Episode 17: What is My Happiness?
Clattering, Clattering. The dining room of the Ludwig castle, with only the sound of spoons hitting the bowl, was on the verge of exploding with the strange tension felt between Kailos and Raymond.
“Why don’t you have the carriage ready in advance? It is already very late.”
“You don’t have to, brother. Tonight, I’m going to stay at the castle.”
Clank. Kailos stopped eating and put the spoon down. Then, with a short sigh, he looked at Raymond silently.
“A person with a lot of work is going to leave the Imperial Palace?”
“It would be okay to leave work in someone else’s hands for a few days. I have given my subordinates the seal for the time being”
Raymond lifted the wine glass in a casual response. It wasn’t a gentle impression at first, but when I looked at Kailos, I felt that his gaze was particularly ferocious,
“Your Majesty, I’m sorry to tell you, but the situation of the Duchy is not good right now. There’s a sick…..”
“Yeah, that’s right. Chloe.”
In an instant, the eyes of the two men turned to me. froze with a knife in one hand and a fork in the other.
“I’m going to stay here until Chloe gets better, brother.”
“What is that….”
Kailos’ face was dyed with embarrassment.
“Her complexion looks better than before.”
Raymond looked at me and smiled.
“Don’t worry, soon the doctor will come from the Imperial Palace.”
“I am fine, Your Majesty. The doctor is also in the castle, and it doesn’t hurt that much.”
I awkwardly rolled up the corners of my mouth towards Raymond.
“Then I won’t call the doctor. But I haven’t heard your answer yet.”
“Answer?”
Raymond’s red eyes stared at me at my question. It was eyes full of desire to say something. Only then did I realize the answer he wanted to hear belatedly.
‘Are you happy now?’
I remember that I couldn’t answer him when he asked me about my happiness. I remembered that his voice was serious as he asked, so I bit my lower lip.
Although he said it was a question without much meaning, I couldn’t answer easily because of the overlapping image of him wishing for my happiness in the past with the current one. My heart felt heavy because my answer seemed to deceive him.
Kailos, who was watching me silently, narrowed his eyes.
After dinner, we went back to our respective rooms, and Kailos came to see me separately. Raymond, who recklessly forced himself to remain in the duke’s castle, gave him a headache.
“Pretty Chloe, what did you talk about with the emperor?”
“There wasn’t much to talk about.”
I didn’t want to talk to him very much, so I answered bluntly.
“Anyway, I guess you both talked about something, Why are you hiding it from me?”
“It’s a story that Mr. Kailos doesn’t need to know.”
“There’s nothing I don’t need to know about your personal information.”
“Why? Do you have to use me to seduce the Emperor?”
“It’s not like that!”
Angry, he groaned and grabbed both of my wrists. Just touching his skin made me sick and I tried to shake it off, but my weak wrists couldn’t beat him.
“I told you, Chloe. I am in love with you.”
“Stop saying nonsense! That can’t be true. I and Mr. Kailos know that!”
“Why doesn’t that make sense?”
“You are…!”
Still having my both wrists held by him, I clenched my teeth and stared at him.
“Have you ever wished for my happiness?”
“…I am hoping. Now, like crazy.”
“Lies.”
There was no joke as funny as saying that he wanted my happiness. At least so far as I know. If he really wanted my happiness, if he did…….
“Kailos, you’ve never wanted my happiness.”
“Just be honest, you have something else you want.”
His hands, holding my wrist, fell helplessly down. Kailos muttered in a lost voice.
“I told you. All I want is your heart.”
“Didn’t you ask me to seduce the emperor?”
“It’s… It’s definitely my mistake, Chloe. I regret having you do such a thing.”
Seeing his disgustingly distorted face, I couldn’t hide my scorn.
“But what do I do about this? I’ve already spent the night with the emperor.”
“…… That’s why I’m trying to turn everything back now.”
There were red hand marks on both of my wrists caught by Kailos. I was a little annoyed to think that I would get bruises by tomorrow.
“You’re going to take it back?”
It was funny. I can’t believe he is taking it back….. Even if it was all your mistake, it was already irreversible. Estelle, my little Estelle is already……
“So Chloe, please give me a chance.”
He knelt down in front of me and hung as if pleading.
