“Miss Lucy. A secret… What kind of… Derek?”

Jessica shifted her gaze from Lucy to Derek, urging her son to answer.

But Derek kept his lips tightly sealed, not responding.

As Jessica was about to grab Derek in the strange atmosphere, the butler came to fetch him.

“The Duke doesn’t mind knowing. And I didn’t think that secret would be kept for long. You know that, Lucy.”

Derek, who hadn’t answered Jessica, briefly raised his arrogant chin and spoke to Lucy.

A secret that the Duke can know about? …How big of a secret could it be between children?

At most, it’s probably something small like breaking an item. But still…

Though she tried to calm her uneasy heart, Jessica couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling.

She needed to present Derek as the victim to them, but things seemed to be going slightly awry.

“The reception room is this way.”

As the maid guided Jessica, Lucy gently bent and straightened her knees.

“Then, farewell, madam.”

Lucy’s frilled dress swished down. Jessica, about to follow the maid, hesitated for a moment.

It was a seven-year-old child’s greeting, yet it made her feel as if she had encountered a demon.

“Miss Lucy…?”

Jessica’s voice echoed in the hallway, but Lucy simply twirled around.

Despite hearing Jessica’s call, the child moved towards her room with lively steps, turning her back on Jessica.

“Miss Lucy!”

Feeling ominous, Jessica unknowingly raised her voice calling for Lucy and tried to follow her with hurried steps, but the maid clung to Jessica, restraining her movements.

“Madam. You must stay in the reception room while you talk with the Duke. Those were the Duke’s orders.”

“No, wait. Lucy… Lucy…! Miss Lucy!!”

Jessica cried out even as she was being pushed into the reception room by the maids.

She felt she needed to ask Lucy right now.

What exactly was that secret?

What was it that made her turn away with such an expression…!

*

Derek, guided by the butler into the study, gave Damian a polite greeting with a straight back.

Damian acknowledged the child’s greeting, then gestured towards the sofa.

“Come here.”

“Yes, Duke.”

Though tension was evident, there was a gesture attempting to show confidence.

Still only 8 years old. Damian looked at Derek, remembering his age.

As he had not yet seen an heir from Eriel, Derek’s existence could potentially become a seed of discord.

Of course, Damian didn’t think he would cause such a problem himself.

He was planning to see an heir from Eriel anyway, and didn’t judge Derek’s existence to be a threat. That’s why he simply left it alone and observed.

Just… Bruno’s child. That was all.

But if such talk had reached Eriel’s ears, of all people, he couldn’t just stand by and watch.

If such impure intentions had dared to reach his wife’s ears…!

Damian, gripping the armrest of the sofa tightly, looked down at the child.

“You said you’d fire the butler when you grow up. May I ask what you meant by that?”

Derek swallowed hard and placed his hands neatly on his knees.

“Because I will be the heir to the Jenova Duchy.”

The answer came without a moment’s hesitation.

“When the time comes for the Duke to pass on his position, it’s only natural that I become the heir. I think it’s extremely rude for the Jenova Duchy’s butler to mistreat my mother, who will become the next Duchess.”

“…Is that so?”

Damian blinked slowly.

Had he inherited Bruno and Jessica’s crude malice? Or had he been taught this way?

Whatever it was, he had clearly inherited their stupidity.

Even if he had been taught this way, to confidently state that he would inherit the position while Eriel, the Duchess, was still by Damian’s side…

“Although Lucy, who promised to keep it a secret, easily let it slip, I judge that my words about the Duchess’s necklace were disrespectful.”

Damian’s eyebrow raised slightly.

Since Lucy hadn’t spoken in detail, he hadn’t heard the full story.

Eriel’s necklace…?

“It must be an item the current Duchess is wearing, so I think I was disrespectful to the wearer by carelessly saying it would become my wife’s.”

“Do you remember which necklace Eriel was wearing?”

“It was a purple necklace.”

It was the necklace his mother had left to Eriel when she got married.

“But… Mother always said that when I become Duke, all the precious jewels would be hers. I’m going to be the Duke, so why does Mother get all the precious jewels! The mansion, the necklace! If I become Duke, aren’t they all my possessions? But every time… fixing this and that in the mansion.”

In the child’s eyes, swirling with anger, various emotions churned.

The possessiveness that it should be his, the fear of losing it, and even some distrust towards Jessica.

