CH 26

Dismaya Elgrandark was discreetly notified about the incident at the royal palace while he was at work at the Ministry of Justice.

A maid delivered to him a handwritten note from the queen herself, which read, “It was our child who started the whole ordeal, so we have no plans of any official punishment. Please don’t get too angry at him.”

He told one of his subordinates that an emergency had come up, and he hurried home to the manor. After hearing about the situation from Elise, Dismaya made a bemused expression. 

“He really went that far?” asked Dismaya. 

“Since Ilu-kun arrived, he’s had to give up some of his time with Diana to Ilu-kun. I was thinking that maybe he’s felt a little distant from her, lately,” said Elise. 

“Well, first of all, since when can Cain use magic?” asked Dismaya. 

“Unlike Di, that boy would never come to us to brag about learning something new… From now on, I’ll make sure his tutors submit progress reports on him,” said Elise. 

“Yes, please do… Since he’s so capable and mature, we may have ended up neglecting him a bit,” said Dismaya. 

Elise asked him to please make sure that Cain was properly disciplined, and he made his way to Cain’s room. Dismaya knocked on the door. 

He waited for a while with no response and knocked again. No one answered. 

Since knocking wasn’t working, Dismaya said, “I’m coming in,” and opened the door. Cain was right there. 

Since he had returned from the royal palace, Cain had been sitting, slumped over on his sofa, with his hands slightly open and his fingertips twitching from time to time. 

“Cain?” called Dismaya, but Cain didn’t respond, or even raise his head. 

Elise had thought that Cain was in his room, busying himself with something like studying, reading, or playing the violin. 

Her image of Cain was that if he wasn’t playing with Diana, eating, or sleeping, he was busy with his studies or training. When she had confined him to his room, she was thinking that he had plenty of things that he could do without going out. 

On the carriage ride home, he had fearlessly challenged her to disown him, so she was thinking that there was no way he was reflecting on his wrongdoings. 

That was one of the main reasons why she wanted Dismaya to discipline him, thoroughly.

Dismaya entered the room, moved the low table, and knelt in front of Cain. 

Cain’s head was looking down, and Dismaya couldn’t see the expression on his face. Dismaya lightly rapped the back of his hand against Cain’s cheek. 

“Cain. Cain. Answer me,” said Dismaya. 

Cain’s shoulder’s twitched up, and his face made a slight, upward motion.

“Father,” said Cain.  

“Yeah. I’m back,” said Dismaya. 

“…Welcome home.”

Once he had confirmed that he could talk to Cain, he put his hands under Cain’s arms and lifted him into a hug. 

“Wow. When did you get so heavy? Actually, this may be the first time I’ve lifted you up since right after you were born,” said Dismaya. 

Once Dismaya had Cain in his arms, he readjusted from a hug to holding Cain up with one hand under his bottom and the other hand on his back. 

Cain let himself be lifted up and dropped his head onto Dismaya’s shoulder. Dismaya started walking around the room, patting Cain on the back. [Read this novel and other amazing translated novels from the original source at the “Novel Multiverse dot com” website @ novelmultiverse.com]

“If you grab someone by their temples and use Fire Magic on them, you could burn their brain, and possibly even kill them. It’s difficult for any medical magician to heal burns on internal organs. If you were to inflict a wound that the medical magicians couldn’t heal, you wouldn’t be in the same place as Diana anymore, you know?”

Cain stayed silent. 

“You know that my job is to administer the law, right?” asked Dismaya. 

Cain nodded with his head still on Dismaya’s shoulder. 

“Please, don’t make me sentence my own son,” said Dismaya. 

Cain said nothing. 

“Do you understand, Cain? I’m telling you to do things correctly.”

“Father…”

“Ah, you’ve shown me your face, at last.”

Cain raised his head and looked at his father’s face. Since he was being lifted up, his line of sight was looking down on his father. Dismaya, looking up at Cain, gave him a quick wink.

“Father – if you are going to disown me, please have me employed somewhere in this house. I can be the old gardener’s apprentice, or work as a watchman at the gates, or learn how to do laundry from the maids, or do chores in the kitchen. I will work hard to learn any job. If I learn how to work hard, please allow me to be Diana’s chamberlain.”

“That would be quite convenient for you, wouldn’t it?” asked Dismaya, with a bitter smile. He had already heard Cain’s plan to be disowned to prevent Diana from being married off to the royal family. 

“You don’t want Diana to be betrothed to the crown prince, correct?” 

“Yes…”

“I don’t think you will be officially punished for this particular incident.”

“Oh. All right.”

“On the contrary, since you caused such a scene, it’s possible that they might insist on ‘arranging a marriage, as an apology for injuring her’.” 

“What?!”

Cain panicked, gripping Dismaya’s shoulder. His mind started swirling with strategies on how to get Diana out of this new problematic possibility. 

“Cain, even though you are my son, I will not hesitate to punish anyone who breaks the law. I will not cheat the law, and I will not protect you. I want you to make sure that I don’t ever have to face that tragic decision,” said Dismaya. 

Dismaya returned Cain to the sofa and ruffled the hair atop his head. He took Cain’s head in his hands and lifted it up to face him. Cain, with disheveled hair, was forced to gaze up at his father. 

“You will be confined to your room until we hear an official verdict from the royal palace. Your tutors will not be coming, and instead of eating in the dining room, you will take all your meals, here,” said Dismaya, wagging his finger at Cain with forceful movements. He then turned around and went out into the hallway. 

He joined Elise at the doorway, and turned around once more. 

“Oh, and you are forbidden from seeing Diana,” he said. 

“Father – What?!”

Dismaya had given him the harshest punishment of all at the very last moment, and Cain cried out in agony.