Rather Than The Son, I’ll Take The Father

Chapter 47

“Well that wasn’t your first time ever receiving a proposal, was it? Of course I know that it was your first time getting married, that you don’t have any children, and you don’t have any lovers. But there’s no way you couldn’t have been popular with women.”

“You were the first.”

“Why?!”

At his unacceptable confession, I sprung up my upper body.

What’s wrong with Aedis?

Aedis looked at me strangely.

“Should there have been others?”

Wait a minute…

-You know, I’ve been wondering about this for a while, but don’t take it personally. Do you have any friends?

-Of course I do…

-Not counting your subordinates…

-…He died decades ago. He passed me the Grand Duke title as his last gift.””

Suddenly, I remembered the conversation we’d had before and my thoughts became complicated.

I thought the limited human relationships Aedis had talked about at the time were simply about recent ones he’d had.

But what if it wasn’t?

What if it was in all 500 years?

“Aedis, how many friends have you had in your whole life?

“Enough to count on one finger.”

…Hold on, why are you proud to say that?

If his answer is true, it’s an insanely small amount of relationships compared to how long he’s lived.

“His past deserves to be called clean…..”

Did you live in a cave-like place before becoming the Grand Duke?

Although Aedis had a sense of pressure that made it difficult to make eye contact, it wasn’t like you couldn’t adapt to it if you made up your mind and tried.

It would be a little easier for knights who have trained their entire lives.

Procyon started to laugh pretty well in front of Aedis.

I, too, learned how to not be overwhelmed by the other’s momentum.

Although I was trained to be particularly intense, the successors the patriarchs chose had to master it.

Unless he was a tyrant or a homicidal maniac, the cave survival theory was influential.

Gilbert, who will become a tyrant in the future, also has a few friends and followers in the North and for 500 years, it’s possible that others have neither appreciated Aedis nor noticed his true value.

Even though I didn’t know much about Aedis’s past, I knew that he didn’t waste his abilities and that he was a rather thoughtful person.

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As if to confirm my guess, Aedis went on and spoke.

“I didn’t do much before you.”

The weight of his words was light, and they didn’t contain any intentions.

“….”

So why did they make my heart pound?

Aedis pulled up the blanket that I had kicked.

“Someday I may tell you more, but I don’t think today is that day, so go to sleep.”

I missed the timing to answer, so I laid back.

I’ve never seen Aedis asleep.

He always went to sleep later than me and woke up earlier.

Five days after coming here, he’s barely used the bed.

“Aedis, are you sleeping?”

“I sleep as much as I need.”

It seems that the necessary amount isn’t hours, but minutes.

“I’ve said it before, but if you’re uncomfortable, you can use a separate room.”

“Is that question for me?”

“Well, yeah?”

“I actually wanted to ask you, Eve, are you uncomfortable?

“I’m sleeping very well.”

If there’s a bed, I tend to be able to sleep well anywhere.

Above all, Aedis isn’t one to do anything while I sleep.

On the day we slept together in the capital, I seemed to have drooled a little on Aedis’s clothes, but he let it go without saying anything.

In 〈Esmeralda’s Crescent Moon〉, except for his self-assertion and excessive lack of motivation, Aedis was a perfect man.

So I couldn’t help but struggle with that damn contract.

I don’t like the princes and the other men who proposed to me in the capital.

Rather than breaking the contract at an astronomical cost, I thought I’d meet Aedis instead.

The man who had the most secrets in the novel.

In the novel, Gilbert described Aedis as an insurmountable, high wall.

And Regen, who was older at that time in the novel than he is right now, thought Aedis was like a sunset in the sky.

He’s disappearing right in front of you, but you can never catch him

So you would miss it, and he would just slip right through your fingers.

Regen had said in the novel that only Aedis was his father, but he couldn’t say that he knew him completely.

Hey, I should have read 〈Esmeralda’s Crescent Moon〉 to the end.

Aedis’s past, either in the final part or in a side story, would have been solved.

Maybe in the second half, the relationship between father-son would become quite strong, and Aedis would directly explain everything to Regen.

However, I wasn’t Regen, in a novel receiving a lot of buffs as the main character.

