Chapter 1 : I was a beautiful bait for the emperor
I heard the man come back. Standing by the window, seeing the man's wagon passing through the gates, she hurriedly opened the door and ran outside.
Kylos Ludwig III, the only Great Duke of the Empire. The owner of this ancient castle and my guardian, and······.
'More than that, I don't think I'm allowed feelings.'
I smiled bitterly and stopped both legs trying to run out. The man always emphasized the lady's attitude to me. He took a slow deep breath with his hand on his chest, and then walked gently in search of the man's footsteps.
The emperor's half-brother, the man, often left the territories and stayed in the capital.
He was the only man from the imperial family except for the Emperor in a situation where the Emperor had not had an heir for a long time, and he was a busy person, both public and private.
His mother, who is now dead, was the emperor's mistress and the only grand princess of the empire。
The imperial people loved the beautiful mistress from the best family of the empire more than the empress from abroad.
The woman's son, who had more influence than the empress, grew up to be the only grand duke of the empire, but had to lose mother and father together at his young age.
His half-brother, the current emperor Raymond del Astarot, felt sorry for him who was alone and recognized his status as a royal family.
This was possible because there was no man in the imperial family except the emperor.
Although he was deprived of the qualification to participate in the aristocratic council as the price of being recognized as a royal status, he has a handsome appearance and fluent eloquence, and is quite a recognized man in the social world.
I found him in countless places, and he was always busy.
This time, he was returning after nearly three months. The distance from the capital to the estate was So close that it would take only half a day by horseback, So I was deeply saddened。
However, greater joy preceded the sadness, So I was able to greet the man with a shy smile。
Looking at the knights crowding at the entrance of the palace, I could tell that he had stopped by the castle without going directly into the castle。
It was a place that was cared for while thinking of men while they were away。 Thinking of a man who would be happy to see a more beautiful supporter than before, a smile was drawn on his lips.
"Lady Garnetsh."
As I was about to enter the backyard, a male knight interrupted me.
"Sir Brance."
Sir Enochbrance was quite trusted among male knights for his outstanding skills.
However, the ladies of my age would tremble with the beautiful appearance that seemed to have walked out of the picture rather than his ability. I raised my skirt slightly toward him and bowed gracefully.
"Welcome back to Ludwig Castle. Is my uncle inside?"
Lord Brance frowns around his eyes with an ambiguous expression. I asked again because he didn't answer.
"Isn't my uncle inside?"
"He's inside. But..."
Still, he still couldn't continue his words. Mysteriously bending his head and looking up at her eyes, he turned his face a little red and bent his neck diagonally. It was just like avoiding something.
"It's also an inconvenient reason for me to come in."
When I asked in a quiet voice, I suddenly realized why he blocked me. At the same time, the loud sound of words coming from inside made my cheeks hot.
"It was a very nice garden, as you said. If I hadn't come, I would have almost regretted it."
"Is that so? But in my eyes, ·······."
A man was seen whispering with a stranger sitting on his lap over Lord Brance's shoulder.
"I can't see the beauty of garden, hidden by Betty's loveliness."
Although it was a distant foot, every little move of a man sweeping down while staring affectionately at the face of the woman facing him was embedded in my eyes.
The gestures and voices that seduce women belonged to the person I love, but the laughter that burst into laughter belonged to a stranger, not to me.
"Hey, that's too much of a compliment."
"Oh, my. How can I trust you?"
The laughter gradually subsided, and the faces of the two gradually leaned toward each other. I forgot to breathe and stared at them vaguely, standing still.
"The marquis of Elizabeth Rosaline is with us."
Just before his lips touched the woman, Lord Brance once again blocked me. Only then did I come to my senses and blinked my eyes.
".......I see."
Realizing that the man was not alone, I tried to turn around with a smile.
Realizing that the man was not alone, I smiled and turned around.
It was not new because it was a common occurrence for a man staying in the capital to return to the estate with another woman.
There was no reason to be So sad. But I didn't want to watch a man kiss an unfamiliar woman with my own eyes.
