LADAD Chapter 27

"I'll take the child as promised."

"I am grateful for Your Majesty's grace."

After finishing both signatures, Ivan gave his confirmation as he received his copy of the contract. Amelia bowed deeply to him with sincere gratitude.

"...Does the child have a name?"

Ivan asked, gazing intently at Amelia.

"Will you call him by that name?"

A brief silence settled within the reception room. Amelia acknowledged that expecting the emperor to call Ian by the name she herself had given him was nothing more than her own greed. Though her intentions were to protect the child, in the end, someone who had failed to protect him and was about to entrust him to another's hands had no right to harbor such a wish.

"I will."

She had been about to say that she would tell him the child's name, but that going forward he could call him by a new name if he wished. Unexpectedly, the emperor said he would do as she asked.

"Tell me what you called him."

As gently as that man who had been Amelia's lover.

Amelia unconsciously tightened her hands resting on her thighs. While she repeatedly told herself inwardly that the emperor was not the person she had loved, the hem of her dress crumpled into a pitiful state as it was crushed in her fists.

"...Ian."

Was that all? Without even a moment to make excuses about it being a secret, she found herself revealing the truth.

"His mother called him Ian."

"......"

"Actually, he wasn't abandoned—I saved a child who was about to be abandoned. She said she took the name from the child's father's name."

But then she became afraid that he might ask how she knew the child's father's name. Amelia hastily added an excuse, as if conveying a story she had heard from someone else.

"Why did his mother abandon the child?"

Amelia's eyes widened at Ivan's words. The reason why the child had been abandoned didn't seem like something the emperor would be curious about at all.

"I heard that the child's father died in an unexpected accident."

"......"

"She discovered the pregnancy too late, and since the child's father was a man her family had opposed from the start, they tried to kill the baby the moment he was born."

So that was why she had been so composed about letting a stranger take him away. Amelia replied with her eyes half-cast downward. For something she claimed to have simply heard from others, she was far too deeply absorbed, her expression painfully melancholy beyond measure.

"...I see."

Ivan answered a beat late as he watched her. Whether he felt something from that or not was impossible to know, but at least she could sense that he felt some measure of pity for something.

"I hope the child I'm taking today will prove the alliance between the temple and the imperial family, as you said."

Amelia silently bowed her head to express her gratitude to him.

"For that to happen, I should show favor first, so I promise as well. The child's name will remain Ian, and he will grow up as a friend to my own children."

Thank goodness. Amelia smiled and nodded upon hearing the emperor's promise. She didn't know whether he would keep his promise or not, but at least it would be better than this place. And if the promise was kept, the child would surely grow up happy. That alone was enough.

"If you miss the child and want to see him from time to time, you may come and visit. It would benefit both the temple and the imperial family."

But then Ivan extended an unexpected kindness. Amelia's lips parted slightly in surprise. He was still a man without a wife, without an heir, without even a fiancée. There was no way he could understand what it truly felt like to send one's own child away.

"I'll make sure we're always prepared to welcome you."

"...Thank you."

Amelia barely managed to answer with a choked voice. Afraid that tears might fall, she deliberately kept her gaze on the teacup on the table.

Ivan didn't respond. He simply took one copy of the contract he had written, tucked it into his jacket, and rose from his seat.

Could it really be Ivan?

Suddenly, something surged up from deep in her chest. Though she had thought it definitely wasn't Ivan, the emperor's behavior made hope slyly rear its head.

"Ivan."

Amelia cautiously raised her head and called her man's name. Back then too, Aaron had said Ivan was dead, but he had been alive. So perhaps, maybe he had cleverly escaped from that fire and survived.

"......"

But no answer came back. There was only an indifferent gaze looking down at her.

So it's not him after all. Even though she had thought it wouldn't be him, Amelia had clung to a thread of hope and now lowered her sad eyes.

"Sorry."

Then, Ivan's quiet voice broke the silence between them.

"I have to protect the child first."

Amelia's eyes flew wide open. She snapped her head up and locked her gaze onto Ivan. Ivan's expression remained unchanged. But his eyes were no longer the indifferent gaze of someone looking at a stranger, as they had been moments before.

