Chapter 21
Uncles (4)
Pink hair. Slightly darker eyes. Teeth clenched, but still looking innocent.
Maybe he was a little older than before. The young and playful face in my memory had already taken on the weight of time. The title of Count, which I often teased him about, now felt very appropriate.
Aside from the joy, I was also surprised. I came to the drawing room to find Luke, who was late for breakfast, and why was my brother standing here? And with such an angry expression.
Instead of running to him like she usually did, Aria stopped walking. She was no longer Dylan’s precious and only sister, but simply an employee and employer who had worked together in the distant past.
If you dig deeper, it might be an enemy relationship. Considering that Aria was the one who stole Elodie’s daughter and was the indirect cause of her death, that would be a more appropriate choice of words.
The enemy who killed me? Aria laughed inwardly. It was because she felt the absurdity of her situation. It was a separate issue from the fact that she was happy about her second chance.
“… You were in this mansion, Aria Hilton.”
Aria finally heard Dylan’s voice and expressed her surprise.
“As expected.”
Did a rumor spread?
Aria felt very awkward and slightly lifted her skirt, bowing her head to him politely.
“The Count of Rottweil… I greet you.”
“There’s no need for such formalities. Rather, you must have something to tell me?”
“What do you mean?”
“I heard that you brought the Duke’s illegitimate child.”
“… Illegitimate child?”
She was about to nod, but stopped at her brother’s choice of words.
Illegitimate child. Illegitimate child.
Was there another Duke in the empire besides Luke Lysianthus? For a moment, such an absurd thought occurred to her.
But when she thought about it carefully, she understood why he had made such a guess.
Even Elodie herself would have thought her daughter was stillborn if she hadn’t heard Aria’s words right before she died.
Dylan, who had only heard the results without seeing the baby, would have felt even more so. Aria chose her words carefully.
“That is… You’ll know when you see her for yourself.”
“See her, myself?”
Dylan’s expression worsened at Aria’s mysterious words. He folded his arms and nodded.
“Yes. I think we need to see what kind of person she is.”
It was an extremely hostile attitude, but Aria knew that he would never harm Bonita.
After all, you would know just by looking at her.
Bonita was Elodie’s daughter.
It was a truth that no one could deny.
While the two were talking, Luke and Lennon came out of the living room. Lennon’s gaze, which had been talking to the Duke, shifted from his brother to the blonde woman in front of him.
His eyebrows furrowed. After a moment of searching his memory, he recalled the past when the beautiful young woman had once been Elodie’s maid.
Aria Hilton. She was the very woman who had come to the mansion with the Duke’s child.
“…….”
Unlike Dylan, he did not speak to Aria.
Luke, who had been watching the awkward standoff, made a suggestion to Dylan.
“I was just about to have breakfast. If you don’t mind, you can have…”
“Rather than that-”
“Bonita will join us.”
Bonita was the girl’s name.
I hadn’t been here long, and they’d already set the table for a big family dinner. I felt uncomfortable.
However, he did not want to argue further. Strictly speaking, the Duke having a child was not a big deal in itself.
Unlike the Crocus Empire, which despised infidelity and considered it a virtue to love one spouse for life, the nobles of the Kingdom preferred to leave behind as many descendants as possible.
It was the difference between an empire that passed the title to the first born legitimate child regardless of gender and a kingdom that developed a culture of male-first succession.
Not only the great nobles, but even the lower-ranking nobles in the provinces had concubines one by one.
Especially if you’re the powerful Duke, you had to work hard to produce illegitimate children so that the line would continue. The reason Luke and the previous Duke of Lysianthus did not do so was because they were devoted husbands.
However, it was inevitable that they felt betrayed. Dylan followed the Duke in silence.
Aria watched Dylan’s back. At that moment, Lennon, who had been quiet, suddenly spoke to her.
“You are Miss Hilton?”
“Yes? Oh, yes.”
She didn’t treat Lennon with the same courtesy as before. The Counts of Rottweil were certainly a distinguished family with a long history, but Lennon, who would not inherit the title, was not of high status.
Strictly speaking, he was probably similar to Aria, who would receive the title of Baron Hilton.
Of course, he could find fault with her if he wanted to, but the Lennon she knew wasn’t that fussy.
“The atmosphere seems different.”
“… Yes?”