Sir Brance' voice, who offered to escort me to the room, seemed to pass through my ears, but I didn't even have time to answer, So I just ran to my room and walked。
In the meantime, it was funny to recall that I did not keep the lady's attitude that man emphasized.
☆☆☆
Three days after returning, the man came to me. The fact that the woman returned in the carriage early in the morning of the same day could be guessed by the words of the maids.
"Hi, Chloe."
Standing by the door, he looked a little tired. While rubbing my eyes for a moment and staring blankly at him, I belatedly realized that it was not a fantasy but a reality.
"Uncle?"
"I'm sad. Are you not welcoming me anymore?"
"That can't be right!"
I blushed and moved closer following the man's hand gesture. Then the man smiled and hugged me, whirled around, and immediately closed the door to the room.
"Yet."
Thanks to that, I was trapped between the door and the man, and I had to hold my breath to hide my throbbing heart. Whether or not he knew my hardship, the man's thick fingers stroked my face.
"Beautiful, Chloe. Even the queen of fairies appearing in the legend will spring up and hide when she see you."
Sweet words praising my appearance poured through his alluring lips.
I thought that the distance between me and the man was too close, but there was no space to retreat, So I could not do this or that, and I bowed my head quietly.
But the man gently lifted my chin to avoid my gaze。 he was a bad man.
"It's been a long time since we met, are you planning to avoid me?"
" ... I saw you three days ago."
Although the man may not have seen me, I did see the man。 He raised the corners of his lips at my words, which were mixed with a bit of grumbling。
"You seem to have seen the lady of the Marquis."
As I nodded meekly, the man closed his eyes and pressed his body close to me.
"She's a good woman in many ways. She's also the most suitable woman to keep next to. So don't make things to be hated by her. Because if she's angry, I can't protect you."
My heart was throbbing at the warning not to offend her as much as possible. It was the first time a man had told the story of another woman in front of me so directly.
"You are a wise child, you know what I mean?"
The man did not wait for my answer。 Actually, my answer didn't matter to the man。 Because my answer was always either 'yes' or 'okay'.
The man's lips slowly approached me and landed on me. I clung to the gesture of the man who tightly hugged my waist and left a deep kiss。
The fingertips stroked her cheek sweetly down the line of her chin. The slim Negliese is designed to reveal the smooth flowing collarbone in a man's hand gesture.
As the hand that had passed over the exposed round shoulder trembled at a more secret place, I inhaled and breathed in without realizing it.
Was my reaction like that even funny? The man let out a soft laugh and parted his lips。 Just as I was sad that the kiss was over, he bent over and buried his head in my chest right away。
"U, Uncle, wait a minute... ... !"
"Shh, nice, Chloe."
The man whispered to me in a gentle voice like a young child。 Every time the man's lips quivered and his hot breath touched my skin. I had to clench my hands in a groan that burst out of my mouth。
"Nggg... "
"As usual, it's because I love you ..."
He finally raised his head and muttered as he looked over my body with a languid gaze。
"I think you lost your breasts without seeing you."
I breathed heavily with a red face.
"I don't like woman who are too skinny."
I know who the subject of the word is. Men liked skinny women, but it was not allowed for me to take care of my body to suit the taste of men.
Emperor Raymond del Astarot, his half-brother, and the only archduke of the Empire, Kylos Ludwig III.
I was the beautiful bait he would throw at the emperor.
☆☆☆
When I was a kid, the person who saved me was Kyle. So officially say I'm a distant relative of him and a relative 5 years younger than him. I was originally the illegitimate child of the Ganetsch family.
The mother, who was called the best beauty in the village, was a commoner woman who already had a husband.
One day, the woman gave birth to a child, the child resembled her mother and grew up beautiful even at a young age. The woman's husband also had a harmonious and beautiful family with the child.
However, one day when the child turned six, misfortune struck the woman's husband when it was revealed that he had no reproductive function.
