Chapter 89: Two Mothers

Bliss opened her mouth to properly understand Caelan’s words.

“You said your mother created this rose garden. But what do you mean by wanting to claim it?”

Though her question might poke at his pain, she couldn’t just stay silent. Now she wanted to know everything about Caelan.

“This rose garden was created by the mother who gave birth to me.”

Caelan’s eyes curved round, and the atmosphere seemed to soften ever so slightly.

“Whenever she had a hard time raising me, she would come here to plant seedlings, and sometimes we planted them together.”

At the thought of young Caelan, even Bliss couldn’t help but smile despite the serious mood.

“She said she planted more seedlings especially when I caused trouble. That’s how it grew this big.”

Bliss found herself looking around the rose garden without realizing it.

“You must have caused a lot of trouble.”

“Yeah. I guess I did.”

Caelan and Bliss both let out small laughs that gradually faded. Though it would be nice if they could keep sharing good stories, they knew the conversation ahead wouldn’t be so pleasant.

“Still, it became a beautiful garden.”

“Yes, mother’s devotion bloomed beautifully. When this rose garden became famous, my stepmother came.”

At Caelan’s passing comment, Bliss looked at him as if enchanted.

‘Stepmother…’

She hadn’t known Caelan had two mothers. Thinking this was where it all began, Bliss held her breath.

“My mother passed away before this rose garden became famous.”

“Caelan…”

Bliss placed her hand on his shoulder. Though insufficient, she wanted to comfort his bitter feelings. His sigh, almost about to break, reached her ears.

“As a condition for bringing in my stepmother, I received the authority to control who could enter this place. No one could enter without my permission. But she revealed her greed for the garden.”

His eyes sharpened, and the smile from earlier disappeared without a trace.

“She wanted to use this garden to solidify her position.”

While for Caelan it was a place filled with precious memories of his mother, she wanted it for show.

“After becoming the Marchioness and erasing all traces of my mother, she wanted this too. If I hadn’t received the authority, she would have claimed it already.”

Caelan’s gaze touched each brilliantly blooming flower.

“While trying to obtain it through persuasion and threats, she must have realized. That I would never open the rose garden.”

The conflict between his stepmother and Caelan seemed not limited to just the rose garden. Though they were talking about the rose garden, weren’t they actually in opposition over the entire marquessate?

“So she changed her approach. To get all the authority without needing my permission. She must have thought it would be possible if she became the owner of this family. Looking back, the rose garden was just an excuse.”

Caelan’s seemingly dejected smile carried the trials he must have endured. So it was indeed about the marquessate.

“That’s the story of my stepmother who wanted to possess the rose garden, and I’ll tell you one more thing.”

“One more?”

“Someone put poison in my father’s tea. And without realizing it, I served that tea to my father. With that, father passed away, and she kept claiming that I killed him.”

Bliss bit her lip hard to suppress a groan that was about to escape. He suddenly mentioned his father’s death while talking about his stepmother. Which means…

“I still don’t know who put that poison. Though I suspect her, she says I did it. That’s why I couldn’t send her away even after becoming the Marquis. Count Bonita noticed this and approached me. Saying he would take care of someone I didn’t want to see.”

Now she understood what circumstances were involved.

Caelan met Bliss’s eyes.

“I’m very familiar with suspecting each other. Since I’ve done it before.”

Bliss couldn’t hold back a sigh as she embraced Caelan.

“I’m sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?”

“We did the same thing, didn’t we? The time we spent suspecting each other must have been even harder for you…”

“Bliss.”

Instead of pushing her away, Caelan playfully patted her back.

“The battle of wits with you was… kind of fun.”

“How can you say that now?”

“It’s true.”

The slight tremors of Caelan’s laughter transmitted through their touching bodies.

“I thought being suspicious was tiring, but it was different with you. It was enjoyable thinking of ways to uncover your identity.”

“Haa. Alright. I suppose it’s better that it was enjoyable.”

As long as Caelan wasn’t too depressed, that was enough. Bliss closed her eyes and patted Caelan’s shoulder. So the reason he hated poison was because of his stepmother. She still couldn’t forget when he staggered with a pale face after discovering poison before.

