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A late night at the Duke\'s mansion.

Cardi\'s eyes snapped open as an owl\'s hoot mingled with the gentle breeze in his bedroom.

"Huh...!"

His body was drenched in cold sweat. Cardi looked around, trying to distinguish dream from reality, then let out a sigh of relief.

"I see... It was just a dream."

He had dreamed of a future that should never come to pass. In the dream, he was living three years into the future and heard words so terrible they nearly took his breath away.

"I\'m too old to play with grandfather!"

"Tea parties are way more fun than hanging out with grandfather now!"

"It\'s frustrating that grandfather keeps calling for me without understanding how I feel."

... All were condemnations from fifteen-year-old Tina. His granddaughter, now in the throes of puberty, was treating Cardi coldly with eyes markedly different from now.

He tasted despair.

The reality of his adorable, affectionate granddaughter suddenly changing was unbearable.

"Damn it, I shouldn\'t have gone to see that Lloyd bastard. Planting such ridiculous ideas with his worthless temptations. That vicious old Chandler."

It was a remarkably one-sided criticism, considering he was the one who had sought him out first to pick a fight.

Though dawn was still a ways off, his fled desire for sleep showed no signs of returning. He\'d noticed that sleep diminished with age, but today was the first time he felt it so acutely.

"Maybe seeing the child will help..."

He probably found it difficult to fall asleep because he hadn\'t yet shaken off the dream\'s aftereffects. With that self-diagnosis, Cardi put on a suitable robe and went out into the hallway.

Cardi\'s footsteps were quiet.

Unlike him, his granddaughter was a heavy sleeper in the mornings, always seeing him off to work with sleepy eyes. She seemed to know exactly how to be cute and lovable. Finding that endearing, he didn\'t want to disturb Tina\'s sleep if possible. So much so that he applied footwork techniques to make his steps nearly silent.

Eventually, Cardi reached Tina\'s bedroom and carefully opened the door. True to its recent replacement, the hinge opened and closed naturally without a sound.

"Snore, snooore..."

Tina\'s cute breathing sounds could be heard. How could even her breathing be so precious? The law of nature dictating that this Tina would go through puberty and become an adult felt cruel.

"Snore... Snooore... Snort!!!"

Just then, Tina suddenly let out a snore as if she was about to choke.

Startled!

Cardi jumped, thinking he had woken Tina. He calmed down quickly after realizing it was just a simple snore.

\'Whoever her future husband may be, he\'ll have quite the struggle if they share a bed.\'

But what of it?

This was an era where separate bedrooms weren\'t frowned upon. If anyone dared to criticize that, he was fully prepared to deliver swift punishment.

However, he couldn\'t help but feel uncomfortable at the mere thought of her getting married. He disliked the approaching puberty, but he also disliked the idea of marrying her off. Even while fully aware it was an old man\'s stubbornness.

\'If only she could be with Glen, at least I\'d feel somewhat at ease having her nearby to watch over.\'

Cardi was quite fond of Glen, regardless of bloodline. He was a boy who didn\'t carelessly spout nonsense and had proper manners.

He was far better than those who received early education in etiquette from childhood.

This was especially true for Cardi, who had distanced himself from the duplicitous social circles.

\'But the boy clearly has someone else in his heart, so it\'s difficult to suggest. If possible, I\'d like to find a groom who is well-mannered, uninvolved in politics, and doesn\'t easily lose his temper.\'

Yes, for example, someone who is the complete opposite of that Third Prince Askalion brat would be ideal. It would be best if she could live with such a man for life, but sadly, that\'s probably impossible in reality. Everyone has a time when they open their eyes to romance, after all.

\'Tsk, the early morning is making me think all sorts of things.\'

He\'d had his fill of looking at his granddaughter\'s face.

It was time to return to the bedroom and try to get some sleep.

As Cardi was gradually distancing himself from Tina, she mumbled in her sleep with a grinning face.

"Hehe... I won the staring contest... Grandpa\'s the best..."

Pffft.

A chuckle escaped him, but dewy tears also formed in the corners of his eyes.

He had forgotten since his wife passed away, but this was what family was meant to be.

