In Another World, the Boy Was Spoiled by the Iron Knight! Chapter 187: The Hungry Wolf Awakens

"Filthy beast! Do not touch !"

Her eyes blazed with hatred. Her hand pushed him away. Her gaze was cold as ice.

Where had he gone wrong?

Why did she hate him so much?

Was it impossible for him to ever win Ashe’s heart?

Would she always despise him, look down on him, treat him with disgust?

It felt as if his chest had been pierced by thousands of blades. No matter how many dals, how many glorious victories he achieved, none of it ant anything before her rejection.

And then, in the midst of that despair, ca the cruel irony—he learned that Ashe was with child.

"As my duty, I will bear this child. But you will never co to again."

From that day on, Gabrant and Ashe no longer exchanged words. He could not endure staying in that bitter, suffocating mansion. Again and again, he went on expeditions, drowning himself in war. When he returned to the capital, he visited the houses of his mistresses. But even there, his heart could not be at peace. The pain inside him only grew, twisting him more and more.

When the ti ca and news arrived that the child was born, Gabrant finally returned to the mansion. Ashe did not even look at him when she spoke.

"His na is Dominic. A child who carries royal blood. Following tradition, I will give him a na tied to the royal family. I have fulfilled my duty as a wife. I will now leave this house."

This had been her decision from the beginning. Ashe would remain in the mansion only until the child was born. Afterward, she would leave for the Beaumont family estate in the countryside and live out the rest of her life there. It was Ashe’s wish, decided long before.

Even the faint hope Gabrant had—that once the child was born, her heart might soften—was crushed. Ashe abandoned him, abandoned the child, and cut herself away from the social world and the palace alike, shutting herself into the distant lands of the estate.

26 years.

When Gabrant thought about it, those years had been both long and short. He had passed the age of fifty-six, and Ashe must now be forty-two. Yet in his mind, the image that lingered was only that of the seventeen-year-old girl who is beautiful with green eyes filled with hatred.

His chest ached. Even at this age, he was still bleeding from sorrow.

What a curse this was!

Did this an he still loved Ashe, still longed for her, even after all this ti?

That was why he had avoided Dominic. Because the boy resembled Ashe so much.

That was why he could not bear to look at Dominic’s face. Because every ti he did, the mories of Ashe stabbed his heart to pieces.

What a pitiful man he was! How shaful, how weak, how miserably soft he had been all along!

"You’ve finally reached the truth."

The sudden voice snapped him back to reality. What had he been doing? It felt as if he had been wandering at the bottom of the sea of mory, drifting backward through the past.

He blinked several tis in quick succession and realized that all this ti, he had been caught in Shiao Yi’s gaze, staring into those eyes without pause.

"General, you should gather your courage once more and go see Lady Ashe. Because the truth is, your heart still holds feelings for her. Your obsession with Dominic is only the other side of that sa feeling."

"And what face should I show her now? Besides, I don’t even know if she would see ."

"That’s exactly why you should go. Because it’s ’now or never.’ Go to her openly. Twenty-five years is more than enough ti for people to change. That young princess has surely had ti to grow, to beco a true woman."

For the first ti, Shiao Yi looked like an adult. Until now, Gabrant had thought him just a fragile boy. But the truth was, the heart inside him carried the strength of one who had faced deep suffering.

And sohow, the strange thought of how Shiao Yi seed to read his own heart faded away when Gabrant looked into those dark eyes.

"General, I cannot give Dominic back to you. But your happiness does not lie in Dominic. Your true happiness surely exists sowhere else. You are a strong man. It doesn’t suit you to wallow here in misery. Show Dominic the proud and fearless man you once were—the bold and mighty ’Hungry Wolf General.’"

"You bring up an old na I thought was long buried."

A small laugh escaped Gabrant before he could stop it.

In his younger days, together with n like Johan, who now served as Commander of the Knights, he had been reckless, unstoppable. He had once stord across battlefields as if they were his personal domain. People said that nothing but corpses were left wherever he passed. That was how he had earned the na "Hungry Wolf General." He had been feared not only by his enemies but even by his allies.

Later, when he beca the great general who commanded whole armies, he could no longer ride into enemy ranks with reckless abandon. He had grown far quieter, more restrained. He had thought that old title had long since been forgotten.

But Shiao Yi’s words had struck deep. They had lit a fire inside him, a fire that had almost gone out. To the weary man who had been wasting away, Shiao Yi’s voice had breathed strength back into him.

...

The Beaumont family’s territory was a small region lying east of Rosaria along the Fontaine River.

It was not large, but it was a rich land made up of flat plains and forests.

The family manor stood facing the river, but the secondary residence where Ashe lived was set with the forest at its back.

It took about seven days by carriage from capital city to reach this countryside.