I don’t know if I could get to know Aedis little by little, but I do know that we’re going to go through a much tougher process than that.

…Even though we were married, the difficulty level was the highest.

I glanced at Aedis.

He said that someday he may tell me more, but all I saw was a face that looked like a masterpiece, someone with things that he never intended to reveal.

Next time, try covering this in the middle of the book. Any book I touch from now on will be read to the end.

I was in the middle of regretting the past when Aedis’s hand touched my forehead.

“I’ve also been sleeping very well.”

With a slightly late answer, he lightly swept the hair that covered my face.

He continued.

“Then there’s nothing wrong with either of us. Sweet dreams, Eve.”

“…You’re going to sleep already?”

I lay comfortably in bed and covered myself with the blanket, but for some reason, I just didn’t want to sleep.

Aedis ignored my question.

“It’s time to sleep.”

“I can’t sleep yet.”

“Close your eyes and say that again.”

I can’t sleep.

I closed my eyes disgruntledly.

…And when I opened my eyes again, it was already morning.

***

First of all, this was strange.

It’s not even the fact that I fell asleep as soon as I closed my eyes!

Aedis, who usually sent me to Sarah’s room every morning, waited for me to wake up today.

The moment I opened my eyes, I saw a face that seemed to be fascinated by just staring at me.

“Good morning, Eve.”

“…Huh? Are you not kicking me out today?”

“My wife said she’s not uncomfortable, so I have to prove that I’m not uncomfortable either.”

However, Aedis’s face was completely devoid of any sleep.

“For someone who took that decision on their own, you look like you didn’t get a wink of sleep.”

I just woke up and my voice was hoarse. Ah, I want to drink water.

“I’m not completely used to it yet, sleeping with someone else.”

“…Is that so?”

I answered a little late while looking for the kettle, but Aedis, who misunderstood it, added on to that.

“Apart from the matter of sexual needs.”

Why is the subject suddenly coming up? Am I mistaken or does Aedis want to pounce on me but he’s restraining himself?

I reassured him while pouring water into the glass.

“I understand, I didn’t take it the wrong way.”

I actively expressed that I had no intention of touching Aedis’s painful wound.

“It’s hard for you to have a child…you don’t have to explain each time.”

“No, it’s a constitution problem.”

“Right, it’s a constitution problem.”

“It’s not that constitution….”

Knock-Knock

“Your Grace, I brought washing water.”

It was Sarah’s voice. I looked at Aedis with a face, silently asking if he had more to say.

“…Tell her to come in.”

Aedis, who got up after washing his face, went to the private bathroom and then Sarah came in.

But she was with two other maids. The eyes that looked at me were full of curiosity.

It seems that the maid who came last night and saw us spread a rumor.

The maid was so scared at the time that she may have misunderstood and become worried, thinking that Aedis was trying to rip the skin off my face.

Still, the maids were not completely at ease.

Since this was originally Aedis’s room, they seemed to think that he might pop out at any time.

He’s actually in the bathroom. Sooner or later, I’ll have to point out Aedis.

It’s like I have to repeatedly say ‘he won’t catch you” and “he won’t hurt you”.

After saying hello to the gargoyle statue, I had breakfast with Regen as usual.

Stuck next to Aedis, I made a plan with the butler to visit the estate.

I was thinking of looking around in the territories that play a key role first.

I couldn’t be away for a long time because of Regen, my goal was to hunt beasts.

“The Lydia Estate is the warmest in the north. The plains and grains of this place are the pride of the Kallakis family. Also, in the Carmel and Hollow Estates, some mountains and lakes have old legends, so tourists continue to visit them steadily.”

The butler pointed to the map and explained.

“The last place I will introduce you to is the Rosa Estate. It is located near the Eire Forest. The Eire Forest is the only forest in the north, but I can guarantee that its size is comparable to the capital.”

Of course, the most important place for me was the Rosa Estate.

Although, I have a slight complaint about the owner, the Baron.

Baron Paisley had sent me a long, tearful letter asking not to meet Aedis because he would give half of his fortune.

What a wonderful attitude from someone called a vassal.