“The Miss Hilton I knew wasn’t like this.”
Aria was lost in thought at Lennon’s words.
Was Aria really close to Lennon?
“Hmm.”
Lennon’s deep pink irises scanned Aria’s every nook and cranny. As if he was seeing through her.
“Something… No, no.”
Now that he thought about it, Lennon had a particularly good eye for people. Luck, too.
People in high society said it was because he inherited the strongest amount of the elven blood that flowed through Rottweil.
Whether that was true or not, it was true that Lennon had a good sense. The business acumen he gained from that ‘sense’ had multiplied the assets of the Counts of Rottweil several times.
… Maybe he could find out?
That expectation rose a little. Of course, she wasn’t thinking seriously.
It had been a long time since black magic disappeared. Moreover, even that last black magic was the kind that controlled people or created holes in the sky through which monsters appeared.
Putting a dead person into a living person’s body. There was no way that that could be possible… It was normal to think that it was impossible.
The two continued their strange standoff. In the meantime, they had arrived in front of the dining room.
The servant who had been guarding the front opened the door with a silent bow. Dylan’s eyes turned sharply.
‘Madam Lysianthus?’
The first person who caught his eye was a strict-looking old lady wearing an old-fashioned dress. Even though she was over sixty, her eyes were still sharp enough that Dylan flinched for a moment.
Lennon, who was standing behind him, bowed his head politely.
“It’s been a while, madam Lysianthus.”
“… It’s been a while.”
Dylan greeted her half a beat later. The lady stared at the two of them as if they were annoying insects.
“What? So suddenly?”
The person she was talking to was not the two of them, but her son, Duke Lysianthus.
“Since you came to visit so early in the morning. I can’t send them away without even offering them breakfast, right?”
“Tsk. At this early hour? These days, young people don’t even know proper etiquette.”
Catherine clicked her tongue after checking the time. It was only the Duke Lysianthus’s family that enjoyed early mornings that was unique; most nobles woke up slowly around 11 AM and started their day.
8 AM was considered the early morning.
The Rottweil brothers knew this well, so they simply coughed awkwardly.
It was then that a small figure emerged from behind madam Lysianthus.
“Uh- Aria!”
Sensing the presence of a stranger behind her, Bonita quickly changed the title of “Mother.” It was because of the request Aria had made the day before.
“Bonita. If there are other people around, please call Mom by my name. Aria.”
“By your name?”
“Yes.”
Bonita was extremely dissatisfied with the fact that she couldn’t call her mother “Mother.” Furthermore, wasn’t calling her mother by her name something that only a bad spoiled child would do?
But Aria’s eyes looked so sad as she asked, Bonita couldn’t argue.
“But when we’re alone, you can call me mom. Okay, my daughter?”
“… Okay.”
Aria’s request was very timely. Thanks to that, the two Rottweil brothers could only look at Bonita running toward Aria without any other guesses.
“Bonita.”
“I waited for you because you weren’t here. Oh, that, Aria.”
Bonita held onto Aria’s skirt and smiled. A faint smile spread across Aria’s lips at the sight of the baby angel.
“Were you very hungry?”
“Not that much!”
Bonita answered cheerfully and turned her head. When two men who looked incredibly similar to her came into view, Bonita’s eyes shook.
‘Who are they?’
No other nobles had ever visited the mansion before. At most, there had been Catherine, who barged in while they were enjoying a picnic by the lake, or the two priests who visited for a paternity test.
Catherine was hardly an “other” noble, as she was a member of Lysianthus by birth. This was the first time Bonita had ever met a noble she wasn’t related to. (In fact, they were blood relatives, though.)
On the other hand, the shock of the two men was incomparable to what Bonita had felt.
They stood there as if nails had been driven into them, their backs tingling as if they’d been hit with a hammer.
Even the hot-tempered Dylan could not say anything and just opened his mouth. He rubbed his eyes as if he had seen something unbelievable, and then slumped down as if his legs had given out.
Coincidentally, it was in front of Bonita. Their eye levels were exactly the same.
Their eyes were similar, as if looking into a mirror. Dylan muttered absentmindedly.
“A, an illegitimate child? But she’s not?”
“… What nonsense are you talking about all of a sudden?”
Luke, who had been watching the scene, asked back as if he was dumbfounded.
