Choosing the Baby’s Father From the Following – Chapter 40

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 40

“Bu, but……”

The youngest princess was wearing a bright pink dress, the same color as her hair, and light pink shoes.

As lovely as a spring fairy alone, if mud got on it, it would be noticeable right away.

‘Why did he have to tell the youngest to go get the ball?’

Even without mentioning her dress as a reason, there seemed to be no need for the youngest princess to move.

She was clearly the smallest among them, and there were plenty of noble boys nearby who looked as strong as Ren or the Crown Prince.

The tallest princess intervened and pressured the youngest princess together.

“You said you wanted to join too, right? If you can’t do your part, I can’t play with you anymore.”

When I looked around belatedly, the other noble children were surprisingly laughing.

Ren looked at the Crown Prince, whom everyone at the banquet was praising.

He didn’t seem to be bowling with them, but he ignored the commotion as if he didn’t see or hear it, even though he was standing close enough to see and hear it.

‘Ah, my head……’

Perhaps it was because of the annoying situation, but his head was splitting.

Ren took a step forward without realizing it.

“I will.”

The moment he spoke, the headache became so severe that he felt nauseous.

He continued, trying to suppress the nausea.

“May I retrieve it?”

He knew very well that his mother had spent a lot of money on his first Imperial Palace banquet attire.

He felt bad about getting his clothes dirty, but he was willing to sacrifice anything if it meant ending this situation quickly.

‘Wouldn’t Mother forgive me if I used the excuse that I helped the princess?’

However, the golden-eyed princess snapped at him.

“Which family are you from? Are you daring to speak to a member of the Imperial Family first?”

“I am Ren Dapht.”

Ren replied, slightly regretting that he hadn’t just given in to the nausea.

“This is my first time at the Imperial Palace, so I didn’t know I shouldn’t speak first. I apologize.”

In fact, there is no such rule anywhere.

Ren had read about seven books on Imperial etiquette at his mother’s insistence and had memorized them thoroughly.

Then, the youngest princess caught his eye.

She was so pale that she looked like she was about to collapse.

‘This turned out to be a garbage banquet.’

Ren repeated what he had said, thinking that he really didn’t want to come back to such a banquet.

“Since I’ve already been rude, may I retrieve the ball?”

“Oh my?”

The first princess, who looked to be about Ren’s age, intervened again.

“This is a girls’ game. A true gentleman doesn’t interfere in girls’ games.”

It was the moment when the surrounding gazes swirled and scanned Ren.

Just as he was clenching his teeth to endure the rising nausea again, something strange happened.

“Eek!”

The first princess, who was standing right in front of Ren, was lifted into the air.

“Wh, what are you doing! You, are you a mage?”

Ren gasped at the same time as the golden-eyed princess questioned him.

‘Did I do that?’

He didn’t even think it was something he had done.

But as soon as he looked away, the princess who had been floating in the air fell to the grass with a thud.

“Aaaaaah!”

Ren couldn’t pay attention to the princess’s scream.

Suddenly, his vision was clear.

The surrounding wind, the surprise and fear of the children watching, were vividly painted as if he could grasp them.

He tried looking at the ball instead of the princess.

Then, the bowling ball that had been stuck in the mud soared into the sky and flew towards the princess’s head at a terrifying speed.

―Thwack!

The mud that had been on the ball splattered everywhere in a messy lump.

“Argh! You, you……!”

Thus, his ill-fated relationship with Princess Jenais began in a spectacular fashion.

“Your Highness, what’s going on?”

The Imperial Guard, who had heard the commotion, came running.

The most unfair thing in that chaotic situation was that the youngest princess, whom Ren hadn’t even spoken to, was the first to faint and collapse.

The pink dress he wanted to protect turned a miserable mud color.

“Lennie, what on earth have you done?”

Ren was severely scolded by his mother afterward, but the headache that had been bothering him disappeared that day.

The Emperor, who believed in meritocracy, substituted all punishment by immediately enrolling him in the Magic Tower, and Ren no longer had to attend unwanted banquets or learn the Seven Arts.

