The Blackened Second Male Lead’s Wife - Chapter 37

Chapter 37

Only 30 of those chocolates were made, and it caused a bloody fight among the chocolate lovers.

And I lost the fierce battle for the magical chocolate.

‘I was only 30 seconds late, and the guy right in front of me got the last one. I shed tears of blood as I watched the chocolate disappear.’

I took the chocolate from Carlix with trembling hands.

“H-how did you get this precious thing?”

Carlix raised the corners of his mouth.

“Did you forget that I am the Crown Prince? There’s nothing I can’t have in this world.”

That’s something I haven’t heard from him in a while, and I found those words so lovable.

The Crown Prince is the best!

Power is the best!

I opened the lid carefully.

There were 10 round chocolates in the glass box. Each chocolate had a different pattern on it.

They didn’t look like chocolate, they looked like a well-made piece of art.

‘But the real charm of Caana chocolate isn’t its appearance.’

I put a piece of chocolate in my mouth with an entranced face. At that moment, the bitter taste of chocolate filled my mouth.

‘Oh, it’s so good!’

The outside felt crispy with a layer of cocoa powder, and the inside was soft and savory with white chocolate.

It’s sweeter than anything else!

It’s so sweet that my tongue became stiff.

‘Yes, this is real Caana chocolate.’

Carlix smirked as he watched me chew with a face full of emotion.

“Wow, Estelle was not exaggerating. She said that you were really sad because you couldn’t even get one piece of those chocolates.”

I thought the two of them would only talk about themselves, so that was unexpected.

They actually talked about me?

“Estelle wrote about me in a letter?”

“Yes, and she asked me if I could get those chocolates.”

Aww. What a kind friend.

She noticed my agony over those chocolates.

“Is that the reason why you got these chocolates? Because Estelle asked you to?”

“That was part of the reason. I also wanted to get you something.”

Carlix said, making eye contact.

“To thank you for helping me.”

“······.”

“What’s that look?”

You’ll know how I feel if you were in my shoes.

For example, if Estelle suddenly spits at you and shouts, “screw off!” you’ll make this exact face as well.

Hearing the word “thank you” coming out of Carlix was horrifyingly out of place.

I didn’t say anything, so Carlix’s eyebrows raised and he looked at my expression to try to figure out what I was thinking.

“You told me to not hold back saying things like this.”

…..I did say that before. (Note: check chap 29 if you’re curious.)

I didn’t expect him to say that to someone other than Estelle.

Amazing.

The fact that he changed this much in such a short time was amazing. I coughed and held the chocolate in my arms.

“Well, thank you. I’ll take this because it’s a gift you prepared.”

Carlix nodded, satisfied, and opened his mouth.

“And I have one more thing to give you.”

“Oh gosh, I’ll feel burdened if you give me so many gifts.”

“No need to worry about that. It’s not a gift, it’s something I promised.”

Carlix continued.

“It’ll arrive at your mansion later today so be ready to receive it.”

Did he promise to give me something?

Don’t tell me! Is it that?!!!

“Kyaaaaa!”

Anne and I gave a loud scream.

We covered our mouths with our hands, looked at each other in disbelief, and then turned to look at it again.

The object in question was a portrait of Lucian as a child that was delivered directly to the mansion by the imperial family’s servant.

It’s big enough to cover an entire wall.

The servant, who delivered the painting by hand, relayed a message to me.

[This is a message from His Highness the Crown Prince. The original version was really damaged and very small, so this portrait was reproduced by an imperial painter. Although it’s not the original, it’s value is even greater because it was recreated by a highly skilled painter. I hope you’ll accept it.]

Ahhh. Carlix, this guy.

He did such a great job!

I looked at the huge portrait, filled with emotion.

The canvas showed the face of a 10-year-old child.

White skin with big red eyes. The beautiful child who smiled shyly with his silver hair swaying lightly.

“He looks like an angel.”

I spoke up against Anne’s entranced whisper with a quivering voice.

“What are you talking about? He’s even prettier than an angel.”

Anne didn’t deny what I said. The child in the picture was that beautiful.

Just imagine how lovely he would be as the little angel protecting the goddess.

Anne tilted her head and asked.

“But, how did the Crown Prince get this portrait? As you know, Lord Kardien grew up in an unnamed rural town until the Saintess brought him here, so there are very few records of him when he was a child.”

“Well, having power always makes it easy to do things that seem impossible.”

In the original novel, Carlix easily accomplished all sorts of crazy things by using his power as Crown Prince.

When the price of bread was so high that the poor starved everyday, Carlix lowered the price of all the flour in the empire by half for Estelle who was upset by the situation. He also established thousands of schools and medical centers where commoners can go for free.

He even received praise for his never before seen policy for the poor.

