Chapter 6

The maids of the Duchess who saw Leon bowed deeply and opened the door without the permission of the ark.

It wasn’t because he was in the highest position in this castle. This is because the lady inside was unable to answer. One maid reported the condition in a low voice.

“Fortunately, my mind is intact right now.”

Leon quietly moved his feet to the bedside, looking into the dark room with a gloomy look. Sophia, who was clearly ill, was lying there spitting out a rough breath. I always saw her sleeping, but she was awake today.

“Mother.”

“Le…on.”

I desperately called him as if my phlegm-filled voice would break off. Leon knew her next words.

“Owen… He’s…….”

“…….”

“Before I die… Just once… Let me see. Please, Leon…….”

Tears flowed down the busily wrinkled eyes. Leon closed his mouth horizontally. He couldn’t readily affirm it.

“Take a rest, mother.”

He spat out in a blunt tone and pulled the blanket a little and covered it up to her neck.

As he left the door, his fist was full of strength.

It was a repetition of what he said when he met in the capital a few days ago. However, there was a word in the end.

[If you get engaged to the Deniz’ daughter, I’ll also consider returning to the territory]

In other words, Duke Owen Teratius will never come unless Leon gets married. Even if the wife is wandering around the dead.

‘Really, isn’t it worse than others?’

Leon, who was stomping, stopped for a while and stared at his mother’s door. Of course, after that glaring gaze, he was thinking of the Duke his father, not his mother.

“Your Highness?”

“He’s always the same.”

At Suha’s call, Leon gathered his senses and shook his head excitedly. He finished walking on his way.

In fact, the relationship between Owen and Leon was normal until the political crisis. They were not particularly rich people who shared deep affection, but that did not mean they were enemies.

Owen was just one of the many fathers of that era, sometimes indifferent and moderately strict to Leon. However, he was as strong and cold as his mother Sophia. Because of that, Sophia never had a day to dry up her tears throughout her life, and she was always lonely.

Leon grew up watching his mother like that.

“But your highness. Are you going to marry the merchant’s daughter?”

Leon could not readily answer. He couldn’t understand the intention of his father Owen, and even if he did, he was antipathetic to following him.

“No way.”

“Thank you for your thought. It doesn’t make sense for His Highness to be with the daughter of a merchant. At least you have to be the young lady of a powerful family or the princess of another kingdom…….”

“First, find out about her.”

“What? Are you going to get married?””

Leon stopped walking again.

“To take this opportunity to find out more deeply about the merchant, and to use it as well.”

“Yes, I see.”

Daniel followed him again, scratching his head with a pen.

Tadadak!

An impatient step ran in front of them.

“Your highness!”

“What’s going on?”

Daniel asked the maid running in front of Leon.

“The lady woke up!”

But the maid’s expression was somewhat strange. Leon pressed and asked her as she hesitated.

“Is there a problem?”

“That’s… I.”

“Hurry up and say it.”

The maid wiggled her fingertips and murmured in a mosquito-like voice.

“It’s a little… weird. She keeps crying and she can’t talk well.….”

Leon and Daniel faced each other at the same time. Leon said to Daniel, who was not inspired.

“I’ll go and find out about what you said.”

“Yes, your highness!”

He strode up to his long legs. When Dana went to the room where she fell asleep, the maid’s voice leaked out of the door.

“Lady, are you uncomfortable? You have to say it. Phew, just crying….”

Then the maid was more restless, not knowing what to do. Leon grabbed the doorknob and ordered her.

“Go and call a doctor.”

The maid ran right away.

Leon breathed in once and entered, and immediately turned back to the sight he saw.

“Ah, girl, you’re still undressed… !”

At that time, she heard the sound of running down from the bed. The maid, who found Leon, shouted in a bewildered voice and tried to grab Dana’s arm, but missed it.

“Oh my god…”

Leon turned around. In bed, she was running toward Leon, wearing clothes that were all torn down. Then she snuck into his arms.

“…Oh, my. Hey.”

When she came to Leon’s front, the dress had already come down to the floor and she was completely naked. Leon looked down at the woman with a puzzled look on his hands.

The woman was shaking and crying with her face buried at Leon’s hem as if she was very afraid of something.

And the maid stood far away with a swollen face and watched them.

“Crying.”

Fearful and sad cries continued. Leon clenched his fist once in the air while trying to raise his hand and put it on her shoulder. And he comforted her only with words in an awkward voice.

“Stop crying”.