.
Smack.
The face that turned sharply felt burning hot.
It hurt so much that tears almost welled up, but Sioden gritted his teeth and smiled.
Lerox grabbed his son’s shoulder and nearly threw him out of the office. Ben, who had been anxiously waiting outside, rushed in. He fumbled for excuses to calm the situation.
“Y-Your Excellency, I don’t know what the young master said, but there was absolutely no bad intention…”
“Enough.”
From then on, Lerox no longer tried to educate his son with words.
He had various means of communication besides a moderate approach.
As soon as he turned thirteen, Sioden was driven to the border region. Ben, with a face full of concern and an additional year of wrinkles, saw him off. Lerox and Evelyn did not show their faces on the day he left the castle.
Merwen stood on the castle walls, looking down at him. It was said that Lerox did not permit her to go down to the castle gate.
Sioden left the castle without looking back at them.
After that, he only returned on fixed dates like New Year’s and year-end. During his time in the border region, he did not write to either of his parents. Most of his personal letters were directed to Ben, with occasional replies sent to Merwen mixed in.
“Maybe I should just die on the day I come of age.” The fifteen-year-old Sioden sometimes thought this way, especially when he felt that merely running away from the family was insufficient.
Despite being unable to control his lust and seducing a friend’s fiancée and even having an illegitimate child after marrying, Lerox devoted himself to properly passing on the family legacy to future generations.
To maintain that goal, a proper heir was necessary. This was the reason he would slap his son but not choke him.
Sioden wanted to make it clear to his father that he could never achieve what he desired.
If necessary, he would jump from the castle walls.
By the time that happened, it would not be easy for Lerox to seek a new child. His relationship with his wife, Evelyn, had soured, and the North would never recognize an illegitimate child.
Even if he managed to father a child outside, he could never establish them as the legitimate heir.
His thoughts, which had only been focused on ways to ruin the family, began to change after the winter of his sixteenth year.
☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓 ☪︎ ִ ࣪𖤐 𐦍 ☾𖤓
That year, Evelyn was in particularly good spirits.
It was rare since a tree that was not of her son had grown in the family forest.
It was not a bad year for Sioden either.
As soon as he returned to the castle for the New Year, he declared that he would not force the orphans from the orphanage into employment. This was a system that Ben had tried to insert during the establishment, arguing that the orphanage’s operations were not that much in the red.
The orphanage that abolished that system was clearly in the red. It was obviously far from “the prosperity of the family.”
Lerox did not interfere. Although it was a change in behavior, Sioden did not make the mistake of believing that his father’s character had developed.
Lerox simply recognized that if he clashed with his son, who had grown quickly and caught up with an adult’s physique, it could lead to an embarrassing outcome.
This realization was somewhat satisfying for him, and Sioden enjoyed the New Year celebration at sixteen.
He drank enough to fall asleep on the carpet instead of the bed, and he climbed over walls with a tongue that was twisted from the alcohol. Luke, a peer he met newly in the border region, along with Rhys, whom he had known since childhood, joined him in all his antics. On days when they went outside the castle, Sioden would either be carried back into the castle by one of them or carry one of them back in, all three of them quite drunk.
After wasting the night away, when the sun rose the next day, he would face the throbbing headache of a hangover but still put on a mature expression. He met the family retainers looking neat and reliable, like a trustworthy heir. If he had any time left, he would tour the slums, pretending to be virtuous.
The rebelliousness he had shown in his early teens was buried. Even if he indulged in mischief after sunset, he acted calm and polite as long as it was bright around him. Thus, he gradually built up expectations to shatter later on.
It was around this time that Evelyn began to show interest in her son.
