Chapter 28

By 5 PM, Seisil, with heavy bags under his eyes, went to find the Emperor.  

“Where is he?”  

“He’s bathing in his bedroom.”  

Seisil went to the bedroom. The Emperor was soaking in a large bathtub.  

A man with a muscular build lifted his head from the water. His face, framed by long, wet, silver hair, shone in the water—beautiful and sharp like a sword forged from jewels. But his expression was more exhausted than ever.  

Sometimes he looked this dark, like when his mother’s health worsened or when Sadea rampaged uncontrollably. Today was the same, but his eyes were especially frightening. The red hadn’t faded, and his pupils looked like they might spill blood.  

Maybe he felt Seisil’s heavy gaze, because a faint wrinkle appeared between Lyle’s brows.  

“What is it?”  

Seisil smiled kindly and greeted him with an elegant gesture.  

“Haha. I suppose it’s a sort of after-work greeting.”  

“How boring. Just leave as usual.”  

His voice was tinged with irritation. But Seisil knew that the Emperor—his friend Lyle—wasn’t usually so irritable.  

“Your Majesty, lately you’re always scary. Why are you pushing yourself so hard?”  

“‘Pushing myself,’ huh.”  

Lyle wiped his face and bit his lip.  

Even distracting himself with other things couldn’t erase thoughts of Ethea. Why did she push him away?  

He couldn’t help but be angry at himself for making the Homunclepet and burdening her so much. But she said she was glad to have Gin.  

Of course, he didn’t want to comfort himself with that.  

“I just don’t understand.”  

“What do you mean?”  

“I feel like… there’s another reason she’s pushing me away.”  

Lyle thought all sorts of things.  

Did Etty find out? That Javir had accepted the former Emperor’s dirty offer? No, she wouldn’t know.  

Lyle didn’t tell her about Javir’s crime because it hurt too much. It was bad enough that her father was fake—telling her that would be too cruel. Ironically, Lyle himself killed Javir for not confessing his crime.  

Anyway, it was frustrating. Her cutting him off so decisively was more stressful than all the years he spent worrying about her.  

“She rejected me, Etty did.”  

“Oh. I would too. Leaving after making a child? That’s awful.”  

Lyle glared at Seisil, who sometimes teased.  

“Ah! Your Majesty, your eyes are turning red! I’d better run!”  

Seisil ran toward the bedroom door—well, ran in place.  

Lyle slowly shook his head, recalling his conversation with Etty.  

“Etty said Gin is precious to her. Gin… is now someone she can never be separated from. Of course, what I did was still wrong.”  

Seisil shrugged and approached Lyle, then gently rubbed his drooping shoulder. It was silent encouragement, but Lyle tried to sink deeper into the water.  

“Breathe, please.” 

Seisil said, sitting Lyle up straight. Lyle leaned his head back, his closed eyes full of exhaustion.  

“Will I ever be forgiven? Can I stay by her side?”  

He wasn’t talking to Seisil, but to Ethea.  

Even wearing the Crown of Orodium, Lyle wanted to be just a normal man to her. Not her friend, but a man. And the child’s father.  

But Lyle was completely unaware of a fatal problem he had. Strangely, his friend noticed it first. Seisil thought deeply, then called him.  

“Your Majesty.”  

“Yes.”  

“Did you really confess you wanted to be by her side?”  

“Yes.”  

“Her man, her lover… that sort of thing?”  

“Yes.”  

“Oh dear.”  

Now Seisil was serious.  

“Your Majesty.”  

“Yes.”  

“Isn’t there something you’re forgetting?”  

Forgetting? What was he talking about? Lyle looked at Seisil, utterly clueless.  

Seeing him, Seisil could only sigh. He was holding back because Lyle was Emperor; otherwise, he’d have pointed and cursed—Lyle, you idiot, you fool, you birdbrain!  

Seisil held back his rising anger on Ethea’s behalf and pressed him.  

“No, I mean… Your Majesty, you’ve been engaged, haven’t you?”  

Lyle’s mouth fell open in surprise. Seisil shook his head, as expected.  

‘That guy doesn’t even know he’s engaged!’  

***

Well, the Emperor and his fiancée had no awareness of being betrothed, and never would. The Emperor’s fiancée was invisible to him, and vice versa. To the Emperor, his fiancée wasn’t a woman, and to the fiancée, the Emperor couldn’t be a lover.  

