The Male Lead’s Father Refuses to Break Off Our Engagement

Chapter 20

 

She quietly whispered after the butler left.

“Is it okay if we talk here?”

As Evelia looked around, Cassis nodded.

“I put a mute spell on it. Our voices will not be heard from the outside.”

“Okay.”

Cassis, who hadn’t touched the tea, stared intently at Evelia.

“I think I need to know for sure in order not to make a mistake. How many people know about Ruth?”

I deliberately spoke in a vague manner, but Cassis quickly understood.

“First of all, the butler, Logan, and Ruth’s nanny.”

Evelia remembered these four people and opened her mouth.

“I’m sure you’ll know, but I will pretend not to know.”

“…….”

“And the real father of Ruth that the Duke wanted to know…”

A hint of anger crept across Cassis’ face.

“It’s Lionel Cesia, the prince of the magical kingdom of Cesia.”

As soon as he heard the name, the barely suppressed murderous energy in Cassis’s body spread out uncontrollably.

“Is that true?”

He asked.

Evelia nodded her head with difficulty, unable to speak out as she felt as if her throat was being strangled.

After observing Evelia’s expression, Cassis saved his energy. As she let out the hard breath she had been holding back, Cassis apologized.

“I’m sorry.”

“No.”

Not even that. As she recalled the contents of the original story, Evelia understood Cassis’ anger.

‘In the novel, Lionel was described as a playboy, right?’

He was the illegitimate son of the current King Cesia. King Cesia was not originally a Crown Prince, but had a lover before he was crowned.

However, after the former Crown Prince died in an unfortunate accident and he was crowned as the Crown Prince, he abandoned his lover and married the daughter of a powerful man who could support him.

At this time, his ex-lover was already pregnant with Lionel, and the news of this spread covertly throughout the capital of the Kingdom of Cesia.

After ascending the throne, King Cesia had no choice but to acknowledge Lionel as his son.

But whether it was because of his father’s resemblance to him or his own sense of entitlement as an illegitimate son, he lived his life doing accidents on his own.

Inevitably, the king sent him to a magic academy in the empire to study in order to grow up, and just in time he fell in love with Julia, who was also attending the same academy.

‘If you listen to this far, it seems that Lionel treated Julia carelessly…’

In fact, he was very nice to her.

However, Lionel, who always hated the gazes following him because of his status as the king’s illegitimate son, was afraid that strange people would stick to Julia.

So he kept secret that he and Julia were lovers.

For that reason, people didn’t know that the two were lovers and that Ruth was Lionel’s biological son. Even the people of the Adelhard family.

‘It’s a setting where the only person who knew that was Count Venion.’

The problem was that a curse that had been handed down only to the Cesia royal family had manifested on Lionel, the illegitimate son of King Cesia.

If there was a bigger problem, it was that the curse also came down on Ruth, Lionel’s illegitimate son.

‘This is something Cassis has to figure out gradually.’

All Evelia could do was to tell him that Lionel was Ruth’s biological father.

The fact that a curse had fallen upon him was something that even Count Venion didn’t know.

‘But why didn’t Lionel come back?’

The story of Julia and Lionel was not properly dealt with in the original novel, perhaps because it is the story of his parents’ generation.

It was only briefly mentioned that Lionel, upon learning of Julia’s pregnancy, went back to the Kingdom of Cesia to obtain permission to marry her, but never returned.

There were a few readers who felt betrayed by Lionel when they read the novel.

Some readers felt betrayed by Lionel, who was portrayed as the love interest of the century, and wondered if everything about him was a lie.

In response, the author of the novel said that there was a valid reason behind it, but at least that reason didn’t come out until the part I read.

‘I should have read it to the end.’

But the reason didn’t matter, so I decided to just move on.

“I’m going to go find out.”

After organizing his thoughts, Cassis apologized and left the room first.

‘Then I shall go see Ruth.’

Stretching once, Evelia followed him out of the room.

 

* * *

 

As the doctor said, after a day Ruth’s fever went down quickly.

‘Now I can be nice to Ruth.’

Evelia, who was heading towards the child with a relieved heart, approached the maid who was walking down the hallway carrying Ruth’s meal.

“I’ll take it.”

“Ah, I can’t let Lady carry it.”

“That’s okay. I want to do it.”

Evelia took the tray from the maid and went into Ruth’s room. As soon as she went inside, she heard the joy voice of an excited child.

“Nanny, look, I found something!”

“It’s a four-leaf clover!”

“Yes! but it’s weird. I think I gave it to Evelia yesterday, but why is it still here?”

“Maybe you were dreaming?”

“Is that so? I want to give it to her quickly, but I don’t know if Lady Evelia will like it.”

“She will like it.”

“But what if it ruins before I give it to her?”

“You can put it between the books. See, right?”

“Yes!”

The child’s voice was warm enough to make my heart melt just hearing it again. Evelia smiled involuntarily and approached Ruth.

“Young master, are you all right now?”

“Uh? Lady Evelia!”

Evelia set the tray down on the bedside table and winked at the nanny. After that nanny left, she sat down on the bed and put the palm of her hand on Ruth’s forehead.

I checked it out just in case, but fortunately there was no fever.

But Ruth’s ears burned red. Evelia let out a small laugh.

‘Cute.’

She wondered if Ruth was embarrassed by this little attention. As much as he tried to act grown-up, he was still a child.

“Wow.”

Ruth stared blankly at Evelia’s smile. And it was just as adorable, so Evelia ruffled the child’s hair once before placing a spoon in his tiny hand.

“Are you hungry? I brought you a meal.”

“What about Evelia? Have you eaten yet?”

“I will eat later.”

“Oh, then let’s eat together.”

Ruth held out the bowl of soup that Evelia had given him. Evelia pushed it back to Ruth.

“The chef made it with special care for the young master, so you should eat it all.”

“But…”

“You have to eat all of this so you don’t get sick and grow up.”

Ruth looked down at the soup and asked cautiously.

“If I eat all of this, can I become tall and strong like my father?”

At the sudden mention of Cassis, Evelia shut her mouth.

‘It seems he likes Cassis more than I thought.’

Reminding herself once again that she needed to get the two of them to quickly become friends, she tore off a small piece of bread and put it in a soup bowl.

“Sure. If you eat all of this, you will grow strong and resemble the Duke.”

The words were barely out of her mouth when Ruth began to eat the soup.

I had to tell him several times to eat slowly because he ate too fast, fueled by the desire to grow up quickly.

After clearing the soup plate, Ruth hesitated and held out the four-leaf clover he had tucked between the books.

“It’s a gift.”

His ears, which had returned to white, quickly turned red again.

“”I found it to give it to you, Lady Evelia.”

“My wish has already come true.”

“Re-really?”

Ruth, who opened his eyes wide, immediately lowered his head sullenly.

“So you don’t need this anymore?”

Instead, I want you to make a wish, young master.”

“My wish?”

“Yes.”

Evelia put Ruth’s hand holding the four-leaf clover to the child’s chest.

“What would you like to wish for, young master?”

“I want..!”

Ruth, who shouted out loud, soon closed his mouth, seeing Evelia’s notice.

After Evelia nodded her head to mean that she was okay, the child hesitated.

“I want Lady Evelia to be my mother. But if Lady Evelia doesn’t like it…”

“Okay.”

“Yes?”

Ruth asked in a puzzled voice.

“I will become young master mother.”

Tears quickly filled Ruth’s round eyes.

“Really?”

“Yes.”

“I’m really happy…”

Ruth rubbed the corners of his eyes with the hand that wasn’t clutching the four-leaf clover.