‘If he had truly decided that, he wouldn’t have tried to put on such a poor act in front of me.’

It would be good to know more precisely what scheme he was harboring.

If Albert had the ability to see clearly into his mind, he would have started nagging as he always did. ‘You’re going to inherit the throne. Forget about Duke Klaus and focus on more important matters.’

Recalling his brother’s voice giving such advice, Leopold suddenly thought:

Am I obsessing over Jürgen more than necessary?

Perhaps it was something he should just forget. As Albert said, maybe childhood experiences were things that should be left to flow away.

Is this hatred toward Jürgen?

No, Leopold’s thoughts were different. This was an emotion clearly distinct from hatred. Though he hadn’t put a name to it, it couldn’t be said that he hated Jürgen.

It was just that whenever he saw Jürgen, a desire that others would find difficult to understand kept weighing on him.

The heir who had strongly inherited the blood of the late Duke Klaus.

Though he was undeniably his father’s bloodline, to the point of being evaluated as the spitting image of his father, Jürgen constantly wanted to deny this fact.

Except for his appearance, he had tried to remake everything that constituted himself. Having watched him since childhood, Leopold couldn’t help but know. From his manner of speaking to his behavior, even down to the smallest preferences, Jürgen had tried to become the opposite of his father.

Watching this…… Leopold felt a twisted emotion growing within him. As Albert said, Jürgen had never directly wronged him.

But the problem was that he resembled his father too much.

Leopold was convinced. Though Jürgen might be a separate personality from his father, he was undoubtedly born as the same kind of person.

Although he tried hard not to resemble his father, it was as futile and vain an effort as a human wanting to become a different species. At least that’s how it seemed to Leopold.

He was not only the heir to the highest ducal family but also a man who would grasp the Empire’s military industry in one hand when the time came. His Majesty the King and the rest of the family wanted Leopold to get along well with Jürgen. That’s probably why they had often arranged for them to socialize since childhood.

He hadn’t harbored such feelings from the first time he met Jürgen. He and Leopold were just boys around ten years old, and Jürgen was merely a shy boy of the same age, nothing more significant than that.

But like Leopold, Jürgen grew rapidly with each passing year. The youthfulness disappeared from his face, and his once small hands gradually developed strong bones. As he began to take on the appearance of a full-grown man, Leopold increasingly couldn’t see Jürgen as just a young duke of his age group.

Jürgen, in particular, was a case of maturing faster than other boys. When he became almost indistinguishable from an adult, what Leopold saw was no longer the young duke he had known since childhood, but simply Duke Klaus.

Duke Klaus, who was so obsessed with women that he even abandoned his wife.

A filthy and vile man who, backed by his formidable influence and fearing nothing, eventually even laid hands on Leopold’s cousin.

The fact that he couldn’t escape from what he had experienced as a child was entirely Jürgen’s fault. Every time he saw him, the late Duke Klaus kept coming to mind. Each time, Leopold naturally had to recall the emotions he had felt as a nine-year-old child.

You can’t deceive me, Jürgen.

You can’t fool me twice. I know. You’ll eventually have to admit that you’re the same kind as your father.

There was no way he could deny the blood flowing thickly through his body and live a normal life. Just imagining Jürgen marrying a woman he loved, building a family, and living that life made Leopold’s insides boil.

Yes. There’s no way he can have a happy ending.

Not when he inherited that filthy Duke Klaus’s blood.

His appearance, which so strongly resembled his father, kept provoking Leopold.

What Leopold hated, to be precise, was not Jürgen but his dead father. He simply didn’t want to separate Jürgen from the late Duke.

Perhaps he was pouring out his anger toward the late Duke onto his son, Jürgen.

Was that wrong?

To wish that Jürgen would realize his true self and eventually break? No, Leopold didn’t think it was wrong.

It couldn’t be that he had inherited only his father’s appearance. Jürgen must know it too. The fact that everything that makes him up resembles his father. That’s why he had to try so hard to change himself.

