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n“Your nephew?”

nKaizen frowned as if he doubted it.

nIt was worth it.

nFritz, Astelle’s real brother, used to stay beside Kaizen as the Vice Commander of the Knight Guards a few years ago.

n“Not my brother’s, but Sigmund’s child… So he’s my cousin’s child.”

nSigmund was the only child of her maternal uncle, who, unfortunately, died during the civil war in the north, precisely six months before Theor was born.

nAstelle asked her maternal grandfather, Marquis Carlenberg, who had lost his heir, to register Theor as Sigmund’s son.

nAs a child who was born from a maid who was known as Sigmund’s lover.

nThe maid, who had been working in her mother’s house for her entire life, registered as the child’s mother on official documents, and then left on a condition that she will continue receiving Sigmund’s death pension until her death.

nAstelle heard that she married a rich merchant and was living well now.

n“I thought Your Majesty knew about it too?”

nAstelle looked at Kaizen with a calm expression and, as if she was surprised, she opened her eyes wide.

n“My grandfather sent me documents to obtain permission for this child to be approved as a successor to the Calenberg family… with a birth certificate and blood ties.”

nOf course, it was Astelle who sent those documents.

nAstelle did everything flawlessly to make it seem that Theor was Sigmund’s child.

nAs though her cousin really did have an illegitimate child with a maid, she also commissioned a temple to conduct a blood test with her grandfather.

nThe result was, of course, matching blood ties.

nTo her grandfather, Sigmund was his real grandson, and Astelle was his granddaughter, both of them were still his grandchildren but only held different titles.

nWhether he is Sigmund’s son or Astelle’s son, he will still be considered as a great-grandchild to her grandfather.

nTherefore, there was no problem with the test results.

nAstelle pretended to hold Theor’s hand, by gently clasping the child’s little finger.

nThis was their own prearranged secret code.

nTheor, who had kept his mouth shut as promised, grabbed Astelle’s hem and looked up.

n“Aunt Astelle…?”

n“Yes, Theor. It’s okay. Everything will be okay.”

nAstelle pretended to soothe Theor, by hugging him and patting his back.

nTheor was following well, as they had practised several times.

nThe rules of’ the ‘play’ that Astelle taught were simple enough to suit the child’s level.

nInstead of calling her mother, he has to call her Aunt Astelle.

nDon’t talk a lot unless someone asks, and if she holds his little finger, he should say Aunt Astelle.

nAstelle had practised several times with the child, step-by-step, in a calm manner so that he could understand and adapt to it well.

nShe made sure not to scold him for making mistakes so that it wouldn’t backfire when he was nervous, and she gave him a snack as a prize whenever he did well.

nWhen watching them, her grandfather would laugh bitterly while saying, ‘It seems like we’re doing some kind of emergency evacuation drill.’

nEveryone would be suspicious if a divorced Empress was taking care of a child who had no connection to her, but no one would be suspicious if she stayed with her maternal grandfather and cared for the child of her deceased cousin.

nKaizen was also suspicious when he heard the child’s voice.

n“Oh, yeah. I guess I did hear that he left an infant before he died. But why are you looking after him?”

n“There was no one to take care of him except for my grandfather. And I couldn’t just leave all these responsibilities to my elderly grandfather.”

nWhen she ran away, she decided to head in a different direction from her grandfather, so as to not be found by Kaizen and his knights.

nShe couldn’t meet her grandfather after she ran away, hence she was worried about his well being.

nShe was eventually going to get caught, so Kaizen told him to stop being stubborn and inform him about her whereabouts, but her grandfather never answered.

nKaizen spit out with exclamation.

n“Your grandfather said he would rather die from torture than tell me where you were. Even at that age, he sure still has a great spirit.”

n“Did you find my grandfather? What did you do to him?”

nAs Astelle shouted in surprise, Kaizen replied with a puzzled look.

n“Your grandfather is safe. I just asked for your whereabouts. Did you think I would just torture and kill an old war hero? Just like this?”

nIt didn’t seem to be a big problem after all.

nAstelle was inwardly relieved.

n“Where is my grandfather now?”

n“He’s in Dents Castle. Don’t worry about it. I asked them to treat him with courtesy.”

nDents was on the way to the capital from here.

n“While I was traveling towards the east, I found out about your whereabouts, and since you weren’t that far away from where I was. I thought it would be nice to come to see you in person.”

nAfter finishing his explanation, Kaizen still looked curiously at Theor.

n“If you don’t mind, can we talk alone?”

nKaizen glanced at the knight standing by the door.

nAs the unfamiliar knight approached, Theor was frightened and hid behind Astelle’s skirt.

