The baby’s single word cast a cold chill over the atmosphere in the drawing room, as if ice water had been poured over it.

“…….”

“…….”

I instinctively glanced at the Grand Duke.

His face, ever expressionless, gave no indication of what he was feeling.

Awkwardly, I forced a laugh to break the silence.

“Ahaha, such impressive babbling…”

“Mma!”

Once again, the drawing room was engulfed in silence.

“Haha… ha, haha…”

“Mma?”

“…….”

“…Ma!”

The baby grinned brightly, the Grand Duke’s face froze solid, and I… bore the weight of all this awkwardness.

‘Who in the world would be pleased if a baby suddenly called a stranger “Ma”?’

I was indeed on the verge of tears.

Desperately, I studied the baby. Those sparkling, intelligent eyes were fixed right on me.

‘With eyes that bright… Could they really understand what’s going on?’

Clinging to the faint hope that the baby was exceptionally smart, I coaxed,

“My dear, how about saying ‘sister’ instead? Siiister!”

“Mmaaa.”

“Oh my, what advanced babbling! Or, since your father is right there, why don’t you try saying ‘daddy’? Daaaddy!”

“Mmma!”

A faint crack appeared on the Grand Duke’s usually smooth brow as he observed our little exchange.

‘Please, no more! Do you know how terrifying the man in front of you is…?!’

If this goes any further, my poor heart—

As I pleaded internally, the baby suddenly swung their arms and thump!—covered my mouth.

Excuse me?

With trembling eyes, I locked gazes with the baby.

That is to say, I was now engaged in a staring contest with an approximately four-month-old infant…

‘Please, I’m begging you!’

I grasped the baby gently under the arms, raising her so we were at eye level, nearly hiding my face behind her, my eyes filled with desperation.

But the baby, whose neck was already surprisingly steady, looked back at me with firm resolve.

‘How can they be so sharp? Are you a genius?’

Already teething, understanding speech, holding their head up with ease.

Yes, my baby was no ordinary child.

Just as I was caught up in my doting admiration, forgetting the situation—

“Mma.”

The baby’s firm babbling made me honestly want to cry.

***

Regardless of what the baby claimed about our relationship through her babbling, one fact remained unchanged:

I had now acknowledged the Grand Duke as the strongest candidate for the baby’s father.

From that day on, the Grand Duke began referring to himself as the child’s father and made real effort to bond with her.

“Come now, child. Let your father hold you.”

The way he spoke… It sounded less like a request and more like a threat—‘Get into my arms now, or deal with the consequences.’

“Shi… shi!”

“Baby, it’s your father. Your father wants to hold you.”

“Angie.”

“Yes, our little Angie, he wants to hold you.”

“Huu, shi, shiii, hwaaa…!”

And yet, the baby—Angie—refused to go anywhere near the Grand Duke.

‘Honestly, even I wouldn’t want to approach a man with such a stiff expression…’

Since Angie clung to me so desperately, I felt embarrassed on his behalf.

“Angie, sister needs to use the restroom for a moment. Will you stay with your father just for a little bit?”

I wrapped Angie snugly in their favorite blanket—actually, my shawl—and blinked my beautiful violet eyes at them pleadingly.

“Huuung, Mmma…”

“Just for a moment, okay? If you stay with your father for a little while, I’ll return. Alright?”

When I put on my most imploring expression, Angie blinked back as if to say, Fine, I suppose.

What a clever baby. Who would believe she was only four months old?

Smiling widely at Angie, I handed her over to the Grand Duke.

Well, rather than ‘handing her over,’ it was more like awkwardly draping the baby onto his stiff arms…

I actually did go to the restroom, sip the herbal tea Dame Gwendolyn had prepared, rinse my mouth, stretch a little… and did not return to the drawing room.

Ahh, a moment alone, basking in the sunlight on the balcony—how long had it been?

“My Lady, shouldn’t you check on them?”

Mila, who had followed me onto the balcony, asked worriedly.

I could already hear whining from inside, which made me anxious.

“But if I stay out of sight, maybe they’ll get used to each other.”

“Well, if there’s no one else to help, they might have to adapt.”

With that reasoning, I decided to try out a baby sleep-training approach I had once heard about in my previous life.

“Mmaaa! Mmooaa!”

But then Angie started wailing in earnest.

At first, I tried to steel myself and ignore it, but…

“Huuuaaa… Mma, waaah….”

My resolve crumbled when her cries took on the exhausted tone of a child who had cried herself out.

‘The baby didn’t do anything wrong!’

The only one at fault here was the Grand Duke, who claimed to be the father but made no effort to be affectionate…!

Feeling terribly guilty, I hurried back into the drawing room.

The moment I appeared, Angie immediately reached out for me, arms flailing desperately.

As for the Grand Duke—

“Are you hungry, or do you simply miss your sister? Crying will achieve nothing.”

He held the baby up with both hands, attempting to reason with her…

I swallowed my shock, then swiftly took Angie from him.

“There, there, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Angie. Sister is sorry.”

“Mma, ma, ammaaa…”

The baby cried this much, and he thought talking to them was the solution?!

After shooting the Grand Duke a fierce glare, I gently soothed Angie.

“Aww, were you feeling so sad?”

“Mma. Eom… Maa…”

Angie kept calling for her mother as if she were trying to brainwash herself.

