Chapter 18

Episode 18: Grand Duke Kailos Ludwig III (2)

“I’ve been saying this for a long time, you won’t be the emperor. His Majesty knows that too, you’re not his son.”

“Then why are you condoning my existence?”

“It’s because of the deal with the Grand Duke of Ludwig.”

Archduke Ludwig, who had no son, needed an heir through his own blood, but not the father of the child who would become his successor.

(T/N: he needed a successor whose father wouldn’t be able to take the position, i.e., a weak person)

“Even if he is your biological father, if we get married, become a good couple and a companion, what happens if he is a thief who takes my share in the end? So I made a deal with His Majesty. At least the imperial family would not covet the Ludwigs.”

It was not known exactly what kind of deal there was between the Grand Duke and the imperial family. Only then did Kailos realize why the emperor, who was so sweet and affectionate to his half-brother, was cold to him as if looking at others.

“Who else knows about that?”

“There is my late father, I, the emperor, the empress, and there is your father, who is cooling down. There are three people who know that now….. No, there are four including you.”

“I see.”

The young Kailos nodded calmly.

And shortly after, my mother and the emperor died after drinking poisoned tea while enjoying tea time in the Imperial Palace.

People sympathized with young Kailos, who lost his parents in an instant and became alone. At that time, didn’t say anything and just did my job silently.

All I wanted was one thing, the fall of my half-brother who has everything. And the one and only place in the world. (T/N: Throne)

My half-brother always looked happy because he had everything. Although he used to click his tongue, saying that it was a boring world, he at least looked happier than me.

So I thought about it, if I take away my younger brother’s position, wouldn’t I be able to be happy then?

If there is one thing missing from my brother, who has everything, it is love. Even though he was in a place where all the beauties in the world could be by his side, he was thirsty for love.

“What kind of love does your Majesty want?”

“The love I want? Why? If I tell you that, will my brother find it for me?”

My brother snorted.

“Love is over in this life anyway. How can I meet another woman when I have a woman next to me?”

His young brother, who had been bereaved at the age of fourteen, needed strength to protect him, and married the eldest daughter of Duke Caroline following the will of the late emperor. His brother always referred to the woman who is three years older than him as ‘the Wicked Caroline Witch’.

“Even if the Empress is there, you can have a separate mistress, right?”

“You’re a man with no romance at all, brother,” the younger brother murmured, clicking his tongue.

“I don’t want to have a woman I will love as a mistress. If I had a mistress, would she be happier than anyone else, would I do that because I was crazy?”

Kailos Ludwig did not enjoy various emotions himself, but he was a person who used other people’s emotions well. From then on, Kailos thought about how to use his younger brother’s feelings.

The first day I met the child was a cold winter day when the sky was particularly dark and the air was humid.

Garnet was a branch family of the Grand Duke of Ludwig, but it was safe to say that it was a relationship that had already been cut off for a long time. Kailos’ visit to Garnet that day was purely to warn.

“How funny the young Grand Duke must have looked, left alone without parents. They must have thought that if they moderately pacified and coaxed him, they would be able to hold and shake the young Grand Duke who had lost his parents.”

Garnet, Capone, Hardy…….

When the young Kailos ascended to the position, the collaterals desperately wanted to reconnect the relationship that had been cut off a long time ago. Self-proclaimed guardians of the young Grand Duke, they sold the name of the Grand Duke to do dirty things and to cover the Grand Duke’s property.

“The Grand Duke of Ludwig no longer waits for Garnet’s laxness.”

When Kailos turned seventeen, he finally became a full adult citizen under imperial law, and he drew his sword to cut out the collateral, the Garnets were an example of that.

At one glance, Garnet’s butler fell off his neck. Looking down at the blood soaked in the floor with insensitive eyes, Kailos smiled faintly.

“I’m only warning today, but if the same story comes to my ears again, the Garnets will be cut off from my own generation.”

Viscount Garnet swallowed the insult and bowed his head in front of the seventeen-year-old Grand Duke. The mansion was more gloomy and unpleasant than expected. Kailos wanted to get out of there in a hurry,

“Uncle!”

‘If it had not been for the young boy in the room, who’s eyes glistened and looked at him with longing, the cruelty of that day would not have happened. (T/N: the cruelty mentioned here could be the Garnets getting burnt in the fire.)

“Welcome, Uncle. I’ve heard the uncle’s name several times from afar. I’ve always been looking forward to seeing you.”

In terms of genealogy, Kailos was an “uncle” for that boy who was of the same age, but Kailos did not like the tone very much.

“It’s your first visit to Garnet, right? I’ll show you something interesting.”

The boy giggled, showing a beast crawling on all fours,

“Okay, Chloe, crawl past my legs. Since we have a guest, you have to act cute.”

