Chapter 83
She was rebuffed.
“His Highness the Crown Prince has asked me to inform you that his schedule is already full and he is unable to make time for you.”
That was great until the Crown Prince’s palace servant came to deliver the rejection, not a letter…
“Is this my carriages?”
“He must be in a hurry.”
Lena answered coldly.
“Of course not, it’s a convention.”
“Considering how important His Highness the Crown Prince is, I’m sure he’s got his hands full.”
The nursery troupe tried, but her opinion didn’t change.
“I think he’s been dumped.”
She was depressed.
“In addition, His Highness Princess Shirua has invited Lady Arellin to join her for tea at her palace sometime.”
Princess Shirua?
She remembered the overly pretty girl she’d met at the tea party. She was like a female version of Pession.
At any other time, she would have dismissed the attention as overwhelming, but she was confused.
“…I’ll come when I have time.”
“I’ll let them know you’ve considered it, then.”
She became even more depressed.
“Ha.”
He doesn’t even give her a chance to make excuses.
She needs to get this straight, no misunderstandings.
“Don’t worry, the Gun International Ball is in two days.”
She sighs heavily, and Yuni rushes to comfort her.
“Children under 13 will be playing in a separate area.”
“Then what are you doing? Children can’t go to the ball.”
“If you go there, you’ll get to meet His Highness the Crown Prince.”
“Really?!”
She looked up and her maids smiled at the same time.
“Now go ahead and ask His Highness the Archduke to take you there.”
“Ah…”
They crossed one mountain and then another.
***
It was Mehen’s official residence.
He handed over the papers prepared by Mehen, who had kidnapped Valar, who for some reason hadn’t been confined to the inner annexe and was wandering around.
Half lying on the couch, jaw set in a grimace, Valar signed off on the stack of papers.
“You gave Arel a murder warning.”
His impassive gaze skimmed dryly over the words.
“Your daughter tells you that? She said it was a secret from me.”
“Is that discrimination because I’m a mother?”
Mehen clicked his tongue.
“What the hell did you say to her?”
There are things to say, and there are things not to say.
At bedtime, when she reads to him at his bedside, a now-established routine, Arelin explains to Mehen what happened during the day in gibberish.
‘My biological father sent me a death threat and said he would do anything for me.’
Unlike Mehen, who was startled and doubted his ears, Arellin’s expression was so calm that for a moment he wondered if he had misheard.
“Don’t you realize that you should be careful what you say in front of a child?”
“Do I need to advise you on this?”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“If you didn’t say anything, why is it a death knell for Arellin?”
Valar’s handsome eyes crinkled.
“If you’re curious, tell me why you became a mother.”
“It’s a secret.”
“Then my secret too.”
He glared.
“Why? What.”
“I’m annoyed.”
Mehen rolled his brow nervously. The only thing that ever made the usually calm and polite Mehen emotional was his master, Valar.
Setting the signed papers down on the table, Valar stared at Mehen.
In the northern castles, every day was a battle and a struggle, and he had lost track of time, but now that he was back at Halbern Manor on the Ecliptic, he could see the difference in every moment.
“You’re really becoming a mother, Mehen.”
“What kind of nonsense are you going to say again…”
Valar smirked, a murderous look in his eyes that threatened to spank him firmly if he said honey one more time.
“It’s a little strange. I thought you always drew your own lines first and stayed within them.”
Mehen paused.
“I don’t know if it’s because you know your place, or because you’re not greedy, or because you’re not ambitious, or because you’re just doing your job, or because it’s in your nature, or because you don’t care about others, or because you’re a nuisance, but I’ve always found it curious that you always stayed in your place.”
“What are you trying to say?”
For some reason, the surge of rejection made Mehen want to shut him up.
“That’s why you care so much about someone, why you’re so attached to them.”
“…”
“I’m a little surprised.”
His voice was laid-back and impassive. The way he looked at him, too.
‘It’s the first time I’ve ever seen you get attached to someone.’
“Valar, cut the crap.”
“No?”
I’m wrong, huh?
There was no reprimand in his voice, no scolding, no judgment, no sarcasm, just a straightforward statement of fact.
He feels like he is choking.
Mehen curled his lips in an attempt at nonchalance, fighting down the urge to run out of the room.
Even so, it’s long since been figured out.
“The things you own, the things beneath you, they’re all just things I unilaterally put into your hands, aren’t they?”
No title, no family name, no townhouse in a capital city he’d never been to, no mansion, no reputation as a genius, no status as he is now, no reputation and fortune.
And.
Even the seat of deputy.
“You are a man who is content with what he has been given, and you are never greedy.”
“…”
“As if you’re telling yourself you have to be.”
As if he doesn’t deserve this position.
“That’s why I’m surprised. I thought you’d raise a child like that.”
His words stuck like a sledgehammer. Mehen had to grit her teeth to keep from groaning.
A startlingly accurate assessment.
It was. That was exactly how it was.
He’d drawn a line in the sand, told himself he was not to be approached, that he was merely a temporary protector, that he would have to relinquish this position whenever his master returned.
How he’d left her alone, how he’d made her lonely, how he’d made her suffer.
The young one.
“It looks good.”
Mehen couldn’t help but smile at his lord’s habit of laughing at what he could see, oblivious to the past.
He could not bear to face his Lord, his friend, his old savior, the man who had trusted him, who had believed in him.
He had urged him to return, and yet the child he had left in his care…
“I’m sorry.”
“What.”
The apology was met with an indifferent reply. Mehen’s face crumpled into a grim line.
“Mehen.”
Valar sighed, watching Mehen stutter and ramble on, tortured by a sense of guilt that was slowly building.
Valar sighed, watching Mehen ramble on and on, tortured by a slow, belated guilt.
“I didn’t leave Arellin in your care because I knew you’d do a good job.”
Mehen didn’t understand.
Then why had he entrusted her to him?
“Because you are.”
Time and time again, returning to that moment, Valar’s choice is the same.
Mehen is the only human he trusts.
“Remember what I told you when I first made you deputy?”
Mehen looks up.
“I told you you could screw it up.”
Valar’s decision to appoint Mehen as his deputy, overriding all the vassals who had long been loyal to Halbern, was much resented. Still, no one could stop him.
“Fail, blow it, and fall as far as you can.”
Why the Archduke seat of power was handed over to an unrelated, unloved orphan.
“It’s important that you’re there.”
He figured if he gave it to somebody else, they’d clean up the invoices.
“It’s just the way it was this time.”
The intense distrust of humans remained, and there was only one human Valar could truly say he ‘trusted’.
The heavy trust made Mehen feel self-deprecating.
“So you need to do a better job.”
“Why? Did I tell you to do that?”
but it seemed like it should be.
He can’t be his flaw.
“I don’t keep you by my side because you’re useful or a genius. It’s about time you got to know me a little better, my friend.”
Valar spoke in a slightly tired tone. Mehen’s eyes sank into a sullen hollow.
It was Mehen who broke the deathly silence.
“Well, then, I’m going to make my first presumptuous gesture as your jiggy.”
Their gazes met in the air.
“Arellin, is she really your daughter?”
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