Imprinted with the Obsessive Male Lead - Chapter 51

The grand mansion of the capital’s Grace family. The Duke’s office located at the center of the second floor of the main building.

“What did you say? Is that really true?”

Felix looked at his father, Duke Jack Grace, with wide eyes.

“Yes. Heinrich has decided to take Nita in.”

He hadn’t misheard. Felix stared at his father in bewilderment. Unlike Felix, whose face was filled with confusion as if he couldn’t understand the situation, the Duke remained calm.

After cutting the tip of his cigar and lighting it, he walked toward the window and looked out over the garden. A faint smile lingered on his reflection in the glass.

“Isn’t it a good thing?”

Of course it was a good thing. Felix thought so as well. If it had been not long ago, he would have clapped like a seal at his father’s words. That is, if he hadn’t been caught by the Grand Duke of Heinrich at the Imperial Crown Prince’s night ball. Watching the cigar smoke spread thickly into the air, Felix’s thoughts became tangled.

Why?

That night, the Grand Duke had heard everything he had said to his friends.

He had been drunk and hazy at the time, but he clearly remembered that the Grand Duke’s presence and atmosphere had been anything but ordinary. Because of that, he hadn’t been able to sleep properly for the past two days and looked haggard. Logically, it wouldn’t have been strange if the Grand Duke had already stormed in and held them accountable for failing to properly carry out the Emperor’s order.

He recalled those cold eyes that looked down on him as if crushing him. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

‘And it’s just going to pass quietly like this? No. There has to be something.’

Clenching his fists tightly, Felix swallowed dryly.

“I-It is a good thing, but did Heinrich say anything else?”

“They did.”

‘As expected!’
Felix became even more tense than before as he stared at the cigar burning between the Duke’s fingers.

“They requested that Nita’s name be erased from the family.”

“…What?”

This time, Felix truly fell into confusion. Don’t tell me, do they really intend to take Nita? Why would they want a girl without any ability?

“Erasing her name means… that she will no longer be part of our family?”

“Yes. I plan to remove Nita from the family entirely while we’re at it.”

Felix’s eyes wavered as he looked at the Duke, who inhaled his cigar with a satisfied expression.

‘They’re willing to do what Grace wants even after knowing everything? What exactly are they plotting? Could it be because of what I said about killing Nita? Did they grow attached to her in the meantime?’

Even with that, it wasn’t something he could accept. The Grand Duke of Heinrich was known to be capable enough to make direct deals with the Emperor, and he was reputed to make any ruthless decision for his own benefit without hesitation. In fact, he had even cleanly wiped out the bandits who had been the archenemies of the Empire’s merchant guilds, all for the sake of securing a purification mage needed in the North.

‘And that man is going to take Nita in? Then why!?’

No matter how many times he asked himself and turned it over in his head, he couldn’t understand the situation. It was a relief that his father hadn’t discovered what happened that day, but an inexplicable sense of unease crept down his spine, raising goosebumps. Even if he conceded that things had been resolved well, he had still ended up giving the Grand Duke leverage over him.

‘Damn it!’
Felix bit down on his lip.

However, unlike Felix, the Duke, who knew about Nita’s ability, was more satisfied than ever.

The Duke drew deeply on his cigar, his cheeks, covered in a thick white beard, hollowing slightly. Through the white smoke he exhaled, the image of a young Nita surfaced.

Over ten years ago. At a time when his first son Felix and second son Carter had not shown any notable abilities, Vivian awakened a remarkable purification ability. It had been a very pleasant day.

Enough for him to hold expectations for his youngest daughter, Nita as well. However, Nita awakened an absurdly filthy ability.

In the Mage Tower’s archive, amid a strong flash of light, she had absorbed mana into her body. The sight of black mana burrowing into her body was truly horrifying. A child who carried the blood of the great Grace family, absorbing mana into her own body. There was nothing more repulsive.

Fortunately, it had been a small amount of mana, and no side effects had appeared. But the unease did not fade.

There had never been a single person who remained unharmed after coming into contact with mana. At a glance, it looked like a purification ability, but a purification ability that absorbs mana into one’s body was unheard of.

Just the fact that filthy mana had entered her body was enough to tarnish the family’s reputation, but what if that child were to become a monster?

At that point, it would not end with mere damage to their reputation. The standing of the family itself would plummet to the ground. Once that hypothesis took shape, the Duke became busy.

No one could find out. He hid Nita and thoroughly excluded her from the family as someone without abilities.