Chapter 5

Edward Wale’s office was located on the top floor of the Rettrang Wale Hotel.

He was a man whose boundaries between work and rest were always blurred, so to solve both work and residence at once, he had the entire top floor of the hotel remodeled into an office and personal suite.

It was far too perfect and luxurious to merely be called a residence—it was a true mansion.

Whenever work ran late, he would often sleep at the hotel instead of returning to his family’s ducal residence, and lately, he spent even more nights at the hotel, going to the mansion only once or twice a month.

When he slept at the hotel, his working hours started much earlier. That meant James had to start work at dawn as well; in short, James had to go to work at dawn every day except for those couple of times a month.

But today, despite Edward having slept at the family home yesterday, James couldn’t understand why his boss was at the hotel from early morning.

“Wasn’t the report due today? At this rate, will you even be able to submit it before you’re fired?”

When did ‘by today’ start meaning ‘by dawn today’?

James sighed, but at least he’d started investigating Tertz right after parting with his boss yesterday, which was a relief.

He’d finished the personal investigation yesterday, so today all that remained was to research the newspaper company.

Compared to the subtlety required for personal investigations, fact-finding about a business was much simpler.

After enduring several rounds of scolding for his slow progress, James finally managed to finish the report just before lunch.

It wasn’t a long report—everything fit within five pages.

“What’s this? The newspaper company has no record of paying taxes?”

“Their revenue wasn’t enough to require paying taxes.”

“Wow… Amazing. So why are they working? They did labor but produced nothing—how strange.”

Clearly, the only person who could hear Edward’s sarcasm and ridicule was James Wharton, who had nothing to do with Tertz, so James was baffled as to whom his boss was trying to impress with such harsh criticism.

“I was thinking of ordering a tax audit… but this is just… I don’t even feel like doing anything. They’re not just weak opponents—they’re on the verge of collapse. What’s the point of doing anything to someone who’s about to starve?”

James Wharton grew more and more dumbfounded.

Why was his boss acting like this?

What, was Gale Tertz really his rival or something?

James shuddered at the bizarrely unfamiliar sight.

Such blatant hostility was only ever directed at rival companies Edward was trying to crush.

It seemed that for the first time, President Wale’s interest, which had always been focused solely on making money, was now aimed at a person.

The problem was, the person Edward was so fired up about was a young man who had grown up like a real sibling with Diane Lina.

According to James’s research, Gale Tertz and Diane Lina were like brother and sister. Edward, however, seemed to have decided on his own that Gale was a rival.

Of course, relationships between men and women weren’t always what they appeared.

But even if they weren’t siblings but a couple, the one who should be angry was Gale Tertz, not Edward Wale.

It was Edward who was trying to suddenly intrude into a long-standing relationship.

After reading through the details about the Tertz Newspaper—more like a newsletter than a real newspaper—Edward started reading the back pages containing personal information.

Edward read the report silently, then suddenly criticized his secretary.

“You left out all the important things.”

“…?”

This time, James wanted to argue.

The report had organized all kinds of information about Walt Tertz, his son Gale Tertz, and Diane Lina: names, ages, hometowns, family relations, addresses, relationships, notable facts, physical information, everything.

He wanted to demand what exactly was missing, but since Edward’s criticism didn’t seem to carry any real irritation or anger, James held back.

“So the owner—well, more like the local newsletter’s proprietor—isn’t the son, but the father… Touching. Looks like three people shared a single bean. All in one house…”

Edward’s voice, which had been mixing ridicule and amusement, began to twist as he went on.

Clearly, something had seriously offended him.

The veins stood out on his hand clutching the report, and the paper was already half-crumpled.

“So that woman has lived with the Tertz father and son for fifteen years, since she was nine.”

“Yes.”

It seemed what really bothered Edward was the fact that they lived together.

“It wasn’t an adoption?”

“No. Legally, there’s no relation at all.”

Edward suddenly became very annoyed at the fact that their surnames were different.

Lived together…

In the same house!

But not adopted!

Two worlds apart.

If it had been an adoption, they’d have been brother and sister.

But since it wasn’t, strictly speaking, it meant a girl had lived with a boy of similar age for fifteen years.

No blood ties, no legal bonds, just the ambiguous label of ‘older brother.’

Edward recalled the scene of Gale Tertz calling Diane Lina ‘Anne’ and wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

Not as a brother, but as a man. Scoundrel.

If Diane, an orphan, started living with the Tertz family at age nine, then Gale Tertz, two years older, would have been an eleven-year-old boy.

Thinking that an eleven-year-old boy had any ulterior motives toward a nine-year-old girl was illogical.

But such reasonable thoughts never entered Edward’s head.

He was just angry that his ‘Crybaby Strawberry’—the girl who called him ‘Older Brother,’ called him ‘Prince,’ and was the only girl he’d ever kissed—had lived for fifteen years in the same house with a man who seemed like a thief.

She should have come to the Wale ducal family.

The fact that had driven him mad as an eleven-year-old boy still made him crazy fifteen years later.

* * *

Fifteen years ago, after visiting Lina Orphanage, Edward had begged his mother—who always did whatever he asked—to go back to the orphanage.

But right after that visit, the situation at the Wale ducal residence changed so dramatically that no one could pay attention to Edward’s request to be taken to the orphanage.

Edward’s mother, the Duchess, suddenly fell ill, and by that winter, she passed away.

Edward lost his mother, and in the house where the Duchess was gone, only the Duke and his two sons—three men—remained.

Edward was a child difficult for everyone, but the Duchess loved her youngest son Edward abundantly. So he couldn’t accept that she was gone, and he threw and broke everything in sight.

“Ed! Get a hold of yourself! Your mother is gone now! The only person who would always protect you no matter what is gone. You’re not a child forever! I’m not going to spoil you like your mother did, so from now on, behave properly like your brother!”

The Duke, strict by nature and wounded by the loss of his beloved wife, couldn’t comfort Edward and only scolded him for channeling his grief into rebellion.

“I don’t need a father! Go away!”

Edward shouted back at his father.

“How rude! How many times do I have to tell you to behave with manners!”

Despite his father’s scolding, Edward continued to glare at him.

“Didn’t you see the children at the orphanage! Kids with no mom or dad. If you don’t need a father, do you want to go to the orphanage too? If you have a lot, be grateful. Stop whining!”

The Duke, unable to handle the wounded child Edward had become after losing his wife, stormed out of the room in anger. Since his wife had always handled childcare, he didn’t know how to comfort his son.

Left alone in the room, Edward glared at the door his father had left through for a long time before suddenly getting up and leaving the ducal residence.

‘I never whined! I don’t have a mother, and I don’t need a father! Fine, I’ll just go to the orphanage!’

When the Duke realized too late that Edward had disappeared from the Wale mansion, he sent all the servants to search for his son.

Edward was heading to Lina Orphanage in Center Shire, but no one imagined that an eleven-year-old child could go all the way to Center Shire alone, so the Duke and everyone else searched Upper East and the nearby areas thoroughly.

By the time Edward finally arrived at the entrance of Lina Orphanage in Center Shire, after walking all day until his feet were swollen, it was already deep night.

Though most of his motivation was anger and rebellion against his father, Edward also remembered that his ‘Strawberry’ was here.

When he knocked on the orphanage door, all the children had already gone to bed, and Director Lina rushed out. She didn’t recognize Edward, who was standing in the darkness, covered in dust from walking all day, his face flushed from the cold wind, and his whole body frozen—a far cry from the ducal family’s second son who had visited before.

“I’m an orphan!”

And Edward just kept repeating those words like a parrot.