29

Enormously, considerably, very much, and quite seriously sulking.

No matter how long he waited, there had been no word from his grandson.

He had raised the boy with nothing but indulgence, being his only one, and now the child had clearly lost all sense of propriety. Either that, or getting married had made him forget his grandfather entirely.

The latter was just something he said, really.

Zayed hadn’t been in touch because he was an insolent brat, nothing more.

Sitting in Belladio’s private reception room and stewing in his displeasure, Gillian erupted the moment his grandson walked in.

“You insufferable boy! Should I have to learn of my own grandson’s marriage through a gossip sheet!”

“Is that why you came all this way?”

“Yes! You marry in secret like a thief, send papers off to the imperial household, and think that’s the end of it? What becomes of this grandfather’s dignity? To marry without so much as an introduction!”

Of course, it had been Gillian himself who had urged Zayed to marry and have a child.

But that was no reason to rush into a marriage like this.

He had received reports that Zayed was treating some young lady with care and had even brought her into Shell House, but until now Gillian had assumed it was all a performance.

Zayed was someone who, by nature, didn’t know how to love.

Something had been broken in him from birth.

He had lurched along like a carriage missing a wheel, never quite moving properly.

His power was immense, but there was no bridle to control it, and no one who could rein him in.

That was only natural.

How does one stop a storm?

The answer with a natural disaster is simply to wait for it to pass.

Gillian was the one who had coaxed and soothed and taught that boy, who understood nothing of human hearts, until he at least appeared to function normally.

And as Zayed’s sole confidant and the one who had raised him, Gillian knew.

He knew his grandson had brought someone along to get out of an immediate situation.

“So then, where is my new granddaughter-in-law?”

A calculating person like Zayed would never have brought just anyone. He wouldn’t have handled the matter carelessly either.

But no matter how much he had dug, there was nothing to find. Not a speck of dust.

All he heard was that Zayed had finally gone and lost his mind, acting like an entirely different person.

That was why Gillian, who had intended to sit at home and wait in comfort while listening to his subordinates’ reports, had been compelled to make the journey himself.

“If you’re going to say unnecessary things, I won’t let you meet my wife.”

“Now, this boy.”

“She is not in good health. Please refrain from lecturing her. If you must, at least give her a house first.”

“My goodness……”

Gillian blinked at his grandson’s response.

Zayed, this Zayed, was behaving as though he had actually fallen in love?

‘That can’t be right.’

Gillian looked Zayed over with eyes growing more suspicious and more puzzled by the moment.

‘Hmm. His face does look more radiant than before. But I was told she was a recessive, so how he can look this well is beyond me.’

With no purification ability on her end, Zayed’s expression should have been haggard by now.

When the poison accumulated, shadows formed under the eyes, and at the limit, a dark, oppressive aura seeped from the entire body.

He should have been radiating an edge sharp enough to cut at a touch……

“How do you do. My name is Elia Histria.”

It was then.

The woman who had been hidden behind Zayed stepped forward.

“I should have greeted you first. I’m sorry.”

The woman’s eyes were a calm shade of green.

The way she held both hands neatly in front of her, and the quiet, measured way she spoke, were immediately pleasing.

Just looking at her face, he felt he already knew what kind of person she was.

But Gillian tried not to let on that he was pleased.

He simply cleared his throat. Ahem, ahem.

“So you’re my new granddaughter-in-law.”

“Yes, Grandfather.”

The greeting ended there.

Because Zayed abruptly cut in.

“If you have things to say, please say them separately. My wife needs to rest.”

“My goodness. Can’t we even share a cup of tea, you boy. I’m hurt.”

“You should have made an appointment before coming.”

Zayed was impenetrable.

Watching him cut things off with that cool, needle-proof expression, Gillian felt genuinely wounded.

He had come all this way!

Surely the boy could share one cup of tea with an old man!

His mood, already sour, was souring further when Zayed added a passing remark.

