Obviously, It’s My Child

Chapter 59

Translator: Effe

Editor: Yonnee

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“Who would have known that Henrietta would die in vain like that? No one knew at the time that Ducal Lady Ernst was that kind of person.”

Grand Prince Arren uttered the previous title of Empress Margot prior to her marriage with the Emperor.

“I never thought that Jared would die like that… No one knew.”

Duke Moore fell silent for a moment.

Was it really due to complications with childbirth that Empress Henrietta had died? Now, even that was something questionable.

But she couldn’t bear to say such a thing in front of Grand Prince Arren. It was because Grand Prince Arren was the one who must have been more suspicious and pained by the incident more than anyone else.

Grand Prince Arren looked at the foam bubbling up inside the glass. His life was like a bubble, and his remorse was like a bubble.

He has been struggling to make the right decision each time, but at the end, all he has left is his old body. So it seemed to him that the whole path he had walked was all wrong.

So he couldn’t even resent the Emperor. Because the only one in this world who knew the same pain was him.

[ Don’t you know my heart? There is only one person left in the world who knows. ]

The Emperor said that while watching the white cloth covering the furniture in Jared’s room.

Grand Prince Arren looked at the Emperor with reddened eyes. And he spoke with a low, clear voice.

[ What’s the use of all that? When Henrietta died, didn’t you say that it was so painful that it’s as if your heart was being subjected to the flames of hell? ]

[ That’s right. Yet now, Jared is no more. I thought that my experience of hell would only be in this heart, but the world turned out to be hell itself. ]

The Emperor spoke slowly.

[ If I had known that at the time, I would have just killed them all. ]

[ Your Majesty has another prince. ]

[ But isn’t he Henrietta’s child? ]

[ He is Your Majesty’s son. ]

[ Well, is he really? ]

He still remembered the Emperor’s laughter. He had guffawed like a madman, but it didn’t last long, fizzling away like a bubble.

And he ended up not talking. The Grand Prince then realized that the Emperor had gone mad.

That was already five years ago.

What’s the use of Grand Prince Arren blaming the Emperor for being crazy and not being able to keep up with his children?

Grand Prince Arren’s sorrow was so deep that Duke Moore could not even say a word of consolation. She simply kept quiet.

A small commotion was heard outside the curtain.

“Ah, Young Master, you shouldn’t run like that.”

“Argh!”

There was a scream, and the child fell over. It happened in front of the curtain.

“Hu, huaaaahh!”

The child burst out crying loudly. A tall man who appeared to be a guardian came running, and an escort blocked his way. It’s okay for children, but they had to be wary of strangers.

“Let it be. It’s just that the child fell…”

Grand Prince Arren cast his gaze toward the child and spoke, but at that moment, he held his breath.

A child covered in orange soda water was wailing. A wooden children’s cup rolled on the floor.

“No…”

Grand Prince Arren went out of the curtain without even realizing it. And, unaware that his clothes were getting stained, he hurriedly picked up the child.

“Jared…?”

Hiccup!

The child, startled as he was now being held by a stranger, stopped crying and hiccupped.

Grand Prince Arren touched the child’s face with his trembling, wrinkled hands.

Even if everyone in the world had forgotten, how could he have forgotten the face of his only grandson? Perhaps because he had his grandson so pitifully, it became more and more vivid as time passed.

From the shiny golden hair and smooth forehead, and to the clear autumn sky-blue eyes and the blush on his chubby cheeks. It was as if the young Jared had come back to life.

“I’m not Jared, I’m Elliot.”

Elliot said clearly. HIs big eyes and cheeks were still wet, but the tears of surprise seemed to have stopped.

Grand Prince Arren, dazed, mechanically wiped the child’s wet cheek with the palm of his hand. He didn’t understand. From all angles, this child was Jared, but not Jared?

“Your Highness.”

An attendant quietly called to him. Only then did Grand Prince Arren turn his gaze. On the other side of the curtain, the lemon soda he had left behind had spilled and the sticky liquid was dripping under the table.

“Please put me down, Grandpa.”

“Ah…”

Even the voice that calls him, how could it also be the same…

“Your Highness, Grand Prince Arren, forgive our rude intrusion…!”

The surprised Roger shouted loudly as he was blocked by an escort knight.

“That child is Elliot of the Delford Barony! He will soon enter the Klausener Duchy!”

“Ah, Duke Erich’s…”

“Do you know Uncle?”

Elliot was a little nervous about being carried by a stranger, but he asked back with a smile. Thinking that Grand Prince Arren was a relative of someone he knew, his guard went down.

Grand Prince Arren cleared his throat several times.

He had heard that Erich had a child out of wedlock, and that the child looked just like him. Although Jared and Erich had different personalities, their faces were so similar that, when Jared was young, he saw Erich’s portrait and claimed it was his own.

So, it was not surprising that Erich’s child resembled Jared.

Still, it didn’t feel like that to Grand Prince Arren. It was as if little Jared had returned to life.

“Ahh, Grandpa, why are you crying? Grandpa?”

Not knowing what to do, Elliot brought his arms around the old man’s neck and hugged him. It was because when his aunty, nanny, or someone close to him were sad and he did this, the tears would stop or they would say thank you to him.

However, Grand Prince Arren couldn’t stop crying. He knew he couldn’t do that in a place where there were so many people, but he sat down holding the child as if the sadness he had been hiding for five years, and the previous twenty years, came crashing down all at once.

* * *

Around that time, Claire had cleared the fourth boutique they visited.

After she climbed into the carriage and checked the long list, Erich asked in a weary voice.

“Can’t we just buy it?”

“What you’re talking about are the ‘boutiques’ rather than the ‘clothes’, right?”

“What about it? Call the rest. Don’t tell me you’re going to visit all the boutiques on that list, are you?”

“I’m tired.”

Claire leaned back on the backrest, then fell sideways and lay down on Erich’s lap. Erich’s thighs twitched.