Chapter 17

* * *
Translated by Sylph

Read only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net.
* * *

Clois had felt especially strange since this morning.

It wasn’t a bad feeling. Rather, it was a feeling of his heart pounding with unknown expectation.

Since it had been so long since he had greeted a morning with such a feeling, he couldn’t even tell what his feeling was at first.

Then he suddenly remembered.

That a very long time ago, when his precious person was still alive, he used to greet the start of every day with this kind of feeling.

‘But why am I suddenly like this?’

It was a day that was not particularly special.

It wasn’t any kind of anniversary, nor was it the day someone passed away. An ordinary day with no special schedule set.

However, he couldn’t understand why he himself had been so excited since the morning.

To the extent that he even suspected whether he had taken some medicine incorrectly.

But he still hadn’t touched the medicine the doctor gave him at all, so that couldn’t be the case.

Clois, who found no special point in today’s schedule, retraced his memories of the previous day.

Recently, there hadn’t been anything special other than his depression worsening…

“Ah.”

No. There was a child who suddenly appeared at the graves of Lilian and Evbien.

However, he had given her a fake identity appropriately and sent her back. Since there was no reason to meet her again, it was something he didn’t need to pay much attention to anymore.

So there was no way he would be particularly affected by that matter…

Clois came out to his office with a floating feeling that was unlike him.

The ministers he encountered on the way welcomed him more especially than usual and bowed their waists deeply.

At the same time, they talked about how the weather was really nice or asked how His Majesty’s mood was.

Even if he were so, he didn’t understand why the ministers were so excited.

They were humans who usually found it difficult to even meet his eyes.

Unless they were collectively crazy, what was the reason for them to speak to him so lightheartedly?

At the same time, everyone was diligently watching his mood.

After a while, Clois understood why they were acting like this.

Those who were in the meeting room suddenly flocked to the window and began to chatter.

“Look, the children of the Gifted Center are coming.”

The moment he heard those words, he realized why they had been watching his mood and speaking to him more than usual since morning.

‘Today was the day the Gifted Center children toured the Imperial Palace.’

After saying to admit Evi Alden, Clois had never brought up anything related to the Gifted Center until now.

Furthermore, recently, suggestions were constantly being submitted regarding the empty successor position.

So the ministers wanted to hear even a single word about what Clois was thinking for the future.

Especially, it seemed they thought that when the children who could be called candidates entered the Imperial Palace like this, it was that opportunity.

They were reasonably sensible thoughts.

To state his thoughts about a successor, a day like today was a good opportunity.

But…

“I am not in good health today. Proceed with the meeting without me and I will receive the minutes separately.”

At Clois’s words, the faces of the ministers who were full of expectation darkened in an instant.

Clois didn’t particularly intend to blame them.

Of course, among them, there were those who inwardly hoped that their own children, grandchildren, or the children of their close associates would catch Clois’s eye.

However, he knew that an even greater number now truly ‘worried’ about the successor.

Whoever it was, they wished for him to designate someone soon for the perfect stability of the empire.

But he still hadn’t decided.

He knew the answer.

Just as everyone expected, Arcel and Ruska. He only had to choose one of the two children.

It’s said that one doesn’t know a person’s heart, but the fathers of the two children, Duke Kaylan and Marquis Lagselve, were people he had been with through life and death as a trio.

Therefore, he knew their character.

Both of them were people who hoped their own children would not become the successor.

Also, they were people who, the moment their child was designated as the successor, would return all titles within the Imperial Palace and immediately enter a distant estate to live in seclusion.

‘The children also have no problem.’

If one looks into the ancestors of both, imperial blood is mixed in.

So even when the rumor first circulated that it would be one of the two children, no one particularly talked about their qualifications.

However, the reason Clois took the two children as candidates in his heart was not because of such conditions.

‘Lilian cherished them very much.’

There were many other children besides Arcel and Ruska at Lilian’s estate.

Because his close associates had also brought their families since the period he stayed was long.

However, Lilian especially cherished those two children. As if they were her own children.

Clois trusted Lilian’s eyes along with his own eyes.

If they were the children she cherished, there would surely be no problem.

“Even so, Your Majesty, the young students will be excited while touring the Imperial Palace. If you are alright with it, how about giving them a greeting just once?”

It was the moment when he was about to get annoyed at the attitude of the ministers who tried to hold onto him without giving up easily.

Hearing those words, Clois came to his senses.

‘That child must think I am a professor.’

Because he couldn’t say he was the emperor, he gave the name of a professor he had heard.

But how surprised she would be if she suddenly saw him here.

Furthermore, if she knew who he was, she would never speak to him comfortably as she did when they met in front of Lilian’s grave.

Thinking that far, Clois hurriedly got up from his seat.

Looking at the attitude of the ministers, it seemed they would approach and greet the children if they entered.

It was better to just leave this place before then.

“That’s enough. I will be at the office, so if there’s urgent business, send someone there.”

Clois hurriedly left the spot.

Coming to the office, he unfolded the piled-up documents as usual.

In any case, today’s meeting didn’t have very important agendas. So it was rather a relief that the time to work alone like this increased.

‘I should finish it quickly.’

There were always many documents waiting for his confirmation.

So he should check and sign them quickly and send them back.

However, contrary to his thoughts, his hands could hardly move.

Normally, he should have already read several pages, but his eyes still couldn’t go beyond the very first sentence of the document.

There was only one reason. It was because of the voices of the children heard from outside.

‘Have they already come close?’

Admiration, calling a friend, even the sound of chattering without rest.

He could not concentrate at all at the voices of young boys and girls, which were hard to hear in the main palace.

‘Evi must have come too.’

The moment he thought so, he eventually left the documents he was holding and got up from his seat.

Fortunately, curtains were drawn across the window. If he looked slightly through the gap, he would be able to watch secretly without his appearance being discovered.

As he thought, the students’ appearances were visible through the gap in the curtains.

‘I heard many children have already quit without being able to endure it.’

Still, more students remained than he thought.

Among those, children who quit for various reasons would come out again, he supposed.

Thinking such things, he carefully scanned the children.

Eventually, the child Clois was looking for was visible.

Evi, who was moving here and there, unable to easily find a place to stand among the students much taller than her.

Even while being pushed by other students, the child couldn’t take her eyes off the Imperial Palace.

And Clois couldn’t take his eyes off such an Evi.

‘Is it that surprising?’

It was no wonder. To a child from a rural orphanage, the Imperial Palace would look like a different world.

Even though the Gifted Center’s buildings are excellent as auxiliary institutions of the Imperial Palace, they cannot dare to be compared with the main palace.

Seeing her looking while being dazed, a smile somehow came out.

If other children weren’t there, and if other students weren’t there.

‘Then I would have gone down, pretended to be a professor, and given explanations here and there.’

Clois, who was thinking that far, ended up being startled.

To think of wanting to approach and let her know after having thought that he should not encounter her again.

What was the reason for making such a contradictory thought?

At that moment, Evi, who was looking at the main palace from outside, bowed her head deeply.

Thinking it was as if she were greeting him, Clois was surprised and hurriedly retreated.

“How…”

Had he been seen?

Clois had to try to calm his thumping heart in surprise.

He, who slowly exhaled, approached the window again cautiously after a long while and looked at the garden through the gap in the curtains.

Before he knew it, the children of the Gifted Center were moving far away, following the staff.

There was a young child following the tail of the group with pitter-patter steps.

Fortunately, it didn’t seem like she had recognized him or anything.

‘Then why?’

Did she bow toward the Imperial Palace?

Clois stood by the window until Evi’s appearance was no longer visible and continued to watch that back view.