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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: Call Me Father
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A furtive glance.
My eyes had been darting around restlessly since morning.
‘Why? Just why? How did it come to this?’
“I’m never sleeping with Your Majesty again!”
As if to mock my bold declaration from yesterday, I had woken up this morning in Enoch’s arms.
“Wh-why am I here?”
“You came here yourself. Don’t you remember?”
What on earth had happened?
My memories of last night were hazy, but the last one before I fell asleep was crystal clear.
I clearly remember being annoyed with Enoch for not telling me how he’d stopped the reaction, kicking him out, and going straight to bed.
‘But then why in the world did I wake up next to Enoch?!’
Was I a sleepwalker?
Or did I lose my mind right after that last memory? I couldn’t remember a thing.
And when I asked Enoch what had happened, all he’d say was to try and remember.
“Ugh.”
Finally, I let out a groan and clutched my hair.
‘Surely I didn’t pounce on Enoch again, did I?’
But that couldn’t be it. We were both in perfectly normal condition when we woke up.
Or maybe I went to his room and caused a scene?
As I continued to agonize over the vague, hazy memory, the Former Emperor irritably put down his knife.
“What is it? What on earth are you fussing about?”
“Ye-yes?”
“If you need to use the restroom, go.”
“Ah, no, that’s not it!”
“Then what is it? Why are you whining and glancing around like a puppy that has to go?”
“Oh, I’m not! My eyes are just… naturally a bit restless.”
“Nonsense.”
“Urk.”
The Former Emperor cut off my blathering and elegantly folded his napkin.
“It’s not as if two people who slept in the same bed are suddenly acting coy with each other. Honestly, what is all this?”
“…?”
How had he found that out already?
As I gaped at the Former Emperor nonchalantly picking up his knife again,
Enoch, just as nonchalantly, raised a glass of water to his lips and retorted.
“It seems there’s very little privacy here.”
“It’s hard not to notice when you’ve been acting so obvious all morning.”
The Former Emperor habitually swept back his perfectly coiffed hair. He glanced at the plates being changed for the main course before his gaze settled on me.
“?”
I was busy glaring at the plate piled high with steaming vegetables.
When a heavy gaze landed on the top of my head, I looked up. The Former Emperor’s thick eyebrows twitched.
“Even if you are in your prime.”
“?”
“Try to show some restraint.”
“Cough, cough! Wh-what?”
Startled by his blunt words, I choked and coughed for a while. The Former Emperor waved a hand elegantly toward the chamberlain.
“Bring a new one.”
Then, lifting a delicately crafted fork, he speared a perfectly cooked carrot…
“…Excuse me… Your Majesty?”
“What is it?”
“I believe you have the wrong plate. That one is mine…”
I stared blankly as the Former Emperor, with a single, fluid motion, stole the carrot adorning my plate.
“I know.”
The Former Emperor, narrowing his wrinkled eyes as if to ask what the problem was, cut the softly cooked carrot with his knife.
It seemed I wasn’t the only one taken aback. Enoch, too, had paused to stare at the Former Emperor.
“What are you doing?”
“Can you not see? I am eating breakfast.”
“That is not what I asked. Why are you—”
Looking closer, it wasn’t surprise but displeasure.
As Enoch clenched his leather-gloved fist, a menacing creak echoed across the breakfast table.
“I am asking why you are eating Riana’s food.”
But his son’s intimidating aura didn’t seem to bother him in the slightest.
This time, the Former Emperor plucked a floret of broccoli that had been blooming richly on my plate and answered curtly.
“Why? Because this child, Riana, dislikes vegetables.”
“Hm? How did you know?”
How did he know that?
My eyes widened. I never expected to hear my secret from his cool, thin lips.
Without even glancing my way, the Former Emperor gave a crooked, ill-natured smirk.
Proving, once again, that they were father and son.
The expression was so similar to Enoch’s that I stared with my mouth slightly agape.
After savoring the broccoli with an infuriating slowness, the Former Emperor swallowed, then tilted his head to look down at Enoch.
“Don’t tell me you didn’t know?”
At the subtly provoking expression, Enoch’s brow twitched, and the corner of his mouth lifted into a matching smirk.
“As if that could be true.”
“Ah, that’s right. After what this child was saying yesterday, I suppose you would have known.”
Me? What did I say?
I had been about to target a piece of meat hiding amongst the colorful vegetables, but I snapped my head up again.
That accursed drink.
