"You're saying if I return to the main castle, everything will be resolved?"
"Yes."
At first, she had refused without even thinking about it, but things changed once Duren became involved.
Estelle slowly nodded.
"Alright."
"Mom, where are you going?"
Duren, who had been quietly listening, tugged at the hem of Estelle's clothes and asked.
"I'm going back to where we used to live, together with you. Compared to that place, this one is really small, isn't it?"
"A lot!"
He shook his head side to side.
"As long as I'm with Mom, it's fine!"
Duren's bright smile was endearing.
Estelle gently patted his round little head and said.
"Duren, Mommy's still sick so I can't go outside. Can you do me a favor?"
"A favor?"
"Just go outside and tell anyone you see to come help Mommy pack."
"I can do it!"
Clenching his tiny fist, Duren dashed off at full speed.
Once he left, the room became so quiet it felt awkward.
After a brief silence, Estelle spoke.
"I hope this will be an opportunity for Your Grace to truly cherish Duren as if he were your own son."
The favor was only an excuse—she had simply sent Duren away so he wouldn't overhear their conversation.
"If that's the case, you don't need to worry. To me, strangers are divided into only two kinds."
"Those who are mine, and those who are not."
Having read the original, Estelle immediately understood and nodded.
"In that case, I'll try to slowly keep my distance from Duren from now on."
A divorce in a year is already a fixed future. If we grow closer than we are now, Duren will only be more deeply hurt when we separate.
The one who would become Duren's family wasn't herself, but Lennox.
If she truly wished for Duren's happiness, then quietly stepping back as agreed was the right choice.
"Just to be clear," she added, "whether you grow close to Duren or not—that's entirely up to you."
The fact that he gave her the mandrake medicine could be explained as Pipin's persuasion, but what was the real reason he suddenly asked her to come to the main castle?
Estelle thought she had the answer.
He must want me to act as a bridge between him and Duren.
But she knew all too well how coldly Lennox had treated Duren up until now.
She had no desire to volunteer for such a role.
"I'll handle distancing myself from Duren on my own."
"…I'll take that into consideration."
Lennox felt displeased at Estelle's attitude of drawing a line more firmly than necessary.
But he had a far more urgent task at hand—getting closer to Duren.
In contrast, Estelle's task was to slowly grow distant from him.
Late at night.
Now that she had come to the main castle, Estelle found herself having to say those words to Duren.
"Tonight, we'll be sleeping separately."
Thud.
Duren's eyes welled with tears, as if he had lost the whole world.
"Whyyy?"
I need to answer this carefully.
Gulp.
Swallowing dryly, Estelle cautiously opened her mouth.
"Duren's going to grow up to be a wonderful adult, right?"
"Mm-hm!"
Duren nodded vigorously.
He had even said it before in front of the scary dark man.
That he'd grow really big and really, really strong!
"A wonderful adult doesn't sleep with their mom."
Hee—
In shock, Duren's small mouth dropped into a round O.
All of a sudden, he didn't feel like becoming a wonderful adult anymore.
"But… even if I'm a wonderful adult, I could still want to sleep with Mom."
"A wonderful adult…"
Estelle lowered her voice slightly.
"…has to be able to sleep alone. That's the condition."
"Condition?"
"Mm. One of the requirements for becoming a wonderful adult is being able to sleep alone."
Putting some distance between herself and Duren wasn't all that difficult.
After all, children were meant to grow up and gradually gain independence from their parents.
Besides, Duren already had plenty of other adults around him who would happily play with him. Reducing the time he spent with Estelle would only be a matter of time.
But walks, games, and bedtime are different… Sleeping separately takes time and patience.
Duren blinked slowly, his face clouding over with sadness. Estelle felt her heart tighten with worry.
What if he says he doesn't want to become a wonderful adult at all?
The thought that her careless words might push sweet Duren down the path of a rebellious child left her uneasy.
"Okay! I get it."
But contrary to her fears, Duren nodded with surprising maturity.
I'll grow really, really big and protect Mom someday!
He grinned brightly.
"I can sleep alone, doo-doo can!"
"Good. But that doesn't mean I'm leaving you all by yourself right away."
Forcing a child to separate all at once was never wise.
"If you wake up for a moment and don't see me, don't be scared. I'll just be right outside the door."
"Mm!"
It was such a proud and admirable response that Estelle couldn't help but feel touched.
And for this admirable Duren, there was something she needed to do.
"Shall we read a book?"
"Mm!"
It was time to put the little one, who showed no signs of sleepiness, to bed.
Just as much as he loved walks, Duren also loved fun stories. He dashed over to the bookshelf.
