FMY 24

He truly seemed like someone in a hurry, all because of that blasted list of candidates for the Crown Princess Consort.

Serge wanted to forcefully twist the back of the hand that had come up over his shoulder, but he put his heart and soul into playing along, saying, “Haha… That’s right, Father!” It felt more embarrassing and hair-raising to have to act so disgustingly lovey-dovey in front of his own father than it would have in front of a complete stranger. It felt like his acting would fall apart if he let his guard down even for a moment.

Having witnessed their words and actions, Duke Arthur was sputtering like a broken LP record. He was like someone who had just watched a quiet cat climb onto the kitchen hearth—or rather, like someone who had just watched his own demure son, whom he had trusted, perform a sexy dance right in front of him in 4DX.

From behind them, Nicola, who had been waiting in a polite manner, astutely stepped forward.

“As Duke Arthur and the young master happen to be here together, it is an honor to be able to deliver this on such a joyous day.”

One could almost see his determination to somehow sort out and resolve the situation amidst these people who had lost their minds and were malfunctioning.

A bouquet of calla lilies, stretching straight to form a beautiful curve, was placed in Serge’s arms. Serge accepted it, bewildered.

“His Highness prepared this in advance of the official proposal letter to give his greetings and word to Duke Arthur regarding the relationship between the two of you. This document here is to be exchanged when the marriage discussions between you two become official, and His Highness has prepared it beforehand.”

Marriage is no different from a massive business venture. The demands between families are shared, and the conditions to solidify the union are set like a contract. Sensitive matters, such as the dowry and assets that would be exchanged depending on the terms, not to mention the wedding gifts, are also decided after detailed consultation. The document box that the attendant Nicola now handed to Duke Arthur obviously contained the initial drafts of all that.

But isn’t this resolution a little too focused on your side of things…? From a blind spot where Duke Arthur’s eyes couldn’t reach, Serge glared at Nicola. And for good reason; with just those words, hadn’t he just dropped a bomb on the father-son relationship that had, for the very first time, turned warm and fuzzy today? It was hard enough to say they were lovers, but marriage talks? And a marriage contract already?

“Then, as we have completed our task, we shall take our leave.”

Duke Arthur accepted the jewelry box and the luxurious document box, creaking like a broken wooden doll.

And just like that, the attendants departed, having dropped a giant pile of crap.

Watching their backs as they vanished like the wind, Serge couldn’t hide his trembling pupils. He was left holding a soon-to-explode shit bomb in front of his father, sputtering in bewilderment.

What on earth should I say…? Flustered, Serge decided to just pass the soon-to-explode device to the one who caused it. That guy must have had some plan in mind to come barging in with such preparations, right?

“…I just can’t bring myself to say it…. Your Highness, please tell him.”

He pretended to be shy, as if he couldn’t possibly say it with his own lips. This was the best acting Serge could manage, being more flustered than ever before.

The shit bomb was now quickly passed from Serge to Raphael. Serge looked at him with a fiery expression that said, You made this mess, you clean it up. At this, Raphael cleared his throat, ahem, and began to handle the bomb disposal with all his might.

“Come to think of it, it has been some time since Sir Serge and I began our courtship. Shall I say that we could not defy destiny? We have been together since our boyhood, nurturing our feelings, and now they have borne fruit.”

Hey, you bastard! If you say ‘borne fruit,’ my dad is going to think I’m pregnant…! Watching Raphael, who had made a terribly poor choice of words, Serge screamed a silent scream with his expression from the side.

“Borne… fruit…?”

Duke Arthur’s eyes were blazing as his bloodshot gaze roamed around his son’s abdomen.

“Yes. The fruit of our love.”

Whether he knew this or not, Raphael lifted Serge’s hand to show the ring. That burdensome thing with a square diamond bigger than a beetle sitting squarely on it.

“I am aware that this is not the proper order for an engagement, as I have not yet exchanged opinions with the head of the house, but I simply could not bear it any longer and proposed to him first.”

“…Th-that’s what happened, Father.”

As if to say the fruit was on his finger, not in his belly, Serge waved his hand flutteringly like a department store parking attendant, showing the ring to his father. Father, not that fruit, this fruit…! It was a desperate struggle to calm Duke Arthur, who considered the doctrines of purity and matrimony to be deadly important. The Duke’s trembling eyes darted up and down, following his son’s dazzling hand.

