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Chapter 04
While Callion, together with his loyal subordinate Baldwin, was digging into Alistair’s affairs, Ronin was sitting in the drawing room.
Not in the narrow, dust-covered room he had been confined to, but in a spacious, antique drawing room large enough to fit well over a dozen people.
Of course, Ronin was not alone.
“Now then, shall we take a look at the things brought from the dressmaker’s?”
Inside the drawing room were Madam, who had once overseen Ronin’s education, and several servants.
Ronin, who had been sitting quietly in his chair, rose to his feet. He turned his body to the left and then to the right at Madam’s command, saying nothing the entire time. Madam, too, did not speak a single word to Ronin, whom she was seeing again after two years.
After Ronin had become a “useless card,” Madam had given up on educating him. There had simply been no need for it anymore.
When he had been told that he no longer needed to see Madam, Ronin had vaguely thought to himself,
‘If a hundred bad things happen, perhaps at least one good thing comes with them.’
Madam, who had been taking Ronin’s measurements with businesslike hands, finally lowered her measuring tape.
“You’ve grown thinner than I remember. These days, alphas tend to prefer omegas with a little more softness to them.”
Even though Ronin could never become an omega anymore, Madam still said it like that.
There was irritation in her tone she could not quite hide, and for someone as strictly trained as Madam to let it show at all meant the feelings hidden inside her were considerable.
Ronin lowered his head like a sinner. No—at least in this matter, Ronin truly was a sinner.
The imperial house of Ermengarde knew only how to exploit. Whether it was the lifeblood of the people or the beauty of House Alistair, all it ever did was take.
Charles Ermengarde de Charlemagne, the twenty-seventh Emperor, was no different.
Though Alistair had consistently produced empresses and strengthened imperial power through marriage ties, the imperial family had left them with nothing more than the rank of marquis.
And yet that damned Leofric had been granted a duchy simply for being one of the founding contributors to the empire!
Alistair had continued to wait. Someday, without fail—they would become dukes. They would wash away the disgrace of being called whores to Ermengarde. They would rise proudly as a ducal house and sweep away the vermin that looked down on them.
And at last, the opportunity had come.
When Ronin was born and grew into exceptional beauty, House Alistair had instinctively known it. This child would fulfill Alistair’s long-cherished wish.
‘But I betrayed my family’s expectations in the most miserable way.’
His chest felt heavy, as if a weight had been laid over it. The sorrow on his face gave him a different kind of beauty, like a flower blooming beside a lake. Even Madam, a seasoned professional, found her heart wavering for a brief moment.
Fortunately, the commotion in her heart settled soon enough—right after she saw the scars decorating Ronin’s pale back.
A whip with a springy bite, sharp shards of glass, a scabbard bearing the Alistair crest…
Even at a glance, it was obvious the marks were traces of abuse inflicted over a long period of time with many different tools. Madam clicked her tongue without thinking.
‘Tsk. In that case, he won’t be able to wear anything that exposes his back.’
Of course, there were those with twisted tastes who might actually welcome such scars, but she did not bother voicing that thought. Instead, she focused on the task at hand.
“You there, redhead! Come here and hold this.”
“Y-Yes!”
Pam, who had been tense the entire time, jumped in surprise and hurried over. As she moved according to Madam’s instructions, she let out a deep sigh inwardly.
Originally, Pam had been one of several maids assigned to Ronin. It had taken a great many hands to care for and adorn precious Ronin.
But after Ronin manifested as a beta, most of those servants had been reassigned elsewhere. Only Pam remained by Ronin’s side—and that entirely against her will.
‘I should never have been there that day!’
Still, for the past two years, her body had at least been spared hard work. The only thing she hated was the way the other women would snicker every time she appeared.
It infuriated her that after finally entering House Alistair as a servant, she had ended up farther from advancement than ever.
‘What the hell! Nothing ever works out for me, does it?’
Realizing her emotions in that moment, Pam’s hands turned harsh. She deliberately pulled Ronin’s corset tighter, and Ronin let out a small groan.
“Ugh…”
Only then did Pam feel a little better. She was just about to tie the ribbon of the corset when—
“My lady! What brings you here…?”
The mistress of the house, Jeynar Alistair, had appeared.
With blazing red hair and a beauty mark near her lips that added to her charm, Jeynar stepped lightly into the drawing room.
“Oh, don’t mind me. I merely came to see whether preparations for my son’s wedding are going well.”
As she said that, she seated herself in the place of highest honor without even being invited. In this house, there was nowhere Jeynar could not go and nothing she could not do. Madam was the first to recover herself and immediately gave orders.
“In that case, we’ll continue the preparations. You there, hurry and tie the corset laces. And the rest of you…”
Preparations resumed as if nothing had happened, but Pam, who had never received the kind of training Madam had, let her gaze linger briefly on Jeynar’s swollen belly.
Jeynar’s stomach, heavy with a child that would be due soon, was greatly distended. Normally, at this stage, a woman would be resting in bed, but Jeynar moved about more energetically than ever, almost as if she wanted everyone to see it.
‘Her son, she says. It’s not even a child she gave birth to herself.’
Pam mocked Jeynar inwardly as she tied Ronin’s corset. Because she cinched it with personal spite, Ronin’s already slender waist looked no thicker than a handful.
Jeynar’s gaze lingered on Ronin’s narrow waist, his flawless skin, and his silver-like hair. For a very long time.
After admiring Ronin for quite a while, Jeynar finally rose, unable to hold herself back any longer. At the same time, the servants dressing Ronin all stopped their hands.
Jeynar approached Ronin with graceful steps. A smile rested on her face.
“Let me see, Ronin… all dressed up like this, you truly are beautiful.”
“Thank you, Mother.”
“Yes… truly beautiful. Why, you look just like an omega, don’t you?”
Even as she said it, Jeynar was smiling.
Madam, quick to catch on, ushered the servants out of the drawing room. Just before the door closed, Pam glanced back without meaning to.
Ronin was standing there with his head bowed deeply before a woman several heads shorter than he was. For some reason, the sight left a strong impression on her.
Thunk—
The drawing room door shut, and at last only Jeynar and Ronin remained.
Satisfied that things had turned out as she wanted, Jeynar began to murmur in a low voice, the way one might tempt an alpha.
“Ronin, my son. Though you are not a child I bore in pain myself, let me give you one piece of advice as your mother.”
“…….”
“A political marriage is made for mutual benefit, so do not expect love. And least of all from Leofric.”
Jeynar herself had a marriage that was as close to a political arrangement as one could get—even more so than Sasha, Ronin’s birth mother. At least Sasha had been Richard’s childhood friend.
‘But what use is that? I, Jeynar, am the one who became the mistress of House Alistair.’
Jeynar smiled lazily.
The idiot son of Sasha had not only manifested as a beta, but now he was being sold off to Leofric. To those black wild dogs who would love nothing more than to tear apart an Alistair infant with their teeth.
“Even if you leave this House Alistair, you’ll still be cast right into the middle of hellfire—into the hottest part of it, in fact. Hahaha.”
Jeynar simply could not hold back her laughter. And when Sasha’s son meekly replied, “…I will take your advice to heart with gratitude,” it only made it harder for her to stop.
