The 21st Century Grand Grand Duchess in the Royal Academy - 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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A Twenty-First Century Grand Duchess in the Royal Academy
Winter Again
Winter again. As I gazed at my year-long transcript, an arrogant smile played across my face. Not a single mistake. Not the slightest gap in my record. Even the extracurricular activities I’d filled in with Min Jung-woo’s help were flawless. All the effort spent designing them around the triangle of leadership, creativity, and service had paid off.
It was advantageous to receive early graduation approval before entering eleventh grade. My homeroom teacher’s recommendation would be no problem, and the principal’s approval was expected to go smoothly. The only potential obstacle was… Father.
“Father, I’m planning to graduate early.”
I brought it up as soon as winter break began, but Father’s expression remained ambiguous. He didn’t seem particularly proud, nor did he seem opposed. He simply seemed uninterested.
“I’ve met all the other requirements. I just need your permission.”
“What’s your reason.”
“Pardon?”
“You must have a reason for wanting to graduate early.”
Caught off guard by the unexpected question, I shrugged my shoulders.
“I want to go to university sooner…”
“And you want to start working sooner?”
Father asked. He’d apparently read the career plan I’d attached behind the parental consent form. The document, which began with my aspiration to study business administration and concluded with my ambition to inherit Father’s work, was utterly sincere without a trace of exaggeration.
That genuine desire seemed to have struck a nerve with Father.
“Whether you become a businesswoman or earn a doctorate in business administration, I don’t care.”
“…”
“If you say you want to work within the company… that’s fine too. It’s not difficult to create a position for you.”
Father continued speaking as if making a rather benevolent proposal.
“But don’t say things like you’ll succeed me.”
“…Why.”
I clenched my fists against my lap as I spoke.
“Sung Tae-joo will be the one to succeed me.”
“That’s exactly why I’m asking.”
I asked without hiding my boiling frustration. If he’d said it was uncertain, I would have understood a hundred times over. If he’d said he couldn’t give me everything, I would have accepted it. After all, I’d already resigned myself to competing with my older brother for territory.
But Father’s decision to give everything to Sung Tae-joo was unbearable.
“At the very least… you should let me compete.”
“Why should I.”
“…”
Unable to contain the surge of emotion, I bit my lip. Father’s words, drawing a line as if I didn’t even deserve to compete with Sung Tae-joo, pierced me like a dagger.
“I could be really good at it too.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
I’d vaguely known it all along. That whether I performed well or poorly wasn’t really the point. But hearing it from Father’s voice was different.
“Ha…”
I exhaled a hollow breath and leaned back against the sofa. It felt unjust that I had to beg for the right to compete, not even asking to win.
“Sung Tae-joo can’t even adapt in America right now. You want to give him the company?”
“It doesn’t matter.”
It doesn’t matter. Father repeated the same words as if that was all he could say. No matter how many of Sung Tae-joo’s shortcomings I listed, no matter how much I emphasized my own strengths, nothing would change.
Accustomed to this kind of situation, I looked back and forth between Father and the parental consent form. If I couldn’t obtain it justly, then I’d have to obtain it unjustly.
“Well then. I won’t explain further—just stamp your approval.”
“What?”
“If Sung Tae-joo wins no matter what I do, then it doesn’t matter whether I graduate early or drop out, does it?”
“You brat….”
My father seemed displeased with my attitude, but I decided to be shameless about it. I had no intention of being considerate toward him when my frustration had reached its peak.
“Sign it.”
I thrust the parental consent form in front of my father and spoke.
“If you won’t stamp it, I’ll sell the stamp. Should I do that?”
“Sung Hee-joo!”
“You don’t think you can do it?”
Even though my opponent was my father, I had no intention of backing down.
Wan began each day by receiving a letter from Hwan. Since Hwan’s royal marriage, Wan had not met with Hwan for any reason whatsoever. When there were official duties that had to be carried out independently, he accepted them without complaint, but he refused all schedules involving Hwan and every event held at the Palace.
The King’s reaction to his youngest son cutting off visits to the Palace was unremarkable. Beyond adding a bit of nagging about not neglecting his duties, he showed little interest.
Unable to bear it any longer, Hwan confessed, “It is my fault for wounding my brother’s heart,” but the King showed little interest in those words either.
Rather, he seemed to find it fortunate. With that sentiment came the thought—wasn’t it good that an appropriate distance had formed between the grass-like Hwan and the fire-like Wan?
But Hwan did not want distance from his brother. He merely waited for his anger to subside. However, that waiting stretched on for more than six months, and unable to wait any longer, Hwan visited the Private Residence himself.
“Tell him I have come.”
“Yes, Crown Prince.”
He waited for quite some time at the gate, but Wan did not show even a single strand of hair. The servants of the Private Residence, unable to keep a prince of the realm waiting indefinitely, sent out Hyun in Wan’s stead.
“He is not feeling well today. Please visit another time.”
The hesitant excuse was obviously a lie even at a glance, but Hwan nodded. He could not rebuke the child called his brother’s aura.
From that day on, Hwan sent countless gifts and letters almost daily. Aside from when he was very young, he had never written letters before, so it felt awkward, but he liked that he could appeal in lengthy, earnest detail. Asking his weak brother to forgive him, apologizing, saying he missed him—all of it, painfully.
“Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”
On Christmas Eve, Jung-woo visited the Cathedral with his family. Though it was always crowded due to its large size, today the bustle seemed twice as hectic as usual. It took an additional thirty minutes just to leave the Cathedral after the vigil mass ended.
“This is my son. Jung-woo, you should greet them.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you. I am Min Jung-woo.”
Amid the attention of many people, Jung-woo remained at his father’s side. The way he stood with a dignified expression seemed natural and comfortable to him. When he was younger, he had disliked people’s attention and avoided going out with his father, but now he accepted it quite naturally.
The family of a politician was no different from a public figure.
Thanks to this, Jung-woo and his mother became people who knew better than anyone how to appear perfect in front of others. It was not a difficult task. They possessed many elements that others envied, and all they had to do was display them appropriately while also showing appropriate humility.
“Son, do you have an appointment? Why do you keep looking at your watch?”
Jung-woo’s mother asked, noticing her son repeatedly checking his wristwatch with anxiety.
“Oh, I’m meeting a friend later.”
“At this hour? Who?”
“Just a school friend.”
Jung-woo answered indifferently, as if it were nothing special. But he could not hide the redness creeping up his ears, and his mother was a perceptive woman.
“Son, you know you should be careful about the friends you keep, don’t you?”
“….”
I understood what my mother meant by her words as she smiled with her arms crossed.
When I first met Sung Hee-joo, she had been so fond of her, but after learning that Sung Hee-joo was an illegitimate child of Castle Group, my mother never brought up the subject again.
She was merely a junior I cared for—that was all. It was true that there was nothing particularly significant about our relationship. But I did not want to say it that way. Even if I could not say she was someone I wanted to cherish, I did not want to deceive myself by saying she was merely a junior.

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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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