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“Why……”
Renato barely opened his eyes again, feeling Khalid’s hand that touched the area around his eye part away. His cracked voice came out from his slightly open lips.
“It is on here too.”
Khalid softly smiled, wiping the water drop on the tear mole under Renato’s eye with his thumb. Only then did Renato notice the water on his face. The snow seemed to have fallen there, then melted because of his body temperature.
“I, see. Thank you.”
Renato quickly rubbed his cheeks in embarrassment. Khalid was only doing that without much thought, but he thought of how the man’s lips touched him a few days ago like an idiot. Renato gently pressed the corner of his burning eye. Then, he heard a familiar voice.
“Your Imperial Highness!”
“……Baikal?”
As he turned his head to where the sound came from, Renato saw Baikal approaching him, and his eyes widened. Now that he saw the man again after about a week, the man had changed beyond recognition.
“Greetings to the successor of the noble blood. It has been a while.”
“Yes, uhm, you have changed quite a bit.”
“It’s all thanks to you, Your Imperial Highness. I really wanted to greet you, so I asked his highness the grand prince to let me wait here.”
Baikal answered with a broad smile. The man already shaved off his thick beard that looked like a bandit’s, cut the hair that was covering his eyes, and neatly combed it. Renato looked at him in shock.
“Is life worth living in the diplomatic office?”
“Yes, thanks to you……”
“Then I’m glad. I’m really sorry for not being able to take care of you properly.”
Renato had a relieved expression. The day after he lost consciousness on Baker 13th Street, Renato asked Khalid for Baikal’s protection before he returned to the palace. He wanted to take care of the man himself, but he couldn’t afford to do so.
Fortunately, Khalid willingly complied with Renato’s request. When he knew about Baikal’s circumstances, he gave a seat to the man in the diplomatic office in exchange for testifying about the smuggling organization at the trial. In addition, he erased all of Baikal’s past activities and gave him the status of a military doctor apprentice.
“Thanks to you paying off my debt and obtaining kesnip, Your Imperial Highness, I can safely treat my sister. Ah, Vienna. Come and greet His Imperial Highness.”
Baikal looked behind him and beckoned. Then, Renato saw a small child hiding behind a pillar in the lobby. The girl, who looked just like Baikal, was much smaller than he had thought, perhaps around Trudy’s age.
“Say your greetings, this is His Imperial Highness.”
“……Hello.”
The child came closer with short and quick steps, then bowed to Renato. Renato bent down and made eye contact with Vienna.
“Nice to meet you, what’s your name?”
“My name is Vienna Witcher. I heard from oppa that you helped us, Your Imperial Highness…… Thank you very much.”
Vienna expressed her gratitude to Renato in a stammering voice. Then she bowed down again. Her action was so cute that it naturally made Renato smile.
“There is no need for thanks. In the future, your oppa will have to work hard to pay me back.”
With a friendly smile, Renato raised his hand and affectionately stroked the child’s head. Vienna looked up at Renato as if she was bewitched by something, and then came to her senses with a gasp. She then said in a voice full of enthusiasm.
“I will work hard too! I’m good at cleaning and running errands!”
“Haha, I see. Okay, then help me diligently in the future.”
Renato laughed out loud, stroking Vienna’s hair once more and standing up straight again.
“We’ll talk about the details later. Now I have something to talk about with his highness.”
“Yes, Your Imperial Highness. I have troubled you a lot.”
Baikal answered with a determined expression. He was ready to dedicate everything to Renato who was his benefactor.
“My apologies. The greetings took quite a long time.”
Finishing his talk to Baikal, Renato turned to Khalid and apologized. He felt that he was being too rude to Khalid.
“It’s okay. I permitted him to come out, after all. By the way, you seem to like children.”
Khalid looked at Renato with strange eyes and asked, perhaps finding it unexpected. The way Renato looked at Vienna, affectionately smiled at her and stroked her head made it seem that Renato was quite used to dealing with children.
“I don’t hate them. Uhm, I guess I quite like them. Because I have a younger brother.”
“Aah.”
Khalid nodded his head, understanding what Renato was talking about. Renato briefly looked at Vienna when she was held in Baikal’s arms and disappeared toward the hallway. It had been a long time since Renato had seen a child around Trudy’s age.
