Why Are You So Obsessed With Rejecting Affection? - Chapter 48

His body kept trembling as he stared at the child, but suddenly he heard a jingling sound.

It was a sound from a small bell on the child’s shoe.

It seemed that the child was about to come this way.

Right now my daughter, by herself, is coming this way……!

The emperor couldn’t hold it in and tried to say something to the child but she suddenly ran away.

As if she was terrified, the child ran back and hid. It’s as if she found it upsetting that her ugly and scary father came to pick her up.

“Wait a minute, Shushu. Dad will pick it up for you.”

At that time, a man whom he hadn’t seen earlier because he was only looking at the child, talked to his daughter.

‘Shushu….’

Shushu. It was a soft and sweet nickname, just like cotton candy.

He can feel a lot of affection in that name.

Indeed, the child’s name was not Shuelb.

He had already heard that her name is Shuelina. The Shuelb he had been calling out for the last six years was actually Shuelina.

The fact that he had been searching for the wrong child all these years tightened his chest.

Properly, even if he had found and protected her properly, the child should not have grown up in an orphanage.

‘Wait, she called him Dad….?’

It turned out that his daughter was adopted by the Grand Duke.

A man whom his child freely calls Dad, and the child who relies on him.

It was a moment that he had never encountered even in his imagination.

The emperor’s eyes shook.

He stared at the man.

The moment the man picked up the candy and raised his head, the emperor recognized him.

“Duke Vaillot…..!”

“Your Majesty, have you been well?”

A man who seemed very arrogant even though he used the title with extreme respect.

Although he was fascinated by the child, he was impressed that he didn’t detect such a clear presence as the Grand Duke.

The Grand Duke, who had stopped coming to the capital to participate in politics so he could rule his territory, still exudes a strong presence.

‘And… he’s hostile to me.’

He looked past the Grand Duke.

“It’s been a long time….. Grand Duke. I didn’t know we would meet again like this.”

Even despite his greetings, the hostile attitude of the Grand Duke remained unchanged.

It was just like what he would expect from Grand Duke Vaillot, a person famous for being indifferent.

The emperor didn’t know how the Grand Duke came to raise his child and thought that he would give back his child easily.

Because he knew enough about his cold temper.

‘The Grand Duchy isn’t a suitable place to have children grow up.’

He was also worried that the child who entered the barren Grand Duchy and was suffering from all sorts of rumors, wouldn’t be holding on well.

Even though her clothes seemed okay, the Vaillot Grand Duchy wasn’t a place to be trusted.

It wasn’t a good family to lean on for such a sweet and lovely child like her.

The emperor was going to ask for Shuelina to be returned.

“Shuelina is my daughter.”

But when he saw the sharp, cold purple eyes, he realized that he couldn’t easily get the child back.

It was clear that the Grand Duke was already aware of Shuelina’s identity.

Nevertheless, if he wouldn’t let him take her, he would declare war on him so that he would have to fight with all his power to keep her.

“That kid is a princess. She has the blood of the imperial family.”

“So, why have you left her to live so miserably? For six years, you haven’t been looking for her or protecting her seriously.”

The Grand Duke’s words were very scathing.

However, the emperor could not deny anything.

Word by word, every syllable seemed to break his heart.

‘You said my child lived miserably?’

What kind of life did Shuelina live?

The orphanage was reported to be affluent and warm, and he was told all of the children looked happy.

So, although she grew up in an orphanage, he thought her unluckiness wasn’t that great….

‘Shuelb, my child, Shuelina.’

Shuelb if a boy and Shuelina if a girl.

He didn’t know how the names came into use but it’s the name he thought up with his late wife.

As her name suggests, the child must be my daughter.

Other than that, there was nothing he knew about her well enough to claim custody of the child.

How long was her first step?

What was her first word?

What does she like the most?

What she likes to eat and what she doesn’t like to eat.

The only thing I gave to this child was blood, flesh, and a name.

… Because I didn’t have any time to share with my child.

“Are you going to come and try to claim parental rights to my daughter?”

With the Grand Duke’s decisive words, the emperor clenched his fist with an afflicted face.

While the emperor could not answer, the child disappeared with a joyful face into the arms of the Grand Duke.

The words ‘my daughter’ from the Grand Duke stuck themselves like a dagger into his heart.

He secretly followed the Grand Duke’s back to try and see the child’s face at least once more for another second.

‘Please look in this direction only once, even just once……!’

He wished eagerly, but the child did not listen to him.

Even though he knew he was being followed, the Grand Duke left the emperor alone.

Because of that, the emperor could see how warm the relationship between the child and the Grand Duke was.

The relationship he wanted to make with her was already there.

“Dad, eat this.”

Shuelina bought fruit skewers from a stall and fed them to the Grand Duke.

“Shall I buy some more?”

The Grand Duke opened his wallet as he put a lovely ribbon pin he bought in her hair. The emperor could see joy in her face.

Even if they didn’t do anything extraordinary together, it seemed that something solid had already been established between the two.

The child certainly looked happy.

Not by me, but by the Grand Duke’s side. Without her knowing whether her father was alive or dead….

‘Their audacity….’

Two people came to his mind.

He couldn’t forgive the empress, who turned his daughter into a nonexistent son.

He originally thought she was a woman that shouldn’t exist, and now he felt it even more intensely.

She testified that the child, who was still alive, was dead and confused him by telling him a different gender.

It was absolutely unforgivable.

