Leila had a personal relationship with Duke Harsian Khan Serios.
It had been for quite some time, to the point of being familiar with each other.
It would not be strange to call him a mere acquaintance now.
Still, it didn’t change the fact that Leila knew Duke Harsian, so it wasn’t strange that she knew the Duke’s face.
The first time she met Harsian was when she was a child.
Her mother and the Duchess, Harsian’s mother, had been close friends since their maiden years.
Their living circumstances were similar, their remarkably beautiful appearances were similar, they were close in age, and they were also similar in that they had an unwanted marriage.
Their children were also roughly the same age.
That’s why they often set up a place for their children to hang out even after they were a little older.
“Nia!”
“I’m Harsian.”
Before becoming a duke, young Harsian, the heir to the duke, was a naughty boy.
“Why is Harsian walking around in a dress?”
“To deceive you.”
“Why?”
“Because you only want to be friends with Nia.”
“So you wear a dress to pretend just because of that?”
“Mm-hmm.”
Harsian’s innocent smile was indistinguishable from his twin sister, Nivera.
As Harsian said, Leila only wanted to be friends with his twin sister, Nivera.
The twins looked very similar, and the child’s immature thought made her think why she needed to be friends with both people who look the same.
“You are noisy and annoying. Go and play with Harsian.”
But, who is Nivera? She was as lively as Harsian, but with a completely different vibe.
The eyes that are always downcast, the face that looks like it has a story, and the way she talks, all stimulated Leila’s curiosity.
At that time, Leila was loved by everyone, and she had believed that it was natural for her to be loved.
She may not have believed that there were people who didn’t love her.
Of course, this was only when she was young. When she grew up, Leila realized her place and she distanced herself from them.
Harsian and Nivera were a prince and a princess. In particular, Harsian was the heir to Duke Serios.
As Leila’s father was from the commoners, it was difficult for her to get along without flaws.
She also didn’t want to be ridiculed by others behind the scenes after being friendly.
“Don’t even pretend to know each other.”
Harsian didn’t care about that at all, and whenever he ran into Leila, he used to talk playfully.
Nivera was still there. When she happened to meet Leila, she only greeted her lightly. She wasn’t like that only to Leila. She pushed everyone away.
At that time, when they began to run into social circles, they looked similar.
They were similar in height as well, but people did not confuse Harsian with Nivera.
The difference was that they were dressed differently. But even if that wasn’t the case, the atmosphere between the two was completely different.
Harsian had always been at the center of people.
He had a talent for swordsmanship from an early age, and his physique stood out even more.
He was always cheerful, hospitable and kind.
Nivera, despite being a princess, always stood at the wall.
Much thinner than the other ladies, she insisted on only dark-colored dresses.
Someone even used to say in order to ridicule her, a skewer appeared to be standing on the wall.
She was always quiet, cynical, and sharp.
After a while, something happened to Duke Serios.
Nivera disappeared, and Harsian changed.
***
Leila returned home and recalled memories related to Harsian.
The man she met in the square had a part of his face covered with an eye patch, but he certainly looked like Harsian.
“No, it must be someone else. Harsian is…!”
After the incident occurred in Serios Duchy, Leila hadn’t seen Harsian for quite some time.
It was because Harsian had been living in shock, and after that, Leila had also lived an uneventful life. It was a coincidence that she was reunited with Harsian.
About a year ago, Leila went to the theater with Theon when her fear of going out had somewhat improved.
She encountered Harsian, who was there with his own wife.
It was a little shocking.
Since the last time she saw him, he had not grown at all, and his strong body had been as thin as Nivera.
What was more shocking was that when Leila smiled brightly at him, he frowned and turned his head straight away.
When Leila had a big problem, it was disappointing that he didn’t help.
But she was well aware that the situation wasn’t good at the time.
It was said that he hadn’t been out of the room for quite some time, years even, under the influence of that incident.
And he was left without a happy heart.
Of course she thought that if it was Harsian, he would have greeted her first.
Had Leila not been aware that the incident had killed Nivera, she would have thought the one she had met was Nivera.
“Don’t worry about it. He has become a completely different person.”
Theon said to Leila, who was gloomy.
