Chapter 3

“…….”

She paused for a moment under his grim stare.

With his arms crossed in a defensive posture, he tilted his head as if to say, ‘Go on, then.’

“I found something nice and really wanted to show it to you.”

“Something nice, you say.”

Duke Fernande loathed magic to an extreme degree. Taking his disposition into account, she had chosen the toy with great care.

“This is a stamp.”

Sierd only watched her in silence.

She took off the stamp’s lid and rolled it across a sheet of white paper. Then cute little prints of ducks, sprouts, clouds, and butterflies appeared one after another on the page. She kept rolling the stamp along with enthusiasm.

“Wow, how amazing. What do you think? Isn’t it cute?”

That reaction had slipped out purely from habit. It was the kind of thing she naturally said while playing with children, but right now……. With an awkward expression, she put the lid back on the stamp and carefully checked Sierd’s face.

He was looking at her as though she were ridiculous.

Well, it was obvious enough that he never played with Cesar.

“…Ahem, don’t you think Cesar would really like it?”

“Not at all. Cesar does not play with the likes of toys. He is more mature than children his age.”

Even so, he was only five, and he was calling him mature……. From what she had just seen, he was quite clingy too.

Ignoring that, she rummaged through her bag.

“Then what about this?”

What she quickly pulled out was a bottle of soap bubbles. She twisted open the cap and dipped the wand into the soap solution several times. Then she held it up toward Sierd as if telling him to watch carefully.

“Fuuu.”

Turning her body toward the terrace, she blew the bubbles.

And then…….

Whoosh.

A sudden gust of wind swept into the drawing room, and one rainbow-tinted bubble after another drifted toward Sierd. He, who had been sitting there with his sleeves rolled up and his arms crossed—

Pop.

Pop.

Pop pop.

—ended up getting showered with soapy water. There was something faintly comical about a man who had been sitting there with such gravity now getting splashed with soap bubbles. Looking at the soap water on his hair, his collarbone, and his veined forearms, she nearly laughed. But she kept a solemn expression and suppressed it, allowing only the corners of her lips to twitch.

She had to salvage the situation somehow.

“It seems the bubbles like you, the father. The child will be delighted when he plays with you.”

“Since when does soapy water have preferences…….”

“Mmm…….”

Just then, Cesar sat up, rubbing his eyes. It was a stroke of heaven-sent luck.

“Cesar?”

“…Mama?”

“Yes, Cesar. I’m your mama…….”

If she said she was not, he would only burst into loud tears again.

“I’m your mama. Would you like to look at this?”

“What is this?”

Cesar’s shining eyes turned toward the soap bubbles.

The curtains hanging by the terrace were still swaying. She hesitated a little, worried the bubbles might fly toward Sierd again, but she could not ignore the child’s sparkling gaze.

She blew the bubbles again. This time, with the wind at her back, she blew them in the opposite direction, and one by one the bubbles drifted down onto the documents resting at the corner of the table.

‘Surely he wouldn’t leave important documents in the drawing room.’

She steadied herself and tried not to look at the Duke.

Cesar laughed brightly and looked up at her.

“Again! Again, pwease, Mama!”

“Shall…… shall I?”

She looked at Sierd as if asking permission.

He was smiling faintly.

Encouraged, she handed the wand to the child and urged him to try blowing it.

“Here. If you blow and go ‘fuu’ with your mouth, pretty bubbles will appear, all right?”

And then…….

“Fuu!”

The Duke was hit with a second shower of soap bubbles. Whether it was only in her eyes that he was trying hard to maintain his composure, Cesar only laughed and even clapped his hands.

“Look at that!”

“Ah, haha… um, Cesar, I think your father may be having a hard time. Shall we try blowing them over there instead?”

With his cheeks puffed all the way out, Cesar looked at the Duke.

It seemed he was not the sort to indulge the child’s clinginess without limit, for he was staring at him with a hardened face.

But he would not be able to ignore the whims of a child who had only just begun to speak again. Cesar even said, his eyes filling with tears,

“Are you having a hard time, Daddy?”

“How could I be? Blow one more time, Cesar.”

“Really? Yay!”

Excited, Cesar blew more bubbles, and his father popped every single one while playing along with him.

The sight of the father and son playing together naturally brought a smile to her face.

Much time had passed.

As she watched them, she spoke.

“It’s lovely to see. You must spend time like this with your child often.”

Cesar froze and lowered the arm that had been holding the wand.