‘He only did all those things because he wanted to be praised by Estelle.’

Anyway, the point was that there’s nothing in the world that Carlix couldn’t do.

So I was more curious about how this portrait was painted than how he obtained it.

‘When Lucian was young, he was very on guard so he wasn’t able to look at anyone properly. How was he able to smile so brightly?’

This natural smile couldn’t have been made by the artist’s imagination.

A few days later, I heard the answer to the question.

───── 〔✿〕─────

Estelle visited the mansion after a long time.

Father couldn’t hide his excitement, and greeted Estelle with his nostrils flaring up.

“S-Saintess, you’re here! How have you been? The prayer you recited at the event a few days ago was very impressive. It was like listening to a goddess’ voice. How do I know what a goddess’ voice sounds like? When I was eight years old, my dog, Poppo, died and I wept for him. A goddess appeared in my dream and comforted me…….”

Ignoring my father’s eager talk, I closed the door with power.

“Pe, Pernia!”

Just before closing the door, I could see my father’s eyes asking me to let him join us, but I ignored him.

I won’t allow my time with Estelle be taken away by my father’s chattering.

Estelle giggled at the closed door.

“The Marquis always welcomes me so enthusiastically whenever I come by.”

“My dad is like that with anyone that’s famous because he wants to get close to them. It’s a little embarrassing to see him act the same way to his daughter’s friend.”

“No other aristocrat likes me as much as he does. So I really appreciate him.”

Hm, Estelle’s an angel today as well.

After guiding Estelle to the tea table on one side of my room, I said.

“First, I’ll give you the Crown Prince’s letter.”

Estelle nodded with a shy smile.

In the midst of her busy schedule, she came here to chat with me, and also to receive Carlix’s letter.

Estelle lowered her eyebrows and laughed.

“Thank you as always, Miss Nia.”

I wish she only said that out of pure gratitude, but her voice was full of remorse. So I pouted in annoyance.

“I told you it’s something I want to do. Just think of it as me helping a friend.”

“But…”

“If that’s a little hard to do, then think of it as running errands for the Crown Prince. That’s fine too. I received a huge reward from His Highness yesterday.”

“Reward?”

“Yes.”

I smiled proudly and pointed my finger at the wall.

Estelle, who saw the huge portrait hanging on the wall, exclaimed.

“Oh my God! It’s a portrait of Lucian.”

That’s right!

That precious thing is in my room right now!

Now that I possessed this precious thing, it was natural that I would want to show it off to others.

I said, raising my shoulders as high as I could.

“Isn’t he pretty?”

“Yes, really pretty.”

Estelle looked at the portrait with admiration  and curled her eyes gently.

“Seems like this painting was still there. I thought it would have been lost because it was painted very long ago. His Highness managed to find something like this.”

“You knew of this portrait?”

“Of course. I still remember it vividly. On that day, Lucian became the youngest to join the Knights Order. The Knights Order ordered to have him painted to commemorate the event.”

I blinked my eyes.

‘So that was when this portrait was painted.’

This was explained in a short story from the novel.

Lucian was only 12 years old when he took the examination to join the Imperial Knights. Many people snorted at him because they thought it was impossible for someone at that age to pass.

At such a young age, he was threatened by others that they would rough him up and cut off one of his legs if he didn’t come to his senses.

Disbelief, neglect, ridicule, concern.

Amid the many volatile threats being thrown at him, Lucian squarely passed the entrance examination.

Which was no easy feat even if he had the talent to do so.

Since technology was still underdeveloped at that time, many wounds were left on his delicate body.

Nevertheless, he took the knighthood test at such a young age for one reason.

Because it was for Estelle.

‘He wanted to be able to protect her.’

Around that time, Lucian had nothing. Except for his red eyes and scrawny body that were scorned by others for being cursed.

The little boy, who wanted to do everything he could for Estelle, decided to become a knight.

It was a miraculous achievement.

I was so touched by the short story

I shed tears, cheering for Lucian’s love for Estelle.

But it was weird. He didn’t feel anything at that time.

Instead of being saddened by his unrequited love, he stuffed it up like it was something clogged up in his throat.

Estelle, who had no idea what I was feeling, said with warm eyes.

“Lucian must have been nervous because they were suddenly painting a portrait of him. He wouldn’t smile and kept a straight face no matter how much the painter tried to encourage him, so I stood behind the painter and made funny faces to get him to smile.”

Estelle raised the corners of her mouth with her hands to form a playful smile.

“I don’t know if I looked funny, but he smiled when I did that.”

Only then did I know.

The smile that little Lucian was making was a result of Estelle’s doing.

His cheeks were as red as a peach, and his lovely eyes became gentler.

All that was caused by Estelle.