Seeing Celeste again, she seemed, well, like a different person. Carl overlaid the image of Celeste from two years ago with the one in front of him now.
Indeed, even the Celeste who had come to him two years ago was quite different from the one he had occasionally seen passing by before.
“Carl, we really need to talk.”
Although they had never actually spoken, despite occasionally seeing each other from a distance, Celeste, who suddenly sought him out two years ago, behaved as if they were close.
“I don’t have time, Carl.”
She had even come to his hidden villa and called him by his first name without hesitation.
“Papa.”
Warmth brushed against his fingertips. Carl was jolted from his memories by something touching his hand.
“Bya-ba.”
The child, who had been soundly asleep until just moments ago, was looking up at him with twinkling blue eyes. Despite their efforts to be quiet, they had disturbed the child’s sleep.
Blinking a few times, the child fully opened his eyelids and gave him a big, toothless smile.
“Pa, pa.”
It wasn’t a mistake. The child looked straight at him and called out “Papa” again. Celeste had explained that it was just the child’s limited ability to make sounds, but Carl felt something odd about it.
As the child reached out to grab his hand, Carl withdrew it.
“Ah, right. We’ll also need to confirm if the child is really the offspring of the Countess and that detective. We’ll conduct another test at the imperial palace.”
“What? We’ve already done that.”
“We couldn’t properly verify the results, could we?”
Carl had actually seen the potion containing the detective’s and the child’s blood spilled on the floor after the explosion. He had secretly felt relieved seeing the potion still tinged red. Though he hadn’t realized it at the time.
“But…”
“There’s been an alarming rise in child abduction cases in the capital recently. According to a new decree from the police department, any child not registered with the local authorities must undergo a paternity test with their guardian.”
Celeste bit her lip hard. She seemed to have a habit of biting her lip when deep in thought or facing a dilemma.
What could be going through her mind? Carl wondered. She had suddenly appeared, stirred his life, and vanished, only to reappear completely changed, and with a child, no less. She was truly an unpredictable rubber ball, bouncing in any direction.
“If it turns out that the detective is not the father, then… we’ll only test the paternity between me and the child, right? We won’t go looking for another father…”
Was there a reason why the child’s father shouldn’t be known?
Carl disliked Celeste’s apparent desire to conceal the existence of the child’s father. Or maybe, he just didn’t like the idea of the child’s father at all.
“We have to find the child’s father.”
In truth, it wasn’t necessary. If it was confirmed that Celeste was the mother, there would be no issue with registering the birth, and if the child was in the care of a confirmed guardian, there would be no need for further investigation.
Yet, Carl lied on the spur of the moment, claiming they needed to find the child’s father.
“It’s the regulation. Even if it’s confirmed that you’re the mother, since you gave birth out of wedlock and the legal father isn’t registered…”
As Carl explained unasked, he was internally relieved that Celeste didn’t seem to suspect the truth behind his plausible lie.
“Sigh. You said you don’t even remember giving birth to the child. Then, all the more reason to find the child’s father. To hold him accountable and inform him of his duties as a parent.”
Carl couldn’t understand why he felt so displeased.
“But how do you plan to find the father of a child whose mother doesn’t remember him?”
“We will identify potential fathers and conduct tests…”
Suddenly, someone flashed in Carl’s mind. Franz, Celeste’s well-known lover, whom he despised.
“Baba, Papa.”
Distracted by the child’s calling, Carl looked down at the child, meeting its eyes, a mix of blue and green, creating a unique turquoise hue.
The blue eyes. They resembled Franz’s.
Yes, this annoyance must be anger towards someone who made a child and then irresponsibly disappeared.
It must be that. Carl forcibly ignored the longing look in the child’s eyes, not wanting to see the small face that resembled Franz.
At that moment, Carl was unaware, perhaps unwilling to acknowledge, that his own eyes were also a similar shade of blue. A unique hue of blue tinged with green, a trait not exclusive to Franz but characteristic of the royal family.
Carl’s words kept echoing in her mind. Essentially, upon arrival in the capital, Carl intended to gather all men who could be presumed to have had a relationship with Celeste and verify their paternity with Valerie.
“What is that? It’s not like identifying livestock!”
The idea of rounding up a group of potential fathers for comparison, as Carl suggested, was utterly absurd and offensive, especially when one of them was unaware of his own child.
