‘Oh, oh what should I do.’

I got up, startled.

My mind was in chaos, buzzing with confusion.

“Jade. What happened is……”

Now it was the right situation to reveal it.

I was writing him a letter earlier too.

Still, I didn’t expect to end up revealing it by being caught like this…….

The unexpected outcome was utterly disastrous.

“Young lady, what’s wrong? Mom, did something happen?”

Blanche still didn’t realize her wolf ears had popped out.

She looked back and forth between me and Jade while chewing on a macaron in her mouth.

“Ah! When did these come out!”

Belatedly noticing the existence of the wolf ears, she immediately hid them.

“……Young lady, did you see?”

Realizing it was already too late, Blanche blinked her eyes.

“No! Shu Shu was going to tell you when I could transform into a wolf! But I still can’t!”

Upset that her ambitious plan had fallen apart, Blanche ran off crying.

“Blanche!”

Jade held me back as I was about to follow Blanche.

“Larien. I think you need to explain to me first.”

“……Ah, well.”

“Just how long were you planning to deceive me.”

His gaze was tinged with a sense of betrayal.

‘No matter how much I tried to tell him, it’s true that I deceived him.’

I wanted to tell him directly because of situations like this.

“I wasn’t planning to keep deceiving you……”

That Blanche was his own daughter. If so, couldn’t I have revealed it a bit more naturally?

Although I ended up revealing it in an unintended way, now it was time to come clean.

“5 years ago, after that incident with you, I found out I was pregnant. I didn’t intend to hide it from the start, so I tried to tell you, asking how you would feel if I had a baby……”

“……”

“You said then, remember? That you couldn’t bear to look at it, that you hated children……”

The devastation I experienced that day, I still can’t forget even now.

“That you didn’t want to make a child like me. That there was no guarantee you wouldn’t die like my father……”

Because I had sent him away while suppressing my fears.

“That’s because I didn’t know it was my child. Larien, I said I couldn’t bear to see you carrying another man’s child.”

His breath, exhaled in agitation, was filled with anger.

“When I said I didn’t want to make a child like me, it was an excuse not to reveal my petty emotions.”

……That wasn’t his true feelings?

“Ah, where are you going.”

“Later, let’s talk again.”

Jade got up and turned his back, leaving the garden.

Unable to follow him, I sat alone on the mat and buried my face in my knees.

I felt upset.

The first step towards becoming a family had turned into a mess.

I composed myself and went looking for Blanche, who must have been shocked.

Blanche was crouched on the stairs inside the mansion.

“Blanche.”

“……Mom, because of Shu Shu, my wolf ears were seen.”

Blanche’s face, as she raised her head, was filled with tears.

“Shu Shu wanted to tell you when I could transform into a wolf……”

Frustrated that things didn’t go as planned, she sobbed while hiccuping.

“It’s okay. Baby. We were going to tell him anyway, right?”

“What if the young lord is disappointed when he finds out Shu Shu can’t transform into a wolf? What if he says he wishes he had a different daughter instead of Shu Shu……!”

I hugged Blanche tightly as she cried, fearing Jade’s disappointment.

“No, Blanche. Don’t think like that. Did Jade tell you directly that he was disappointed?”

“……No. He didn’t say that.”

“Right, you shouldn’t be scared by guessing the other person’s feelings in advance.”

Jade was angry about being deceived, but he wanted Blanche to be his daughter.

‘He must have been very surprised that I deceived him.’

I comforted myself thinking that Jade was angry because he was shocked.

“Mom, Shu Shu left her shoes behind. And the basket……”

Blanche swung her feet, wearing only socks. In the confusion, she had left everything behind in the garden.

“Mommy will go get them. Wait here for a moment.”

“Okay!”

I hurried my steps towards the garden.

On his way out of the garden, Jade came to an abrupt stop.

‘Blanche is really… my daughter……’

He still couldn’t believe it.

Was it possible for a child to be conceived between him and Larien, who were of different species?

Larien had never hinted at it before.

‘Jade, you…… really, just hypothetically, how would you feel if you were Blanche’s father?’

That Blanche was his daughter.

‘I was sure she couldn’t be my daughter. Just because of our different species, I was so certain……’

He was the one who had dismissed it as trivial, convinced it couldn’t be possible.

‘……Without knowing it was my child, I spouted such nonsense.’

Thinking Larien’s child was another man’s bloodline, he had fabricated an answer he didn’t mean.

His judgment had created the current situation.

Trying to hide the baby, setting fire to the annex and fleeing, pretending to be dead.

