“My Lady, you are so beautiful. I don’t believe in your age.”

“Thank you for your compliment, sir. But I am busy now.”

When Edgar went to the mana stone carriage after having a long goodbye with his professor, he saw a knight trying to flirt with his beautiful mother.

The duchess repeatedly made it clear that she wasn’t interested, but the knight didn’t go away. He was even holding her hand. Therefore, Edgar didn’t hesitate to take care of it.

“Sir Cedric, what business do you have with my mother?”

“Oh.”

Cedric hastily stood up only when he saw Edgar.

“I was just addressing the duchess.”

“Then you should have left after that, why did you take her hand?”

He didn’t know what to do at Edgar’s cold reply.

“I was just…”

“Three minutes.”

“What?”

“Three minutes is enough to take and kiss a lady’s hand. Taking more time is rude.”

Cedric could almost hear him say ‘And I will cut your wrist for that.’ He quickly took a step back and bowed to Edgar who was glaring at him.

“I apologize for that.”

“You shouldn’t apologize to me, apologize to Duchess Claymore.”

“… my apologies, madam.”

Then, he ran away before the duchess could say anything in return.

“That vermin.”

Edgar was mad, but the duchess grabbed his arm. She smiled as if it was okay, but she took off her glove that Cedric had touched and gave it to Caren.

“Caren, throw this away, will you?”

“Yes, Your Grace.”

“Men like him come up endlessly like cockroaches, I’m sick of them.”

“Edgar.”

The duchess soothingly rubbed Edgar’s cheek. Her fingers were as long and cold as his own. He looked at his mother. Blond hair that glittered in the sunlight and eyes that had the whole world within them, skin that was pale but bright. She hadn’t been affected by the passing years and still looked young.

“Just understand. You and I are creatures that are too beautiful.”

Edgar smiled faintly at this.

“It may have sounded arrogant coming from someone else’s mouth, but it is just the truth to you.”

“Haha.”

The duchess smiled. Then she took Edgar’s wrist looking worried.

“Too much beauty can sometimes become poison. Some try to use it as a means of showing off, and some demand us to take their love, ignoring our own feelings. In this world, there are many people who cannot tell desire apart from love. Edgar, I am truly worried. Will you be able to find someone who truly loves you?”

She had said that from time to time before. Edgar patted her hand on his wrist with affection.

“Do not worry, mother. I will find such love, just like you found father.”

The duchess smiled brightly.

“Yes. As I met him, surely Hue will bless you too to find true love soon.”

“Then let us go to meet father.”

Edgar escorted his mother to get on the carriage. It was about a month’s trip from Aron’s Academy to the Claymores’ land, even with the mana stone carriage.

It was because they had to take a ship at the port on the way. The territory of the greedy dragon Ias blocked the land route to the Seritos Kingdom, and Iber’s territory was in the Seris Mountains in the east. Because of the two dragons, the Kingdom of Seritos was practically an island.

***

“Your Grace, My Lord, we were not expecting you so soon! Oh, Eddie, you have become so thin! How bad are the Academy’s meals that you have lost so much weight?”

As soon as they arrived at the mansion, Ann, the housekeeper, exaggeratedly welcomed them. Edgar and Caren had to try hard not to laugh at that.

“Ann, Edgar’s thesis has been nominated for This Year’s Thesis Award.”

Ann’s grey eyes got so big at this. She soon abandoned the manners she had to keep as the housekeeper and hugged Edgar tightly.

“Oh, my! I knew it! Just as I thought, Eddie is the treasure of this family.”

Edgar’s face turned red, but he didn’t push away the housekeeper. There were many people who lunged at him like a bull, but Ann lunged at him a little differently.

“But Ann, where is my husband?”

The duchess worriedly asked when the duke, who was supposed to welcome them more than anyone, was nowhere to be seen.

“Oh, right. His Grace has gone to the villa at Cord Hill. He was stuck on the research he was doing.”

“To the villa?”