Sierd, who had risen from his seat, quietly watched the last bubble fall before sitting back down.

“Well, I suppose that could be true. You must be very busy, so even if you cannot play with Cesar often, you must still make time for him now and then, surely?”

She hurriedly added the words.

Cesar trudged over and threw himself into her arms, and faced with the atmosphere turning even colder, she shut her mouth.

‘If toys are the medium that connects the father and son…….’

The Duke gestured to the nanny, who had been watching them.

“Take Cesar and put him to bed. He looks tired.”

“Yes, Duke.”

It seemed he wanted to speak with her alone.

At his command, the nanny came over at once and gently coaxed Cesar to stand.

Cesar truly did seem sleepy, as he took the nanny’s hand and left the drawing room without complaint. He still had the soap bubbles in one hand. Just before the door closed, the child said to her in a drowsy voice,

“Mama, let’s play again later.”

It looked as though he would not take another step until he heard her answer.

“All right, Cesar.”

Rubbing his eyes, Cesar smiled sleepily and waved his hand.

Soon, the door closed.

“Um, I ended up making a promise, but does that mean I should remain at the ducal residence until the child wakes up?”

“…….”

Silence fell.

Sierd let out a heavy breath, then broke the silence.

“Elodia Everdeen, is what you want a noble title?”

“What do you mean by that all of a sudden…….”

“I do not wish for busy people like ourselves to waste time. I already know the Imperial Family has cast aside the Everdeen Merchant Guild, so there is no need to pretend otherwise.”

She lowered her gaze.

On the sheet of paper stamped with little prints, the word ‘Mama’ was written in crooked handwriting.

Before entering this place, she had only one goal. To take responsibility for her people, even if it meant kneeling at the feet of the powerful, pressing her forehead to the floor, and begging with a kiss to the tops of their shoes.

‘Because I have many people I needed to protect.’

As things stood, if she simply allowed the Imperial Family to keep pressuring the Everdeen Merchant Guild, the employees who had trusted and followed her would be put in danger.

Reading the resolve in her eyes, Sierd spoke.

“I have a proposal.”

“…….”

“Cesar’s language development is slow. Because of the shock he suffered two years ago, his emotional development is slow as well. At least until the child can speak properly on his own, I would like you to stay by his side, Elodia Everdeen.”

He deliberately called her by the hollow surname ‘Everdeen’ after her name. But at this moment, it sounded like a mark of respect.

Her heart pounded rapidly.

Looking at Sierd, she asked in return,

“If I stay by the Young Master’s side and care for him, what can you give me in exchange?”

Duke Sierd Fernande answered with a crooked smile.

“I will give you a title.”

A title. She silently turned his words over in her mind.

‘He will give me a title?’

What she wanted was not a non-hereditary title. What she wanted was to become a noble whose title could be passed down to future generations, one with lands to govern.

Power was strength. The strength to protect.

‘No matter how much power Duke Fernande may hold, enough to rival the Imperial Family, granting a hereditary title should be impossible.’

Did he have some other leverage with which to pressure the Imperial Family?

Resting his clasped hands on his knees, Sierd murmured leisurely,

“Is that not what you want?”

Choosing her words carefully, she answered with caution.

“……What I want is a hereditary title.”

“I know.”

To bestow a non-hereditary title was a privilege that belonged solely to the Emperor.

‘One of the Emperor’s absolute powers, exercisable by him alone.’

Even then, aside from the extremely rare cases in which someone was granted a title in recognition of distinguished service to the nation, such examples were almost unheard of. Yet she had once been promised a title by that very Emperor.

‘Though now it has all come to nothing, and I’m here negotiating with Duke Fernande instead.’

The corners of the man’s mouth curved upward in a smooth arc. In a tone as though he were bestowing a favor, he said,

“The way for you to strike a blow against His Majesty the Emperor and become a noble is simple.”

“Simple… you say?”

She asked back with a frown. If obtaining a title had truly been simple, she never would have dealt with that filthy Imperial Family in the first place.

Sierd gave a short nod.

“Let us marry.”

“What?”

“Become Elodia Fernande. Then, at a later time, I promise you that I will grant you the Everdeen name.”

(T/N: “Everdeen” is not her real noble family name. It is essentially a merchant guild name / symbolic surname tied to the Everdeen Merchant Guild. When he said to marry him, he meant he will formally restore or grant her the Everdeen name as a legitimate noble house.)