Supporting Characters Also Need Some Love

CHAPTER 3: YOU ARE QUALIFIED TO BE THERE (XXIII)

Part 062

 

After returning to the princess’s palace, she didn’t even know how time passed. She tried to concentrate, but Ailene’s precarious backside kept coming to mind. After finalizing the sale of the third mansion, which was almost finished, she went back early today at the princess’s suggestion. As soon as she returned to the mansion, she wrote a letter. She couldn’t send a letter to Duke Nodovan, whom she had never spoken to, so she wrote it to Ailene’s half-sister, Lillian. She sent a letter to her servant and asked him to wait and receive a reply, and it did not take long for her to return with a letter sealed in wax with the emblem of the Duke of Nonovan. The reply was short.

 

[Tomorrow at 5 o’clock, I will send a carriage. Duke, Ratwig Donovan]

 

When she received a letter personally written by the Duke, her tension eased a bit. She wouldn’t pretend not to know Ailene. Since the Duke said in the letter that he had something to say about Ailene that he would personally send a carriage, she could assume that they were also waiting for news, right?

 

* * *

 

The next day, as soon as she finished her finance training, she left the official residence and saw the Donovan Duke family’s carriage standing there. The servant who was sitting next to the coachman came down, greeted her politely, and said he would take her to the Ministry of Home Affairs residence. He felt more comfortable than going to the Duke’s house, which he had never been to before. After the training was over, she went into the Ministry of the Interior residence, which she thought she would never come back to, and especially the office of the Minister of the Interior, which she had never been to before. She saw Lillian and the Duke of Donovan sitting face to face on the sofa, then stood up. Duke Donovan, whom she had only seen from afar, had a dark expression on his face, and Lillian also looked nervous. He stood at the door and bowed his head as politely as possible.

 

“Duke Donovan, this is Damian Etihart.”

 

The Duke silently gestured to the sofa.

 

“Welcome, Lady Ethart. Thank you so much for contacting me.”

 

Lillian led her to the sofa and sat down next to her. What could she say about Duke Donoban, whom she saw face to face? He looked really stubborn. He has a straight, tightly closed mouth, wide eyes, and a high nose bridge. He clearly resembled Ailene, but the atmosphere was completely different, which was surprising. Even his low, unaccented voice was full of dignity.

 

“I heard you had something to say about Aileene.”

 

“Yes, Excellency the Duke. The situation is urgent, so I will tell you straight away. Ailene wants to come back. There is no way to contact you, so she asked me to do it. She wants to know the Duke’s intentions.”

 

“Hmm.”

 

Duke Donovan cleared his throat loudly. He sounded like he was complaining, or he was disapproving, or he was moaning with joy. Wow, he’s hard to read. When the Duke turned his head and only showed his side face for a long time and did not open his mouth, Lillian urged him.

 

“Father, won’t you tell me so the lady can tell it to her sister?”

 

“Hmm. I will file a request with His Majesty right away. Please tell him that I will do whatever it takes to bring him back. When can you tell Ailene?”

 

“We agreed to meet again next Monday.”

 

“Monday… I see. We have to get it out somehow before the trial starts. When are we supposed to meet on Monday?”

 

“We decided to meet at one o’clock.”

 

“Yes, if you do, I will send the carriage at that time. Your Majesty will receive permission no matter what, so no matter what the second prince does, please bring Eilene with you.”

 

“Thank you, Your Excellency the Duke. Ailene will be happy too. I will definitely bring her out.”

 

“Please, I can’t enter the inner palace… so what about that child?”

 

Duke Donoban, whose expression she could not read at all, suddenly changed into a face she recognized. He had the same eyes as her father, who was worried about her, and was waiting for her answer. Good luck, Eilene. It’s not about family circumstances or other political reasons, she was just worried about her. He’s hoping she would come back. She didn’t want to hit her father’s chest with his nervous face, but the last time she saw Ailene’s face was so vivid that she had no choice but to tell the truth.

 

“It seemed difficult and lonely.”

 

The Duke’s eyes wavered. He averted his eyes and turned his head, but he saw clearly. Duke Donoban, with regret and remorse written all over his face, sat again for a long time, ignoring her, then stood up and went to the window with his back to her. He looked back at Duke Ina, who had been standing looking at the window for a while, and spoke in a very heavy voice.

 

“The Donoban family never forgets a favor. Be sure to repay them.”

 

“No, Your Excellency the Duke.”

 

Knowing that it was a greeting without saying anything more, she quietly stood up, bowed her head, and left the Minister of Home Affairs’ office. Lillian comes out and sees me off. Her face was full of things she wanted to ask, but she didn’t speak to him. Although she was relieved to be able to deliver good news to Ailene, she was depressed as she remembered Duke Donovan’s face filled with remorse.

 

* * *

 

As she trudged out of the official residence, the carriage of the Duke of Vigor was standing next to the carriage of the Duke of Donovan, who had opened the door and was waiting to take her back. She didn’t know how, but Adrian was standing in front of the carriage. When he came closer to her and looked at her with the same friendly face as always, her complicated feelings burst out. Whether anyone was watching or not, she hugged Adrian around the waist and buried her face in his arms. She was so happy, so bad, so upset, so angry, so sorry, and she didn’t know what to say about this feeling, so she just buried my face, and Adrian, who had one arm wrapped around her back, brushed her hair down with his other hand. After being comforted by his comforting hand for a while, he came to his senses. She also realized that at the entrance to the Ministry of the Interior’s official residence, the rumored daughter was in the arms of Duke Bigor and was openly showing affection. She was about to take off his arm and sneak away when Adrian snatched her up and gave her a tight hug. After struggling to escape, Adrian smiled brightly. She looked around and saw administrators standing here and there watching. Once she was taken by the hand, she climbed into the Duke of Bigor’s carriage.

