LADAD Chapter 36

It was when Ivan was watching Amelia with unfathomable emotions. Amelia, who had seemed to be sleeping deeply, suddenly snapped her eyes open. It was so abrupt that even Ivan was startled for a moment.

"What's wrong?"

Following Amelia, who sat up with dazed eyes, Ivan also raised his upper body.

"...Ian."

Ian? What could be wrong with a child who should be sleeping?

Confusion appeared on Ivan's face as he failed to understand the meaning of Amelia's muttering. His slightly furrowed brow was evidence of this.

"He's crying."

Awareness gradually returned to Amelia's eyes. Before Ivan could even try to stop her, Amelia fixed her slipped gown and bolted out of the bedroom.

"......"

Ivan, unexpectedly left alone in the bedroom, lightly rubbed the back of his neck and climbed down from the bed. It was around the time he had been planning to leave anyway. He had no plans to let others see him in the same bed as Amelia come morning. It wasn't yet time to reveal his relationship with Amelia.

When Ivan opened the door to the side room next to Amelia's bedroom, a small room was revealed. Ivan stopped at the spot where a large portrait of the late Empress hung. It looked like nothing more than a wall. But Ivan paid no mind and slid the portrait to the side. Beneath the diagonally tilted painting, Ivan groped along the wall as if measuring the position. In a flash, the wall gaped open like a black mouth, revealing the hidden space.

It was a passage leading underground.

From within came the faint sound of a baby crying.

"A mother is a mother, it seems."

It was quite impressive that she had caught such a barely audible sound even while waking from sleep. Probably ears that opened only toward her own young. Thinking this, Ivan stepped inside without hesitation.

The door closed and the tilted painting returned to its original position. Only the curtain draped beside the portrait fluttered faintly. As if no one had ever been in that spot.

"What brings the Sacred Maiden here at this late hour..."

Both Mrs. Howard and the wet nurse looked surprised at the sacred maiden appearing in the middle of the night. However, Amelia paid no attention and approached, taking the small crying thing into her arms.

"Ian, it's okay."

And she began soothing the child by rocking him. Then the small baby's breathing calmed, and his crying gradually stopped.

"Oh my..."

Karen, the wet nurse, covered her mouth with one hand in amazement. Since coming to the palace, Ian had made people suffer every night, not sleeping properly and being tiresome. Ian must have been exhausted from not sleeping, but Mrs. Howard and Karen, who had to tend to the child, were at death's door from fatigue.

Why on earth was he crying? Why on earth wouldn't he sleep? He wasn't hungry, he wasn't ill, and he wasn't crying to have his diaper changed, so it was maddening enough to make them jump out of their skin.

"Good heavens."

But now, held in the arms of the sacred maiden who had come running in the dead of night, he calmed down so easily. Even seeing it before their very eyes, it was so unbelievable that they could only blink in bewilderment.

"To fall asleep so easily."

Mrs. Howard also seemed to feel the same thing and muttered helplessly.

"Did Ian cry this often at night?"

At Amelia's words, Mrs. Howard nodded.

"He's always been prone to fussing at night. You must have had a hard time."

Amelia spoke with an apologetic expression. Her hand was rhythmically patting sleeping Ian's back.

As if she were the child's mother.

But it was something that could never be said aloud, even as a joke. The sacred maiden was the most pure and chaste person in the world, so they shouldn't even dare to suspect such a thing.

"Would it be better if I kept him with me while staying at the palace?"

"Ah, but Master Ian needs to nurse every two to three hours."

The wet nurse scratched her temple with a troubled expression. She could wake up and nurse the child since she had milk, but Amelia couldn't do that.

"We cannot take up so much of a precious person's time."

Mrs. Howard also took a rather firm stance. Amelia had casually suggested it since she could also nurse the child, but she belatedly realized that others wouldn't see it that way.

"Then, if Ian won't sleep and keeps fussing, you can come find me anytime."

Mrs. Howard and the wet nurse nodded.

"We'll do that. Please give him to me now."

Mrs. Howard carefully extended her hands. Amelia transferred the warm body temperature to those hands while looking at the child's face with tender feelings.

"You can come anytime."

"Yes."

