If only he could ascend to the throne, it would take a weight off his right shoulder.
“…I don’t think he was joking when he promised to make me the Prime Minister. Though I can’t relieve the burden on my left shoulder, at the very least it would improve the Kingdom’s condition.”
Raeven’s current objective was to place Prince Zanack on the throne. If he failed in that, the country would take another step toward ruin.
“With Princess Renner’s help, my job would be easier, at least.”
Raeven sighed heavily as he gave voice to his thoughts and future plans.
Even he had days when he wanted to just put everything down and walk away.
Sometimes, the excessive worrying had even made him contemplate destroying the Kingdom with his own hands, although that particular thought had only come up once or twice.
It was like he was trying to build a sandcastle, surrounded by little brats trying to kick it down. At times, he felt like destroying the sandcastle himself, just to deny them the satisfaction. Still, he had a reason for ignoring those destructive impulses and carrying on like he did.
There was a knocking on the door.
The sound seemed to come from a lower position than usual. For a moment, Raeven displayed an expression that was unlike his normal self. Perhaps you could say his expression melted; his eyebrows were drooping, and even the corner of his mouth was uncharacteristically relaxed.
“Oh, that’s not good. I can’t show a face like this.”
Raeven lightly smacked his face, since his willpower was insufficient to restore the proper dignity to it. After tidying up his wild hair, he turned to the metal door and spoke so the person on the other side could hear. Though his voice was loud, it contained a surprising gentleness that indicated that he was not angry.
“Come in.”
The speed of the door opening was indicative of how much the other party had been looking forward to it.
On the other side of the door was a boy.
A faint blush was visible on the pale skin of the boy’s innocent face. He looked to be around five years old, and he padded across the floor, stopping at Raeven’s knee.
“Now now, you know you shouldn’t be running indoors, it’s hardly refined.”
A female voice followed the boy over to Raeven.
She was a woman with a pretty face that was shadowed by gloominess. She did not seem like a happy woman. Her clothes were of exquisite make, but their colors were muted.
The woman bowed primly to Raeven, and then she smiled.
With a hint of embarrassment, Raeven returned the smile.
His wife had only started smiling recently.
Raeven could not help but recall those days.
When he was a younger man, his heart brimmed with the ambition and drive that was the hallmark of youth. And the target of his ambition was the throne.
Aspiring to the throne was a treasonous dream.
The young Marquis Raeven, filled with confidence in his abilities, probably felt that he had no other goal that was worthy of being his lifelong objective. Toward that end, he had worked quietly, expanded his influence, accumulated wealth, expanded his connections, crushed his enemies―
Taking a wife was nothing more than a part of his plan. As long as he could sell off the position of marchioness at a high price, he did not care what kind of woman he ended up with. As it turned out she was a beautiful, yet gloomy woman, but Raeven didn’t mind. After all, the important thing was the connections he made with his wife’s family.
Their home life was ordinary.
No, that was just how Raeven felt it was. He cared for the woman he married as a tool, but there was no love between them.
As fate would have it, it was a tiny thing indeed that changed Raeven.
He turned his eyes to the boy in front of him.
The first thing he thought when he learned he had a son was that he had another tool to use.
However, as the newborn boy clutched his finger with his tiny hands, something broke inside him.
This was his son, which seemed as much a monkey as a human being. He certainly did not think that it was adorable. Yet, when he felt the warmth that radiated from his finger, everything else seemed to fade away.
Who cared about the throne?
The man driven by ambition had passed away, unseen and unmourned.
Then, when Raeven smiled in thanks to his wife that had just given birth to his son, he vividly remembered the expression on her face, which was a funny one, even if he would never say that out loud. He remembered that it seemed to ask, “Who is this person?”
At the time, his wife had thought that this was just a quirk caused by learning that he had an heir.
However, Raeven continued changing after this, and it made his wife wonder if there was something wrong with him.
In the end, when his wife considered her husband before and after his change, she came to the conclusion that she preferred the new Raeven, and her attitude shifted as well. The two of them were, at long last, a normal married couple.
Raeven reached down and lifted up his son, who was trying to scale his kneecap.
The boy gurgled in delight as he was placed on Raeven’s thigh. He could feel the heat of his body through his clothes, and the familiar weight felt comfortable. A warm, steady satisfaction radiated endlessly from his heart.
Now, Raeven had only one objective.
‘I want to leave a well-kept domain to my son.’ It was a goal that any noble father would have.
Raeven looked warmly to the boy on his leg, and spoke to him.
“What’s the matter-chu? Rii-tan? Chuchu~”
Only two people in the world would ever see a Great Noble puckering his lips and going “~chu”.
One of them, the boy, gurgled in delight.
“…Darling, babytalking him will spoil his grammar.”
“Hmph! Nonsense, that’s nothing more than a baseless rumor.”
Although his mouth said that, Raeven reflected that it would be bad if he raised his son poorly.
Since he was his son, that meant that he must have some measure of talent. Or rather, it didn’t matter even if he didn’t have talent, but as his parents, they had an obligation to discover or cultivate their child’s abilities. As such, being a bad influence on him was unthinkable. Still, he would not give up the pet names for him.
Love was the best teacher, after all.
“Isn’t that right, Rii-tan? What’s the matter? Do you want to tell Papa something?”
Raeven ignored his wife’s perturbed expression and asked again.
“Ehehehe, it’s about that~”
He looked like he wanted to share a secret of some sort, judging from the way he covered his mouth with his little hands. As he saw that movement, the corners of Raeven’s eyes relaxed, and he made a face one would never expect of the man who had been referred to as a snake.