The Duke was left speechless, his mouth opening and closing without a word, before he finally managed to stand up with the help of his attendants and shouted,
“Y-You! Do you know who I am?”
Aiden lowered his gaze and, squeezing out an innocent tone, asked,
“Who are you to be so confident? I thought you were just some ruffian who lost his way and dared to act violently toward my wife.”
“I-I am none other than the—the Duke of Glasster!”
“Aha.”
Feigning surprise, Aiden tilted his head and leaned down to whisper to Anje.
“I’d like to pretend I don’t believe him, but his manner of speech is just too similar to how you used to talk.”
Anje jabbed him in the side. Even at a time like this, he was teasing her. It was just so typical of him.
After erasing the gentle smile he had shown her, Aiden’s tone turned cold.
“Is that so? My wife’s father, no less. I can’t very well leave such an esteemed guest out here on the street. Please, let us move to the drawing room.”
Anje looked up at Aiden with uneasy eyes.
‘Is it really okay to let my father into the house?’
He caught the flicker of anxiety in her green eyes but merely reached out to smooth her disheveled hair.
Though he, too, felt unsettled and tense, he made sure not to show it.
‘Did he come to discuss her remarriage?’
Having been late to notice the duke’s carriage while searching for Anje in the back of the house,
Aiden had no idea what had transpired between them. All he knew was that the duke was glaring at her with hostility, and that she appeared equally uncomfortable. That was enough for him to intervene.
‘No matter what, I won’t back down just because he showed up here.’
Whatever scheme the duke had in mind, Aiden was willing to do anything to protect her.
His hand brushed the pistol concealed in his coat as he assessed the duke’s entourage trailing behind them. A butler and two coachmen—surprisingly sparse for someone of his stature.
‘This is manageable on my own.’
He didn’t want to stain his hands with blood again, especially not that of Anje’s family. But if it was for her sake, he was prepared—even if it meant abandoning Dilton Farm and fleeing as a wanted man for harming the duke.
‘Am I overthinking this?’
He let go of the weapon and twisted his lips in a faint grimace. Running away from a disapproving in-law? It sounded like a plot straight out of the romance novels Mary often recommended to them.
No matter how unreasonable the duke might be, things weren’t likely to spiral into such chaos so easily.
‘What’s more important is Anje’s feelings.’
He didn’t know what kind of marriage prospect the duke had proposed. But what if she wavered and decided to leave him for a better match?
He didn’t know what he would do.
Though Anje’s gaze toward him was always filled with love, the fear that she might leave gnawed at him. The more he loved her, the more that fear grew.
‘Even if she refuses the duke’s offer out of guilt toward me…’
Perhaps she would still hold regrets for the comfortable aristocratic life she had left behind in the capital.
If that were the case, could he truly be happy by her side?
There was a time when he wished for her to stay with him, even if only in name. But now, he wanted not just her presence but her heart entirely.
If the path to her happiness meant leaving him, wouldn’t it be the right thing to let her go?
Caught in his deep thoughts, Aiden tightened the arm he had wrapped around Anje’s waist.
* * *
“What did you say?”
The drawing room of the Dilton farm rarely welcomed strangers, let alone someone of Duke Glasster’s status. Hosting such a high-ranking noble was unprecedented.
The room, which should have been tranquil, had transformed into an atmosphere of chaos, shaken by the bombshell news the Duke had delivered.
“Is that really true, Father?”
Anje couldn’t help but suspect that Duke Glasster, having lost his power, might have succumbed to delusions.
To think that Nancy Dilton, Aiden’s mother, had secretly married the late emperor.
‘Unbelievable.’
Hearing tales of love between nobles and commoners wasn’t unheard of—it was common gossip among aristocrats, especially when it involved disgrace to another family.
But marriage? That was exceedingly rare. Forbidden romances like these usually concluded with the noble family “persuading” the commoner through financial or physical means.
The rigid social hierarchy of the empire remained firmly entrenched, even with the recent rise of the gentry class making strides in various fields.
For the emperor, the highest figure in the empire, to have secretly married a commoner? It defied all conventional wisdom.
However, the Duke, undeterred by Anje’s astonishment, responded confidently.
“There’s no physical evidence yet, but as I said earlier, the circumstantial evidence is sufficient.”
He had envisioned countless times in his mind the scene of him uncovering the marriage certificate and, with it, claiming control over the imperial throne.
