The Maid With a Child - Chapter 59

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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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59. The Man You’ll Meet
Even though Racalte seemed to go through life handling most of the world’s affairs out of sheer necessity, he had his preferences.
She’d always assumed he didn’t marry simply because the timing wasn’t right, or because there was no suitable candidate, or because he lacked the time.
“Why not?”
“I find it curious, actually—that you view marriage so optimistically, with such high expectations, when you approach most other things with such pragmatism.”
“But that’s the whole point of marriage, isn’t it? People get married to be happy.”
“Dreams and reality don’t always align. It’s rather striking—your expectations about people are so grounded in reality, yet your views on marriage float about in fantasy like a child’s daydream.”
“Fantasy, daydream……well……”
He was indeed a master swordsman. His words cut just as deeply as his blade.
Adlen’s chest ached from the successive blows. Yet she felt wronged. She wasn’t the only one who thought this way! Surely no one actually wanted an unhappy marriage?
“Then what do you believe marriage is, sir?”
“Duty.”
“……Just duty?”
“The duty to honor the family name. The duty to protect one’s kin. The duty to raise an heir properly. As for one’s spouse—that depends on the terms of the marriage contract.”
“……Has someone in your life lived that way?”
“My father.”
“Then I suppose it makes sense you’d think of it that way.”
She’d nearly stepped into dangerous territory.
Adlen gave herself silent praise for her mental agility—the way she’d pivoted her conversation as sharply as a cat chasing a sparrow suddenly changes direction.
“It seems your father, the late count, placed great emphasis on duty and responsibility.”
“He said that fulfilling one’s role in one’s station is just like any profession or title. If the father performs his role as father, the mother performs her role as mother, and the children fulfill their duties as children, then the household runs smoothly—that’s what he taught me.”
As the patriarch of Sigeliun, his father had been flawless. He’d accepted the King’s commands and won countless battles, and he’d raised his heir—Racalte himself.
His mother had done her utmost to uphold Sigeliun’s honor both within and beyond society’s circles, and even after her death, she’d left the household staffed with capable people so that he wouldn’t need to concern himself overmuch with internal matters.
The only misstep the two of them had made was failing to arrange a suitable match for him during their lifetimes—but when even the most perfect people cannot escape arrows fired in battle or illness itself, it hardly seemed a grave fault.
Racalte’s parents had fulfilled exactly the roles required of them.
His father had overseen his successor’s education and training, while his mother had managed his etiquette and cultivated his connections.
It was cooperation where everyone’s efforts meshed precisely.
Even now, Racalte believed that cooperation had been perfect.
“What about love, apart from duty?”
Adlen, who had been listening to Racalte speak for some time, asked in a daze. Were they really discussing the same thing—marriage, family—or was he speaking of something else entirely?
“Love?”
“Yes! Can you truly marry, build a family, without love at all?”
“Why couldn’t you?”
“……So you could.”
Racalte raised his eyebrows as if he didn’t understand the question itself.
“You haven’t tried it yourself.”
“Pardon?”
“Love.”
It was his counterattack.
If the measure was experience, Adlen had nothing to say. She’d never actually gone to someone else’s home to observe their marriage firsthand. In the end, she was just as ignorant, holding nothing but vague fantasies without any real knowledge.
“I haven’t tried it, but……”
Adlen murmured.
The truth was, neither he nor Adlen understood what love truly was or had ever experienced it.
Yet here she was, singing songs about love, love, love, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It struck him as remarkably naive.
What exactly was this love she kept imagining?
“But a family filled with love and happiness—that’s the only way anyone could truly protect me, isn’t it? No other family could ever do that.”
Adlen’s wish was urgent, almost desperate. Her longing for a family bound together by deep affection—a family that sustained each other—was something even Racalte could feel. He’d always known it, and it was consistent as ever.
“Yes, I hope you’ll be able to build exactly that kind of family.”
Before someone with such earnest yearning, he couldn’t bring himself to mock her dreams as mere fantasy anymore.
Racalte settled their disagreement with a blessing. For some reason, his mouth tasted bitter.
“Yes……and I hope you too find someone whose circumstances align perfectly with yours, sir. ……Though if it comes to it, I suspect His Majesty would take care of finding you a match.”