“She’s been pushed too hard for days. She’s probably on the verge of collapse, tch.”

His tone seemed to be blaming Gillian, but the content was what mattered.

His ears pricked up, and Gillian looked back and forth between the two of them.

“That shouldn’t be possible……”

“It was possible. So let’s speak separately. Esteemed Grandfather.”

Gillian nodded, slightly dazed.

For now, it seemed best to hear his grandson’s explanation.

***

“What! A recessive managed purification?”

A short while later.

In a soundproofed private room within Belladio, the two sat facing each other.

Zayed subtly narrowed his brow at the voice booming like thunder in the small space.

“Something like it. Calling it purification doesn’t quite capture the feeling…… it was more like a sense of fullness. Or that my body felt lighter.”

“You do look it.”

“I’ve been wondering if this might be the power of love.”

Ah, that was a lie.

But Zayed told it smoothly, without so much as wetting his lips.

He then watched his grandfather’s expression, and caught a faint but visible flicker.

“So…… you’re saying you’re truly in love. You.”

“What did you just see and hear? I’m worried you might be losing your faculties.”

“There’s nothing you won’t say, hahaha.”

Gillian laughed hollowly, and Zayed settled into an arrogant posture.

“Well?”

“What?”

“Did I not say I would fall in love within three months? And so I have.”

Gillian was briefly at a loss for words.

Then, gradually, he began to understand something. Something that young Zayed, still so young, could not yet see.

No matter how well one performed being in love, being devoted to a wife, treating her as precious, there were things that could not be hidden by performance.

‘A man who has truly fallen in love becomes a fool. He doesn’t carry himself stiffly like you.’

Gillian stroked his beard with a quiet laugh.

So what to do about this?

‘Shall I play along.’

Of course, if a recessive Quialaiser had managed to silence the monster in the abyss, that was a remarkable thing.

It completely overturned the established understanding that only a superior could do so.

And she had handled Zayed alone, not with several others.

Gillian knew his grandson took after him far more than his own son ever had. So he understood what his grandson was feeling right now. He understood it all too well.

‘For now, it’s an intense curiosity.’

Well, love did tend to start from exactly that.

Imagining his grandson crawling around besotted with his own wife suddenly put Gillian in a very good mood.

‘I don’t know where he found and brought back a girl like that, but it must be a contractual arrangement.’

Then it would end someday.

The eyes of the granddaughter-in-law he had just met held not a single drop of love.

If anything, Zayed seemed to be the one with more affection……

‘If this goes well, it might become the greatest lesson of my grandson’s life.’

Self-absorbed, answering to no one, living however he pleased.

Everything in the world had always gone exactly as Zayed wanted.

But a person’s heart is not like that.

Desperate for a single glance from the one you truly want. Pleading and begging. And in the end, going down on your knees.

Please love me. Please, just love me.

By the time he was reduced to that, Zayed would have grown.

“For now, congratulations.”

“Thank you.”

“But let’s see how long it lasts. Young love has a way of ending quickly.”

Having made his provocation, Gillian burst into laughter.

Then he turned serious.

“All this grandfather wants is to see the two of you living happily together.”

“Yes.”

“No matter how much I fought with your grandmother, I never once said I didn’t love her, or that I wanted to leave.”

Once the old man started talking about his late wife, there was no end to it.

Knowing this, Zayed let it go in one ear and out the other and thought about other things.

For instance……

Was Elia sleeping well. What was she doing.

He was worried she might have worn her body out. Should he get her something restorative to eat.

She was a wary cat who wouldn’t even eat snacks properly when he wasn’t there, so he needed to get back and look after her.

When would Grandfather stop talking.

He was somewhere around that thought when he looked up, and found his grandfather, who had apparently stopped speaking at some point, watching him.

“Tsk tsk. You’re not even listening to your grandfather anymore. If you’re that worried, go on.”