LADAD Chapter 28

The emperor had brought back a newborn.

An emperor with no wife, no children, not even a fiancée, bringing back a child?

The servants buzzed at the sudden news. They kept their distance from the path Ivan was walking, lest they catch his eye and receive a scolding.

"Where's the baby?"

A maid who was pretending to sweep whispered carefully to her colleague beside her. Indeed, the hands of the man striding in front were empty.

"There, behind him."

But Rodan's arms held something awkwardly.

"It really is a baby."

"It really is."

The general consensus had been that maybe he'd picked up a dog or cat and they were seeing things. But there really was a baby cradled in Rodan's arms as he followed Ivan.

"He's not the type to bring back a child out of pity."

Ivan's reputation within the palace was that he possessed excessively cold corners to his nature, but this assessment wasn't removed from his true character. Ivan was not a man who showed particular kindness to small and young creatures.

"What is he saying?"

Ivan, who had paused momentarily, issued some order to Rodan. Then, without so much as a glance at the child, he resumed his path. Rodan, as though he had anticipated this, repositioned the child in his arms while scanning their surroundings.

"Is he calling us?"

Rodan soon gestured for the maids to come closer. Eventually, the two maids who had been observing them from a distance reluctantly approached.

"You, go clean the guest room in the west palace immediately, and you, go bring Mrs. Warner to the west palace."

"Yes. But about the child..."

The maids couldn't contain their curiosity and began to speak. Though Rodan was Ivan's closest aide, he didn't have the same cold temperament as his master. His willingness to wait for them to finish speaking was proof of that.

"Is it Sir Rodan's child?"

It seemed they had guessed wrong. Seeing Rodan's face contort, the maid who had spoken looked down with a startled expression.

"He's a guest sent by the temple to demonstrate friendly relations with the imperial family, so don't talk nonsense."

Ah. The maids sighed softly. It seemed like all the fantasies spinning in their heads were crumbling with a crackling sound.

"Now go do what you were told."

Rodan warned quietly. The maids, who had been subtly examining the child's face, finally scattered to carry out their assigned tasks. Left alone, Rodan headed toward the west palace where the guest rooms were located.

And passing by the maids who were cleaning once again—though there wasn't particularly anything dirty, it was still the task they'd been given—Rodan placed the child upon the bed. Even with his eyes open, Ian did not cry.

"With such a lack of wariness."

Perhaps he took after the sacred maiden in terms of personality. Rodan tapped the tip of the child's nose.

"Sir Rodan."

Then, a voice calling Rodan came from behind him. It was Mrs. Warner, who had recently taken the position of head maid from the previous one, earning Ivan's trust through her quick situational awareness and tight lips.

"I heard you summoned me."

"I need to ask you to keep the maids' mouths shut."

Rodan straightened his back, which had been bent toward Ian, and explained the purpose of calling Mrs. Warner.

"Young Master Ian is a guest from the temple, but as you know, the existence of a baby tends to cause misunderstandings."

Mrs. Warner's gaze turned to Ian, who was squirming on the bed. Her gaze stopped at Ian's brilliantly shining hair, but only for a moment.

"I'll see to it."

Suspicion is nothing but poison. Having finished her thoughts, Mrs. Warner quietly turned her head away.

Duke Russell had visited the temple. He too was a faithful servant of god, so his visit wasn't particularly special. However, his expression was unusually cold, and the way his cloak fluttered roughly with each step was different from usual. Everyone was subtly avoiding the radius around him, which was proof of this.

"Where is the High Priest?"

"After returning from meeting the sacred maiden, he has been staying in his room the entire time."

A priest answered hesitantly, overwhelmed by Duke Russell's forceful inquiry about Aaron. Duke Russell strode right past him, making his way toward Aaron's room. More precisely, it was closer to storming in.

"Aaron Skipper."

Aaron, who had been sitting quietly, rose from his seat and bowed to Duke Russell. At the same time, a large palm struck his cheek. Though the door was properly closed, the sound was so loud that it might have been heard outside.

"You stupid bastard."

Sharp criticism fell over Aaron's head. However, Aaron couldn't even argue back. He had failed to fulfill his responsibility of watching Amelia. That was a fact.

