ONDC 26

chapter 26

I Only Need the Duke’s Child Episode 26. Would It Have Been Different?

Heredin, who had been watching her anxiously, urged her and grabbed her slender arm.

Then he bit his lip in surprise at the agitation in his own voice.

The arm he held felt so fragile that it seemed it might break if he applied even a little too much force.

Heredin calmed his heightened emotions and loosened his grip on her arm as he spoke.
“…You are a patient right now.

Calm down and stop—”
“No, I don’t want to.”
Blair resisted before he could even finish speaking, pulling her captured arm free.

Heredin’s eyes wavered.

Blair looked straight at him and continued.
“If I recover my memories and it turns out to be a false accusation, I will clear your name.

But if it is the truth, I will resent you for the rest of my life.”
She did not want to become a sinner, nor live resentfully, trapped by a past she could not remember and whose truth she could not know.
“I was sad too.”
“…”
“It was hard for me too.”
“…”
“To have to doubt that person who loved me so much, and my mother… to confirm the truth… it was frightening.”
Once she began speaking the words she had swallowed in fear of confronting him in her previous life, the sorrow she had suppressed overflowed.

The tears she had desperately held back ran down her cheeks.

Blair swallowed the sob rising in her throat and continued speaking.

So that her tears would not interrupt her words.
“But now I don’t want to live my life covering everything up just because it’s hard and frightening.”
Even if their relationship would eventually end, she did not want to run away and give up like she had in her previous life.

Heredin’s fingertips trembled slightly as he looked at Blair’s tear-filled eyes.

He clenched his hand tightly to stop it from moving on its own.

She had often looked at him with eyes that seemed about to cry, but this was the first time he had actually seen her shed tears.

And it was also unexpected that she was confronting him first.

Seeing her like this made him lose the desire to argue with her any further.

In the first place, he probably could not.

“…I made a mistake.”
His low, subdued voice echoed through the quiet room.
“I forgot that our contract is based on cooperation.

And that such cooperation requires trust.”
“…”
“From now on, I will not doubt or interrogate you like I did today.”
Blair stared blankly at him as he apologized calmly.

She had confronted him directly because she did not want to repeat the same relationship as in her previous life, but she had never imagined that he would accept it so easily and apologize.

While feeling a sense of relief, a thought suddenly came to her mind.

If back then, even though she was afraid, she had confronted him.

Would our ending have been different?

Would we not have had to walk such a long road to arrive here?

It was a question that no longer had an answer.

“You should rest now.

You are very tired.”
Blair lay down on the bed as he suggested.

She had gone out for once, met unfamiliar people, and even collapsed.

On top of that, she had argued with Heredin, so she truly was exhausted.

After confirming that Blair had pulled the blanket over herself, Heredin stood up and walked to the fireplace.

Blair peeked out from under the blanket, watching his back with curious eyes when his voice came.
“Are you afraid if the fireplace is lit?”
Blair could not answer his sudden question immediately.

Her fear had begun because of the incident, but she had never admitted aloud that she was afraid of something others considered ordinary.

Partly because Katrina disliked talking about that matter, so she had always tried to hide it.
“For now, go to sleep.”
Heredin lit a piece of paper with the lighter beside the fireplace and threw it inside.

In case Blair had another seizure, he kept his eyes on the bed, ready to extinguish the fire immediately.

But after a while, instead of panic, he heard steady breathing.

Occasionally, a dry cough was mixed in.

Once the flames had firmly caught onto the firewood, Heredin threw in a few more logs and then sat beside the sleeping Blair.

Perhaps thanks to the warmth spreading through the room, Blair’s pale cheeks now had a faint color.

The peaceful sight of her sleeping made her look like a young girl.

Exactly like the way she had looked the first day he met her.

As he gazed at her face that still held the features of her childhood, Esmeralda’s voice from long ago suddenly came to mind.
“That isn’t that child’s fault.

Blair is a good child.

Regardless of what kind of person her mother is.

Don’t you think so as well?”
Suddenly, the day he first met Blair came back to him.

* * *

More precisely, it was a week after their first meeting.

A week after the New Year Festival, Heredin visited the Empress Palace again.

He was carrying the rabbit fur earmuffs Blair had lent him.

Heredin held out the rabbit fur earmuffs to Esmeralda.

Esmeralda tilted her head.
“Oh my, where did you get something this adorable?

Surely you didn’t prepare such a tiny thing as a gift for me.”
“They were lent to me by Her Highness the Princess.

