Chapter 145: The Knight Hates Love Triangles (4)

The duke, no, Blake, had never once heard anyone talking to him ‘bluntly’.

It was only natural. After all, he was the greatest conqueror of the kingdom, second only to the Knight King, the Founding King of Pendragon, and the legitimate son of the previous king, who was known as the Great King, the King of the Kings. In addition, he was born with countless talents, as if the dragons had bestowed all their loves to him.

No tutor lasted more than two weeks teaching him. He only needed those two weeks to surpass his tutors’ knowledge.

After he was chosen by the Demonic Sword and his right to the throne was taken away from him, even the King of the Kings showed his despair—it was the first time the great man ever showed such an expression. That showed how great of a monarch he could become.

However, even though he didn’t end up becoming a king, he became the ‘Lord Galahad’ and was still able to show off his greatness.

As if trying to show the world what perfection looked like, he raked in achievements after achievements, nurturing the Galahad Family to the point it grew to be thirty times stronger than before.

From politics…

Swordsmanship…

Even commerce.

He didn’t miss a single aspect. Nowadays, even the name Galahad was synonymous with Blake, and his power was something that no one in the kingdom could ignore.

Perhaps even the king couldn’t speak carelessly to him.

His sheer presence and ability as an individual was just that extraordinary. No one would dare to raise their heads against him.

That was why…

“You have the royal family’s blood in you, so there’s no way you’re going senile. What’s wrong with you?”

“…”

He was surprised that he’d hear such ‘blunt words’ from the knight he had invited. But those words didn’t make him angry, it was the opposite, they felt refreshing to him.

However, there was one thing he was curious about.

“…Why are you angry at me?”

He couldn’t understand why the knight was angry at him.

And he wanted to know why.

When he heard that, the knight…

“I’m not angry. I’m just telling you to come to your senses. You’re being delusional, so stop that.”

It sounded like the knight was ‘nagging’ at him.

“To clarify, I’m not telling ‘Your Excellency the Duke’ off, but I’m giving ‘advice’ as an instructor to a lost child.”

“…Advice? To me?”

“Yes. To you, someone who’s a failure as a father.”

“…”

“Oh, scratch that. Let me correct myself. You aren’t even a good person right now, you are not qualified to be a parent. In my opinion, you wouldn’t even be a good father even if your wife and child are here. You can’t even trust your own child?”

“…You’re crossing the line.”

Now that he mentioned his dead wife, Blake couldn’t just sit by and listen. He started to get angry, his rage built up, and he wanted nothing but to kill the knight.

“Why don’t you do a proper investigation then? Suspecting that Judia girl is one thing, but why the hell are you also suspecting Irene Windler?”

“…”

Blake’s hand twitched. It was the first time he ever felt so embarrassed, and at the same time, so speechless.

Then, the knight continued.

“You’ve been calling your adopted daughter ‘Irene Windler’ throughout our conversation. It’s like you want her to be nothing but a stranger to you. It’s obvious that you’re suspecting her as well. Your adopted daughter. Am I wrong?”

“…What is wrong with that?”

He didn’t deny it. After all, just like the knight said, he doubted Irene too. He suspected that the child who looks exactly like the lover he loved was actually something created in the temple like Judia.

From the very first time that thought appeared in his mind, he became suspicious of his adopted daughter.

“It’s a reasonable suspicion.”

“Reasonable my ass.”

“…”

…The knight’s rebuttal came without any hesitation.

“Is it because she doesn’t have silver hair? Because she’s a mage? Also, you said this and that about her fairy bloodline, but you haven’t even investigated further. You could just try to see if she has royal blood, I know that there’s a method for that, but you didn’t. Why? Is it because you’re worried about the possibility that Irene Windler is your wife’s clone? Well, I can understand that. But still…

“-If you’re so suspicious of her, why do you keep her by your side?”

“…”

…This time, Blake couldn’t answer.

He was known for his wisdom all his life, yet he was at a loss for words.

“Do you even know why you keep her by your side? You don’t. See, this is why I said you’re a bad parent. Actually, no. You already know why, you’re just pretending not to know. Of course it doesn’t help with your case at all. You’re still a failure of a father.”

