Chapter 23

“You have lived as a perfect Duchess all this time. Even if it was only to protect us, you worked very hard.”

“If you say you will do it, you tend to do it properly. Sometimes, you were too immersed.” 

…Now that she thought about it, she didn’t know why she was so immersed.

The wish was just to live as a superficial Duchess as Diana intended.

Even now, seven years later, Ken’s work was still in her heart. She thought Ken’s runaway incident was caused by her excessive immersion in the beginning.

“And you liked our family a lot. I guess that’s why I thought we could really live well together.” 

Funny enough, Cassia was serious then. She had never been greedy for Diana’s position, but she thought she wanted to stay close to the family Diana had left behind. 

While exchanging feelings of sadness. 

While reminiscing about Diana. 

She wanted to get along so well… with them.

That was the cause of her impatience at the time. 

She resented herself for being naive.

“It’s not too late, mother.” 

Nick said. 

“We can live well again. We can live together while caring for each other. I’m going to stay like that with my mother now, and I’ll do everything I haven’t done for you.”

“No, I want to go back to you as your aunt, Nick Whidrian.”

Cassia stood up from her seat. It was because Nick didn’t seem to stop persuading.

“You’re always welcome if you come here to see your aunt, but if you come to me to take me back, I’m sorry, but I can’t welcome you. Stop it, and go back. Your father will be worried about you.”

It was time to deliberately speak a little coldly and turn around to return to the counter. Nick slowly stood up from his seat and spoke to her. 

“I’m definitely going to change my mother’s mind. During these seven years, my stepmother has already become another mother in my heart. Children can’t abandon their parents.”

“…”

“I’m not going back. You don’t have to welcome me. No matter what… I’m going to persuade you. I will go back to the Duke with my mother someday.”

“I’ll go get some fresh air.”

Nick spat out like that, turned around and went outside as if running away.

Cassia just sighed as she looked at Nick’s distant back.

***

Nick really didn’t go back. 

Nick, who came in with the wind, tied the apron in the corner himself and began to help Cassia with the store work that day. 

At first, Cassia felt burdened that Nick would be here. 

Just in case the Duke comes… 

However, as time passed, the Duke did not come to her. If Nick had found her, it would have been easy for the Duke to come too. Seeing that he didn’t come right away, she thought if he had already signed the papers. After a divorce, he’d be just a man to her, and there would be no reason for him to come to her or worry about her. 

Cassia didn’t kick Nick, with whom she was stuck here, out of the gallery. He said he would help her out with the shop.

Nick seemed more attached to her than she had thought, so she was worried about pushing him away, and she sometimes made Nick work. Obviously, it was helpful when she had to move heavy items; perhaps he was a big boy now. 

But she had no intention of going back. 

Nick also had to know the fact.

“Mother.”

One day, Nick’s voice was heard from behind while Cassia was doing her work. 

She turned to look back.

Brown hair that resembled Diana. 

Nick, wearing a reddish-brown apron that went well with it, was looking at her. 

“I made tarts just as my mother taught me. Would you like to try it?”

“…Okay. Give it to me.”

She made tarts to sell to customers and taught Nick, who wanted to try making tarts, the process of making tarts.

Nick had kept her movements and explanations in his ears and challenged himself. 

Nick showed her the tarts he made with a proud look when she answered.

She chose one of the tarts on the plate that looked good and put it in her mouth. The sweet and refreshing flavour of cream cheese in tarts spread through the mouth, giving you the pleasure of eating. 

“…It is very well made. After it cools a little more, the tart will be delicious enough to sell.”

It was not yet cold because it had just been made, but it was very well made by someone who did it for the first time.

In the tart that Nick made, it looked like he was trying to engrave and apply the things Cassia taught him one by one. 

When she complimented, Nick smiled happily, looked at her, and asked, “Really?”

Cassia replied with a smile.

“Now, you can make and eat tarts by myself even when you get home.”

