“Hey, Har!”
Someone tapped the man’s shoulder as he entered the building.
“You have a guest.”
“Huh? A guest?”
A man named Har scratched his head and answered sarcastically.
“Which one is it this time around? Sherry? Marian? Dove? Just let them be…”
“It’s a man.”
Har’s expression became distorted strangely and he stopped talking.
At the same time, the men who entered the building with him laughed loudly. He even made a long whistle.
“Are you going to extend your magic to men too?”
“You’re very popular. Please tell us the secret!”
“He doesn’t even care, so why is everyone hanging onto him. What the hell?”
“You really don’t know? Why don’t you look in the mirror?”
Har waved his hand, looking as if he was getting tired of the noisy colleagues’ voices.
Then he turned his head to the man who had hit him on the shoulder.
“A man came to me?”
The man with a jagged, wiry beard under his chin nodded.
“He’s wearing very luxurious clothes. Oh, and holding a good cane, too.”
“…”
“Anyone who takes a look at him will know he’s a noble.”
At that, Har’s face hardened.
However, the men who couldn’t see his face because he had turned his back on them raised their voices again.
“Oh, the secret of his birth is finally revealed.”
“Even if you go to a noble family, don’t forget us.”
“You pay me back ten times for the drinks you borrowed from me!”
Har shook his head with an annoyed face.
“You guys are so noisy!”
However, the chatter of the men did not stop.
Har sighed and asked the bearded man again.
“Where is he waiting?”
“…”
Har went straight to the room where his guest was waiting. He then opened the door right away without knocking.
Har was not surprised. He let out a meaningless sigh and sat down across from the table where the guest was sitting.
“What did you come here for?”
A half-masked person sitting on a chair and looking at the window turned his head towards Har.
Then, the silver hair of the person who was the same as Har, but a little longer, fluttered.
The mercenary baboon below, who had obviously looked at such great features, only explained the noble-like outfit of this person.
It was proof of how the commoners greatly valued the nobility.
“I need help.”
“… Help?”
At the person’s words, Har’s straight, fair forehead frowned for a moment.
Har opened his mouth as if to say something, but then closed it again.
At the same time, his brow, which had been slightly wrinkled, was stretched.
This short series of actions seemed as if he was swallowing the truth he wanted to spit into the depths of his mouth.
“Help? You need my help?”
Har said with a playful smile.
“How much help did you need, enough for you to take the risk of coming here?”
“Don’t be sarcastic.”
A beautiful voice flowed from the mouth of the person wearing a half-mask. It didn’t sound like an adult male’s voice. It was more appropriate to call it a boy’s voice before the transition period, or a slightly lower voice of a woman.
“I’m surprised that you need my help, you see…”
“I got a call from Mrs. Mitta.”
The half-masked person cut off Har’s words with an annoyed voice.
And brought out the things they had come here for.
“You haven’t given up yet?”
Har asked, wrinkling the tip of his nose.
Mrs. Mitta. She was someone Har knew.
She had worked as a female doctor for a prestigious aristocratic family, but suddenly opened a women’s clinic in the capital.
The place where she had worked before was the Serios Duchy.
“I’ve been telling you it would be faster to adopt a decent child from within the family than to bully the old woman.”
“And I’ve been saying that I don’t want to take risks, either,” said the person in an unpleasant voice.
“Are you saying that what you are doing is not dangerous?”
“Rather than uncovering important issues we are hiding.”
Har closed his mouth. The important issues they are hiding.
In fact, what could be more important than this?
The honor of their deceased mother depended on it.
Feeling frustrated even though he knew, he just asked if the person sitting across from him had changed his mind.
“I’d rather have a baby from somewhere.”
This was also just a remark for that reason.
“Don’t be silly!”
As soon as Har finished speaking, the half-masked person shouted back.
Their voice was already high-pitched, and when they screamed, it sounded like a completely female voice.
“Alright, alright. I understand.”
Har pouted his mouth, put his hands together and grabbed the back of his head.
“So what did the old woman say?”
The half-masked person who had been staring at Har for a while sighed and opened their mouth.
“A white blonde-haired, blue-eyed woman had a child and said she did not want it.”
“What about the child’s father? Do you know?”
Inside the half mask, the person’s purple eyes closed and opened a few times.
“Marquis Karsha.”
“What?”
“I’m not sure, but if the woman’s identity is what Mrs. Mitta guessed, it should be him.”
Har put his arms on the table. Then he started tapping the table with his fingers.
From what he knew, the wife of Marquis Karsha did not have blue eyes and platinum hair. If so, it means that there is a mistress, or somebody else who spent a night with him.
‘How surprising.’
‘Seems like he’s stuck in a tight spot.’
