Choosing the Baby’s Father From the Following – Chapter 45

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟒𝟓
On the last day of the Thanksgiving Festival banquet, Empress Dorothea visited Crown Prince Hart’s room.

Crown Prince Hart spotted the unfamiliar tiara on the Empress’s head and chuckled.

“Is that a gift from Babenberg?”

“Yes.”

The Empress replied with a displeased tone.

The tiara she wore was adorned with jewels crafted from magic stones, designed to emit a soft light even indoors.

Hart expressed a small admiration as he looked at the tiara.

“From that barren land, they manage magic stone crafting as well as the Magic Tower. It suits you well, Mother.”

The Empress clicked her tongue at her son’s naive words.

“Do you think that’s a luxury he can afford with his own money?”

The young Grand Duke, while extorting a huge amount of money from the Empire under the pretext of defense costs, would show off his wealth with valuable gifts whenever he had the chance.

The Emperor was inwardly pleased, saying it resembled a vassal’s duty, but the Empress thought differently.

‘Whose pocket is all that gold coming from……!’

However, Hart only giggled, seemingly oblivious to any seriousness.

“Still, it’s commendable that he shows his sincerity every time. Well, these days, it seems like he has other intentions.”

The Empress coughed slightly and lowered her voice.

“I’ve given it some thought.”

“Yes, Mother.”

“The Grand Duke is twenty-five years old. At your age, you were married and had a child.”

Hart shrugged.

“But the Grand Duke doesn’t have any family to nag him about marriage. He’ll only listen to his vassals with one ear.”

“But Louise, that child, is now twenty-four. If the Grand Duke truly has feelings for her, why isn’t he more proactive? Louise is also of marriageable age!”

“Well……”

Before he could finish his thought, the Empress spoke.

“I think we need to understand the Grand Duke’s feelings more clearly. If he truly desires Louise, we need to make him a little impatient.”

Hart laughed as if he couldn’t stop her.

“Mother, Chilla still has feelings for him.”

“Stop talking about Chilla.”

Her pride was already hurt by what she had heard from her husband.

The Empress cut him off sharply.

“You didn’t marry your wife because she was the most beautiful woman in the Empire, did you? How can the Imperial marriage be decided according to one’s own taste?”

Hart reluctantly nodded.

“Shall I find out if Little Sister has a deep relationship with the Grand Duke?”

“Yes. And create an excuse to summon Crown Prince Ernst of Flavi more often.”

At the Empress’s added words, Hart scoffed.

“Isn’t Crown Prince Ernst too weak to be the Grand Duke’s rival? Even though his background is a bit lacking, we can’t exclude Tower Master Ren Dapht when it comes to courting Little Sister.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

However, the Empress cut off her son’s words coldly.

“The Tower Master is eccentric and suspicious. Women, especially those who are neglected and lonely like Louise, are drawn to things that are comfortable and sweet. Where else can you find a prettier doll than that Crown Prince in this vicinity?”

Hart asked with a puzzled look.

“From a woman’s perspective, is he that beautiful? Sometimes, it seems like the maids don’t even breathe in front of him.”

The Empress laughed as if it was amusing.

“Actually, that’s true, my son. Crown Prince Ernst, how should I put it…… He has captivating eyes. Sometimes, it feels like he’s doing it on purpose, to the point that it feels vulgar.”

Hart, not fully understanding his mother’s words, replied.

“I’ll investigate the Grand Duke. I’ll also summon the Crown Prince separately and meet him.”

The Empress added a nagging remark in annoyance.

“Until when will you handle such trivial matters with my advice? If you’re the Empire’s successor, get your act together.”

However, perhaps because there was no significant competition.

Crown Prince Hart, with a relaxed face showing no signs of tension, only smiled leisurely.

“Yes, Mother.”

The Empress, seemingly fed up with his insincere answer, coldly left her son’s room.

🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹🔹

Meanwhile, Lurik stood blankly by the window, watching the procession of carriages carrying the external guests returning from the banquet.

―Offer victory to the starving sword!

Whenever he spaced out for a moment, the voice he had heard when he opened the book echoed in his head.

Of course, after visiting Louise, he realized that it was just an auditory hallucination.

Lurik believed it wasn’t his true intention, but no matter what he did, he couldn’t stop the voice.

‘It’s because of that book.’

He was curious about many things, such as the reason for the auditory hallucinations, the reason why it was shown to the Tower Master, and many other things.

But what he was most curious about was why that book, which was clearly related to ‘벨리흐 (Belich)’ to anyone who saw it, was never shown to him even once.

‘The Tower Master won’t open his mouth anyway.’

The Tower Masters were like the Emperor’s right-hand men for generations.

‘They swear on their lives to protect the Emperor’s secrets.’

So, even if the current Tower Master, Ren Dapht, was close to Louise, he wouldn’t readily reveal the things the Emperor had been hiding to him.

‘Then the only thing left is a direct approach.’

Lurik had already come to that conclusion a few days ago.

However, since the Thanksgiving Festival banquet was still in full swing, he finally had the chance to put his plan into action.

The Emperor would be alone in his office tonight, catching up on his backlog of work.

‘I wonder if His Majesty will hand over the book smoothly.’

Lurik visited the Emperor with such worries.

He even thought about burning that unpleasant book if his father handed it over to him, but the response he received fell short of his expectations.

“You want to know about the magic sword? What’s the matter all of a sudden?”

The Emperor chuckled as if Lurik had made an unusual request.

“What should I do about this? The early Tower Master did leave a book describing the simple usage of the magic sword, but the previous Tower Master took it a long time ago.”

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