 

“Would you like to go eat meat for strength today?”

 

Adrian asked, smiling brightly. She would have guessed what would have happened when she met someone, but she was grateful and grateful that they didn’t ask her anything.

 

“Aren’t you busy today?”

 

“Even though we’re busy, shouldn’t we have dinner?”

 

Last time they met, she thought he said he would be busy all week… but no matter how busy this person was, we had to eat dinner. We chose one of the restaurants closest to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The atmosphere was a bit old-fashioned, but the fish dishes were good, so today she didn’t take any risks and chose the sea bass steak. Perhaps because she was relaxed, she felt hungry. As she cut the rope sea bass into thin pieces and put it in her mouth, Adrian was looking at her with his fatherly smile. It may not be easy to be as affectionate as our Adrian, but what if Duke Donovan had been a more caring father? She didn’t know the circumstances, but it seemed like there was some kind of misunderstanding between the father and daughter. The regret on Duke Donovan’s face did not seem light at all. It was even more unfortunate that he seemed to be truly worried about Ailene. If they had been a friendly father and daughter who talked well to each other, wouldn’t Ailene have been able to avoid running away from home? Couldn’t he have come home sooner before worrying about it alone like that? As she was thinking about something meaningless even if she thought about it, Adrian, who was eating black olives, which she didn’t eat often, from the salad, became even more amazed and said,

 

“Adrian will definitely be a good father.”

 

Adrian looked at her with surprised eyes for a long time before putting the fork with the olives in his mouth and said with an embarrassed smile.

 

“Do you think so?”

 

“Yes, really. He will be a good father.”

 

“I’ll try my best.”

 

Was there any other man who could smile so brightly while holding a fork dipped in olives? She smiled at him and he asked, his eyes sparkling with anticipation.

 

“When will I be able to become a good father?”

 

“Huh? Um… I don’t know?”

 

When she asked it as a question, his sparkling eyes drooped slightly. Because it’s cute to see Olive mumbling with a disappointed face. She laughed.

 

“How should I know, Adrian?”

 

“If Damian doesn’t know, who knows?”

 

‘Oh. Look at this guy.’

 

Father. To become a father, you have to have a child, then you have to get married, and before that, you have to get engaged, you have to get permission from your father, and before that, you have to finish the Dozern incident, right? He needs to be appointed as an administrator, that’s right. Our root class has to go get married first. Wow, there’s a long way to go. When she just rolled her eyes and didn’t respond, Adrian mumbled with a depressed look on his face.

 

“Have you ever thought about marrying me?”

 

“Um… we haven’t been dating for a while, Adrian.”

 

The corners of his eyes drooped even more at my answer, and he lowered his gaze and started picking out the olives, but the fork kept failing. Ah-oh. What should I do with this cute guy? After struggling for a while, he finally picked up an olive with his fork and suddenly said with a serious look on his face.

 

“It will be difficult if you don’t take responsibility now, Damian.”

 

“Ahahaha.”

 

She really burst out laughing. Was it okay to make such a serious face while holding an olive with just the tip of a fork? Even though she laughed for a while, her face was serious, so she answered that she understood and then smiled. After finishing her dessert, she was thinking about whether to move to her seat and go have tea, or spend some time drinking tea here and then part ways, when a red head suddenly appeared at the entrance. This was Ethan, who looked very tired for some reason. Ethan also looked tired, so he looked a little older. At that rate, he looked like a 19-year-old entrance exam student who completed the class. Ethan found them while looking around, came up to them, and bowed his head.

 

“It’s been a while, Ethan.”

 

“It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, my lady. Have you been innocent all this time?”

 

“Things are going on, but I’m doing well. What’s going on here?”

 

“We have come to catch the escaped commander.”

 

“Yes?”

 

She looked at Adrian in surprise, and he was smiling prettily while avoiding Ethan’s gaze and just looking at her face. Ethan took out the watch with a pouty look on his face, then raised the right corner of his mouth and said.

 

“Who would have thought that the person who said he was going to go out for a while would be an hour and forty-eight minutes?”

 

It was busy after all. Adrian, did you run away? Even though she was so busy, she didn’t have to pick him up and eat him. As she looked at him pitifully, Adrian spoke in a very solemn voice.

 

“You are disturbing my lady’s meal. What rudeness is this?”

 

Ethan didn’t pay any attention and just raised one corner of his mouth and answered with a crooked smile.

 

“I came up after hearing that dinner was over.”

 

“My lord.”

 

“Yes, my lady.”

 

“I heard that the military is very busy these days. I think Ethan will have a hard time assisting Adrian while also carrying out his duties as a butler.”

 

Ethan nodded his head vigorously and made a touched face.

 

“I wanted to eat together, so I took up the time. It’s because of me, so please skip it this time. Adrian has to eat dinner too.”

 

As she spoke with a business smile on, Ethan suddenly grabbed her right hand. His eyes suddenly darkened and he nodded his head again.

 

“Yes, ma, no, my lady! You are the only one who takes care of our master! That’s right. “Of course.”

 

She thought she had heard about three different names. Was it because of her mood? As she was taken aback by the strong reaction, Adrian stood up and slapped the back of Ethan’s hand, which was holding her hand, to shake it off. And he held out his hand and stood up.

 

“I will take you there and then return.”

 

Ethan protested grumpily, rubbing the back of his beaten hand with his other hand.

 

“Did you call Franz?”

 

She couldn’t help but laugh as she looked at the master looking down at his subordinates with wrinkles between his eyebrows, and the subordinates looking up at him with a heart-filled face. After comforting the reluctant Adrian, she returned home with Franz.

 

—————————————————————

Translator Note: