The Murderous Duke's Domestic Affairs - Chapter 21

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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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Chapter 21
Lauren fell ill. The prolonged tension, combined with the hand-to-hand combat, had taken its toll. The Imperial Court’s ball was drawing near, and this was hardly the time for such weakness. Lauren attempted to rise from bed through sheer force of will, but Aster Veil Lilywood gently pressed her back down onto the mattress.
“I’m sorry, Aster. You must be so busy….”
Lauren’s words came in ragged breaths, her cheeks flushed crimson. Aster furrowed his brow as he gazed down at her. The fever burned high—beads of perspiration dotted her forehead. He took up a damp cloth and carefully wiped her brow clean.
“You have nothing to apologize for.”
“But still….”
“If you’re truly sorry, then rest well and recover quickly.”
Rather than lighting a fire, Aster glanced at the clock perched above the fireplace, adorned with flowers. Letti Torres would be returning soon. There were matters requiring his attention, so he could not remain here indefinitely. Besides, if he stayed, Lauren would never truly rest.
Aster cast one final look at Lauren before rising to leave. She reached out and caught his sleeve.
“Thank you.”
Turning back to her, Lauren offered a gentle smile of gratitude. Aster’s eyes softened as his lips curved into a smile. He brushed away the strands of hair clinging to her damp forehead. Unlike the rough, large hands that wielded a sword, his touch was remarkably tender.
“Rest now, Lauren.”
Though her hair was unpleasantly damp with perspiration, Aster’s smile never wavered. Lauren gazed up at him quietly before closing her eyes.
Whether from exhaustion or fever, she drifted into sleep almost immediately. Aster watched her sleeping face for a moment before quietly departing the room.
“Your Grace.”
Waiting before the bedroom door were Lise and Anna, Lauren’s two attendants. Aster left them with only a brief request to look after Lauren before withdrawing from her quarters. The mansion’s resident steward was also a servant, so these two would be more suitable companions for her.
“We shall report any improvement at once.”
Lise’s composed voice carried through the closing door. Aster nodded in response. The soft thud of the door shutting seemed to press down upon his heart.
He exhaled deeply and made his way to the Office. Letti Torres had not yet arrived, so the space remained empty. The Duke’s desk where Lauren always worked sat vacant and bare.
Had the desk always been this large? Aster approached it and ran his hand across its neatly organized surface. Once perpetually buried beneath documents, it had been cleared since Lauren began her duties. Aster’s lips curved into a solitary smile.
He had once believed he would graduate from the Military Academy and become an officer. Never once had he desired to become a Duke. Even when he first took this seat, it had not felt like his rightful place. Only anger, sorrow, and burden had weighed upon his shoulders.
The burden remained. It never diminished. The duties of a Duke he had never properly learned were exhausting. Everyone called him “Your Grace,” yet he longed to flee somewhere far away.
He had traveled the battlefields by the Emperor’s command. That, at least, had been preferable. The sensation of an empty mind was easier than he had imagined. He had drawn his sword to survive. Though he had earned the title of war hero, the shameful epithet of “murderer” was never forgotten by anyone.
Aster gripped the desk and bowed his head. Had he not returned home that day, Father would still be sitting at this desk attending to his duties, and Mother would still be tending her flowers in the Greenhouse, enjoying her tea with contentment. That is how it would have been. This seat would never have become his rightful place.
Aster clenched his teeth and released a long sigh. Speculation changes nothing. What has already happened cannot be undone. He had desperately wished this were all a dream, yet the fact remained—he was still the Duke. A knock sounded at the door. Aster straightened and answered briefly.
“I have returned, Your Grace.”
“Welcome back, Letti.”
Letti Torres bowed respectfully. Aster watched as he set down a large satchel before moving toward his designated long chair. As he settled into it with a soft thud, Letti, hat in hand, asked if he should prepare some tea.
“No need.”
At his brief response, Letti Torres chuckled.
“Well, my tea is only fit for the battlefield, after all.”
Aster laughed at Letti’s self-deprecating jest. Letti Torres was perhaps the only person who truly understood him—someone he had studied alongside since before the Military Academy, someone with whom he could be entirely at ease. Letti’s blue eyes crinkled as he smiled. Aster returned the smile and leaned back against the long chair.
“How is Leonora faring?”
“She’s absolutely thrilled to be in her final year. She saw the news of your marriage in the papers and pestered me endlessly about what sort of person your wife is. I was quite worn out by her questions.”
Recalling his sister’s energetic chatter, Letti chuckled. Aster’s eyes softened as he remembered the red-haired girl with twin braids, clutching her older brother’s hand as she practically flew down the corridors of the Duke’s Mansion.
“She won’t be coming home for this holiday. She’s too busy with graduation performance rehearsals. She’s sending out invitations—will you attend?”
“Well, my attending might….”
“She will be delighted, I’m certain.”
“I’ll consider it.”
Letti nodded with a smile. He had been Aster’s constant companion since childhood, around ten years old. With both his parents serving as staff at the Duke’s Mansion, Letti had always brought his younger sister Leonora along wherever he went.
The Previous Duchess, who had longed for a daughter, had cherished Leonora with particular affection. It was Aster Veil Lilywood’s mother who first recognized that child’s talent.
