Let’s Just Make a Child, Your Grace - Chapter 10 Part 3

This engraving was made using Ella’s unique technique, creating clean and elegant patterns with distinctive characteristics. Although ordinary people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference.

Cedric rubbed the engraving inside his magic tool ring.

‘It’s definitely made by Ella.’

Cedric’s eyes sank coldly. Just then, the butler knocked and entered.

“You said you needed strong alcohol, so I brought what you usually drink.”

The butler poured rivac wine into the glass. For a moment, Cedric’s eyes wavered.

“……Was this what I usually drank?”

“For quite some time now. Didn’t you know?”

“…I didn’t.”

Cedric tilted his head back and pressed his temples firmly. He thought if he couldn’t see her, it wouldn’t matter. But that woman remains everywhere.

Somehow.

‘Perhaps it’s fortunate we didn’t run into each other. If we had met……’

Cedric bit his lip. The butler, observing Cedric’s expression, carefully continued.

“As you requested, Lord Warren is here.”

“Tell Warren to secretly investigate everything about this cufflink. Tell him he can find out from Ella. I’m going to see Serena.”

As the butler bowed his head, Cedric picked up Serena’s medicine bottle and stood up. He tore the scroll as usual.

As the white light of the scroll faded, Cedric’s pupils slowly dilated.

The woman who had been turning his mind upside down all day was right before his eyes. And in her chemise, asleep. The sound of her soft breathing seemed so real.

Had he finally gone mad and started seeing hallucinations?

Had time stopped? Cedric stood there, staring at Arne.

The woman who had been stirring his thoughts all along was really there before his eyes. Had he truly lost his mind now?

Thud.

The sound of the illusion shattering was heard. As he turned his head, the old woman of the annex was looking at Cedric, having dropped her knitting.

Cedric usually visits Serena’s room very late at night. After Serena had a seizure following her protest to be let out, he would only come to see her sleeping face.

But now, it was still before sunset. The old woman of the annex hastily held up her notepad.

[I’m sorry, Cedric]

Cedric stared blankly at the old woman’s notepad.

It was neither a hallucination nor an illusion.

Cedric turned back to look at Arne. If it wasn’t an illusion, why was this woman in Serena’s room?

Cedric’s head tilted to the side as his red eyes gleamed sharply. His lips moved silently.

‘Explain.’

[Lady Serena invited Lady Ronia pretending to be you. I helped. I’m sorry.]

‘And?’

To the question of why Serena and Arne were sleeping together wearing only their chemise, the old woman rolled her eyes. She felt she absolutely shouldn’t mention that they had shared Cedric’s embarrassing stories.

[Lady Serena said she wanted to have a chemise party that’s popular among young ladies these days. But both of them weren’t feeling well while chatting, so they dozed off while resting.]

Glancing at Cedric’s expression, the old woman hurriedly held up her notepad.

[Should I wake them up?]

The old woman approaching the bed stopped in her tracks. It was because Cedric raised his hand in a gesture of refusal.

The old woman looked up at Cedric. His gaze was fixed not on Serena, but on Lady Ronia. It was a calm gaze, but beneath that surface, it was seething.

Cedric covered his face with his palm, then ran his hand through his hair, gritting his teeth.

The tense old woman clutched her notepad tightly, but Cedric merely sat down in a chair. He crossed one leg over the other, interlaced his fingers over his knee, and continued to look at Arne.

The knuckles of his interlaced hands gradually turned white.

Remembering what his grandfather had told him, he should have been angry. After all, wasn’t she the woman who ultimately chose Kale over him?

A woman who chose a peaceful life, fearing the weight of the Renigrad curse.

A woman who, despite Cedric’s dissuasion, stirred and shook up his mind as she pleased, and then ran away. A woman who made it impossible for him to even resent her freely because of the words she herself had spoken.

If she comes here and lies down so peacefully, breathing softly like that…

Cedric gritted his teeth.

He was angry, though he had no right to resent her. He was furiously angry. So mad that he thought he was seeing illusions.

But facing that face, he found himself laughing again, proving that he was truly out of his mind.

A self-deprecating smile crossed his lips as he covered his eyes with his palm. Even Cedric couldn’t understand himself. This had never happened before. Why now, when everything was already over.

