Chapter 16
The ominous black potion inside the vial seeped into the lawn.
Karl staggered back and muttered in shock,
“M-M-Mother?”
Before Karl could even process what had happened, Isabella came rushing over from somewhere and slapped Sarah across the face.
“You… you!”
The crack of the slap split the air. Sarah was knocked straight onto the grass.
Unable to contain her fury, Isabella grabbed Sarah by the hair and yanked her head up.
“You… how dare you…!”
The ducal family’s knights came running from the distance. Throwing Sarah toward them, Isabella shouted,
“Lock her up first!”
Whether from the shock or the pain of the slap, Sarah couldn’t utter a single word. Trembling violently, she was dragged away by the knights.
Karl stood up from the swing, completely dumbfounded.
“Mother, why are you treating Sarah like this?”
“You’re actually asking me that, Karl?”
Isabella gripped his shoulders so hard that his body swayed, making the swing creak loudly.
“What? According to Sarah, you’re going to dismiss your tutor, stop attending knight training, and even throw up everything you eat?”
“B-But, Mother…”
“You actually believed that nonsense? Huh?”
Karl froze at the sight of Isabella’s furious eyes.
She had always been known as a cold, distant woman who completely lost her reason when angered. Yet Karl had never seen this side of her before. Until now, Isabella had always managed to keep her emotions under control in front of her children.
But after witnessing such a horrifying scene with her own eyes, she could no longer remain calm.
Meeting his mother’s blazing gaze for the first time, the boy stammered,
“B-But if I did that… Brother would come back… and people would stop pointing fingers at me…”
“You still haven’t come to your senses! Do you think Ekyan would be happy if he saw you like this? Huh?”
Now Isabella was actually shaking Karl by the shoulders.
Just then—
“My Lady, that’s enough.”
A woman approached and gently pulled Isabella away from Karl.
Only then did Karl take a deep breath and blink.
Holding Isabella back was a young woman with red hair and green eyes whom he had never seen before.
Dressed in a simple dress and worn-out shoes, she spoke calmly.
“If you’re going to blame someone, blame Sarah. Young Master is still a child…”
“Judith, he’s not just any child! He’s a genius who remembers things from when he was two or three years old! His intelligence is already on the level of an adult!”
Isabella shouted furiously.
The woman called Judith quietly took Karl’s hand and replied,
“And what does it matter if his intelligence is that of an adult? He’s still only eight years old.”
“…What?”
“He may have the intelligence of an adult, but he hasn’t lived as long as one. It’s only natural that there are many things he’s still immature about.”
Only then did Isabella seem to regain a little of her composure and fall silent.
Judith continued gently but firmly,
“He may read difficult books and solve difficult problems…
…but he’s still a child who’s only lived for eight years.”
Tears suddenly welled up in Karl’s eyes.
You’re smart.
You’re brilliant.
You’re a genius.
You’re practically an adult already.
Those were words he had heard his entire life.
Even Sarah often warned him,
“Everyone knows how intelligent you are, Young Master. You mustn’t behave like other children.”
That meant he wasn’t allowed to pretend to be childish, pretend not to know things, or simply study and eat as he normally would.
But now, for the very first time, someone was calling him a child.
“So whenever there’s something Young Master doesn’t know, it’s our responsibility as adults to teach you.”
Isabella stood there motionless, as though nailed to the ground.
Patting Isabella gently on the arm, Judith slowly knelt down until she was at Karl’s eye level.
“Young Master, it’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Baroness Judith Ailan.”
Considering her appearance was plainer than even the duchy’s maids, Karl had wondered who she was.
So she was a noble after all.
Calming himself, Karl greeted her politely.
“…It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Karl Mayus.”
Her round green eyes curved into a gentle smile.
Up close, she wasn’t the kind of woman one would call a breathtaking beauty, but her face was clear, warm, and vivid.
Holding Karl’s hand, Judith said,
“Not everything Sarah told you was true. Young Master… Right now, Her Ladyship is more heartbroken than she’s ever been.”
