My Ex-Boyfriend Gave Birth to My Child? What Does That Mean? - Chapter 13

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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My Ex-Boyfriend’s Child Was Born to Me—What’s This About? Episode 13
If she spoke in such a way, it meant she already knew the fact that I had broken off the engagement.
I regarded the lady who had brought up the subject quietly. Yes, I knew her face.
“Countess Puarr.”
As for her, the relationship was somewhat complicated.
On the surface, she had no connection whatsoever to me or the Ocker family. However, having lived my past life, I knew this much: her own brother from her maternal home was investing in the Ocker Merchant Guild.
I was one of Ocker’s investment targets.
To marry a noblewoman like me and seize dominance in the Capital’s merchant guilds—that was Pascal Ocker’s plan. Since it had fallen apart, he would surely find me repugnant.
“There was talk of an engagement, but it never came to fruition.”
“My, Lady Otreha. How fortunate that you came to the flower appreciation gathering. Since the Garden is so lovely, even the petals that fall from the branches and scatter across the ground do nothing to tarnish the view.”
A short burst of laughter erupted from those around us.
“And what became of the engagement between the Ocker family and yours? I heard the merchant guild master went to great lengths to have the Baron’s old family tree gilded just to receive you as a daughter-in-law.”
I smiled sweetly toward her.
“Thanks to that, I was fortunate enough to cull out the damaged fruit. One with a lustrous exterior but rotten from within—so riddled with worms that new shoots were sprouting.”
The eyes of the ladies watching our exchange sparkled. I leisurely inhaled the scent of blossoms budding on a nearby tree and continued.
“A most industrious person indeed, preparing to establish a lineage before even marrying. I found it beyond my capacity to manage, and so politely declined. If you truly care for the Ocker guild master, perhaps you ought to seek him a different match?”
Countess Puarr furrowed her brow and covered her lips with her hand.
It seemed she had been unaware that Pascal had a pregnant mistress.
One uninformed lady spoke in a surprised voice.
“Good heavens. It seems there’s a fashion among young people these days of bearing illegitimate children!”
There followed a silence like the depths of hell. Everyone realized that her remark encompassed the story of Duke Voltein.
The lady who had spoken unwittingly looked about nervously and fell silent.
It was the cool voice of Countess Shastan that broke the stillness.
“Illegitimate children, you say…. That rumor spreading so openly through every dressmaker’s shop in the Capital. Duke Voltein carrying about a mysterious child and taking on the role of attendant to some lady, they say.”
Countess Shastan’s piercing gaze lingered over the Green Jewel at my throat.
“Lady Otreha, I hear you’ve been in frequent contact with Duke Voltein of late. Have you seen with your own eyes the principal actor in this frivolous theatrical?”
Suddenly my mood soured. The image of Lucian’s sweet face came to mind.
That innocent, lovely child could not possibly be the subject of such vulgar gossip. How could anyone dare?
“Regarding other matters, I confess my ignorance.”
I made every effort to appear gracious, speaking in a measured tone.
“But one thing is clear—His Grace the Duke cherishes that child dearly. Should word of the child’s origins reach his ears, I suspect he might regard it as a challenge to the honor of Voltein.”
“Ha!”
A sharp voice cut through the gathered ladies.
“We shall soon enough see whether the child bears the blood of House Voltein or that of some other base man.”
“Indeed. How can anyone trust the chastity of a woman who bore a child without marriage?”
“Besides, the present Duke Voltein is known for his eccentricities. Didn’t he abruptly abandon society to become a mage and enter the Magic Tower?”
“I wonder why the royal family places such importance on such a man….”
Countess Puarr’s gaze did not miss the turn in conversation and fixed upon me.
“Well, now that I think of it, Lady Otreha is also a mage, isn’t she?”
So she was going to press that angle.
In aristocratic society, magic was often regarded as a debased pursuit that profaned the sacred.
This was an inevitable attack.
In noble society, a mage was little more than a servant. Magic was filthy and grueling work, a base practice that desecrated the sacred.
Yet I loved that I was a mage.
Had I not been a mage, how could I have escaped this marriage? Being a mage was worth it for that alone.
“Yes, a certified mage of the Magic Tower. There, they teach you to see substance rather than surface. I take pride in it.”
“Ah, I thought as much.”
Countess Puarr seized the moment, tapping her handkerchief against her lips with a laugh.
“As they say, no matter how brilliantly one adorns oneself with gems, the smell of dust never quite washes away. Your family tree has taken on quite a colorful hue indeed.”
“Countess Puarr.”
At that moment, the voice of Countess Shastan quieted the murmur in the hall.
“Magic is certainly dirty and grueling work, but it carries an honor unique to mages—they may join the knightly orders without being knights themselves. Do not forget that.”
Her voice was sharp as frost.
“Unless you mean to insult our sons, who hunt Magical Beasts beyond the safe palisades of the Capital!”
At the frost-edged voice, a fact I had thoughtlessly forgotten came back to me.
The reason Countess Shastan held such considerable authority even in the Capital was that her family controlled the Behemoth Knights, the order that subjugates Magical Beasts.
It was also because her husband and two sons personally set an example by undertaking the honorable duty of hunting Magical Beasts themselves.
Alongside the mages of the knightly order.
Countess Puarr’s complexion turned pale in an instant. She hastened to apologize.
“Countess Shastan, I—that is, I meant no such….”
“You have nothing to apologize for. Don’t come to our residence until the next invitation.”
Countess Shastan still spoke to me with that cool, piercing gaze—the kind that could flatten a bull with ease.
“Lady Otreha. You’ve had an unpleasant experience today.”
“Not at all. To see the glass conservatory that’s the talk of the city with my own eyes—there’s nothing more delightful than that.”
“Still, this won’t do.”
She lifted her fan slightly, and maids carrying a small box drew near. They led me into an adjacent chamber and fastened a new set of earrings and necklace around my neck—a costly ornament set of faintly rose-tinged pearls and diamonds that anyone would recognize as valuable.
Bewildered, the maids with the box followed behind me as I emerged from the room.
Seeing my appearance, the countess’s expression softened a fraction.
“Yes. These pearls suit Lady Otreha far better. Go home wearing Shastan’s good taste today. I’ll have your old jewels sent by carriage.”
“Countess, such a generous gift…”
“To refuse a kindness offered by one’s elder is also a breach of propriety.”
Countess Shastan, speaking with unhurried finality, raised her voice toward Lady Puarr and her circle, who stared back at us with expressions full of shock and dread.
“There are far too many eyes that don’t know how to appreciate flowers. If you have no intention of enjoying them, you may as well leave.”
At Countess Shastan’s rebuke, the ladies withdrew like a receding tide. I fingered the necklace, feeling oddly dazed. Watching me, the countess stepped close and whispered low.
“Lady Otreha. I didn’t help you simply because you’re beautiful.”
I stared at her, rigid with tension. Countess Shastan was a true noblewoman with almost no change in expression, and there was no way for me to read her feelings.
“My second son owes you a debt of gratitude, it seems. I’ll have you called again soon.”
The countess turned away calmly. The pearls around my neck suddenly felt as heavy as a lump of lead.
Countess Shastan’s second son?
……Who was he?

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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