“I’d rather learn successor lessons under the Duke at this point. Lucy said she learned the history of the Empire from the Duchess, but I haven’t learned anything from Mother.”

Damian’s brows furrowed.

“Mother always says Duke, Duke! She only tells me to become Duke in words…”

The child, pouring out his thoughts, met Damian’s eyes.

Quickly reading Damian’s unfavorable expression, the child lowered his head.

Tears welled up in the child’s eyes, but knowing he shouldn’t cry here now, Derek bit his lip, trying his best to hold back.

Knock knock−.

At the sudden knocking sound, Damian’s gaze shifted.

“Dad.”

It was Lucy, not the butler, calling Damian. As Damian responded, Lucy opened the door.

Lucy peeked her head through the opened gap, checking where Derek was.

Seeing Derek’s teary eyes, she widened her eyes in surprise, then slowly approached the sofa.

“Brother Derek…”

Lucy’s voice was low.

At the same time, Derek quickly raised his hands to rub his eyes vigorously.

It could be seen as childish behavior, but Damian felt like he was once again confirming Derek’s conviction that he would become Duke, as he seemed unwilling to show his crying face to Lucy.

Even if it became difficult to choose an heir because he couldn’t see one from Eriel, Derek wasn’t an option for Damian.

He would have rather thought about changing the law or making exceptions to raise Lucy.

Lucy probably entered the study worried about Derek, but Damian thought it would be good to make things clear at this point.

No matter how much he sent the entire Bruno family to the Eastern Empire, he couldn’t shake off his anger at the thoughtless statement that he would become the heir.

Thinking that his child and wife had heard such nonsense from Derek, Damian felt strangely twisted towards the 8-year-old child.

“Derek.”

Damian called Derek.

“You will not become the heir.”

The dejected child’s face quickly met Damian’s gaze and opened his lips in bewilderment.

“Did, did I make some mistake?”

However, upon meeting the child’s eyes, Damian didn’t feel entirely pleasant either.

It felt like taking away a toy the child possessed. Damian didn’t know how to gently admonish in situations like this.

If Eriel were here…

Even as he made such assumptions, thinking that Eriel had heard such nonsense made his heart boil again.

But against a mere 8-year-old child…

Suppressing a sigh, Damian looked at the child.

He truly resembled Bruno a lot.

“At 8 years old, I had fully mastered the introduction to political science. All previous Dukes received such teachings around the same age.”

As they were in the study, Damian’s gaze moved to an empty bookshelf.

“Lucy read the history book of the Eastern Continent alone at 7 years old.”

Since he said he lost to Lucy at the banquet, Derek’s level was probably just average, something Damian found hard to gauge.

Just like back then when Bruno gritted his teeth and studied beside Damian but couldn’t keep up.

In contrast, Lucy was different.

“Moreover, Lucy is reading the introduction to political science. Even if she doesn’t master the entire book’s content within a year, she’s still worthy of becoming an heir.”

Damian tilted his head slightly.

“Do you think your academic level is high enough to discuss politics with Lucy?”

At Damian’s blunt question, Derek’s face turned bright red.

However, Damian’s cold words were simply stating the reasons why Derek couldn’t become the heir.

He had no intention of insulting Derek.

What was the point of insulting an 8-year-old child?

Whether he was Eriel’s offspring or not was actually more important, but in any case, no Duke would have a fool as their heir.

What would become of the country if the only Duke of the Empire was a fool?

“For the Duke of Jenova, who leads the Imperial faction, the most important thing is not personality, appearance, or money. It’s how smart you are. To lead numerous nobles, you need that level of knowledge and logic. To prevent the Empire’s people from starving, you need to rack your brains for the Empire’s benefit.”

Seeming to bristle at those words, Derek retaliated against Damian’s statement.

“Didn’t Lucy learn under a wise Duchess? The same goes for that political… book you mentioned. You taught Lucy, but I had none of that. It’s unfair! And… Lucy can’t become the heir anyway, right?”

Derek glanced at Lucy.

“…So?”

“…Pardon?”

“You didn’t grasp the context. Of what I’m saying.”

Damian, speaking coldly again, tilted his head with an indifferent face.

Feeling the need to speak more simply to Derek, who seemed not to understand, Damian moved his lips, choosing words to replace…

The word ‘fool’ was a bit… A word to replace it…

“It means stupid children can’t become heirs in the first place.”