Chapter 135……………………………………………..
Because of the sword pressed to his neck, Sebastian couldn’t even swallow freely.
If it were anyone else, he wouldn’t have been afraid.
But Lloyd was Priscilla’s finest assassin—personally raised by her. He had grown up constantly facing assassins.
Fearing he might become the very first ordinary person Lloyd ever killed, Sebastian asked politely, doing his utmost not to provoke him.
“I didn’t expect you to visit again.”
“There’s something I wanted to discuss with you—without Mother interfering.”
“…And what might that be?”
It was absurd to speak of “discussion” while holding a blade to someone’s throat, but Sebastian didn’t bother pointing that out.
Lloyd’s breathing drew closer, and he whispered into Sebastian’s ear.
“You are the first and last witness.”
A witness—to what, exactly?
And the first and last, at that.
As confusion set in, Priscilla’s words from earlier that day suddenly resurfaced in his mind.
“You’re going to report me? You have neither witnesses nor evidence.”
No way. A chill ran down Sebastian’s spine.
As if fanning that chill, Lloyd calmly elaborated in a tone as steady as if he were reading from a book.
“You will testify in court to my mother’s crimes.”
Before the words had fully landed, Sebastian shoved Lloyd’s arm away and escaped his threat.
In the process, his neck was lightly cut. A single drop of bright red blood fell and soaked into his collar.
Now facing him, Lloyd clearly saw the wound on Sebastian’s neck, yet without the slightest flicker of emotion, he simply flicked the blood from his blade.
Clenching his fist, Sebastian demanded,
“Are you telling me to betray Lady Priscilla? Because your accusation alone isn’t enough?”
Unless a third party had directly witnessed the child abuse, reporting crimes from the past required filing a formal complaint.
Only once that was approved would a trial even begin.
But Priscilla was a giant in political circles. Lloyd’s cries alone would never reach anyone.
“Even if I stood as a witness, it would be useless. The one with power isn’t me—it’s Lady Priscilla.”
Sebastian was merely her hands and feet. As an individual, he held no power at all.
Just a butler.
He desperately hoped Lloyd would give up and leave.
On a personal level, he pitied Lloyd and acknowledged how unhappy his childhood had been.
He hoped Lloyd would stop here, knowing that rebellion would only bring him more misery.
But Lloyd had no intention of stopping.
He had no desire—none at all—to pass that misery on to Ayla.
“I think you’ve misunderstood me. It’s already decided that the trial will be held. I’m ordering you to attend as a witness.”
“…What?”
Sebastian’s eyes went wide.
His monocle slipped off and fell uselessly to the floor.
Lloyd silently took in Sebastian’s bare face for a moment before bending down to pick up the monocle.
“What Mother has built is impressive. I won’t deny that. In fact, I think it’s remarkable. Under normal circumstances, my accusation wouldn’t even make it to trial.”
He blew softly on the monocle, scattering the dust, then held it up to Sebastian.
There was no prescription—just glass. Sebastian’s reflection appeared unchanged.
With a hollow chuckle, Lloyd slipped the monocle into Sebastian’s breast pocket and tapped his chest lightly.
“But the generation has already changed.”
In truth, it had changed long ago.
Sebastian had never truly felt that Lloyd was a grand duke.
But after five years of stagnation, Lloyd had begun to change rapidly, and the clock that had stood still finally started moving.
“Even Mother’s authority couldn’t withstand time. I just came from meeting the one who will preside over the trial. She chose me—someone with a future—over a fading figure.”
And it wasn’t just the judge.
All of Priscilla’s relationships were vertical. The connections she forged by holding others’ weaknesses both served her and made her an eyesore to them.
Now that her own son had come forward, offering to remove her together, they seized the opportunity.
With the judge stepping in personally, others would begin to turn their backs on Priscilla one by one.
Lloyd was no longer just an eccentric grand duke hiding behind a mask. He had succeeded in his own ventures and was soon to become the husband of an imperial princess.
In their eyes, Lloyd was the future—a far better connection than Priscilla.
Even after being told of Priscilla’s impending downfall, Sebastian was only briefly stunned before quickly regaining his composure and turning away firmly.
“Then report me along with Lady Priscilla. I will never betray her.”
“I know very well how loyal you are to my mother.”
Lloyd let out a short, bitter laugh.
The grand duke was Lloyd now.
Yet in front of Priscilla, Sebastian always called Lloyd “young master,” or treated him as such—
All to avoid displeasing her.
Unable to betray Priscilla even in death, Sebastian desperately wished Lloyd would simply turn back now.
Having made it clear that he wouldn’t cooperate, Sebastian secretly hoped Lloyd would finally give up.
But perhaps inheriting Priscilla’s stubbornness, Lloyd was far more persistent than expected.
“If you helped create me and then abandoned me until things turned out like this, you should take responsibility.”
Sebastian more or less knew what Lloyd was referring to.
Sending assassins night after night, and placing the “gifts” Lloyd had given inside their thighs.
Even Sebastian thought that had gone too far.
Yet despite thinking so, he turned away from Lloyd.
“I know what Your Highness endured was horrific. But I have no right to stop Lady Priscilla—”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“…?”
“Do I need to spell it out for you?”
So it wasn’t about that?
As Sebastian turned back in disbelief, wondering what else could warrant such resentment—
“Or would you acknowledge it if I called you something else?”
At Lloyd’s words, Sebastian sharply inhaled.
Despite all the training that was supposed to keep him unshaken no matter what, his fingertips trembled.
“I—I have no idea what you’re talking about…”
Though he tried to deny it, his voice cracked.
Lloyd watched the pitiful sight with cold eyes.
As if to say he already knew everything, so there was no point in futile lies.
Come to think of it, Lloyd had been calling Sebastian “you” all along.
Before, Lloyd had always called him “you” in a familiar sense, but Sebastian hadn’t noticed under the threat.
‘No way… really?!’
That matter—and its result—was a secret no one knew.
Only Priscilla and Sebastian knew.
So when, exactly—
“Since when…?”
Unable to hold it in, Sebastian blurted out his question.
He had never once shown it.
From the beginning, he had no right to be a father. He had only given his body at Priscilla’s command. Sebastian had no claim over Lloyd at all.
Lloyd quietly met his gaze.
The violently trembling blue eyes were the same color as his own.
The shape of his eyes, revealed without the monocle, looked strikingly similar as well.
But Lloyd hadn’t realized the truth based on appearances alone.
Nor did he intend to satisfy Sebastian’s curiosity.
His only purpose today was to take what he wanted from him.
“Will you cooperate?”
At Lloyd’s calm, level voice, Sebastian knew instinctively.
The son he could never call his son intended to use his origins as a weapon.
Priscilla had chosen the scandal of premarital pregnancy over revealing a husband of servant origins.
She had fabricated a fictitious husband, then even held a fake funeral after killing him off.
If the truth came out now, Priscilla would sooner choose suicide.
Wasn’t it far better to be punished together than to lose Priscilla entirely?
“…I will.”
After a long struggle, Sebastian finally lowered his head.
Seeing him look more pained than he had when witnessing his son’s abuse, Lloyd muttered bitterly to himself.
“You really are just like Mother. I don’t understand how you could love someone like that.”
Even as her son, he had never been able to love Priscilla.
With a weary, resentful glance—and eyes that finally looked truly sad—Lloyd turned and disappeared from the spot.
