The Maid With a Child - Chapter 15

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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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15. Never Met, Could Not Meet
“Shh!”
Adlen jumped in alarm and held up a finger to his lips, gesturing at the room around him.
“Oh, ah. I’m sorry. Shh, shh…….”
The Butler, startled as well, turned to look at the baby.
Fortunately, the infant had just fallen asleep and didn’t wake.
Compared to a few nights before when the baby had cried because the rhythm of the patting hand had faltered, this was remarkable progress.
“Sigh…… If we think of the succession, he really ought to find a good woman soon and bring a mistress into the Sigelion household. But the master seems to have no will for it whatsoever.”
“He’s the sort who’d do anything for the family’s sake, so why does he lack will only in this?”
“How could I possibly know the master’s deepest thoughts…….”
“He must have many women interested in him…….”
“Really?! Does he seem that way?!”
At Adlen’s muttered words, the Butler’s eyes widened and he shifted his body eagerly.
“Yes? Well……. At least, he is handsome……. Strong body……. Good family……. Wealth…….”
“Exactly! But…… Then why isn’t there anyone who wants our master?”
“……Ah.”
It was the moment when a long-hidden secret about the Sigelion household head’s romantic life came to light.
Adlen fell silent.
Though all manner of speculation had swirled about the unmarried master’s romantic circumstances, no one had ever considered the simple reason: a lack of popularity.
“Still…… Don’t noble houses often arrange political marriages?”
Though love matches had become fashionable in these times, the aristocracy’s emphasis on family had not completely eliminated political marriages.
“The rank doesn’t match. It just doesn’t match…….”
“How much does the rank not match……?”
“Either crumbling families that bear the name of nobility, or commoners with nothing but money. That’s all we get.”
“What? Isn’t a marriage proposal usually made between people of similar standing?”
At Adlen’s words, the Butler released a long, grievous sigh as if emptying years of accumulated resentment.
“Now that the Sigelion Count Household is truly a distinguished family, the old nobles still won’t treat us as their peers. They say they won’t touch hands stained with the stench of iron! Ha! Unbelievable! Unbearable!”
“They say such things?”
“Ah, don’t even speak of it. Whenever I happen to meet a servant from another house, they’re always putting on airs because they think I serve someone of noble birth.”
“Ah, yes…….”
The maids experience this often too.
They’re mistaken for the lady they serve and put on airs, only to cause trouble and get dismissed.
“So even when proposals come in……. Sigh, if only the mistress hadn’t passed so soon.”
The Butler lamented, wiping away tears.
Having carelessly brought up such a matter and now witnessing the Butler’s tears, Adlen could only lengthen his philtrum and lower his head.
“In any case, once the war is truly over, our master will be able to attend society comfortably.”
At the sudden mention of war, Adlen’s heart stung.
The Butler wouldn’t know—that this child’s uncle must be captured for the war to end.
And that he himself had nearly sold the nation out of momentary fear and pity was a secret he would carry forever.
“Still…… He won’t be going back to the battlefield again soon…… will he?”
“He shouldn’t…… And if it ends like this, all the better. Our master, when he sets his mind to something, he does it brilliantly. I’m certain that if he decides to venture into society, every woman in the world will go mad trying to win his heart!”
“Aha…… That would be wonderful…… Or rather, it definitely will be!”
What sort of woman would the master meet? Surely someone beautiful with an excellent family. Her temperament…… strong? Kind?
‘Wait…… If the master marries, doesn’t that mean I’d naturally become a free man?’
The thought flashed through his mind.
Even if the baby remains in this household until then, with a mistress present, he couldn’t share a room with the master. Then wouldn’t he naturally escape this situation?
“……I really hope the master finds someone good and marries soon…….”
Adlen’s priorities shifted.
His own marriage could wait. He wanted the master to marry soon, quickly, urgently.
The baby fell from the sky out of nowhere, but perhaps a mistress will too.
* * *
What fell from the sky instead of a mistress was heavy rain.
“A fine day for an ambush,” Lacalte muttered, looking out at the dreary window.
The downpour was so severe that all Knights Order activities had been canceled. There was no word from the Royal Palace either.
For the first time in a while, he found himself confined to his room all day.
“There have been no attacks this past week, sir. No suspicious figures have been sighted in the vicinity.”
“What news from General Kias?”
“None yet, I’m afraid. My apologies.”
The arrival of free time didn’t mean he could afford to rest.