“I think the shock was quite big, so he changed into a little bit like his little sister. I used to hate him because he was a sly person. But it was fun dealing with him because he was friendly.”
Theon also acknowledged the man he had met at the theater as Duke Harsian.
So, the man Leila met today could never have been Harsian.
His hair color was also different. Harsian had silver hair, but the man she met in the square had brown hair.
There was a lot of height difference from the Harsian she saw in the theater, and the difference in physique was also distinct.
Harsian wasn’t even a teenager, so he couldn’t have grown so tall and big in just a year.
But why does he look so much like Harsian? He even had the same purple eyes.
‘From the Serios.’
Right, if she thought about it in this way, everything could be explained.
That man must have been a member of the Serios family, or, to be more precise, someone who inherited that blood.
Otherwise, she couldn’t explain why he resembled Harsian so much.
‘Why does the Serios need children?’
And why did they send a man who looked exactly like Harsian?
They should’ve known that she would immediately know that the Serios Duchy must be involved in this.
“… As a warning?”
Leila wrapped her arms around her body.
The Serios Duchy is a place that should never be taken lightly.
If she breaks this warning, she will disappear without a sound, without even the slightest trace of existence.
She must have been under surveillance since meeting the man. No, has she been under surveillance even before?
The same would be true of rejecting this strange proposal.
For some reason, they need a child, so she has to give birth to the child.
However, will the process be smooth for Leila after having the child?
In the end, for her to survive, she has to keep her mouth shut and accept this offer. The Serios were telling her that.
Still, she couldn’t give up the child. Since she still doesn’t know what she’s going to do with the child.
“If it’s Theon…”
Leila, who was crouching on the sofa, jumped up from her seat. Given her circumstances, this was not a problem she could solve alone.
“… …”
But Leila stopped moving just after she stood up. Then she slumped back to her seat.
It wasn’t that she was afraid of death again. She just had a question.
Can Theon stand up to the Serios Duchy?
‘Just give them the baby and forget it!’
If it’s the Theon that Leila knew, he would have said something like this.
And he will treat Harsian with a smile, hiding that he has even heard of this from Leila.
Maybe he would like it because he has one weakness of the Serios family.
“Why the hell do you need my child…”
Leila grabbed her knees with her arms. Then she buried her face in her lap.
No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t come up with a reason why Harsian needed her child.
The child of Leila, or the child of Marquis Karsha. Why do they need this child?
‘Are they trying to unravel the secrets of Theon’s family blood?’
Ancient power is preserved in the blood of Theon’s family, the Imperial family, and some old marquises’ families.
House Elantre and a few other families were included in the past.
However, as the generations passed, the strength weakened, and soon the life line was cut off.
The reason Theon was able to become a marquis even though he was an illegitimate child was because of the power flowing through his blood.
Perhaps Harsian is trying to dig into the power of the marquis. Using the child.
‘Nope. We don’t know this child’s gender and nobody knows if the child’s going to be born with power. Surely they won’t take such a risk!”
If they were going to do an experiment with the child, it was not too late to make a move after she gave birth to the child and proved that this child had power.
There was no way they would move on something they weren’t sure about, and there was no way they would spend money on something that they could just steal from her weak self.
‘So, what is it? For what?’
Leila pondered over and over, and then she suddenly remembered the face of the Duchess she had met about a year ago.
A lady with dark blonde hair and blue eyes, who looked pale and weak.
She wasn’t even Harsian tall, but she was a very cute girl who was a head shorter than Harsian.
‘… Do the two of them have any children?’
She doesn’t know. She had never heard of it. But if they had children, Theon would have mentioned it at least once.
He surprisingly told Leila even the most trivial stories in detail.
Because Leila’s life was so monotonous, their conversation topics often had to do with Theon’s work.
Someone from a certain family gave birth to a child and he had to go to a party or send a gift.
However, he never mentioned Harsian or the Serios Duchy.
“You will be able to live your life, and your child will be able to grow up in a rich and prosperous environment.”
The man’s words came to mind.
Leila slowly removed her forehead from her lap and lifted her head.
Unless what she was thinking about was an absurd delusion, the child could be happier than anywhere else.