OPDPS 133

“A debate?”

“It’s when scholars discuss a shared topic. I imagine this format is meant to keep the conversation from turning emotional and to help with mediation. As for the report… it’s about us.”

The report was a compilation based on what Aeryl had heard from both the Grand Duke and Lady Merel. It sorted out their misunderstandings and prejudices, and tried to verify what was true. It even included testimonies from people who knew the Grand Duke’s household well, like Rynello and the butler. Though thin, it was clear a lot of care had gone into it.

“Aeryl really is… a strange man.”

A debate and a report—this wasn’t how things were usually done, was it? Though born into a noble family, Lady Merel had grown up in a very normal household, and this made no sense to her.

She did recall him going around asking all sorts of things. She could appreciate the effort, but this was going too far…

“He did his best in his own way.”

The Grand Duke spoke seriously.

From the bits Aeryl had let slip, the Grand Duke had come to understand that Aeryl’s upbringing was far from normal. He probably had no idea how to resolve family conflicts and misunderstandings. This must have been the best solution he could come up with after much thought.

The Grand Duke could relate to that. He himself had been at a loss for how to treat Sorel at first. Had it been just some unfamiliar child, he might have managed, but it was far more complicated when that child was his half-brother.

“Can’t you see how much effort he put in?”

All of the report was written in Aeryl’s own handwriting—he hadn’t asked anyone to write it for him. As the Grand Duke ran his fingertips over Aeryl’s writing, he imagined how hard he must have worked through the night with pen in hand.

“Even his handwriting is just like him.”

The Grand Duke murmured, as if overwhelmed by affection. A small smile tugged at the corners of his lips.

Lady Merel stared at him in shock.

Hiello’s face, flushed with love—he could even speak with that kind of gentle tone?

“…Why are you looking at me like that?”

The Grand Duke noticed her gaze and asked. The blank expression and level tone—that was the Hiello she had always known.

“I was just surprised you smile.”

Lady Merel replied, still a bit dazed. Honestly, even meeting the ghost of the late Grand Duke wouldn’t have shocked her more than this.

“Do you disapprove?”

“No, I’m just… amazed. You’re human after all, it seems.”

“You’re stating the obvious.”

“Yes. That was a foolish thing for me to say.”

When the short exchange ended, the Grand Duke tidied the table again with his usual composure. His face was blank, but there was a gentle light in his eyes, as if thinking of Aeryl.

Lady Merel glanced sideways at him. Even if he was keeping a straight face, she was still stunned.

‘I thought he had neither blood nor tears…’

But now, in love, he just looked like an ordinary man. That made him seem so human.

All this time, he had felt like something that had fallen from the sky just to become the Grand Duke Asirion. She wasn’t the only one who had thought so—many others had shared that impression.

‘That’s how it was back then, too. I first met him around the time I got engaged… he was what, fourteen? Fifteen?’

Lady Merel did the math in her head and was shocked. Back then, the Grand Duke had only been a year or two older than Sorel was now. At the time, she’d thought of him as a grown man, but compared to how he looked now, he’d still had a youthful face and a small frame.

‘He was just a kid, wasn’t he?’

Even imagining Sorel a couple of years older, he still seemed like a child. So… had she really felt genuine wariness toward someone who was no older than her own son? That was a strange and unsettling realization.

Though Hiello never did seem like a child. He barely spoke, and his face was always blank…

With that thought, Lady Merel suddenly realized something.

“…My God. This is the first time I’ve ever seen him smile.”

Even though their relationship had been strained, she’d known him for over ten years. And in all that time, not once had she seen him smile?

Was that even possible? They had even lived together for the last two years before the late Grand Duke died.

Lady Merel muttered to herself, and the Grand Duke turned to look at her.

“That surprises you?”

He asked, as if that was what was strange.

“I never even saw you smile in passing.”

“That’s because I never smiled. The Grand Duke Asirion must not show emotion. I’ve kept to that since I was a child.”

“That’s ridiculous. Who told you that?”

As a mother, she couldn’t accept such an idea. Telling a child not to smile—wasn’t that abuse?

“The late Grand Duke.”

“….”

That was my husband. Lady Merel suddenly felt deeply confused.

She looked down at the paper on the table and recalled her conversation with Aeryl. Then, slowly, she began to reexamine her memories.