My heart pounded with anxiety. What on earth had I said last night? My lips parted.
“Wh-what did I say?”
“Look at her. She’s being wary again. You must have forced her to eat the vegetables she despises.”
“…Pardon?”
He paid no mind to me covering my mouth in confusion, simply shaking his head at Enoch.
“Using that handsome face to bewitch her into eating even the vegetables she tried to hide? Tsk, tsk. How cruel.”
“……”
What… what on earth did I say yesterday…?
I stealthily glanced at Enoch, nervously chewing on my lip.
The Former Emperor, perhaps thinking I was hesitating because of the vegetables, scooped a large spoonful of food from my plate.
“If you don’t want to eat it, then don’t. I am not like him. What’s wrong with a little picky eating?”
“…It seems you two have grown quite close without my knowledge.”
A faint smile.
Enoch looked at me, a smile playing only on his lips.
“Riana. If you don’t want to eat it, you don’t have to.”
“Ah, no, I’m fine.”
I shook my head vigorously, noticing a vein subtly throbbing on his smooth forehead.
Again, the Former Emperor’s fork invaded my plate.
And then Enoch’s.
Then the Former Emperor’s again.
I had no idea what had set them off, but thanks to their combative forks, the mountain of vegetables on my plate rapidly vanished.
The problem was…
“Excuse me… Your Majesty, and… Your Majesty? Could you please stop now…?”
It wasn’t just the vegetables that were disappearing.
Their merciless forks, now locked in competition, swept away the few precious pieces of meat as well.
I’d been anxiously watching the father and son, worried a fight might break out, but now my expression grew crestfallen as I watched my plate empty.
Something about a tea that’s good for hangovers.
The tea I’d had right after coming down here had settled my stomach, but now it was rumbling with hunger.
Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore. I threw my arms around my plate, shielding the last few morsels from Enoch and the Former Emperor’s advancing forks, and shrieked.
“Stop taking it! I’m hungry!”
Huffing,
I hugged my plate and glared at them warily.
From above, a troubled cough sounded—*ahem*—and a hand in a white cotton glove appeared before my eyes.
“Aaah!”
Who was this new villain?
I watched mournfully as my plate was whisked away over my head.
Then, a new, appetizing dish was placed in the empty space on the table before me.
A plate that was clearly freshly made, still radiating warmth, and completely devoid of vegetables.
“What is this…”
“This is the breakfast His Majesty ordered for you, Little Marquess. He mentioned you dislike vegetables…”
“Ah…?”
Only then did I recall the Former Emperor ordering something new to be brought out earlier, and my mouth closed tightly in embarrassment.
***
“So. Are you full now?”
“…Yes.”
The Former Emperor looked down at me as I answered in a voice barely audible with shame, and he snorted in amusement.
“Did you really think I have nothing better to do than steal food from a little thing like you?”
“If Your Majesty had just told me beforehand…!”
I started to retort, but one look at his sharp, glittering gray eyes made me shrink back.
“By the way, why are you calling me ‘Your Majesty’ all of a sudden? He is ‘Your Majesty,’ and I am ‘Your Majesty.’ It’s getting terribly confusing.”
My unfinished retort turning into a pout, I tilted my head.
“If I don’t call Your Majesty ‘Your Majesty,’ what should I call… you…?”
“What about the name you were chattering on about yesterday?”
“I was?”
What had this cursed mouth babbled in its drunken state now?
I pointed to my lips with a finger and blinked, and the Former Emperor spoke evasively.
“You know. That name. Fa… ahem. ‘Father.’”
“Pardon? Could you say that one more time? I didn’t quite hear you.”
“Ah, ahem. ‘…ther,’ I said.”
Was something caught in his throat?
Why was he suddenly swallowing his words? It was so unlike him.
As I just kept blinking, the Former Emperor clicked his tongue in frustration and spoke clearly.
“I said, Father. Father!”
“…Pardon?”
“Stop confusing everyone by calling us both ‘Your Majesty.’ Just call me what you were calling me before. You said it enough to make my ears ring, so don’t pretend you don’t remember.”
“But…”
Just yesterday he was glaring, telling me to break up with Enoch. Why the sudden change…?
The Former Emperor glanced at me, gaping in confusion, then called out to Enoch.
“And about what I said yesterday.”
“What are you referring to?”
“The manifestation records for this child here, who’s gaping like a goldfish.”
After a short pause, the Former Emperor wet his lips with water and continued.
“I think I might know where they are.”