Because he was recognized as the youngest mage in the Empire.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

“No, I didn’t know. Are you doubting me now, Lu?”

I gloomily pondered the words Ren had left behind.

But if he really didn’t know, wouldn’t Ren have scolded me, saying my guess about the magic sword was absurd?

However, instead of denying my words, Ren comforted me.

‘He’s not usually that kind of a person……’

So, no matter how much I set them up as supporting characters, everyone here has their own life and personality.

‘Even if I don’t know it.’

And judging by the newly revealed diary entries from the past few days, Ren is far from being kind; he’s rather grumpy.

‘It’s no wonder Louise wrote a page of complaints about Ren every day she had ‘Basic Arithmetic’ class.’

Come to think of it, I haven’t checked the diary yet because he showed up so suddenly early in the morning.

I quickly opened the diary while Phoebe went to order breakfast preparations.

When I touched the pattern with my finger, a new diary entry appeared.

The Tower Master’s eccentricities are endless.

Since last class, he’s been staring at me for some reason instead of the professor, and it’s driving me crazy.

Then today, he suddenly asked me in the middle of class.

“Are you, by any chance, the youngest brat from the Imperial Family?”

He’s been sitting next to me for two weeks, and only now has he noticed my existence.

I couldn’t help but sigh.

I could almost hear Louise’s groan of agony, ‘I’m a member of the Imperial Family too!’

Before I could even feel embarrassed, he added another question.

“Are you old enough to be at the Academy already?”

So, even though the Tower Master realized I was a member of the Imperial Family, he continued to speak informally to me.

“You, don’t you know me?”

I think I was so flustered that I used honorifics.

“I know you.”

The Tower Master continued his shameless informal speech.

“Really? Who am I?”

“You’re the Tower Master of the Empire, Ren Dapht.”

For some reason, the Tower Master looked disappointed at my stupid use of honorifics.

“The Tower Master of the Empire, Ren Dapht……”

He chuckled bitterly, repeating his own name, which no one in the entire Empire would be unaware of.

“Yes, I’m Ren. Talking to you, little brat, isn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.”

I still couldn’t understand most of what he said after that.

I just felt keenly that I was an incredibly easygoing member of the Imperial Family to everyone.

As I read the diary over and over again, I realized something.

‘It seems Ren knew Louise from the beginning.’

Then, did he know about the magic sword from then?

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

At dawn on the same day, Lurik had trouble sleeping.

“But now that we’ve taken over the entire upper Dunez River, I’m starting to covet the Whitney plains.”

The Empress, who was chatting leisurely.

“If the youngest gets married, Lurik won’t be able to stand being lonely.”

The Crown Prince, who chimed in thoughtlessly.

The unsettling things that had to be covered up because Louise had collapsed kept gnawing at his nerves.

There was no reason to discuss war with those who didn’t know the smell of death and the bitter emptiness, but he wasn’t magnanimous enough to sleep soundly after hearing such things.

“My son, expand the name of Brentania.”

When he became a commander at the age of seventeen, his father had said those words to Lurik.

Lurik was happy to win that war.

He felt like he finally had the full name of Brentania, after being only half a person.

At nineteen and twenty-two, when he won battles, he didn’t throw up at the sight of blood.

Perhaps because it was disgusting, his joy diminished.

The name was heavy.

At twenty-four, the Emperor’s goal when he ordered another war seemed difficult to achieve.

But his father added,

“This is the last one. When you come back, you should start a family too.”

When did it start? When he looked down at his hands, his vision was red.

The dream of having a peaceful family like others was new to him, considering his current state.

But he also had someone he wanted to protect.

‘Louise.’

The nobles praised him to his face, but behind his back, they whispered that he was a war maniac.

He didn’t understand why they gave him that nickname instead of the one who ordered the wars, but anyway.

However, he couldn’t give up on his only younger sister, who had become distant during his life as a war maniac.

“If the youngest gets married, Lurik won’t be able to stand being lonely.”

If he wanted Lurik to continue fighting on the battlefield in his place for the rest of his life, Crown Prince Hart shouldn’t have spoken Louise’s name so carelessly.

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