nAstelle took Theor’s hand and said, while looking into the child’s eyes.

n“It’s all right. Please go to the room next door for a while.”

nThen, she held the child’s little finger.

nAstel practiced this ‘play’ like a game so that the child would not be nervous and scared.

nThanks to this, Theor had fun every time he practised.

nEven now, Theor laughed with sparkling blue eyes as Astelle wrapped his finger and held it.

n“Yes, Aunt Astelle.”

nAstelle lightly stroked Theor’s soft black hair and kissed his forehead.

nThe knight took Theor and afterwards, the door was closed.

n“Sit down.”

nKaizen pointed to the tea table by the window.

nAstel pulled the table to the middle and sat facing him.

nShe didn’t know a day would come when she would sit face-to-face, with this man again.

nAfter divorcing after only one day of marriage and leaving the Imperial Palace, Astelle had thought she would never meet Kazen again.

nEven if they did meet again, she thought we would only see each other if she were to become a sinner and forced to kneel in front of him, or if she were to be dragged for execution along with her father.

nKaizen seemed to share similar sentiments.

nHe looked at Astelle with a serious look in his eyes and brought up the subject.

n“I found you because of my late grandmother’s will.”

n“The Grand Empress Dowager?”

nKaizen lost his mother when he was young and was raised by his grandmother, the Empress Dowager.

nThe old Empress Dowager was also kind and friendly to Astelle.

nWhen Astelle left the Empress’ position, she was the one who mourned for her the most.

n“I heard that she passed away. You must be extremely heartbroken.”

nEven if she lived in the eastern countryside, she had still heard the news of the Empress Dowager’s death.

nAstelle was devastated when she heard about it.

n‘She was a good person.’

nKaizen continued without any sign of sadness.

n“You know, my grandmother was heir to Duke Mileen, the Southern lord.”

nKaizen’s grandmother was originally a young heiress who inherited a large southern territory.

nKaizen’s grandfather, the late Emperor, wedded her as his queen, and as if he had robbed her, he took the entire southern territories for the imperial family.

nThe southern lands then belonged to the royal family, but as long as the Empress was alive, they were legally owned by the Empress.

nUpon her death, the land would then become legally owned by the imperial family.

nEven when Astelle left the palace, the Empress Dowager had to lie in her room for most of the day due to her poor health.

n“At the occurrence of her death, the southern territories were to be given to the royal family. But after my grandmother passed away, her will came out, and there was a strange condition.”

n“Condition?”

n“I cannot disclose her will without your permission. That was the condition my grandmother had set.”

n“…”

nWhy did she add such a condition?

nAstelle could not say anything to the unexpected story.

n“The old minister insisted that it was the Empress’ last wish, and he would never reveal it to the public. He said that he would never give it up, even when they forced him so they could take the land. The content in it was even more laughable. It stated that ‘Nothing can be decided about the southern territory without the consent of the former Empress Astelle von Reston.’”

n“Why me…”

nKaizen gazed carefully at the bewildered Astelle.

nComplex emotions were revealed in his eyes.

n“My grandmother must have wanted me to find you and take care of you. She asked me to do that several times before her death. I guess she wanted to use her will to force me because I wouldn’t listen to her otherwise.”

n“…”

nAstelle understood what Empress Dowager thought.

nThe Empress probably thought that with such conditions, Kaizen would find Astelle and give her some territory on condition that he will obtain consent to the will.

nAnd if that happened, it would help her pitiful grandson and her granddaughter-in-law, who she did not know the whereabouts of.

nIf she had written in her will that she was giving away her property directly to Astelle, Kaizen would have ignored it and said that Astelle could not be found, not letting her receive even a single penny.

nThe Empress Dowager came up with such an idea, but this only embarrassed Astelle.

nThese days, land did not matter to Astelle.

nAs long as the emperor’s child was raised in secret, she just had to avoid encountering this man and any other people within the capital as much as possible.

nOf course, the Empress was completely unaware that Astelle hid a child, thus, she wrote such a will for Astelle.

n“Is that why you were looking for me? Why didn’t you just forcibly get rid of that clause?”

nThe will was also forcibly opened without Astelle’s permission, because of this he was accused of trying to keep the inheritance for himself.

nKaizen responded with ridicule after hearing Astelle’s thorny words.

n“There’s nothing I can’t do. Some bureaucrats and judges may oppose it because it’s against the inheritance law, but I can get rid of it. However, when I think about it, it would be simpler to bring you in and get your consent publicly.”

nHe wasn’t wrong.

nHe said it like that, but the Empress Dowager’s estate was a huge territory covering the entire South.

nHe might have wanted to clear up the inheritance issue so that it would not be a problem for future emperors.

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