“W-wait. I will be back after speaking with my son separately for a moment.”

Finally calming his vibrating eyes and ending his sputtering buffering, the Duke managed to open his mouth. At the same time, as soon as he finished speaking, he turned his head towards Serge and warned him by mouthing the words.

‘Follow me.’

His wide-open eyes were truly a summons from the messenger of hell.

And the Duke took the first step, heading out of the office. Although he was the master of this space, the overwhelming power of status meant he couldn’t dare ask a prince of noble birth to step aside for a moment, so he was taking his son out instead.

I’m so fucked….

With his head hung low, Serge slumped his shoulders and trudged after his father.

As soon as they entered the small drawing room outside the office, the Duke opened the intricately carved box he was holding and slowly took out the paper.

“This…”

A vein popped on Duke Arthur’s forehead as his eyes scanned the prenuptial agreement to be exchanged between the families.

“What in the world is all this…?”

The Duke uttered in a fearsome voice, waving the document Nicola had delivered.

“…A formal proposal letter? An engagemeent?”

Disbelief, bewilderment, anger, speechlessness. If you put all those emotions into one person and mixed them up with great enthusiasm, would you get that kind of expression…? Serge squeezed his eyes shut as he looked at his father’s face, with its voice that had gone up a tone, eyebrows that shot up as if to pierce the sky, and one corner of his mouth bizarrely twisted upwards.

The warm atmosphere from just a moment ago felt like a lie.

That son of a bitch, Raphael, that damn hooligan…. I know my name was about to be put on the list of candidates for Crown Princess Consort, but did you have to do this…?!

Serge ground his molars.

It was something he had to go through someday, but…! Although they had an unspoken understanding that they each had to handle their own families, it didn’t necessarily have to be at this point in time…!

Serge was now experiencing firsthand how he and his father, who had just been filming a touching family human drama moments ago, had now completely changed genres and entered into a kind of thriller.

Duke Arthur asked, radiating a chill from 200 floors below ground.

“What is all this?”

“F-Father…. Well, you see.”

Because it had all happened so suddenly, he found himself stuttering, which made the Duke’s expression turn even more demonic.

“Is this true?”

Serge hung his head low as if he had nothing to say, trying to buy time to come up with a plan to overcome this situation.

“…I was happy just a moment ago, thinking you had shown your true feelings for the first time.”

The word ‘disappointment’ seemed to be written on the Duke’s forehead.

True feelings. Right…!

The reason his father had opened his heart was because he had opened up and approached him with sincerity. Honesty was the thing their father-son relationship lacked most, and it was ‘sincerity’ that had served as the key to opening the door of communication. Serge realized that this was the keyword he had to stick with until the end.

I just have to maintain the same energy as before.

The role of a beloved son who has opened his heart to his father.

Once he reached that conclusion, his confidence in his acting surged once more. No, aside from having to fabricate a reason for the engagement, it wasn’t even acting. He just had to continue to plead honestly.

“…I’m sorry for not telling you sooner, Father.”

“Th-then this is real?”

Duke Arthur stammered in shock.

Serge knew instinctively that now was the time to completely persuade his father. For the sake of the future, Duke Arthur had to be perfectly on his side from this moment on.

Serge stepped up close, right in front of his father.

Thud!

He dropped the cheap knees of an actor, who could kneel anytime for the sake of acting and purpose, to the floor and buried his tear-stained face in the Duke’s thigh. His two hands desperately clung to his father’s trouser legs.

And then he began to sob as if aggrieved.

“…I’m sorry! I-I’m so sorry, Father…. I, sniff…! I-I’ve fallen in love with him…!”

In times like these, harping on ‘love’ is truly the best. Haven’t countless tragedies and plays proven it? The power and greatness of love.

At his son’s sudden outburst of tears, the Duke could not hide his flustered, helpless expression.

“E-ever since I attended school…. I’ve watched him for a long time…”

He could feel the vibration from the leg his face was buried in, a clear sign of its owner’s bewilderment.

“…I know all too well what kind of person I am, so, so well…. That’s why I’ve kept it as my own personal feeling and hidden it until now…”

“…But then…?”

“But then he said he liked me too…. So from that point on, I couldn’t deny my feelings any longer, Father. How, how could I reject someone who said they liked someone as pathetic and shabby as me…! How could I possibly refuse a person like that…?”