“Marquis Karsha has black hair and red eyes.”
Har pushed aside all his thoughts and now recalled an important fact from them.
“I know,” The half-masked person replied as if it was insignificant.
“Hmm. Actually, you know that white blonde hair is also a problem, right? Because your wife has dark blonde hair.”
“That’s fine. It’s still blonde.”
“What about red eyes? None of our ancestors had red eyes.”
“There was someone among the ancestors of my wife. Red eyes are fine.”
“If the child’s born with dark hair? What are you going to do about it?
Instead of answering Har’s questions, the person sighed and hit the edge of the table with the stick they were holding.
At that moment, Har’s fingers, which had been knocking ferociously on the table, stopped moving.
“I can’t do anything about that. Then I have to give up.”
One of Har’s eyebrows was knitted and he shook his head violently.
Then he leaned back against the chair.
He knew that the person sitting opposite him wasn’t in a good mood.
He knew very well how impatient they were.
But he wanted to stop the foolishness of doing something that only had half the chance to succeed.
‘The problem is that there’s nothing we can do.’
Har laughed bitterly.
In fact, it was not his business to intervene.
This problem was the result of getting what the party involved wanted.
So, the problem that arises after getting everything should be solved by themself.
Therefore, Har was going to reject the person’s plea of help.
‘Because I think… it’s gonna be dirty.’
Besides, he didn’t want to do anything related to Marquis Karsha.
The relationship between Har and Marquis Karsha was never good.
“If it’s that woman from the Elantre family, the child will probably be born blonde.”
The half-masked person, who did not know that Har was thinking of rejecting them, opened their mouth indifferently.
“The Elantre family was probably genetically strong, and most of the direct lineage was blonde.”
“… Wait a minute. Hold on.”
Har raised his upper body. He held out his palm in a hurry, visibly flustered.
He then opened his mouth as if he had heard something strange.
“What did you say? The Elantre?”
“That’s right. Elantre.”
“The Elantre I know?”
“Yes. It’s the Elantre family we know.”
“The Elantre family has only one daughter! Leila!”
The half-masked person took his gaze from the window and slowly looked back at Har.
“That’s right. The Leila we know is pregnant with Marquis Karsha’s child.”
Har’s body stiffened enough to make him think that time had stopped for a moment.
He looked at the person opposite him without moving for over a minute.
No, he wasn’t looking. There was nothing in his eyes.
“The wife of Marquis Karsha is a princess. I know that.”
A few more minutes passed before Har opened his mouth.
“Then why did Leila have a child of the Marquis? Her father wanted a son-in-law to take over the family! So, why?”
“Because Leila became the mistress of the Marquis.”
“What?”
Har jumped up from his seat, feeling it was absurd.
The Leila he knew would never do something as becoming someone’s mistress.
Besides, what about her father?
It was something that Har could never understand.
The half-masked person calmly explained the situation in which something that Har could never comprehend had happened.
Everything that Leila had been through came out of their mouth.
It was not known how they knew her situation in more detail than Leila herself, who had experienced it firsthand.
The important thing is that it was enough information to make Har understand.
“…”
Har, who had been listening to the other party until they finished speaking, clenched his teeth. He clenched his teeth so hard that indented lines were engraved on both cheeks.
“Therefore…”
After a while, Har opened his mouth.
One doesn’t know which of the person’s remarks, or which of Leila’s experience, ignited his anger. In any case, it seemed that Har was desperately holding back his anger.
“Did you mean to tell me that you came to me to take the poor woman’s child?” Har didn’t say Leila was stupid.
For more than half of his life, he lived as an aristocrat of a prestigious family and saw all kinds of filthiness.
So he understood that Leila’s life had fallen horribly.
“That’s right.”
The half-masked person answered.
“I cannot.”
Har looked at him with a tired face, with a face that spoke that he really disdained the idea, and expressed his refusal.
“Do it. Please.”
“I will never do it. I won’t!”
“Why did I come all the way here!”
The half-masked person shouted and jumped up from their seat.
That person wasn’t tall. In this era, tall people were rather rare, so it is not surprising.
But this person was particularly thin. Their shoulders were narrow, and their waist was also thin.
If it wasn’t for the clothes they wore, they would have been thought of as a woman because both their arms and legs were thin.
“You know no one else can help me. I wish I was crazy enough! I wish I could do it myself!”
“… Nivera.”
“I wonder why I came all the way here alone. You feel pity for that woman, why don’t you feel pity for me? Am I not pitiful?!” Har turned his head as if in pain at the cry of that person called Nivera.
However, it didn’t take long for Har to ignore them.
When he looked back at ‘Nivera’, there was a clear sympathy in his eyes.