IBTHM Chapter 26

Hades's expression grew complicated as he mulled over Abel's words.

He promptly snatched the handkerchief from Abel's hand.

"Ah! G-give it back!"

"Hold on. I'm just going to look at it for a second."

"N-no! Give it back!"

"I said I'm just looking for a second?"

Hades dodged this way and that as Abel hopped after him on short legs, trying to retrieve the handkerchief.

The handkerchief Abel had been holding looked exactly like the one he'd picked up in the dining room.

A handkerchief embroidered with a black-haired, red-eyed face.

Hades's gaze slid down to Abel, who was flailing about far below him.

His son, whining for the handkerchief back, resembled him so closely it was hard to believe they weren't blood-related.

The embroidered figure could pass for Abel's face without raising any suspicion.

"Fatheeer!"

"It's not like it'll wear out from me looking at it. What's the problem?"

"It'll get dirty! And if you squeeze it that hard, it'll wrinkle!"

"What...?"

Honestly, his father holding and looking at a handkerchief for a bit...

Hades returned the handkerchief to Abel with a disgruntled expression.

"Abel."

His son didn't respond, his cheeks puffed out and lips pursed in a pout.

Hades felt absurd watching Abel shake out the returned handkerchief with a dissatisfied expression, smoothing out the wrinkles.

It was a fresh new side of his son.

"You little..."

"..."

"Are you sulking?"

"No."

"You're sulking and pretending you're not."

The un-Abel-like behavior was rather adorable, and Hades found himself laughing without thinking.

He bent his knees to meet Abel's eye level.

"Do you like it?"

"Mm... yes."

As if he'd never been sulking at all, Abel smiled like a child and nodded.

Hades asked, feigning ignorance.

"When she gave it to you... did she say anything else?"

"The young lady?"

"Yes."

"Mm... I asked her. Why she was so good to me..."

"Yeah? And what did she say?"

Abel recalled Aisha.

'I feel a bit hurt every time you say things like that, Young Master. It sounds like I'm being good to you when there's no reason to be good to you, doesn't it? You're a child anyone would love and adore. I want to be good to you because you're so beautiful, kind, lovable, and wonderful.'

Abel knew his position well. That he was someone who couldn't be loved or cherished by anyone except Hades.

So at first, he'd assumed even Aisha's words were just words. Perhaps he'd clung to her even more because even words alone were good enough.

But when Aisha had even shed tears beside him while he slept, Abel had no choice but to believe her sincerity.

It had made young Abel's chest feel rather full.

"She said... she said I'm a child she can't help but love and adore, so that's why she's good to me. I'd never heard words like that from anyone but Father..."

Abel's eyes immediately welled with tears.

Hades could understand how Abel must have felt when the always gentle and kind Aisha had said such things.

Stroking the tearful Abel's head, Hades said, "She was right."

"No. I know too, Father. That I'm not someone worth cherishing that much... Especially for a young lady who came all the way to the North because she likes you."

Abel barely held back his tears as he continued.

The child was very young, but he understood everything.

That his existence was known as Hades's illegitimate child whose mother was unknown, and how disagreeable he must seem to Aisha, who liked Hades.

Hades couldn't easily say "no" because he knew this too.

"Besides Father... no one's ever cherished me like this. So I thought I was grateful to you, Father. If it weren't for you, the young lady wouldn't have come here."

"Yes, that's right."

"Even if she had come, I think it would have been hard for her to like me. But the young lady even likes me... She's a very, very kind person. She might be an angel..."

Hades chuckled at Abel's earnest expression, as if it were adorable.

"So, Father."

Abel wiped away the tears pooling in his eyes and grasped Hades's hand tightly.

"The young lady likes you, Father, so you must, must be good to her. It's okay if you're even better to her than you are to me. I absolutely, absolutely won't feel hurt. So please be good to the young lady. Please..."

"So she can't escape?"

When Hades asked with a chuckle, Abel made a flustered expression.

"No... th-that's not what I meant..."

"Got it. For now."