Nick’s bright smile slowly subsided. The child sighed lightly. 

“Mother… Didn’t you change your mind that you wouldn’t go back home yet?”

“I like you, Nick, but I won’t change my mind in the future.” 

“Mother, one more time…” 

It was when Nick was about to continue speaking as if he was trying to persuade her in response to her firm answer.

Squeak.

The door opened, and the person who came in between was a very familiar customer.

“Irwin?” 

Irwin, who she hadn’t seen in a long time, entered the gallery.

***

Nick stood at the counter, looking at his mother and the stranger.

“It’s been a long time, Irwin…” He could hear his mother’s bright voice from afar.

He was in shock again. It was because as soon as she saw that stranger, his mother approached him with a bright smile he had never seen before. He helped his mother’s shop work and said he would gladly look at the counter because he wanted to look good to her.

And his mother was having a conversation with the guest over coffee. 

‘Who is that guest?’ 

Nick’s big eyes filled with doubt. Unfamiliar customers came to his mother’s store, but her attitude toward that customer was unfamiliar. He seemed to be a special guest.

Nick, looking at the guest and his mother, suddenly felt a strange sense of surprise from the customer. To be exact, he thought he’d seen the customer somewhere.

The customer’s appearance was particularly special compared to other customers.

First of all, he had dazzlingly beautiful silver hair, and an appearance… and those blue eyes that matched it well…

None of that was common within the Empire.

He thought that the man might be a noble because of the elegant atmosphere different from the common people, but this was Lawrencia. Ordinary young aristocrats do not make good use of this place to live.

Nick, staring at the customer for a long time without realizing it, suddenly remembered something.

“…Ah.”

He had seen a face very similar to that customer somewhere. 

Portrait of the Third Prince.

It was the portrait of the Third Prince of the Empire, who was said to have disappeared when he was young.

Nick had never actually seen the Third Prince, as the Third Prince disappeared after appearing at a debutante ball that Nick did not even attend when he was very young. He’d only seen it once in the portrait, but at least it was pretty similar to what he saw in that portrait.

He wondered if that man was really the Third Prince?

He became terribly curious about the man’s identity, but Nick did not easily approach him as his mother was eager to talk to him.

It was then…

The door opened again, and others entered. It was a group of women who visited this place often.

“Welcome.”

Nick took the order at the counter, and at the same time, Cassia stood up from her seat.

She approached the counter and spoke to Nick with a smile as if in a good mood.

“Nick, you have worked hard to take care of the counter. I’ll make coffee, so you sit down for a while.”

“…Yes.”

Cassia entered the kitchen behind the counter and started making coffee as ordered. Nick left the counter at the same time and entered the hall with tables and paintings.

And it was then. 

Nick met the strange man who was staring at him.

He was already wearing the cloak’s hood from the moment the other customers entered. 

But he stared at Nick.

He could feel his straight eyes looking at him.

As time passed by, the man got up and left the gallery. Nick, thinking of something, ran out to the gallery entrance and followed the unfamiliar guest.

“Hey, wait a minute!”

When he opened the door to the gallery, a stranger was walking down the street wearing a cloak as if they were going their own way.

When Nick shouted loudly at his back, his steps stopped. 

He looked back. 

Even though Irwin wore a hat, Nick could feel that he looked at him with a strange look.

“Hmm.”

Irwin started coughing for no reason. Nick walked in front of him.

Nick had just come up with the portrait in mind as the stranger looked like the third prince.

“It’s because I have something to do. Let me ask you.”

“What’s going on?”

“Oh, but more than that, I want to ask you something.”

Nick swallowed his words as he tried to inquire about his identity. 

As soon as he saw the man, Nick suspected that the man looked like the Third Prince, but it was challenging to ask openly. In addition, Nick could have thought wrong. It would be a very slim probability that the Third Prince will be found in this gallery by chance.

As he was muttering with worries, he said with a smile.

“Why do you look like the third prince?”