But before that, what he most wanted to kill was Amelia, the doctor who accompanied the sickly Empress [his late wife] for many years and supposedly helped her to give birth.

She was the one whom his wife, Herace, brought to the imperial city with her from her own family’s estate.

She had been taking care of Herace’s body for almost 10 years before that.

The Emperor and his wife held strong confidence in Amelia.

That is why the emperor didn’t kill the doctor even though Herace died from childbirth.

It was because he guessed it would have been unavoidable even with more manpower.

‘Since when did you betray her?’

The Empress’s family was the Duke of Algiers, and she was their only daughter.

It seems that she lived a life with only luxury as a princess, but unfortunately, the Dukedom of Algiers was a family with only a long history.

It has the honor of being a long-established family, but it was already in a ruined state, so only the bare roots of the family have passed down.

Still, it was a family with loving hands holding them together, and their only daughter’s body was extremely weak.

The sickly Herace was said to have been estimated to live only until she reached ten years.

Their family didn’t have any money, so they couldn’t even bring their name up to receive help.

It was also when she was eleven years old that she met Amelia, her doctor.

Because of her character and loyalty as a doctor that had helped her even with very little salary in the past, Herace always trusted Amelia throughout her life.

[‘I-I’ am sure, it was a prince……!’]

If only the Empress had testified alone, he would not have believed it. But because Amelia testified together with her, he had to believe them.

Even the empire’s nobles who attended the funeral knew that the dead child was a boy.

‘The new Empress said that the prince was born dead, but in fact, he was born properly.’

Amelia said this, but there was no evidence to prove it.

Amelia was the only witness and there was no evidence. There was no way to accuse the new empress.

‘The maid who was caring for the prince in the early morning told the Queen Mother that the baby had died, so the funeral was held without any time for me to do anything.’

The child was alive for one day after being born, but she said the child suddenly died at dawn when everybody was asleep.

Because he felt the child’s spirit power, he had no choice but to trust Amelia’s words that the child had been alive for a day.

The emperor speculated that the child would have been taken away while she was asleep. It was because instinctively he thought the child could not have died.

Amelia apologized by holding the empress’s body in her arms and slapping her head on the floor next to the silent mourning emperor.

Blood flowed all over the floor. He had no choice but to believe it, because to anyone that saw something like that, she seemed sincere.

Even if he tried to investigate it separately, all the evidence at the site had already disappeared.

Even with vague hopes that the child would be alive, the empress could not be questioned because there was no evidence left.

[‘If a child who died ominously as soon as he was born is not burned within three days, he cannot return to God’s arms.’]

He did so for the poor prince who died almost immediately, and there was no reason to blame anyone else at the time.

‘If she was in collusion with the empress, I will surely kill them.’

The skin on the palms of his hands was punctured by his own nails. His tightly balled fists started to drip blood down in determination.

‘I will definitely take my child back.’

The emperor clenched his teeth as he watched the child’s carriage heading to the Grand Duke’s estate from a distance.

I wanted to hold my child in my arms but instead, she struggled to live for the past six years.

*** 

“Dear me, thank you.”

Azuela smiled lovingly and accepted the children’s champagne.

The esteemed son of a count blushed at Azuela’s smile.

Azuela, who had her vivid red hair braided cutely on both sides, and was wearing a contrasting green dress, looked very cute.

She was holding a small fan specially made for children, and she was as cute as a doll.

“Thank you so much for everyone coming like this.”

Azuela raised the hem of her dress with a precocious smile that wasn’t appropriate for her young age.

It was the most uniquely elegant attitude of all the children gathered there.

A smile like a noble lady. The eyes of the children around her were blurred with admiration.

Azuela’s party was also luxurious, as it was held by a precious and mature lady.

It was a party only for children, held for Azuela, who is still young, but it was more luxurious than a party for adults.

This was because the empress and Azuela argued that their prestige should be held up by holding more luxurious parties than ordinary nobles.

Champagne developed for children, jeweled interiors, desserts sprinkled with all kinds of edible flowers and gold powder, and songs that praise Azuela.

Holding a luxurious party like this, the Marquis Bertilde sure spent a lot of money.

It was because the amount couldn’t be covered by the allocated money given to the Imperial Princess alone.

[‘The Princess Azuela is the pinnacle of uniting the royal family and the nobility.’]

The words she frequently heard since the time she was born.

She was a means of publicizing the existence of the Empress and the Marquis of Bertilde.

The majority saw only the materials that the emperor gave, rather than seeing that she hadn’t received the emperor’s actual love which is of far greater value than anything material.

“You’re so beautiful today!”

“Ah, thank you. You, young lady yourself, are as beautiful as a flower today.”

Azuela, who gracefully stopped the children under the influence of imperial power from rushing to praise her, sighed in her heart.

‘Ah, annoying. It’s really tiring to be a good and perfect princess.’

Unlike her joyful appearance, Azuela was very annoyed and angry right now.

It was because the emperor had left the palace again.

‘I finally had a party after a long time, why did Father Emperor leave his palace today? It would have been nice if my brother was also here.’

The emperor’s precious child. The only princess of the imperial family.

All the embellishments attached to her proved her noble future, but Azuela continued to be depressed.

After the spirit power scattered, she somehow felt scared.

Seeing Shuelina, who does not want to return her spirit power, made people’s selfishness very scary.

‘Just how strong is she to extort all my abilities from me.’

Don’t you think it’s wrong for you to be born with the spirit power meant for a princess like me?