Chapter 46

Episode 46: Greed

“No, Chloe! I’m sure the child likes you more than me!”

“Really?”

As Chloe hesitated to approach the child with an expectant look on her face, Raymond held her wrist and carefully brought it over the child’s cheeks. Her frail fingertips touched the child’s cheek, which was more fragile.

The child, blinking her eyes, began to laugh at what was so good.

“…Your Majesty,”

Chloe muttered a little as she looked at her child’s dimples.

“I feel strange,”

“…….”

“It feels like my heart is beating, it feels like my heart is tickling…….”

“Me too, Chloe,”

Raymond followed her and answered, looking at his child.

“And that’s the feeling of ‘like’.”

His lips curled up.

“It’s the same feeling I always feel when I see you.”

“…….”

Chloe didn’t respond to his declaration, she just stared at the child. They sat for a long time staring at the child, until the child fell asleep.

* * *

“I have decided on a name for my child,” Chloe said, holding the child in her arms.

“Estelle.”

After giving birth she hesitated to name her child for quite some time. Raymond didn’t rush her, he just waited until she, who had been feeling awkward and troubled, accepted the child by herself.

“It’s a pretty name.”

Raymond was delighted and greeted the young Estelle, who was joyfully looking at them from Chloe’s arms.

He poked his child’s cheek with a gesture that was no longer awkward. Every time she smiled, little Estelle was adorable.

Estelle, Estelle. How can the name be so lovely?

Oh, yes, because she gave it to my child. That’s why it’s so lovely.

Raymond smiled as he looked at Chloe, who was holding little Estelle. Thinking about what to name the child with that small head, she was so pretty that he wanted to hug her tightly.

‘But I have to be patient.’

A gentle smile graced his lips. The smile, which was only visible in front of Chloe Garnet, was now visible to her and the little Estelle. Others would have been astonished if they had seen that smile

The child resembles Chloe as he wishes. But Chloe would often astonish him by insisting that the child should have been like Raymond.

‘I wish she had a similar personality to Your Majesty.’

It’s shocking words, thought Raymond.  Wouldn’t it be a disaster for the Empire if that small and fragile baby resembles my personality?

“My brother is going to visit you today.”

Her eyes widened at the remark.

“Really?”

“Though it is only in a name, he is your guardian. He should have come sooner.”

Joy and sadness coexisted on her face.

‘Not yet, is it?’

Raymond laughed bitterly as he felt his heart ache.

Her heart has not yet fully opened to me. 

Kailos Ludwig was still there in the corner of her heart. 

But it is all right.

Perhaps Raymond Del Astaroth had become accustomed to waiting in a short time.

* * *

“I’d like to visit the Duchy,” Chloe said carefully.

Raymond smiled kindly, trying his best not to harden his expression.

“Yes, if you wish.”

“No, not alone…….”

A curious look spread over Raymond’s face as she crept and looked at him.

“Not alone?”

“It’s like a parent’s house to me.  I want to go with Your Majesty.”

Naturally, he thought she would want to go with young Estelle. But it was surprisingly Raymond, not young Estelle, that she was referring to. Raymond was happy with her request, but a little embarrassed.  Actually, his situation was not good.

She gave birth to Estelle, but still Chloe was not the Empress of the Asta Empire, but Lady Garnet. It was a little burdensome to keep the Imperial Palace vacant in a situation when there was still a heated debate over her future.

‘But because Chloe said she wanted to go with him.’

He might have been a little greedy. Perhaps in front of his half-brother, who occupied her heart, he wanted to show that she was Raymond’s woman, not his.

I never expected that my greed would be the source of all trouble.

“That’s a stupid trap, brother.”

As soon as he stepped out, Raymond, surrounded by the soldiers of the Duchy, glared at his half-brother with his bloody eyes.

His half-brother’s soldiers were threatening Raymond with their swords. Raymond seemed to laugh at his shallow plan.

He is Raymond Del Astaroth. Isn’t he the man who was also called the God of War?

“You brought hundreds of soldiers.”

Raymond grinned and drew his sword.

“Do you think I’m a great man to be beaten by my brother’s soldiers?”

“Sure,” Kailos replied with a smile.

“Now that my brother has something to protect.”

At the end of his eloquent voice, he snatched Chloe’s wrist, who had been a step away.

“Chloe!”

Raymond shouted her name in a hurry. Since she was originally a member of the Grand Duke’s castle, he thought she would be okay.

The sword of Kailos hung on her neck. That is, the sword of the man she once loved, and maybe she still loves.

“Damn it, Chloe has nothing to do with it!”

“Lower your sword, brother.  Then I will spare this child.”

Do you really want to kill her?

But he was the man who saved her from the downfall of the Garnets. He was a man who had been supporting and raising her in the Duchy for a long time.

‘There’s nothing good about having the heart of a young woman who has nothing.’

Suddenly, Raymond remembered what his half-brother said about her a long time ago.

‘The things that Grand Duke Ludwig will obtain from the union of the child with Count Vernon are conditions that cannot be ignored.’

Is he really not going to kill her, who was just talking about her as a good chess piece? Even though it’s his only chance to kill him?

“Ah… “

The moment my thoughts reached that point, he felt like he was going crazy, he sighed with deep despair. Raymond couldn’t do anything, and the tip of his sword trembled.

As if enjoying Raymond’s reaction, Kailos, who was watching, smiled leisurely and pressed the sword close to her neck.

Shhk.

Red blood gushed out over the skin that had touched the blade.

“……!”

The breathtaking shock penetrated his whole body.

Blood is gushing out. From her body…….

“Well, while you’re hesitating, the more dangerous it is for her.”

The sound of laughter pierced Raymond’s ears. He was sure Kailos was enjoying the situation.

And Chloe, my little and fragile Chloe,

She seemed to have foreseen the coming death, gasping for pain with a resigned look on her face. A tear trickled down her pale face.

“Stop it, Kailos Ludwig!”

Kailos laughed even louder and raised his sword as if to pierce her skin.

Cruelly, gradually, painfully.

Her tears that had been flowing down, mixed into her blood and soaked her white dress.

‘Your Majesty? Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘Oh, pardon me, Chloe, You’re especially pretty today.’

Before getting into the carriage, he responded half a beat slower to the words that came out awkwardly as he stared at her rapturously.

‘It was my first time trying on a white dress, so I was worried about what to do if it was awkward…’

‘You look good with it, so why bother? You are so pretty, Chloe, so don’t worry about it.’

It was not until a long time after she got into the carriage that she brought it up again.

‘Will it look the same to other people?’

She never meant to be conscious of how beautiful everything was in Raymond’s eyes.

Without having to say it, Raymond knew intuitively. The “other person” she calls must be “Kailos Ludwig.”

The front of the white dress was soaked with sad tears and red blood.

Why, why, why, Kailos Ludwig? You know, she loves you. You’ve been fooling around with her for a long time even though you know it. But of all things, you, with your own hands…….

“Hik…”

There was a small groan between her lips, as she had been in pain the entire time. Tears were pouring out of her eyes, and his eyelids trembled. At that moment Raymond couldn’t help throwing his sword away.

“Chloe!”

At that moment, the Grand Duke’s soldiers caught him. He could see his half-brother with a triumphant smile and his sword falling.

Raymond Del Astaroth, the Emperor of the Asta Empire, with his hands and feet tied, followed only her with his eyes.

He could see Kailos giving her away to a nearby knight as if she was a burden. The dullness beat him all over.

In the midst of that, seeing that he was worried, it seems he is really out of his mind, Raymond fainted.

* * *