"This one! Read this one!"
He picked out a book with a cover that caught his fancy.
Determined to lull him to sleep quickly, Estelle lay down beside Duren on the bed and opened the book.
The fairy tale began in the usual way.
"Once upon a time…"
A massive star fell from the sky.
Boom!
"The star was bigger than a house, bigger than a mountain."
"It made a mess."
Duren muttered, pointing at the illustration in the storybook.
"That's right. The place where the star fell became a mess."
At that moment, Duren tilted his head curiously.
"The star I saw was tiny."
"That's because stars are very far away, so they look small."
Estelle made a fist and held it up in front of Duren's eyes.
"Mommy's hand looks really big, right?"
"Mm!"
"But if it goes farther away…"
"It gets smaller and smaller!"
"Exactly. Stars are the same."
How fascinating.
Duren's eyes sparkled as he nodded eagerly.
On the next page, the place where the star had fallen had turned pitch black, tainted with magic.
The pooled darkness of magic flowed like a river.
It was Gehenna, the river that ran through the Winteren Territory.
"Doo-doo knows this!"
Excited, Duren flared his nostrils and pointed at the picture.
"It's scary!"
"That's right. It's something frightening that takes people's lives."
With a light nod, Estelle began to read the next passage aloud.
"That star was the god, Reltasia."
The goddess of life and death, Reltasia, took the form of a woman. A jewel like a star was set into her forehead.
It was a story Estelle knew well—one of the primordial myths that had been told long before the Empire was founded.
And astonishingly, this myth included the ancestor of Lennox.
"It's the demon man!"
Black hair.
Red eyes.
A grown man with a cold expression was drawn on the page.
Because of the simple, childlike art style of the fairy tale, he looked vaguely like Lennox, though he was not.
"That man isn't him, but more like his great-great-great-grandfather."
"Great-grandpa's grandpa?"
The very first Winteren.
He was the human who had tried to kill a god.
Evil is in their roots.
Even in a children's storybook, he appeared as the very first embodiment of Evil.
The Winteren family began with evil.
"God Reltasia raged furiously and punished the demon. Because he had done such wicked deeds, she decreed that he must live righteously for the rest of his life!"
"Until the day you die, be trapped in magic and hunt monsters!"
Just like the witch who tried to lure and eat lost siblings but ended up trapped in an oven.
Just like the girl who deceived her grandmother and wore red shoes to the temple, condemned to dance forever.
The Winteren who had defied the god received his punishment.
For generations, eternally, eternally…
Meanwhile, at that very moment—
There was someone waiting for Estelle.
It was none other than—
"How late is it already, and she still hasn't come?"
Lennox, who from tonight was to share a bedchamber with Estelle.
"Pipin, do you know where Estelle is right now?"
Lennox asked as he pored over documents in the bedchamber, rather than in his office, even at this late hour.
"She should be in the young master's room."
Pipin replied in a weary tone, worn down with fatigue, to Lennox's sharp-sounding question.
"I heard she spent the entire day with the child, and she's still with him now. Seems her plan to distance herself has already failed."
She had clearly drawn the line, saying she didn't need Lennox's help to keep her distance from Duren.
But given how soft-hearted she was, the process didn't seem to be going smoothly.
"For now, it may look that way, but Madam said she intends to gradually increase the time the young master spends with the servants instead of her."
Pipin quickly refuted Lennox's assumption.
"And she also said she's attempting separate sleeping arrangements."
"Separate sleeping?"
"Yes. Because the annex was small, the young master had always shared a bed with Madam. But in the past few days, as you know, Madam has been unwell."
"That's true."
"So she couldn't let the young master sleep beside someone sick. During those nights he slept alone in his own room, he often woke up crying and searching for her."
He had woken up several times in a single night, bursting into tears as he called for Estelle.
"After hearing that, it seems Madam has made up her mind more firmly."
"But it doesn't seem to be yielding much result."
"One cannot expect to be full from the first spoonful."
Pipin defended Estelle.
In the past, such an attitude would have irritated Lennox enough to rebuke him. But instead of saying anything, Lennox rose from his seat.
"Where are you going?"
"Duren. To that child's room."
"Do you even know where that is?"
Lennox flinched.
"The annex."
It was thanks to the memories of his past life.
"Go on and get some rest yourself."
"Y-yes, sir."
Leaving Pipin's half-hearted reply behind, Lennox left the bedchamber and made his way toward Duren's room.
It should be here.
Out of habit, he raised his hand to knock, then paused. The room beyond was silent.
After a brief hesitation, Lennox carefully opened the door without knocking.
And then, he let out a short laugh.
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