Chapter 155: Chapter 154

At first he thought she was a little daunting, naive and fragile.

Though he accepted her deal because there was no better card, he didn’t expect or want much from her. What mattered to him was her father Duke Kling’s power.

<So, do you want to take me as your wife, or take me as a hostage?>

He had never wanted anything like the role of a wife from her. He had never dreamed of making a happy family thoughtlessly. The reason he accepted her deal or her proposal was no more than a trick to skip the complicated procedures and avoid others’ suspicion. It was his shallow trick to take her hostage to prepare for contingencies.

<Look what I did to deceive that bastard!>

<Please don’t hesitate. You told me that I have to pay for what I know and what I don’t know. I have to pay the price for this. I don’t want anybody to be hurt on my or your behalf anymore.”

<I’m going to protect you from now on even by risking everything I have.>

<I will make you happy as much as I can. Seriously.>

Eckart began to like her candid and clumsy courage at some point.

He did not know exactly when it started. After he came to his senses, he felt much closer to her emotionally. He felt unfamiliar with her, but missed her. He thought she was reckless, but he wanted to trust her.

<I like you, too. I like you very, very much. I miss you every day. I always miss you desperately…>

In conclusion, he had to admit that she didn’t want to go back to the days when all these things didn’t happen.

Eckart wore a hooded black robe that he put in one corner of his room. He adjusted its front with a long strap and buttoned it up under the neck. He hesitated for a moment before putting on the hood. Only then did he smell something sweet from the collar of the robe.

* * *

Duke Kling returned home shortly after midnight.

The servant on night duty took his luggage. He rejected the servant’s offer to bring tea and headed for his temporary study next to the bedroom.

Several soft candles were lit in the study. As he often stayed up all night, the servant seemed to have turned on the candles in advance. Walking toward the desk with no doubts or wariness, he stopped, knitting his brows.

“… Marie?”

Duke Kling hesitated, narrowing his eyes.

“Daddy, I thought you’d come here first.”

Marianne, who was standing with her back to the desk, turned around and approached him.

Her face exposed to the warm light was calm and bright.

“Do you want to work more after coming back home at this time? I think you’re addicted to work. Please have dinner here at the mansion. Overworking hurts your health as much as alcohol or drugs.”

Duke Kling looked at his daughter anxiously who was being so amicable to him at the moment. Since her abrupt visit to the emperor’s study the other day, she just stayed put in her bedroom without even allowing her father to visit her. Stunned by her strange behavior, he never intruded on her privacy after recognizing that she didn’t want to see him.

It didn’t matter to him why she acted like that. It was cruel to ask her when her feelings were severely hurt. He didn’t want to use any reckless method until she returned to a stable condition.

So, he stayed longer in the palace rather than in the mansion so that his daughter could rest as comfortably as possible. When he returned home, he came back at the latest possible hour not to disturb her and went to the palace very early in the morning.

Four days had already passed. When he saw his daughter again, he wanted to talk with her a lot, but when he met her abruptly, he was more concerned about her condition.

“I am alright. Marie, are you okay? Mrs. Reinhardt and Cordelli told me I didn’t have to worry about you, but… You look gaunt a bit. Are you sick?”

“Daddy.” Marianne did not hear the last of his words. Instead, she hugged him hurriedly. She smelled the most familiar scent of perfume from him with whom she had been with for twenty years.

<Daddy, it smells so good whenever I hug you like this.>

Those were the words she said to him as a child.

Since the day Marianne chatted to him as a child in his arms, Duke Kling had always used the same perfume. He didn’t ignore it even when she murmured something in a dream. From the moment she was born, he put top priority on whatever she said.

“I’m sorry, Dad.”

Just like how it was no use crying over spilled milk, she couldn’t do anything about what had already happened. Perhaps she wouldn’t forget what happened on the day her father died.

“You have always worried about me. You thought the world of me even though I was an immature and clumsy girl. You didn’t get upset when I did that…”

She blamed herself. She choked with emotions and cried. Hesitating for a moment, he tapped her on the shoulder slowly.

“Marie.”

She thought his arms around her back felt heavier.

“You are the most beautiful daughter to me in the world.”

“Daddy…”

“I don’t have to be angry with you. It’s my fault. I thought I should tell you all about it someday, but it wasn’t that easy. At the end of the day, everybody would know about it, but I didn’t want to let you know. I raised you like that, although I knew I was selfish. I put it off until tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, one more month, one more year…I kept delaying it until I ended up at this point…”

He rubbed his cheeks on her soft hair. His calm voice was now mixed with tears.

“I’m sorry. Forgive me. ”

His deep sigh permeated her hair. His sobbing disturbed his breath.

“Daddy, I was wrong. I will never do it again. I’m so sorry…”

She could not deny that her father’s over-protection complicated her life. But she also realized that he made that decision purely in good faith and with extreme love. She knew it was the best option he could take as her father.

And whatever her intention and the circumstances surrounding her, it was herself who easily tried to abandon her life that her father had been trying to protect for the past 20 years.

“I heard from the emperor today what you told him about on the day I snuck into his study. I didn’t know you made such a promise to the late empress because I didn’t hear the earlier part of your dialogue with the emperor. That’s why I thought you were reluctant to see the emperor because of the Lennox matter…”

Eckart, who had noticed Marianne’s excessive sense of guilt, suddenly asked her before leaving the garden. He asked her exactly at what point of his conversation with Kling she started to overhear. As Marianne told him what she heard, he clarified with a perplexed expression.

<So, the reason why your father volunteered to rule Lennox on behalf of the empress was because of his secret promise to my mother, the late empress Blair. Of course, he should have kept the promise much earlier than now. But it’s true that they were very mean and evil. He couldn’t easily return to the capital to protect his daughter.”

<If that’s the case…>

<He put forth only one condition for his promise to donate everything he has to me, which is your safety. If you ever thought your father betrayed the imperial family purely for his own greed, you are mistaken.>

Marianne didn’t reply.

<I know what you’re worried about. Surely I was once jealous of your father’s decision and your peaceful life. But I won’t blame you for that anymore. So, don’t blame yourself anymore. That’s not what I want.>

Although he didn’t touch upon some top secrets, his explanation was enough to clear up her misunderstanding of her father.

“Marie, it’s okay. It was purely my decision to hide that promise. You don’t have to share that burden or feel responsible for that,” Kling told her.

Eckart and her father were hurt by the promise. Nevertheless, they were more concerned about her light pain than their own suffering.

“I will give back everything to the emperor. If I can take you out of this fight, I will be his spear and shield. ”

“Daddy.” Marianne pulled herself away from his arms, wiping her tears.

“I told the emperor already that I would not run away from this fight.”

“Marie.”

“What Ober is plotting at the moment is treason. Regardless of Mom’s tragedy you mentioned, this is a fight that will determine my future. Milan is a battlefield for me.”

Duke Kling saw a nostalgic phantom in her sparkling green eyes burning with strong determination.