The Dutiful Kid Who Saved the Villainous Family - Chapter 216

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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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Side Story 16

“Hmm?”
“Look at the love letters the children sent to our daughter.”
Declan’s jaw clenched audibly. Inside Airi’s precious Memory Box lay mountains of love letters accumulated since she was five years old—offerings from legions of young suitors.
“Did you know about this, dear?”
“Know about it? I just found out information I absolutely did not want to know.”
Declan sighed heavily as he read through the letters, each crammed with clumsy phrases like “I want to rival you.” His exasperation was palpable.
Watching him, Olivia smiled softly.
“Our daughter received all these love letters, and in the end, she chose Berry.”
“Well, Berry’s been by Airi’s side the longest, and he’s a good lad. It makes sense she’d care for him.”
Faced with his simple, straightforward answer, Olivia exhaled deeply.
She began to wonder if her husband was truly a man who understood nothing of the world’s complexities.
“Really, dear? Is that all there is to it?”
“What else? Berry’s a good lad, after all. Why—is there more?”
Olivia fell silent for a moment, her expression suggesting she was considering how best to guide this endearing, innocent lamb. Then she smiled and pinched his cheek.
“If you look closely at those love letters, there’s a pattern.”
“A pattern? What do you mean?”
“As they go on, each confession comes with conditions.”
Declan shrugged, still baffled as he read the lines “If I become a better man than he is.” Olivia smiled again and continued.
“And before that.”
“……?”
Declan’s brow furrowed as he looked at the text preceding the phrase “If I become a better man than he is.”
Even after reading this far, he couldn’t grasp what was happening.
Olivia watched him with an air of mild exasperation before speaking.
“All the children who wrote love letters to Airi have one thing in common at the end. What is it?”
“…….”
“Look here. They all write something like ‘If I become a better man than Berry, I’ll approach Airi.’ Not a single one fails to compare themselves to Berry.”
“That’s…true. But why would they specifically compare themselves to Berry? Just because he’s been by Airi’s side the longest?”
At that, Olivia released a sigh so deep it seemed the ground might open beneath her.
“After explaining all that, you still haven’t caught on? You’re truly hopelessly dense.”
At his wife’s sharp criticism, Declan Ortejo—once the cold Grand Duke of the Northern Region—looked bewildered.
“I can’t understand hints, so just tell me plainly, Olivia Ortejo.”
Only then did Olivia laugh brightly and explain.
“All those boys who sent love letters to Airi? Berry took care of them.”
“……What?”
This was news to him—surprising news at that.
“He nipped things in the bud early. Whether it was instinct, unconscious impulse, or deliberate action……”
Olivia smiled as she spoke.
“Berry isn’t simply an innocent boy. His possessive desire is surprisingly strong.”
“……Oh, I see.”
What was this strange sensation—as though his precious daughter were walking into the jaws of a lion?
When Declan’s brow furrowed slightly, Olivia laughed brightly.
“Still, that possessiveness of his would never turn toward harming our daughter. Never.”
“Ah……”
When Declan still wore an unconvinced expression, Olivia stretched his cheek and spoke.
“The feeling you have for me, and the feeling Berry has for Airi—they’re probably similar. Get it now, you fool?”
At those words, Declan’s expression darkened.
“You’re saying my daughter has those kinds of depraved, perverted feelings?”
At that, Olivia gave him a look of utter disbelief and flicked his forehead.
“Do I have those depraved, perverted feelings for you? Do you want to die?”
Declan bit his tongue.
Even after being cursed as a pervert by his own wife and receiving that humiliating flick, Declan held firm in his belief.
‘Surely Berry couldn’t possibly harbor such filthy desires like I do.’
……With that gentle, gentlemanly face of his, there’s no way he could be that depraved, right?

* * *

At that same moment, inside the Wedding Shop.
Though she could have summoned the boutique’s proprietress to Ortejo Castle, Airi chose not to.
Instead, she decided to find the person who would create her wedding dress.
And so, stepping into the first wedding shop she entered.
Airi listened carefully to the proprietress’s explanations.
“Oh, we are honored to receive the Grand Duke’s daughter and Prince Jackbel.”
Airi carefully examined the wedding dress fitting guides they presented.
The first shop, they said, had a master craftsman renowned for creating the finest lace among all wedding dresses.
“Perhaps you might try on already-completed dresses and select a similar design?”
For Airi, who had lived her entire life as a dancer, the experience of wearing a wedding dress was quite novel.
Her eyes sparkled as she nodded.
And yet……
Berry’s eyebrow rose slightly.
“What is it, Berry? Don’t you like it?”
“It’s beautiful.”
Something about his tone felt odd to Airi.
‘I wasn’t really expecting anything like that anyway.’
Just as she was thinking this, Berry’s eyes flushed crimson.
He pressed his eyes shut and murmured.
“……It’s just…the outfit……”
“Hmm?”
Berry hesitated, wrestling internally with whether to voice this thought.
‘It’s like reason and instinct are clashing inside me……’
While he was caught in that struggle, Berry suddenly spoke.
“……There’s too much skin showing.”
His expression burned with what looked like genuine distress.
Airi looked at her reflection in the mirror with a bewildered expression.
“What are you talking about? My neck is completely covered.”
“Well, that’s……”
Airi spoke cheerfully.
“Oh, I see! You’re that kind of old-fashioned type—’my woman must never expose her skin anywhere’?”
Airi giggled mischievously as she looked up at him.
Of course it was a tease.
She was teasing precisely because she knew Berry wasn’t that type.
And she wagered that saying this would certainly flustered him—the Berry she knew.
And true to her prediction, Berry’s face flushed crimson at her words. Airi laughed playfully.
“I never thought you’d be such a prudish man!”
But as he heard her teasing remark, Berry rose from the sofa.
Then, slowly removing the tie from around his neck, he murmured.
“It’s not that I’m prudish.”
“Huh?”
Airi tilted her head cutely. And then Berry took one long stride until he stood directly before her.
His hand rose slowly to caress near her neck as he murmured.
“The moment I see your skin exposed.”
His fingers traced slowly along her neckline. Airi held her breath. For some reason……
“My feelings become strange.”
……It was Airi whose feelings had become strange.
In an instant, Airi closed her mouth and looked up at him.
Airi is no longer a child.
Now, she was old enough to fully comprehend what word precisely ‘feeling strange’ was equivalent to.
Berry laughed softly and spoke quietly near her ear.
“What do you think?”

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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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