My Youngest Keeps Bringing Home Male Leads - Chapter 22

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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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Chapter 22
After the door closed, Kesenor offered Agnes a cup of tea.
“Let’s talk after you’ve had something to drink.”
“Yes, please. I’ve been outside all this time, so I’m a bit hungry. I was hoping for a dessert.”
“Have you been with Silmare this whole while?”
It was a simple question, yet something made it difficult to answer readily.
‘Why is that?’
Agnes hesitated for a moment, then nodded slowly.
“…Yes, that’s right. He showed me how to plant Marigold seedlings.”
Kesenor watched her lift the teacup as if to hide her expression, then asked in an even tone.
“I haven’t been interrupting anything between you two, have I?”
In that instant, Agnes’s teacup trembled violently, nearly spilling its contents.
Startled, she hastily set it down and protested strongly.
“Of course not!”
At that, Kesenor’s eyes widened and he laughed. It was a laugh whose true meaning remained obscure.
“Well, even so, I won’t send you away. I’d be quite disappointed if you left so soon.”
“Please don’t speak to me like that, Duke.”
Resenting the teasing way he was toying with her, her voice came out sharper than usual.
It sounded so much like pouting that Kesenor burst out laughing aloud.
“Think of it as a deposit, then. So please spare me a little more of your time.”
“But I see you every day. Besides, when I think of all you’ve done for me, even a fortune wouldn’t be enough repayment.”
“Unfortunately, thanks to Amy, I’ve also earned quite a bit. I doubt I could spend it all in a lifetime.”
“Actually, I’m the same way.”
She laughed playfully, as if to say she’d forgotten her earlier sharp response.
It was always like this.
Whenever he made a joke lately, her response came back immediately.
‘Perhaps it’s because this is a comfortable space.’
Thanks to that, conversing with Agnes had become rather enjoyable of late.
Once she’d escaped Valdemar, where she seemed always to be suppressing something, Agnes had blossomed like a flower.
Even the simple dress that used to be constantly wrinkled under her hands was now perfectly crisp.
‘Above all, it’s quiet and peaceful.’
That was why he’d taken such a strange liking to the Laberose Mansion.
Despite the daily construction noise, he was actually grateful for the moderate sounds.
Without even that, there would be nothing but the cry of birds and the whisper of wind.
It was completely unlike the places where Kesenor usually dwelt.
Celesta Castle, where countless people came and went, was always clamorous, and the research chamber in the Celestial Magic Tower was so deathly quiet it blocked sound by magic.
Above all, the Celesta Territory was barren, and even when spring came, it remained cold.
There, his senses had always been sharp and cutting; here, they seemed to soften and blur into something formless.
‘Is it because this place is in the south?’
When he sat by the window, the sunlight made him drowsy, and he would lose himself gazing outside.
It was a foolish thing Kesenor had never done before.
And yet there sat before his eyes a southern lady, so clear and innocent.
He’d never cared for perfume, but when he sat facing her like this, beyond his keen senses drifted a precarious, tender floral fragrance.
It was sweet enough to make him want to ask what perfume she wore.
Agnes was still cooling her cheeks with the back of her hand, the heat still not having faded.
In the meantime, Kesenor cut the cake into convenient pieces.
“Oh! Thank you, Duke.”
“You should eat more, Agnes. I won’t be having any, so please finish it all.”
“What? Don’t you like cake?”
“No, I do like it. But I prefer watching you eat it.”
“You speak just like Silmare does.”
“……Did he say such things to you?”
Agnes laughed carelessly, but for Kesenor, it was not something he could let pass as easily as before.
Thus his voice turned cool, its edge sharp.
Agnes looked up at him in alarm, and Kesenor leaned back in his chair, putting distance between them.
Agnes then began to fumble through an explanation.
“Actually, I said something strange.”
“What did you say?”
“When tending the garden, grass and insects would die, and I asked if that was all right with him……”
Even as she spoke, Agnes seemed to think the words too childish, and her cheeks flushed red once more.
Kesenor’s gaze lingered briefly on Agnes’s flushed cheek.
The memory of first seeing her was vivid in his mind.
A gaunt frame, a face drained of color.
Unlike then, now she seemed to overflow with vitality. She was still thin, certainly, but at least the shadow of melancholy had lifted.
That was why he’d said it pleased him to see her eat.