Lacalte spun his pen between his fingertips as he reviewed reports from his informants and the Knights Order.
He’d thought capturing the Crown Prince alone would unravel everything smoothly, but events had not cooperated.
General Kias had not shown his face once since their single clash, and the interior remained quieter than anticipated.
“Hmm…….”
Lacalte sank into deep thought, a low hum escaping his lips.
The knights stood motionless as pillars, waiting in silence.
Adlen, who had spent the entire day watching from beside them, longed to become a pillar himself.
“Waaah! Waaa!”
“N-no, oh, ah, ah, Young Master! ……I-I’m so sorry…….”
But Adlen, burdened with an infant, could not.
A baby’s noise was natural law, yet in this atmosphere, apologies tumbled out unbidden.
The knights weren’t quite as terrifying as their master, but they were frightening enough. Their collective scrutiny felt multiplied by their sheer number.
“Hweeeeng! Uwaaaaaa!”
The infant, however, paid no mind to the atmosphere.
Adlen’s circumstances meant nothing to the child.
“Young Master, shh, all of us, shh. Shh?”
“Hweeeeng!”
This was when the Crown Prince’s temperament shone through completely unfiltered.
If I wish to cry, then I shall cry.
The volume was such that a knight who had been about to speak fell silent instantly.
“…….”
Every knight pressed their lips together and glared at Adlen and the infant.
Adlen wanted nothing more than to abandon everything and weep along with the child.
If only he could venture outside and show the boy different things to capture his attention—but confined to a single room, his options were hopelessly limited.
Seeing only the same sights day after day, the infant quickly tired and showed no further interest.
“Young Master, look here. What is this? This one!”
In a final desperate flourish, Adlen danced before the infant, fluttering his skirts.
See how far I will go. Please, take pity on my efforts, I beg you.
“Ooo, uh…….”
Mercifully, the Young Master responded to the flutter of Adlen’s skirts.
The knights’ incredulous stares pierced him from all sides, but such things were of no consequence now. What mattered was that the child’s crying did not grow louder.
“Phew…….”
Having barely succeeded in soothing the infant, Adlen collapsed in place, wiping away sweat that had gushed forth from his passionate dancing.
The baby crawled toward him and reached out his hands—a gesture asking to be held.
Adlen released a long sigh and lifted the infant into his arms. To refuse a request to be held was to invite hellish moments anew. Refusal was simply not an option.
“Ugh…….”
Caring for an infant drained more than just stamina.
It taxed his strength as well.
His arms trembled as he lifted the child, who grew heavier with each passing day.
Adlen let out a quiet groan at the throbbing pain in his forearms. At this rate, he’d lose the use of his arms even for eating.
Oblivious to his suffering, the infant bounced happily in Adlen’s embrace, and Adlen felt as though his trembling forearms might tear asunder.
Adlen gazed enviously at the muscular forearms of the knights and his master.
How he wished he possessed arms like those…….
Then his eyes met his master’s.
“!”
Adlen hastily turned away.
His body always stiffened whenever he saw his master—a habit now so ingrained it felt second nature.
‘But why is he looking?’
Lacalte treated Adlen’s existence as nothing more than a beast loosed in the room.
Usually, he paid no attention whatsoever to what Adlen did, nor did he speak to him. Only when things became too loud or conspicuous did Lacalte occasionally glance his way.
The dancing had ended—what had he done to attract notice?

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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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