The Duke’s pants grew damp with Serge’s tears and snot.

Truly, if others had seen it, they would have been shocked by its passion; it was a heart-wrenching performance worthy of Hamlet’s soliloquy. It was excessively over-the-top, but like an actor holding the stage spotlight alone, it was a sight that couldn’t help but draw the viewer in.

A deep silence flowed between the two for a while. The only sound filling the small drawing room was Serge’s sobbing.

Duke Arthur, who seemed to have been thinking deeply about something, opened his mouth coldly.

“……What’s wrong with my son…?”

Huh…?

At the unexpected response, Serge peeked his tear-stained face up to look at his father.

That is to say, the answer that came from the Duke after hearing his own son’s heartfelt lamentation was a slightly different reaction from what Serge had expected. It was closer to the 1% suspicion he had always privately harbored—could his father possibly be the type of parent who thinks, ‘even a hedgehog thinks its own young are smooth’?

“…Don’t tell me His Highness the Second Prince told you that while he likes you, he’s too embarrassed to be seen with you?”

His face was so menacing it was as if he wouldn’t let that prince fellow get away with it if that were the case.

“Is that it? Is your grooming yourself and dressing so presentably like this… is this change all because of that bastard?”

The Duke shook Serge’s shoulders and spat out in an agitated tone. His fierce snorts were strong enough to flip Serge’s hair back, as if asking if this stylishly swept-back hair was because of that bastard.

The Duke wasn’t most concerned about the situation of getting engaged or falling in love. He had become a single ferocious hedgehog, focusing his anger on the part that was, ‘The person who says he likes my son, he dared to treat you so poorly?’

Good heavens….

Serge was astonished. Judging by his father’s reaction, it seemed that in his past life, his father’s persistent placement of him next to the Crown Prince wasn’t a scheme or a matter of pure-blood pride, but because he genuinely thought his son was a good match for the Crown Prince.

I wondered what kind of confidence made him keep a nerd like me next to the Crown Prince….

It wasn’t a calculation or anything of the sort; he was just overly confident in his son. This was undeniable. A typical hedgehog parent who thinks, ‘My son may be a bit timid and gloomy, but he’s perfectly fine to stand beside the Crown Prince…!’

That affection had been completely hidden by his tough-guy appearance, unable to hug his children affectionately or say a single kind word. Serge quickly composed his gaping mouth and shook his head.

For the engagement and alliance with Raphael to succeed, Duke Arthur could not hold even the slightest displeasure toward the Second Prince. He had to fully acknowledge him as his son’s partner and support him completely. The act of the aggrieved son continued from Serge’s lips.

“Th-that’s not it, hiccup.”

“If not that, then what is it?”

“I just… I just wanted to change! There’s no way he would do that to me. Mister Raphael said he likes every part of me, but… but I hated myself. I wanted to stand beside him with a more confident appearance, Father.”

Serge shot up and buried his face in the Duke’s chest, rubbing against it. He had never acted so childishly cute and shameless even when he was very young, so the Duke’s body stiffened in bewilderment.

“You know, don’t you? What kind of judgments others make about my appearance…. When I think about people whispering about him because of me… my heart aches all over.”

Serge crinkled his teary eyes prettily and met the Duke’s gaze. Then, with a gentle smile playing on his lips, he slowly confessed. His eyes were sparkling. It was the face of someone in love.

“Father. He makes me try harder.”

“Try harder?”

“Yes. Just thinking of him makes me want to be a better person, a greater person. That’s why I changed. I’m still trying to change now. You know, don’t you? Falling in love… how much it changes a person.”

“……”

“The reason I’ve changed is really all because of that. Nothing else.”

Now that he had said it, it was truly a perfect excuse and reason.

A perfect reason that could explain why Serge had changed overnight.

The Duke must have thought so too, as he finally sighed, his tension easing. As he did, he naturally stroked his son’s hair. Since he was acting like a child, he was being treated like a child. He should have just approached him with an open heart like this before. A hint of that regret brushed past Serge’s mind.

“…I know well that at times like that, a person feels the desire to change themselves.”

“…I knew you would understand.”

“Because I thought the same thing when I first met your mother….”

The Duke’s gaze traveled between the distant past and the present.

Serge’s method had indeed been the right one. The fact that clinging to his father with sincerity and appeals was a better method than being rigid and keeping his distance from his strict father was something he only learned after coming back around through another life.