HBM 7

chapter 7

Marquis Capren Oelin was a well-respected and prominent noble.

He was also known as one of the strictest and most rigid members of the Senate.

He placed great importance on etiquette and formalities.

Above all, what mattered most was that he was a centrist, aligned neither with the left nor the right.

The internal affairs of the Kingdom of Zeronium were unstable.

Or, to be precise, they had been unstable, and only now were gradually beginning to stabilize.

For the past four years, the king’s health had been poor. Around that time, he could hardly leave his bed.

The problem was that the crown prince, who had been groomed for succession, had also developed a rare illness late in life.

Fortunately, the king had four other children besides the crown prince.

Two of them were still under ten years old, and the remaining two were adults but had a poor relationship.

The second princess, Fresia, and the third prince, Quinoa, were the key figures in the country’s unstable internal politics.

Lucas sided with the crown prince.

And the crown prince supported Princess Fresia.

The problem was that this country had a conservative and narrow-minded history that had never seen a princess ascend to the throne.

No matter how cruel or brutal the third prince Quinoa was, the conservative nobility refused to accept a princess as ruler.

Even if Princess Fresia was exceptionally skilled in diplomacy, it was useless.

The elderly nobles, unwilling to relinquish the entrenched privileges they had held for so long, stood firm.

The struggle between Princess Fresia and Prince Quinoa for the next crown prince position grew increasingly intense by the day.

Sending assassins at each other became commonplace, and even offering poisoned tea without hesitation was considered normal.

“Just protect me for three years.”

Princess Fresia bowed her head to Lucas and asked.

She asked him to be her spear and shield for just three years.

She wanted to change the country.

Lucas looked directly at the crown of her head.

Although she was the kind of person who could bow to no one, she casually offered the back of her neck to him.

Lucas did not refuse.

With this kind of determination, as she said, it seemed the country trapped in stagnation might change just a little.

“I knew it, Sir Lucas. We share the same secret, after all.”

The cheeky princess winked and nudged his side instead of saying thank you.

She waved her little finger, lost to an assassin, as if it were nothing.

Thus, Lucas joined forces with Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Fresia.

“Hmm.”

So he hoped the people he connected with would have no conflicts with the royal family.

The fewer connections, the better.

It would prevent complications in the future.

“…Though I’ll need to watch the Marquis more closely.”

Marquis Capren Oelin had been almost invisible until a few years ago.

Around six or seven years ago, he secured a minor seat in the Parliament and quietly built his influence.

“Is he really a centrist?”

Recalling his greedy eyes left Lucas uneasy.

Also, the way he had shouted at Grace earlier was completely different from the rumors.

The stories claimed he was dignified, knowledgeable, and benevolent.

“Now that I think about it, the Marquis and Grace really don’t resemble each other.”

Lucas thought of Grace again.

The unpleasant feeling vanished the moment he remembered her.

He pictured Grace, wearing white pajamas, rushing out in a hurry past the landscape outside the window.

The more he thought about it, the more astonishing it was.

How had she known he was coming and run out like that?

He raised his hand, rubbed his jaw and lips, and smiled lazily.

“She’s surprisingly bold, isn’t she?”

It wasn’t even her fault, yet she had run after him, pale and breathless.

“In fact… I still get nervous whenever I see His Highness.”

She was so audacious that she openly admitted she still trembled at his sight.

“…Ahem.”

He cleared his throat, steadying his voice as his Adam’s apple bobbed.

Those purple, tearful eyes gazing up at him, believing they might never meet again.

Lucas felt as if he saw an entire universe in her eyes—a kind of bewitching gaze.

At that moment, it was as if someone had struck him on the head with a hammer; he suddenly became acutely aware.

The thought that he would regret doing nothing dominated him.

He immediately took off his clothes and gave them to Grace.

In fact, he had meant to do this even before the Marquis Oelin appeared, but before he could loosen his belt, the Marquis arrived.

Giving her his clothes turned out to be the right choice.

As she had said, if he never saw her again, Lucas would carry her in his heart like a stone.

“…Anyway, should I prepare mountain goat dishes? No, I think Cotty is better with buffalo dishes. Hmm.”

