Chapter 21

The third method. Making my side. (1)

Carl was weaned, but he still had two nannies, and both of their children were growing up together in Carl’s nursery.  The nursery had three babies, including Carl, and three older sisters and brothers who were several years older than him. Carl managed to blend in with his baby companions and older children, and was a cute little Young Master who liked to hang out with them and be in my arms when I showed up.

Now that Carl was crawling around he knew how to get his hands on this and that, and filled his vigorous curiosity by putting them all in his mouth and exploring them. All the servants in the castle loved little the Little Master, who was wandering around, and treated me with a much more amicable attitude than before, which Carl followed.

Countess Blone said to me, watching Karl grow day by day.

“I chose Young Masters escort Knight because I thought he needed one. You must accept the pledge of loyalty in his stead.”

“What? Suddenly?”

“Since he is the only and noble-blooded Young Master to succeed the Duke of DeMancier, I chose one because I thought it was urgent.”

It was questionable whether Carl, who was always in the castle, almost always around the nursery, needed an escort, but as she said, Carl was the only son of the Duke of DeMancier. Carl was a baby in a position to have an escort because there were no other successors of the Duke’s .

“Oh, but wouldn’t it be better for Gellerhard to see and select one? From the Knight’s point of view, I think he would prefer to make a pledge of loyalty to the Lord rather than the acting Lord… And in a few months, Gellerhard will be back….”

Carl’s escort Knights were tasked with escorting him, but their allegiance was to Gellerhard, the head of the Knights and the Duke. However, now that he is out of the war, I, the Duchess, had to act for it. Countess Blone would have chosen it well, but of course he knew better about the knights of DeMancier. I don’t want to hear the rumor that I picked a weird guy for no reason… Countess Blone replied to me who was pouring out one concern or another.

“Now that the Duke is not in the castle, it may be more dangerous than other times. You don’t have to worry too much about the pledge of loyalty. In the case of a noble lady, all you have to do is reach out to the knight who vows loyalty and say, ‘I trust you’ afterwards.”

She seemed to think that I was putting off her work because I felt burdened by the pledge of loyalty to me. That was also somewhat true. But listening to her, I inadvertently realized a painful fact.

It is true that the current Duchy, where the Duke is not in the castle, is more vulnerable than when the Duke was here. But last year, too, Carl played well in the nursery while the Duke was away from the castle. That Carl needs an escort this year, without the Duke….

It seems they were worried about me hurting Carl, since I started sleeping with the Duke. I was probably right. I was still spending quite a bit of time with Carl, and any escort Knight would always be able to monitor my actions at his side.

The suspicion was deeply upsetting, but it was not something I didn’t understand. A young son of a man with a large inheritance of the largest estate in the north, including the title of Duke, and a stepmother who has a chance to give birth to the mans child, are in the castle alone… It was like the introduction of a thriller novel.

In order to lessen the doubt, and to avoid a situation in which Carl could really be in danger, I decided to accept the escort. It’s upsetting, but I’ll take it. It was obvious that Count Petrika was behind this, so I wanted to move on. Anyway, it’s for Carl.

“Yes, after the Duke comes back, we can add more escort Knights or change them.”

I rose from my seat, emphasizing that the reason I hesitated was to have the Duke pick Knights to protect his son himself. Seeing that the Knight came to escort right away, it seemed like she had already selected the Knights and was waiting for my pledge of loyalty.

“Carl must be in the nursery, right?”

“Yes.”

“I should take them with me to Carl. They’ll have to see who to serve.”

When I beckoned, Carl toddled up to me with open arms and fell over to hug me. Looking at such a Carl, the irritation melted away.

“Our sweet Young Master, Carl! Are you going to go see the articles with Mandy~.”

“Maah!”

“Yes, yes, let’s go with Mandy.”

Holding Charles, now quite heavy, in his arms, he headed to where the knights were, listening to Lady Blone’s explanation. There were three escort Knights in total for Carl, each will take three turns guarding him. So there are three pledges of loyalty that I will receive. I think it’s going to be really cheesy… Let’s put up with the goosebumps.

I was surprised to see the three escort knights passing through the door the servant had opened.

Originally, knights who protect the castles of nobles in the north were not very capable, but they were fine-faced and had a nice body. This is because the most talented will protect the family and heir, but the most talented will be transferred to the battlefield or volunteered. Among the remaining decent knights, only the knights with good looks and figure stood by the nobles in the castle. And my ex-fiancé was a knight like that.

All three of Carl’s escorts were exceptionally handsome young knights, and one of them was someone I knew.

Oscar, there was a man who was once my fiancé!