MBSGBC 21

Chapter 21

The hall was wrapped in silence.

Even the musicians seemed to be watching for cues, as the soft dance music wavered once.

The princess’s declaration roughly meant the following:

If you have eyes, look.

Who does that child resemble?

The answer is already decided, so you need only say it!

“As expected…… right?”

“When on earth…….”

“Still, we must wait and see…….”

Words, words, words.

Standing among the voices whispering about me, I felt somewhat wronged.

Excuse me, Duke Voltain.

Isn’t now the time to use your position to save me?

However, Leon did nothing and simply looked at me. He had been consistent from the moment he suddenly barged into my house and demanded I take responsibility.

He had never proposed to me, nor told me he loved me.

As if I should know everything without him saying it, he simply looked at me.

‘A man who swings my life around as he pleases is the worst.’

Hadn’t I already experienced it once and known? How such a man destroys me.

But.

He had brought a small child.

He said he had cut out his heart. He said there had been blood and pain and screams enough that the prince who witnessed it directly could not sleep.

Simply because I had said I was afraid of giving birth.

We were going to break up soon anyway.

Regardless of mana depletion and society’s judgment, he had personally given birth to my child.

The music continued, and the flowing time endlessly urged an answer.

I took a step forward.

“Lucian resembles me a great deal.”

Another step.

Having stepped forward, I blocked Princess Isabella, who was looking at Leon and Lucian.

Standing as if to protect them, I raised my voice in declaration, not even certain this was the right answer.

“Because he is my child.”

People’s gazes were like thousands of arrows.

Arrows pierced me. They would pick apart and evaluate my every action. If I showed even the slightest opening, they would try to cut off my breath.

Even so, it did not matter.

I had a heart that needed to answer.

“Since you have given me the opportunity to present before everyone the fruit of love shared with a long-time lover, failing to respond to that consideration would also be rude.”

I turned toward Leon Voltain.

Having already firmly resolved to accept a new family.

You told me to take responsibility?

I will take responsibility!

“Leon Voltain.”

My heart pounded as if it would burst.

“Please marry…….”

Tap. Leon Voltain’s finger blocked my lips as I tried to finish my words.

Blocking it here? Startled, I widened my eyes and looked up.

Leon Voltain’s innocent and clear smile.

“Irina Hautreha.”

Poured toward me like a waterfall.

The beautiful man who had rendered me incapable of resistance spoke like a child demanding candy immediately.

“Will you marry me?”

—

* * *

—

“What’s the problem? It’s good gossip.”

The silver-haired young man grumbled as he poured wine into his glass.

“‘And they lived happily ever after.’ How wonderful is that?”

The princess, Isabella Soleyan, who had been glaring at her brother drowning in alcohol throughout the dawn after the ball ended, replied coldly.

“There is no such thing as ‘and they lived happily ever after,’ Adrian.”

When she calmly held out her hand, Adrian clicked his tongue and placed his half-filled wine glass on his sister’s hand.

The woman, having taken a sip, opened her mouth.

“Have you forgotten why Father collapsed?”

“Because he was too greedy.”

Adrian answered with a shrug, but Isabella pointed out in a stubborn tone, as if she did not agree with that.

“The dragon should not have wasted that magic in such a way.”

“Such a way—that’s too harsh. Lucian is a cute child. He’s kind, too.”

“Are you saying that child is more important than the people?”

Bang—red droplets splattered from the wine glass roughly placed on Adrian’s office tea table. Isabella cried out in a suppressed voice.

“He could have used his power for this country!”

The prince, his back half-buried in the plush chair of the office, slowly shook his head.

“If you wanted your wish granted, you should have coaxed the dragon with more effort.”

“What does that have to do with anything? He contracted with us!”

“The content of the contract was strictly ‘not to leave for another country and to help us siblings.’ The dragon’s egg was not included in the contract, and…….”

Muttering as he groped around the office desk, Adrian let out a small sigh and drank the wine, now greatly reduced, straight from the bottle.

“……That is not a power that grants anything. It is a power that grants what the dragon desires.”

Hearing her brother’s words, Isabella’s cheeks flushed red with anger and understanding.

“That the dragon wanted such an ordinary child.”

“Ordinary? You say that even after seeing the child’s mana aptitude?”

“It’s not as if a genius of that level has never existed in the kingdom’s history. He’s sufficiently ordinary. Have you already forgotten what the dragon of the previous generation did?”

“Yes, yes. Our ancestor granted us magic. You’re so greedy. So what did you want? Permanent peace? Eternal life?”

“Vast land to cultivate and abundant seas.”

“Oh my. You casually ask for a new continent to be made.”

A playful light gleamed in the prince’s eyes as he smacked his lips and emptied his wine glass.

“For all your complaining, you seem to have helped quite well?”

“What?”

“Lady Hautreha, I mean.”

Adrian gestured with his hand toward the red dress Isabella was wearing.

Under the dim lamplight of the office, Isabella, wrapped in the red fabric, shone elegantly and beautifully as if wrapped in a galaxy.

By appearing at the ball today wearing this dress, she had completed her support for Lady Hautreha and her guarantee of the status of that bastard child Lucian.

Before long, the beautiful princess praised as the kingdom’s greatest beauty calmly opened her mouth.

“It’s pretty.”

Huh. The prince, having let out a single sound, nodded in a tone that suggested he was not entirely pleased.

“That’s true.”

“This is a separate matter from the dress. That child was born owing a debt. To this country and its people.”

“Oh my.”

“The child is not at fault, so the debt must be collected from the parents.”

—

* * *

—

“What is…….”

The man’s low, seething voice echoed eerily across the floor of the side room in the basement of the Hautreha estate.

“This isn’t it—aaagh!”

Then, an outcry bursting forth like an erupting volcano struck as if it would break down the old wooden door. Cyril, who had been standing with a silver tray in hand, looking at the owner of the voice, asked me in a quiet voice.

“Master. Shall I throw that away and come back?”

Rita, who had been decorating Cyril’s side like a shadow while holding a small ledger, also cried out in a half-crying voice.

“That person has been like that since last night without rest! Please let us throw him away!”

My salty gaze turned toward the owner of the eerie voice.

A man with large, cloudy glasses carelessly pushed on, tearing at his gray mop of hair, was shouting in a despairing voice.

“That this genius mage Herdi’s first hit work is nothing more than fabric that sparkles?! Such a thing…… such a thing cannot be tolerated!”

I said a word filled with sincerity to the self-proclaimed genius mage ‘Herdi.’

“Excuse me, but it was a co-development.”

“Aaaagh!”

The man, unable to accept reality, collapsed onto the desk and began tearing at his already messy hair again.

“To think my camouflage suit was modified into such a toy……!”

Yes.

The fabric that shone in multiple colors was not entirely my idea.

It was a collaboration with this very man.