“Ah…”
Walter held Edith in his arms, and his rough breathing calmed down.
By the time he left the office, his vision had become dizzy from the intense headache. However, as soon as she came and kissed him, his body began to ache in different directions.
He felt bad that Edith was crying, but at the same time, he felt strangely satisfied, as if she was saying she couldn’t live without him.
『 If anyone hears, they might think all the headaches are fake.』
Walter carefully brushed Edith’s hair, who was whimpering in his arms. As he kissed her round forehead, Edith’s body, which had been trembling, gradually calmed down.
“… Walter.”
As he listened to her choked-up voice, a scene suddenly appeared in his muddled mind.
It was a day when the rain poured down, and he urgently rode his horse through the damp trees, just like today. Raindrops flew in through the gaps of his raincoat, soaking his clothes, and despite the increasing anxiety, his mind vividly searched for someone.
When he finally found the girl curled up and sobbing, unaware that her long blonde hair was dragging on the ground, a loud voice escaped him involuntarily.
⋙“Edith! I’ve been searching everywhere for you.”⋘
『 …Is this the childhood of Edith and I?』
When he recalled that moment, Walter realized that his splitting headache wasn’t all that bad.
How tightly his heart tightened when he saw the girl who immediately recognized who was speaking and lifted her head timidly.
How relieved and happy little Edith was to find him out in the rain.
For a split second, he vividly remembered what the air current that filled the space between them felt like, to the point where it gave him goosebumps.
“Edith. I have something to say.”
With that, Walter raised Edith to her feet. It may have been summer, but clothes tended to feel chilly when wet.
Luckily, there was a glass greenhouse with a warming spell nearby, so Walter took her there.
He then draped a blanket over her shoulders, put the kettle on the fire, and began to speak.
“There was a bit of a problem because I used my magic power as it was. I should have told you earlier, but…”
Walter glanced at Edith’s face, who was frightened by the words ‘a bit of a problem’.
“I don’t want to see the mother of my child making such an expression.”
“…”
Edith drank the warm tea he made and listened to what he said in silence.
It felt like all the blood drained from her body as she listened to him talk about how he had gone to the swordsmanship tournament for the sake of sharing his magic with their unborn child, even though he knew it would be dangerous.
His condition seemed a little worse than she had expected from overhearing the doctors’ conversation.
“Walter, then…”
Edith exhaled to calm her heart before asking.
“What was it that you said earlier about having to have the wedding ceremony as quickly as possible?”
“…”
“Were you trying to make me the Duchess to secure an inheritance for Adrian and me?”
As Edith’s sharp gaze turned to him, Walter got nervous without even realizing it. For the first time in his life, his entire body trembled with fear.
No matter who the other person was, he had never been this nervous before, but when he heard Edith’s question, his mind went blank, as if he were being reprimanded.
Edith sighed as she saw him stuttering uncharacteristically.
“Walter. You thought you might die and hid your condition from me the whole time?”
“Well, that…”
Edith was already clearly disappointed.
Walter always had a quick wit and never hesitated to speak his mind, and he knew that even opening his mouth could make Edith burst into tears again.
Not wanting to create such a situation, he looked for a way and soon found someone who could save him from this situation.
“For now, I think we should let Theos over there explain.”
Walter motioned for Theos and the doctors, who were wandering around looking for him, to come into the greenhouse.
Before coming to the office, Theos was excited, as if he had found a clue to his magical outburst. So, he must have some kind of solution.
“Li-Little Duke. Are you alright?”
“I’m alright. The headache has subsided, and how well it goes from here will depend on what you’ve been researching.”
Edith glanced at Walter, who was quietly passing the responsibility to Theos.
However, she desperately hoped that this young mage, now considered a genius within Lexion, would give her hope.
“Theos. You said to me earlier. It may seem very difficult, but there is a way.”
As she spoke, Theos, who was hesitant like a student being scolded, nodded.
“Yes, thanks to the opportunities you provided, M’lady, I’ve found theoretical methods to prevent magic outbursts.”
Theos explained the principles lightly, using specialized terms commonly used by top-level mages.
Even the doctors, George and Thelma, both mages, could not fully understand the explanation.
Edith could tell Vane wasn’t lying when he asked her about where she had found such a genius.