Because watching her transform from a withered, pitiful thing into something increasingly beautiful brought him genuine pleasure.
With deliberate mockery, Kesenor let his gaze slip sideways.
“So Silmare told you that you matter more to him than things dying?”
“…Yes.”
“A Fairy Race member—beings who claim to speak with all things in the world? My, how eager you must be to win her favor.”
“Your Grace…!”
“And what do you suppose of me, Miss Agnes?”
It was impulse, pure and simple.
Unlike the courtly restraint he’d shown until now, Kesenor closed the distance between them in a single breath.
Their fingertips nearly brushed.
He regarded her intently.
As if held fast, Agnes did not move.
Her wide eyes were inches from his own.
Within those pale green irises, his reflection took shape.
In the moment he recognized it—
every sense, sharp and heightened, simply vanished.
As though his breath had stopped.
“…Your Grace would never do such a thing.”
Agnes spoke softly, her lips moving with careful deliberation.
In eyes grown hazy as they gazed upon brilliant gemstones, his own eyes were reflected too.
Cold as the white snow that fell upon Celesta Territory.
“Because you are someone special, Your Grace.”
“I am?”
“Yes. You prove it with every moment. That is what is called the Jewel Eye, is it not?”
And so he did not respond at once.
His lips pressed together, Kesenor remained silent for a breath, then nodded.
Without thinking, his fingers traced the skin above his eyelid.
As though remembering for the first time that an eye existed there.
“Is Silmare…different?”
“Silmare seems to regard me as something akin to the World Tree itself. Like how a human, standing before a divine statue in a temple, becomes humble while venerating a god—that is the reverence they hold.”
Kesenor slowly drew back, creating distance between them.
Agnes was now perfectly composed and serene, so entirely unlike the flustered creature of moments before that he could scarcely recall her former self.
Her steady, unwavering gaze unsettled him.
Agnes continued without regard for his discomfort.
“So I could hardly matter to you. You are the continent’s greatest mage and a Duke of this Empire—surely you have far more important concerns.”
“…And yet, why do you think I remain here?”
“Because you seek the unknown. Is not your greatest mystery found in me?”
Agnes raised her hand, palm outward.
There was nothing there, and yet…
Kesenor extended his own hand and took hers.
Upon both their palms, a golden pattern bloomed once more.
Leaves and seeds.
“So I will gladly aid you in anything. As much as you have helped me, I will assist in unraveling any mystery.”
Even if that means accepting you as my bonded partner, does it not.
He wanted to ask, but Kesenor swallowed the words before they could leave his throat.
Power that could shake the very world.
It was for precisely that he lingered at her side, yet should he reveal it—
‘She would grow troubled and withdraw from me.’
Of this he was certain.
When Agnes said she would help with anything, she meant it.
Over the past ten days, the assistance Kesenor had given her was incalculable.
Five years ago.
When her mother passed, Agnes had taken charge of the household, yet she had never truly learned to spend money.
She had only ever tightened her purse strings and practiced restraint.
Naturally, she had never spent anything on her fiefdom either.
The fiefdom’s taxes came in every year, but they were entirely consumed by interest payments, leaving nothing to improve the lives of the territorial subjects.
Alfred, who had helped his father manage the territory, understood the basics well enough, but he knew only how to maintain what existed—not how to rebuild it from scratch.
Moreover, he had no experience handling sums as large as what was being spent now.
Naturally, Kesenor, Lord of Celesta Territory, was something of an expert in such matters.
‘He seemed a bit frightening at first…….’
The Kesenor she came to know afterward was unexpectedly considerate.
She had so much she wanted to accomplish going forward, and she couldn’t imagine managing it without him.
“Then I should tell you one more thing. While I’m away, why don’t you take the opportunity to tour the territory?”
“You’re leaving?”
“No, I plan to return soon, but since I’ll be away for a time, I thought I’d visit Celesta Castle.”
“Ah, I see!”
Delighted that he was promising to come back, Agnes broke into a bright smile.
But as soon as she recalled his mention of a territorial tour, unease crept in.
Honestly, she had doubts about herself.
“Won’t the territorial subjects be inconvenienced if I go out?”
“Are you afraid?”
“Yes, a little.”
“Didn’t you say that as a child you went out to the village every day and played there like it was your playground?”

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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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