Her husband had always said Hiello lacked what it took to be a proper heir and needed stricter discipline. But hadn’t that gone too far?

A sudden dryness rose in her throat, and she walked over to the table to take a drink of water. Everything her husband had ever said about Hiello started to sound completely different now.

“Again? Was there something else unusual you were asked to do?”

The Grand Duke frowned at the odd change in her tone. Lady Merel was speaking to him differently all of a sudden, and it unsettled him.

“This doesn’t concern you, my lady.”

“I’m asking because it does concern me!”

Whenever her husband complained about Hiello, she had joined in, comforting him and echoing his sentiments. But if what he demanded of Hiello had been nothing short of abuse—and if that abuse had gone on since Hiello’s childhood—

“I was, first of all, Your Grace’s stepmother. We may have only been five years apart and not particularly close, but I was still the adult. And yet I knew nothing… and even sided with him…”

“By the time you married, the basics had already been drilled in. There was no more punishment by then.”

“Punishment?”

“That was all from when I was a child.”

“If he went as far as forbidding a child to smile, who knows what more outrageous demands he made!”

Lady Merel, overwhelmed by confusion, raised her voice without meaning to. Then she caught herself and spoke more calmly.

“I’m not angry at Your Grace. I’m just… shocked. You did nothing wrong in all this.”

She walked to the table and downed the water in the wooden cup in a single gulp. Her reaction caught the Grand Duke off guard.

‘She’s angry… for my sake.’

Lady Merel revealing such raw emotion in front of him was unfamiliar. She had always worn a smile like a mask, a woman impossible to read. And now, of all things, her mask cracked because of the late Grand Duke’s harsh treatment of him. It left him with a strange feeling.

…Maybe Aeryl was right after all.

Could it be true, that they had simply misunderstood each other all this time? Perhaps Lady Merel wasn’t a woman blinded by ambition and scheming for power.

A brief silence followed. Both were tangled in thoughts too complicated to untangle with words.

Just then, the door to the family room burst open, and Aeryl entered, carrying Sorel in his arms.

“I’m sorry I’m late! The young master suddenly said he had a stomachache!”

“I’m fine now.”

Aeryl headed to the table with Sorel. But the atmosphere between the Grand Duke and Lady Merel was markedly different. There was a strange heaviness, a sense of turmoil and reflection. Normally, the two would be at each other’s throats—but not now. Yet, it wasn’t an unpleasant tension.

‘…Maybe it’s good that I was late?’

Not that it had been intentional.

Around two, Sorel had wandered into the infirmary and started chatting away. Then, as three o’clock approached, he suddenly clutched his stomach and made a fuss.

Though anxious about the time, Aeryl had checked Sorel over first and given him some medicine. Once he seemed to calm down, Aeryl had tried to head for the family room—only for Sorel to cling to him and refuse to let go.

So that’s what this was—you faked it just to come along! But it was too late to argue. Aeryl had rushed over, Sorel still in his arms.

“Alright, young master, time to head back. This is a conversation for adults.”

Aeryl tried to send Sorel away. But before he could, Lady Merel stepped in.

“It’s fine, teacher. Sorel, come here.”

Sorel dashed into her arms, nestling in her embrace. Seeing that, the Grand Duke also called out.

“Come here.”

“I should stay neutral, I’m the mediator…”

“Just come.”

When even Lady Merel told him to go, Aeryl had no choice but to move toward the Grand Duke, bewildered. The Grand Duke didn’t physically embrace him, but he may as well have—his pheromones wrapped around Aeryl completely.

What is going on with these two? They act like people in need of healing.

“Since our doctor is here, let’s end the small talk.”

“Agreed.”

Before Aeryl could say a word, the two launched into conversation.

“As the doctor may have heard… all I’ve ever wanted is for Sorel to be safe. Whether he becomes the heir or the Grand Duke—it doesn’t matter. And I have no intention of raising the issue of usurpation now.”

Lady Merel had no energy left to calculate her words; she simply said what came to her. Her voice wasn’t polished—it was a little low, a little rough—but it was sincere.

“…I never intended to harm Sorel either. Or you, for that matter.”

The Grand Duke hesitated for a moment, then glanced at Aeryl and gathered his courage to continue.

“The situation at the time was chaotic—I became the Grand Duke almost by accident. When Sorel comes of age, I plan to reveal the truth of the late Grand Duke’s will and accept punishment for usurpation.”