Chapter 56

author’s note: Fania will gradually become a dark pomeranian dog. This might cause Fania’s image to go down in your eyes.

Father raised his head, perhaps he became resolute once hearing that whatever he said won’t be charged with lèse majesté.

“Your Majesty, I was told by you to have another child, but Carina can no longer bear a child.”

“What the…” His Majesty was at a loss for words upon hearing what father said.

Well, it must’ve been disconcerting to discover that his cute and adorable cousin, who he had been pampering heavily, had her body suffer like that. Nevertheless, when I got poisoned instead of his own son, which resulted with infertility, he wasn’t even that furious towards the perpetrator.

I sent another cold gaze towards His Majesty.

I was an only child, so presently there was no one who could succeed the Dukedom. The House of Arginia would meet its doom if the current Duke didn’t conceive another child or adopt one. His Majesty, who was worried about that, apparently had told father to make another child. Father was in his mid 40s while my mother was in her 30s, it was not entirely impossible if they tried hard.

“Before I knew it, when did this happen? Was it an illness?”

“No… When she had her third abortion, her body could no longer take it.”

“WHAT?! Did you make her abort them?!” His Majesty’s anger was apparent.

The House of Arginia was a high noble, yet there was only one child; it was said that this was a rare case. Most noble families had a tendency to have a lot of children in order to secure successors. Despite only having one child, making the wife abort the unborn babies would reasonably incur His Majesty’s ire. All the more when the abortions made his much doted on cousin to no longer be able to bear children.

His Majesty, who didn’t realize my cold gaze towards him, sprang up from his seat due to anger and cornered my father. However, my father remained motionless. As if he was exhausted of spirit, he just sat there with no expression on his face.

“Why did you force such a terrible thing on Carina! If you have anything to justify it, say it out.”

His Majesty grabbed father on his chest. Father was just left at his mercy. It was like he put up no resistance at all.

“The first abortion, it was the young gardener’s.”

“Eh?”

His Majesty could not comprehend what my father started to divulge, he kept grabbing my father’s chest.

“The second time was a knight’s.”

“Im-impossible…”

His Majesty released his arm that was grabbing my father’s chest. Father did not bother to tidy up his disheveled chest area and continued speaking.

“Until then, it was someone within the house compound, so we realized it earlier; but the third one was someone she got acquainted with during a ball, someone whose name was unknown. It was already late into the pregnancy when we noticed it, so abortion was rendered difficult, but I forced it to be done.”

“That can’t be true, impossible, Carina can’t be…”

No way~ If that’s the truth, there is no way I could accept it. This is not something you would tell your son, you know. I definitely never want to know that my own mother is actually a bitch. Well, from the beginning, mother is someone with that tendency maybe, but I would never imagine she can be low to that point… Urgh, just get a divorce already. I mean, you should’ve done so. Just what does my mother think a noble wife is?

“Urm, but, was there not a possibility that those were your children…” His Majesty asked father like he was imploring.

“Carina and I, we don’t share the same bed. It was only that one time during the first night when we got married. Other than that, I’ve never touched Carina.”

“Eghk,” Father’s words slowly dawned on His Majesty and he let out a frog-like shriek.

Setting aside the reason why father hadn’t shared the bed with mother, when there were pregnancies one after another despite them having no sexual life, wasn’t it plain obvious that my mother had committed adultery? Regardless of that, mother brazenly remained as the madame to a Duke… Wow.

Moreover, she even sobbed and wept to His Majesty, insisting that she didn’t want a divorce; just how bold could she be? I wondered what kind of brain she had. Now it had come to this, it felt way too pathetic to say that she was my own mother.

By the way, although I called her my mother, the relationship we had was nearly nil. When I was little, I was in the full care of the wetnurse and I almost never met my mother. Mother was a social butterfly who was rarely at home. She was always the one who was doted on, so she simply had no concept of doting on her own child. Since I entered the Royal Palace to learn good manners at age 12, I had never met her. Affection or bond of a mother and her child, that simply was non-existent between us. I could only think of her as a stranger.

