Chapter 74
The moment she saw his face, Elisha’s heart plummeted.
‘Christian, why is he here…?’
Elisha’s bewildered eyes went from Christian to Leon, who was sitting in front of him. He was looking down at the child in front of him coldly, wiping off the soil that Leon had left on him after their collision. But luckily, he didn’t seem to recognize the child.
‘No, that’s a relief.’
How dull of a man you must be to not recognize your own son even when he is right in front of you? However, Christian, who didn’t know the truth, looked at Elisha and Leon alternately and raised his lips slightly. Then, he contorted his face into a smirk and poured abusive language on Leon.
“Hey, kid, if you bumped into someone, you should apologize. Doesn’t the temple teach you things like that?”
“I, I’m sowwy…”
“What with the white clothes anyway? Do you know how expensive these clothes are? A garment worth hundreds of times the price of your life.”
Scared by Christian’s fierce momentum, Leon just trembled and couldn’t answer anything. Christian, as if annoyed by such a scared appearance, kicked Leon’s small foot. It wasn’t a strong blow, but it was enough to frighten the child. Leon trembled and pulled away his feet.
“This is why things like this shouldn’t go around without parents. They don’t have home education. Home education.”
“…”
“How can they make such a donation to raise these stupid things and use them to do any actual work…? tch.”
Christian’s gaze was fixed on Elisha, who was approaching him. Those words were not actually for Leon, but to her, an orphan. Furthermore, it was slander directed at Richard, an illegitimate child. Elisha blocked the distance between Leon and Christian and stood facing him. Looking at him with cold eyes and a smile in her mouth, she said,
“It is still too much to say to a child, Your Highness.”
At Elisa’s appearance, Christian snorted.
“Well, look who it is? Aren’t you the Duchess Rubellin, who has a lot of compassion for these beggars and makes donations?”
At his words, Elisha understood why he was there. When Rubellin publicly started donating to the temple a while ago, the Imperial Family, who paid attention to their outside appearance, decided to donate to celebrate the founding of the Empire. Christian probably went to the temple to promote his external image. Of course, this annoying schedule went against Christian’s will.
He looked down at Elisha’s stomach and groaned as if he suddenly remembered it.
“Ah, right. Those kinds of harsh words are bad for pregnancy. I forgot, I’m sorry, Duchess.”
He didn’t look sorry at all.
“Then why don’t you move away, Duchess? I must scold this child who dared to dirty the crown prince’s clothes with soil and damaged my image.”
“I’m going to apologize for this.”
Elisha, who was thinking of a way to solve this situation, bowed her head. It wasn’t something to bow for, but it was Leon’s fault anyway, and above all, she knew that the more Christian talked, there would be more hurtful words that would be poured out on Leon. It was a solution that she came up with considering the situation. She wanted this conversation to end with Leon not being too hurt as the top priority.
“Please forgive this child with a generous heart, and leave the child’s discipline to me. I will take responsibility and Your Highness’ clothes will be compensated for by house Rubellin.”
Even though Christian treats men very harshly, whenever a woman bends over first in apology, he would be surprisingly satisfied with it and tend to back away. He seemed to be immersed in his own delusional image of a ‘gentleman’. As Elisha bowed first, Christian’s momentum eased as she expected. He said with a cough.
“Ehem, these lowly things are a problem anyway. Since a foolish father and an idiotic mother met, such lowly-minded children are constantly being born and cluttering up the Empire. Tsk.”
He would have never even dreamed that the ‘foolish father’ he spoke of was himself. At Christian’s words, Elisha laughed. At that moment, Leon suddenly came to mind.
‘But it must be sad for Leon, who has memories with his mother.’
Elisha looked at the complexion of Leon who was hiding behind her. Contrary to her expectation that he might cry, Leon seemed fine. However, now he was staring at Christian. Both of his eyes gleamed too vividly. At the same time, a spark ignited from the little hand of the child. Elisha’s eyes, looking at the flame, widened out of fear. Even if Christian didn’t recognize his son, he would definitely know what the flame meant.
“No, Leon!”