“…I know why?”

“Stop repeating my words. Seriously, I’m starting to get angry now.”

“…No, I really don’t know. What is the reason?”

Blake felt like an idiot for the first time in his life. He was completely bewildered, and his heart raced every time the knight spoke. Feeling that he was about to learn something crucial that he had been missing, Blake urged the knight.

Telling him to hurry up and give him the answer.

To his urgent question, Lee Han…

“Do you keep her by your side simply because she resembles your wife? Or do you keep her by your side because your ‘heart tells you to’? From what I’ve seen, it seems like the latter.”

“…”

…It was such a simple answer, but Blake felt a pang in the back of his head from that. It was as if the answer forced him to look back at his foolish past self of denying his feelings, of pretending not to know his feelings when he clearly knew.

“Your Excellency, sometimes people live by instinct and impulse rather than their logic, you should know this too already. That’s why I’m going to ask you. What does your instinct, no, your heart think of her?”

“…”

“If you don’t know even after I tell you all this, I’ll be really, really disappointed in you. How could someone who made me feel defeated turn out to be such a pitiful person.”

“…Hoho.”

…At that moment, Blake finally realized the reason why the knight was angry and why he was speaking so boldly.

…I’ve been lying to myself.

The knight found him pitiful since he could only spew out lies, and was unable to be honest with himself. He just kept ignoring and doubting all the feelings in his heart.

…Even his feelings were nothing more than fantasies born of longing.

“Shall I tell you one more thing? If you truly suspected that child, you wouldn’t have drugged her to sleep. You’d have just talked to her openly. But the reason you drugged her is simple.”

“…”

“You don’t want to be hated by her. You know that if she had heard your suspicions, she’d have been hurt.”

“…”

“Of course, I don’t know if you are that child’s biological father or not, but I know this one thing. All fathers in the world instinctively hate being hated by their children. Just by feeling that you hate being hated, it means that you already cherish that child.”

“I…”

“If you don’t want to lose something precious and regret it in the future, don’t do that… Well, then again, people would always do that even if they know not to, wouldn’t they?”

“…I believe that’s a generalization.”

Somehow, Blake felt that this knight was older than him.

His advice, and…

The way he just loses his vigor at the end is just like my late brother.

If the knight reminded him of his older brother, who was much older than him, then…

He has something special, for sure.

…Woah. I screwed up.

That was the first thing Lee Han felt. Soon, the price for his screw up followed.

Tingle-!

A wave of murderous intent poured down on him.

Someone faint-hearted wouldn’t be able to endure this for even a second.

It was a strong, murderous intent from the duke’s servants. If the duke gave the order, Lee Han was sure that they’d immediately jump on him and kill him.

The situation was dangerous, a clear sign that he had tread on a deadly path.

However…

It feels refreshing.

He had no regrets. It wasn’t because he had the confidence to run away even if these guys were to attack him, but simply because…

I’d regret it if I don’t tell him all that.

He knew that his anger wouldn’t subside if he didn’t say anything to the guy. Hence why he decided to not mince his words. He could always regret it later anyway.

Seriously, it’s ridiculous.

Is it because he’s too smart?

Or is it because no one had ever told him?

Why doesn’t he know something so obvious?

Actually, there was one more thing that he didn’t get to say. Maybe because he had a keen eye, he could read things like ‘energy’, so he could tell.

He’s like bungeoppang…

Because previously they had only been talking through an artifact, Lee Han didn’t notice it, but now he did.

The wavelength, or energy that Blake exuded.

The overall [color] that made him up, a color that was unique to each person, because…

Everyone’s color is different.

Especially in those with strong vitality, like knights or mages, Lee Han could ‘see’ their color even more clearly. Duke Blake and the Magic Chick had similar color, suggesting that their DNA matched, and that they were father and daughter.

And yet, this guy denied it and fell down in frustration.

In truth, Lee Han couldn’t really care less about this whole thing, but the way he spoke and acted made it feel like he was feeding him dozens of sweet potatoes.

Is this the curse of rofan?