He recalled the delicate waist he had held while preventing her from falling.

Her fragile, thin waist seemed like it could snap with the slightest force, which unnerved him.

If he applied too much pressure, he feared he could break it right there.

“…Wait. What am I thinking right now?”

“Crazy. Why am I holding her waist as if I could snap it?”

Flustered, Lucas lightly tapped his head with the blunt of his palm.

This had never happened before—his thoughts had wandered.

Her purple eyes seemed to have taken a fragment of his mind with them.

“Focus, focus, focus.”

He scolded himself several times, thinking instead of the hearty meal he would prepare for her.

On his way back to his townhouse, he realized he hadn’t had a dull moment, constantly thinking about the dishes while tapping his head.

It was an unusually lively journey home for him.

“You’ve already grown close to Duke Black, I see.”

It was exactly one week after Lucas Black had visited the Oelin residence.

Marquis Oelin had shortened what was supposed to be a long outing to just a week and hurried home.

“Don’t act vulgar,” he had warned.

When he left, the Marquis had glared at Grace with cold eyes.

But upon returning, he looked at her with the gentle smile of a father.

“Yes, it’s good for the betrothed to grow close as soon as possible.”

“Betrothed?”

Before Grace could take her first bite, he mentioned Lucas Black at the table.

He even clearly said “betrothed.”

This meant her father had already decided to marry Grace to Lucas Black.

Grace looked at the Marquis with a tense expression.

Her half-finished onion soup had long been returned to the bowl.

The Marquis continued, elegantly eating the now-cooled soup.

“But tell me, when did you become so close to him? You don’t seem ordinary together.”

Marquis Oelin spoke without looking at Grace.

Before Grace could respond, her older half-brother Norman Oelin, looking dazed, interjected.

“Not ordinary? Are you saying Grace and Lucas Black are already… that kind of relationship, Father?”

Norman was Grace’s older half-brother by three years, the first son from Capren’s first wife.

Grace’s mother had died shortly after giving birth to Norman due to postpartum complications.

“Such a fragile constitution,”

Marquis Capren Oelin had shown no emotion at his first wife’s passing.

He even blamed her for dying without taking proper care of herself.

His second wife was Eleanor, Grace’s mother, a noble from a small state near Zeronium.

Eleanor had an exotic yet familiar beauty, perhaps due to distant Zeronium ancestry.

Marquis Oelin pursued Eleanor for over six months and eventually married her.

However, she died when Grace was about seven from an illness.

After losing two wives in succession, the Marquis did not marry again.

It wasn’t love or grief, but because the dowries required for marriage were too great, while the satisfaction gained from marriage was too little.

After two failed marriages, he focused on building his status as a noble.

Money and honor were the absolute goods he pursued.

He was uncompassionate and not particularly intelligent, but he was patient.

He never rushed and avoided bold moves.

Knowing he wasn’t good with words, he spoke sparingly.

Because Grace knew her father’s disposition, she was puzzled when he had raised his voice at Lucas.

But now, his attitude had suddenly changed again.

Grace, hiding her confusion, replied calmly.

“We’re not close. That day, I was careless. I had something urgent to tell Father and almost fell while rushing out, but His Highness caught me.”

“Really? I wonder why you were rushing out in such a state.”

Grace hurried to correct him.

“I wasn’t in underwear… I was in pajamas.”

“Enough. Don’t talk back. Your reckless actions should not embarrass this father. You made Duke Black leave in anger.”

Norman, who had been quietly listening, interjected.

“Grace appeared before Duke Black in only underwear? And he left in anger because of that?”

“Stop, Norman. Just imagining it is embarrassing enough.”

Grace was dumbfounded.

Her father naturally blamed her, even though the Duke hadn’t been angry because of her.

She knew resisting now would be pointless.

Having once been locked in solitary confinement for over two weeks to correct her defiance, she gave up arguing.

It was better to waste no time and plan her escape from here.

Swallowing the unpleasant meal like a stone, Grace quickly went to her room.

She hadn’t eaten much, yet her stomach felt upset as if she had overeaten.