“For things to end up in this manner, I apologize.” Father deeply bowed his head.

Isn’t that strange? Why is it father the one who apologizes? The source of all evil is clearly my mother. First of all, he should’ve just divorced her during her first infidelity. After that, my father could welcome a young wife, and there would be the second or the third heirs.

“Ah, no…” Confronting father’s attitude, His Majesty was at a loss, he behaved somewhat strangely in return.

Come to think of it, the one who foisted mother to father was His Majesty. I heard that he and the previous Duke made that arrangement heedless of my father’s will. Well, although a Duke house was powerful, they certainly couldn’t refuse if it was a request by His Majesty. Each time I went to visit my grandparents, they lamented how they had done a bad thing towards my father, which implied that they knew my mother’s deeds.

“There was no way that just because my mother is so dear to you that Your Majesty has persistently ‘advised’ my father, saying things like ‘Don’t do things that make Carina cry!’ or ‘Just let Carina do what she likes!’, have you? Your Majesty didn’t actually meddle in their marriage life, or more accurately in another family’s affair, there’s no way you did that, did you?” I unwittingly stared at His Majesty.

In father’s account, there was no inkling that mother had reflected on her actions or changed for the better. She betrayed her husband over and over again, yet she stayed carefree about it. This was because she had a strong backer that rendered my father to have no say in it.

“Aah, but, there was just no way that Carina could actually do something like that…”

“So you did say those~”

“It’s just, Carina always comes crying to me, saying that her husband has been so cold, that she is slighted at home…” His Majesty tottered as he didn’t imagine that instead of my father, it was me who voiced out.

“Hmm, so you only listened to the story from my mother’s side without any question. I see, Your Majesty has come all the way until you became the King, yet you’re someone like that. I bet you kept persistently warning and telling my father off without giving him a chance to explain. You never listened to any word of his side of the story, have you?”

“No, it’s not like that..”

From His Majesty’s attitude, it was discernible that he really had persistently told my father off. Father probably had no chance for any rebuttal. Well, the other side was the King. This gradually made me pissed off. By my mother of course, and also by His Majesty. Like I cared about lèse majesté anymore at this point.

“You said ‘it’s not like that’, so what is it like actually? At this rate, the House of Arginia would only meet its end. Despite its long history as a loyal retainer to the royal family. The house has devotedly served for generations in all sincerity, yet this was the result? Being doubted and even rained with complaints, and finally, the house is brought to its doom. Your Majesty, what’ll you do about this? Isn’t this all your fault in the end?” I condemned.

I condemned him to the very end. On point.

After all, the future of the House of Arginia was hanging on this. I was also the son of this house, I could not allow for the house to meet its doom just for the reason that it was all caused by the King overly pampering his dear cousin.

“Urm… Carina was always crying at me. Yes, Carina cried, and she said that she was slighted by her husband. Rudolf, why didn’t you share the bed with Carina? Surely Carina was lonely.”

His Majesty was desperate to avert the topic. He changed the flow of the conversation to my father who didn’t say anything in return.

“So if one is lonely, it’s okay to commit adultery. Hmm.” My mockery was ignored by His Majesty who set his sight on father. Geh.

“At the beginning, it was immediately discovered that Carina was pregnant… Then, I believed that I was no longer needed.” Father answered, but ever so dispiritedly. Like a lifeless doll, he was absent of any facial expression.

“Why are you saying you were not needed?”

“If the child born by Carina was to succeed the House of Arginia, I believed that it was better not to have my child.”

“Huh? What do you mean ‘my child’? Carina’s child is your child, isn’t it? Why didn’t you continue to make the second and the third child? There’s no way it was okay not to have them.”

Father finally raised his head after His Majesty said those. And then, he started to talk about things beyond our imagination.

My vitality was almost zero upon discovering that my mother was a bitch, yet I was down for more upcoming blows. Please spare me. I wanted to cry, yet I couldn’t.