No matter how much Lee Han looked at them, they looked exactly alike, yet this guy couldn’t even see the resemblance, as if cursed.

Although, this was a common cliché in rofan.

But, what was even more frustrating was…

“I see, I already cherish that child, huh? Even so, I was suspicious of her… It isn’t important whether she’s my biological daughter or not, the important thing is that I cherish her… I wasn’t even aware of such a simple thing…”

“…”

…Oh, he’s driving me insane.

His words dripped with honey whenever he talks about her, and he’s instinctively drawn to her, but he somehow didn’t acknowledge that she’s his daughter?

Is this why people say that rofan’s mid-to-late developments are practically just soap operas?

Things could get resolved quickly, but they just don’t.

…Whatever, I did everything I could.

Lee Han decided not to meddle any longer.

He had already acted so rude and uttered words that would normally get his neck cut off. If he were to open his mouth any further, the duke would actually cut his neck.

“Alright, I’m going to run away now.”

“…Your fault for not holding back on your rude words.”

“Because people will understand rude words.”

“Hahaha! I don’t want to admit it, but I have to. The back of my head still feels cold.”

“…I won’t apologize.”

“Ahaha!”

The duke laughed cheerfully again, but at that point, Lee Han had already turned his gaze at the servants who had given him even fiercer looks.

“Are you angry because I insulted your master?”

[[….]]

“Tsk, you got the wrong person. You should get angry at yourselves instead.”

[[??]]

…For a moment, they looked at each other with eyes that conveyed that they were fed up with the words of the shameless man.

Lee Han could understand their feelings. After all, he was the one who was bullshiting here. But, his words were actually sincere. He really thought that they weren’t blameless in this matter at all.

“A loyal subject is someone who’d risk their life to give advice and harsh words when their lord is about to go down the wrong path. But none of you did that. You should feel ashamed that someone who had nothing to do with your lord is the one who ended up giving him advice. Pathetic.”

[[…]]

“What good having hundreds of ears and eyes when they can’t tell what’s right and wrong?”

It’s worse than nothing.

That was Lee Han’s final stance.

“…”

The duke looked at the knight’s back as he walked away.

Although his back had already gotten further away, it still looked huge and sturdy, like a mountain that still looked solid even though it was far away.

“He’s grown. To a tremendous degree, even…”

The knight hadn’t just grown stronger, everything that made him had also grown. Perhaps it was because he had risked his life—no, because he had fought with all his pride and conviction that he became so respectable.

The knight, who had grown as a human being, had become bold enough to ‘nag’ at him, unlike when he had met him the other day.

It was such a humiliating situation, but,

“…For some reason, I don’t hate it.”

Despite hearing such harsh words, the duke felt happy rather than slighted.

It was the same when they first met.

A hero who hid his achievements.

After finding that out, he developed some affection for the knight, and he thought that he was a pretty admirable knight. And now, after all that had just happened…

“…I understand Sir Jenimia’s feelings now.”

The knight had basically told him to keep those who did not spare harsh words to him close, and to beware of those who spit out sweet words.

That made him fully understand why Marquis Tristan wanted to keep the knight by his side.

[[…]]

Just by seeing his servants who were still keeping their mouths shut while looking back on their past actions, was already good enough proof that he was a great stimulant for them to walk on the path of righteousness.

He was truly a knight who walked the royal road.

Not only is he strong, he also knows how to stay firm on his beliefs and knows how to keep his eyes on his surroundings. An outstanding figure.

In this age where knights chose to roam the political world and indulge in desire, there are still knights like him…

The duke was envious.

As a monarch, there was no one who was as trustworthy and interesting as him.

At that moment, he…

“Hmm… Should I take in a son as well?”

-Wouldn’t it be fun to have one?

The duke thought it would be nice to have an adopted son.

If Irene Windler had heard it, she would surely be shocked…

After Tristan, Galahad also coveted him.

In a sense…

It was a ‘love triangle’ between ‘high-ranking nobles’ surrounding ‘one knight’.

“What is this feeling? Why do I suddenly feel so disgusted?”

…If the person involved knew, let alone creeped out, he would be straight up horrified.