By Zephyria 
Knock, knock. After knocking, Cassian paused for a moment before opening the door. The Duke and Duchess were already in the tea room, drinking tea.
“Is Bliss alright?”
As soon as she saw her son, the Mother asked worriedly. He took his seat first before answering.
“Yes, I’ve just come from seeing that his condition is improving.”
Cassian set the tray down on the table and straightened his back. In truth, Cassian wasn’t the only one who had noticed that Bliss had indigestion. The Duke and Duchess also knew, but they had simply pretended not to notice, feeling pity for Bliss’s efforts to hide it. Instead, after Bliss returned to his room, the Duchess had hurriedly contacted the family physician and handed the medicine she received to Cassian.
‘He must be struggling, so hurry and go help him.’
Following that, she had rambled on about how lovely and fragile a child Bliss was, but Cassian had cut her off appropriately and left. And now, the Duke and Duchess were waiting for him to hear the result.
“Just how nervous must he have been to get indigestion? The poor thing.”
Cassian simply watched with a smile as his mother sighed again, her face clouded with worry. It was true that the Duchess had urged him because she worried about Bliss, but the reason Cassian had personally taken the medicine to visit Bliss wasn’t solely due to his mother’s insistence.
It was simply a tear-jerking effort to protect the worldview of this world.
As he recalled the look of touched emotion on Bliss’s face, he suddenly locked eyes with his father.
“Why are you suddenly smiling?”
At the Duke’s question, Cassian only then realized that he had been smiling.
“It is nothing.”
Answering simply, he avoided his father’s gaze while pouring tea into the pre-prepared cups. Regardless, he had sufficiently achieved his goal. Bliss had been so immersed in emotion that he couldn’t even take his eyes off Cassian.
Now he’ll firmly believe that I like him.
He had gone through a lot of hardship, mentioning things like Mozart’s grave and Versailles, but he had obtained the result he wanted. Moreover, seeing that guy’s cute face… that wasn’t so bad…
He paused mid-thought. Remembering that he had had the same thought earlier, his brow furrowed instinctively.
No, wait.
He felt flustered, wondering what on earth he was thinking, but he soon regained his composure. Looking back coldly, there was nothing particularly problematic. Right, it’s a fact that the guy is cute. Isn’t that a thought anyone could have? Yes, anyone who sees something cute thinks it’s cute. It’s not like I’m particularly strange.
It’s no big deal.
Having reached that conclusion, Cassian finished the rest of his tea and spoke, glancing between the Duke and the Duchess.
“Then, I shall take my leave. I wish you a peaceful night.”
“Very well, go and rest.”
As the Duke nodded, Cassian gave a brief, polite gesture and stepped outside. Only after the door closed and they were left alone did the Duchess cautiously speak.
“What do you think, dear?”
She was asking about the conversation they had shared before Cassian entered. Instead of answering immediately, the Duke stalled for time by pretending to drink his tea. He spoke only after setting the teacup down.
“Bliss Miller and Cassian… it’s such an unimaginable pairing that I’m actually bewildered.”
Rather than deciding for or against immediately, the Duke chose to delay his answer. It made sense, as he had been consistently bewildered ever since he heard from the Duchess that Bliss Miller had suddenly come to the castle with his only son. He had no idea what was happening in the current situation, let alone a marriage with his son.
“But if Cassian had an eye for that child, wouldn’t he have introduced him to us properly? He even gave him some strange name… what was it? Blair? Bliss? Anyway, he keeps using odd names; frankly, I’m almost anxious about what my son is plotting against us.”
“Oh, Arthur. How pitiful.”
The Duchess spoke pityingly, clutching her husband’s hand as he honestly bared his inner thoughts.
“It’s not something to worry about that much. The situation is simple. Think about it, Arthur—why would Cassian bring Bliss here without formally introducing him to us?”
“Why?”
When the Duke asked, sounding completely clueless, the Duchess answered with confidence.
“Because he’s not sure about Bliss’s feelings, of course.”
“Not sure?”
As her husband repeated her words, she nodded and continued.
“The two of them haven’t confessed their feelings to each other yet. Cassian is likely trying to persuade him while they stay here. And once their hearts align, he’ll introduce him to us immediately and…”
“And get our permission for marriage all at once!”
As the Duke quickly filled in the rest, the Duchess clapped her hands together in excitement.
“Exactly! Do you see now? This is how the situation is unfolding.”
The Duke stroked his chin, nodding repeatedly as if intrigued.
“Yes, that sounds plausible. It’s a possibility. You’re right.”
However, a question still remained. Frowning, the Duke looked at his beloved wife and asked.
“Setting that aside, what about the name? Blair? Bless? Why didn’t he honestly introduce him as Bliss Miller?”
Of course, the Duchess had already figured out the answer to that question as well.
“Oh my, he did it on purpose to hide it. Think about it, Arthur. If he said the child was the Bliss Miller, we would naturally treat him with extreme care, wouldn’t we? Especially since there was that accident when he was young. How burdensome would that be from Bliss’s perspective? If Cassian is prepared to be rejected, he would want to eliminate any situation that might put pressure on Bliss. If he’s just ‘someone who is merely Cassian’s guest’ rather than ‘Bliss Miller,’ we’ll just treat him as a guest, and Bliss will feel less burdened.”
Only then did the Duke nod with a look of understanding.
“In short, he’s created an escape route in case he’s rejected.”
“Yes, exactly. Do you understand now?”
The Duchess smiled brightly and clapped at the Duke’s mutterings. While his wife looked so lovely, the Duke was not entirely pleased with his son’s behavior.
“The clumsy fellow. If you’re going to make a move, you should be prepared to throw everything on the line, not cowardly create a mouse hole to hide in.”
“He was probably respecting Bliss’s feelings.”
The Duchess subtly took her son’s side, but the Duke continued, still dissatisfied.
“That’s why I say he’s clumsy. To win the one you love, you must give it your all with the mindset that you would die without them. Just like you and I, is that not so?”
“Oh, you.”
The Duchess blushed and smiled at the Duke’s passionate words. In truth, the two had met for the first time in high school and had been together ever since; they had only ever had each other. Their first kiss, their first experience, and every act between a man and a woman were firsts with each other.
And yet, that brat had been carelessly throwing his body around.
The Duke ground his teeth. Although he didn’t like that his only son had had girlfriends since he was practically a toddler, he accepted it as an inevitable generational gap. However, he knew that Cassian had spent the night with a one-night stand once. Of course, it wasn’t because he had dug into his son’s past, nor had Cassian confessed.
Unfortunately, the Duke’s PR team had discovered and reported just before a cheap tabloid, which had obtained that information, was about to expose it. He had paid a considerable amount of money to kill the article, but the reason the Duke was so angry wasn’t because of the money. It was because Cassian had done something absurd.
To have relations with a stranger without any dignity.
Upon learning this, the Duke had intended to severely discipline his only son, but the circumstances didn’t allow it. First, there was the chaos when Bliss ate poisonous mushrooms, and by the time things had settled, the timing had passed.
The only saving grace was that since then, Cassian hadn’t had relations with anyone, as if he had developed mysophobia…
As the Duke thought this far, a deep wrinkle formed between his brows.
And now, the person he suddenly brought along is Bliss Miller.