Chapter 57

“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.” His Majesty was puzzled by what my father had meant, he curiously stared at my father’s face.

“Sincere congratulations for welcoming the princess from Agrid country and the arrangement for Prince Alfred’s engagement. With this, Prince Alfred’s position as the Crown Prince is now firm, it’s a thing to rejoice.” Out of the blue, father uttered something seeming to be totally unrelated. And then he did a deep bow.

“What is it so suddenly? About Alfred, the other party hasn’t even arrived. Nothing’s set in stone yet. There’s still a long way off.” His Majesty waved his hand and cut off father from continuing.

His Majesty’s question was left unanswered, yet father was talking about a different matter entirely; His Majesty felt incredulous.

“I also have resigned from the position of the leading Duke. With this, I believe Your Majesty and His Highness could use all your power in state affairs. Now, I have nothing to regret. Carina and I will be divorced, and I’ll return the title.”

His Majesty was surprised by what father said, but the one who was even more flabbergasted was me.

“Eh, wait, wait. Father, didn’t you want to be the leading Duke so bad? For that sake, you did a lot of things in the shadows, didn’t you?”

In order to drag the previous leading Duke down, I was used as a bait and even met with a life-threatening danger. Wasn’t all that because he wanted to be the leading Duke? To be the top Duke, the number one in the ranking, wasn’t that what he wanted to be? What was all this about, then?

“What nonsense are you saying? A greenhorn like me, how can I be the leading Duke? It was because the leading duke was being overambitious, sticking his oar in His Majesty’s reign and trying to eliminate Prince Alfred for whatever reason. I had no solid proof, so I had to lie in wait, but finally I managed to shoot them down. With this, the danger is now gone. As for someone like me, I was not supposed to be beside His Majesty.” Father wore a relieved expression as he went on with his explanation.

Eh, father just became a nice guy in my eyes. Didn’t this make him seem to be a retainer who truly cared about His Majesty and Al? Then, everything I did so far, what was all that for?

“Then, what’s the deal with you trying to kill me! Until now, didn’t you try so many times to eliminate me? I won’t let you say that all that didn’t happen! I won’t let you say that everything I suffered never happened!” I bellowed.

Even if my father being a loyal retainer to the King was true, then what the heck about his attitude to me? I wouldn’t ever let him pretend everything had never happened.

“Fania. If Prince Alfred reaches out his hand to take you in, can you refuse him?”

“Eh?” I couldn’t get what Father was trying to say.

“Even if Prince Alfred already welcomed a Princess Consort by his side, if he asks for you, can you refuse him?”

“Aa…”

If Al were to reach out his hand to me. That is, while having a Princess Consort, he still reaches out a hand to me, I… will I be able to refuse him, I wonder…

Before our engagement was annulled, Al promised me that he won’t welcome any other consorts. He told me that he would only love me. Nevertheless…

“Fania, I know that you harbour feelings for Prince Alfred from the bottom of your heart. Surely, you won’t ever be able to refuse him if he were to ask for your hand. However, that cannot be allowed. Before that happens, I’ll end you for your sake. After that, I’ll follow you in death. Please bear with that.”

“Father…”

I understood if the male me stayed around Al, the princess who came to marry Al would be distressed. Just because of me, I couldn’t let the relationship with Agrid Country turn sour.

“No-no-no Fania, what are you getting convinced there? You can’t do a double suicide with you father. This country allows same-sex marriage, and royalty can even have multiple wives. You can just be the Second Consort or concubine or whatever fits.” His Majesty stopped me, who was about to be influenced by my father.

Oh no! I was close to dying with my father.

“YOU CAN’T!”

Father’s strong objections jolted both His Majesty and I, we almost hugged each other. We didn’t of course.

“Fania, you definitely couldn’t take Prince Alfred’s hand no matter what! He just firmed his foothold as the Crown Prince, what’re you going to do if Prince Alfred becomes the object of public contempt just because of you?”

“Hey Rudolf, you don’t have to be too strict about it. If Alfred and Fania both love each other, there’s no reason to part them, is there?”