“Even if His Majesty doesn’t concern himself with it, when the time comes I’ll look for one myself. I’ve been too preoccupied with the war to give it thought until now, but it’s not a duty I can abandon forever.”
“Oh, then perhaps you should look sooner rather than—”
“Not immediately. Only after the war is completely resolved.”
She’d harbored a brief hope that his marriage might put the rumors to rest, but it came to nothing.
So it seemed the only solution was for her to find a lover herself. But the immediate problem was where on earth she would meet one.
Just then, a buried treasure surfaced in Adlen’s mind.
“Oh? Wait a moment, sir. Didn’t you make me an offer before? About how if I couldn’t find a man to meet, you’d kidnap someone for me……”
“Ah.”
Racalte remembered as well.
That a comment tossed out half in jest, spoken in passing, would come back to haunt her like this.
Adlen had caught the flicker of bewilderment in her master’s eyes. But the golden coin had already been unearthed from the ground. How could she bury it again?
“Could you do it now, please?”
“Now?”
“Yes. Before the party. That way I can boldly insist that I have a boyfriend!”
…….
“You’re not going to back out now, are you?”
Adlen grinned widely, looking ready to hand in her resignation on the spot.
* * *
Racalte held the sheaf of papers and hesitated for a long time.
The papers contained personal information on various men—specifically, suitable candidates he might introduce to Adlen.
Somehow, they had ended up in his hands.
When he’d first asked the Chief Butler to compile the list, he hadn’t given it much thought. But now that the list was actually in his possession, he found himself reluctant to even look through it.
He’d wavered for a moment under Adlen’s desperate plea and ordered the Chief Butler to investigate some men, which at least meant he hadn’t acted directly.
But selecting a suitable candidate from the considerable number of men who’d been gathered—that was something Racalte had to do himself.
It wasn’t just a matter of responsibility; he was worried that something unsuitable might attach itself to his precious maid.
If he chose them himself, at least his mind would be at ease.
Making an introduction turned out to carry surprisingly heavy weight. A Kill List felt lighter than this, somehow.
“Is that the list of men you’re going to introduce to me?”
Adlen, having finished feeding the Baby, noticed his preoccupation and crept closer.
“It is.”
“Wow…….”
Adlen gazed at the documents with sparkling eyes as though she were seeing the men themselves lined up before her.
Unable to resist her eager gaze, Racalte held out the papers.
“Look for yourself.”
“But surely I shouldn’t presume to read the documents that came to you, my lord?”
Even as she said it, her face bloomed with brightness.
“It’s fine. You’re the one who’ll be meeting them anyway.”
“Thank you so much!”
Adlen didn’t hesitate—she took the documents eagerly, her cheeks flushed with anticipation and excitement.
She’s that pleased?
Racalte let out a laugh tinged with exasperation.
Adlen flipped through the pages with a cheerful hum.
But it was only a few pages in.
“Ah…….”
Dark clouds gathered in Adlen’s eyes, which had been gleaming like sunlight.
“What?”
The Chief Butler had said these men were carefully selected. For a maid’s purposes, surely they ought to be presentable enough.
“There are no pictures…….”
“Hmm?”
“Even so, appearance matters…….”
Adlen turned the pages with a wilted expression. Every page held nothing but text, text, and more text.
The furrow that had creased Racalte’s brow eased slightly.
“To include pictures, we’d need to hire an artist, and that would take several times longer. Without seeing them in person to draw them, the accuracy is poor anyway.”
“Ah…… I see.”
Even after hearing the explanation, Adlen couldn’t bring herself to brighten up.
Racalte raised an eyebrow. What was the matter?
The Chief Butler had mentioned when presenting the documents that while pictures were absent, the descriptions were detailed enough that judging their appearance wouldn’t be difficult. Racalte himself, having read through them, found the portrayals vivid enough to see the men as if they stood before him.
“Are the descriptions too sparse? Or is there something specific you wish had been included?”
“No, that’s not it…….”
Adlen squinted at the documents for a long moment, scrutinizing them. Then she let out a deep sigh.
What could be the problem now?
Getting a simple introduction to a man was proving remarkably difficult.

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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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