LUCIAN WALKED TOWARDS ME.
Ta-dak, ta-dak.
Wooden debris and pieces of glass scrunched under his feet as he did. Slowly approaching me, he calmly separated me from the Duchess.
He turned to the Duchess’ exclusive maid, who had been beside us all this time.
“Take care of Mother.”
“Yes! Yes, Young Master.”
As she hurried to support the Duchess, I looked up at Lucian again.
He smiled with unbridled joy, but it was so disconnected from the expressions of the people behind him and next to him.
I’m always on my bias’ side, but I still felt a bit uncomfortable.
What in the world happened to him and the Duke for this to happen?
“Ray, it’s alright now. You don’t have to worry.”
Perhaps reading the anxiety in my expression, Lucian spoke affectionately. He took my hand naturally.
And he intertwined our fingers, holding onto my hand tightly.
Lucian led me to another place.
“Brother?”
“Let’s go to my room.”
“But the Duke and the Duchess…”
It wasn’t good to leave them like that, so I wanted to look back, but Lucian covered my eyes.
“Don’t look.”
“Brother?”
“Today is a happy day. Can’t you just look at me?”
As Lucian’s eyebrows drooped and he lowered his voice to a whine, I realized that I still couldn’t win against him.
Of course, everything’s good.
I can do anything you want.
Duke, Duchess. I’m sorry, but I’m someone who couldn’t ever resist my bias.
With a worried look, I alternately looked between the couple and Lucian.
Even the guilt in my heart disappeared the moment I saw his golden irises tremble.
I held his hand tightly and took a step forward.
I felt his delight even as he said nothing.
I was relieved and my heart felt vaguely heavy, but I firmly secured my heart and tucked that feeling away.
I took Lucian’s hand without any hesitation. After transmigrating, he was my one and only priority.
We arrived in his room in no time. Lucian sat me down at the window seat where he usually stayed, then he knelt before me.
“Brother?”
“Ray…”
He leaned down, his cheek on my thigh. Then, he slinked his arms around my waist and pulled me towards him.
“Haa… I’m finally the Duke, Ray.”
Ah, so that’s what you were fighting about. I was the only one who didn’t know.
Then, did the will of the previous Duke that the Duchess was holding onto mention that Lucian should succeed the Duchy?
Why was the Duchess hiding it? The Duke didn’t seem to know that she was doing that either.
I recalled the original 〈 There is Another Doll Living in the Dollhouse 〉 and tried to compare the events so far.
But in the end, I had no choice but to miss the parts that weren’t mentioned in the original, and I didn’t really know the detailed situation.
And more than that, I’ve already tampered with the plot, so the future is now unpredictable.
I didn’t have many abilities. Other webnovels and webtoons with transmigrated characters have special abilities and such, but all I had now was hearing Cassander’s voice sometimes, and does that really help me with anything?
No.
Oh, but I have Oscar and Damian.
“Ray…”
As he rubbed his cheek over my thigh, I hugged Lucian with my arms over his shoulders.
“Congratulations, Brother.”
Fine. Let’s just… Let’s just celebrate Lucian’s succession instead of thinking about complicated things.
I swear I’ll be on your side no matter what.
If my bias is alright, does anything else matter?
If it’s only you who I see, would that matter?
Right?
“Haa… Ray.”
As I embraced his shoulders, he tightened his hold around my waist. I couldn’t breathe for a moment, but it was alright since his feelings seemed to be conveyed.
I closed my eyes, just focusing on his deep feelings.
Even from now on, I hope he can forget the past and just move forward.
All that in the past. Even if it’s his parents, it’s alright to set them aside so that you can move forward.
If he could, then I’ll support him all the way. Even if I could only watch him from behind.
As much as he pulled my waist, I also embraced his shoulders with all my strength.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───
“WHY DO YOU HAVE THAT, WIFE?” Perdro came into Camilla’s room, his voice almost a growl. He didn’t want to corner his wife like this.
But at the same time, he can’t just let this go.
Why? Why!
“There was a time when the previous Duke called me separately.”
She had struggled to get to the sofa earlier, and now Camilla opened her lips to speak.
“He said that this was just in case. Truthfully, if Lucian hasn’t inherited the Duchy after he’s come of age, I was told to reveal this right away.”
Camilla, who calmed down a little, stared into the air as she talked as if she was reminiscing that time.