“Seeing that child reminds me of Trudy. I have been avoiding His Majesty the Empress’ eyes lately, so I can’t really meet him.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes, it will be difficult if I get suspected.”
A bitter smile appeared on Renato’s lips. Even though they lived only a few minutes’ walk from each other, they couldn’t meet comfortably. There was a faint longing in his slightly darkened lavender-colored eyes.
“Come to think of it, I haven’t met His Imperial Highness the 2nd Prince yet.”
“Pardon?”
“We will have to see each other often, so I will set a date sometime. If it’s okay with you, I’ll invite you two to my official residence. It is a humble and poor place compared to the Imperial Palace, but I will prepare enough for you two to stay for a day or so.”
A day. With those words, Renato quickly realized that Khalid’s intention to help the two brothers meet was greater than his wish to meet Trudy.
“Thank you for your concern. I will prepare it soon to let you two introduce yourselves to each other.”
Renato softly smiled, feeling deeply grateful for Khalid’s consideration. The man’s consideration tickled his chest.
Does he know how much support this seemingly indifferent yet kind consideration gives me? Renato felt sorry that he had no words to express his gratitude toward Khalid.
“I am looking forward to it. Even more so because he is someone you like so much, Your Imperial Highness.”
Khalid’s eyes lit up in anticipation of their upcoming meeting. He was also curious about the child whom Renato devoted himself to protecting, even if it meant entering into a marriage with Khalid.
“Now then, let’s go do our job.”
Khalid took Renato’s hand again and led him to the conference room. Before meeting Trudy, the first priority was to finish their marriage contract properly.
* * *
Tick tock, tick tock.
The sound of the wall clock’s second hand softly echoed in the quiet drawing room. Khalid checked the time with his gaze, then lifted the teapot and filled the empty teacup.
“I think the discussion is going to be long.”
“That’s true.”
Renato thanked Khalid with his gaze when the man poured new tea for him. But he did not drink, only fiddling with the teacup. He had already emptied his teacup twice, so he was not particularly thirsty.
“I thought it would be over soon…… I must have taken it too easy.”
After hesitating for a while, Renato said with an awkward expression. The marriage contract, which he thought would be finished in a few minutes, had already been going on for hours, contrary to his expectation. It was because of the fierce opposition from Viscount Roman who was sent by the Emperor.
‘Oh my god, are you really going to make a contract like this?’
Visiting the diplomatic office under the Emperor’s order, Viscount Roman heard the marriage price that Renato had offered to Khalid and almost passed out. He was so taken aback that he seemed to run out of breath at any moment.
‘His Majesty the Emperor has commanded me to do my best to assist you, Your Imperial Highness, but…… This is absolutely unacceptable!’
Viscount Roman exclaimed that the contract between Khalid and Renato was too unfair. Even if Renato was okay with it, it was too unreasonable. To him, an imperial official, a contract to hand over half of the territory’s rights was absolutely unacceptable.
‘It was something that His Imperial Highness suggested first. Viscount-nim, your action right now is considered mutiny, since you do not obey His Imperial Highness’ order.’
‘What did you say? Mutiny?’
‘His Imperial Highness wants this, but you are against this, aren’t you? If this is not mutiny, what is this? Now, please don’t flush for no reason and just sign. There are many more other things to consider.’
Nasir, who served as Khalid’s legal representative, strongly pressured Viscount Roman, saying that Renato had already agreed. The two strongly opposed each other, not making any concessions. In the end, the process of writing the marriage contract became a tedious tug-of-war.
‘Stop, it’s okay if it’s not half, so try to tune in with Viscount Roman.’
‘I promised the grand prince half of the rights. Adding more than that might be possible, but you can’t lower it to less than that. His Majesty did not take issue with it either, so just proceed as it is.’
Khalid and Renato tried to mediate between Nasir and Viscount Roman respectively. But they both shook their heads resolutely. Then, they kicked Khalid and Renato out of the conference room to talk to each other.
The two, who were suddenly kicked out, were now in the drawing room waiting patiently for the negotiations to end. However, at this rate, it seemed like it would not end even when the sun went down.