It Was Me, Not You

Diana’s instinct shouted to release Edwin’s hand immediately.

While walking together, I didn’t want to let go of Edwin’s warm hand, but Diana quickly pulled away from him, not knowing what kind of evil might be coming.

I could feel Edwin’s gaze on me, but Diana didn’t look at him.

“Are you the girl’s mother?”

Edwin’s voice echoed.
Leah stared at Diana and answered Edwin.

“Yes, I am Diana’s mother.  But why is the Knight of the Grand duke with Diana?”

At Leah’s question, Diana immediately flinched.
She would be angry if Leah found out that she had met the duke.

 “…You were the mother.”

As Diana looked at him anxiously, Edwin’s small murmur, far from answering her question, scattered over her head.

Although his words were nonsense, Diana looked up at Edwin’s low voice she had never heard before.

However, Edwin’s gaze was on Leah, not Diana.

Leah asked Edwin, who was staring at her, again.

“Yes? What did you just say? It was so low I couldn’t hear you.”

The sound was so low that Leah couldn’t hear it.
Edwin looked at Leah tenaciously, like an angry man, and clenched his fist.

At that moment, when a strand of doubt appeared on Leah’s face as if she felt something strange about Edwin, Edwin gave his characteristic sad smile.

“Oh, it wasn’t a big deal.
Haha, I stopped by the annex for business, and I thought the young lady was carrying a heavy load, so I helped out.”

huh?

Diana glanced at Edwin’s naturally lying face.

Edwin’s eyes widened as Diana’s eyes met his.

Diana, who looked at him curiously, who had saved her twice, hurriedly turned her gaze away to Leah’s voice.

“Oh my God, thank you so much.
I’m really grateful that you lifted all my belongings like this.
Diana, why don’t you return the clothes now?”

“Ah yes.”

Diana took off Edwin’s jacket she was still wearing and handed it to him.

Leah spoke again.

“Diana, what kind of disrespect is it for you to just give it back.
You should say thank you.”

Leah smiled at Diana and said.

She pretends to be a good mother as she did in the castle, and even after going through it twice, she hardly gets used to it.

At that time, when Leah caused goosebumps all over her body, Edwin said.

“It’s okay to say thanks, because you just did what you were supposed to do.”

Leah said looking at Edwin with an overly surprised expression.

“Of course it’s not something I should do.
Knight.”

“Diana is not in a position to receive the favor of a knight.  Diana is only the illegitimate child of the Grand Duke.”

 “…”

The smile disappeared from Edwin’s face for a moment.

Diana saw a flash of anger in his soft, green eyes, but Leah looked back at Diana as if she had never seen it.

“Diana, what are you doing? Come on, bow your head and thank the knight.”

I bow my head and say thank you.

Even though you must have heard Edwin call Diana miss before, Leah seemed to want to confirm that Diana’s status was lower than that.

As her mother, how can she act like a person who is so anxious that she can’t always look down on Diana?

Anger rose inside her, but Diana could only give a gentle answer.

“…Yes.” 

Leah was looking at her with eyes as they said if Diana did not bow her head and she would forcefully press her head.

Just when she was about to bow her head to Edwin, who had a hard expression on his face, Edwin made a loud noise.

 “Ah!”

“It’s a surprise.
Why are you doing that, knight?”

Leah, startled by Edwin’s brief exclamation, turned her head to Edwin.

Diana also lifted her head, which she was about to bow down.

There was a look of urgency on Edwin’s face, which had just been frozen.

Edwin looked at Leah and me alternately, and raised his eyebrows as if sorry.

“Gee, I forgot that I have an urgent business.
I think I’ll have to say hello next time.

Edwin, who spoke like a rapid-fire gun, rushed to his feet without receiving a greeting as if he had something urgent to do.

‘Maybe for me?’

At that moment, while guessing Edwin’s sudden action, Diana felt a tenacious gaze on herself.

When she turned her head, there was Leah, who was looking at me with a sad blue look.

 “…mom.”

“You really are!”

Leah’s voice rose.
And her hand was raised high as if to hit Diana on the cheek.

Is this the end of the peace that has been going on for a while?

Diana closed her eyes tightly, anticipating her pain to follow.

However, after a few seconds, there was no pain.

When she opened her eyes, Leah’s hand was already lowered.

Leah was pounding her chest with her fists as if her chest was stuffy.

 “Okay, just be patient a little longer.” 

Leah mumbled to herself and went into the house.

 What do you have to endure?

Diana tilted her head at Leah’s words, which she did not understand.

 “Diana, what are you doing?!

However, her worries did not last long with Leah’s strong voice.
Diana thinks she’s just sleeping here with her luck that she didn’t get hit, and she hurried into the house.

***

 The Grand Duke’s office.

 Tok- Tok-

The expression of the duke pounding on the expensive wooden desk with the tip of his fingernail was cold.

The duke said as if rearranging what he had heard from Rowoon.

“So, about eleven years ago, Earl Howard’s second son and that woman had contact.”

“Yeah, I found someone I’ve met a few times.”

If it was Earl Howard’s second son, the Grand Duke had heard it once.