“They can’t! They can’t!” Father vigorously shook his head at His Majesty’s mediation. He was being overly stubborn.

“Fania, listen carefully! You are His Majesty’s son. You and Prince Alfred are brothers connected by blood!”

“HUH?!” His Majesty and I both exclaimed in unison.

“If this fact is disclosed to public, Prince Alfred would be condemned as a incest brute. Prince Alfred and you can never be together, never, ever!”

My father’s statement stupefied me.

Al and I are brothers…? Really?

“When Carina was diagnosed to be pregnant, I realized it all. His Majesty was letting Carina who was pregnant with his child to marry into the House Arginia because he wanted to place that child as the heir to the House of Arginia. Therefore, I gave up on having my own children… However, Fania became unable to be the heir anymore. I had no choice but to give up my title…”

“Eh? EHHH? I am His Majesty’s child? For real?” I gazed hard at my father.

My brain couldn’t process such a bombshell statement from father. Just what the heck was this?

“N-no! Carina and I never had that kind of relationship! I can assure you Fania is not my child!!”

“It’s okay. I’ll bring this matter to my grave. Your Majesty doesn’t have to worry about anything.”

“I-am-telling-you that’s not it! Carina and I have never shared the bed at all!”

No matter how His Majesty denied it, it didn’t have any effect on my father. In my father’s mind, it was a solid fact that I was His Majesty’s child, and nothing could ever overturn it.

When I went to visit my grandparents’, there was something I heard from granny: when His Majesty foisted my mother on my father, there were rumours among the masses that His Majesty found mother—who he had touched—a bother, so he pushed her to his close aide, Duke Arginia. After the marriage, mother was immediately discovered to be pregnant and later followed by an early delivery which probably solidified my father’s suspicions.

Each time I went to visit granny, I was told that I was genuinely a son of the House of Arginia. I would’ve never thought that after all these while, I would hear a strong denial from my father’s very mouth.

“It’s really not like that! At that time, Carina caused trouble with a married man,”

“Oi, Your Majesty. Aren’t you just foisting a problematic woman on father from the very beginning?”

“Uwo!” His Majesty was startled when I suddenly intervened. He was too desperate to explain himself that he forgot my existence there.

“Father never thought of me as his child, so he never gave me any love. All the time, he treated me coldly and acted very stern with me. I’ve even been hit by him countless times. All that turns out to be your fault, Your Majesty?!”

“Ah, no, I never thought it’d become like this.”

“Your Majesty, you always, always listen to my mother’s crying. Have you ever listened to my father or me? I am the son of the Arginias! Yet, father never acknowledged me as one. What are you going to do about this? You’ve snatched my father away from me!”

“Ah… I’m sorry…”

His Majesty finally realized the gravity of the situation. I was always doted on by His Majesty. However, that was because I was my mother’s son. Everything my mother said, that would take precedence. It was like everything was centered on her.

“Give me back my sixteen years! Give me back my father! How are you going to fix the House of Arginia!” I bawled out and was about to pounce on His Majesty, but I was stopped by my father.

“Fania, what are you trying to do to His Majesty? That was way beyond disrespect!”

“Father, how can you still bear with it even after all this? To have His Majesty’s secondhand woman foisted on you, and because of that, you have to give up having your own kids, isn’t that too much?!”

“What kind of words are you using? Be prudent! Fania, listen to me, it’s a given that we, the retainers, serve the royalty. Otherwise, the country would not stand.”

“Even then, there are still things that one can do and cannot do, aren’t there? Why do father and I have to be the sacrifice?” Tears continued streaming down my face.

“Father, His Majesty has been saying that there’s no relationship of that sort between him and mother. I am your child, please acknowledge that.”

Father had lived all these years while believing I was not his own child. Even before I was born.

I am the son of the Arginias. I wanted my father to believe that. His Majesty was out of the issue here. If at this moment, father didn’t acknowledge me as his son here, father and I would end as strangers for the rest of our lives.

In order to make my father acknowledge me, I made my resolve to use my final trump card.