At future social events, including grand parties, he would reclaim his place at the center of attention. Those nobles who sneered and muttered, ‘The House of Glasster has fallen from grace,’ and even members of the imperial court would bow their heads before him.
Even the mistress who had left him for the Earl of Concord, calling his financial situation “unsatisfactory,” would come crawling back. Of course, he would coldly humiliate her and take a younger, more beautiful mistress instead.
What was once a mere “hypothesis” in his mind had solidified into an undeniable “truth.”
‘If I can just land this one blow…’
He could reclaim everything he had lost—honor, power, and even wealth.
Yet, for Anje, who was only hearing about this for the first time, it was difficult to believe the Duke’s claims.
“Without concrete evidence, isn’t this still uncertain? And the sole witness is just some old man wandering the streets—”
“We just need to search thoroughly! It must be somewhere in the imperial palace. If we dig through it, we’ll find it! Didn’t His Majesty the late emperor cherish Aiden—I mean, Sir Aiden—greatly? There must have been a reason for that!”
“If Aiden was such a cherished son and there was a marriage certificate, wouldn’t the late emperor have revealed it before his death?”
“Wasn’t his mind wavering in his later years? Maybe he thought he’d already announced it or forgot where he kept it.”
Anje glanced at the Duke with suspicion before turning her gaze to Aiden, who was seated beside her.
“Did you know anything about this?”
“Me? N-No… I had no idea at all.”
Aiden, as shocked as she was, stammered his reply.
“But—”
“But what?”
Ignoring the Duke’s impatient interjection, Aiden recalled a strange question the late emperor had once asked him long ago.
‘Have you ever thought about becoming the crown prince?’
At the time, it had seemed like nonsensical rambling.
‘Then, after my death, you could become emperor, and this crown would be yours.’
The late emperor’s words, spoken toward the end of his life, had left a deep impression on Aiden precisely because they were so unexpected.
If the Duke’s theory was correct, then—
‘Could it all connect back to that conversation?’
Perhaps the reason his grandparents and mother had moved far away to Leslie, so far from their hometown, was tied to this. If his mother, a commoner with no backing had indeed married the late emperor and was pregnant with the heir to the throne…
She would have been in grave danger unless the late emperor took extraordinary measures to protect her. For instance, powerful factions vying for a marriage alliance with the emperor might have targeted her life.
Thinking back to the late emperor’s protective attitude during Aiden’s visit to the imperial palace, perhaps his parents had gone to great lengths to keep him hidden from the world for his safety.
‘How on earth did the two of them end up getting married? Did they love each other that much? Then why did they part ways?’
The term “fraudulent marriage,” which the Duke’s witness had mentioned, might hold a clue. Perhaps his mother hadn’t known until the very last moment that the man she married was the emperor of the land.
From what Aiden knew, his mother had traveled abroad as soon as she came of age to study art. She was a commoner uninterested in politics or royalty.
Moreover, the imperial family’s symbol—red eyes and black hair—was only widely known among people in the capital. Those in rural areas, far removed from power, rarely heard of it.
‘What on earth happened between the late emperor and my mother?’
Lost in thought amidst the chaotic silence, he tried to organize his mind, but eventually gave in to the duke’s prodding and spoke of the cryptic words the late emperor had once said.
“Before he passed, he did say something strange. Just once, he asked me if I had ever wanted to be emperor or crown prince. It felt like he was testing me.”
The duke’s eyes gleamed sinisterly.
“Oh-ho, see? Even the late emperor must have been troubled by this. There’s no doubt that the marriage certificate is hidden somewhere in the imperial palace.”
He shouted as he sprang up from his seat.
“I’ve already planted informants in the palace, but surely Sir Aiden, who attended to the late emperor until the very end, must have some kind of clue, no?”
The Duke was impatient. To overthrow the imperial throne, not only legitimacy but also a certain level of military strength was necessary.
Beyond the mercenaries and knights that could be gathered by the House of Duke Glasster, they needed even more.
Thus, he discreetly shared his “hypothesis” only with close noble relatives he deemed trustworthy and sought their assistance, but they merely dismissed it as nonsensical ramblings.
‘His late Majesty? With whom? My goodness, Duke Glasster, we understand your lingering attachment to the imperial family, but it’s time to restrain yourself and live quietly.’
‘It seems the heat has clouded your mind. How about recovering at a villa in the countryside?’
Recalling the relatives who sneered at him openly made his blood boil. He needed evidence to make them submit immediately.
But Aiden, contrary to the Duke’s wishes, was not a pliant puppet.
* * * *
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