Elisha hurriedly grabbed Leon’s hand. Even before calculating that she would get hurt by the fire, her body moved instinctively. Without even having any time to check her hand, she looked back at Christian. Fortunately, he was looking at them with dull and bored eyes, as if he had not noticed anything. She felt relieved only after seeing that. At that moment, Leon’s crying voice came out.
“I’m sowwy, Noona… because of Leon…”
“No, it’s okay, it doesn’t hur–”
Elisha, who inadvertently said so, felt something strange. She should have felt something since she put her hand on the magical fire, but surprisingly, she didn’t feel any pain at all.
‘Oh?’
There were no traces of burn on her hand contrary to what she had expected. There was just a little bit of water left. Elisha tilted her head.
‘What is this…?’
The moment she wondered about it, she heard a familiar voice.
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“You were here, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”
As she raised her head, she saw Aiden approaching this way. Aiden, who came close, quickly grasped the situation by reading the atmosphere between Elisa, Leon, and Christian. He spoke in a calm voice as always.
“I heard that you were looking for me. I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you earlier. If you had notified me in advance, I would have waited for you.”
“Well, thanks to you, I was able to see what the temple is like. However, the children in the temple must be disciplined more strictly.”
“First, let’s head inside.”
Aiden naturally glossed over Christian’s words that were pointing out Leon’s behavior and took him away. Elisha looked at Christian’s figure that was moving away for a while and turned to Leon. Only then did the child burst into tears. Although his first reaction at Christian’s words that were cursing at his mother was anger, it was obvious that he was still hurt. Elisha gently embraced Leon.
“Leon, forget everything that person said earlier. He’s such an idiot for saying that.”
“Uuuhhh…”
“But still, you can’t use fire on other people. Okay?”
“Sowwy… Leon made a mistake…”
Leon meekly admitted his mistake. Then he embraced Elisha and she gently stroked his head.
“Yeah. You don’t have to do that next time.”
Leon nodded quietly while still hugging her. Soon after, pointing with his small fern-like hand behind Elisha he shouted.
“Oh, mistoh!”
[tl/n: Leon doesn’t pronounce correctly the word ‘mister’ since he’s a four-year-old child]
Looking back, she saw a familiar figure approaching. A tall man with an appearance that shone brilliantly under the sunlight. It was Richard. A smile spread across Elisha’s face when she saw him.
“Did the meeting end early today?”
“Yeah, now the preparations are almost done.”
Richard looked at Leon, who was looking up at him with pleased eyes and stroked his tiny head.
“When I came in, I saw that Christian was here.”
“Oh, yeah. We just ran into him. Fortunately, he didn’t notice anything.”
“Mistoh!”
Leon circled around as if he wanted to cling to Richard’s leg, but he could not readily cling to him. It was because of the mud on his hands.
Noticing that Leon was hesitating because of the memory of dirtying Christian’s clothes a while ago, Elisha took Leon to the well.
“Wash your hands, Leon.”
“I’ll do it.”
Richard approached and took the bucket from Elisha, who was about to scoop water from the well. Then he scooped water and started washing Leon’s hands.
“Wash up thoroughly, kid.”
“Nngh! Like this?”
Elisha stared blankly at Richard washing Leon’s hands and face.
‘You look like a dad doing that.’
Although the way he touched the child was clumsy yet cautious, he had his own way of showing his affection. Her heart was pounding at his kindness. At that moment, Richard, who had pulled up more fresh water, approached Elisha and took her hand. She, who had been staring blankly at him while lost in her thoughts, looked back at him, startled by the sudden contact.
“You have dirt on your hands, too. I’ll wash yours.”
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“Ah… thanks.”
Richard held the bucket with one hand so that Elisha, who was pregnant, did not have to bend over uncomfortably, and he washed Elisha’s hands with the other. The warmth of a large hand stroking hers in the cold water was somewhat embarrassing. With her head slightly bowed, Elisha glanced up at Richard, who was busy washing her hands. At that moment, their eyes met.
‘Ah.’
Red eyes gleamed brightly in the sunlight. His gaze made her heart pound wildly again.
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