“I apologize for making you move so early in the morning.”
Sandeth, seemingly having urgent business, asked Erina for understanding that they needed to hurry back to the marquis’s residence just as the sun was rising.
Erina had to quickly prepare to move.
“It’s alright.”
As soon as preparations were complete, the carriage carrying Sandeth, Erina, and Revil hurriedly set off.
Erina looked down at the child, feeling the small warmth beside her.
She gently stroked Revil’s head as he tried not to move even slightly away from Erina since their conversation last night.
It was not easy for Erina, who was trying to leave the Eols family, to take Revil, who had been brought in as the heir.
But the memories of her own childhood that kept surfacing when she looked at the child held Erina back.
She had vowed not to live with regrets.
If she left alone, abandoning the child whose future was uncertain even in the original story, she felt she would keep looking back even after decisively leaving the Eols mansion.
The light brown hair slipping through her fingers felt soft and warm.
Sandeth, who had been quietly observing the two who seemed closer than yesterday, suddenly smiled gently at the child and said:
“Your name is Vil, right?”
Revil flinched at Sandeth’s call.
“Revil Eols. He’s the child Feiron Eols brought from an orphanage to make his heir, saying he could never have a child with me after marriage.”
Erina answered Sandeth on behalf of the child who struggled even with conversation.
Sandeth couldn’t hide a bitter laugh at Erina’s response.
“His Majesty, who blindly trusts that man without reason, should know about this.”
“Everyone will know at the founding ceremony.”
After a moment of silence at Erina’s cold reply, Sandeth stared intently at the child.
The child said to be from an orphanage bore an uncanny resemblance to ‘that child’ he longed for.
But that child was surely dead.
Five years ago, he had seen the dead child with his own eyes.
The memory of losing the child was still vivid enough to recall clearly.
Yet the Revil sitting before him had the same colors as that child.
Hair color similar to his own, bright crimson eyes that he hated yet couldn’t bring himself to despise.
Revil’s appearance was so similar that it made him wonder if this is how that child would have looked if he had lived and grown up safely.
“How old are you?”
As Sandeth’s gaze and tone seemed to interrogate, Erina tensed and embraced the child’s shoulders.
“My lord.”
Sandeth’s face hardened at Erina’s action of protectively embracing Revil and blocking his view.
“It seems you intend to take the child out of the Eols family.”
Erina felt as if his eyes were asking if she really meant to take such a difficult path.
She knew. She knew how hard it would be to leave the Eols family with this child who had been declared the heir in front of him.
“Yes. But it’s not such a difficult matter.”
“Oh?”
“To be officially recognized as the heir, my consent and His Majesty the Emperor’s approval are required.”
It hadn’t even been a week since Feiron had brought Revil to the mansion.
Erina had not consented, and the Emperor’s approval had not been obtained.
Feiron had only informally told Erina that he would make the child the heir, but nothing official had been done.
Taking Revil and leaving the family would not be legally problematic.
Revil would still be registered as a child temporarily brought from an orphanage staying at the Eols mansion.
“I see.”
“Eight… years old.”
As soon as Sandeth responded, Revil spoke in a tiny voice.
At those words, Sandeth looked at the child with wide eyes.
Sandeth gently smiled and met the eyes of Revil, who was glaring at him with eyes full of fear from Erina’s embrace.
“I see.”
It wasn’t ‘that child’. The child who would have been 7 years old if alive was not the child in front of him.
Even knowing this, Sandeth’s eyes kept being drawn to Revil.
Suddenly, the carriage came to a stop.
With a knock, the carriage door opened and a woman got in.
“My lord?”
As Erina called out to Sandeth in surprise, the woman who had entered the carriage introduced herself with a refreshing smile.
“It’s an honor to meet you, madam. I’m Heila Ventel.”
Her sky-blue bob haircut looked as refreshing as her smile, and her red eyes sparkled with curiosity.
“I thought sending my knight to a non-vassal family might raise suspicions, so I found a knight who could serve as your maid.”
“A knight to serve as a maid? Lady Ventel?”
Erina asked, surprised by Sandeth’s explanation.
Heila Ventel was someone Erina knew of.
Though not a famous figure, the eldest daughter of the Ventel family, whose domain was not far from the capital, was someone that anyone active in high society would know.
Erina was surprised once at the word ‘maid’, and twice at the word ‘knight’.
“Were you a knight, my lady?”
“Of course, I’m a knight belonging to the marquis’s hidden forces, but from today I’ll be your knight and maid.”
Erina was flustered by Heila’s cheerful words.
“But…”
She was a count’s wife.
Even if a count’s wife had a maid, at most it would be the second or third daughter of a baronial family.
Of course, it wasn’t set in stone, but it was very rare for someone to become a maid in a family of not much lower rank.
Moreover, as the eldest daughter of a viscount family in the capital, if Heila were looking for a maid position, she could easily enter a duke’s family or become a maid to an imperial princess.
Yet not only was Heila offering to be a maid, but also a knight.