“But Brother…”
“If Young Duke Ekyan saw you living like this, it would break his heart.”
Judith continued softly.
“When Young Duke left the House of Mayus, it also meant he was entrusting your parents to you. So how can you make them suffer like this?”
Karl had never thought about it that way before.
His eyes trembled violently.
After taking a shaky breath, he asked,
“But who are you to know what my brother is thinking?”
Suspicion filled his eyes.
Which was only natural.
“What do you know about my brother? Sarah grew up with him! They were really close!”
The moment Karl mentioned Sarah, the one who reacted was Isabella.
“Sarah, Sarah, Sarah! Everything is Sarah with you!”
Already furious, Isabella practically exploded.
Once she lost her temper, she completely lost her reason.
It was also why, despite being an elegant noblewoman, she had never enjoyed a particularly good reputation in high society.
“If Ekyan really treasured Sarah that much, do you think he would’ve left without saying a single word to her?”
“Then what’s different about Baroness Ailan? How am I supposed to believe anything she says?”
Just as Judith’s eyes wavered slightly—
Isabella roared,
“She’s carrying your nephew!”
“…What?”
Even Judith was stunned.
She had never imagined Isabella would reveal her pregnancy to an eight-year-old like this.
But Isabella, whose emotions had already completely taken over, couldn’t stop herself.
“She was your brother’s lover! Do you understand?”
Although Karl still possessed the emotions of a child, everyone acknowledged him as a genius.
He knew far more than children his age.
So he understood the situation instantly.
“…My goodness.”
His eyes widened as he stared at Judith’s still-flat stomach.
“So…
…you’re saying you and my brother did… that sort of thing… and had a baby?”
For one of the rare times in her life, Judith looked flustered.
She glanced back and forth between Karl and her stomach before mumbling,
“Ah… um… well… I suppose that’s one way to put it…”
Karl jumped off the swing.
Hurrying over, he leaned in with wide eyes.
“Where is my brother? Huh?”
There was only one answer Judith could give.
“Well… in the end… he left again…”
Silence.
Karl slowly turned toward Isabella with an expression of utter disbelief.
Isabella merely cleared her throat awkwardly.
“Ahem… ahem…”
She couldn’t bring herself to say a word.
After a long silence, Karl finally seemed to piece everything together.
Clenching his fists, he shouted,
“That crazy bastard!”
“H-Huh?”
“He got a woman in the prime of her life pregnant, abandoned both her and his own child, and ran away?”
“…U-Uh…”
“I don’t care if he’s my brother—that crosses the line! There’s no way I can defend him anymore!”
The eyes that had once been filled with admiration and longing for his older brother gradually filled with anger instead.
“Isn’t he seriously a completely hopeless lunatic?! What the hell is wrong with him?!”
Hidden behind the large tree where no one’s eyes could reach, the tree that had already rustled once while observing Sarah stirred again.
The truth was…
Master—Ekyan—had been hiding up in that tree the entire time.
Judith had told him to leave everything to her.
But this was Karl’s problem.
There was no way he could simply stand by and do nothing.
When he’d told Judith he would watch from a distance, this had been his plan all along.
For someone like him, concealing his presence was effortless.
Using a secret passage, he had climbed into the tree and hidden himself there.
Blinking blankly as he looked down into the garden, Ekyan thought,
“Judith… really handled everything wisely…”
She had exposed Sarah.
She had stopped the increasingly destructive conflict between mother and son.
She had finally said the words Ekyan had always wanted Karl to hear:
“You’re still a child.”
As if she could read his heart, she’d also told Karl,
“Your brother entrusted your parents to you.”
Everything about it had been moving.
Everything had been perfect.
Except…
“So he ran away from home and turned into a completely worthless deadbeat asshole, right? Isn’t that true, Mother?”
Karl’s merciless criticism was something Ekyan had never anticipated.
Unable to help himself, Ekyan let out a groan from atop the tree.
“Did… did this really count as solving the problem?”
The image of the perfect, gentle older brother that had existed in Karl’s mind was shattering into pieces.
