Five or six years ago, was it? The memory surfaced of the day he had met Jade Camelot, who had been looking rather grown up by then.

Jade, being a Camelot, had at least the one virtue of a large frame. Larger than his own father, in fact, nearly matching Robert’s considerable size. His face was marginally better than his father’s. Still rough and plain, with an unmanly, brooding expression.

Yes, if one had to compare, Anton and Piar, who took after their aunt Anne, were a hundred, a thousand times more handsome.

The flattering portraits and glowing submissions that kept appearing in the newspapers were obviously exaggerated propaganda commissioned by Camelot.

“By the way, what brings you here? Could it be that the lord of Camelot is also here about the Grafa Bank matter……”

Robert was about to taunt him, asking whether he too had come to flatter the Emperor, when:

Thud, thud, thud.

Heavy, unhurried footsteps came from the top of the circular staircase that led into the corridor where the two men stood.

A shadow stretched long over Robert, carrying a weight that made him instinctively wary. He stepped quietly to the side and pressed his back against the wall.

“Have you been waiting, Father?”

Father……?

Robert glanced up at the man descending the stairs and doubted his own eyes.

“Prince Liber is said to arrive in about an hour. The chief chamberlain came to our quarters and offered to escort us to the hunting grounds first.”

Robert stood there with his mouth hanging open, staring at the back of the man who had just called Jean his father.

A perfectly shaped head with a golden halo of light around it. The bearing of a hero, no less.

A knight of breathtaking stature. A back as broad as Robert’s own, wide and straight shoulders, a neck whose proportions were in perfect harmony, a waist that unmistakably spoke of great strength, and on top of it all, a posture of effortless dignity……

Even his profile radiated a sanctity that rivaled the holy knight sculptures standing in the Emperor’s garden.

“Oh.”

The divine young man slowly turned around.

“Lord of Melos……?”

Robert found himself letting out a pleased little sound, almost delighted that this radiant creature had recognized him, and his nostrils flared.

He caught himself, cleared his throat, and composed his expression.

“Sir Jade…… is it?”

He had thrown out the name half in disbelief, and the divine young man gave a graceful nod.

“Yes. It’s Jade. It has been a long time, lord of Melos.”

The brief flicker of discomfort that crossed Jade’s face was gone in an instant. He spoke with impeccable courtesy. The way he dropped his family name and offered only his given name sounded almost warm and familiar.

“Ahem!”

Jean’s expression crumpled like a gorilla straining on a privy, which made it clear he had noticed his son being unnecessarily polite to Robert.

“Good to see you after so long, Sir Jade.”

Robert’s cheekbones rose high.

“Have you returned to the Empire for good?”

He attempted a conversation as natural as one with a neighbor’s son. Jean’s displeased face made it all the more satisfying.

“Yes. I’ve wandered long enough. I intend to focus on family matters from now on.”

Jade smiled a quiet, composed smile on that neat and handsome face.

“Mm. Good to hear you’ve settled yourself. Everyone wanders a little when they’re young.”

Robert was now freely speaking like a kindly neighbor encouraging a young man who had found his way. The young man standing before him after so many years had completely captivated him. So completely that the name Camelot was wiped clean from Robert’s mind.

He had the look of a man who would produce fine knight-born sons in his own image. Though of course he would need to find an equally sturdy woman to marry.

And by a man’s instinct, what was hidden beneath his trousers was surely no less impressive, so whichever lucky family’s daughter ended up as his wife would be a very fortunate woman indeed……

“By the way, my lord…… did you come alone? I hope your family is well.”

The warmth in the way he asked after them!

Even Robert, who was stingy with his praise of men, found the voice remarkably pleasing to the ear. He now had to concede that women falling helplessly for it and filling the newspapers with embarrassing eyewitness accounts and illustrations was simply a natural cultural phenomenon.

“I came alone today. As for my family, thanks to—”

“Jade.”

Jean cut in abruptly, his tone sharp.

“Let’s go. I’d like to prepare briefly before the hunting grounds.”

“……Yes, Father. Until next time, my lord.”

