Volume 5 Chapter 3.3 (1/2)

Volume 5 Chapter 3 Part 3

Translator: Mar

Editor: Jacinta

Lucius shot a fleeting glance at my husband. Even though he looked as if he expected something from the man, he remained silent and didn’t respond in any way.

I felt somewhat sorry for that pitiful boy who at that moment followed me out of the drawing room to the guest bedroom, with his shoulders dropped in discouragement. I had half expected Yulifalet to stay with us in the mansion during the festivities, so I went ahead and prepared the spare bedroom just in case, so it was more or less prepared for the sudden visitor. Be that as it may, I would have never expected that it would be used by such an important person.

Before long we reached the bedroom door and I turned around to look at young Lucius.

「Master Lucius, here is your room. Please feel yourself at home.」

「Thank you very much, ehm… Madame Lancent.」

I noticed that he said my name hesitantly, avoiding my gaze. While I was opening the door, I smiled at him and said.

「Master Lucius, feel free to call me however you wish, as long as you feel comfortable.」

Immediately after I said the words, just like before, his mood changed in an instant. His eyes brightened as he smiled widely and said「Well then…」in a reserved manner.

「Uh… Can I call you sister – Filmina-neesan?」

…Ooh, I didn’t think about that. It was such an unexpected question that I was at a loss for words. But that’s it, isn’t it? If that boy is that man’s「younger brother」, even though they didn’t have the same mother, that would make him my younger brother-in-law, wouldn’t it? Right? Right. I didn’t think so far ahead to reach this conclusion earlier. Regretting my own blunder internally, I put on a smile and nodded at him.

「Yes, it would be an honor.」

If my own younger brother heard this, I’m sure he would yell at me 「That’s not funny!」. He wasn’t even present, but I couldn’t help but worry about him. To my response Lucius relaxed his gaze and smiled ever so broadly. His face was so similar to that man’s, but of course there was no way Edi would ever make such a face expression. To this gentle face I finally relaxed. At the same time I noticed Lucius… Could it be that he has been even more nervous to talk to me than I was to talk to him?

Unintentionally I put myself on guard, but in fact, that young boy had a sort of sweetness in him that made a person not want to leave him alone or neglect him. Naturally, I did believe his story from a logical standpoint. But still…

「Well then, master Lucius, as soon as the dinner is ready, I will call you again.」

「Yes, thank you, I will appreciate that.」

I waited until he disappeared behind the closed door and turned on my heel. But instead of heading to the kitchen, where the half-finished meal was waiting, I hurried back to the drawing room.

There I found the man sitting on the sofa in exactly the same manner as before, his posture straightened, his face expressionless. It was quite mysterious. The only change in his appearance that I could see was that he brought his pale white hand to his chin.

From this gesture I figured that he was pondering, but I would rather he had expressed a more understandable reaction to the story we had heard. Suddenly, a different thought popped into my head.

No, no. After all, it’s fine. When I thought about it, such a reaction was enough. A man with his face full of expression and excessive gestures would be a completely different person to me. Young Lucius is a good example of that. I realized that even though they are like two peas in a pod – minus the age gap, hair color and the fact that my husband had a scar under his left eye – the differences in their speech and conduct or face expressions make it impossible to mistake one for another. No matter how similar they seemed, I only had one husband.

Standing behind him I called 「Edi」. He hadn’t moved in the slightest until that moment. Finally he looked at me over his shoulder.

「It took you a while.」

「Oh, is that so?」

His curt words sounded more indifferently and coldly than usual. I walked around the sofa and sat next to him. His facial features looked as beautiful as ever. I was used to seeing this face, but this time it was even more still and expressionless like a mask than usual.