Celeste, whom he saw again, seemed different, almost like a different person. Karl compared the Celeste of two years ago with the one before him.
Indeed, the Celeste who had come to find him two years ago looked quite different from the one he had briefly glimpsed before that.
“Karl, we really need to talk.”
Although they had seen each other from a distance countless times, they had never exchanged a single word. Yet, the Celeste who had suddenly come to find him two years ago seemed as intimate with him as if they were close friends.
“I don’t have much time, Karl.”
She had come all the way to his secluded villa without hesitation, even calling his name confidently.
“Bye-bye.”
Warmth brushed his fingertips. Karl, awakening from his memories, looked down at what she had touched.
“Daddy.”
The child who had been sound asleep until a moment ago now looked up at him with sparkling blue eyes and a bright smile. Trying to speak as quietly as possible, it seemed the noise of waking disturbed the child.
The child blinked a few times, then fully opened their eyes and smiled broadly at him.
“Dada.”
There was no mistaking it. The child once again gazed directly at him and called him ‘papa.’ Celeste had explained that the baby’s babbling could only manage such sounds, but Karl felt a strange sensation.
As the child reached out for his hand or to be picked up, Karl withdrew his hand.
“Oh, right. The bloodline confirmation test for the Count and the detective’s child will have to be redone in the palace.”
“What? But we’ve already done it.”
“We didn’t verify the results properly.”
In fact, Karl had seen the potion mixed with the blood of the detective and the child spilled on the floor right after the explosion. Seeing the red-stained potion, he had felt a sense of relief inwardly, without even realizing it.
“Recently, there has been a sharp increase in child kidnapping cases centered around the capital. According to the recent decree from the security office, all children not registered at birth in each region must have their parentage confirmed unconditionally.”
Celeste bit her lip. Whether she knew or not, Celeste seemed to have a habit of biting her lip when engrossed in thought or when faced with a difficult situation.
What could she be thinking with that small head of hers? Karl suddenly became curious about what was going on in Celeste’s mind.
Suddenly approaching and invading his space for a few days, she disappeared as unpredictably as a rubber ball bouncing off to who knows where. Then, reappearing completely transformed, carrying a child in her arms, she was truly a woman who could veer off to an unpredictable path.
“If it is definitively proven through reexamination that the detective is not the child’s father, then afterward… will you only check the biological relationship between me and the child? Will you not try to find the biological father or anything like that…?”
Is there a reason why the child’s father should not be revealed?
Karl did not appreciate Celeste’s attitude, as if she was trying to hide the existence of the child’s biological father. No, perhaps he didn’t even like the idea of the child’s biological father existing at all.
“We also need to find the child’s father.”
In truth, there was no need for that. If Celeste’s role as the biological mother was clearly established, there would be no difficulty in registering the birth, and if the child who had completed the birth registration was living with a reliable guardian, there would be no reason for further investigation.
Yet, Karl lied in that moment, insisting that the child’s father must be found.
“It’s regulations. Even if it is clearly proven that you are the biological mother, the legal father is not registered due to the childbirth occurring while you were unmarried…”
Without Celeste questioning, Karl provided an unnecessary explanation. Fortunately, she did not realize it was a convincing lie spun while hiding the truth.
“If she can’t even remember giving birth to the child, shouldn’t you make even more effort to find the child’s father? Find him, hold him accountable, and inform him of the responsibilities he has as a parent.”
He didn’t even understand why he felt so uncomfortable.
“But how do you plan to find the child’s father if the mother herself cannot remember him?”
“We would have to select potential fathers for testing…”
Suddenly, someone flashed through Karl’s mind. Franz, a relative who had been known as Celeste’s lover.
“Dada, Papa.”
At the voice calling him again, Karl reluctantly turned his gaze towards the child. He had to meet those subtly mixed turquoise eyes of blue and green.
The blue-eyed child. Eyes that were strikingly similar to Franz’s.
Yes. This discomfort stemmed from the irresponsibility of someone who had left unnoticed after creating a child. That’s what it was. It had to be. Karl ignored the child’s pleading gaze. He didn’t want to see a face resembling Franz.
At that moment, Karl was still unaware that his own eyes were the same shade of blue as Franz’s, a fact he wouldn’t admit.
The subtly mixed turquoise eyes, a trait belonging not just to Franz but also carried by the royal family.
***
Upon arrival in the capital, there will be another paternity test.
The words of Karl kept echoing in his head. It meant that when they arrived in the capital, Karl would gather all the men suspected of having a relationship with Celeste and check for any paternal ties with Valerie.
“What’s this? It’s not like confirming the breed of livestock!”
He felt baffled. No matter how enchanting Celeste was, the idea of Karl finding potential suitors for his daughter and making comparisons felt extremely distasteful.
“He doesn’t even know she’s my child.”
She’s your child! He barely held back from saying it.
Celeste and Karl had slept together at least two years ago, Valerie being the evidence.
But how could they casually discuss things like “paternal candidates” and “comparisons” as if it were someone else’s business? How could Karl not realize that he should be the first candidate for that position? No, could he possibly not know?
“Could it be they were satisfying each other’s desires…something like that?”
No matter how hard he looked, Karl’s behavior towards me, a woman he supposedly loved or had loved, did not seem like that. If he had a child from a woman he didn’t love, there was only one explanation – a one-night stand or something similar.
“He wasn’t that kind of character, was he?”
A one-night love affair with someone who wasn’t even the main character? That would be a fatal flaw no hero in a novel should have.
Above all, the impeccable male protagonist who was as cold as stone, Karl Albrecht, having impulsively slept with the villainess who would later be killed by my hands, seemed unbelievable.
But no matter how impulsive the one-night stand was, the possibility of a child being conceived couldn’t be ignored. I couldn’t understand Karl’s confident declaration of finding potential paternal candidates. If he said everything would come out if we investigated, then surely his name would also be on the list.
“My lord.”
Hannah, who had left to speak with the Grand Duke’s aide, came back. I was feeling so frustrated with my myriad thoughts about Karl that I was eager to vent to anyone.
“What did you talk about? I saw the Grand Duke coming out a little while ago.”
“We were discussing the assassination of Duke Schwaben and the paternity test of Valerie again.”
“Ugh, can’t that wait until we return to the capital? Why bring it up here again?”
“That’s the thing.”
“Our dear Valerie has woken up, you say. Lovely as ever.”
When Hannah hears the sound of groaning as she watches the Valerie, the child seeing this bursts into a broad smile. It was truly lovely to see the child stretch out both arms asking to be hugged.
With a face resembling the world’s most handsome man, one may think it’s quite beautiful. It had been a while since Hannah’s heart was captivated by the lovely sight of the Valerie.
“Oh, that’s right. We talked about that.”
“What talk?”
“I heard that the emperor… suddenly passed away?”
“What?”
“Oh my, why did you scream like that, Hannah?”
“The emperor passed away? Why?”
“I don’t know either. They didn’t disclose such details to me.”
“Oh, when did this happen?”
“I’m not exactly sure… But since the emperor’s seal was found on the search warrant related to the Marquis’s assassination plot, it’s probably been less than two months from now.”
“But why is it so quiet about this? I haven’t heard anything about it anywhere.”
“It was too sudden, so they decided to keep it under wraps for now. They say it shouldn’t be public knowledge…”
“My goodness, oh, my God.”
Hannah’s face was filled with confusion. It was the first time she saw such a serious expression while holding the Valerie. Yes, it’s a natural reaction hearing that the emperor of a country had passed away.
“Master, wait a moment.”
“Yes?”
Hannah called out to me like she suddenly remembered something important.
