“Why are you staring blankly like that? You don’t know how to check a diaper?”
“No, it’s not that.”
He was so dumbfounded that he couldn’t even think of what to say. Celeste approached Karl, who was behaving like a fool and just staring at her.
“You can tell by looking like this. Whether the baby has done ‘it’ or not. If you can’t see it underneath, you can smell it.”
It was something he really didn’t want to know. Karl furrowed his brow.
“But this child…”
The question of whether the baby was his pushed to the tip of his tongue, but Karl couldn’t bring himself to ask.
In truth, even without asking, he could tell that this baby was Celeste’s.
The baby’s hair was exactly the same shade of purple as Celeste’s. Wasn’t purple the symbol of the Louisette family? Did she disappear from the capital maybe for this reason?
The baby, who was nibbling on an apple with tiny hands, quickly brightened up and started to babble with the apple in his mouth.
The baby’s movements in his arms felt strangely unfamiliar. Even in this small form, this delicate being nestled in his arms tickled his heart. Karl looked into the eyes of the babbling baby.
But at that moment…
“You busy?”
“W-what… what did you say?”
“Babba, papa. Bubba.”
The baby called him ‘papa.’ Maybe he misheard it, Karl thought, squinting his eyes, but the repeated sound hit his heart like a confirmation.
“Papa!”
“Papa…?”
Karl doubted his ears. Papa. Wasn’t it the word for dad? He looked at the child smiling at him without any guard up, with a purely lovely face.
“Did the child just call me dad?”
He looked ahead. Celeste, with a flustered expression, looked back and forth between him and the child.
“To me?”
For a moment, silence passed. Amidst the quiet gazes exchanged between the man and the woman, only the baby’s cute babbling continued to be heard.
Papa, bubba, baba. Mommy. Mama, mama. Papa, papa.
He didn’t mishear. The child clearly called him dad. Karl’s face stiffened.
***
Tap, tap.
Dunk, tap.
Inside a temporary meeting room in the tent set up in the outskirts of Urentum, on the grasslands. Every time Karl’s finger tapped on the table, the knights’ shoulders twitched, stiffening.
They were enduring unnecessary hardship, trying to catch the gaze of a superior lost in thought with stern expressions on their faces.
The journey to Urentum, at the southern end of the Empire, without rest, to find Viscount Louisette. In the fast-paced march spanning over a month, the knights began to show signs of weariness.
When public opinion shifted to criticizing the Emperor for bringing the Empire to a standstill in search of someone whose whereabouts were unknown, Karl unexpectedly granted the knights a rest.
After abruptly granting the rest and disappearing alone, Karl returned hours later and lapsed into deep thought.
Despite skipping meals and remaining silent in response to his closest knight Clovis’ inquiries for a while, Karl, still maintaining his composed posture and tapping the table, remained lost in thought.
Due to his inherently meticulous and sensitive nature, the knights suspected that perhaps there was an issue concerning Karl’s displeasure with the investigation work that had arisen.
“I wish he would just tell us what’s bothering him.”
Their superior, Duke Albrecht, was not known for his patience. At any sign of displeasure, a person’s future would be in jeopardy.
“Clovis, do you know anything?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know where he went?”
“Yes.”
Even if Clovis knew, he would pretend not to. The knights breathed a sigh of relief.
“Clovis.”
“Yes, Your Grace!”
Had Karl noticed his hesitancy? Karl, who had been quiet all along, reached out and summoned Clovis. Clovis, who had been waiting for his call, immediately sprang up and stood by Karl’s side.
“You called for me, Your Grace?”
“I just…”
“Yes?”
“How old would a baby be when they start to walk?”
“Uh… Yes?”
Why this sudden question? Clovis blinked rapidly.
On the journey to find the assassin of Duke Schwaben, their superior now struggling with a serious dilemma suddenly asked how old a toddler might be when they begin to walk.
“Are you referring to a child?”
Clovis’ eyes moved here and there. It was an attempt to guess the intentions hidden within Karl’s words.
Originally, the imperial peoples were said to have been taught from a young age to express emotions or thoughts in a roundabout way, rather than being direct, because they were not supposed to easily reveal their inner thoughts.
But no matter how much that was the case, in this situation, what could it possibly mean to ask a question related to a child?
“It seemed like he had just started learning to walk. He had to grab onto something to stand up, or he would fall over soon…”
Karl raised his eyes to look at Clovis standing next to him without answering, with a facial expression asking what he was going to do.
This doesn’t seem like a question expressing intentions but rather a question asked out of genuine curiosity.
Unable to come up with a suitable response, Clovis’s lips quivered as he pondered what to say.
“You have a niece who is about that age, Clovis.”
“Yes? Yes, Your Highness. My second niece just celebrated her first birthday…”
“Exactly, she is about that age. So, she must be around one year old.”
Tap, tap. Karl started tapping the table again, seeming to have gotten the response he wanted.
‘What could he be thinking?’
Clovis anxiously waited for Karl’s next words.
“One year old…. If the child is around that age, they should recognize and call their parents, right?”
“Well… I guess it varies for each child. But my sister does seem to know how to call her mother.”
“And what about the father?”
“Yes?”
“The father? If the mother knows for sure how to call, then the father should also know for sure, right?”
“Well, that’s… ”
“If a child has been alive for a year on this earth, they should at least have some idea of what they are saying, shouldn’t they?”
Why is His Grace acting like this today? Did he go out alone and eat something wrong on his way back? Clovis found Karl’s current behavior unfamiliar.
The pragmatic and capable Duke. Known to be emotionless and ruthless in his duties, the cold prince was none other than Karl Rudolf Johann Albrecht, the Duke.
In other words, Albrecht, the Duke, and words like ‘baby’ are truly an unfitting pair, given his adorable and loving nature.
“I am sure of it.”
“Yes? What did Your Highness say?”
“I said…. I am sure of it.”
“I’m quiet.”
Clovis remained silent, knowing that the words were not meant for him. He seemed to think that without resolving his own internal conflicts, he wouldn’t be able to have a proper conversation with the Grand Duke.
“I heard you clearly….”
The voice was barely audible, requiring even the person standing right next to strain to listen. Combining the disjointed mutterings of Karl in his head, Clovis made his own assumptions.
“…Father.”
Father? He was definitely called father just now.
child, 1 year old, parents, father. Trying to piece together Karl’s mumbled words, Clovis couldn’t quite grasp the essence of it.
“Clovis.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Suppose…”
“Yes, please go on.”
“If you were to reunite with a woman after 2 years, and she appears with a child who calls you father…”
“….”
A short breath brushed Karl’s lips. In that moment, Clovis blinked several times, unsure.
“What would you do in that situation?”
“….Yes?”
Facing this unexpected and perplexing question after seven years of serving as the right-hand man to Duke Albrecht, Clovis found himself at a loss. Even with the most difficult and challenging tasks assigned to him, he had never felt this bewildered before. Unsure of where to begin, he finally spoke slowly.
“Who…came with the child, Your Highness?”
“….”
Again, Karl’s silence.
“And if the child called you father…?”
Another silence. Despite bombarding with unanswered questions, when Clovis finally inquired, there was no response.
“Were there any circumstances suspicious enough to doubt…from before…?”
Silence is consent. Clovis, who obtained the answer from the unsettling expression of Karl, straightened his determinedly hunched back and stood up.
What should I do?
The answer is already decided.
“I must take responsibility, Your Highness!”
