Translator: Nox

Chapter 2

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A proposal without flowers or a ring was truly unrealistic. Aileen wished she had misheard or that he would say it was a joke.

However, Aileen's ears were perfectly normal, and Cesare was not one to make such jokes.

Why?

Her head spun with countless questions, making her dizzy. Aileen slowly inhaled and exhaled. She barely managed to calm her chaotic breathing before answering.

"I... I don't want to marry Your Excellency."

He still asked gently with a smiling face.

"You'd rather be beheaded on the Guillotine than marry me?"

"...That's not it."

Her throat kept constricting with fear. But she squeezed out all her courage and finally blurted out what she was thinking.

"It's not like Your Excellency likes me, and you just see me as a child."

"That's right. You are my child."

Her heart stung at the words that defined their relationship as if stating the obvious.

"That's why I don't like it. Your Excellency needs an heir, and you would have to do, do that to me."

Aileen bit her lip tightly and then uttered in a trembling voice.

"You can't..."

A large hand snatched the back of Aileen's neck. Cesare turned his head and deeply locked his lips with hers. Aileen was startled by the soft flesh that flooded into her mouth and pushed him away.

Their lips parted with a wet sound. Her heart was beating so fast it felt like it would explode. Aileen looked at Cesare with trembling eyes.

He was no longer smiling. Deeply sunken red eyes met Aileen's.

"How was it?"

A languid voice flowed from his slowly moving lips.

"Did you confirm it?"

Their first meeting was when Aileen was ten and Cesare was seventeen.

Aileen occasionally entered the Imperial Palace, following her mother, who was the Emperor's nanny.

Curious Aileen explored the gardens every time she went to the Imperial Palace. She originally held her mother's hand tightly, but that day, she chased after a small butterfly while her mother was distracted and got lost.

She wandered alone through the vast gardens for a long time, and just before she was about to collapse from exhaustion, she happened to run into Cesare.

"Hwaaaah...!"

As soon as she saw Cesare, tears burst out at the thought that she had finally met an adult. Aileen immediately ran to him and hugged him. She sobbed in his broad embrace, and then belatedly sniffled and looked up at the 'adult' she was hugging.

The man, backlit by the early summer sunlight, was truly a dazzlingly handsome man. The moment she met his flower-petal-red eyes, Aileen was so surprised that she even forgot to cry.

Wondering if he might be an angel, she looked at the man's back, searching for wings. However, instead of white wings, she only confirmed that there were even bigger adults behind the 'adult'.

Unlike Aileen, who knew nothing, Cesare immediately recognized that the sniveling girl was his nanny's young daughter. He slightly twisted his lips into a smile.

"You must be Lily."

It was a nickname only her mother used. To Aileen, who had widened her eyes, he plucked a lily that was blooming next to them. Then, he personally held Aileen in his arms and led her out of the garden, taking her back to her mother.

Aileen was severely scolded that day, but she wasn't sad at all. She just smiled, looking at the lily prettily placed in a vase.

Before going to sleep, she carefully recorded in her diary about the angel she met at the Imperial Palace. Hoping to meet him again next time she entered the palace.

After that, Cesare occasionally asked the nanny about Aileen, and each time, she was given the opportunity to meet Cesare. It was a truly joyful thing for young Aileen.

The little girl sat facing the man who was about to come of age and enjoyed afternoon tea time. It was mostly a time when Aileen chattered away alone.

Unlike other children her age, Aileen's interest was entirely focused on plants. Cesare patiently listened to the little girl's stories about all kinds of plants. It must have been very boring and uninteresting, but he never stopped Aileen's chatter.

That was how their relationship began and continued until now.

'I thought he was an angel, not a devil.'

Even if she was young, she had no sense of judgment at all. At that time, Cesare was already a seasoned soldier who had been on the battlefield for a long time. He had an aura that ordinary people couldn't easily approach.

To run up and hug someone who was beautiful but as cold as a well-honed sword. Leaving behind all the other sane adults behind him.

'I should have hugged Lord Rotan back then.'

If she had, things like today wouldn't have happened. Aileen came out of the inn in a daze.

In front of the inn, an expensive black car that didn't match the old road was parked. Rohan supported the staggering Aileen and put her in the car.

"I will escort you, Lady Aileen."

Aileen was dragged along and seated as he escorted her. Thunk, the car door closed, and the soldier sitting in the driver's seat grabbed the steering wheel.

Rohan sat next to Aileen. Normally, he would have sat next to the driver. When she looked at him sitting next to her for some reason, Rohan quickly handed her a handkerchief and a lemon-flavored candy.

"..."

Perhaps because their first meeting was with a crying little girl. Cesare and his knights all tended to treat Aileen as a crybaby and a child.

Now Aileen was a proper adult and didn't cry easily. The candy... she still ate it often, though.

Since she couldn't refuse Rohan's kindness to his face, she accepted it and placed it on her lap. Then, she informed him of the huge incident.

"Lord Rotan. His Excellency proposed to me."

"I see."

The reaction was too calm. Aileen tightly gripped the candy and handkerchief together. Unable to bring herself to mention the kiss, she emphasized the proposal a little more.

"...He proposed, you know?"

Rohan raised his thick eyebrows. He looked like he didn't know what to say. Even though His Excellency suddenly asked the child he had only seen as a little girl for over a decade to marry him, Rohan didn't seem surprised at all.

"Aren't you surprised?"

"Of course not. Lady Aileen is about to be executed."

Rohan spouted nonsense logic in an extremely rational tone.

"It's a situation where we have to save Lady Aileen somehow, and since His Excellency needs a Grand Duchess, he simply chose the most efficient method."

"Efficient..."

Even at her dumbfounded murmur, Rohan's expression didn't change. It seemed that Aileen was the only one who thought this situation was crazy.

Aileen briefly recalled the 'proposal' she had received earlier.

Be executed, or get married.

It was a choice with nothing to choose from. She roughly understood why Cesare was doing this.

Within the Empire, the Elrod Family was classified as Pro-Grand Duke Faction. They had no money, no power, no honor, really nothing, but because Aileen's mother was the Grand Duke's nanny, they were.

There was nothing the existence of the Elrod Family could do to benefit the Grand Duke. However, if she was executed for drugs, Cesare would be disgraced. The Anti-Grand Duke Faction would seize on any excuse to undermine him.

He seemed to be planning to divert people's attention with the hot topics of the Victory Ceremony and the Grand Duke's marriage, and cleanly erase what Aileen had done.

It wasn't just political reasons he was calculating. For Cesare, Aileen was a trustworthy person. It wasn't a family that could strengthen him through marriage, but at least she wasn't someone who would stab him in the back.

Cesare's trust in Aileen all stemmed from her mother.

Originally, Aileen wasn't the firstborn of the Elrod Family. Aileen's mother sent her first child to heaven as soon as she gave birth.

After entering the Imperial Palace and becoming a nanny, she thought of it as fate as soon as she saw Cesare. The mother regarded Cesare as a child sent to her by God and revered him as if worshiping him.

Originally, it was something that should not have happened to bring a child who had lost her mother as the wet nurse of the Emperor.

Nevertheless, the reason why Aileen's mother was selected was obvious. It meant that Cesare was an abandoned Emperor.

The late Emperor already had too many children. Counting only the officially recognized children, it far exceeded ten fingers. Cesare, who was born in this situation, was not welcomed by anyone.

To survive, Cesare betrayed and was betrayed by countless people.

Amidst the endless betrayers, Aileen's mother maintained her fanatical loyalty to Cesare until the day she died.

She was one of the few people Cesare truly trusted. Thanks to that, his daughter Aileen also entered his fence.