One cold winter day, the husband kicked out the woman and the child. The woman knocked on the door of the Garnetshu mansion holding the child's hand in the face of a rough snowstorm without even wearing a proper jacket.
"Please accept my child, sir. She is sir's child."
The woman appealed with tears, but Garnettega's owner coldly expelled her mother and daughter.
Of course he remembered the woman. She was so beautiful that she knew she had a husband, but he forcibly coveted it. There's no way he can't remember. However, he just wanted to eliminate the turmoil that would occur in his family.
A woman who cried in front of the mansion a few days and days in front of the mansion was captured and beaten by a servant of the Garnesh family. The woman's body collapsed, the woman's bone was broken, the woman's flesh fell, and the woman's blood flowed down.
Mother, my mother....
I had to watch all the tragic deaths of my mother, the most beautiful woman in town。
"Please, mom·····."
The last word left by the woman fell into the air without being delivered. I was afraid of the unfocused eyes that contained me, so I stepped back.
At that moment, the woman's hand, which was extending toward me, fell to the cold floor and at the same time the woman's eyes closed. It was the moment when the only warmth of my life left.
I ran late, but only a dead body whose shape was broken was waiting for me.
I cursed myself for turning a blind eye to her last moment and stepping back. However, no matter how much she cried, the woman, and the mother did not return.
Only after being alone did I draw her existence more desperately.
Mother, my beautiful mother. The only person who loved me in my life. A person who worried only about me until the moment of death.
The fact that she would never return pushed me into the pit of sadness.
Viscount Garnett, the biological father who sowed me into the world, ordered the dead mother's body to be thrown into the field.
It was his Son who took me in instead of the Viscount who did not give me the last name of 'Ganesh' until the end。
"Stupid bitch, crawl like a dog and lick my feet."
The small owner of the Garnetsh family was born with a talent for treating subordinates like a 'dog'.
'Stupid, who are you staring at right now?'
He tried to rebel timidly, but her young body, accustomed to pain, was easily torn by even the slightest whip.
"Right! You're good, Chloe!"
Whenever the giggling laughter poked my eardrums, I shed tears silently. At that time, Garnette family's small owner enjoyed my pain even more. Why do I have to suffer like this?
At that time, when my way of thinking was close to that of a beast, I did not even dare to blame the owners of the Garnetsh family and blamed myself。
There was a beast in the form of a human in the garnets。 There was a beast crawling on all fours, licking its master's paws, taunting him in a stinky rag, and occasionally begging for her life from her master's whip. I was their little entertainment.
'Welcome, uncle. Is this your first visit to Garnetsh? I'll show you something interesting.'
One day, a young master presented me to the boy of his age. It was darkness with the boy's smooth javelin hair and black eyes.
The boy glanced at me and spat it out in indifferent words.
"I heard that Garnette family's illegitimate child is treated worse than a beast.'
When the boy was not interested in me, the young master of the Garnetts was greatly disappointed. Perhaps because I couldn't get the boy's attention, the beating that day was particularly severe。
When I returned to my room with my sick body and was groaning alone all night, the door opened silently and someone came in。
"Hi."
The black eyes caught me, her body shaking with her back bent with her body asleep on the floor, caught me.
"Doesn't it hurt?"
The boy asked, looking at the wound on my body. The wounds reddened by the merciless whip were crushed here and there because they were not treated in time.
The tip of his hand that came slowly passed over my wound. At the same time, a stinging pain penetrated the body.
"Shh, it's okay. I'm not trying to hurt you."
As I glared with my molars grinding, the boy smiled and stroked my dirty hair. It was the warmth of a person who had never felt it for six years after her mother died.
"I'm trying to apply medicine. So relax."
"....."
I stared blankly at the boy's face as he applied the medicine over my wounds。 The boy had a gentle, relaxed expression, not the cold expression he had when he was with the men of the Garnets。 His face made me feel strange when I was young。
"Chloe. I heard that's your name."
"...."
"Do you want me to save you?"
