Chapter 133
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“Wow. No matter what, going after a kid is really not okay.”
“……”
“Is this really the kind of person you are, Young Duke? You’re completely despicable, vile, and rotten.”
“……?”
“Ah. Right, right. This was the method I suggested, wasn’t it? Now that I’m getting older, it seems my memory has gotten just a little, juuust a tiny bit worse. There’s absolutely no way our perfect Young Duke would use such a despicable trick, harming an innocent child just to drive a man away from some woman. Of course not.”
“……”
“Ahahaha. Well then, shall we move on to the next proposal?”
Did he swallow his ability to speak properly along with the steak he ate earlier.
Clovin maintained an incredible poker face that completely contradicted his inner thoughts as he turned the page of the documents.
It was true that Declan was getting smarter by the day and had become capable enough to manage the territory on his own, but just why was he growing quieter by the day, with his basic decency disappearing right along with it?
Clovin forcibly pulled up the corners of his mouth that kept trying to sink and recited the next agenda item.
“Ah, next is the matter of purchasing the abandoned house in front of the Peach Bridge at the capital plaza.”
Declan, who had been flipping through other documents with a bored look, swiftly snatched the paper from Clovin’s hand.
“And the buyer…”
“Yes. Seeing it yourself will be faster than hearing about it, after all?”
Clovin hid his trembling fist behind his back.
Endure it, endure. The other party is Declan. The sole heir of the Duke Ragnar family…! He’s even been officially announced as the heir now, so it’s not like I can quietly get rid of him without anyone knowing…!
Clovin, who had looked after Declan like a nanny since the days when he still had a runny nose, cried tears in his heart.
He had done nothing wrong except care for Declan together with the Duke, sincerely hoping that Declan would turn out well. So how had he grown into a man so cold, so ill-mannered, who treated everything except Estira as less important than ants passing by.
It was truly baffling.
Three years. For the past three years, Declan had acted as if he had truly forgotten Estira after reading that book written by some author who might have been a fraud, or maybe a real romance expert.
Because of that book, Clovin thought Declan had finally come to his senses. That he had decided to forget some worthless illegitimate girl who only cared about money, and instead accept and faithfully carry out the life befitting the one and only noble and magnificent heir of a Duke in the Empire.
He thought that the nonsense in that book about friends being able to develop into lovers had been dismissed as nothing more than a momentary whim, or foolish talk.
Yet for some reason, Declan seemed to have believed that book’s words blindly for three full years.
Because the Declan who had studied, trained, learned, and enlightened himself as quietly as a mouse had suddenly begun exhibiting strange behavior this year.
More precisely, it started after he had been officially announced as the heir.
While anxiously watching to see what Declan was planning, what kind of scheme he was trying to pull, Clovin couldn’t help but hold back tears.
Was he not just gathering information about Estira through someone else’s hands, instead of his own?!
‘So now you don’t trust me anymore!’
Clovin was even more shocked because he never thought Declan would rely on anyone other than himself. It felt like raising a son with care, only to see him suddenly bring home a girlfriend and hand over his mother’s jewelry and money to her.
He wasn’t sure if that was the right analogy, but anyway, he felt betrayed.
As Clovin agonized over how to turn Declan’s changed heart back toward himself, he was once again horrified.
Because it wasn’t enough that Declan was merely receiving news about Estira. He had been secretly approaching her as well.
The resolve he had made three years ago, that he would be satisfied with only hearing news of her, seemed to have lost its effect. Declan was now making more serious efforts to reach Estira.
Of course, secretly approaching her didn’t mean trying to meet her directly, but through others, again and again, he was pulling away the people around Estira.
In a way, it wouldn’t be wrong to say he was isolating Estira.
‘That lunatic.’
After isolating Estira, he was clearly planning to take the spot beside her himself.
Right. There had been a line like that in the book.
「 Always help from the side as if you’re there yet not there, then disappear at the moment you’re needed. The other person will surely think of you. 」
After getting rid of the people helping Estira from her side, he intended to replace that role himself. And then one day… Ta-da! He’d disappear, and make Estira come to need him. That had to be the scheme.
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