AFRPR 30

Chapter 30

“Are you saying everything will be solved if I go to the main estate?”

“Yes.”

At first, Estelle had refused without hesitation.
But now that Duren was involved, it was different.

Estelle slowly nodded.

“Alright.”

“Mom, where are you going?”

Duren, who had been quietly listening, tugged on Estelle’s clothes.

“I’m going with you, back to where you used to live. This place feels small compared to that, right?”

“No!”

He shook his head quickly.

“I liked it because I was with Mom!”

Estelle smiled and gently stroked his round head.

“Duren, Mom is still sick and can’t go outside yet. Can you do me a little favor?”

“A favor?”

“Go outside and ask anyone to help me pack my things.”

“I can do that!”

Duren clenched his tiny fists and ran off.

Once he left, the room became strangely quiet.

After a short pause, Estelle spoke.

“I hope that through this, Your Grace will truly start to care for Duren like a real son.”

The errand was just an excuse — she wanted to send Duren away so he wouldn’t hear their conversation.

“You don’t need to worry. For me, people are only in two categories.”

“…”

“Those who are mine, and those who are not.”

Estelle, having read the original story, understood this and nodded.

“Then I’ll start trying to keep some distance from Duren.”

‘A year from now, we’ll divorce — that’s a fixed future. If we grow any closer, it’ll just hurt Duren more when I leave.’

Estelle knew that Duren’s real family in the future would be Lennox, not her.

So the right thing to do was to quietly step away when the time came.

“Just so you know, getting close to Duren — that’s your job.”

She could guess why he wanted her to come to the main estate.

‘He probably wants me to help him connect with Duren.’

But Estelle knew how cold Lennox had been toward Duren so far.

She didn’t feel like helping voluntarily.

“I’ll handle distancing myself from Duren alone.”

“…I’ll keep that in mind.”

Lennox didn’t feel great hearing her draw such a clear line.

But right now, he had a more urgent task.

He needed to grow closer to Duren.

Meanwhile, Estelle had to slowly move away.

Late that night

After arriving at the main estate, Estelle told Duren something important.

“Tonight, we’re going to sleep separately.”

Thud.

Duren’s eyes welled up with tears, as if his world had ended.

“Why?”

‘I need to answer this carefully.’

Gulp.

Estelle swallowed nervously and began speaking gently.

“Duren, you’re going to become a cool grown-up one day, right?”

“Yeah!”

He nodded hard. He’d even told the scary man before — he was going to grow big and strong!

“A cool grown-up doesn’t sleep with their mom.”

Gasp.

Duren’s mouth opened in shock.

Suddenly, he didn’t want to grow up anymore.

“But what if a cool grown-up wants to sleep with Mom?”

“Cool grown-ups…”

Estelle lowered her voice a little.

“…can sleep on their own. That’s one of the requirements.”

“Requirement?”

“Yup. One of the things you need to be able to do to be a grown-up is sleep by yourself.”

Creating distance from Duren wasn’t actually that hard.

Children naturally become more independent as they grow.

Besides, Duren had plenty of adults around to play with. Spending less time with Estelle would happen eventually.

‘But bedtime is different from playtime. Sleeping separately has to happen little by little.’

Duren blinked slowly, looking sad. Estelle grew worried too.

‘What if he says he doesn’t want to grow up at all anymore?’

She didn’t want her words to accidentally lead Duren down a bad path.

“…Okay! I got it.”

But to her surprise, Duren nodded seriously.

‘I’ll grow up really big and protect Mom!’

He smiled brightly.

“Dudu can sleep alone!”

“Good. But I’m not going to leave you just yet.”

Leaving a child all of a sudden would be too harsh.

“If you wake up in the middle of the night and I’m not there, don’t be scared. I’ll be just outside the door.”

“Okay!”

His response made her proud.

And for this amazing Duren, Estelle had a job to do.

“Want to read a book?”

“Yeah!”

He still wasn’t sleepy at all.