She had cried so much that her voice was hoarse…

Suppressing my resentment toward the Grand Duke, I patted Angie gently.

A baby crying until her voice was gone! And yet he couldn’t even comfort her!

How desperate must she have been to call a complete stranger ‘Ma’?

“There, there, Angie. Let’s hold each other close. We can play with Father later.”

Receiving my sharp gaze, the Grand Duke… kept his eyes on me, as if trying to observe how one should handle a baby.

I shot at him with deliberate sharpness.

“Do you even want to get close to Angie?”

At my words, the Grand Duke’s expression turned rather displeased.

“Do you not think you’ve been in unauthorized possession of my child for far too long?”

“Possession? That word is used for objects.”

“……”

Was he not even embarrassed by his behavior, which was entirely unfit for a father?

“Besides, two days after I took Angie in, I posted flyers in Norhart. Exactly how much faster was I supposed to notify you?”

At my deliberately spiteful remark, the Grand Duke simply crossed his arms without responding.

“To be precise, Your Grace, you were the one who was too late in searching.”

He looked a bit wronged at that.

‘Well, to be fair, the Grand Duke did rush here in his way. But who would have thought the child had been abandoned on Lure’s private estate?’

Realizing that, I softened a little and added casually—

Glancing at the Grand Duke’s signature jet-black armor.

“At least wear something more comfortable next time. How is a baby supposed to snuggle up to something so hard?”

***

“You think he’ll come again today?”

One morning, during my usual walk on the back hill, Mathias lifted Angie high into the air as he spoke.

“Kyaha!”

Delighted by the height, Angie let out a peal of laughter.

Perhaps because Mathias had discovered Angie with me, he was the only person—aside from the nanny and me—that Angie felt comfortable being held by.

‘Though she still dislikes being apart from me for too long…’

Still, having even one more person I could entrust Angie to was a good thing.

“Thanks to our dear Grand Duchess, I get to see His Grace every single day.”

“Uu…”

Angie made a sour face as if she understood that the Grand Duke had been mentioned.

Her chubby cheeks puffed up in a pout, which I found so adorable that I chuckled.

“Once Angie gets close to His Grace, she’ll go to Norhart, right?”

“I suppose so…?”

“The mansion will feel quite empty.”

“……Yeah.”

Saying that, I playfully poked Angie’s plump cheek.

She flailed her little hands, struggling to grab my finger.

‘Right, as if she actually understands any of this…’

For now, she clung to me, but as time passed, she wouldn’t even remember I existed.

‘And even if she did, it would only be this body’s outward shell.’

Maybe because today’s walk had been longer than usual, I kept slipping into gloomy thoughts.

“Isn’t His Grace so considerate, visiting every day just to see our dear Grand Duchess?”

Isn’t he? Mathias playfully bounced Angie in his arms.

At some point, Angie, who could now sit upright on her own, reached out and—squish. She pressed her tiny hand against Mathias’s well-shaped lips.

“Ubububu, our dear Grand Duchess’s hands are so soft, aren’t they?”

Mathias cheerfully kept up his chatter about the ‘Grand Duchess,’ but—

“Let’s head back. He should be arriving soon.”

On a normal day, I would have finished my walk, had a light meal, and watered the garden by now. But since the morning had been cloudy, I’d dawdled, and since I was feeling well, I had taken a lengthier stroll. It was now time for the Grand Duke to arrive.

“Of course! Our dear Grand Duchess, let’s go see your father… Oof!”

Mathias’s forehead fell victim to Angie’s tiny but fierce hand.

***

It had been more than ten days since Cedrion started coming and going from Meldorf at the break of dawn.

To avoid royal scrutiny, he maintained his self-imposed moniker, ‘The Battlefield Ghost of Foreign Lands,’ and always wore his jet-black armor.

But today—

“At least wear something more comfortable next time. How is a baby supposed to snuggle up to something so hard?”

For once, Cedrion was dressed in a light suit. He sat on a garden bench at the blue roofed manor, waiting for its temporarily absent owner.

‘Without my armor, it feels like before my parents passed.’

If it was like before his parents passed, then not just his clothes but also…

‘To think I’d see her again here.’

It had been more than ten years since the boy had first met the girl.

Back then, young Cedrion used to skip lessons and recklessly teleport to different estates, wandering through the forests.

“Eek! N-n-nanny!”

Startled by his sudden appearance, the girl had tumbled backward, her platinum-blonde hair fluttering like midday sunlight.

Those large, trembling amethyst eyes.

Since that incident, he had never again seen those eyes so up close.

“First meeting… you say?”

“Y-yes… Almost, I suppose…?”

Had she forgotten? Or was she pretending to forget?

‘Or is it because of that incident…?’

It didn’t really matter. One way or another, they had met again.

Though he visited the blue roofed manor daily to secure custody of the child, part of him also enjoyed finding traces of the girl from back then in the woman she had become.

‘I had intended to protect her myself.’

And yet, marriage…

Cedrion was deep in thought, his face grim enough to seem intimidating to others, when—

“Your Grace, you’re here? Good morning.”

“Yes, I’m la—”

…Wait.

Cedrion rose from his seat but trailed off mid-sentence.

Stepping into the garden with a grace like a dawn-kissed fairy… she was holding hands with the boy she called her escort knight.

A vein bulged on Cedrion’s finely shaped forehead.