Since confronting Steve, Lloyd had been drinking every day.

It got to the point where he couldn’t sleep without drinking, and there was no one around to control him.

Feeling disillusioned with his increasingly ruined life, Lloyd suddenly felt the urge to return home.

Of course, at first his pride wouldn’t allow it. But as time passed, it gradually softened.

“Young master.”

“Open the door.”

Lloyd walked the long distance from the hotel to the main gate of the Percy mansion on foot.

He could have taken a carriage, but he wanted some time alone to clear his complicated thoughts.

So he tried walking like other people, but soon regretted it.

Having never walked like this before, his legs were shaky and his feet ached.

So he wanted to get in and rest quickly. But for some reason, the gatekeeper wasn’t opening the door.

At that moment, Lloyd felt more irritated by the unopened door than his aching legs and feet.

Given enough time, all of this splendor would become his. Yet the gatekeeper showed no fear. He just seemed at a loss.

“What are you doing? Open the door now!”

Angered that the gatekeeper wasn’t listening, Lloyd shouted while banging on the door.

As someone was yelling in front of the grand ducal residence, passersby began to glance at Lloyd.

“That’s the rogue of the ducal family.”

“My goodness, seeing him again like this, Lady Clea must have suffered greatly.”

“Tsk, birds of a feather flock together. A well-matched pair with the princess.”

People’s perceptions had changed a lot by now.

Before, many people called him pitiful.

They looked at him with sympathy, saying it was unfortunate he had Clea as his fiancée, while simultaneously saying he looked good as Aria’s close friend.

However, after Clea was expelled from the family, rumors about him changed.

In fact, the veil that had been concealing him by Clea until now was lifted, and his true self began to appear before people.

He gambled away the ducal family’s fortune, met with various young ladies despite having a fiancée, and finally, there were even rumors questioning his loyalty to the imperial family.

Lloyd completely ignored such gazes.

If he had been conscious of others’ gazes in the first place, he would have been aware of the rumors about himself.

Rumors about Lloyd had already spread to the point where there was no one in the capital who didn’t know.

But he didn’t care at all. He was living while thinking only of one being.

“What’s all this commotion?”

“Your Grace, well…”

Just as the gatekeeper was contemplating whether to continue refusing entry, the Duke appeared.

Seeing Lloyd beyond the gate, the Duke felt frustrated.

Looking at him, who had brought the great family built by himself and his predecessors to the brink of crisis in an instant, he could only feel dismay.

“You left as if you’d never return, yet you come back so easily.”

As the Duke spoke sarcastically, Lloyd frowned.

“Do you dislike me that much?”

“I do.”

“I am your only child.”

“That’s why I dislike you more. Because you are my only blood relative.”

The Duke felt ashamed that his only blood relative had grown up to be such a scoundrel.

The Duke looked at the people gathered behind Lloyd.

“If you’re short on money, I’ll give you some, so return to your lodgings.”

“I didn’t come for money!”

Lloyd spoke with a determination not to back down.

The Duke didn’t want to let him take even one step into his house, but not wanting to be the talk of the town anymore, he eventually nodded to the gatekeeper.

The gatekeeper hesitated with a worried face at the Duke’s decision, but the Duke’s mind was already made up.

The door that seemed firmly closed and would never open did open, and Lloyd strode in confidently.

‘A place for Aria and me to stay together.’

Looking at the home he had returned to after a long time, Lloyd imagined.

He imagined living happily here, becoming a family with Aria.

A moment later, breaking free from the sweet dream, he looked around.

And only then did he realize. That none of the servants in the house were welcoming him at all.

But he didn’t care much this time either.

‘I’ll take care of everything after I become the Duke.’

He firmly believed that once he succeeded to the position of head of the family, he could set everything right.

‘…Clea.’

As he looked around the house, Lloyd suddenly recalled memories with Clea from various parts of the mansion.

She who had stopped smiling at him at some point.

She who had shown a bright smile to Admund. While showing only cold and arrogant expressions towards himself.

Feeling unnecessarily upset, Lloyd punched the wall with all his might.

‘You can never be happy! Never.’

Convinced that Clea could never be happy with anyone but himself, he leisurely headed to his room.

