WBWB | Chapter 29

Would he have felt sad if his mother had hugged him tightly even once? 

He would never know.

What happened next surprised Baldr. 

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His father, always calm and composed, became an empty shell of a man. After his mother’s death, his father lived like a walking corpse until he died. Only then did Baldr realize that his father had loved his mother. Even though she had hated him so much that she had chosen death to escape him.

‘My father loved my mother? That woman?’

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Baldr felt only disgust at his father’s transformation.

‘How could he?’

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He couldn’t understand. Even to him, at an age where he didn’t understand much about romantic love, his mother had been beautiful. But to love someone who hated you?

‘Is he insane?’

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That was why Baldr de Skadi had become wary of romantic love at an early age. He never wanted to fall into the same trap as his father. And this resolve solidified when his older brother, Will de Skadi, who was supposed to inherit the title after their rapidly aging father, eloped with a maid.

His brother had always been a free spirit, like their mother, but Baldr hadn’t expected this. Such recklessness… 

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His brother, who had been like a friend and a father figure, had run away with a mere maid, not even a low-ranking noble, just because his father wouldn’t allow him to marry her.

‘For a fleeting emotion?’

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If he loved the maid, he could have taken her as a mistress. 

The memory of the ducal household’s bewilderment at this unbelievable event was still vivid. His father, who had been living like a dead man, suddenly came alive, raging furiously. For a moment, Baldr wondered if what his ice-cold father needed was a fiery outburst of anger.

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To cover up his son’s scandal, his father publicly declared that his son had died in battle against barbarians. And he appointed Baldr, his second son, as acting Duke and went into seclusion.

After that, Baldr was the only one who maintained his sanity in the chaotic ducal household. 

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In a land plagued by constant warfare, he did his best to fulfill his duties in place of his father, who had lost the will to live. Secretly, he hoped his brother might return someday, abandoning the woman he had eloped with.

‘Then I can step down.’

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He wasn’t particularly attached to the title. He was simply fulfilling his duty, the responsibility placed upon his family.

But his brother never returned, and twelve years passed quickly. 

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His father died, and Baldr became Duke, inheriting the title that should have belonged to his brother. Once he officially became Duke, marriage proposals poured in from various countries, the most significant of which came from the King, his liege lord.

Although I am His Majesty’s loyal vassal, our people have long forbidden marriage between close relatives.

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He refused, citing a flimsy excuse. The enraged King then obstructed any suitable marriage proposals for him, declaring that if he wouldn’t marry a princess, he would remain alone forever.

However, Baldr didn’t mind.

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And secretly, he hoped his brother would return, freeing him from this heavy burden.

Then one day, Baldr found the bodies of his brother and the maid, presumably, in a coastal village ravaged by raiders. 

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They were dressed in ragged clothes, seemingly having settled in the village disguised as commoners. No matter how closely he examined them, they were undoubtedly his brother and the maid who had eloped with him. Their bodies lay side by side outside a house, as if protecting a treasure.

‘What were they protecting, dying outside the house instead of inside?’

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As if in a trance, Baldr entered the house.

Broken furniture, scorched walls… it didn’t seem like there was anything valuable inside. 

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Even if they had stolen jewels from the ducal residence, more than ten years had passed. Anything they might have taken would be long gone. But Baldr searched the house, with an inexplicable certainty of what he would find.

And he found it; a trapdoor leading to a cellar, hidden beneath a dirty corn husk mat. He lifted the mat, opened the door, and a small, filthy girl, her face streaked with tears, came out.

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‘Papa…?’

A child who was unmistakably his brother’s daughter. He was deeply disappointed.

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‘This is… all he gave his life for?’

His brother had been the heir to the Duchy of Skadi. He had trained in swordsmanship since childhood. If he had been alone, he wouldn’t have died at the hands of petty raiders. 

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But his father had failed to arrange a politically advantageous marriage, and his brother, abandoning his title for love, had died with his wife, leaving behind only this child.

‘This is the result of leaving the ducal residence?’

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His brother could have been the Duke of Skadi. No, all he had to do was stay. And if he had taken the maid as a mistress, the child before him, though illegitimate, would have lived a comfortable life.

‘But for a marriage with a maid, he chose to live in hiding and die protecting his daughter, not even dying as a general or a warrior?’

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Baldr was so taken aback by his brother’s futile end that he couldn’t even sigh.

‘Would he have still left with that woman, even if he had known this would be his end?’

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Perhaps. But it wasn’t right for him, as a brother, to abandon the legacy his brother had left behind, even at the cost of his life. Wouldn’t that make his brother’s death truly meaningless?

Baldr buried his brother and took the child.

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The child’s name was Ana. 

He adopted her and publicly declared her to be his deceased brother’s daughter, but no one believed him. His brother had died more than ten years ago, so why adopt his child now? People assumed Ana was Baldr’s illegitimate daughter. Even Ana was bewildered.

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‘Did my brother really intend to raise this child as a commoner?’

Ana hadn’t received any education and believed herself to be the daughter of a hunter and an ordinary woman.

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‘If anyone asks you about your life before coming here, say you don’t know anything. That you don’t remember.’

Baldr intended to raise Ana as a lady of the ducal household. Because that was the truth.

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But how could he transform a girl raised as a commoner into a noble lady? 

Only a tutor from a noble family could do that. In that sense, Jeanne de Toulouse’s arrival was timely.

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He hadn’t expected anything from Jeanne other than her academic knowledge, assuming she would be arrogant and cold. But Jeanne constantly defied his expectations. She was more vulnerable and less arrogant than he had anticipated, and above all, she loved Ana. Easily and quickly.

At first, Baldr couldn’t believe it. 

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He thought she was deceiving both Ana and himself. But Jeanne truly loved Ana, and Ana loved Jeanne in return. Jeanne showered Ana with affection, as if she were her own younger sister.

He often saw them inside and outside the mansion, Jeanne braiding Ana’s hair, making flower crowns for her, and taking long walks with her, even outside of lesson hours.

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Baldr had never received such affection from his own tutors. He assumed Jeanne was just pretending to gain Ana’s favor. His prejudice was shattered when Jeanne saved Ana, putting her own life at risk.

That day, Baldr had witnessed Jeanne, dressed in a single layer, holding a bundled-up Ana, screaming before collapsing.

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Baldr had seen many people die. 

He couldn’t even count the number of bodies he had seen, including his mother, his father, and others whose souls had departed. 

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He had thought he had become numb to death after experiencing the battlefield. He could eat and sleep even while looking at piles of corpses, indistinguishable friend from foe. He even believed he had remained composed even when burying his brother’s body.

But when she screamed and collapsed, Baldr was shaken by the sight. 

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He was incredibly flustered.

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