"I'm sorry."

So he had no choice but to apologize. But even after hearing the apology, Duke Russell couldn't hide his fury. He was unbearably angry that the plan he thought was going well had gone awry.

"How could you be fooled so easily?"

"......"

"Didn't you even think to check the hair color? Or find out what gender it was?"

Duke Russell's chest rose and fell roughly as he swept his hair back. Aaron didn't try to make cowardly excuses. Amelia had been depressed for a while after losing her lover and hadn't taken care of herself. She had obediently followed Aaron's orders. Being caught off guard by that appearance was clearly his mistake.

"Fine. What's done is done. It would have been hard to imagine that crazy b*tch had already spent the night with a man and gotten pregnant."

"......"

"But I won't tolerate a second mistake."

Duke Russell, who had been pacing around the room venting his irritation for quite a while, stopped. Then he warned Aaron. It meant that no matter how much Aaron had devoted his loyalty until now, he could be discarded and replaced at any time.

"I'll keep that in mind."

Aaron answered calmly. The fact that he showed no rebellion or active attitude of wanting to make excuses somewhat calmed Duke Russell's excitement.

"Did the emperor only take the child?"

Finally, Duke Russell sat down with a low sigh. In any case, this was a place where others could come and go and hear loud voices. Getting too excited and raising his voice wouldn't be good for either Aaron or Duke Russell.

"Yes. He only took that child."

"Coming so rudely without notice and just taking the child..."

Rather than that, it was more urgent to figure out Ivan's intentions behind his sudden actions and deal with them. His behavior was suspicious, after all.

Ivan was a man who had done things the temple opposed without hesitation. He wasn't someone who would suddenly talk about friendly relations with the temple.

"At least it's fortunate that it's a useless one."

Duke Russell muttered while stroking his chin. If nothing else, a blonde boy was completely useless here.

"Because the child has black eyes?"

From Ivan's perspective, the only useful thing about the child was his black eyes. Just as black hair didn't exist in the Escliffe family, black eyes didn't exist either.

"......"

Of course, that one fact alone couldn't be used to pressure the temple. So it was even harder to figure out Ivan's true intentions.

"Just kill him."

He was tired of thinking about it anymore. But he didn't want to leave any seeds of trouble either. Therefore, the only method Duke Russell could choose was the simplest and clearest one.

"There's a contract that the emperor wrote while meeting privately with the sacred maiden."

Aaron voiced his opposition to Duke Russell's words. If they killed the child and placed the blame on the imperial family, they would be forced to surrender Amelia to them.

"We just won't hold the imperial family responsible."

Of course, it would be nice if they could hold the imperial family responsible for threatening the sacred maiden and taking the child, but in this case, it was unavoidable.

"Anyway, it's a child we were going to kill. Having no special benefit is the default."

The child would have died and vanished had the baby Amelia gave birth to been unable to replace her. Without a soul knowing he had ever existed in this world. So assigning any special purpose to that life was contradictory.

"First, I'll meet privately with the emperor and figure out roughly what he's thinking, then deal with it. It might be a trap, after all."

"Understood."

Aaron gave an immediate answer. He too had no desire to leave behind the results of his negligence.

"Separately from that... it would be better to educate this generation's woman a bit."

Duke Russell quietly added to Aaron's compliant attitude.

"I don't want to deal with troublesome affairs again in the future. But if she keeps acting like a wild thing, she'll cause some other incident even if not the same one."

Those who know secrets should be few. Under that customary rule, they had managed things so that there would be only one woman with black hair and black eyes—Amelia.

"We can't easily kill her like the others."

He had thought it was better to manage just one rather than bothering with several, but now that was the element that troubled Duke Russell the most. If he could have had several and switched them out, he would have long ago replaced the current reckless Amelia with another.

"Since ankles aren't easily visible, it wouldn't be a big deal if a scar or two remained. Do you understand what I mean?"

But things had flowed this far, and since there was no one to replace Amelia now, it was something he had to endure.

"Yes, Your Grace."

Then there was only one thing left to do. Keep what remained of her life entirely within his grip.