Mrs. Howard answered obediently. Amelia caught on that Mrs. Howard wouldn't come to find her easily. But Ian had settled down, and in a situation where she couldn't reveal that she was Ian's mother, there was nothing more she could do. Amelia had no choice but to leave Ian behind and return to her own bedroom.

"......"

The bedroom she returned to was empty. Ivan appeared to have already gone back, and the bed where they had lain together was also desolate. Amelia swept her palm over the spot where Ivan had been. It was cool.

She felt somehow lonely. No, perhaps it was uneasiness. Amelia curled her body round like a fetus in the belly and closed her eyes.

Sleep would not come.

Aaron removed the hood he had been wearing on his head. His platinum hair was stained a warm hue in the candlelight. Considering that his nature wasn't originally so mild, it was a contrast laughable enough. Duke Russell thought so.

"You said to come see you."

But it was Duke Russell who had raised him that way. He had no sudden desire to point out Aaron's contradictions.

"Yes. I don't quite understand the orders you gave."

Aaron answered honestly.

"Right. That's understandable."

Normally he would have called it insolent. But since he could understand what Aaron was saying now, Duke Russell readily nodded.

"To seduce the Emperor?"

It was natural. The orders he had given Aaron when sending Amelia to the palace were completely different from their usual approach.

"This generation's Amelia is desperately trying to escape somehow. What if she actually attaches herself to the Emperor?"

Aaron's concern was certainly reasonable. Of course, Duke Russell had already thought about this.

"I saw the son that woman bore, Aaron."

Duke Russell opened the cap of the bottle on the table. When he poured alcohol into a glass, the smell of liquor so strong it was almost intoxicating irritated Aaron's nostrils.

"Such unusually bright and vivid blonde hair - I'd believe it if you said he was the Emperor's bastard."

"He's not the Emperor's bloodline."

"I know. Which means he can't ask to be recognized as a son."

Duke Russell lightly sipped the alcohol that filled the transparent crystal glass. Aaron felt frustrated by Duke Russell's appearance of enjoying alcohol in such a situation.

"Your Grace."

"But I suddenly had this thought."

"......"

"What if the sacred maiden really did carry the Emperor's bastard?"

At Duke Russell's question, Aaron closed his mouth. Since the temple was always in conflict with the imperial family, he had never considered such a hypothesis.

"That child would definitely become the Crown Prince. And someday he'd become Emperor. Taking the throne from that child would be nothing for me."

"What if she betrays us before that? What if she whispers to the Emperor and asks for help..."

At Aaron's rational point, Duke Russell smiled broadly.

"Right. That would be too far-fetched an imagination."

"......"

"That's why I only told her to spend one night."

Duke Russell leaned back leisurely in his chair and placed his clasped hands on his crossed legs.

"You know from the beginning how much the Emperor hates sacred maidens. He would never embrace Amelia."

"Aaron."

When Aaron objected, Duke Russell burst into hearty laughter. Aaron hesitated and stopped speaking.

"You still don't understand."

"......"

"All men are the same. The more they hate and despise someone, the more they want to conquer that person and establish dominance."

And he gazed at Aaron with a magnanimous face, as if imparting the principles of the world to him.

"The Emperor will embrace the sacred maiden. Sacred Maiden or whatever, in the end he'll want the conviction that she's just a woman weeping under him."

And he would finally become drunk on the intoxication of victory. Duke Russell was certain of it.

"The moment we're targeting is precisely then."

All trace of laughter vanished completely from Duke Russell's face.

"Originally, a sacred maiden is a chaste being who has offered both body and heart to God."

That's why they had killed the men who had spent nights with the previous Amelias and eliminated all the guards who knew of it as well.

"But what if she falls into corruption merely because of the Emperor's vengeful heart? What if she weeps and wails that God's voice no longer reaches her thereafter? What if she claims she's become an ordinary person because of it?"

Aaron shut his mouth. What would unfold after that was plain to see. The great nobles with Duke Russell at their head would drag down the Emperor who had destroyed Escliffe's destiny.

"Even if the Emperor were to learn the sacred maiden's secret, it would be of no use whatsoever."

"......"

"That's what I was after, Aaron."