The Softest And Cutest Of The Dukes - Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Erica shrugged at Duke Panteur’s piercing words. Looking into his all-knowing blue eyes, Erica spoke up.

“Yes.”

She meekly admitted it.

They were not oblivious to the consequences of prying into someone else’s household, but regardless, they were a family bound by blood. So strictly speaking, it wasn’t someone else’s household.

“Then I won’t bother telling you. I’m sure you’ve heard by now that there’s a Seraphina lookalike in my family.”

“I’m aware of that, and you gave her the same name.”

“Yeah.”

It had been a long time since they’d spoken to each other face-to-face, but the coldness between them hadn’t dissipated, and the aides watching behind them felt as uncomfortable as if they were standing on a thorny floor and wanted to get out of here. 

“No, how can you give my stepmother’s name to a child you don’t even know the lineage? Withdraw it immediately.”

“You won’t be able to say that when you see her yourself. She’s younger than your son, by the way.”

“So what!”

“Don’t yell in front of her like you’re doing now. She’s already having trouble sometimes.”

“No, you’re worrying about a child who’s not your own in front of your child. Father, you’ve changed a lot. You don’t even bother to acknowledge your children.”

Since she was young, Erica longed for her father’s love. However, her father was only focused on his work. As a result, her mother, who didn’t receive love, became mentally unstable and started to abuse Erica, who resembled her father. She would threaten to kill Erica if she ever spoke to her father.

As a result, even the nanny had to remain silent, despite witnessing the abuse. If she were to be driven away, she wouldn’t be able to intervene immediately. The nanny, who pretended not to see anything, was immediately expelled when Erica’s mother got divorced and left.

Erica, haunted by such old wickedness, became even more angry when her father, in front of her, owned a child whose blood was not in his veins. 

“So, do you expect me to treat that child the same way I treated you?”

“That’s…….”

Erica was momentarily speechless at Duke Panteur’s words; what could the child possibly have done to deserve the same treatment as herself? She sighed heavily, and Jenny came running out of her thoughts.

“Oh, my lord, there’s trouble. I can’t find Lady Seraphina.”

Suffering from constipation, Jenny hurried to the bathroom, relieved to see Rafi playing with a rattle on cue, but it didn’t come easily. She grunted for a while, gathered all the energy she could muster, and finally relieved herself. 

But now a problem arose. Rafi was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that she might be playing hide-and-seek, she thoroughly searched the room and the surroundings, but she was nowhere to be found.

She didn’t even know the layout of the manor yet. Sweat began to pour down Jenny’s face as she realized that the child who had been given such a precious name by Duke Panteur was nowhere to be found. She rushed outside, calling out to the others to look for her, and then turned to Duke Panteur. 

“What, you don’t see Rafi?”

“Yes, I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, I can’t see her…… I’m sorry.”

“I don’t think you need to apologize, she’s coming.”

Seeing where Duke Panteur’s gaze was directed, Jenny breathed a sigh of relief. Jerome, who had said he was going to the garden, was coming here. Carrying a thick loaf of sticky rice cake.

* * * 

As I looked at the man who seemed to find me hanging from a tree branch fascinating, I rolled my eyes. In response, the man chuckled as if finding something amusing.

“It seems like the sticky rice cake got stretched in the heat.”

“I’m not rice cake, I’m Rafi!”

Why does this world even have sticky rice cakes? I struggled to free myself from the predicament of the stretched rice cake. However, my clothes remained stuck on the tree branch.

“Haah…”

Rather than offering to help me down, the man poked my puffed-up cheeks with his fingers, causing slight discomfort. After playing with them for a while, he stopped when my cheeks began to feel a bit sore.

“Oh, I think I played with them too much. Your cheeks have turned red. I’m sorry.”

Only then did he take his hand off my cheek, apologize, and let me off. Barely able to reach the ground in return, I was immediately grabbed by the man. 

“The least you can do is thank me for letting you down.”

I scoffed when he asked me to thank him. But politely, I put my hands on my navel and bowed my head.

“Thank you.”

“Oh, look at you, you even know how to greet properly. Well then, our sticky rice cake, I mean… what was your name?”

“Rafi. Rafi!”

“Rafi? My name is Jerome.”

“Chero?”

“No, Jerome!”

I bit my lip, still mispronouncing, and Jerome, who had swooped me up in a hug, grinned. 

“If I only had a daughter like this, I wouldn’t wish for anything. Awww, my Rafi is so cute.”

I glared at him, but he continued walking, unperturbed by my gaze. 

“Whose child are you? Where is your father?”

“No.”

“Oh, Dad’s not here, so what about Mom?”

“No.”

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have asked, I don’t know anything about Rafi.”

Jerome shrugged at the mention of no mom and dad. He stroked my hair, and I felt my expression soften at the warmth of his touch.

“Do you like to be stroked?”

“Yes, like. I like it.”

Despite the obvious strangeness, I felt no resistance. I felt comfortable and buried my face in Jerome’s chest. But it wasn’t as big as Duke Panteur’s, and I shook my head from side to side in slight disappointment. 

“God, do you miss your father’s arms so much?”

