It was then.
An impure sign was caught in the senses that had become extremely sensitive due to his intense desire for monopoly. Damian’s eyes changed at once, like an animal that caught the scent of an intruder carried by the wind.
“Your Highness?”
“Shh.”
Damian wrapped his hands around Lilian and glared at the bedroom door. Lilian tilted her head slightly to the side of Damian’s shoulder.
Under their eyes, the bedroom door opened slowly.
“Your Highness?”
The door opened and it was young Damian who appeared.
Damian frowned and before he could say anything, Lilian pushed Damian away and got off the bed.
“Wife…?”
She pushed him just now…?
Damian was shocked, but Lilian didn’t notice. He wandered out of her bedroom at night by himself.
Was he scared and uncomfortable?
She wondered if young Damian had seen the scene from just a moment ago. Lilian knelt before young Damian who was rubbing his eyes.
“Your Highness, how did you get here?”
“I can’t sleep…”
Said the young Damian while whimpering and hugging his pillow.
“I had a nightmare.”
“Ahh.”
Lilian quickly put on a sad expression.
“The way here must have been scary…”
“…yes.”
Young Damian took a moment to answer and hugged Lilian by the neck.
Thinking that he must have been very scared, Lily quickly stroked the child’s small back and hugged him.
At that time, the eyes of Damian, an adult abandoned on the bed, and Damian, a child held by Lily, met.
Contrary to the statement of his younger self having nightmares, his purple eyes seemed to have no hint of sleep. Damian noticed.
‘It’s a lie.’
It’s 100% a blatant lie.
“Hoh…”
He was stunned. A sigh escaped Damian’s lips. There’s a certain degree to which a young child can have a good head.
Damian, who was in the form of a child, was so silent that it was impossible to ascertain how much he remembered. But from what he’s doing, he could only assume that he’s in a state of being like a real child.
But Damian was often suspicious of that fact. Even so, how could he be so manipulative from an early age?
‘Are you pretending to be a child?’
The more suspicious he became, the more frustrated he was.
‘How dare you set foot in a couple’s bedroom at this hour…?’
He wanted to scold himself for his naivety, never doubting until just now that this place was only for him and Lily. He should have done something!
But it’s already too late.
“Your Highness.”
Lilian looked back at him with a perplexed yet determined face. Damian had already sensed what would come out of Lilian’s lips, but he waited eagerly for the next words with a glimmer of hope.
‘Not that. Please not that.’
“It looks like His Highness will have to sleep with us today.”
Look!
How could she be so upsettingly predictable!
Damian wanted to cry. It was to the point where he wanted to ram his own head in Lily’s arms as she looked his way with shining eyes.
Usually, Damian was a strong man who could put everything in the world under his feet. In the past 10 years, no one has turned his insides upside down like this. He dare guess no one ever will.
But there’s nothing Damian could do. That damned child was not just a child, but an existence that was no different from his own alter ego.
If he showed dislike, only Damian would be treated as strange.
‘I’m going crazy, really..’
Damian gnashed his teeth. However, it’s very clear whose side Lily would take in a confrontation between adult and young Damian.
So Damian had no choice but to say:
“Wife…if you really, really, really want to…”
Uh…Lilian was perplexed.
‘Seems like His Highness doesn’t want to.’
It wasn’t to the point of being reluctant, he was very upset inside, but Lilian didn’t know that much. She just cautiously asssumed that Damian didn’t want to face his own miserable childhood.
“If Your Highness is uncomfortable, we will go to my room…”
“No!”
Not that!
‘They can’t have one room!’
Damian desperately shook his head.
“It’s okay. Sleeping here with me doesn’t bother me at all.”
“Really?”
After Damian’s desperate persuasion, Lilian dubiously took the young Damian and climbed onto the bed. As for the arrangement, of course, Lilian was in the middle.
‘This is a bit awkward…’
Just in time, the young Damian crept into Lilian’s arms.
“Your Highness.”
“…I think sleeping like this is fine.”
Seeing the young Damian’s bright, earnest eyes, she naturally thought of the child in the attic of the western detached palace.
With her heart weakened, Lilian gave in and said, “I’m glad that’s the case.”
Saying so, she held the child in her arms.
Cradled in her arms, Damian looked up at Lilian.
