The Military Doctor Excels at Being a Contracted Duchess - Chapter 60

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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【Chapter 60】

“The next head of the family? Me…?”

“I’ve judged that you would be suitable as an heir.”

Looking bewildered, Angelm moved his pink lips before pressing them tightly shut.

What reflected in his eyes were enormous question marks.

If he had been thinking of him as the next head of the family, why had he let him be treated that way until now? Such thoughts would surely come to mind.

Here, Ebel realized that she needed to step forward again.

“Originally, you hadn’t thought about an heir at all. Isn’t that right, Victor?”

“That’s correct.”

“But now you’re starting to look after the household affairs too. You’re not trying to test Angelm’s abilities, but acknowledging them. Right?”

“That’s correct.”

Victor obediently answered her questions.

He wasn’t naturally inclined to give long explanations.

Since he didn’t tend to speak at length to anyone other than Ebel, dealing with children was still difficult for him.

To think he had to explain things at such length.

‘No. It’s necessary.’

Correcting his thoughts, he opened his mouth seriously.

“I’ve been receiving reports about your grades and learning abilities. You’re quick to understand and absorb politics, diplomacy, and history.”

“Ah… thank you. But…”

“Even if a legitimate heir is born, you will inherit the position of head of the family.”

“…?”

Meanwhile, Angelm couldn’t find words to say.

His palms grew damp with nervousness.

Even if he became the young master, he had naturally thought that was just to fill the gap until a legitimate heir was born.

But that wasn’t the case.

Why?

It even seemed like a matter that had already been decided. There was no way Damian could inherit it.

‘He said it wasn’t a test. But…’

If a legitimate heir was born later, wouldn’t it be taken away from him then?

‘And could I… become like the master?’

His body trembled finely.

As he tried not to show it, Damian, who had been in Ebel’s arms, came to his side and leaned heavily against his shoulder.

Feeling his twin’s warmth, Angelm barely managed to open his numb hands.

“If you don’t want it, you don’t have to become the heir.”

That was when it happened.

Victor, who had been watching Angelm intently, spoke quietly.

His tone was much gentler than before.

“However, the plan to adopt you and Damian remains unchanged.”

“Adoption…”

Damian would have a mother?

He had been so preoccupied with becoming the young master that he hadn’t thought about the most important thing.

Swallowing dry saliva, Angelm looked down at his twin.

Though he seemed completely uninterested in all this conversation, Angelm could see it.

No, he could feel it.

They were connected twins, after all.

‘He’s thinking he’d like Ebel to become his mother.’

Damian was always like that.

Even when he wanted something, he didn’t actively try to grasp it.

It hurt his heart to know that this was his way of trying not to get hurt.

And the reason Damian had been brighter and smiling more often lately was all thanks to Ebel.

Closing his eyes tightly and opening them again, Angelm asked the woman who looked like silk made of layered sunlight.

For him, it was an extremely important question.

“You won’t… die early, will you?”

Because both dad and mom had gone to heaven.

No matter how short of angels God was, He had taken both parents away.

“You won’t go even if God calls you?”

Genevieve always said this.

That God was preparing for a great war, and He needed mom and dad for it.

So they shouldn’t cry and had to endure. They mustn’t whine.

Damian was a damn demon child that God wouldn’t even seek, so the two of them would be separated when they died.

“Even if God calls you, can’t you not go?”

“Angelm…”

“If you promise not to go, then…”

Ah, he shouldn’t cry.

That was something only Damian should do.

Angelm roughly wiped his eyes.

Ever since he had cried in front of Ebel yesterday, his chest felt strange.

As if something had broken.

“Angelm, I won’t go. I’ll come back. Don’t worry.”

“That’s a lie. Mom also said she wouldn’t go…”

“I know, but I really won’t go. I have things to do, so God sent me back. He probably told me to take care of you.”

Standing up abruptly, Ebel hugged Angelm tightly as he was on the verge of tears.

Yes, she had returned from death.

Whether it was God’s power, a contract with a demon, or some unknowable force’s machination, she couldn’t tell.

But there must be a reason she returned.

That’s what she thought.

She had vaguely thought it was to prevent war, to change history, but perhaps something more important than that was these children.

Maybe that’s why there had been no answer when she prayed at the church.

Because if she only focused on historical flow, politics, and such things, these children would become lonely again.

“Matthew 18:10. See that you do not despise one of these little ones.”

Though she didn’t particularly serve God, this was also a verse she had to memorize by heart as part of her education.

No verse had ever touched her heart, but why was it?

Now it felt so vivid.

Victor also stood up, lifted Damian into his arms, and murmured quietly.

“Zechariah 4:10. Who dares despise the day of small things?”

Victor and Ebel briefly looked at each other, realizing they had the same thought simultaneously, and smiled.

“You can call me mother, or you don’t have to. That’s your choice. But I will take care of you as much as possible and make you happy.”

When she had just talked with Victor, her worries had only increased, but looking at the pure faces of the children, everything became hazy.

‘Could I really leave Angelm and Damian behind? Would that even be possible?’

Would her life be set right just by leaving?

She could set it right well enough here too.

‘Can I only become myself by leaving?’

Now she realized that not only Victor was a control freak, but she was too.

Emotionless parents, a childhood spent living like a ghost. Years of struggling desperately to escape the given fate through harsh studies.

That had made her who she was now.

She had to stand on her own.

She couldn’t lean on others. She couldn’t depend on them either.

Then she met Victor, and now she had met these children and held them in her heart.

The beginning of ‘us’ rather than ‘me’.

The heart that cares for children is also love, and within love, the self called ‘me’ doesn’t disappear but… could expand, couldn’t it?

‘Not letting go of the option to run away means I’m not willing to pour my heart completely into this place. Angelm and I right now are exactly the same.’

We’re afraid to put down roots.

We’re being cowards.

‘A nine-year-old can be like that, but I…’

I’m an adult.

Shouldn’t I be a little braver and approach first?

Damian excitedly begged to be carried, and Victor silently picked him up. Angelm was wiping his tears when they burst forth even more, so he buried his face in Ebel’s embrace.

It would be better if he could cry loudly and freely, but his small back that couldn’t do so was so pitiful.

‘A house without these children. Living alone, filled only with my own tastes… a quiet space where nothing happens.’

While patting Angelm, Ebel imagined it.

Herself in a very, very distant place.

Where no one knew her, and no one would look for her. So no worries would arise, and nothing from the outside would shake her.

It would surely be the peace she had longed for.

But why did it feel so lonely?

Going from someone for whom solitude was natural to someone for whom it wasn’t was such a terrifying thing.

Because she understood so keenly what Angelm was feeling right now, Ebel held the child tightly.

Comforting Angelm felt like comforting herself.

It’s okay, it will be okay.

Everything will get better from now on.

Soon Victor lifted up Angelm, who was exhausted from crying.

Angelm’s eyes widened in surprise as it was his first time being held by Victor, and Damian smacked his lips while clinging to Ebel.

Though they weren’t children born from her womb, surely this was…

The ideal image of a ‘family.’

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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