“Oh my God…”
Ivan was shocked. Even Lily, who knew Damian’s soul fragment would appear in such a form, was a little surprised. Damian was the only one unmoved.
The child, who had completely escaped through the open door, found Lilian and tried to approach her.
“Back off.”
Damian grabbed the sword he had thrown away and tried to block his way to Lilian.
“No, Your Highness!”
Lily hastily stopped him and spread her arms toward the child.
Step by step, the child began to approach Lilian. Damian gripped the hilt, but nothing happened. The child was simply embraced by Lily.
It was a strange sight. It was as if Lilian had given birth to a son that looked terribly like the father.
‘What?’
Damian felt displeased and anxious at the same time.
“I need an explanation of what’s going on.”
“This child is…”
It took some time to explain the situation.
“So you’re saying that’s the piece of my soul that appeared in your dream?”
Sitting on the sofa, Lilian nodded as she hugged the young Damian tighter who silently crept into her arms.
“That’s right.”
“…first of all, if it’s true that the damned mirror cured your illness, I’m glad…”
Damian’s head was also in a mess at something he’d never experienced before.
Ivan cautiously asked.
“…is that possible?”
Damian nodded his head. He knew because he had been to Zagreb himself.
Sir Philly, the hastily summoned wizard, took a closer look at the young Damian and nodded his head.
“Regarding Her Highness’ recovery, we’ll have to take time to thoroughly examine it. However, as for him, I can perceive that he’s exactly the same as Your Highness. Besides, for Zagreb, known as an ancient weapon, to actually be a healing mirror…”
In this way, the wizard confirmed it but Damian could not understand it at all. No, he didn’t want to understand.
‘That little one is me?’
His eyes met the child in Lily’s arms. The child stared at Damian with purple eyes undeniably identical to his, then swung his head around and burrowed into Lilian’s arms.
“Oh my God, you must be scared.”
Mrs. Maureen muttered pitifully. Lilian comforted and reassured the child who was burrowing into her arms.
“Your Highness. The child is scared.”
“Wife, that…”
Damian had a headache. No matter how young, he was him. Damian could bet his entire fortune that his younger self wasn’t intimidated.
The problem was that only Damian in this room noticed that fact.
Indeed.
“It’s all right, Your Highness. No one will hurt you.”
The child dug deep into Lilian’s soothing embrace. He was pretending to be frightened, but his purple eyes were very calm.
Damian gritted his teeth.
‘That clever…’
It’s a rare experience to experience his own cleverness from the perspective of others, but he wasn’t happy. Rather, his blood pressure rose after a long time. He finally understood why his father wanted to grab him by the back of the neck whenever he said something.
However, other than Damian, the other aides agreed with Lilian’s words that they should take good care of the young Highness until the soul fragment returned to its proper place.
“Anyway, since you’re part of His Highness, it’s just one more person to serve for a while.”
“It’s fortunate that the young Highness is following Her Highness that way.”
In particular, Mrs. Maureen and Head Butler Aaron, who knew Damian’s past, thought it’s fortunate that they had the opportunity to take care of young Damian in this way.
However, it wasn’t all fortunate for Damian, the mastermind. Damian gritted his teeth. At that time, the young boy raised his head from Lily’s arms…
“…!”
Unbeknownst to anyone, he stuck out his tongue.
‘That little…’
Before Damian could say anything, young Damian buried his head in Lily’s arms.
“Aiya, why are you suddenly like this…Your Highness?”
The later words were for the adult Damian.
Lilian looked at Damian, who exuded ferocious energy, with a stunned expression. And scolded the adult in a sharper tone than before.
“Your Highness, I told you not to make a scary face.”
“Wife!”
Damian felt so unfair he went mad, jumping up but no one took his side.
Ivan glanced at him and asked.
“Your Highness…are you jealous of yourself?”
Can’t believe it? Damian was offended. Isn’t it natural to be jealous?
But he couldn’t answer like that right away. Even though he was shameless, Damian knew that being jealous of himself was a tactless move.
Even so, he’s still jealous. What can he do? But the decisive reason he couldn’t admit it was Lilian.
Surely not? Lily looked at him like that with a smile.
“No…of course not.”
Damian gritted his teeth and denied it. Everyone felt it except for Lilian.
‘You’re jealous…’
‘He’s jealous of himself…’
How pathetic!
Only Lily didn’t know anything and calmly told him not to frighten the young Damian.
***
The next day. Damian and Lilian decided not to return Zagreb to the Imperial Family.
“What should I do if His Majesty the Emperor asks?”
At Lilian’s common sense concern, Damian smiled and answered simply.
“You can just give a copy.”
As long as it wasn’t something related to Lilian, Damian had nothing to fear.
Zagreb was thus sealed in the deepest place of the Grand Duke’s treasury.
It wasn’t hard for Lilian to imagine Zagreb rejoicing at the peace he regained after a long time.
Perhaps he’s enjoying his inner world by decorating it like a resort.
Then, while she was lost in her thoughts, she felt a hand tugging at her skirt.
“Ah, Your Highness. Sorry.”
Young Damian was staring up at Lilian with purple eyes.
Damian’s fragment, who had obtained substance, was strangely silent. She might have mistaken him to have speech problems had it not been for the occassional replies he only gave to Lily.
“Because Your Highness had a rough childhood.”
In any case, the strangely taciturn and quiet child easily earned sympathy.
“Because at that time neither I nor Mrs. Maureen took care of His Highness properly.”
The head butler and maid felt guilty and tried to be nice to young Damian but it didn’t work out.
Because the young Damian, like a duckling just hatched from an egg, was always following Lilian.
In fact, the young Damian just looked young for convenience, and in reality, a piece of soul that only materialized for a while with mana. However, Lilian carefully speculated that this Damian might be suffering from symptoms similar to the real Damian.
‘Isn’t that why he only follows me?’
First of all, it’s only speculation because he himself didn’t speak.
Lilian smiled at the expressionless child for the first time. Then, taking care of the hem of her skirt, she bent her knees in front of him.
“Do you have something to say?”
Despite the friendly words, young Damian didn’t speak. It wasn’t that he didn’t have anything to say, he seemed to be hesitating.
In the end, the young Damian only hugged Lilian’s neck instead of saying anything.
Instead of pushing the child away, Lilian gave him a brief pat on the back.
Through Zagreb, she saw Damian at different times, but the young Damian, who was the most helpless, remained deeply in Lilian’s heart.
Lilian first separated from the child a little.
“?”
Young Damian hesitated, but couldn’t resist Lilian’s hand pushing him away.
Lillian looked at the young Damian. He had lost much of his heartbreakingly ungainly appearance when he first appeared.
He was still small and thin, his lips rough and of poor complexion. But at least he looked much better with his shaggy hair neatly cut, as well as washed and dressed in nice clothes.
Ever since he changed his clothes, young Damian kept adjusting his sleeves. He felt awkward in the fine clothes, Lilian guessed sadly.
Damian’s wounds hadn’t healed yet. His soul had to be restored to regain his original resilience.
Following Zagreb’s advice, for the soul to be restored, the separated piece had to consider the world a livable place. But even without such a rational reason, Lilian wanted to be nice to the young Damian.
‘Even just once…’
She wanted to present the memory of being warmly cared for and the experience of being loved to Damian at this time of year.
Lilian smiled optimistically. And she deliberately lowered her voice to a whisper.
“Your Highness. Shall we have a great time together, just the two of us?”
Young Damian didn’t answer, but he couldn’t hide the blush running across his face.
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