“Ahem!”

Jean clapped his son pointedly on the broad back and swept out of the corridor.

“Ugh……”

Robert watched the retreating figures of the Camelot father and son for a long moment.

More precisely, he watched Jade’s retreating back with eyes full of longing.

That warm young man had clearly wanted to speak with Robert longer, but had turned away reluctantly because of his wretched father’s interference.

Tap. Tap, tap.

Then the figure disappeared entirely, and the sound of rain beginning to strike the garden leaves brought Robert back to his senses.

Wait. What had he just said?

Thanks to, he had said.

Thanks to…… thanks to you, my family is doing well? Thanks to Camelot, Ordo is doing well……?

The self-loathing hit him late and hard. Robert clutched his own hair.

“Good grief!”

What had he been doing, grinning like a fool over someone else’s son?

“Good grief……”

And over the son of Jean Camelot, of all people. That hideously ugly man who had stolen Robert’s first love, courted her, and then, not content with that, abandoned her and married someone else. Over the son of that Jean Camelot……!

Robert cursed Jade and his entire family with every ounce of strength he had, silently and inwardly.

But the young man’s splendid bearing and serene smile, seared into his eyes, refused to fade.

Oh, how could Jean Camelot of all people have a son like that!

That was the son Robert had dreamed of his whole life.

A son with the face of a powerful god and a gentle heart……

The truth was that Robert had tried desperately to have a son after Rose was born late in life. It had not worked out.

He had prayed so fervently for a younger brother who would say I’ll protect my sister! and stand beside Rose as her heir. But it was not to be……

“My son……”

Lost in his own imagination, Robert felt tears prick his eyes at the pain of feeling as though his son had been born to his enemy instead.

“My son was born to that ugly gorilla……”

Those looks, that body, those proportions, they were clearly genes that should have been born to Ordo, not Camelot.

“Haah……”

Burning with injustice and grief, Robert wiped his eyes with his sleeve and stared out into the rain.

Come to think of it, young Jade had not looked brooding as a child. He had simply looked shy. That was it. If he had been born Robert’s son, that sweet-natured boy would have followed Rose around calling out Rose, Rose, big sister, and been thoroughly doted on by a loving older sister.

“Um, my lord?”

“Let us go home……”

He was desperately craving a drink. He was desperately craving Ordo wine, the very wine he would sooner see die out than have its name stripped away just to turn a profit.

Robert rode without stopping, driving his horse back toward Melos.

Night would come soon. When it did, he wanted to make a son. A son with a stronger body than his own and a gentle heart to match. A son good enough to respect and support his sister more than anyone in the world.

But if he were to come home now and announce his intention to try for a son, the most beautiful noblewoman in the Empire, Anne, would slap him across the face……

“My son……! Ugh!”

Unable to make sense of the longing he had buried long ago suddenly surging back to life, Robert howled like a beast in a fever and rode on through the rain.

❀❀❀

“What on earth is wrong with your father?”

Anne pressed one ear against the bedroom door and frowned.

“I really don’t know. What could have happened at the imperial palace……”

Rose stood beside Anne and listened to the sounds coming from inside the room.

“……”

From Robert’s room, only the occasional sound of something close to a sob drifted out.

He had returned from the imperial palace after two days. Soaked through with rain, Robert had come down with a cold he had never once suffered in his life and taken to his bed in a bad way. The worried family and the physicians tended to him with devoted care, but he lay on his side like wilted grass and showed no sign of getting up.

Three days had now passed.

He kept saying it wasn’t his body that was ill but his heart, and that was why the medicine wasn’t working.

“Ugh……”

Something had clearly dealt him a serious blow.

“My son…… my son……”

He was muttering nonsense at the ceiling, and at first Anne had gone white-eyed and demanded an explanation.

“Did you father a son somewhere behind my back?”

The misunderstanding was cleared up quickly, fortunately.

There had been a time when Robert and Anne had tried and failed to have a son. Thanks to Rose growing into a fine heir, both parents had set aside the sadness of having only one child and lived contentedly.