Chapter 42: Audience

 Duke Hersher only believed part of the rumors.

It was because it was completely beyond his common sense.

 That the Crown Prince and the daughter of the Odoi family had a secret meeting.

 He believed it partly because Aria said she had seen it with her own eyes.

 He actually thought she had seen something wrong and misunderstood.

 That’s why Duke Hersher was overflowing with confidence when Edmund granted an audience.

 Confidence that he would arrange the marriage between him and Aria with today’s meeting.

 “It’s been a while, Duke. Have you been well?”

 “Thanks to the grace of His Majesty the Emperor and Your Highness the Crown Prince, I have been doing well without any troubles.”

 “Thank you for saying so.”

 Compared to being rejected despite requesting an audience several times, the atmosphere was not as bad as expected.

 The Duke was burning with anxiety, wondering if Edmund had some personal grudge against him.

 However, seeing Edmund’s gentle demeanor in return, the Duke felt relieved, thinking he had misunderstood.

 “So, what is the reason you requested this audience?”

 In truth, Edmund wasn’t particularly pleased to meet Duke Hersher.

 To be honest, he knew well why the Duke had come like this now.

 Edmund wanted to resolve this issue as soon as possible.

 He needed to make her and her family face reality instead of holding onto hope for something that would never happen.

 He wanted to stop Aria from being mentioned as a crown princess candidate any longer.

 He swallowed a sip of bitter tea. He smiled, thinking the bitterness in his mouth was from the tea.

 “I understand Your Highness is now twenty-two years old.”

 “Come to think of it, it has already been that long.”

 Edmund held his laughter back at the Duke’s words, which started exactly as he had thought.

 He intended to watch first to see what kind of unreasonable demands the Duke would make.

 “I think you know at what age emperors have typically married.”

 “I remember my father only married after he turned twenty.”

 “Yet he had an heir early on.”

 “Haha, an heir, you say?”

 Edmund, knowing the heir referred to himself, barely held back from frowning.

 He wanted to say something about this unnecessary interference, but the conversation had not yet reached the main point.

 Edmund found this time with the Duke extremely wasteful.

 ‘Clea.’

 She has a cursed body.

 Though he hadn’t properly confirmed the truth, he had occasionally seen her suffering.

 Edmund also knew what a curse was.

 But he had never once seen someone who was cursed.

 He was only aware that curses exist, and that all people who were cursed met a miserable end.

 Though Clea didn’t tell him, Edmund already guessed.

 That she didn’t have much time left.

 ‘If I hadn’t asked, would she have never told me until the end?’

 That night when they had dinner together and the atmosphere was good, Clea tried to courageously tell him something.

 It became unclear when Aria Hersher intervened, but Clea seemed relieved of her burden and spoke without much difficulty.

 On the other hand, Edmund kept feeling bitter.

 Indeed, if he hadn’t asked, she probably wouldn’t have told him until the end.

 He thought of Clea, who would have carried everything alone. He imagined how she would have quietly faced her approaching death.

 “Your Highness, are you listening?”

 “……I’m sorry. I was momentarily lost in thought.”

 “It’s alright. I understand, as Your Highness is such a busy person.”

 “So what were you saying?”

 Duke Hersher didn’t show any displeasure on his face.

 Unlike with Lloyd, Duke Hersher was showing the utmost respect to Edmund.

 Well, Lloyd and Edmund were completely different.

 The dignity emanating from Edmund was incomparable to the rascal of the Persi family.

 Of course, if the Duke saw inside Edmund’s buttoned-up collar, he wouldn’t think of dignity at all.

 “His Majesty has already declared that he would entrust all matters related to marriage to Your Highness.”

 “That’s right.”

 “So I dare to suggest to Your Highness now. How about forming an alliance through marriage between Your Highness and our family?”

 Edmund took another sip of tea without immediately answering the Duke who spoke so directly.

 He observed the his expression.

 The Duke still looked confident, just as when he first entered.

 Edmund was curious.

 How would his expression change if he refused here.

 “Marry whom?”

 “My daughter. The one who was close with Your Highness as a friend at the academy.”

 “Who was the Duke’s daughter again.”

 When Edmund feigned ignorance, the Duke’s expression darkened slightly.

