Lucien fell in love at first sight and made a request to his father, wishing to be betrothed to the Duke’s daughter, but unfortunately, the Duke’s daughter had already been betrothed to another.

The son of the second Duke of the Empire.

It was said to solidify power and give the noble factions what they wanted.

In other words, the lady was getting into a political marriage.

The Emperor at the time was a coward who sought peace instead of taking what was rightfully his, Aurelian would say as he had his discussions with Lucien, chilling under a tree in a field the guards would never find them in.

But Lucien did not care for these things. All he wanted was to see the fair faced and raven haired lady again.

And knowing this, Aurelian grew bitter, but he did not act on his bitterness, instead, he asked Lucien to ask what he wanted.

Lucien looked at him confused. What difference would it make when even the emperor decided not to break off the lady’s current engagement?

Still, Aurelian insisted.

"I will be the Emperor in no more than three years, and by then, the lady will not yet be married, so tell me what you want and I will make it happen."

Lucien simply thought it was his brother fooling around again so he said it half-assedly. He wished to be betrothed to the lady and start a family with her.

What came out as half-ass, ended up coming true as the next week, news of the lady’s betrothed dying in a carriage accident reached Lucien’s ear.

He didn’t even need to wait for three years, Aurelian didn’t need to become Emperor first... It all happened so fast that he never questioned Aurelian but deep down, he knew his brother had a hand in it. He was dangerous.

And that danger began to trouble his heart.

The love his brother had for him was growing poisonous by the minute, and he feared that the same love and his brother showered him with would be what would kill him later.

So, he did not delay. When he had been officially knighted, he married the previous Duke’s daughter and ran to the North, away from his brother, who could devour anything he set his mind to.

He was worried the Emperor would do something unpredictable, for example, chase him all the way to the North.

However, contrary to his worries, the Emperor did not intervene in his life and he lived in the North with his wife, fell harder in love with her with each passing day, until war broke out.

As a former knight, he had a duty to uphold. He left the North with his troops. His brother, the Emperor told him he didn’t need to since he was now a Lord, and even his wife asked him to reconsider, clutching her belly but not telling him what really mattered.

He thought it would be fine, confident he wouldn’t die on the battlefield and he would be back in no more than a year, since it wasn’t a very large war.

Bellanora decided to believe him and wait.

She held the news from him. And on the day he returned from a victorious battle, he met with his wife’s corpse and a child she had named after him... Lucius.

Realizing his wife had been pregnant even before he left for war, the Duke was devastated.

He felt he failed as a husband but in life, people tend to find someone to blame in order to make themselves feel a little better. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The object of his hatred was worse on the child he believed had taken his beloved wife away. If it weren’t for the child, he would’ve come home and found her waiting. It was all the child’s fault.

He looked at the child’s skin and blue eyes and felt even more despair. It took nothing from his wife. It was just a mirror of him.

If only he had listened and didn’t leave for the war... His wife told him not to go, even the emperor told him not to go but he stubbornly... Stubbornly... And now this happened.

Why? Why did this happen?

He asked this question every day until the ’why’ became so hateful.

...

Julian felt the weight of the memories settle into his mind, heavy and suffocating.

The ’movie’ of Duke Alaric’s life faded, leaving Julian back in the dim light of Lucius’s bedroom, with the Grand Duke of the North—no, the former Prince of the Empire—leaning against him like a fallen statue.

The revelation was staggering, and the drama was epic, too. Duke Alaric hadn’t just lost a wife; he had fled a brother whose love was so possessive and violent it paved the way to his marriage with blood.

If Julian were in his shoes, he probably would’ve run as well. After all, what he did as he fled to the North for safety from the novel was no different from what the Duke did as he married the Duchess and fled the Emperor.

Julian looked down at the messy hair of the man resting on his thigh. He felt a wave of genuine empathy.

And then he thought of Duke Alaric’s hatred for Lucius. It wasn’t just about the birth; it was a physical manifestation of his guilt for choosing his ’duty’ as a knight over the woman he loved. Every time he looked at Lucius, he saw the face of the man who had ignored her pleas. He saw his own ’stubbornness’ staring back at him in those blue eyes.

’The eyes were the problem.’ Julian thought. ’But I hope it no longer persists.’

Julian’s hand strokes on the Duke’s head softened until he came to a halt.

What was he even doing?

Since when did he take on the role of a nanny and caregiver?

He was just a tutor, but his concern for his student had pushed him to interfere deeply in this family’s matters.

He cocked his head back and sighed silently.

"I just want to survive." He whispered and then dropped his head to look at the Duke.

He had completely stopped shaking and had calmed.

"Your Grace," Julian whispered, his voice barely audible over the crackle of the fire in the fireplace.

He must’ve fallen asleep at some point.

The silence stretched, and he wondered what he could do. He needed to leave and head for his own room. It would be bad if he fell asleep here, only to be startled out of his sleep, wheezing and seeming like a freak to the Duke and his son.

Yes, he had to leave but... How was he going to get the heavy Duke’s body off of him? He just had his head on him but it was as if a boulder was pressing down on him. He wouldn’t even budge.

He ended up dropping his back on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

’I need to get out of here,’ he thought, but the exhaustion had already caught up to him. Sleep was pulling him in deeper by the second, and before he knew it, his eyes closed, and he fell asleep.

Great... Not only did he fall asleep in the Young Lord’s room, but he had the Duke clinging to him like he was his lifeline.

What would people say if this got out?

But he didn’t need to worry much about that because the news that was circulating wasn’t something so simple.

The ’special’ relationship between him and the Duke was already finding its way to the capital... And surely, the Emperor’s ear.