It is said that Earl Howard is very worried because he has so many problems and goes to meet women in a prodigal manner.

“But if it was Earl Howard’s second son, he would be a noble of the capital.
How did you meet Leah?”

As the duke’s forehead narrowed, Rowoon said calmly.

“It is said that the mother lived in the capital when she was young, and the house next door was the house of Count Howard.
I guess that’s why they started dating.”

“That’s right.
Since Ariel has been living longer in the capital than that…”

A deep longing passed by in the gold.
Rowoon looked down at his master, pretending not to see his master’s sorrow.

A heavy silence fell in the office.

The focus became clear in the blurred gold as if drawing a distant place, and the duke looked at Rowoon.

“Did you find out more?” 

“Yeah, I just found out that the man she was dating was Earl Howard’s second son.
But now that we’ve got a clue, we’ll release the people in the Grand Duke and Capital to find more other people who know the difference between Leah and Howard son.”

“Did you find a doctor who confirmed Leah’s pregnancy?”

“It doesn’t seem like the first confirmed pregnancy in the estate of the Grand Duke.
We are looking for the capital for now.”

“Yeah, then obviously the woman had told her that she was pregnant with Ariel after she first confirmed that she was pregnant.

Doctor Lotus, who was a member of the Grand Duchess at that time, said that the time of pregnancy can only be estimated based on the woman’s last menstrual date, but cannot be determined accurately.

“So, we must find the doctor who first confirmed the woman.”

“Yes, I will keep that in mind.”

“By the way, I was in a hurry to go to the battlefield, so I couldn’t even take care of doctor Lotus’s retirement.
He saved Seia.”

He was told it was a terrible labor.

In a situation where the lives of the Grand Duchess and his only daughter, Seia, were at risk, it was thanks to the lotus doctor, who had been observing the Grand Duchess for many years, that he saved Seia’s life.

‘I should have been more careful.’

In the unbearable sorrow of losing his wife, he was returning with regret for the choice he had made in the past when he left everyone and went to the battlefield.

The same was true for the Grand Duke’s loyalties who had not yet taken care of him, as well as his only daughter.

I made my daughter feel empty for too long.

 The duke remembered his daughter.

Taking a light sigh of regret and guilt toward Seia, he suddenly remembered the child he saw at the laundry.

 A small, skinny child, Diana.

 A child in shabby clothes, unlike the ones I saw in the castle.

The look of a child who constantly looked at his expression and eyes did not look like a 10-year-old child.

His temples throbbed because of the child’s strangely irritating nerves.

Rowoon asked, seeing that his face didn’t look good.

“Sir, are you okay?”

 “Okay.”

The duke said it was okay, but his face was still dark.

Rowoon seemed to hesitate for a moment, and his lips lit up, but he opened his mouth with a determined face.

“Sir, what happened in the past was unavoidable.
If you hadn’t gone to the battlefield then, probably wouldn’t have survived.  So, don’t be too hard on yourself and regret the past.”

At that time, the duke was in such a precarious state that he almost died immediately.

Of course, his choice was not the right one, but Rowoon was a loyal follower of the duke, so he had no choice but to think about the duke, aside from other reasons.

The duke looked at Rowoon with his head bowed and let out a short sigh.

Rowoon was half right and half wrong.

It was true that he regretted it, but it was something else that made his head throb.

Diana, again remembering the face of the child, the duke pressed his fingertips on the burning temple and said to Rowoon.

“You don’t have to bow your head for something that’s not your fault.
Raise your head.”

“Yes , my lord.
If Your Majesty is concerned, I will look for the lotus doctor that has gone down to the country estate.”

“Lotus ball? He said he wanted to spend his last years quietly, and he left with a secret where he was going.”

[T/N: i really don’t know what that means]

“Yeah, but if you want to find it, you can find it.
I’ve been told that the lotus ball always said he’d go where his kids were farming.”

“It’s a place with children… I don’t want to disturb his old age, but it bothers me that he hasn’t been properly compensated.
Look for it.
We need to give doctor Lotus the proper compensation so that he can live comfortably, as well as his children.”

 “Yes.”

As Rowoon bowed his head in response to the command, he heard a knock on the office door.

“Your Majesty, the Grand princess has arrived.” The butler’s voice rang outside the door.

The duke’s expressionless expression flickered.
He got up from his seat and said.

“Come in.”

When the door to the office opened, Seia in a gorgeous yellow dress entered.

“Father!”

Seia smiled brightly and rushed to the duke’s arms.

Duke paused and hugged her face to face.

“I think the Grand princess wanted to see your Highness.”

Rowoon, who was looking at the duke and Seia with happy faces, said.

Seia looked at Rowoon with her head turned in the Grand Duke’s arms.

“I missed Rowoon too.
Nice to meet you.”

“Really? The Grand Princess wants me to see her, so she’s moved to tears…”

Rowoon pretended to wipe the corners of his eyes that did not shed a single tear with his hand.
Seeing this, Seia burst out laughing at her.

*Rowoon, stop and look away.”

The duke said to Rowoon, who was playing with Seia.

“Okay, then I’m going to go away.  Have a good time, you two.”

As Rowoon left the office, the duke looked at and saw seia smiling brightly.