* * *
“A concubine? Your concern is misplaced. I am not asking for his life out of pity, nor do I still have lingering feelings for him. Haven’t I told you? I simply wish to show leniency to the prisoners to honor my late mother’s compassionate heart, as her anniversary is approaching.”
“Well… if you say so, then that’s how it is. This is just a precaution.”
The Crown Prince grew red-faced and angry, but the Emperor did not withdraw the condition that he must marry in exchange for Joel’s pardon.
He seemed firmly convinced that his son still harbored attachments to that troublemaker adopted son of the Lucas family.
“I understand that your concern for the future of the Empire and the Imperial family is deeper than ever due to your illness, but I want you to know clearly that I will never meet Joel again.”
Around that time, the Emperor had been diagnosed with an incurable disease of unknown origin and was fighting it in secret.
Although various treatments were being attempted, his health was deteriorating rapidly.
From his position, it was understandable to worry that his son, upon ascending the throne, might favor Joel and accidentally breathe life back into Count Lucas’s family—a bloodline the Emperor had finally managed to stifle.
The Crown Prince reluctantly accepted his father’s proposal. He no longer expected anything from the illusion called love anyway.
To the Crown Prince, who had developed a cynical view of marriage, it was now nothing more than a task to be completed.
Therefore, there was no reason to oppose his father’s opinion that he should choose a suitable partner and marry.
“And even if we don’t sentence Joel to death, you must understand that he cannot remain in the capital.”
As if making his son enter a political marriage wasn’t enough to set his mind at ease, the Emperor added one more requirement in a displeased tone.
The Crown Prince accepted his father’s suggestion without resistance.
Even if it hadn’t been his father’s wish, Joel was in a position where he could no longer stay in the capital.
Rumors of his misdeeds had spread everywhere, and there was no one left to take his side.
Even Count Lucas, who claimed he had conspired in the crime only because he couldn’t ignore his adopted son’s pleas, was now desperate to tear Joel apart after having nearly half of his fortune confiscated.
Only Young Master Benjamin would occasionally visit the Lucas estate late in the evening, avoiding the eyes of others, to offer Joel some comfort.
From a general perspective, Joel’s future was obvious.
He would be kicked out to his father’s estate, live there under mistreatment, and eventually be married off to anyone his father chose, like a piece of trash being cleared away.
The Crown Prince didn’t have a fingernail’s worth of affection left for Joel, yet the thought of Joel marrying someone else somehow made him feel unpleasant.
Thus, he asked the Emperor for permission to take charge of deciding Joel’s whereabouts himself.
There was actually a bit of a desire for revenge mixed into that decision.
The Crown Prince felt it was profoundly unfair that he had to enter an unwanted political marriage in exchange for saving Joel’s life, while Joel might get the chance to marry someone else and build a happy home.
After looking through various options, the spouse the Crown Prince chose for Joel was Duke Julian.
Although he was an Alpha, his pheromone glands did not function properly, and he was a man who had never shown any interest in male Omegas in his entire life.
Furthermore, he was thirty-five years older than Joel.
Joel, whose only standard for choosing a partner was handsome looks, would never develop romantic feelings for the elderly Duke Julian.
To the Crown Prince, that point was particularly important.
In other words, the person to marry Joel had to be a man Joel would never fall for.
Duke Julian, who had been a widower for ten years, showed great interest in the marriage proposal, though his face grew sour upon learning the partner was a male Omega.
However, when the Crown Prince promised to significantly reduce his land taxes in exchange for the marriage, he readily accepted the secret offer.
The discussion they had that day even included the possibility of the Crown Prince taking Joel as a concubine in the future.
When he finished the deal with Duke Julian, the Crown Prince finally had to admit that his father’s worries hadn’t been entirely groundless.
Deciding Joel’s marriage himself was half intended as revenge, but the other half—consequently—was no different from keeping the possibility of a future with Joel open.
Regardless, the Crown Prince still firmly believed his relationship with Joel was over.
He had left the door open for a reunion because he couldn’t completely discard his attachment, but he still felt a deep sense of betrayal.