Every time Leopold saw Jürgen, he felt the same discomfort as looking at a puzzle put together all wrong.

He wanted to fix what was wrong. If it couldn’t be fixed, wouldn’t it be better to break it and clear it away?

It seemed that only by seeing Jürgen acknowledge his essence and destroy himself would Leopold finally feel at ease. Yes, he had to break. He had to transform into an even more hideous being than his father and meet a tragic death.

He had heard that the late Duke Klaus’s deathbed was peaceful. Undeservingly so. How dare he.

So Jürgen had to do it in his father’s place.

You know it too.

That you were born as a man who wants to freely wield women.

How long does he think he can deny it? The blood he inherited so strongly couldn’t just disappear.

Just look at the woman Jürgen was keeping by his side right now. Seeing that he still hadn’t let go of the mistress his father had played with for five years, anyone would have to admit that Leopold had been right from the beginning.

No, it was bound to end that way.

He would set everything right.

He planned to watch from a distance as Jürgen eventually fell, and then inherit the crown from his father.

He had no intention of inheriting the throne until he saw Jürgen of House Klaus fall. He couldn’t ascend to the throne of the king with twisted emotions like black, settled dust.

Before sitting in the seat representing the Empire, he had to finish everything.

While it would be good to see Jürgen’s downfall, sometimes he thought it would be even better if he could ascend to the throne by stepping on his corpse.

Diez Schleicher was a woman who would be an important key for him.

After thinking for a moment, Leopold picked up the receiver again.

Soon, a staff member answered the phone.

“How may I assist you, Your Highness?”

“Send room service to room 314. Something like fruit or simple refreshments. When it’s ready, stop by my room first. I want to include a note.”

“I will do as you command.”

There was no way to know what was happening inside the room right now, but there was no need to be impatient. Soon enough, everything would be revealed before him.

Leopold waited.

Waiting was one of the things he did best.

Young Leopold had been excited since early morning. It was because he had received special news just the day before.

‘Prince, Lady Holzweil will be coming tomorrow. It seems she knows how much you’ve been missing her.’

Elisabeth was none other than Leopold’s cousin for whom he had deep affection for. With a significant age gap, she had been especially fond of him since he was very young. Sometimes, he liked Elisabeth even more than the wet nurse who had raised him by directly breastfeeding him.

Waking up early due to excitement about Elisabeth’s visit, Leopold began to plan his day with an elated heart.

What should I play with big sister?

Of course, none of the family members surrounding Leopold disliked him, but he came to particularly follow Elisabeth because of something that happened when he visited her villa not long ago.

‘The Prince wanted so badly to swim….’

‘And you submerged a child in water in this weather? You should have stopped him and brought him back!’

It was the beginning of late autumn, a time when trees were gradually revealing their bare forms along with accumulating fallen leaves. Insisting on playing in the water because he thought he wouldn’t be able to play in it once winter came, Leopold ended up catching a cold.

Elisabeth never left Leopold’s side and nursed him with the utmost care. She mixed his favorite strawberry syrup with fever reducer to feed him, and stroked his head, comforting him that he would get better soon, so he shouldn’t worry.

Lest Leopold get bored, she also read interesting books to him by his side. And when Leopold started to doze off, she would gently whisper in his ear and kiss him.

Sweet dreams, my baby prince.

Elisabeth was almost the only one who indulged his childish whims. Unlike his wet nurse, she didn’t tattle to his mother even when he made mistakes.

To Leopold, the eldest among his siblings, Elisabeth was an older sister he could lean on as much as he wanted, and she was more special to him than anyone else.

One day, he even said something like this to Elisabeth:

“Big sister must be an angel who came down from heaven.”

Elisabeth burst into laughter and hugged him tightly in her arms. Young Leopold thought while in her embrace:

It would be nice if Elisabeth could live with us in the palace too. Surely Father wouldn’t object either. Because she’s an angel. No one would dislike living with an angel.

Of course, Elisabeth never came to live with him, but instead, Leopold often visited the villa where she occasionally spent her vacations.