I brought them because I hoped Your Majesty would return them.”
“Blair did?

When?”
“…Didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?

Blair didn’t say anything.”
The princess had always been desperate to gain her aunt’s favor.

So he had naturally assumed she would tell her about what happened that day in order to be praised.

Suddenly, he remembered what Blair had said when she left him that day.
“I’ll keep today a secret.”
She had truly not told Esmeralda.

Even though it had been the perfect opportunity to receive the praise she wanted so much.

Heredin was stunned by that realization.
“Did something happen between you and Blair?”
Esmeralda asked with a face full of curiosity.

Heredin briefly explained what had happened that day.

How Blair had followed him out into the garden when he stepped out to get some air—this part he lied about because Esmeralda would worry—and how she had given him the earmuffs and told him to cover his ears.

Throughout the entire story, Esmeralda wore a wide smile.

Her face looked as though she could hardly bear how adorable the two children were.

After hearing the whole story, Esmeralda held the earmuffs out to Heredin again.
“Then you should return them yourself.”
“…What?”
“If someone receives a kindness, they should go and thank the person themselves.

Are you trying to pass that task to me?

You’ve grown up now and want to use me as your errand girl.”
Esmeralda’s voice was full of teasing, but it was clear that her words were not entirely a joke.

Even Heredin thought that leaving the thanks to his aunt instead of going himself would be discourteous to the person who had helped him.

But he did not want to go find Blair himself.

Was she not the daughter of that empress?

His aunt might be a naturally compassionate person who could embrace even that woman’s daughter, but he was not.

If possible, he wanted to avoid meeting her as much as possible.

He feared that the innocent princess might think of him as a friend.
“By the way, did you really wear these earmuffs?

You must have looked adorable.

Won’t you try them on once more for me?”
While he was seriously pondering the matter, Esmeralda suddenly approached him holding the rabbit fur earmuffs.

Her face was full of mischief.

Heredin recoiled in horror.
“I didn’t wear them!

I was just holding them!”
Esmeralda giggled at his reaction, then reluctantly set the earmuffs down.

When she looked back at him again, her eyes had calmed compared to before.
“Heredin.

Do you dislike Blair?”
Heredin could not answer.

It was not that he disliked the girl herself.

He disliked the background behind her.

So if he had to choose, it was closer to dislike.

But he was not good at lying enough to say otherwise, and saying it outright would make him seem narrow-minded compared to his aunt.

“Blair isn’t noisy like the children you dislike, and she doesn’t hate or insult you without reason.

And she even helped you, didn’t she?”
Heredin listened silently to his aunt before speaking.
“…But she is that woman’s daughter.”
“You shouldn’t think that way.

That isn’t the child’s fault.”
“…”
“Blair is a good child.

Regardless of what kind of person her mother is.

Don’t you think so as well?”
Heredin could not refute those words.

It was impossible for him to think of Blair and Katrina as separate, but just as Esmeralda said, the princess was kind.

He had simply been denying that fact because from his position he was supposed to dislike Blair.
“I’m sorry that the narrow relationships between adults have dragged you children into them.”
Esmeralda smiled bitterly, and Heredin fell silent as he looked at her.

His aunt was a good person.

She had carefully cared for him after he lost his parents at an early age.

To him, she was like a mother.

Because of that, he could not refuse her words.

In the end, he brought the earmuffs and went to the Princess Palace himself.

The knights guarding the entrance to the Princess Palace looked quite startled by the unexpected visit from the Duke of Delmark.
“I came to offer my thanks after receiving kindness from the princess during the New Year Festival.”
Just as Heredin was speaking to the knights—

A small shadow suddenly fell from above.

When he looked up instinctively, he saw Blair on the balcony rubbing her still-sleepy eyes.

Blinking her half-open eyes, Blair suddenly slapped both of her cheeks.

It seemed she was trying to wake herself up.

Then suddenly their eyes met.

Her messy platinum hair shone in the morning sunlight, and her violet eyes widened on her reddened face from the cold.

A sigh slipped out from between her small lips as her tiny face twisted into a distressed expression.
“Nanny!”
Blair’s voice was faintly heard as she ran back inside the room.

“Oh no!

The Duke of Delmark is here!

I haven’t even washed my face yet…” she seemed to say.

Apparently she did not realize the balcony door was still open.

Heredin let out a quiet laugh as he heard her words.

Her wide eyes and the distressed expression on her face.

Just seeing that alone made him feel it had been worth listening to his aunt.

It was a winter morning.