“Making a mess, aren’t you. Let’s just watch and enjoy. Well, even tired, you have to play when it’s time to play.”  

Seisil smiled as he looked at the invitation. The invitation was from Solei.  

“How long has it been since a party?”  

Seisil liked parties.  

But just because he liked them didn’t mean he could often attend. When he tried to go to his relatives’ parties, he was met with looks that said, ‘That arrogant guy who ousted his father and took over the Mage Tower.’ He couldn’t stomach noble parties. Sometimes the Mage Tower staff invited him, but he wasn’t so lacking in tact as to go to those.  

So a party invitation was rare—especially one from a close personal friend! No matter how tired, he had to attend.  

“SoliSoliSolei, Lily, wait for me!”  

Seisil dressed up and headed to the location written on Solei’s invitation.  

***

If someone asked Ethea to name something she’d never experienced in her life, she could list quite a few.  

Parties, travel, pajama parties with a few friends her age, romance, winning the lottery…  

Of all those, the one she wanted most and could easily do was a party.  

When she was young, her family was stingy about parties, and because her fake father disliked fun, it was hard to attend others’ parties without feeling awkward.  

But now, there was no reason not to. And she had the perfect excuse: her son Gin’s birthday!  

Determined, Ethea decorated the house and yard with the help of some temporary workers she hired that morning, turning everything into a party scene.  

Ten brightly painted rocking horses waited for the children in the yard, a cute whale spouted chocolate from a fountain on the central table, and the table was loaded with food kids liked. Feathers, pearls, and water droplets floated in the air thanks to illusion magic, and above all that, hexagonal stars shone in rainbow colors high in the sky.  

Of course, compared to other children’s birthday parties, this was modest. Since Seisil Lint became Mage Tower Master, magic education had expanded and many could use lower-level magic. They took up small jobs using magic, and soon it became trendy to create party atmospheres like this. Parents who weren’t short on money competed to throw even more extravagant birthday parties to show off their love for their children.  

If she wanted, Ethea could have made it even more lavish, but she wanted to avoid standing out too much.  

Anyway, all this was possible thanks to the child support Lyle provided.  

“Gin, happy birthday. Thank you so much for growing up healthy until you turned six.”  

“Thank you for raising me healthy, Mom. And I’m happy you threw a party!”  

Not only Ethea, but Gin had never had a birthday party before. For the first time, Gin was the star of his own party, and he was so happy it was like receiving every miracle in the world. Maybe after the Imperial Palace experience, these days were the happiest of Gin’s life.  

There were more guests than expected. Ethea had only invited Solei and Lily, and a few families of boys Gin often played with, but guests brought other guests, so there were many people she didn’t know.  

“Etty, I thought you hated parties since you never threw one, but now that you did, you did it as well as anyone. I’ve been bored lately, so this is great. I’ll have fun.”  

“Enjoy yourself, Mari. By the way, have you seen Solei?”  

“Solei said she had to go greet someone.”  

“Who?”  

“I don’t know. She said she had a guest she invited separately.”  

Ethea shook her head thinking of Solei. Gin was supposed to be the star, but Solei seemed the busiest inviting people. Of course, on days like this, it was better to have too many people than too few, so it wasn’t really a bad thing.  

Just as Ethea was about to drink some lemonade, Gin came up to her.  

“It would be nice if Grandpa could come today. Right, Mom?”  

Ethea was troubled. Gin believed Grandpa had gone on an endless journey for alchemy. She’d hoped he wouldn’t ask again, but here he was.  

If Gin kept asking for Javir like this, it would be a problem.  

“Mom, what do you think Grandpa is doing now? Where is he? Won’t he send a letter?”  

‘Why does he keep looking for a grandfather who never even liked him? Well, with so little family, I guess it’s understandable.’  

Ethea worried that Gin’s longing for Javir wasn’t just because he was Grandpa. It seemed Gin liked him more because he was an alchemist, but Ethea wished Gin would pay as little attention as possible to alchemy and anything related to it.  

“Gin, let’s just focus on the party today?”  

“Okay, I will! And this cupcake is so good. It’s the best I’ve ever had!”  

‘Right, right. This is all thanks to child support. On days like this, I could use the best bakery without worrying about money… Sigh. Spending money feels so good, maybe I shouldn’t have told Lyle not to give so much child support? Seeing this, maybe I’m just a materialist after all. Wait, who’s that?’  

Ethea saw a man among the guests.