Anger built up as he realized he had given Larien a life that must have been like shackles.

‘I didn’t mean to get angry at Larien, why……’

Feeling sorry for getting angry at her, Jade turned back towards the garden.

Larien was already gone, probably having gone inside.

‘She’ll be back soon to get the things.’

The mat and basket were left behind.

Jade sat on the bench, waiting for Larien to return.

His heart felt so constricted he could barely breathe.

‘……I’m not angry because Larien deceived me, so why are my emotions so intense?’

When he saw Blanche’s wolf ears and realized she was his daughter, he was certainly taken aback.

Because he had believed there was no way he could be her biological father.

He finally found where the building anger was stemming from.

He traced back to the conversation he had with Larien on the ship.

‘What kind of person is the child’s father?’

‘Annoying, irritating, someone I want to hit……’

There was a sense of familiarity in Larien’s answer.

Such emotions wouldn’t come from her without days of accumulation.

So he asked.

If she loved him.

Larien said she didn’t know.

She had a habit of saying she didn’t know when it was difficult to say no.

At the time, he was relieved thinking it was another man.

Not realizing those were evaluations referring to him.

That he was Blanche’s father meant Larien didn’t love him.

Wasn’t it the same as saying she would never love him?

‘If I ask her to love me, she’ll probably feel burdened and hide more things.’

Larien didn’t avoid it when he kissed or touched her.

There were times when Larien would urge him to do more when she was aroused.

He had to be satisfied with her begging him out of desire.

Strictly speaking, love wasn’t necessary. Even if it was an emotion he longed for and couldn’t help but want, Jade forcibly suppressed it.

‘As long as you don’t avoid me, that’s enough.’

Even if she didn’t love him, it was enough if she just stayed by his side.

‘The only thing that could keep Larien with me is……’

Only Blanche, that child alone.

Not once had he wished for a child, but now that one was here, it wasn’t bad.

‘If I register Blanche in the family registry and give her the Rowe surname……’

Even if something were to happen, his property would be inherited by Blanche.

Just imagining it was satisfying. There was meaning in his efforts to increase his wealth.

‘The being Larien cherishes so much is a child of my own blood.’

He wanted to give everything to Blanche.

However, the Council of Elders wouldn’t easily accept Blanche, who wasn’t born as a legitimate heir.

How dare they.

Jade twisted his lips bitterly.

‘If she went to the snow mountain and gained succession rights through training, there wouldn’t be such noise……’

Jade, who had survived being thrown onto the snow mountain, knew all too well the harshness of that place.

For some reason, he didn’t want to send Blanche to the snow mountain.

‘Should I abolish the custom that succession rights are only recognized by going to the snow mountain?’

Of course, it was because of this custom that the collateral branches couldn’t challenge his authority.

Furthermore, it was the justification for protecting the Rowe family.

‘If I try to abolish the custom, Grand Duke Usith will go crazy.’

It wasn’t difficult to break Grand Duke Usith’s opposition.

He could strip him of his authority as Grand Elder by putting him on trial for the murder of his parents.

‘It’s good I didn’t meet Grand Duke Usith. I might have stabbed him in a moment of madness.’

He was barely holding back thanks to Larien, who said she was worried and told him not to do anything dangerous.

While the matter of registering Blanche as his successor seemed to flow more easily than expected, his earlier words crossed his mind.

She was going to tell him when she could transform into a wolf, which means……

“Does that mean she can’t shapeshift? At that age?”

Suddenly, a chill ran down his spine.

Among other therianthropes it might just be a bit delayed, but among wolves, it was a serious problem.

‘She probably couldn’t spit out the jewel.’

He rubbed the surface of the sapphire embedded in the brooch he wore around his neck.

All wolves have such jewels inherent in their hearts from the moment they are born.

After spitting out the jewel, which can only be taken out in wolf form, they always carried it on their bodies.

The only daughter of Wales Rowe, the family head from a few generations ago, couldn’t shapeshift, so the jewel remained in her heart.

The Council of Elders at the time suggested sending her to the snow mountain, saying it would awaken her wolf instincts.

On the contrary, there was a possibility of dying in the cold amidst the blizzards of the snow mountain.

Wales Rowe refused, not wanting to send his already frail only daughter to the snow mountain.

He said they would take responsibility for her in the Rowe family for life even if she couldn’t shapeshift.

Until then, Wales Rowe probably didn’t know.

That the unspat jewel would gradually grow larger and eventually stop his daughter’s heart.