“It’s your child,” she almost blurted out, barely restraining herself.
Celeste and Carl were, at least two years ago, intimate enough to conceive Valerie. But how could Carl talk so indifferently about ‘potential fathers’ and ‘comparisons’? Was he not aware that he should be the prime suspect? Or did he not care?
“Could it have been just a relationship of mutual convenience…?”
Carl’s behavior didn’t seem like that of a man who had loved, or even cared for, a woman. If he saw a child from a woman he didn’t love, the conclusion was inevitable: a casual fling.
“…That’s not his character, right?”
A one-night stand with a non-heroine woman seemed like a fatal flaw for the perfect protagonist Carl Albrecht, who was depicted as being unswayed by women’s appearances.
Even if it was a moment of impulse, how could he not consider the possibility of fathering a child? His confident assertions about finding the father were baffling, especially since his own name would surely be on that list.
“Milady.”
Hannah returned after speaking with Duke Albrecht’s aide. What conversation could have taken so long? Especially with all the thoughts about Carl swirling in her head, she felt a need to confide in someone.
“What did you talk about? I saw His Grace leaving just a moment ago.”
“The same discussions we had before boarding the train.”
“About what?”
“About the Duke of Schwaben’s poisoning, and Valerie’s paternity test.”
“Ah, that. They could’ve waited until we returned to the capital to do that.”
“Exactly.”
“Our little Valerie is awake, ujuju. So pretty.”
Hannah cooed at Valerie, who then smiled broadly at her. The child’s gesture of stretching out her arms, asking to be picked up, was truly endearing.
Of course, she would be pretty, having inherited the looks of the strongest handsome man in this world. Hannah too had long been captivated by Valerie’s adorable appearance.
“Oh right. We talked about that too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“His Majesty the Emperor… suddenly passed away.”
“What?”
“Why are you shouting like that, Hannah?”
“His Majesty the Emperor passed away? Why?”
“I don’t know that. They didn’t tell me the details.”
“When did it happen?”
“I’m not sure exactly… but since the Duke’s assassination warrant had the Emperor’s seal, it must have been within the last two months from now.”
“But why is it so quiet? I haven’t heard anything about it.”
“It was so sudden, they’ve kept it hushed up for now. They say it shouldn’t be made public…”
“Oh my, oh God.”
Hannah’s face was clouded with confusion. It was the first time I had seen her looking so serious while holding Valerie. Rightly so. It’s a natural reaction to the news of an emperor’s death.
“Milady, wait a moment.”
“Hm?”
As if suddenly remembering something important, Hannah called me to a halt.
After Being Cheated On, She Picked Up a Treasure (Female-dominant)
One-line summary: The husband I married on a whim had been secretly in love with me for a long time.
On the day when Jun Shao finally obtained the imperial decree for her marriage, Lan Qu, the person she had admired for six years, defied the decree and ran away.
Her gentleness and devotion, her promise of a lifetime together, were all disregarded by him. Instead, he dreamed of entering the palace to serve the Emperor’s sister as a sixth-rank attendant.
News of this incident spread throughout the capital, and the alleys in front of and behind the Lan mansion were crowded with people who came to watch the commotion.
Jun Shao should have been embarrassed and angry.
But someone stepped in to protect her dignity.
The figure was in a miserable state, yet still possessed an undeniable elegance and handsomeness.
The young lord struggled to climb the wall of the Lan mansion and shouted to her, “If he won’t marry you, I will!”
So, Jun Shao took advantage of the situation and married the person.
She thought the young lord did it to save the Lan family from the crime of defying the imperial decree, but never imagined that from beginning to end, what he coveted was her.
*
After the wedding, Jun Shao felt like she was living in a dream.
Her Wife-master was as beautiful as a fairy in a painting, skilled in the six arts, well-versed in poetry and literature, capable of being gentle and attentive, and also grand and dignified. Most importantly, she was the only one in his heart and eyes.
Jun Shao didn’t know how Lan Shiwu, as a illegitimate son without a father and blessed with beauty, had managed to preserve his purity, recklessly escape, and use his last ounce of strength to ruin his own reputation, all because of his love for her, just to stand before her.
She could only see him gazing at her with eyes full of love, and when she bestowed a name upon him, his eyes shone like stars.
“You have come to me like a weary bird perching on a branch. I shall call you A Qi.”