“So, to conclude, if we can harvest a small amount of the Little Duke’s father’s magic, process it to normal, and then transplant it into you, you’ll be fine.”
“Magic transplantation?”
“Yes. Magic has the characteristic of returning to its normal state. In the case of the Little Duke, the problem is that he has no normal magical power left after going through an outburst episode. For reference, this regularity was discovered by observing Young Master Adrian’s magic…”
Theos’ eyes sparkled as he began to explain the beauty of the regularity of Lexion magic.
With the boy’s voice as background music, Edith and Walter looked into each other’s eyes. There was the biggest reason why they couldn’t make this work.
“Father?”
“Yes. The magic of other relatives, including Lord Franz, cannot be used; it must specifically be your father’s magic.”
“I don’t even know who my father is, so I should calmly wait for my magic to explode…”
Walter, who was smirking as usual, received Edith’s cold gaze and immediately changed his words.
“—But all we had to do is to find out who my father is. He must be alive if he wanted to see the face of his handsome son.”
“He must be alive. Mrs. Leah said your father was a strong man.”
She knew that there was a chance that Walter’s father was no longer part of this world, but now they couldn’t spare any thought for such possibilities.
Edith spoke in a firm tone, as if there was no need for any other assumptions.
“So, let’s start by finding your father.”
──────────✿◦•
However, even after several days, there was no significant progress in finding Walter’s father.
“It seems like this so-called ‘father‘ hasn’t done much for me. I can’t remember anything.”
Walter shrugged and tapped Adrian’s cheek, nestled in his arms.
“Don’t worry, little one, I will teach you a lot of good things so that you don’t forget your father like I did.”
“Abuuu.”
“That’s right, everything.”
Walter chuckled and held Adrian even more dearly. Seeing his child’s eyes, which resembled Edith’s half-moon-shaped eyes, Walter’s heart was not at ease.
Although he spoke jokingly to the child, Walter was taking this matter more seriously than anyone else.
This was evidenced by the fact that he, who was rarely friendly to others except Edith, contacted his three aunts first.
While waiting for the ladies to stop by the Dukedom, Edith carefully explained the situation to Franz.
“You have kept Walter’s condition a secret from me, so I need your help this time, Lord Franz.”
“…”
Edith’s voice sounded so earnest as she asked. Franz couldn’t help but feel guilty that he had known about Walter’s condition all this time and had kept it from his grandson’s future wife.
Moreover, perhaps it was because he deceived her.
『 Adrian seems to have been glaring at me since earlier.』
Franz instinctively realized that he couldn’t afford to lose points with Edith any further and fumbled through his memories.
“Leah was beautiful, just like my wife. And I can count on one hand the number of boys who took a liking to her even though they knew she was dying.”
“Are they all alive?”
“Everyone is alive except for the late Crown Prince, who passed away. I believe that by meeting each one and discussing the situation, we can determine who the father is.”
Franz’s expression became strangely cold when he thought of the men who expressed interest in his daughter.
To divert Franz’s attention, who seemed ready to go and interrogate them right away, Walter asked a question.
“Crown Prince?”
“Yes. During the process of seizing the throne, His Majesty, the current Emperor, pushed out the Crown Prince, who was the legitimate heir. The deceased Crown Prince had expressed his desire to formally engage with Leah when he was alive.”
“Mrs. Leah… did she like him? I also wonder if he trained in swordsmanship. She said that Walter’s father was always exhausted from training.”
When Edith asked, Franz answered with Lexion’s characteristic haughty and solemn face.
“The Imperial Family boasts of beautiful appearances through generations, and there is no family more worthy of the Imperial Family than Lexion. Leah was a wise child. If she had chosen one of those men, it would have been the Crown Prince.”
However, the Duke’s youngest daughter, Lilliette, who arrived just in time, had a slightly different opinion.
“The late Crown Prince? Oh, no, I don’t think so. Unnie hated the Crown Prince a lot. She had always said he was not only incapable but also excessively arrogant. And I don’t think she’s the kind of woman who would choose a man she didn’t like just for the sake of the family.”
“Ahem.”
Lilliette easily ignored her father’s reluctant reaction and handed Edith a five-page document.
“First of all, I made a list of the men Leah had her eyes on around that time.”
“…”
Edith sensed that finding Walter’s father would not be easy.
❀.°• ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ ─ •°.❀
