CH 22.2

Raphael sat in the guest room, a troubled look on his face. He wanted to leave, but when Lila invited him to stay, he couldn’t resist.

It was a strange feeling. As if possessed by something, he couldn’t say no to her.

It was something he’d never experienced before, so Raphael sat still in the darkened guest room.

Knock knock.

“Come in.”

Raphael, who had closed his eyes and leaned back on the couch, said, rising. Vincent, who had opened the door, bowed and then lifted his head.

“Mr Raphael, Count Ezrada wishes to see you.”

At his words, Raphael stroked his beard lazily. He didn’t know how he’d gotten the news, but it was unwelcome.

He wanted to spend a day like today alone.

But then he remembered the contents of the letter he had received, and he nodded.

“Show him inside.”

“Yes, sir.”

He stared at Vincent for a moment as he quickly left the room, then looked out the window. Watching the snow begin to fall as night fell, Raphael lifted his finished teacup.

Vincent, who had quickly fetched Count Ezrada, looked at the empty mug and said.

“I’ll get you some tea.”

As Vincent stepped away, a determined Count Ezrada turned to Raphael and bowed.

“Former Duke, it has been a long time since I have seen you.”

“Indeed, it has been a long time.”

“Yes, indeed it has.”

“Hmm, please have a seat.”

“Yes, my good duke.”

Taking a seat across from him, Count Ezrada curled his hands into tight fists on his thighs.

Having met Raphael, whom he had written to and asked for help to no avail, he felt that this opportunity should not be lost.

By the way, the sight of his freckles, which never faded with age, made Count Ezrada’s brow tighten.

He felt that in order to rectify his precarious position, he must not offend Raphael’s feelings.

“So, how did you know to come here?”

It wasn’t that Raphael didn’t know. He was well aware of how people saw him. He just didn’t want to care. At his age, he was no longer hurt by such an attitude.

“My daughter told me she saw your carriage by chance, so I thought I’d come and see what it was about.”

Count Ezrada couldn’t help but praise his daughter, Hilda. He didn’t know how she’d come to see the carriage, but he didn’t care.

“So, what did you have to say to me that brought you here unannounced?”

Raphael asked, eager to get the story over with. Count Ezrada’s eyes narrowed and he answered.

“Do you know that the Duke has now disbanded the Senate, and since we were helpless to protest, we had no choice but to disband it.”

Vincent entered the room, interrupting the conversation. Raphael raised his steaming teacup and shook his head.

Count Ezrada, who had wrinkled her eyebrows as if displeased with his permission, but then, as if coming to his senses, he continued.

Unaware that Raphael was watching the whole thing.

“But what kind of council is this Senate? We have been supporting the Montefeltra duchy for a long time. But the council was dissolved by a mere arranged marriage. This can be considered unfair treatment.”

Count Ezrada shuddered as he remembered those days. Raphael had a strange feeling. Just moments ago, he, too, had thought of it as a mere strategic marriage.

But why did the words of others sound different when they were heard?

With a hint of displeasure in his eyes, Raphael said.

“If my son ordered it to be disbanded, wouldn’t it be better if it didn’t exist in the first place?”

What he really meant was, ‘I know you don’t listen to me willingly, but there’s something else going on that Lucas’ words have worked.’

Count Ezrada, who wished to conceal the other affair, denied it with a stern face.

“If you had seen it, Your Grace, you would know how absurd it was. Despite being bewitched by such an ugly creature, he was firmly under her spell.”

Count Ezrada exclaimed, unaware that Lila’s appearance had changed. Hilda had returned that day, but she didn’t say anything to her parents.

Raphael was displeased. The Lila he saw was beautiful, not just beautiful, but noble.

Even though the crown prince had ordered him against it, he could understand his son’s desire to push for this marriage.

And what was that scent?

I had never met a woman in my life who wore that scent. Only men of imperial lineage were scented…….

At that moment, a phrase flashed through his mind like a thunderbolt. It was a sentence from Lupus’s theology.

〈The hydrangea that was beside her became infused with her scent as it lay by her side.〉

In a flash, Raphael recognized Lila’s identity.

‘How stupid of me, just now realizing this…….’

He understood why the crown prince and Lucas couldn’t give her up, even as they clashed.

‘There must be a reason why that child is responding so strongly.’

The second child was more wise and pragmatic than the first, so emotionally, I trusted the second child more than the first.

His mind went from foggy to clear in an instant. Raphael was suddenly curious.

‘Having a scent alone cannot qualify someone for the position of a duchess. Regardless of whether my wife dislikes me or not, she was able to manage the household well.’

Even if the subordinate was of little use to the men of Montefeltra, his wife did manage her affairs well.

“Yes, from what you say, it seems so.”

Count Ezrada’s complexion brightened at the belated but affirmative answer.

“I thought that, as a former duke, you would recognize my sentiments.”

Raphael interjected as Count Ezrada puffed out his chest.

“But…….”

“What?”

Count Ezrada, who had been so confident that everything was going his way, froze at his next words.

“It’s always better to have a three-way conversation about something like this. With me in the middle, it will be more objective and logical.”

As he spoke, Raphael pressed the bell on the table to summon Vincent.

“Bring Lucas and her here.”

“Yes, understood.”