And since he believed he would never be able to love anyone again, he felt Joel, who had given him such a wound, deserved the same fate.
Finally, the Crown Prince sent a letter to Count Lucas, stating that he had decided on Joel’s marriage and that Joel should be sent to Duke Julian’s estate as soon as the weather softened. With that, he tried to clear Joel from his mind and feel unburdened.
But even after successfully getting his revenge, his mood did not improve.
Far from feeling refreshed, he felt only a heavy, stifling discomfort, as if a stone were sitting on his chest.
Because the image of Joel’s thin back from their last meeting kept coming to mind, the Crown Prince couldn’t sleep a wink the entire night after sending the letter.
Eventually, as the sky outside began to brighten, he finally got out of bed.
On the way to Count Lucas’s estate, the Crown Prince thought with a complicated heart.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t figure out what on earth he hoped for by going to see Joel.
He just had a vague, persistent thought that he couldn’t let his relationship with Joel end so hollowly.
Feeling that way hurt his pride and felt wrong, yet those were his true feelings.
Of course, he couldn’t reverse the decision now.
And the wrong Joel had committed was not light enough to be forgiven simply because he was immature.
Still, wouldn’t it be okay to drop a hint to Joel?
To tell him that if he reflected properly on his past mistakes at Duke Julian’s estate, he might be given an opportunity in the distant future?
What the Crown Prince wanted was for Joel to truly repent.
For that purpose, it would be good to leave Joel with a glimmer of hope.
Right now, Joel wasn’t showing even a hint of remorse, but if he knew there was a chance for forgiveness, he might try to look back on his faults at least once.
The closer he got to Count Lucas’s mansion, the faster the Crown Prince felt his heart beating.
Arriving at the estate, the Crown Prince stepped out of the carriage with a trembling heart and knocked on the door himself.
“Y-Your Highness. What brings you to this humble place so…?”
The one who greeted him was Count Lucas.
His face looked as if he had seen a ghost, and he appeared a mess, as if he had rushed out in a hurry.
He even reeked of strong alcohol.
The Crown Prince had heard the Count had been drowning himself in drink since his fortune was confiscated, and it seemed that wasn’t just a rumor.
Count Lucas was a greedy man, and unlike Joel, who was at least honest enough to be cute, the Count had a snake-like quality that was nauseating to the bone.
The Crown Prince couldn’t like him at all, no matter if he was Joel’s stepfather.
Hiding his look of contempt, the Crown Prince walked past him into the house.
“Excuse my unannounced visit so early. There are circumstances. I want to see Joel first.”
The interior of the Lucas family’s capital mansion, which had once been as luxurious as the Imperial Palace, had become shabby.
There were clear traces where furniture had been ripped out here and there.
It seemed they had to hastily sell anything of value to pay the fines.
Of course, the Crown Prince, anxious to see Joel, paid no attention to the scenery and stepped onto the stairs to go up to the third floor where Joel’s bedroom was.
“Your Highness, it seems my lazy son is oversleeping. He cannot see you without being properly groomed, so could you give us a little time? I will have him ready and sent down immediately.”
But disrespectfully, Count Lucas blocked the Crown Prince’s path. The Count was flustered to a strange degree.
Was it because he was surprised by the sudden visit?
The Crown Prince wanted to see Joel right away, but since barging into a bedroom was not a gentleman’s manner, he followed the Count to the drawing room for the time being.
He waited another thirty minutes in the drawing room while drinking coffee, but there was still no sign of Joel coming down.
Only then did the Crown Prince notice something suspicious.
A strangely tense atmosphere flowed through the room, and the Count, sitting beside him, was now incessantly wiping cold sweat from his forehead with a handkerchief.
“Must I wait longer?”
“Yes, Your Highness. That is… that is…”
The way Count Lucas’s eyes darted around suggested he was looking for an excuse.
Sensing that something had happened to Joel, the Crown Prince jumped up from his seat.
He had no intention of wasting any more time with Count Lucas.
* * *
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