The Previous Duchess kept Leonora close and treasured her, insisting that such talent could not be allowed to wither, and sent her to the Arts Academy. Even after the Previous Duke passed away and Aster Veil Lilywood inherited the title, the patronage of Leonora continued.
Years passed, and Leonora now stood on the threshold of graduation. No matter how gifted one might be or how generous the Duke’s House’s support, it must have been grueling and difficult for a young child to endure alone at the Academy.
“My, you’ve suffered long indeed.”
“It was difficult to dissuade her when she wanted to come after the Previous Duke passed away.”
Letti Torres laughed aloud with a ha ha. Remembering that day’s letter—hastily scrawled with crossed-out characters—Aster Veil Lilywood closed his eyes and smiled as well.
Leonora had always been the sort to inquire after their well-being on beautiful stationery in elegant script, sharing her own stories. There had been no letter torn from a notebook before that day, nor since. That day must have been a shock even to that child, distant as she was.
As Aster Veil Lilywood lifted his eyes to summon his aide, he paused upon seeing Letti Torres’s expression. The blue eyes of Letti Torres, usually so quick to smile, were now deeply furrowed. It was rare—even for one who had spent so long at his side—to see Letti Torres wear such a face. For all those years, from when he was called “young master” until he became “Your Excellency,” Letti Torres had faithfully remained by his side.
What was Letti Torres thinking now? Aster Veil Lilywood gazed at him intently. He was not one to concern himself with others’ thoughts. That had changed only after he met Lauren.
He had begun to grow curious about what Lauren was thinking as she pored over documents, as she laughed while discussing work with Letti Torres. Why she smiled, why she grew serious—such trivial matters seemed profoundly important when it came to Lauren.
And so, without realizing it, he found himself observing the faces of others. Calvin Stewart, furrowing his brow and smiling at him; Jasmine Aloria, biting her lip as she reported on the Wardrobe Department’s profits; Garnet, who had scarcely shown expression on his face since childhood; and now, Letti Torres’s stern, contemplative visage.
“Letti Torres….”
“Ah, now that I think of it, I don’t see the lady around.”
Letti Torres cut off Aster Veil Lilywood’s words. He had already returned to his usual smiling face, seemingly unaware that he had interrupted his superior. Aster Veil Lilywood, who had been about to ask what he was thinking, decided it hardly mattered and pulled one corner of his mouth into a smile before answering Letti Torres’s question.
“She says she has body aches. She’s resting in her room now.”
“Did she overexert herself to that extent?”
“No.”
Aster Veil Lilywood exhaled sharply and answered briefly. Even if he objected, Lauren would do as she wished. And she would do what needed to be done, whether she wished to or not.
She could have turned away from unpleasant tasks or allowed herself to escape them somewhat, but Lauren did not. She faced everything squarely, and in doing so, she shone brilliantly. That alone made her so dazzling it was difficult to look directly at her. Truly, she was someone of such caliber that he could never hope to imitate.
Lost in thought, Aster Veil Lilywood suddenly felt a gaze upon him and lifted his eyes. Letti Torres, his blue eyes narrowed, was looking at him.
“What?”
“Oh, nothing. You were smiling, so I wondered if you were thinking of something pleasant.”
Smiling? Me? Aster Veil Lilywood tilted his head in confusion. For a moment, he thought Letti Torres was teasing him.
But Letti Torres simply kept his mouth shut and attended to the accumulated documents while Aster Veil Lilywood sat. Aster Veil Lilywood raised his hand to his chin and rubbed it. Smiling, was I? There was nothing to smile about. If anything, he should have been irritated. Aster Veil Lilywood exhaled softly.
“…That report Garnet brought—you still have it, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve kept it since there was no order to destroy it.”
Aster Veil Lilywood nodded and rose from his seat. He moved toward the bookshelf that lined one entire wall. After removing several books and replacing them upside down, a heavy metallic click echoed through the room. From the unlocked secret space, Aster Veil Lilywood withdrew a bundle of documents.
Before closing the door to the secret place, Aster Veil Lilywood examined it quietly. A secret location revealed by the Previous Duke to the next Duke. At first, he had not even known such a space existed here.
Aster Veil Lilywood had not been the heir to the Duke’s House. That was why he had no choice but to work to discover this one secret.
He still did not know how many secret places existed in this Office. “He” would surely know, but Aster Veil Lilywood had no desire to seek him out and clutter his mind with such matters.
Aster Veil Lilywood turned his gaze to the empty Duke’s desk. Before the desk sat a phantom image of someone poring over documents, visible only to his eyes. It was the figure of his father, long forgotten.
He bit his lip hard. Perhaps it was because the one who always sat in that chair was gone. He did not understand why he kept falling into sentimentality. During his time at the Military Academy, the most frequent lesson had been to set aside useless emotions. He thought he had been doing well all this time, yet the shadows he believed he had forgotten kept surfacing unbidden.
He shook his head vigorously, closed the drawer, turned the upside-down books back to their proper position, and returned to his seat with the bundle of documents. What he needed to do now was not to chase the shadows of the Previous Duke. Aster Veil Lilywood began to read through the documents, one page at a time.

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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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