“…Can I lick your cheek?”

“No.”

“Just a little.”

“What do you mean ‘just a little’? No. Are you going to keep acting like a dog?”

At the Prince’s firm attitude, Tan lowered his head even more.

With a thoroughly dejected look, Tan rested his chin on the Prince’s shoulder and mumbled.

“I’m trying my best… Really, just once…”

Hallik quietly took a step back. It seemed like a moment when he should inform Chamuka of the situation.

The back of the Prince’s head was wavering, suggesting that the second young master’s tactics were gradually working.

However, Tan’s gaze fixed precisely on Hallik as he stepped backward.

His expression was blank, a stark contrast to how he had been acting like a puppy just moments ago, making Hallik flinch.

It wasn’t so much that he was intimidated by a child’s gaze, but rather the sudden change in his face was somewhat eerie.

And this wasn’t even the first time he’d seen it.

The second young master acted like a dog in front of the Prince, but in front of others, he behaved like a typical member of the Basilinte family.

The Basilinte family’s “typical” meant emotionless, heartless, and expressionless.

“Hallik, where are you going?”

His tone was cheerful, unlike his expression.

Hallik internally wanted to cry at the bizarre sight of the expressionless face rubbing his cheek against the Prince’s shoulder. At times like this, he felt like he was standing in the middle of a horror story.

“Going to my brother? Can’t you stay here instead of going?”

“You shouldn’t pester busy people like that, Tan.”

Prince, you’re being deceived. There’s no sane person in this family. That person is just pretending to be a dog.

Hallik swallowed the words he couldn’t bring himself to say.

***

[5 years later, Basilinte Main Castle Butler’s Handover Journal]

[Author: Hallik Lockshire]

I still haven’t been able to retire.

“….”

Yen was at a loss for words after seeing Hallik’s handover journal by chance.

This person, with his stern face, was thinking such things inside.

He silently closed Hallik’s handover journal. Let’s pretend I didn’t see anything.

He slipped out of Hallik’s office.

Yen was originally the Grand Duke’s adjutant, so he didn’t know the details about the young masters and the Prince.

But even from a brief record, he could tell that the Prince was being deceived in many ways. The young masters’ pretense and tactics overflowed even just from reading.

“It’s somewhat like His Grace and Lady Astrid’s courtship days…”

Yen, who had inadvertently muttered, suddenly stopped and became lost in thought. He rubbed his chin in contemplation.

“But they’re boys, surely not.”

Recalling the Basilinte family members who had become quite emotional over the past five years, Yen decided to think that Chamuka and Tan had simply awakened to something like friendship or brotherly love.

It was a bit frightening to think otherwise.

And in the first place, the young masters weren’t the important issue right now.

The reason Yen had urgently sought out Hallik’s office…

“Die!”

“Calm down, Astrid!”

“Calm down? You’re telling me to calm down!”

The Grand Duke, who had been chased out into the corridor in broad daylight with barely a robe on, appeared before Yen’s eyes.

All sorts of objects were being thrown at the Grand Duke through the open bedroom door.

Of course, those objects couldn’t inflict even a speck of damage on the Grand Duke’s steel-like body.

“I told you not to come into the bed that night!”

“I didn’t come in at night. So the child was probably conceived that afternoon…”

“Shut up!”

Astrid was pregnant.

The father was, of course, the Grand Duke.

If it hadn’t been him, the Grand Duke would have evolved into a demon and destroyed the continent, so it was fortunate, anyway.

Honestly, it wasn’t that surprising. It had become routine for the Grand Duke to disappear in the middle of work and be found in the bedroom, so it would be more strange if a child hadn’t been conceived.

Astrid had always been weak for the Grand Duke’s face and body, and the Grand Duke was just weak for Astrid.

Everyone in the castle knew that fact.

They might say they were in divorce negotiations, but the people in the castle treated Astrid as the Grand Duchess without any change, just altering how they addressed her.

As all the objects in the bedroom were being thrown at the Grand Duke in the corridor, the Prince appeared at the far end of that corridor.

The Grand Duke quickly lifted the Prince in front of himself and approached Astrid.

“Didn’t you say looking at something handsome makes you feel better? Look.”

“You…!”

“As you said, he’s the most handsome boy on the continent. Look at his eyes, his nose, his mouth… Do you feel a bit calmer?”

“Our beautiful Leti…!”

Yen remained silent as he listened to the conversation coming from inside the bedroom.

At the same time, his eyes met with Hallik’s, who had urgently brought the Prince.

They naturally shared a sympathetic look for the Prince and turned their gazes away.

It was too harsh for a boy going through puberty.

However, if the Prince could endure the embarrassment for a moment, it might prevent the Grand Duchess from cracking the Grand Duke’s head, so they willingly offered the Prince as a sacrifice.

“Mentor, you should take care of yourself.”

And the Prince, a rare possessor of humanity in this Basilinte castle, overcame his embarrassment and began to comfort Astrid.

“If the child resembles you, Mentor, it will be a very beautiful baby. Chamuka and Tan were also very kind and beautiful children, weren’t they?”

“….”

But perhaps the direction of his comfort was wrong, as Astrid was left speechless.

Eventually, Astrid’s incredulous retort burst forth.

“Who’s kind and beautiful? Those things?”

Finally, Astrid exploded.

“Get out! Everyone except my disciple, get out!”

Astrid decided to do her prenatal education by looking at the Prince.

Everyone in the castle nodded in agreement that it was a commendable choice. Except for the Prince, there wasn’t a shred of admirable humanity to be found in the castle.

Isana Lefri, a possessor of admirable humanity outside the Basilinte castle, heard the news and visited the Basilinte main castle after a long time.

Remembering the atrocities Gaien had committed verbally when Astrid was pregnant with Tan, Isana, after a conversation with her son Ferik, decided to confine Gaien in the underground prison for the time being.

The only one who visited Gaien, who was confined in the underground prison throughout Astrid’s pregnancy, was the Prince.

***

[6 years later, Basilinte Main Castle Butler’s Handover Journal]

[Author: Hallik Lockshire]

I write this hoping to hand over this handover journal to someone else as soon as possible.

Currently, we serve 5 or 6 people in the Basilinte main castle. The Grand Duke couple and their two or three children. And one “Prince.”

…The children are the first, Chamuka; the second, Tan; and the third, Kalia.

“She resembles Your Grace a lot.”

The Prince murmured as he looked at the newborn baby wrapped in swaddling clothes.

Hallik and Hilda, who were in the room, couldn’t help but agree.

As if Astrid’s genes had evaporated somewhere in between, the daughter looked exactly like the Grand Duke.

There was no need to wonder how she would grow up. She would just be a female Chamuka.

Only Astrid, who had expected her daughter to resemble her more, was frustrated.

“She’ll grow up to be a great beauty. Since she resembles you, Astrid, she’ll be smart and pretty, and since she resembles His Grace, she’ll be healthy.”

The Prince smiled while holding the newborn baby. The baby responded with soft cooing sounds and a smile of her own.

The Prince lowered his head to whisper to the baby. His golden hair flowed down like a waterfall, caught in streams of sunlight.

“Hello, Kalia.”

Hallik stood transfixed by the beautiful and almost divine scene before him.

When he finally regained his composure, a sense of foreboding washed over him.

No newborn baby could possibly resist the Prince’s overwhelming charm.