Chapter 15

Fortunately, Irwin continued to speak as he didn’t even notice it.

“When I think of dessert, the first thing that comes to mind is cake. Is there any special reason not to make it?”

It was a voice full of pure curiosity. 

Cassia looked at him and lowered her gaze. 

Cake.

The reason she doesn’t make cakes is…

Moments of making cakes at the Duke’s mansion flashed through her mind for a moment. 

She smiled and answered, “…Because I don’t want to make it.”

“I beg your pardon?”

He couldn’t hear her because she answered in a small voice, so he asked back. 

Cassia looked up at him and answered.

“It’s just…cakes are difficult to make.”

His gaze turned to her. 

He seemed to sense something different from usual.

She continued to talk, “Making a cake is an arduous task. Especially when applying cream, it requires high concentration. Not only should the spatula always be kept clean, but if you don’t apply the cream while maintaining the exact angle, the cake will quickly collapse. “

When she looked at him with a smile, he looked at her with a strange expression.

“I think it’s important to keep the right angle between the cake and you while making one.”

“…I see.”

“So it is very difficult to make. These are small items I tried as a hobby, but I don’t want to make such a grand item. …Anyway, I’m going to make a little bit of all the menus now and close them when they’re sold out.”

He looked at her for a moment in response to the somewhat cold atmosphere, and opened his mouth

“I felt this last time, too.”

“What?”

“Sometimes, you have very deep eyes.”

“In those eyes, there is no sadness, loneliness, longing for something… But somehow, there is a clear determination. These eyes have an atmosphere that looks very similar to the picture you draw.”

Cassia looked at him. 

He smiled and continued.

“When you make those eyes, I feel like giving you a tight, warm hug.”

The warm gaze towards her made her stare blankly at him for a moment. 

A strange silence passed. 

As time passed, she opened her mouth.

“…The gallery will be closed tomorrow. Don’t come.”

“Why?” 

His eyes widened.

“Is something wrong?”

“I’ve been paying a lot of attention to making dessert menus for a while, so I wanted to take a day off by myself.”

‘And I had a hard time hiding you.’

Of course, it was pretty fun.

While fully settled here, he was the biggest gift she had ever come across.

She thought she had a good relationship, which made her genuinely happy to have met him.

“I see…”

Sadness was all over his face.

“Then I’ll have to rest at home tomorrow, too.”

Cassia smiled without saying a word. 

…Actually, there was a place she wanted to visit tomorrow.

After he left, she closed the gallery earlier than usual.

It was because she had many things to be concerned about recently, and she wanted to go home early and spend time alone to prepare for tomorrow. 

Today, she would go in early, set up a simple dinner table, and finish the day quietly drawing pictures.

It was the moment when she closed the door and hung a lock. While thinking about it, she felt something like an unfamiliar gaze from somewhere.

Cassia looked back.

‘…What is it?’

There was no one behind. 

Her eyes sharpened, and looked around the area. 

It certainly felt like being targeted as someone popular. 

Soon, she averted her gaze indifferently.

‘Is it just because I’m tired?’

With that in mind, she closed the door and started walking slowly home.

The scenery of the countryside as the sun was setting spread out beyond her.

***

“She was obviously the Duchess.”

A few days ago, the knight Jacob, who had returned from a trip to Lawrencia to find the Third Prince, visited Ken.

Standing next to Ken, who was practising wielding a sword in the training ground, he continued to speak with excitement.

“That woman looked familiar. She definitely looked like a noble. But I remembered her on my way back. She was definitely Duchess Whidrian. I remember seeing her here from afar-”

“Don’t speak nonsense.”

Sweat dripped down Ken’s forehead as he answered in a low voice and focused on the practice. 

Jacob continued.

“I heard your mother left the mansion. Can’t she be there?”

“Jacob.”

As Jacob continued to poke him from the side, Ken lifted his sword.

“She’s not my mother, she’s my stepmother. And don’t meddle in my family affairs.”

“It’s so frustrating and annoying!”

In terms of rank, Jacob was inferior to Ken. 

