Obviously, It's My Child - Chapter 180
“I’ll have rum!”
Elliott shouted this, waving his arm, though he didn’t even know what it was, making a comment about something 15 years and a few months too early.
Martha calmly responded, “I’ll prepare milk with cherry syrup for you,” and gently hugged Elliott.
At first, Erich had planned to carry Elliott himself, but seeing that Claire wasn’t moving, he decided to head in her direction instead.
“Is something wrong?”
“It seems Prince Linus has woken up.”
“Whoo.”
Erich let out a nervous sigh.
While it was frustrating to have his peaceful time interrupted, he was actually quite anxious to get here quickly.
The situation involved Linus.
Considering the actions the Empress had been taking against Arren, even a properly arranged visit would have been awkward for Claire to handle alone.
And they had even rescued him from drowning at sea.
There had been no reports of the prince going missing during a boat trip.
Currently, people from Duchy Ernst were discreetly searching for the prince.
There was a risk of being misunderstood as having kidnapped or attempted to kill him.
‘The Empress and the Ernst family probably don’t want a direct confrontation with me.’
It was uncertain whether they understood that touching Claire would be akin to declaring a direct confrontation with him.
Since they couldn’t attack him directly, if they targeted Claire, it would focus on her being from the Arren nobility.
In any case, since Erich was here, no one would question or suspect him for rescuing and caring for a child who had fallen into the sea before sending him on his way.
He sighed. What a mess during a honeymoon.
He looked at Claire’s worried face and said.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it and return.”
“Let me come with you.”
“There’s no need for that. He’s still not fully recovered. Whether you let him stay until he recovers or contact Ernst, it’s up to him for now.”
Unless the goal was to make him disappear.
Claire sighed. Even though they had agreed on that, she maintained a troubled expression.
[Honestly, I had a bad thought.]
[You don’t have to apologize to me. It’s natural to think that removing the cause will make the results disappear.]
Erich said this as he held her and lay back on the bed.
[But you’re not the kind of person who can do that.]
[Well, if absolutely necessary, maybe I could, but… No, I suppose I can’t imprison him forever.]
Claire sighed deeply and said,
[Even if you forcefully detain him for a while, you can’t keep his mouth shut. Prince Linus is an adult and can testify about what happened to him.]
Erich inwardly disagreed with that.
Making Linus completely disappear would not be too difficult. After all, the situation had come into their hands with no one knowing about it.
It wasn’t necessary to kill him. Simply sending him to some secluded place for confinement would suffice.
As long as the Empress issue was resolved.
Claire said she couldn’t silence Linus, but in reality, there are various means to keep someone quiet.
Even if only a part of what the Empress did was attributed to her son, Linus would become incapacitated.
However, he knew that Claire wasn’t simply making excuses due to ignorance of the facts.
It was beyond what she could accept.
[Don’t overthink it. It wasn’t part of the plan from the beginning, and right now, there’s no choice but to send him back.]
[But…]
[If the goal was to seize the throne through war, making Linus disappear here and negotiating with Uncle Manfred would be the best option. But that’s not what we want, is it?]
[That’s true…]
[My role is to keep you and Elliott safe. And stopping the spread of opium isn’t something that can be resolved by assassinating someone.]
Only then did Claire nod. Erich hugged her, gently stroking her cheek to relax her eyes.
“Just stay here. I’ll go and meet him. It’s not like Linus and I are strangers.”
Claire nodded.
Erich then headed towards the mansion alone.
The atmosphere on the first and second floors was lively and somewhat chaotic, centered around the child.
However, from the third floor onward, the air was different. Maximilian was waiting at the base of the third-floor stairs and spoke.
“He’s in the bedroom.”
The guards opened the door ahead of Erich to avoid obstructing his path.
Linus was sitting on a small living room sofa attached to the bedroom, covered with a blanket.
His demeanor was anything but dignified. Erich frowned and stood by the door, observing him.
“Linus.”
“Who might this be? Duke Klausener, still bearing the most noble appearance in the Empire.”
Linus chuckled, then was immediately overtaken by a fit of coughing.
“Why? Aren’t you going to sit?”
“I’d prefer not to be directly hit by your coughing fits. It’d be problematic if the child caught a cold.”
Linus’s eyes widened. Erich narrowed his eyes, showing no attempt to hide his displeasure.
“You’ve changed, Linus. I didn’t expect you to grow up so boldly as to mock me.”
Linus looked at him with an incredulous expression in response to Erich’s words.
“It’s quite shocking. Erich Klausener, swinging a toy sword to play with a child. It could make quite a headline in the capital.”
“Why should taking care of a child be shameful?”
Erich replied calmly, and there was no doubt he was sincere.
In hindsight, he had always seemed to be someone who was unfamiliar with shame or self-loathing.
A person who lacks nothing tends not to adorn themselves.
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