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Chapter 1
“My older sister, who ran away from home a year ago, has finally returned—with an illegitimate child! We cannot entrust the future of the Count’s family to someone like her!”
Bloodshot eyes.
A shrill scream dripping with malice.
Charlotte Winston, the younger sister Eleanor was seeing again after so long, had changed greatly.
Once, Charlotte had been considered the strongest candidate for the next Saintess.
Eleanor, too, had never doubted that her sister would become one.
That was why Eleanor had deliberately left the estate and enrolled in the Imperial National Academy.
To escape her role as the villainous older sister who tormented Charlotte Winston—the kind, lovely heroine—it seemed that physical distance was the top priority.
“Just look! She’s carrying around a child all by herself without even having a husband!”
Charlotte pointed accusingly at the child in Eleanor’s arms.
The bright golden-haired child shrank back.
Children quickly sense who loves them and who hates them.
Terrified, the little boy burrowed deeper into Eleanor’s embrace.
He clutched Eleanor’s dress so tightly that his tiny hands had turned pale.
“Who knows what filthy blood he inherited? We should be grateful if she wasn’t violated or involved in something unspeakable.”
“Sio, don’t listen.”
Eleanor covered Theodore’s small ears with both hands.
She didn’t want him hearing Charlotte’s nonsense.
Though Theodore was not Eleanor’s biological child, she had raised him with love.
As if he would go out if blown on, as if he would break if squeezed.
She had cherished him dearly, always showing him only good things and letting him hear only kind words.
Eleanor adored her nephew.
But Charlotte…
“Charlotte, stop.”
Eleanor spoke calmly.
“Don’t do something you’ll regret. What are you doing right now?”
“You’re the one who shouldn’t be acting like this.”
Charlotte narrowed her eyes sharply.
“While I was undergoing training to strengthen my holy power, you were supposed to stay and care for our aging parents. But instead, you ran away from home!”
“Holy power training? I ran away?”
“Yes! And judging by the fact that you even have a child, I suppose you were off playing house. So why come back now? Did you return because our parents are dead and you want your share?”
Charlotte, now left with only bitterness, lashed out viciously.
She glared at Eleanor and Theodore with disgust.
Eleanor felt hollow.
So you truly decided to abandon your child.
No.
Charlotte had abandoned Theodore long ago.
From the moment she ran away with another man one year ago, leaving newborn Theodore behind at the Winston estate.
There was no way Charlotte hadn’t recognized him.
Theodore resembled Charlotte.
He shared some features with Eleanor, his aunt—but he looked much more like his mother.
His radiant pale gold hair was rare even in the Empire.
Cling.
Theodore squirmed and clung tighter to Eleanor.
Eleanor tightened her hold on him.
The onlookers began whispering.
“So it really is her son.”
“I wonder whose child it is? I can’t think of anyone with a similar face.”
“Wasn’t Miss Eleanor supposed to have gone to the Magic Tower after graduating from the Academy? She disappeared so suddenly.”
“Oh my, wasn’t she taken by His Majesty the Emperor?”
“I heard a neighboring kingdom invited her with the utmost courtesy.”
“I suppose all those rumors were false.”
Curious gazes swept over Eleanor and Theodore.
Their eyes glittered with mockery.
From her very first year at the Academy, Eleanor had been hailed as a genius.
She had effortlessly solved a problem that no one had been able to solve for a hundred years.
Every professor at the Academy had coveted her talent.
Even before graduation, rumors spread that nations from all over had sent her offers.
Then, one year ago, Eleanor vanished without a trace after graduation.
And now, she had suddenly returned to the capital with an illegitimate child.
What a delightful spectacle.
“Hngh…”
Theodore whimpered anxiously.
Eleanor hugged him tightly.
If she revealed the truth about Theodore’s birth here, she could clear herself of the accusation that he was her illegitimate son.
She had heard that the Magic Tower possessed magical tools capable of bloodline verification.
Borrowing one would be difficult, but not impossible.
Once the truth came out, Charlotte would be punished for her lies.
Punished for abandoning her newborn child and then denying his very existence.
Her reputation would be dragged through the mud.
But Eleanor could not reveal the truth.
Because if she dodged the arrow, she knew exactly where it would land.
Theodore would be hurt.
He was only one year old.
He would become fodder for gossip.
There was a vast difference between simply being fatherless and being denounced as an illegitimate child by his own birth mother.
Especially when both his parents were still alive.
Filthy rumors, born purely from idle curiosity, would cling to him.
They would survive stubbornly, haunting his future.
Eleanor could never allow that.
“…”
Holding Theodore in her arms, Eleanor straightened.
All eyes turned toward her.
She was afraid, but she had decided what to do long ago.
“Theodore is my—”
Just as she looked Charlotte straight in the eye and began to speak—
“Can you take responsibility for what you just said?”
A man appeared and cut her off.
“Your Grace, Grand Duke Hilliard?”
Charlotte’s eyes widened in shock.
The man who had suddenly appeared was Matthias Hilliard, the Empire’s most famous and wealthy Grand Duke.
But he had kept himself hidden from society for years.
Rumor said he was busy with family affairs.
So why had he appeared here now?
“Matthias.”
Eleanor, too, looked stunned.
Her lips parted slightly.
But Matthias gave a small shake of his head.
Eleanor’s eyes trembled.
What?
Charlotte sensed something strange.
How dare she call His Grace by name? And why does it feel like they know each other?
“It’s been so long, Your Grace.”
Charlotte quickly composed herself and greeted him sweetly.
After all, Matthias had once courted her.
If she hadn’t run away with Alexis, perhaps she might have married the Grand Duke and become his Duchess.
This may actually work out better.
She could use Matthias to corner Eleanor even further.
Perhaps she could even seduce him again.
With wicked plans blooming in her mind, Charlotte smiled like a saint.
“You are as kind as ever. Surely your knightly spirit simply couldn’t ignore a lady in distress and wished to mediate this disturbance? But I don’t think this is the right moment for pity.”
Matthias raised an eyebrow and asked coolly,
“Why not?”
“Because this is a private family matter between my sister and me.”
“In that case, I have every right to intervene. Because this is my family matter as well.”
“…What?”
Matthias pulled Eleanor into his arms.
The woman who had been bearing countless stares was now hidden within his broad embrace.
The child was no longer visible at all.
Only the soft sound of Theodore’s now-calmer breathing could be heard from within the protective hold.
Matthias lowered his gaze, his icy eyes fixed on Charlotte.
“Because I, Matthias Hilliard, am Eleanor’s husband—and Theodore’s father.”
Gasps of shock erupted everywhere.
Charlotte’s saintly smile froze.
And Eleanor, who had been holding her nephew, widened her eyes in disbelief.
“So I will not forgive any further insult.”
Everything had begun one year ago.
