Chapter 99
“Really, because you’re the first person I’ve ever seen who’s been this interesting to me.”
“Oh, yeah.”
It was like he was saying, “You’re the first person I’ve ever met who tastes this good,” and it made her nervous, not excited.
‘How did my life turn out this way?’
Why is she getting all this undeserved attention?
She wanted to give it all to her mistress.
“You’re cute, really.”
“?”
She didn’t do anything, so what the hell.
The man who had been pecking her in the cheek met her fat eyes, and his eyes narrowed.
“I can’t help it, they said the first one to like you loses.”
“Well, well.”
“Next time, I’ll show up so you don’t get scared.”
Can’t he just not show up?
“Nope. No.”
She stiffened at his response, as if he’d read her mind.
“See ya.”
With a sweet goodbye, she blinked and the mystery stalker was gone, but her heart was pounding like a murder warning.
“Do I really have to be nice?”
… She suddenly felt tired.
***
[Immortals don’t know everything].
Valar’s walk to the palace was not worth it. It was the first time he’d ever been kicked out without a clue.
‘He seemed to know something.’
This is what immortals are for.
Maybe he should search Halbern’s secret libraries.
“Archduke!”
Pession ran into Valar and didn’t dodge. Still glaring at Valar, his eyes still burning.
Valar remembered the time he had seen Pession with Arellin in the Otherworld.
‘It’s the Imperial Family.’
He still didn’t like it.
“Thanks for your help before, I didn’t realize I didn’t thank you.”
“Yeah.”
He only saved him because he was stuck with her daughter.
Whether he realized it or not, Pession’s eyes lit up.
Vibrant red eyes shone like rubies.
The shadowless sunlight made Valar’s lips curl.
The talent of the Allerman imperials is <Beloved>.
It was a trait of the Allerman royalty to receive favors and love without reason, though the extent and type of limitation varied from individual to individual.
Pession was born with the blood, and he was the perfect heir the imperial family wanted.
‘Why is this child…’
He’s after his daughter?
That was a question for Valar too.
What is lacking?
How many things had the imperial family, desperate for an heir, already put into this tiny child’s hands.
The best of all possible worlds.
The promised perfect future.
And there she was, Arellin… was like a puzzle piece that didn’t fit.
‘I don’t know.’
Still, he didn’t react, perhaps because he had witnessed the way this child looked at her daughter.
“Me, the Archduke, and Arellin…”
The young Crown Prince’s questioning look was suddenly superimposed on an Emperor of his own age.
The bored eyes of an arrogant ruler who had everything easily.
He remembered a certain Emperor who, without motivation or enthusiasm, played with everything he had at his fingertips and only came to his senses when he fell in love.
‘This is how he’s going to grow up.’
“You don’t grow up to be boring.”
“… To?”
He didn’t like being the guy who had it so easy that everything in the world didn’t matter anyway.
That would be too unpleasant.
Especially with that intelligent gleam in his eye right now.
“What?”
Valar left the palace, leaving Pession confused by the sudden advice.
“Ugh.”
Pain gnawing at his veins, a vague memory flooding in.
He stopped dead in his tracks, his vision flickering.
The side effects he’d been suppressing were getting worse and worse. He had to get back to the mansion quickly.
“Archduke.”
Valar sighed inwardly.
He wanted to ignore the voice calling out to him, but he couldn’t.
Turning, he found Empress Ageni staring at him, her eyes filled with mixed emotions.
“What brings you here, Her Majesty?”
“I have a question for you.”
“Is it possible for such a peaceful dialog to be established between us?”
Empress Ageni’s smile cracked.
“… I don’t blame you, Valar.”
“Don’t lie to me, Her Majesty.”
The corners of Valar’s lips twitched upward.
“You’re the one who wants to kill me more than anyone, aren’t you, Ageni.”
They had nothing but hatred and resentment for each other.
“Of course I do, because I don’t want to see your face.”
Sister’s friend.
Their relationship had been strained ever since the most precious thing between them had disappeared.
Empress Ageni lowered her gaze. The obvious emotion in Valar’s eyes choked her.
Resentment at why she hadn’t helped her sister when she needed it.
It was not unlike the emotion Ageni felt as she looked at Valar.
“Yeah, I’ll be honest with you. I still hate you so much.”
If it weren’t for her.
Sione wouldn’t be so unhappy.
“For all she endured for you, I still want to kill you.”
The misfortune of her beloved and cherished friend ate at Ageni’s heart.
It was the trauma of Sione’s misfortune that led to her rise to power as a former householder before becoming Empress.
“Still, I can’t kill you. You’re Sione’s beloved little brother, aren’t you?”
“So am I.”
Suppressed mockery escaped out.
“You’re so annoying, but I’m letting you stay because you’re my sister’s favorite friend.”
There’s no room for this relationship to improve unless Sione comes back.
Valar hated his sister’s friend for not helping her, and Ageni hated his friend’s brother for being her friend’s shackle.
“So, the question?”
“Arellin, is she really your daughter?”
“Think what you will.”
“Of course.”
A question that catches Valar off guard.
“Sione, is she still alive?”
Not well, or how, but alive.
In a voice that was almost desperate, a twisted mockery slipped through his teeth.
“Don’t you already know the answer?”
Beneath long lashes, shaded violet eyes deepened as if they had swallowed the darkness.
***
She can’t see her father.
It’s Day 5 of the Gun International. Dinners are held in all the Imperial Palaces, but Halbern is absent again.
“Mehen.”
“Yes, Arel.”
“Do you think he’s avoiding me?”
Her sincere question was not easily answered by Mehen.
“I don’t know.”
“What?”
Is there anything Mehen doesn’t know?!
“As far as he’s concerned, I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
Mehen sighed.
“It’s a shame we have to discuss something so important, and you can’t see it.”
“That’s a big deal.”
“Maybe Arel can help me with that.”
“Huh?”
Mehen followed him to the portrait room that his father was known to inhabit.
“Please. Arel.”
“Mehen can’t get in?”
“Unlike their direct reports, deputies can’t get in when it’s closed at the highest security level.”
Mehen cheered.
“You go and get the son of a bitch out of there.”
“Yes!”
“Long live the future of Halbern!”
The top-security door didn’t stop her, as Mehen had said.
As soon as she entered the portrait room, she was overwhelmed by what she saw.
“Wow…”
What’s all this?
Starting with the first Archduke of Halbern, portraits of all the archdukes, archduchesses, and their immediate children lined the walls.
This is the portrait room?
She felt like she was in a famous art museum, and she was in awe of the place, as if she had rented a room in a famous museum after hours.
“Huh? Grandeur? I’ve heard of this a lot.”
It was the signature of a painter that the twins had once told her they loved as a conversation piece.
“The twins would love to see it.”
To have such a painter paint the portrait? She suddenly realized the power of Halbern.
She wandered around like a tourist and ended up in the deepest room.
For some reason, the only blank wall in the room, the only unhung portrait, caught her eye.
“Uh, is this…?”
It was the woman from her dream.
Her stomach churned, even though she wasn’t facing the real thing. As if she’d forgotten something, she suddenly realized.
‘This woman is my mother.’
A tug in the blood? A premonition?
She can’t really explain it, but it’s like it was implanted in her brain that this woman is her mother.
{Sione Sigria Halbern}
“…?”
Why Halbern?
She glanced at the name tag on the frame and shook her head.
Huh? Now that she think about it, isn’t this only for direct relatives? Huh? No way.
Near… Relative?
No?!
What she saw was a full-age Romance Fantasy Novel!
“The secret of birth.”
She doesn’t want one of those…
“Mom is enough of a Mehen!”