“No.”

“No, but I guess you do because your parents aren’t here either…… Hmm, would you like to come over to my place, my daughter?”

“No.”

I wiggled my face in response to Jerome’s words. It made me look like I was rubbing against his chest. 

“I have a son as big as Rafi. No, he’s not. He’s bigger than Rafi. Anyway, I think he’d be perfect as a big brother to you since we tried and failed to have a girl.”

Jerome’s head suddenly drooped, and I reached out and stroked his hair.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ll be fine next time.”

“Well, my wife didn’t want to have kids, haha. I can’t believe I’m saying all this to you, someone I just met today. But strangely enough, you don’t feel unfamiliar to me. It’s like we’ve become a family.”

I nod in response, as I felt the same way. I simply stayed close to Jerome’s chest, feeling a sense of comfort. Holding a child in his arms, even if it wasn’t his own, seemed to come naturally to him.

“Be our daughter, okay? I’ll convince my wife.”

“No way. Why should you care about someone else’s kid?”

I refused to be the child of a man I knew nothing about, even if he wasn’t a stranger to me. I’d rather stay in Vance’s house and wait for him to have a son. 

“You hurt my feelings when you put it so bluntly.”

“You don’t have to care for someone else’s kid.”

I said, cutting him off at the knees. Instead of being disappointed, Jerome only laughed, as if he liked it better. 

“This is Duke Panteur’s residence, and you have no mother or father, so how did you get here? If you were my daughter, I could protect you from all attacks.”

Jerome shook his head in disbelief and began to make promises about what he would do for me if I became his daughter. 

I dug my tiny little fingers into my ears as Jerome spoke words that were not worth listening to. 

He continued walking. Once out of the garden, a group of Duke Panteur’s servants saw him and stepped to one side, bowing their heads. 

Relieved to be within sight of familiar faces amid a strange phenomenon, I smiled wryly. 

Duke Panteur’s eyes met mine, and Jerome rushed forward, carrying me in his arms, and bowed his head in greeting. 

“Father, it’s been a long time.”

“Father? It’s been a long time?”

Duke Panteur’s sarcastic tone told me that Jerome was the son-in-law of the family.

“Father, I apologize for not being able to visit you.”

“You spied on my house because you couldn’t visit me, then you don’t need to ask for my greetings, and you don’t need to say anything unpleasant.”

“Oh, I’m at a loss because you’re talking about this much.”

See, he’s not complimenting him on this.

Duke Panteur gave Jerome a stern look and spoke in a low voice. He then glared at the smiling Jerome and held out his hand.

“Come here, his chest is a cliff, and it would not be fit for you to hold.”

“Father, I may look like this, but I was born a knight. I can still fly and crawl.”

“You fly and crawl like a tadpole that has just left its hind legs. Come here, Rafi. I have someone to introduce you to.”

While I was engrossed in listening to their conversation, Duke Panteur forcibly removed me from Jerome’s arms and then picked me up in his usual embrace. As the security of his embrace faded, I clung to the hem of his robe, pressing myself against his chest for dear life. 

“Oh? Jenny is here? I was looking for you. I wanted to go out and see you…”

“Oh, no. It’s okay. It’s a relief just knowing that our young lady is safe.”

Seeing Jenny wiping away tears, I apologized to her first. I felt like I owed her one of the candies in my bag since she’d probably been looking for me since I disappeared.

“Father, is this the child you said fell out of the sky?”

Only at the sharp tone of the voice did I see the person in front of Duke Panteur. My eyes widened as I recognized the female form of Duke Panteur, with black hair and blue eyes. 

“Yes, that’s right. This is the child.”

“Even if she does look like my stepmother, how can you give her her name?”

I flinched at the look of disapproval on her face. Then Duke Panteur patted me on the back. 

“Oh, that’s because this child spoke in a language only young Seraphina and I know.”

When did I?

I shook my head at the Duke’s unintelligible words. 

“She said what my stepmother said when she was a child? That’s ridiculous.”

“I heard it, and if a child had been born normally then, it would have been this one.”

Unintelligible words were exchanged, but the most important thing here was the fact that the woman in front of me was the daughter of Duke Panteur. I smiled wryly at her, knowing that even though she was married, she was not to be hated.

“Hello. I’m Rafi. Nice to meet you.”

Erica’s brow furrowed at my greeting, which came out of nowhere in a murderous atmosphere. 

“Erica, why would you glare at Rafi when she greets you?”

Jerome, who was smiling at Duke Panteur, turned to Erica and slightly hardened his expression. Erica reluctantly gave a slight nod of her head.

“This is Erica, the eldest daughter of the house.”

It was a simple statement, but I said with a bright smile,

“Hehe, you’re the prettiest girl in the world.”

Erica hesitated at the words “pretty”. 

Seeing her like that, I quickly asked Duke Panteur to bring me down. Once my feet touched the ground, I took out candy from the bag I had been carrying on my shoulder. 

I approached Erica with a playful stride and placed the strawberry-flavored candy in her hand, saying, 

“Hey, want to have a chat while enjoying this candy with me?”