The Voiceless Duchess - Chapter 12

Chapter 12

“Don’t boast with empty words. Carlisle Ansgar? A bastard like him, blood mixed with that of a lowly desert nomad, landless and doomed to wander, and forsaken by the gods to boot? Do you think such a wretched rat, a mongrel, can uphold your dignity?”

Lohengrin stared at him expressionlessly.

Mentioning Carlisle Ansgar by name, especially without attaching Wynbergen’s surname, was a deliberate provocation.

Dietrich openly despised Ansgar, and although Lohengrin didn’t know the exact reason, she could speculate that their enmity had been established since their time together at the academy.

Dietrich knew that she had vaguely sensed their relationship.

Despite knowing all that, he was bound to be infuriated when she casually mentioned Carlisle as someone who could replace his position.

“How dare you put him on the same level as me? And you, of all people!”

‘Dare?’

Lohengrin lowered her gaze and tapped her fingers lightly.

‘Dare, you say?’

Your Highness, the Young Duke, you were the one who placed that bastard and me on the same level in the first place. I wonder how you dare to do that. That’s what I want to ask.

Dietrich couldn’t find words to retort. Lohengrin quietly watched his trembling hand clench into a fist and then lift the pen.

The hand that wrote on the paper, filling up the entire page, moved smoothly. Dietrich stared at the paper handed to him with his eyes wide open.

There’s no need to be agitated. Just as I have no choice but to choose Gideon, Your Highness only have two choices.

One, if you want to give that child Gideon’s name, then do so. But there will be no Nordvant next to that name.

If that’s unfortunate, then two, abandon the child and banish him from the empire. At the very least, west of the Navara Desert or the southern continent across the Rheinwald Sea.

The choice is up to Your Highness, and the two cannot coexist.

“To the southern continent or the west of the desert? That’s an excessive demand!”

I don’t think it’s excessive, since it’s to prevent the possibility of him returning to the empire after avoiding my eyes.

Dietrich spoke in a voice that he had suppressed for a long time.

“Is there any need to go that far? You just have to back down once, just once. I’ll guarantee the position of Duchess, the authority, and the relationship with Nordvant….”

Lohengrin closed her eyes. Annoyance was evident in her slightly narrowed brows. She wrote each word clearly, with her mouth shut tight.

I said there could be no coexistence. Even if it’s something you want!

Silence fell over the reception room.

Lohengrin put down her pen, leaned back, and placed her clasped hands on her knees. It meant that she wanted him to reply.

Dietrich bit his lips and hesitated before confessing.

“Father said that he doesn’t want the future successor to have anything that could be nitpicked at.”

Lohengrin’s pupils, which had been staring at him, slowly lowered towards the button of Gideon’s that was placed on the table.

“Whether it’s a physical problem or something else.”

It seemed that Duke Rotherwald was worried that the child who would be born between Lohengrin and Dietrich and grow up as the young Duke of Rotherwald might have a physical ‘flaw’.

What kind of ridiculous worry is this?

She had received the engagement ring in the spring of her 17th year of age, and she had lost her voice in the summer of her 19th year.

It was officially announced by the archbishop that it was the aftereffect of a high fever that had come with a severe flu while preparing for the Walpurga festival…

Archbishop Concerto must have explained that it was an aftereffect of an illness that had nothing to do with genetics.

“His Grace the Archbishop…” He hesitated to speak readily, but he straightened his body as if he had made up his mind.

“Before he was the archbishop, he was your maternal uncle.”

Lohengrin closed her eyes and pressed her temples with her fingertips.

What did the fact that Archbishop Concerto was her maternal uncle have to do with her acquired physical problems?

She let out a long sigh openly and picked up her pen.

That’s an excellent excuse, except for the fact that there is no precedent for such an acquired physical disability as mine in the genealogy of Norvant. So it is not something that can be made out of His Grace’s opinion.

Dietrich’s face turned red at the sarcasm dripping from between the lines. With a stiff face, he looked down at the paper that Lohengrin was pushing towards him.

I understand what Your Highness is worried about, but the solution is wrong.

You should have discussed it with me and brought in a child from Gideon’s vassal family or adopted a talented orphan through Sidus.

How could you think of raising the child of a mistress without my noticing? Isn’t that an insult to me and Nordvant’s honor?

“It can’t be a vassal family.”

Lohengrin looked at him with a calm face. Dietrich, who had pulled down his cravat as if he felt stuffy, spoke.

“You don’t know how loud they are or how arrogantly they nitpick and interfere. There should be no room for them to meddle.”

Then you should bring an orphan from Sidus.

“That’s ridiculous……. I’d rather have a child with my blood than bring in something that doesn’t even know its roots.”

That child can’t have his name on Sidus’ list.

“Damn it, if you just back down, everything will be fine!”

Finally, Dietrich shouted and slammed his fist on the table.