The boy asked me, handing over a half-cold soup, who had starved all day. The boy asked again as he saw me hastily pushing food into my stomach.
"Do you want to go with me?"
"... Why are you asking that?"
Indeed, the voice that came out of the throat for the first time in a long time was hoarse.
"Because I like you."
I glanced at the palm that was sticking out to me. Chaeng. The soup bowl and spoon I was holding hit the floor and made a loud noise.
I grabbed the boy's fingertips slowly and very slowly.
"You're a good kid, Chloe."
The boy gently bent his eyes and stroked my head once again. So, that dirty hair that has not been properly washed for several days.
That night, a big fire broke out in Garnette's mansion. A monster-like fire that turned red in the dark night sky swallowed all of my biological father, the son of Garnetsh, and his family.
And she was the only one who survived alone in the middle.
"Poor Chloe, you are alone."'
Looking up at the burnt mansion foolishly with a face covered with black pine nuts, there was a friendly voice ringing in my ears. The boy, who said he went back immediately after dinner, was looking down at me.
"...I was alone from the beginning."
"Then, come with me now."
Cold snowflakes spread over the darkly sunken mansion.
That winter was the first snowy day. One winter day I could only hear the sound of pure white snow rushing down onto the carriage and the rattling of the wheels of the carriage on which I was riding.
I took Kylos's hand and set foot in the Grand Duke of Ludwig.
☆☆☆
I am the illegitimate child of the Ganetsch family, meeting Kylos changed my life. Ironically, it wasn't until after the Viscount Ganetsch's death that I was able to inherit my biological father's name.
"Hey..."
"I'm not 'hey'." If you have to look at the genealogy, it's right to call me "uncle." Garnetesch, your biological father, is my very distant relative brother.
He talked to me while smiling while noticing her hesitant eyes.
I didn't know anything, but as a naive person, I didn't know what my uncle meant. However, no one in the Grand Duke of Ludwig called him by such a name, so I thought the name "uncle" was very special.
"Un...cle?"
When I called him awkwardly, Kylos stroked my head with great pleasure.
"Good job, Chloe."
The faint voice that fell near my ears naturally turned my face red. The low laughter shook my eardrum and then gradually moved away.
"It's much better to wash it here."
Black eyes stared intently at my face. At the same time, I remembered the past I must have seen in my first meeting with him. As she crawled on all fours like a beast in front of her half-brother and licked the top of her feet, a feeling of shame she had never felt before rose up on her cheeks.
Kylos burst into laughter once again at my appearance.
'I mean, you are much prettier than I expected. This is a compliment."
"....."
Kylos of the Grand Duke of Ludwig was a much more laughing and friendly person than I saw at the Ganesh family.
'From now on, this is your house. Don't forget that there is always the Grand House of Ludwig behind you, lovely Chloe.'
Thus, Kylos claimed to be my guardian who lost all her family overnight.
Thanks to this, I was able to transform into 'a lady of an aristocratic family known as a collusion of the Grand Duchess Ludwig'. In addition, she received her patronage by wearing rich food and luxurious clothes.
Kylos had only one reason for me.
"Your Majesty loves all the beautiful things in the world. How foolish it is to be obsessed with the appearance that will only wither."
I was grateful to my mother for giving birth to me beautifully for the first time in my life. The face that resembles her was poison that evoked the anger of Garnetesch each time, but it allowed me to meet Kylos.
"Remember, Chloe. There are many beautiful women around the emperor. Just beauty alone cannot hold the emperor."
Kylos urged me to study various things, and I, who wanted to be loved by him, studied steadily according to his order. Whenever I finished studying well, I liked the touch of Kylos who patted me for doing well.
As I got to know the world little by little, I was able to understand his words belatedly. I know that it was a beautiful bait that Kylos would throw at the emperor.
"If His Majesty sees you, how will he endure without falling in love? It's so lovely."
Kylos was basically a friendly and sweet person. Not only for me, but for all women. And sometimes the sweetness acted as a deadly poison.