“To think that such a person will become our lord.”

“But if you consider his bloodline, there’s nothing to fault.”

“We’re all about to be thrown out because of that damn bloodline, why don’t you think about that!”

“I’m starting to deeply sympathize with why the Duke tried to persuade us.”

Meanwhile, the retainers of the ducal family, having witnessed all of Lloyd’s disgraceful behavior, completely lost what little respect they had left for him.

Of course, Lloyd would be completely unaware of this.

* * *

The faces of the retainers, who had been engaged in heated debate during the meeting, had completely darkened.

From those who had shouted opposition to those who had cast votes in favor, everyone’s expression was poor.

Seeing their appearance, the Duke smiled bitterly.

“Clearly, until just now, the majority of the retainers here were against revoking Lloyd’s inheritance rights.”

Revocation of inheritance rights.

This included several meanings.

It meant that after the Duke’s death, it would be impossible to inherit anything in the ducal family.

But the biggest problem was that the Percy family would be inherited by someone else.

They strongly objected to the idea of someone with no connection to the ducal family inheriting it.

Until they encountered Lloyd, the retainers’ main argument was that no matter how much of a scoundrel he was, Lloyd, who inherited the Duke’s blood, should succeed the family.

They naively thought that it would be enough to slowly educate him and make him into a proper person, though it would be difficult.

However, after facing Lloyd, that thought completely changed.

“Is that unsightly person really the young master we knew?”

“If you’re talking about that thing that called me father, then yes.”

“How on earth did he end up like that?”

“I don’t want to talk about that right now.”

Lloyd’s appearance was very unsightly, unlike before.

His eyes were haggard, perhaps from fatigue, and his face was pale. Even his clothes were a mess, as if he couldn’t dress properly by himself, with buttons fastened haphazardly.

But what was most shocking was the look in his eyes as he gazed at the people of the ducal family.

His eyes were filled with anger. The reason was unknown. But it was certain that anger would have a bad influence on the ducal family.

“When do you plan to announce the revocation of the young master’s inheritance rights?”

“I plan to announce it together when I announce the new heir.”

“Does the Duchess also agree with adopting an heir?”

“I have already obtained her agreement on that matter.”

“Then you must have already decided who to adopt.”

At first, they had expressed concerns about adopting an heir, but now it was different.

“Does everyone remember who Lloyd’s former fiancée was?”

“If you mean her, isn’t she the one who will surely become the Crown Princess?”

The retainers weren’t so foolish as to not understand why Clea was being mentioned in this meeting.

The retainers thought. That the person the Duke had in mind was none other than Clea.

She was to become the Crown Princess in the future, and further, the Empress of the Empire.

Even when she was Lloyd’s fiancée, they had viewed her favorably.

Perhaps because of this, there was no one particularly expressing dissatisfaction.

Only the uncertainty of how the complex succession issues would be resolved was a concern.

“I made an agreement with His Highness the Crown Prince recently. Excluding the firstborn who must inherit the throne, to allow the second son to inherit the ducal family.”

But when the Duke said that even that had already been settled, the retainers’ worries melted away like snow.

“Then what is there to oppose? We will all follow Your Grace’s will.”

“It’s reassuring to hear that you’ve already made an agreement with His Highness the Crown Prince.”

In the smoothly proceeding atmosphere, someone asked a question.

“When do you plan to announce the new heir?”

There will be some among the nobility who send messages of concern regarding the marriage of the two.

So the Duke said it would be good to announce it before then.

“I’ll try to wrap up the story as quickly as possible. There’s only about two weeks left until the wedding ceremony.”

“Come to think of it, the wedding is not far off.”

A grand wedding ceremony to be held solely for the two of them.

There were many aspects that caught people’s attention.

Starting with the story that Emperor Odin personally offered the most splendid palace within the imperial palace to hold the wedding ceremony, there were all sorts of stories.

Among them, the most talked-about aspect was the reversal of status between Aria Hersher and Clea.

Besides that, stories about what happened with Lloyd, Clea’s former fiancé, spread everywhere.

‘That child’s wedding.’

Although he failed to bring her in as a daughter-in-law, the Duke was satisfied with adopting her as a daughter and giving her everything he had.