Hades affectionately pressed down on Abel's head once before standing up.

Then he thought about the handkerchief embroidered with Abel's face and about Aisha.

Abel was right.

Aisha was sincere with Abel. Anyone could tell after watching Aisha with Abel for just ten minutes that this wasn't false behavior stemming from some impure motive.

Hades seriously began to wonder if a woman like Aisha could actually exist.

He hadn't paid much attention because he'd thought 'Aisha likes me anyway'—but thinking about it coldly, he was by no means an attractive man aside from his paltry duke title.

The fact that he had an illegitimate son should bother her, yet he'd even hammered in the point that he'd unconditionally give the title to that son.

If he were Aisha, he might have run away long ago.

'And yet that woman...'

Just how much must she like me to treat even Abel without any prejudice?

Apart from gratitude, a sense of debt filled Hades's heart again. Along with it, shame.

'And here I am, showing my displeasure about a sponsor whose face I've never even seen.'

How could it not be ridiculous?

From Aisha's perspective, he was no different from a man who'd carelessly created an illegitimate child with another woman.

Hades pressed his increasingly complicated forehead and let out a displeased sigh—ugh.

He felt utterly ashamed recalling how he'd whined while making his displeasure about her obvious.

Even now, hadn't he been planning to follow her around and tell her to cut off contact with her sponsor?

It seemed the one feeling indebted was himself.

He needed to settle this sense of debt somehow.

By the time I'd left the ducal castle and roughly finished my business, drops of rain had begun falling from the already gloomy sky.

Ann, who'd gone out with me, said in front of my room, "Miss, you must feel uncomfortable, right? I'll prepare bathwater and bring it."

"You got rained on a lot too. I'm fine, so you wash up first and take your time. Oh, wait. Should we bathe together for once?"

"Hehe... Shall we? It'll take some time to heat the water. Please go inside."

"Great!"

Since we'd successfully managed the 80 billion nortes without any problems, Ann's and my moods were at their peak.

We'd gotten rained on a bit, but even that didn't feel uncomfortable at all.

When I opened the door with light steps, everywhere was pitch black, unlike the corridor with its wall lamps. The thunder, lightning, and cloudy weather meant there was no moon either, making it worse.

'Why can't I see even an inch ahead.'

While straining my eyes to adjust to the dark vision, walking toward the bed one step at a time—

That's when it happened.

'...What?'

My room, where no one should be.

Yet when I sensed through intuition some unfamiliar presence hiding in that darkness—

Flash—lightning struck once, brightening my vision.

Rumble.

Crash!

"OH MY GOD!!!"

When lightning illuminated the face of someone sitting expressionlessly in front of the table, I was utterly startled.

It was Hades.

"Wh-wh-wh-what! Y-you scared me..."

After startling me like a scene from a B-grade horror movie, he disappeared back into darkness, then soon reappeared.

When it suddenly brightened, I saw fire had been lit on the candelabra on the table.

I wondered how he'd lit the candle without matches, then remembered he was an ability user who freely manipulated fire-type powers and patted my chest in relief.

Having barely calmed my startled heart, I asked, "Wh-what on earth, Your Grace?"

Hades didn't answer, just stared at me intently. His face looked dissatisfied about something again.

"Your Grace?"

"Where did you go?"

"Where did I go? I said I'd prepare my dowry. I went to contact the viscount."

"Didn't I tell you not to do that?"

"Didn't I say I didn't want to be indebted?"

I couldn't understand Hades being stubborn about this.

In the first place, wasn't the diamond mine he was trying to use for the dowry something he'd purchased for Abel? And he was going to give it up without hesitation for marriage with me...

If someone saw this, wouldn't it look like true love?

No, calm down. I must be catching the disease from living next to a self-absorbed patient.

"Let's talk."

In that familiar pose with his legs crossed and arms folded, Hades arrogantly gestured with his chin at the chair across from him.

As soon as I timidly approached and sat down, Hades pulled something from his breast pocket and tossed it onto the table.

When I looked to see what it was...

'A handkerchief?'