“You’re spouting all kinds of crazy nonsense.”
“I hear that a lot.”
Gueuze waved his hand dismissively, as if to tell her to stop trying to fool him.
“Are you claiming to be so sort of saintess? An immaculate conception? Absurd.”
But it’s true.
Why not go to the temple and have a bloodline test?
Carynne grumbled internally, thinking about the unique traits passed down through her maternal lineage, traits that weren’t widely known. If won had carried on the family legacy instead of n, perhaps the truth would have been uncovered much sooner.
Gueuze seed slightly unsettled, perhaps recalling conversations with Catherine, as if he wasn’t entirely unfamiliar with the concept.
“Ridiculous.”
“……”
Though he wasn’t completely convinced, Carynne decided not to push further and simply smiled enigmatically. Gueuze didn’t seem to like the expression, but he wasn’t in the mood to behead her just yet either.
“Amusing, but too far-fetched to hold my interest. Your husband, you say? Ha, ha… truly laughable. I’ve never seen you before in my life.”
“You may be seeing for the first ti in this life, but we’ve definitely t before in a previous one. I live a life of reincarnation. Didn’t my mother ever tell you? Did she really seem her age to you?”
“I don’t believe in such ridiculous nonsense.”
“I know.”
But piquing Gueuze’s curiosity was enough. Carynne continued to talk.
“I also know that Prince Lewis isn’t your son.”
“That’s right. I lack that ability. Did Catherine tell you?”
“No, my mother never said anything like that.”
Catherine had left Carynne with nothing—no guidance, no wisdom, not even mories. Catherine may have learned life’s lessons from her own mother or ancestors, but Carynne had to fend for herself.
But there was one thing she had learned over the years—the art of lying.
Gueuze had dismissed everyone, including the attendants, leaving Carynne alone with him, which only intensified his focus on her nonsensical story. With no one there to distract or intervene, he had no choice but to listen to her. That was enough.
Surviving with just her tongue was possible. Even if Gueuze thought her words were absurd, he couldn’t help but pay attention. The subject hit too close to ho, touching on his most sensitive vulnerabilities.
Gueuze still hadn’t overco his trauma with Catherine. He might treat Carynne as nothing more than a shadow of her, but in critical monts, he couldn’t bring himself to kill her, just as before.
“My mother left you because she had a child with my father. Even if she had stayed as your mistress, she would have spent the wedding night with my father. That’s when I was conceived.”
“But she never returned to . Even after giving birth to you, she didn’t co back.”
Gueuze’s face twisted with frustration as he spoke. But this was the mont to press forward, to say what he wanted to hear.
“How could she have co back, carrying another man’s child? How could you be so indifferent? How could any woman do that to the man she loves?”
Mother, Father, I’m sorry. But I need to survive.
Carynne silently apologized to her parents.
“My mother spoke to about your darker side, about your pain… That’s why, ever since I was very young, I’ve always wanted to et you.”
She spoke with a voice filled with longing, even letting tears fall.
“In a previous life, Your Highness, you kidnapped and showed this very room. But in the end, we fell in love.”
“…Hah…”
Gueuze’s expression was one of disbelief, but Carynne held firm, determined to stick to her story.
“Your Highness, it’s simply because you haven’t t the right doctor yet. Once you do and get treated, you will indeed be able to have a child. And the child inside my womb is truly yours. That ti, Your Highness received proper treatnt, and afterward, you embraced .”
“There seem to be quite a few holes in your story, but I’ll let that slide for now. Then why are you here, claiming to have died yet again?”
“I died before I could give birth. I continue to live this life over and over, but I can only end this cycle by having a child. In my previous life, I beca pregnant with your child, and I was reborn carrying the baby.”
“…Ha.”
“Your Highness.”
She’s really fighting desperately to stay alive, Gueuze thought, as he looked down coldly at Carynne, who was speaking in such a pitiful tone. As ridiculous as her claim of reincarnation was, here she was, insisting that she was carrying his child—even though he was a man incapable of siring children.
“The child inside is undoubtedly yours. In my past life, you received treatnt and beca healthy. If you’re doubtful, call for that sa doctor and get treated again. In a few months, you’ll see that I’m not lying. A true child of yours will be born. Once the baby is born, you’ll be certain it’s yours.”
Her belly wasn’t even showing yet. There was still plenty of ti before the child would be born. They say pregnancy takes ten months, don’t they? Even a handful of months would buy her enough ti.
And Gueuze was clearly considering it.
“…Hah.”
Gueuze couldn’t stop the laughter from bubbling up. If anyone else had spouted such insane nonsense, he would have imdiately had their limbs torn off and thrown to the dogs for mocking him.
But it was Catherine’s daughter saying these absurd things, and her appearance fit his tastes so perfectly that he found it difficult to let go.
“Your Highness, once the child is born, you’ll know. The mont you see the baby, you’ll realize the truth. Last ti, it was such a difficult success… eting you again like this—it must be fate.”
Gueuze stood up.
Listening to such long-winded nonsense, spewed out in desperation to survive, was starting to make his own head spin.
He turned his back to her. He wanted to think. At the sa ti, he wanted to silence her imdiately. Yet part of him still wanted to keep listening.
Even though he dismissed it as nonsense, her words were disturbingly close to the things he’d longed for, forcing him to continue paying attention.
The queen he had married was now a faint, distant mory. At first, he had despised her, labeling her barren and using that as an excuse to seek a divorce.
But after being with countless won, none of whom had conceived, he realized the problem lay with him—he was impotent. It was the most humiliating realization he had ever faced.
Whenever news ca of a pregnancy, it was always because the woman had conceived with another man. Of course, Gueuze never let those won live, but even so, the sting of humiliation never left.
And when his younger brother, born from the king’s mistress, was presented as his own child, his feelings of humiliation turned to rage.
Lewis, his younger brother, the ‘king’s grandson’, would one day take his place.
The thought was unbearable. But it was a future that would only co after Gueuze’s death, so he tolerated it—for the sake of a stable succession.
‘…But why?’
His father still hadn’t abdicated.
Gueuze grew increasingly anxious. His father, despite being frail and sickly, refused to hand over the throne. Gueuze had tried to fill key governnt positions with his loyalists, but that was proving more difficult than expected. As long as the current king remained on the throne, there was no reason for those officials to step down.
He finally realized that the king was making moves to pass the throne directly to Lewis, bypassing him entirely. His younger brother had always been proof that there was sothing wrong with him, and now Lewis was about to take his place.
/subliminalwayfarer
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