“Yes. He left about a month ago. He said the place was quiet and good for concentration. He didn’t want to be disturbed by noises, so he left only with Carl. He sometimes does that.”

The duchess was confused.

The duke had been stuck on his research from time to time when he had been with her. However, even if he stayed in his study for days, he had never gone to the villa.

“That’s strange. He never went to the villa in Cord when I was here…”

“He probably didn’t want to leave you when you were here at the mansion. He sometimes says so, that he gets to forget every hardship in the world the moment he sees you.”

Ann always knew how to please the duchess to just the right extent.

The duchess reddened her face like a little girl and called the maid who was about to take away her cloak and gloves.

“Help me put them on again. Eddie, let us go to the villa instead of waiting.”

Edgar had put on his gloves back as if he had seen it coming. He opened the carriage’s door and offered his hand to his mother.

“Let us surprise father.”

Both of them smiled like children. They were sure the duke will be so happy to see them. They gave strict orders to Ann to not to inform the duke in advance. Then they went to the villa with Caren.

At the time, Edgar didn’t know that trip was going to change their happy lives and bring destruction to all of them.

***

“Your Grace, My Lord. Why are you…”

When they arrived at the villa early in the morning, they were greeted by a surprised Carl. Edgar instinctively realized something was wrong.

“Where is my husband?”

“He has gone out to take a walk. You can wait for him.”

Carl tried to take her to the reception room. However, the duchess didn’t move and stood still.

“Carl, if he is taking a walk, you should take me there.”

“What? Oh, it’s…”

“The reception room is for meeting guests. You should not take me there.”

The duchess looked confused. She couldn’t believe Carl was being so rude to her as he had served her better than anyone else. He couldn’t have forgotten the most basic manner of serving the duke and the duchess.

Then, Edgar found a cloak on a coat hook near the front door. The cloak made of white ferret fur wasn’t a man’s. He realized her mother was looking at it as well. He didn’t miss the moment that chaos, confusion, and doubt came to her.

He grabbed Carl, and the nurse immediately found a rope to bound him.

“Mother, go to father’s room!”

Was he doubting his father? No, not at all. He thought it couldn’t be what it was. His father loved his mother more than anyone. She had come to Seritos from her land far across the wide ocean for him.

She had brought a precious crown that was hard to believe belonged to this world to prove she was a princess of a faraway kingdom. She eventually married the duke. Furthermore, the duchess was more beautiful than anyone else in this world.

Cheating on her?

It had to be impossible. It had to be a guest visiting for business. Edgar was holding Carl only because he didn’t want to get that seed called doubt. He was living in a perfect beautiful land.

He didn’t want to see the poisonous seed grow in that world.

He didn’t lose faith even when he was binding the resisting butler with his nurse. He thought Carl was resisting only because the guest was so important that his father had to meet him in secret.

Maybe the meeting was for only the good of the Claymore Family, so he couldn’t let the king know about it.

“Aaaaaah!”

Soon a shriek shook the villa, but it wasn’t his mother’s. Then Carl gave up and stopped fighting back. Edgar felt things were going strange. He ran to the direction of the sound with Caren.

Then he saw it. His father and a woman on the bed. And her mother was watching that, frozen. It felt so unreal. Even now it felt like a dream when he recalled that time.

The naked woman next to his father wasn’t beautiful at all compared to his mother. Even now he couldn’t understand why such a woman had been lying next to his father. What had made him do that?

“My love, what is going on here?”

The moment was brief but felt like an eternity passed as the duchess asked in a cold voice. The duke didn’t answer that. Instead, he looked around.

“Carl? Where’s Carl?”

“Stop ignoring me!”

The duchess yelled while the duke bit his lips. The duchess slowly looked at the woman next to him. She was holding the duke’s arm tightly in fear.

“Do you love her?”

“No, no. Not at all. I have no feelings toward Sophie. It was just, she said she loved me… she begged that she would die if I didn’t sleep with her. So, I gave her what she wanted out of pity.”