 However, he wasn’t completely unprepared for this kind of response from Edmund.

 After all, he couldn’t be unaware that Aria had been hanging around with other men, including Lloyd, instead of Edmund.

 Thinking that Edmund might be jealous or view her unfavorably because of this, the Duke tried his best to clear up any misunderstandings.

 “Your Highness, she has ended her relationship with the young grand duke.”

 “Oh my, the young grand duke from the Persi family?”

 “To become the crown princess, she must first clear up her relationships, shouldn’t she?”

 At the Duke’s attitude, which showed no doubt that she would become the crown princess, Edmund wanted to reveal the truth.

 It was almost pitiful to watch his desperate efforts any longer.

 “I’m sorry, but I cannot accept the your proposal.”

 “Your Highness, it’s true that she cut ties with Lloyd. So please stop……”

 “You seem to have misunderstood my meaning.”

 “What?”

 “Haven’t you heard anything from the lady?”

 “Your Highness, what do you mean?”

 Edmund thought Aria would have already told him everything.

 She would have surely told the Duke and Duchess the truth and sought their help.

 And indeed, the Duke seemed to have caught on to something in Edmund’s words. His confident appearance from just moments ago began to fade.

 “I have someone else in my heart. And I recently promised a future with that person.”

 “Your Highness, this is the first I’m hearing of this.”

 “I’m sure it is. It happened recently.”

 The Duke’s expression gradually darkened.

 Even for the Crown Prince, this kind of bad joke was unwelcome.

 “Is it that you dislike Aria?”

 “It’s not that I dislike Aria, but as I said, I have someone I’ve made a promise with.”

 The Duke couldn’t ask who this person was.

 He could only ask Edmund to stop lying.

 He tried to imagine who Edmund was referring to. But he wanted to continue denying it and make his proposal to Edmund.

 “Your Highness, if you marry Aria, our family pledges to give you several diamond mines we’ve just started excavating, fertile territories and port areas, and money equivalent to their profits.”

 He made a bold proposal. Surely the wise and reasonable Edmund wouldn’t reject such an offer.

 In any case, if his daughter became the crown princess and then the empress, what he invested now would surely return.

 At the same time, even investing this much wasn’t a huge loss for the Hersher family.

 What the Duke wanted was solely honor.

 His ancestors had already amassed countless wealth.

 Now, he desperately wanted his only daughter to become part of the imperial family.

 Edmund, already aware of the Duke’s thoughts, could only sigh at his actions.

 “Duke, do I look like a man who doesn’t even have that much?”

 The previous Edmund might have accepted the Duke’s conditions.

 After all, he could gain quite a lot by giving away the position of crown princess.

 But at this point, such conditions no longer attracted his attention.

 “As I just said, I already have someone to share my future with. So it would be better to stop the marriage proposals. That is, if you don’t want relations between the emperor and the Hersher family to sour in the future.”

 At those words, the Duke had nothing left to hide.

 He was filled with curiosity about how the Crown Prince had changed so much.

 So he asked directly.

 “Is it really that woman from the rumors?”

 Edmund had been clean and upright, without any bad rumors to be found.

 The only rumor that had emerged about such an Edmund,

Was that he desired a woman who had a fiancé.

 And the woman referred to was also quite significant.

 At the Duke’s question pointing to her, Edmund smiled genuinely for the first time.

 “The woman from the rumors.”

 He knew well who the Duke was referring to.

 “If I say yes, what will the Duke do?”

 He asked the Duke provocatively.

 Edmund, who possessed dignity and pressure that Lloyd lacked, was perhaps an even more uncomfortable man to deal with than Odin.

 It was a question implying affirmation. The Duke bit his lip, wondering if he had heard correctly.

 “I…… would find it difficult to accept.”

 Having eagerly anticipated the marriage of his daughter and Edmund for many years, it was indeed difficult for him to accept.

 “Then it would be best for you to accept it as soon as possible.”

 But Edmund’s answer didn’t change at all.

 “Otherwise, I don’t know how the relationship between me and the Hersher family might change.”

 He was still looking at the Duke with cold eyes, as if he didn’t even consider the Hersher family.

 After hearing those words, the Duke greeted him and rose from his seat first.