“Do you want to say something?”
Even after young Damian nodded, he hesitated a little before whispering to Lilian.
Of course, even if he whispered, Damian heard everything.
“…thank you for taking me on a picnic today.”
Damian raised a brow.
‘Did they go on a picnic?’
A picnic he hadn’t been to yet?
Even while Damian turned into the embodiment of jealousy, young Damian’s thanks continued.
“The cake…it’s the first time I’ve had anything like that.”
It was a clumsy and sincere thanks, but the thing that shook Lilian’s heart most of all was the words, ‘I’ve never eaten anything like that’.
Her heart shattered. Lilian promised, forgetting all the trouble she had with young Damian’s sudden behavior.
“Tomorrow, let’s eat more delicious food and do more fun things together.”
Young Damian slammed into Lilian’s arms. And he mumbled.
“I like it now. I don’t know but I think I’m happy.”
“Your Highness…”
Lilian stroked Damian’s small back and said, “Be happy. I’ll be glad if you are.”
Of course, Damian, who had been completely forgotten in the meantime, had to swallow his sadness as he looked at Lily’s back as she turned to hold the child.
***
The next morning after a sad and excessively long night for only one person.
“Ivan.”
“Yes, Your Highness…your face doesn’t look good?”
Damian’s basic physical strength was different from that of ordinary humans.
Staying up all night or suffering a little wouldn’t spoil his looks, and it’d only become a mess after being covered in blood and dust on the battlefield.
But today, the look on his face was gloomy, as if he had a rough night.
“What happened…”
“What must I do to make the fragments of my split soul be mine again?”
“Ah.”
He wondered why a person who couldn’t be that way was suffering so much that he became like that.
‘There’s only one reason…’
“Your Highness’s child doesn’t listen to you?”
“It doesn’t matter if he doesn’t listen.”
If he had to make it problem, his very existence was the problem. Damian buried his face as if crying.
“That cunning thing holds onto my wife and won’t let go for a second…”
“Cunning…you say…”
He didn’t know if he’s saying this without knowing that he’s disgracing himself.
It seemed to Ivan that Damian was finally paying the price for making the people around him suffer in various ways. But being guilty as a subordinate, he couldn’t be that frank.
“Huu…in any case, since it’s a child, I wonder if she cares more.”
He couldn’t tell her his true feelings, so the answer was rough.
“That’s unfair. Why do only good things happen to children? I was almost chased out by my wife this morning as well…”
“That’s because His Highness has a schedule.”
Now Damian didn’t even have the energy to make an insincere retort. Damian murmured, his purple eyes shining ominously.
“There’s only one way. We must restore the split soul as soon as possible.”
With his handsome appearance, he looked like the king of the underworld who ruled over the three kingdoms, but what he did was pathetic.
“To be so jealous of yourself as a child…”
“It’s trying to take over my wife, if I’m smiling, that’s even weirder!”
“Yeah…um…only His Highness is like that. However, today’s schedule cannot be canceled.”
Damian glared like a kid.
“Come to think of it, my wife’s escort isn’t very good. Today, my wife is going out to Marquis Lannister, but if I become a bodyguard…”
“Dame Kyrie is a trustworthy knight. And you made sure that the mages included in Her Highness’ escort were to contact Lord Philly directly if anything happened. Besides, today’s schedule will be held at the imperial palace, and it takes about 10 minutes from the imperial palace to the mansion of Marquis Lannister, and vice versa.”
In fact, when Lilian collapsed a few days ago, didn’t he come home like that?
“It’s all thanks to Your Highness for learning from the previous ambush and making every effort to ensure Her Highness’ safety.”
Damian groaned silently and clutched his head. But Ivan already had the last weapon to convince Damian.
“Her Highness is from Turin, Your Highness. Do you know what that means?”
“They look favorably upon people who fulfill their responsibilities with the schedule given to them in an adult manner.”
“I know that.”
“Then please get up.”
Kuh… Feeling unfair because he’s an adult, Damian bit his lip and got up from his seat. Ivan barely held back from saying that right now, that feeling is what people feel when His Highness is mean to them.
‘This alone is quite refreshing.’
He hoped that the young Highness would remain separated for as long as possible, Ivan thought.
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