Riley’s expression crumpled and she pushed out her lips.

Why would he go and tell him all that.

It seemed Jayden, having seen Riley attend a few meetings with Parnelli about the renovation work, had given out her whereabouts without a second thought.

What came out of Parnelli’s mouth next was even more remarkable.

“He also told me you were actually a woman.”

Hah……

Riley squeezed her eyes shut.

……Jayden, you really can’t keep a secret.

She had grown fond of him over the years, and before leaving the palace she had quietly told only Jayden her secret…… and now he had gone and told everyone.

I really didn’t think he was like that……

Riley shook her head in resignation, then crossed her arms with deliberate composure and asked.

“So? What brings you all the way here? Didn’t we already settle on the floor tile color and wallpaper pattern for the garden room last time?”

But Parnelli grabbed Riley’s arm without preamble and looked at her with an intense, imploring gaze.

“……What, what is it?”

Looking at his sharp nose with rainwater running down it, Riley suddenly understood why he had earned the nickname ‘alabaster middle-aged beauty.’

He finally opened his mouth.

“You…… all this time, how hard must it have been, living alone in a woman’s body? Why on earth……! Why did you hide that from me too……!”

Oh.

Riley nearly let out a laugh and sincerely wished she had not just heard that.

What is this man doing.

Was he saying he would have treated her differently if she had been a daughter rather than a son?

But she was certain his manner would have been exactly the same regardless of her s*x.

A feeling crept over her that this man had some ulterior motive.

Riley narrowed her eyes, trying to read him, and Parnelli put on an expression full of remorse and moved to embrace her.

But Riley was not one to be easily handled.

She pushed the handsome middle-aged man away without difficulty and snapped at him.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Pushed back, Parnelli suddenly looked like the wronged party and even began to tear up.

He pressed a hand to his forehead, his eyes reddening, and spoke in a tone of lament.

“You’re right, it’s all my fault. The truth is, back then I didn’t have the confidence to take responsibility for raising you. I didn’t have the financial means either. But that’s not the case now. It may be late, but you need someone to look after you, Rauli. Blood calls to blood, they say, and I simply cannot leave you to live alone like this……”

“It’s Riley.”

“Ah, right. Riley.”

He went on with a tedious persuasion, saying that if she were registered as an adopted daughter of the Count of Radonel household even now, she could have everything and make her debut in society as a proper noble lady.

The rain poured down like a curtain around them, and Riley sighed, growing bored.

She had felt it before, but it was like standing in front of a wall that could not be reasoned with, whining at her endlessly.

“I belong to the Spencer viscountcy.”

“The Spencer family is already bankrupt! And what real benefit is there in carrying that name as an illegitimate child, when you can’t even reclaim the title?”

“Regardless. I belong to the Spencer family, which means I will not be taking the Radonel name.”

Riley was bewildered as to why she was having this conversation with this middle-aged man who still felt like a stranger, and in the middle of a downpour at that.

But Parnelli showed no sign of giving up.

“Please, Riley! Let me fulfill my duty and responsibility as a parent, even if it’s late. I’ll give you twice, no, three times what I failed to give you four years ago! I simply cannot go about my daily life knowing you’re living alone like this……!”

He pressed a hand to his forehead and went on tearfully about how a young woman living alone without a guardian could be a mark against her later in life.

But watching Parnelli’s performance, Riley could only marvel inwardly.

He really is an artist. The director of the Royal Arts Institute is quite the actor. He could go on stage.

Unaware of any of this, Parnelli pressed on with his impassioned speech, shoulders trembling for effect.

“I will provide you with whatever you need, and if you have any desire for further education, I will support that too. Your mother Mina had a hunger for learning. If you take after her, you’ll want to study more as well, won’t you?”

Despite Parnelli’s lengthy outpouring, Riley felt only tiredness.

The same thing again……

Deciding it was time to cut this short, Riley answered bluntly.

“I’m fine. Please don’t come here again.”

But the middle-aged man proved unexpectedly tenacious, and his lingering appeals continued.

The heavy rain soaked them both through in the meantime, and Riley kept Parnelli standing outside to the very end, refusing to let him in.

Just as coldly as he had turned away her first act of courage, four years ago.

After a full hour of pleading without achieving his goal, Parnelli had to climb into his carriage looking like a drowned rat.

He wrung the water from his lace-trimmed engageantes and sat in thought.

Why won’t it work.

Why won’t she be persuaded.

She looks like me, but she has her mother’s stubborn temperament.

Mina’s face, glaring at him when he told her to get rid of the child, overlapped with Riley’s.

Extraordinary. To think she really lived as a man all this time.

He smoothed back his blond hair, which he privately considered aristocratic, and continued thinking.

What to do?

Raul had been revealed as Riley, but the girl was clearly still the crown prince’s closest confidant.

He had been taken aback to hear she had recently resigned and left the palace, but he had also heard that His Highness still visited Riley frequently.

So Parnelli allowed himself to hope again.

In some ways, this was even more significant than when the child had been Raul.

Had His Highness known all along that she was a woman?

He could not know the full details of how Riley had come to be kept at his side, but what mattered was that he was still coming to see his daughter.

After picking up something the head attendant of Eli Palace had let slip in passing, Parnelli had sent someone to watch the area around the house for several days.

And the crown prince really was coming and going from this house every other day. Sometimes, it was said, he stayed the night and left the following morning.

To think that behind the unhurried, commanding stride of the crown prince, who had completely ousted Queen Fabienne and was now demolishing the anti-royalist faction, lay a secret like this……

Come to think of it, on days when an appointment with him had been arranged, His Highness had sometimes simply not appeared, as though he had forgotten……

Could it be……

Parnelli moistened his lips with his tongue, a little nervously.

Could it be…… are the two of them in a romantic relationship?

The heart of Parnelli, a man who had lived his entire life with social advancement and status as his sole purpose, began to beat faster.

Until now, even when he had thought Raul was simply a trusted personal attendant, he had considered making use of that connection. But if they were lovers…… the value of that connection would be far greater.

If he arranged for Riley to be registered as an adopted daughter of the Count of Radonel household and she then became the crown princess…… that was not an impossibility.

Swept up in a wave of elation, Parnelli exhaled deeply and nodded to himself.

Come to think of it, Riley is quite pretty, taking after me.

Those distinctive lavender eyes and brilliantly shining golden hair.

She had inherited all the charms he was most proud of.

The number of noble ladies and highborn women who had fallen for him over the years was considerable.

Riley, carrying his blood, would be no different.

Right, there’s every possibility.

Parnelli bit his neatly manicured nails with restless anxiety.

If this was a relationship with a shot at the crown princess’s seat, he needed to move things along quickly.

If everything went according to plan, he would become the crown prince’s father-in-law.

An unexpected windfall. A shiver of excitement ran down his spine.

That would open the doors of the political world to me with ease.

And that was not all. He might even be able to form a new faction.

The person he was counting on had not the faintest idea, but Parnelli went home turning it all over in his mind.