Chapter 34

The Fourth Plan. To increase the intimacy between the father and the son. (4)

The father and child, who looked just like each other, gazed at each other silently. Carl then grabbed a hold of Gellerhard’s clothes and tugged onto them.

“Mandy!”

If I had to translate that, it would definitely be along the lines of; ‘that’s Mandy’s place!’ During the time when the Duke had gone to war, I, his deputy, would always sit there and Carl would then be seated on my lap to eat his baby food. These days, amongst the foods that I ate, he had been tasting some mild and soft foods little by little as well.

Whenever Carl had pulled on one’s clothes like that, no one could help but to follow the will of the one and only Young Master. However, the opponent right now was the Duke himself. Gellerhard then grasped his robe and looked at his young son using his dragon-like eyes before raising his hand.

Just then, I could hear a painful sound. Whaaaaa—Carl had already burst out crying loudly.

“Carl! No, why are you hitting the child!”

I hurriedly approached and hugged Carl before I started to examine Carl’s forehead. There was a red mark on his white, round forehead. The Duke had bent and flicked his middle finger on Carl’s forehead. Perhaps it would have been a decent joke if he had just been an older brother with a gap of a year or two than Carl, but he was one of the leading knights in the country and on top of that, an adult man.

“Oh no, I just…”

“Mandy, whaa!”

While the Duke became so flustered that he couldn’t even make an excuse, the child called out to me and straight away hugged me. Looking at Carl’s forehead once again, it was all red and swollen. Oh wow, I felt so upset. As I gazed at those obvious bruises, I eventually held the child in my arms and caressed him.

“Yes, Carl. Our Young Master. Oh, it’s painful where Dad makes it hurt. Mandy will help you, hoo—”

I was worried if my breath that brushed against the child’s forehead might hurt Carl as I blew onto it softly. But Carl gradually stopped crying as I gently caressed Carl while wiping off his tear-drenched cheeks and his runny nose clean with a handkerchief. As I noticed how Carl had stopped crying and when I saw his swollen forehead, it made me feel unhappy and upset.

“Mandy…”

I wiped his runny nose once more and glared at the Duke. The Duke, who had appeared drowsy just a moment ago, was now looking down with a rather gloomy expression instead.

Oh, my God, what was that? I pulled a chair to his right and sat down with Carl. It somehow became the usual seat position of the wives. But unlike the place in which the Duke had been seated, these chairs here had no armrests and were less soft and comfortable too. I eventually wrapped my left arm around the child’s body in order to prevent Carl from tumbling down. It was not necessary for a chair to have a fluffy armrest, but it still needed an actual armrest.

“Mandy—”

Despite shedding tears while coveting the Duke’s current seat, Carl still gazed at the Duke’s seat while whimpering as if he had no regrets left. A light of understanding flashed in the purple eyes of the Duke who had raised his head.

“Ah!”

He instantly jumped up from his seat and gestured to me instead.

“Sit over here.”

“I only sit there when you’re not around. How can I just sit there when you’re presently here ?”

I just cut him off and promptly refused.

“But it’s hard to eat with a baby in that chair.”

“But still…”

With a little hesitance, I shook my head in response.

“We won’t be all alone since the servants will start bringing out the food soon…”

The main seat at the table had always belonged to the head of the household and the head of the castle itself. Even though I was in an equal position with him as his wife, etiquette would always retain the single seat—like this ‘high seat’—so that one could see the true gap between the superiority and inferiority relationship between both the husband and wife. The head, as well as the Duke of DeMancier, was Gellerhard—my husband—and I could only substitute his place when he hadn’t been present in the castle.

Gellerhard’s purple eyes started to furrow, albeit slightly. Then, he said the following.

“Stand up.”

“What are you trying to do?”

Even as I asked, I still got up from my seat. It was only possible because the Duke had allowed me to talk to him and treat him comfortably. I didn’t forget that fact and followed his words precisely. The Duke then gave me a glance to step aside as he took a few steps away from the table before he soon raised a chair.

The Duke moved the chair that I was originally sitting on before taking the chair that had initially been at the head’s seat. The luxurious, wide and large chair with soft armrests appeared to be very heavy, but it could not overcome the power of the Duke. He lifted the chair all of a sudden and straight away placed it down behind me.

“Mandy!”

Carl immediately gave a shout. Gellerhard soon said while tapping on the chair behind me.

“Okay, sit here. Both of you.”

“Gellerhard……”

This was also a good thing to get into gossip and it was nothing to refuse or keep feeling embarrassed about when the Duke himself had gone so far like this. Ah yes, well, if someone were to curse, it was the Duke! They would just say that the Duke of DeMancier did that himself!

“Thank you.”

I bowed my head slightly to Gellerhard and thanked him before taking a seat down. Carl, who was back on my lap, slowly tilted towards Gellerhard, who was leaning against his armrest.

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