However, since he joined the Knights Templar, his original status had no meaning. The knights here were thoroughly evaluated by their swordsmanship skills and the age they entered. 

However, his original status couldn’t be ignored, so other people couldn’t approach Ken hastily. But it wasn’t Jacob. On the day he joined the Knights Templar, Jacob approached Ken without hesitation and was already motivated to become close to Ken. 

“I was just like you when my mom ran away when my family collapsed, and my dad remarried.”

Coincidentally, Jacob was a friend with a similar experience as Ken. Is that why?

Ken didn’t confide in him about his family, but Jacob knew how he felt.

“What’s good about the person who left me? I went around looking for my real mother every day.”

“But as I went along, I realized all human relationships are bound to build up. My biological mother, she’s important. She’s precious to me, and I can’t get myself to forget her. But you see, all relationships are different. Some biological mothers are worse than others. And there are some of the different blood who are just like real mothers. It’s all up to you to decide.”

“So what do you want me to do? What the hell do you want to say?”

Ken crumpled his forehead, put his sword into its sheath, and looked at Jacob with a sharp gaze.

Jacob sighed. 

He grabbed Ken’s shoulders and met his eyes.

“Ken, I’m afraid you’ll regret it.”

“…”

“I realized it late myself. Gosh.”

“I didn’t realize until she passed away.”

Jacob’s gaze deepened.

“If I had known earlier, I would have been really nice to the one who was willing to become my stepmother… I hope you don’t realize it as late or regret it as I did.”

“Have you ever tried to listen to your stepmother? Why don’t you listen to your stepmother’s story instead of regretting it later like me?”

“We’re adults now, aren’t we?”

“This is my sincere advice.” As Jacob added, he tapped Ken once on the shoulder, turned around and walked away.

Ken wrinkled his eyebrows, looked at his friend’s back, and turned his head to the side.

***

A few days later, Ken was standing in front of the gallery in question.

At first glance, it looked shabby, but it had an atmosphere that matched the clear sky and quiet rural scenery.

There were fine wrinkles on Ken’s forehead as he looked at the simple but neat building. 

There was no big reason for him to come here. 

He didn’t come here for the regrets Jacob said.

He just wondered a little what she was doing out of the Duke’s mansion. 

Where and what she was doing that she ran into the Imperial Knights?

…And why didn’t she come back even after encountering them? 

Ken’s eyes turned to the inside of the building. 

Cassia could be seen through the glass door. 

Her dark hair, elegant facial features, and even gentle, slow steps.

It was hard to see her because he was standing far away, but the atmosphere around her was his stepmother’s.

She was talking to someone. 

Ken’s eyes widened slightly as he turned his gaze to the person he was talking to. He couldn’t see clearly from afar, but the person had clear silver hair.

It was the representative mark of the Third Prince.

Obviously, the knights, including Jacob, must have come down to find the prince.

Jacob said that he could not find the Third Prince again, but he was there, talking with his stepmother.

But Ken didn’t do anything special. 

Finding the third prince was definitely not his job. 

Likewise, there was no intention to inform the Duke of Cassia’s whereabouts.

He just came to satisfy his simple curiosity. 

Ken’s gaze turned to Cassia again.

She smiled as she turned to the prince standing next to her. It was a smile he had never seen before.

“… She’s smiling.”

A smirk came to Ken’s lips as if it was ridiculous. 

It was an exquisite and beautiful smile that he had never seen before, but it didn’t matter to him.

For him, Cassia was just a person whom he didn’t like whatever she did.

It had been like that since childhood.

A woman who did not shed a single tear even when her friend died. 

She was a woman who only stood in a corner with an unknown expression throughout the funeral. 

After a while, she tried to become his own mother. Everyone pointed their fingers at the Duke, one by one. 

His father sided with her. 

The Duke didn’t even tell him why. He told his sons to look at her and embrace her. 

He didn’t even ask for a second mother.

Of course, Cassia was a person he had seen ever since he was a child.

However, it was a completely different matter to treat her under the name of ‘mother’.