Pedro looked at her as though he couldn’t understand what she was saying. He was hearing about his own father after such a long time, and it seemed to dig into his heart.
So it’s like that.
Until the very end, Pedro was still a flawed child to the previous Duke.
That’s probably why he left such a will.
That’s how he was trying to protect the Duchy.
Pedro had already vowed to fulfill his duties and responsibilities as the Duke, but as he felt a deep-seated emptiness, it felt like all the strength in his legs gave out.
Camilla shed tears as she saw Pedro struggling to keep himself upright against the wall.
“…I’m so sorry.”
Hearing the sincere apology, Pedro looked up at his wife.
“I… I did it because I love you so, so much. I thought you’d look my way someday if only I waited.”
Pedro’s eyes widened at her confession.
Camila clutched the skirt of her dress and revealed the secrets she’s been holding onto all these years.
She couldn’t hide them any longer.
Falling in love was the problem in the first place.
She thought that it was time to stop this. So she mustered what little courage she had.
“That’s why I…”
“Wife—no, Camilla.”
“I…”
After taking in a deep breath, Camilla faced Pedro and continued speaking.
“I was the one who told the previous Duke about you and Liam.”
“…Camilla?”
“I thought all I had to do was separate you from Liam. Then one day, you’ll look my way… I thought that you would love me if only I waited…”
At the truth that he heard for the first time, Pedro was reeling. He remembered the day he was caught with Liam by his father.
Come to think of it, his father had stormed in as though he already knew what was going on.
He never thought deeply about it because it was a shameful, frightening past, but he couldn’t believe he was hearing the truth behind it now, more than two decades later.
Seeing Pedro’s stiff expression, Camilla smiled bitterly as if she had already expected him to react this way.
“That’s why, Duke.”
“……”
“Please don’t hate Lucian anymore. That child didn’t do anything wrong. It was me who separated you from the person who made you happy, and it was because of me that you had to suffer such indignation. So…”
Camilla clasped her trembling hands together.
“So… Please, hate me.”
Camilla’s confession suffocated Pedro.
The open plea for him to hate her stabbed deep into his heart, through the wounds that were already there.
Those wounds had been festering for a very long time already, and as if they were stabbed by the jagged end of a blade, they began to spill rotten blood.
All that she said was a confirmation.
The identity of the mysterious emotions that he had been suffering under recently.
Belated regret. Guilt.
His blue eyes that shone for a moment now clouded over like an overcast sky. As he grew older, a deep sense of fatigue over the sins he committed were revealed on his aged features.
As if he didn’t want anyone to see the emotions revealed on his face, Pedro covered it with both his hands.
Only then did he admit and accept everything that he had done.
And he also had no choice but to look back on that tragic past.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.───
AFTER THAT DAY, THE DUKE BEGAN TO relinquish his responsibilities to Lucian little by little. Since Lucian had already been assisting him with governing over the land before, the handover process didn’t seem to be difficult.
I was with Lucian earlier today and I later visited the Duchess, but her maid only apologized to me and said that the Duchess couldn’t leave her room.
It was the same with the Duke.
For some time, this Duke who used to always come see me refused my visit just like the Duchess.
It was hard to guess whether this was good or not.
On one hand, I thought that I could try to understand how the Duke and the Duchess were fairing even if I couldn’t see them.
But on the other hand, this was a good thing for Lucian in the long run, so I drew the line there.
All I needed to care about was Lucian.
I’m sorry, Duke and Duchess, but you have no choice but to heal your own wounds.
Going back to my room, I read the diary where I wrote the events that took place in the original work.
The handwriting was a little messy because I wrote the notes down when I was younger, but it wasn’t completely illegible.
As I already expected, there was nothing written about the ghosts of ancestors like Cassander.
“Hmm…”
I was sitting at my desk with my feet swinging under me when I heard a knock.
Knock knock, knock, knock knock knock.
“Brother?”
I ran excitedly to the door and opened it, and as I predicted, Lucian was standing there.
With a complicated expression, he spoke.
“There’s suddenly too much work, Ray.”
“Are you very busy?”
I held his hand, worried. Then he intertwined his own fingers with mine as though he had been waiting.
“Ah, then can you help me a little?”
“Sure! As much as you want!”
When I saw his expression softening at my answer, I could understand why people said that now, and I felt full even though I hadn’t eaten.
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