Choosing the Baby’s Father From the Following – Chapter 107

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟎𝟕

The question was slow but clear.

If he had to be asked, Callisto would welcome it.

So he answered calmly, ignoring the distress in Ernst’s voice.

“Yes.”

“……Yes.”

Ernst slowly nodded.

The doll-like, handsome Crown Prince forced a smile, his eyes creasing.

“Well…… I’ve been here too long, I need to go back to the Royal Palace for a while.”

His smile looked as withered as autumn leaves.

Callisto had always thought Ernst only wore a smile that captivated whomever he made eye contact with.

This was the first time he had seen such an expression on him.

“Please tell…… Lou…… that I’ll be back. She’s still having a hard time…… so don’t let her be surprised.”

Callisto finally asked bluntly,

“Are you coming back?”

Unexpectedly, Ernst didn’t hesitate to answer.

“Of course.”

He continued in a strained voice,

“Unlike you…… I’m Louise’s only friend.”

Callisto’s eyebrows twitched.

In his view, Crown Prince Ernst was a little different from the Tower Master.

Ernst was, after all, Louise’s longtime friend.

However, the reason Callisto didn’t pay much attention to Ernst wasn’t because he felt sorry for his hypocrisy of pretending to be a friend just to stay by Louise’s side.

‘I did it because I was afraid Lou would worry more if I hurt him.’

Callisto didn’t want to make their long-standing friendship a lie by saying there are no friends between men and women.

But he hated that Louise felt sorry for him and cared for him.

Pity is also a feeling.

If only he could receive it, Callisto would want to have even that for himself.

Suddenly, Ernst’s forced smile became natural.

“If Lou chose you, you’ll have to endure me as well. I promised her eternal friendship.”

There was no time to argue that what he had been doing so far was pointless.

Ernst turned around and quickly disappeared.

It was as if his goal was to avoid hearing anything more from Callisto.

Callisto shook his head as he watched him walk away.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Meanwhile, Ren was on edge all day because of the Magic Tower’s communication orb, which kept ringing incessantly.

His teacher’s condition was different from usual, and it seemed more likely to be worse than better.

Under normal circumstances, he would have returned to the Magic Tower immediately, but now Louise, who had just given birth, was still in pain.

And he was the only one who could help her.

Unable to decide what to do, Ren paced the hallway and absentmindedly looked out the window.

He then spotted the Flavi Royal carriage leaving the hotel in a great hurry.

‘……Erni?’

He tilted his head in puzzlement.

While he couldn’t even go to his ailing teacher because he was worried about Louise, it seemed unlikely that Ernst would suddenly return to the Royal Palace, leaving her and their newborn baby.

‘Unless a war has broken out, there’s no reason for him to do that.’

Under the Empire’s protection, the Flavi Kingdom was safe enough to be considered peaceful, so he couldn’t figure out why the Royal carriage had moved.

Thinking that Louise might be resting, Ren first went to the nursery.

However, the baby was nowhere to be seen in the room, and only the nanny was there alone.

She looked up at Ren and said as if it were nothing,

“His Excellency the Grand Duke just took the baby.”

Ren frowned.

“What? It’s unacceptable to hand the baby over to anyone who enters this place, unless it’s the mother or her maid.”

“I’m so…… sorry.”

The nanny bowed her head, looking apologetic, but carefully added,

“But he said she was his daughter, so I couldn’t dare stop him……”

The Grand Duke said Prillice was his daughter?

Ren was already on edge due to Louise’s pain and his teacher’s critical condition.

Hearing such absurd words in the midst of all this felt like fire was igniting in his eyes.

Ren left the room without saying anything to the troubled nanny.

As he walked down the hallway, fuming, he ran into Callisto.

He was with Phoebe, who was holding the baby, as if he had just shown her to Louise.

“Let’s talk.”

Phoebe flinched at Ren’s cold voice.

The arrogant Grand Duke gave a barely perceptible nod to Louise’s maid and walked ahead towards his room.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

“You claimed to the nanny that Prillice is your child. Is that true?”

“Claimed?”

Hearing him shamelessly question back, it seemed the nanny’s words were true.

Rage boiled inside him, but Louise and the baby’s room wasn’t far away.

He couldn’t cause a commotion.

Ren desperately suppressed the fire in his chest and calmed his voice.

“……We’ve been putting this off for too long. What on earth is your basis for claiming that Prillice is your child?”

“What a bizarre thing to say. The basis for saying Prillice is my child is because it’s the truth.”

The Grand Duke answered shamelessly and then asked in return,

“Have you ever spent a night with Louise? Even if you have, are you sure that’s the truth?”

“Sure?”

Ren laughed in disbelief.

“Do you want to die, Grand Duke? It’s just you and me here. Are you confident without your noisy knights?”

“Hey, Tower Master.”

Callisto called Ren in a voice devoid of any tension.

“I hear the Magic Tower has a lot of excellent mental magic potions. Have you ever tried any of them yourself……?”

“What are you talking about all of a sudden? What are you trying to say……”

That’s when it happened.

Among the many magic orbs Ren kept in his pocket, the red one began to ring.

Callisto also noticed it and said,

“A summons. What’s going on in the Magic Tower today?”

Ren sighed.

Despite having contacted them several times throughout the day, the fact that they were summoning him now meant that his teacher’s life was on the line.

He couldn’t say anything he wanted to say to the Grand Duke, but Ren gritted his teeth and shook his head.

“……My teacher is critically ill. We’ll finish our conversation after I return. Until then, don’t go around running your mouth to others.”

Callisto ignored his words and continued speaking his mind.

“Leaving aside your arrogant attitude, I’m also grateful to your teacher. If you need any help, anytime……”

“I’ll take care of my teacher myself. By the way, did Erni also return to the Royal Palace?”

As Callisto nodded again, Ren cursed under his breath and rummaged through his pocket, pulling something out.

“It has a protection spell on it, so make sure the baby wears it as soon as I leave.”

Then, before Callisto could answer, he added,

“And you, stay put here until I return. Even if the northern border collapses, stay here. I’ll send mages there if that happens. Got it?”

“What unnecessary worries you have. Go on.”

Ren responded to the summons with a frown.

Unlike his usual travel by black flames, a red light exploded.

After the Tower Master disappeared, Callisto, left alone, sighed.

“That idiot, just how long is he going to……”

They say there’s a fine line between genius and fool, and that must be referring to that arrogant Tower Master.

Prillice had pink hair like Louise, pale skin like him, and a prominent nose.

He never thought the Tower Master would insist that Prillice was his child even after seeing her appearance.

Callisto shrugged and left the room.

The necklace in his palm was very light.

He didn’t want to give his baby a gift from another man who loved Louise, but if that man was the continent’s greatest mage, it made him think twice.

‘Would she just think of it as an expensive shield……’

He could always pay for the necklace later.

In the end, Callisto headed to the nursery, holding the necklace.

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