“Didn’t I promise to protect you?”
It was Heila, not Erina, who was surprised by Sandeth’s tone and gaze that naturally warmed those who saw it.
Erina had much she wanted to say, but she hesitated to speak.
“To quickly receive reports on the progress of the mana stone mine and flexibly respond to unexpected situations, Heila is essential.”
His words were correct.
A maid was closer to an employee than belonging to the family. This meant she had freedom of movement.
She was someone the Eols Dowager Countess and Rose Asila couldn’t treat carelessly, and Feiron couldn’t force.
Heila Ventel was not just suitable, but perfect for protecting Erina.
After some consideration, Erina nodded and replied.
“Yes, I understand.”
“I’ll be in your care, Countess.”
“Please call me Erina.”
As they finished greeting each other, the carriage had already arrived near the Eols Count’s residence.
The carriage stopped a little distance away, not right in front of the mansion.
“As I’m not particularly close with Feiron Eols, I thought it wasn’t a good choice for the Kerenig marquis’s carriage to enter the mansion grounds, so we stopped nearby.”
“Thank you for your consideration, my lord.”
The carriage door opened, and Heila, Erina, and Revil got out in order.
Sandeth, half-risen while holding the door, stared at Erina as she bowed, then smiled charmingly with gently curved eyes and said:
“Next time we meet, will you call me Sandeth as well?”
“Pardon?”
“We’re close enough now, aren’t we?”
Realizing the mischievous smile was meant to tease her, Erina replied grumpily.
“I’ll think about it.”
“I’ll look forward to it.”
As Sandeth closed the carriage door and departed, Revil stood on Erina’s left holding her hand, while Heila stood on her right as they walked together.
Under the blazing sun, Heila opened a parasol she had somehow prepared and created shade for Erina.
The good mood of the three people moving pleasantly on the sunny day was truly brief.
“Are you crazy?”
This was what Erina heard from Feiron as soon as she entered the mansion.
Erina sighed deeply, unable to understand why he was so furious and seething.
“You left the mansion? And with my heir!”
Thanks to the light from the huge chandelier hanging from the ceiling as they entered the mansion, Feiron’s silver hair sparkled irritatingly.
“You must have lost your mind to do such a thing.”
“Didn’t you hear?”
“What?”
Facing Feiron, who wore an expression of utter incomprehension at Erina’s words, Erina was truly dumbfounded.
He really didn’t know.
When a noble lady leaves in the family carriage, it’s impossible for the head butler and head maid not to know.
Not only would they know, but it would normally be reported to the head of the family.
Yet the fact that he didn’t know could only mean that ‘someone’ had cut off the report midway.
Whether that someone was the loyal head butler or head maid, or someone who actually held power in the mansion, she couldn’t be sure.
“Yesterday, I took the family carriage to a village on the outskirts of the Eols county.”
Feiron’s face hardened at Erina’s words.
Feiron had never heard that Erina had gone out.
“But you know what’s even funnier?”
Erina, who always lowered her eyes quietly before Feiron, now looked up at him mockingly.
“The coachman who said he’d be back shortly never returned.”
Feiron was so shocked at those words that he stopped breathing.
The family carriage that had taken out the noble lady returned without her.
This used to be common practice in noble families in the past.
If a family carriage that took out a noble lady returned without her, it implicitly meant she had been cast out of the family.
A noble lady who experienced this was still legally the lady of the house, but she would lose all rights as the mistress, and rumors would spread instantly in high society.
It was meant to make the noble lady leave the family of her own accord, unable to bear the dishonor thrown at her.
What happened to Erina was by no means a light matter.
Even Sandeth and Heila inwardly cursed at Feiron when they heard what had happened to Erina.
“Th-that…”
“Did you give permission?”
“Of course not!”
Feiron answered loudly in shock, then was surprised at himself and pressed his lips tightly shut.
“Then who on earth could have done it?”
Erina’s gaze caught someone secretly watching from afar.
“You know, Feiron. The place I went out for some fresh air was a small village with just a few houses. It was so small it didn’t even have a name.”
Erina’s expression was unnaturally calm as she spoke in a gentle voice, as if telling a fairy tale to a child.
“It kept getting darker, but the carriage never came back.”
Erina slowly brushed back a loose strand of hair and spoke towards the person secretly watching them like a stray cat.
“Do you perhaps know why the carriage didn’t come?”
Erina looked at the person secretly observing from behind Feiron as she spoke.
“Lady Asila.”
As Erina’s gaze turned to behind Feiron, everyone’s eyes followed.
Translation complete. 100% of original text translated.
Turns Out He’s Been Secretly in Love with Me
One-line summary: He acts like he doesn’t like her but is actually playing hard to get.
Synopsis:
Xu Muzhou like her. He has liked her for a very long time, and through repeated schemes, he finally closed the distance with her.
But this is still far from enough.
He wants to be the one who stands out among her many suitors, to fight for her attention, and to make her take the initiative to pursue him.
_____
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