Since Duren loved stories as much as he loved walks, he ran to the bookshelf.

“This one! Read this one!”

He picked a book with a cover he liked.

Estelle lay next to him in bed and opened the book, hoping it would help him fall asleep.

Like many fairy tales, it started the same way.

“Once upon a time…”

A huge star fell from the sky.

Boom!

“The star was bigger than a house, bigger than a mountain!”

“Everything got ruined!”

Duren pointed at the picture and mumbled.

“That’s right. The place where the star fell got all messed up.”

Duren tilted his head.

“But the star I saw was small.”

“Stars look small because they’re really far away.”

Estelle held her fist up in front of Duren’s eyes.

“Mom’s hand looks huge, right?”

“Yeah!”

“But if it moves far away…”

“It gets smaller!”

“Same thing with stars.”

Duren’s eyes sparkled in wonder as he nodded.

On the next page, the spot where the star fell had turned dark with magi flowing like a river.

It was Gehenna, the river that flowed through Winterlen.

“Dudu knows this!”

Excited, Duren pointed with his finger, nostrils flaring.

“It’s scary!”

“Yes. It’s dangerous — it steals people’s lives.”

Estelle nodded lightly and read the next line aloud.

“The star was the god, Reltasia.”

A goddess of life and death. She had a jewel on her forehead like a star.

Estelle knew this story well.

It was a myth passed down from before the empire was founded.

And surprisingly, it mentioned Lennox’s ancestor.

“That’s the guy!”

A man with black hair, red eyes, and a cold face.

Because of the simple fairy-tale art, he looked a bit like Lennox.

“That’s not the same person. He’s your uncle’s great-great-great-grandfather, or something like that.”

“Great-great-grandfather?”

The first Winterlen.

He was the man who tried to kill a god.

‘Their roots are evil.’

Even in a children’s book, the Winterlen family was introduced as the original villains.

“The god Reltasia got really angry and punished the evil man! She said, ‘Because you did bad things, you must live a good life forever!’”

“…”

“‘You’ll be trapped by magi forever and hunt monsters until you die!’”

Just like how a witch lured lost kids into her oven…

Or how a girl who wore red shoes to the temple was cursed to dance forever…

The man who defied a god had to pay a price.

His punishment would last forever and ever…

Meanwhile, at that moment

Someone was waiting for Estelle.

“Why is she still not back? It’s so late.”

It was Lennox — starting tonight, he was supposed to sleep with Estelle.

“Fippin, do you know where Estelle is?”

Though he had an office, Lennox was going through documents in his bedroom.

“She’s probably with the young master.”

Fippin answered in a tired voice, noticing Lennox’s sharp tone.

“I heard she was with him all day. Still with him now? Looks like her plan to stay away didn’t work.”

She’d clearly said she didn’t need Lennox’s help keeping her distance from Duren.

But she was soft-hearted — this was probably harder than she thought.

“Actually, she’s trying to increase the time Duren spends with the other staff instead of her.”

Fippin quickly defended Estelle.

“She’s also trying separate sleeping now.”

“Separate sleeping?”

“Yes. Because the annex was small, they used to share a bed. But recently, Estelle was sick.”

“I remember.”

“Since they couldn’t sleep together, Duren had to sleep alone. He woke up crying, looking for her.”

That must’ve made Estelle feel determined.

“But it doesn’t look like she’s succeeding.”

“You can’t expect success on the first night.”

Fippin stood up for her again.

Usually, Lennox would get annoyed, but this time, he just got up.

“Where are you going?”

“To Duren’s room.”

“Do you know where it is?”

Lennox paused.

“Roughly.”

Thanks to memories from a past life.

“Go get some rest.”

“Y-yes.”

Leaving Fippin behind, Lennox walked to Duren’s room.

‘It should be here.’

He was about to knock but stopped. It was quiet inside.

After a moment of hesitation, he slowly opened the door.

And then… he softly smiled.