‘Why on earth…’

Cedric, furrowing his brow, took a deep breath. His red eyes once again turned towards Arne, peacefully sleeping.

Her face, which seemed to have become gaunt and thin in the meantime, her left lip with scabs from being bitten repeatedly, and even her mana core showing its bottom.

The old woman of the annex glanced at Cedric and knitted silently. Unbeknownst to Cedric, he had been staring at Arne endlessly until the old woman had finished making a small coaster.

In that exact same posture, without moving an inch.

Although she had watched Cedric for as long as Serena, this was an unfamiliar sight. Cedric turned his head and handed the medicine to the old woman.

“I’ll come back.”

A low, sunken voice flowed. It was when Cedric, who had turned around, was about to tear the scroll.

“Cedric?”

His footsteps came to an abrupt halt. Cedric’s hand holding the scroll gradually tensed. As the sound of the scroll tearing again came from his whitened fingertips, Arne hurriedly jumped down from the bed.

“Ced… ugh.”

Having rushed out too quickly, Arne swallowed the name she was calling. Her knee hurt from the impact, but there was no time for other thoughts.

She had to catch him, she had to talk to him.

‘Ah…’

Seeing the familiar men’s shoes, Arne raised her head while still on the floor. Cedric, with a gaze colder and chillier than anyone else’s, was looking down at Arne.

Thump, thump, her heart beat.

Overnight, the temperature of his gaze had become like a mid-winter ice mountain.

“It seems an inappropriate attire, Lady Ronia, to be in front of another man, considering you’re soon to be engaged.”

“……”

It was a gaze so chilly it seemed it would freeze and shatter. It was a dry look, as if he was truly looking at a woman with a fiancé.

As if inhaling the knife-like wind blowing through a crevice in an ice wall, her lungs stung. It hurt.

Arne slowly got to her feet. His gaze lingered briefly on Arne’s knee before meeting her eyes again at the sound of her voice.

“The engagement you mentioned is not my will, and I’m not in front of another man but you, and I’ll dress appropriately now. So let’s talk.”

Arne grabbed Cedric’s hand.

“There’s a misunderstanding…”

But Cedric pulled his hand away from Arne’s. Arne froze for a moment. He had held her hand before, but he had never pulled away so coldly.

His chilly gaze moved from Arne to Serena, who had just woken up groggily.

Serena’s eyes widened as she discovered Cedric.

“Oh, brother, what brings you here at this hour? You usually only come in the middle of the night.”

“Serena, we’ll talk later.”

Serena gulped. Cedric would often indulge Serena’s whining with a pitying look, but a Cedric with that face was dangerous. Serena carefully continued.

“I invited Lady Ronia on my own. She only spent time with me because I asked. Don’t be angry at the Lady, brother.”

“……”

Arne, coming to her senses at Serena’s voice, clenched her empty-floating hand tightly and said,

“Just a moment. There’s a misunderstanding, so let’s talk for just a moment.”

“……”

“And with my current mana, I can’t leave this space.”

Cedric’s gaze fell on Arne’s mana core. An alarm rang in his unsound mind.

It was an end that would come eventually anyway. Perhaps he didn’t want to finalize it.

‘But I should wrap it up properly.’

Cedric nodded and held out the scroll he was holding.

“Get dressed and tear the scroll. We’ll talk outside.”

After finishing his words, Cedric tore another scroll and left. Arne stared at the spot where he had disappeared, clenching her fingertips tightly.

* * *

Cedric’s eyebrow twitched slightly at the sight of Arne’s black dress. It was the black dress she had been wearing when he first met Arne.

‘Was she so reluctant to wear even the dress I gave her?’

A cold smile played on Cedric’s lips. He ran his hand through his hair and looked at the sky that had already darkened. Then, looking at the black dress even darker than the sky, Cedric said,

“Let’s walk a bit.”

After finishing his words, Cedric started walking. Arne was out of breath trying to keep up with Cedric’s much larger strides.

Today, with so many things to worry about from the Duke to the Grand Duke, her mana quickly hit bottom. As her energy dropped, recovery was slow, making it difficult to handle the mana leaking from her still half-healed mana core.

Thanks to the nap she took on Serena’s bed, she was able to hold out until now.

“Ugh.”