The appearance of the beast was very dangerous. The skinny limbs were barely supporting the body, red eyes glared at the boy through her greasy hair because she couldn’t wash it properly.

The boy was excited and swung his whip and mocked the beast.

“I’ve heard that illegitimate children of the Garnet family are treated worse than animals.”

Unfortunately, however, the young Grand Duke did not have a low-level hobby of making fun of people by treating them as animals. When Kailos showed no interest, the boy of the Garnets was greatly disappointed.

And that evening, Kailos turned away just before returning to the Duchy.

“Hi.”

I felt very sorry for her shaking like a larva in a cold, small room.

“Do you want me to save you?”

Did I feel compassion? For the first time in his life, Kailos was involved in the lives of others.

“Do you want to come with me?”

“…..why are you asking that?”

The illegitimate child of the Garnet family was very wary. It was fun to see her growling like a beast’s cub with all her nerves on edge. The appearance aroused a strange sense of victory for him, Kailos wanted to tame this little beast.

“Because I like you.”

As much as he liked the child, it was the sincerity of Kailos. The child was quite pretty even in the midst of imitating a beast walking on all fours wearing a dirty blanket.

He wasn’t the kind of person who liked pretty things. Unlike his esthetic brother, Kailos preferred useful things over pretty things.

Strangely enough, however, he wanted to reach out to that child, who seemed useless at that moment. Usefulness is bound to occur at any time, so he rationalized himself like that.

“Hold my hand.”

Kailos reached out, it was foolish Chloe who held onto

That night, a big fire broke out in Garnet’s mansion. The flames engulfed everything that remained in the mansion, only Chloe was able to survive.

“Poor Chloe, you are alone.”

If the image of a dirty girl sitting alone in front of the traces of a horribly burnt fire was just like a scene from the Bible, would it be an illusion drenched in excessive sentimentality?

“……I was alone from the beginning.”

The girl’s red eyes stared up at her young savior. At that moment, something fell over Kailos’ chest with a ‘thud’.

It was strange, this small, shabby child felt as beautiful as the fairy in the legend. A white snowflake fell on the girl’s hair.

Kailos, who bent one knee to meet the girl’s eye level, shook off the snowflakes sitting on the girl’s head with his gloved hands.

“Then come with me now.”

The girl nodded quietly.

That winter, it was the day when the first snow fell, That winter day when he could only hear the sound of white snowflakes sinking over the carriage and the rattling of the carriage wheels carrying them, Kailos Ludwig met Chloe Garnet.

A baby beast of the Garnet family could only become a human at the Grand Duchy of Ludwig. She washed, herself with clean water, ate without shortage, and gained weight.

Kailos smiled broadly at her face, which had grown in color over the past few days.

“Tell me if there’s anything lacking. You can easily eat, wear, or use anything in this castle.”

“…Can I do that?”

“Of course. You’re worth it.”

“Me?”

“Yes.”

Chloe, who couldn’t completely abandon her vigilance, blinked and asked,

“Why did you save me?”

“Because you’re pretty.”

Slowly scanning the child’s body up and down, he replied with a smile.

“Do you like pretty things?”

It wasn’t particularly aesthetically pleasing. There was another person who liked pretty things.

“It’s not me, but my brother likes pretty things, very much.”

The child was pretty. When he first saw the child at Garnet’s mansion, even the beastly appearance could not hide the beauty of the child.

“Pretty things are poison.”

“Who said that to you?”

“My mom.”

Poison, it wasn’t wrong.

The child’s mother (Chloe’s mother) faced misfortune because of her beauty, even though she had a husband. If this child hadn’t met me, it would have been obvious, without seeing, what would have happened to those who treated her as an animal.

“But Chloe, now I’m next to you.”

Kailos gently stroked the child’s head and whispered. Her silver hair, which fluttered between his fingers, gave him a strange satiety.

“As long as I’m next to you, your beauty will be a blessing, not poison.”

Chloe’s cheeks turned red when he said he would be next to her.

“I’ll help you grow into the most beautiful person in the world. No one can resist loving you.”

Yes, anyone. Even if it’s his brother who holds the empire…….

In an instant, a realization flashed across Kailos’ mind.

Even I, who is insensitive to pretty things, feel so lovely looking at this child. Moreover, what if my younger brother, who is always thirsty for love along with his aesthetic tendencies, encounters this child?

“Hey….?”

Chloe tilted her head and called him. He, who had been stiff, started to tremble his shoulders, then rubbed his face and laughed out loud.

“Are you okay…?”

“Yes, I’m fine.”

Seventeen-year-old Kailos smiled beautifully and hugged the young Chloe tightly.

“Of course, I’m okay, my lovely Chloe.”

Comments from Korean readers:

Even if I don’t curse, he is already cursed at. How comfortable it is

TTTTI think we are reading about the past life when Kailos became the emperor and what he did…