"...Later."

It's Ivan. That Ivan.

"Rodan!"

Just as her certainty had been momentary, the time their gazes met was also brief. Before Amelia could come to her senses and rise from her seat, Ivan roughly opened the bedroom door. He strode out, calling Rodan's name.

"Pack up the child. We're returning to the palace."

"Yes."

Whether the baby had been placed in the arms of the servant Ivan had brought along, the sound of the infant whimpering could be heard. At the same time, the sound of Ivan's footsteps faded into the distance.

Her tumultuous emotions lasted only a moment. Though she could see nothing before her eyes right now, relief washed over her. Amelia closed her eyes and buried her face in both hands.

Ivan was alive. And Ian's life had also been saved by his father's hands. Thinking that way, everything felt satisfactory.

"Amelia Escliffe."

It was all right. Even if Aaron, enraged down to the very ends of his hair, burst through the door and called her name in the world's most tender voice. Even if he wanted to hurl her into a blazing inferno this very moment.

Rodan's gaze turned to the baby in his arms. Looking at the little one who had fallen asleep without showing any anxiety despite being separated from his mother, he felt at a loss for what to say.

"So there really was a child."

"Yes. Though it seems he was on the verge of death."

Ivan replied indifferently. His eyes were directed toward his child, but no particular affection could be detected in his gaze. It seemed he couldn't even feel the simple emotion of finding a newborn cute.

"On the verge of death?"

"The shrine maiden has a human body but has continued the divine legend of immortality for 200 years."

Rodan blinked at Ivan's words.

"By giving birth to daughters with the same black hair and black eyes as herself, again and again."

"......"

"Look at the hair color."

Ivan pointed at the child's head with his index finger. Rodan's gaze naturally moved from Ivan's gloved hand to the child's hair.

"Even a rough look shows it's the same color as my hair. But the eyes are black. Regardless of the child's gender, he's useless based on appearance alone."

Useless. Ivan spoke the words that Rodan couldn't bring himself to say.

"What are your plans for him going forward?"

"Since he's a symbol of the friendly relationship between the temple and the imperial family, I'll have to raise him appropriately and well."

Though he sat with his legs crossed and was certainly beautiful like a statue, he seemed more like someone appraising purchased goods than a father.

"So beautifully that his mother's heart would break if he were to die someday."

Ivan's assessment of his own child was roughly at a superior level. It hadn't been just a day or two since Rodan had been with Ivan. He could read Ivan's intentions from his gaze without difficulty.

"I'll take care of arranging his quarters and servants."

If it was Ivan, who possessed a picture-perfect appearance but lacked character, he was certainly capable of such a thing. That wasn't particularly surprising. It just wasn't the answer Rodan had wanted.

"Very well."

As if he had never intended to care about the child from the beginning, Ivan readily gave his permission. And as if there was nothing more to discuss regarding the child, he turned his gaze out the window.

Though the child hadn't chosen to be born to these parents, his fate was unfortunate. Rodan felt sorry despite himself.

"What should we call the young master?"

Perhaps because of that, he wanted to at least give the child a proper name. He asked while gently tapping the child's nose with his ungloved hand. Ivan's gaze, which had been idly watching outside the window, briefly returned to the child.

"Ian."

Ivan answered quietly.

"It's similar to Your Majesty's name."

"Is it?"

Though he spoke carelessly as if he hadn't realized it, Amelia's rambling words were circling in Ivan's mind.

"Actually, he wasn't abandoned—I saved a child who was about to be abandoned. She said she took the name from the child's father's name."

Ivan tried to think about the heart of the woman who, upon seeing her newborn child and being reminded of him, had given the baby a name with just one syllable changed.

Had she been happy? Sad? Lonely? Resentful?

Like arranging goods on a vendor's table, he laid out various emotions, but he couldn't readily choose any one of them. For him, who had never experienced such things, it was unknowable.

"......"

The only thing Ivan was certain of was this:

That due to that very heart of hers, the day was steadily drawing near when Amelia Escliffe would collapse the very foundation beneath her own feet.