Of course, I was no exception. I, who fell in love with his kindness, also blindly fell in love with him.
Perhaps this is also part of Kylos' plan.
Anyway, I was a plant that Kylos carefully cultivated to plant next to the emperor, and if I love him, I will never betray him even if I will occupy the emperor's side.
"I like uncle."
By the time it reached nearly five years after she set foot in the grand duke of Ludwig along Kylos. At the age of 17, I was so young and immature that I couldn't hide my growing heart.
"I've been in love for a long time."
"Love."
For a brief moment, Kairos's eyes staring at my body stiffened, but I bravely approached him. The laughter that rubbed his lips for a moment doubled my tension...
"You're already at that age."
He stretched his arms slowly and grabbed my wrist. As soon as I got on his lap, I was soaked in vague expectations while looking at his fascinatingly handsome face.
"I've been waiting for you for a long time, Chloe. I want you to be a woman."
His fingertips swept down my face. His hand, which went down slowly along the jawline, grabbed my shoulder painfully.
Kylos kissed me when I was 17.
Unlike my courageous confession, I froze in embarrassment, and despite my unexpected confession, he was too relaxed and skillful.
"I'm still clumsy."
The tongue that had been coveting in my mouth fell off every nook and cranny, and my eyes widened in disbelief that I had kissed him.
He giggled at me like that. A small kiss continued over my lips and face.
"Uncle, I'm······."
"I like you, too, Chloe. I love you."
He gently stroked my head and whispered.
'You are the only family left in this Ludwig castle."
The word "only" made my young heart flutter even more. It was such an exciting and sweet language. The fact that each other is unique to each other.
"In addition, how can I not be lovely to you, who will bring me my brother's neck in the future?"'
However, his words that followed broke my excitement.
His younger brother, Raymond del Astarot. I am a woman raised to seduce and remove his brother. She was a woman of only value. The man I love was so sweet that he was even more cruel. Seventeen I realized at that word.
The feeling of loving him, was never allowed to me.
So I tried to hide my heart. Without knowing that my already leaked heart overflowed and soaked me all over. Like a fool.
"Don't run away, Chloe."
Kylos dragged me down as I tried to get out of his lap and gently stroked around my eyes.
"Yes, look at me with those eyes."
"...."
"Right, it's pretty."
The fingertips that descended downg pressing down on the corners of the eyes, wandered over the plump, protruding lower lip。 Slowly I lowered my eyes and he kissed me again。 It was a soft and friendly kiss as if he loved me.
"Your expression will drive him crazy."
When the kiss was over, I was crying and he grinned, wiping my tears with my thumb.
"But it can't be this clumsy. Chloe, you have to work a little harder to satisfy my brother."
"Uncle·····."
"Don't worry too much." You can learn step by step."
I don't know how he interpreted my tears, but when he kissed me for the third time, he stretched out my arms and clung to his neck.
After three kisses, I was expecting a little. Maybe our relationship will change in the other direction.
Since then, Kylos has often visited me and kissed me, and I, who was confused at first, soon began to accept him naturally. I thought our appearance resembles the appearance of a lover read in an old book.
But when he showed more than kissing another woman in front of me, the belief was broken.
One summer day, he and his guest, who were found under the open window, were tangled together as if laughing at me. As soon as his eyes met, he smiled at me and kissed a woman, but he was cruel as if he were reminding me of my situation.
It wasn't something special to him. I was floating alone. Realizing that I was stunned, I closed the window.
Our relationship has not changed. Kylos was a man who wanted to use me under the guise of my family, and I was still a beautiful bait for him to throw at the emperor.
That night, returning a guest, he came to my room. Then, as always, he kissed me and whispered a sweet honey word.
"You're beautiful, Chloe. There will never be a woman more beautiful than you in the world. Even my picky brother will definitely not be able to stand it when he sees you.'
I swam and hung sadly in his pouring words. Although I didn't have the affection I wanted for his kiss, I never hated it. I was such a foolish woman hungry for his affection.
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