“It must have been really hard for you all this time.”

Now that she knew what had happened, what needed to be done became clear. She needed to find Caelan’s stepmother.

Bliss didn’t let go of Caelan for a long time. Until he relaxed his stiffened body and eventually leaned completely on Bliss…

***

“We have one more thing to solve now.”

Bliss acted as if she had found an exciting toy as she spoke to Echo, the fox who had appeared suddenly. Echo knew that those words hid her completely darkened inner feelings.

“You have a lot to do.”

“We do. There are more people who don’t have good feelings toward us than those who do.”

Duke Blast, Viscount Leonard Jimilta, Latte, and now the stepmother too.

“So we need to move quickly,”

Bliss suddenly grabbed Echo and met his eyes.

“Together.”

Echo snorted at Bliss’s firm tone.

“You could at least try to hide your intention to use me.”

“That’s impossible. How could I leave my most reliable ally who can read my mind alone?”

Bliss hugged Echo. Echo relaxed, understanding she meant to take him everywhere like this. If he had known this would happen, he should have come later.

“By the way, where have you been?”

“I was looking around because there were things to check.”

“What kind of things?”

Bliss asked while getting up from her seat, but Echo didn’t answer right away.

“There’s no use hiding it. The better we know each other, the more help we can give.”

“You have quite an interesting way of saying you want to use me more.”

“That could be true.”

Without denying it, Bliss placed Echo on a soft cushion. Then she pulled up a chair opposite him and sat down.

“I thought you’d be with Caelan…”

At Echo’s words, Bliss recalled what happened in the rose garden.

Caelan had taken a short but sweet nap in Bliss’s arms. After relieving some of his fatigue, he kissed her as a way of saying thank you.

“He went out. He said he was going to meet Count Bonita. So we need to move quickly too.”

“Where are you planning to go?”

“Rather than where we’re going, who we’re meeting is more important. I plan to deal with them one by one.”

Bliss seemed to be considering who to start with as she rolled her eyes around. Her finger pointing and lips moving slightly suggested she was listing names.

“It would be better to start with the easiest one first, right?”

“And who would that be?”

“Duke Blast.”

“…”

Echo buried himself in the cushion. Pretending he hadn’t heard Bliss’s words.

***

Early in the morning, Bliss entered the imperial palace carrying Echo and went straight to find Princess Jasmin.

“It’s amazing no matter how I look at it. How did that dagger turn into a fox like this?”

Princess Jasmin gently stroked Echo’s back. Muttering about how soft he was, she eventually picked Echo up and placed him on her lap. Princess Jasmin, who had been pondering the conversation she just had with Bliss, tilted her head.

“But why do you want to tell Duke Blast about Echo’s identity?”

After examining Echo for a while, Princess Jasmin looked at Bliss with question in her eyes.

“Because I think that will bring closure.”

Bliss watched Echo, who was yawning on the princess’s lap, as if finding him cute. Perhaps because he had been with Princess Jasmin before coming to her, he wasn’t uncomfortable with her. He even seemed to enjoy her subtle back stroking.

“Please arrange a meeting with Duke Blast.”

That was the reason Bliss had come to Princess Jasmin with Echo.

“That won’t be difficult. As it happens, Duke Blast’s wife has been very curious about the relationship between Karhen and me.”

Princess Jasmin smirked.

“It seems she wanted to match me with her son. So she wants to see if things are really good between Karhen and me, we can use that.”

It was unexpected. As Bliss just moved her lips without speaking, Princess Jasmin asked casually.

“I’m a princess favored by His Majesty the Emperor. Isn’t it natural they’d want me as family?”

She was openly talking about being favored.

“We need to call Karhen to show the Duchess… Will Marquis Adrian be called too?”

“That would be good.”

She had originally planned to move alone, but her mind changed. As Bliss’s eyes sparkled, Princess Jasmin laughed as if she couldn’t help it. She didn’t realize she was showing the same gleam in her own eyes.

With Princess Jasmin’s drive, the meeting was quickly arranged.