Vincent did as he was told and quickly brought Lucas and Lila. Lucas wasn’t surprised to see Count Ezrada. He just stared at him with a scary, ‘What the hell am I going to do with this?’ look on his face.

Lila didn’t even look at Count Ezrada, she turned to Raphael. She didn’t even hate Raphael for opposing the marriage.

For one thing, he looked like Lucas.

Second, because he was Lucas’s father.

Third, because he was Michael’s grandfather.

It was a common reason, but it was different for her. Raphael felt awkward around her as she showed him kindness, and he avoided meeting her gaze.

As beautiful as her beaming face was, he had never been treated like this before. In over fifty years, no one had ever treated him this way, not even his mistress.

“May I help you?”

Lucas, already uncomfortable with the events of the previous day, glared at Count Ezrada, then turned to Raphael.

Raphael glanced at Lila, who had seated herself casually beside him, and then at his son’s question.

“I see that the Count has something on his mind, so why don’t we take this opportunity to have an open and honest conversation.”

Lucas’s eyes sparked at Raphael’s words. One corner of his mouth quirked upward in a sinister pout.

“Hmm, I’m sorry to hear you’re sad.”

Unable to meet the menacing mint-colored eyes, Count Ezrada looked away in embarrassment.

His mouth dropped open at the sight of Lila.

He’d heard she was ugly, and so had his daughter…….. What the hell is going on?

Lucas gritted his teeth at Count Ezrada, who couldn’t look away from Lila with a blank expression on his face.

“Turn your head before I dig those eyes out.”

Count Ezrada’s face turned automatically at the sound of his voice.

“Ha! You’re really getting out of hand.”

Raphael stiffened at the displeasure in Lucas’s voice.

“Preserve the duke’s dignity, for that is how I taught you.”

“Dignity is situational, and right now, with people plotting for my wife’s place, there is no room for dignity.”

One side of her was rage, the other side was curious. The more Lila looked, the more she wondered.

‘Why do they look so alike? It’s really amazing. He looks just like the man I saw in the painting. Do the Montefeltra dukes have strong genes? If that’s the case, can I also have a child who looks just like Lucas one day?’

As her mind wandered, Lila remembered something Lucas had once said.

‘No, didn’t he say that he didn’t need a successor?’

He had said that he didn’t plan to have an heir because he had Michael. Lila had agreed to his plan and she had to keep her word.

‘Well, Michael looks just like Lucas. It’s fascinating.’

She didn’t realize how she was looking at Raphael. Raphael’s shoulders stiffened under the curious cobalt gaze that was more awkward and harder to avoid than a stare.

“If nothing else, Count Ezrada seems to be holding onto the reason for why you disbanded the Senate Council, that it’s because of the young lady. What do you think about that?”

Raphael hadn’t noticed her use of the title ‘bastard’. He ignored the sweat trickling down his back as he tried to change the subject, but the words spilled out unexpectedly.

Lucas’s eyes widened and narrowed in surprise at his father’s words. He wondered why he’d changed his mind so quickly, but that wasn’t the point right now.

“Ha, that’s embarrassing. I don’t think the Senate is in a position to argue over my wife’s place, but I should probably clarify.”

Sitting alone in front of the three of them, Count Ezrada, who had been staring blankly, finally came to his senses.

“Du-Duke.”

“I’m sure you’re not unaware, father, that the Senate secretly took gems from the family’s mines. Well, I could have forgiven them for that, but I could not have people on the Senate who had dishonored me by gambling in the capital.”

At his son’s words, Raphael stroked his beard with a ‘mmm’. The small sound was enough to make Count Ezrada’s face flush.

“I see now that you have not only no honor, but no integrity. How disappointing.”

Lucas gritted his teeth and crossed his arms. Alternating between him and Raphael, who was lazily burying his back in the couch and crossing his legs, Lila clasped her hands together in silent admiration.

If Michael were here, she could almost see a man’s life story.

“No, no way. I didn’t do that. M-Maybe the other elders did, but I, no,

Lila opened her mouth to speak to Count Ezrada, who was rattling off excuses as they came to mind.

Suddenly, her curiosity disappeared, and she had a chilly look in her eyes, not bothering to hide her discomfort

“You said my least favorite word.”

Lucas and Raphael did not stop her as she slowly opened her lips. Count Ezrada’s eyes softened at the beautiful, noble woman.

“You know what they say, you can recognize a parent by their children.”

Because her parents had died so young, Lila had heard a lot of bad things about them as Yoon Seol. She was an orphan, after all.

But now she couldn’t resist bringing it up.

“I can see how young lady Ezrada has been taught, by an Count who can’t even apologize for his own faults.”

The words stung like a whip, and the Count’s complexion began to turn from yellow to purple.

Lila straightened her back and spoke in a low voice.

“The internal affairs of the duchy are the responsibility of the duchess. Once we are officially married, I will forbid any visits from Count Ezrada, for I am fed up with your unscrupulousness in arriving unannounced.”

Lila, her voice colder than the north wind, turned to Raphael, not Lucas, and asked gently.

“Is that acceptable, Father?”

Raphael, already softened by her gentle scent and demeanor, was completely won over by the sound of ‘father’.

“Do as you please, child. It is the Duchess’s right.”

Lucas felt a strange sensation as he watched Lila smile so brightly at the end of his response.

And jealousy, too.