Chapter 17
Oops, did I act too friendly?
Feeling awkward, I scratched my cheek and took a step back.
“Sorry. Got a bit too excited.”
“Well, that’s good anyway.”
“Isn’t it? The princess must be pleased too, right?”
Though Rachel didn’t respond, I could now guess that it was a positive sign.
The relaxed look in Rachel’s eyes resembled the Duke’s approving gaze, which I found appealing.
“So, what were you doing here? Waiting for me?”
I thought Rachel would deny it again this time.
But instead of answering my question directly, Rachel brought up our previous conversation.
“She said she wanted to go to the library.”
Then she held out her hand to me.
I looked at the hand extended in front of me with surprise.
Before meeting the Duke, I would have naturally rejected the hand I had taken without permission.
But it was Rachel who reached out her hand first!
“…If you don’t want to, just say so.”
As Rachel tried to take back her hand, I quickly grabbed it before it was too late.
“No, it’s okay!”
And then I smiled brightly.
The smile at the corner of my mouth faintly transferred to Rachel’s lips and disappeared.
The clasped hands felt ticklish for some reason, but I didn’t let go.
For a very, very long time.
Late at night, Emperor Orphen, who was half asleep listening to the report of the inspector who had arrived at the palace, opened his mouth.
“Not a daughter, but a son?”
Orphen’s bloodshot eyes glowed eerily in the darkness as he asked.
“It seems like he takes after his father, strangely enough.”
His cold gaze reflected memories from a few years ago.
Five years ago.
Isella, who had been missing, appeared with a child of unknown parentage.
Upon hearing the news, Orphen could not overcome the unease gripping his chest and personally walked to the Edelvine Duke’s residence.
And there, he faced Isella’s daughter.
No, son.
The moment he faced Rachel.
He felt a fear related to his resurrected brother, whom he had wrongly accused of treason and killed.
“Well, it’s still a woman.”
The fear bubbling like foam at the fact that Rachel was a daughter was quelled.
But…
“Not a daughter, but a son.”
Veins swelled on the back of his hand gripping the armrest of the chair.
Distant memories of the past resurfaced.
His always superior younger brother, Leopreed.
Born on the same ship, eating the same food, learning the same things, yet so different.
Once, in a fit of jealousy, he had tried to impulsively kill his younger brother.
But upon seeing Leopreed drink the poisoned drink, he regretted it immediately, begging for his brother’s life.
Fortunately, Leopreed survived.
Since that day, Orphen had tried to love his brother, grateful that Leopreed did not die.
Even when the emperor constantly compared him to his brother.
Even when he tried to pass on the successor’s position to his brother.
But…
[“This position is too much for me, Your Majesty. I believe it is right for this position to go to a true gentleman who truly serves the people.”]
When Orphen heard Leopreed say this to the emperor, he regretted his past.
Regretted not definitively killing Leopreed then.
If things had continued as they were, his brother would have taken the position he yielded, living He had to kill Leopreed for not definitively killing him back then.
So, he killed Leopreed
Finally, as Leopreed had not yielded his position like an enemy, but had taken the throne by his own hands, Orphen felt a sense of relief inside.
However, since the day Rachel appeared, the ghostly presence of the deceased leopreed haunted him.
Even after confirming she was his daughter, his unease grew, gradually consuming him.
It wasn’t until today that Orphen realized the source of this inexplicable unease.
“The ghost woke up the kid.”
He said, still haunted by the illusion of the adult Leopreed and Rachel in front of him.
“Well then, I must kill it.”
His voice giving the order was twisted in a grotesque manner.
forever in the shadow of that decision.