“This time, I will really make you happy. Even if I risk everything….”
This time, the words gave me confidence.
“You’re going to make me happy this time?”
“Yes.”
“How will you make me happy?”
“That’s….”
“You always wanted to be the emperor.”
When I asked, because he hesitated, he replied without hesitation.
“No, that doesn’t matter anymore.”
“It’s not important?”
“Yes.”
“You used to think it was important.”
“It’s not anymore. Nothing is more important than you, Chloe.”
It was such a desperate voice that it was hard to tell whether it was sincere or a lie. It was clear that Kailos had gone crazy.
“Then, what’s my happiness?”
He didn’t have a quick answer to the question that came out of nowhere.
“How can you make me happy without knowing what happiness is?”
“…Family.”
Kailos managed to grab my hem and say.
“You’ve always wanted a family.”
“I will be your family. I will become a family that will never leave your side.”
Hahaha, I burst out laughing. What do you mean family? Family…….
“What I want is a family?”
“Yes.”
“Why… Why did you think so..?”
A voice mixed with weeping trembled thinly and flowed out. Kailos drooped at my feet, looked up at me with a wet face and red eyes.
“Since we first met, you wanted warmth, you’ve been waiting for someone who will never let go of you.”
Oh, you knew that, what I want, what I always wanted. He knew everything from the beginning.
How can I love you again who deceived me?
“Then why did you do that?”
“Chloe…”
“Why, why did you take Estelle away from me?”
Kailos couldn’t say anything and just looked at me and shed silent tears. I just wanted to trample on that crying face, pretending to be pitiful.
“You knew that she was the only one for me.”
“…You’re back, Chloe.”
Half a beat late, he mumbled, recognizing the situation. Hearing the muttering, it seems that, like me, he had already guessed. We knew about each other’s return.
“Isn’t it funny that someone who did that now wants my happiness?”
“Chloe, I…… …..”
“I hate you, Uncle.”
“I hope you’ll be unhappy for the rest of your life.”
I stepped back from him, looking up at me in vain, and controlled myself.
“I want to wrench your neck.”
I didn’t feel sorry for him crying endlessly, it was abominable. I just wanted to be angry about how dare he shed tears in front of me.
“I’ll ask you one thing.”
“…anything.”
“What happened to Estelle?”
He asked me to ask anything, but when I asked him, he couldn’t answer.
“Did you really kill Estelle?”
I laughed at his unanswered appearance. It was strange, obviously, the feelings I feel now are negative, but why am I laughing?
“You are really, a son of a b*tch.”
The former Empress of the Asta Empire was a princess from the country of Evran. There have been several emperors who married princesses of other countries before, but the people of course did not welcome the empresses from other countries.
In such a situation, if the relationship between the couple is good, the popularity of the imperial family will decrease. Thus, the emperor often brought in mistresses for political reasons, as was the case with Kailos Ludwig’s mother.
Kailos Ludwig, who’s mother was the Emperor’s mistress, was the Emperor’s illegitimate child. His mother was the only child of Grand Duke Ludwig, Grand Duke Ludwig, who had no son, pointed out the illegitimate child of the Emperor, born by his daughter, as his successor.
When Grand Duke Ludwig died of illness, Kailos Ludwig succeeded him at the young age of fifteen
A while later, a man came to Kailos.
“Mom, I just heard a very strange thing.”
“What do you mean strange?”
“A man came to the Duchy and claimed that he was my biological father.”
“Did that happen?” his mother asked in a polite tone, “Where is the man now?”
Then she caught the man, who claimed to be kailos’ father, and killed him on the spot.
“Now I’m going to sleep with my feet stretched out. I’ve been searching everywhere for fifteen years to find this man, I can’t believe he was hiding in such rural land.”
In the bloody space, his mother looked down at the dead man’s body and laughed softly.
“Who is this guy?”
“Who is he? He is your biological father.”
“Isn’t my biological father His Majesty the emperor?”
Young Kailos was more startled by the fact that he was not the biological child of the Emperor than his slender mother killing a man without hesitation.
“Think about it, is there any resemblance between His Majesty and you?”
Kailos recalled the emperor he had known as his biological father. It was a father-child relationship with no resemblance from his hair to his toes, as his mother said.