A strange relationship where people like each other for no particular reason.

People who seem to be connected at heart without any room for calculation of gains and losses.

He had long forgotten that those who gift such a sense of fulfillment are truly family.

\'Well... I suppose nothing will change...\'

Even if puberty arrives, the memories they\'ve shared won\'t disappear.

Once that turbulent period passes, the old bond of affection sleeping in those memories will gradually return.

If possible, it would be better if she didn\'t have puberty at all, like Elphisia...

But expecting that much was probably greed beyond his station.

\'Even now, I can do anything she wants if she just asks. Surely I can manage to wait!\'

---

---

The next morning. It was Cardi\'s day off.

Drinks spilled from Cardi\'s mouth, who had resolved to do anything for her. And most of the spilled drink miraculously returned to the glass he was holding.

"W-What did you say?"

Cardi asked as if he had heard something earth-shattering. Elphisia then spoke clearly with an expressionless face.

"I\'m thinking of trying to broker a ceasefire agreement with the demon race, Father."

"No, I mean, I understood the meaning... but you must be out of your mind. Does the Human Defense Agreement, which led one kingdom to ruin, look like a mere joke to you?"

"That would be the case if I were proposing friendship. What I\'m planning is a ceasefire rather than friendship."

From the get-go, his daughter was pushing a stomach-churning agenda this morning. The way she spoke of such a massive proposal without batting an eye was unmistakably Elphisia.

She was a child with unwavering confidence in herself, to the point of arrogance.

"Whether you want it or not, the next emperor will be Yuli... no, Askalion. His age is merely preventing the coronation ceremony from proceeding."

"... I know that brat is the only alternative."

"That\'s right. So it\'s the perfect timing. To carve out a plausible achievement before the coronation ceremony, you see."

"The emperor of the empire was assassinated, and while war might be understandable, won\'t public sentiment turn against us if we propose a ceasefire, calling it a national humiliation?"

"It\'s all in how you frame it. We could spread propaganda portraying him as a prince who prioritized the people\'s livelihood while burying his thirst for revenge."

"What if the former First Prince\'s faction labels him a coward?"

"If they love war so much, tell them to send their eldest sons to be drafted first. Of course, it would have been difficult to say that originally. But ironically, because the emperor was assassinated, Askalion, who will ascend to the throne, will wield the greatest imperial authority in history."

"... Because the next in line for succession is the Second Prince."

"Yes, even the remaining heir to the throne is on that child\'s side, so what can the nobles do even if they oppose? If you receive a ducal title in the future, it will create a structure where the only two ducal houses in the empire support the emperor."

Listening to the outline, it was a plausible plan. Since it wasn\'t a case of a foreign royal being assassinated, pressure from other countries would be light...

As the victimized empire is proposing peace, many countries would likely want to jump on that bandwagon.

\'As long as it\'s a ceasefire and not friendship, the Human Defense Agreement remains valid. This way, there\'s little chance of internal dissent from humanity...\'

After examining Elphisia\'s explanation from various angles, Cardi furrowed his brow as if tired.

"So... you want me to support the Third Prince in leading this ceasefire?"

"To put it bluntly, yes."

"... What\'s the specific plan?"

"You can probably guess the gist of it, Father. Because you must have overheard our conversation that day."

The conversation she referred to must have been when Glen revealed the secret of being the Demon King\'s bloodline. But how did his daughter know he had eavesdropped? He noticed his son-in-law averting his gaze with an embarrassed face.

"Ahaha... I only told her about sensing your presence, Duke."

"... You should have caught me then and there. How does my son-in-law manage to make people so uncomfortable?"

"As you know, the mood in the room at that time was quite... tense. Moreover, I thought Glen might feel burdened if he knew you were aware of the truth, so I kept your secret."

"Hmph, as the head of the family, I simply didn\'t want to be accused of eavesdropping."

"Ah... um."

Harte looked back and forth between Cardi and Elphisia carefully. Then, as if he had realized a new truth, he spoke up.

"Elphisia really does take after you, Duke."

"Harte?"

"What..."

The couple\'s faces reddened at the sudden embarrassing remark. But Harte didn\'t stop there and continued to share his thoughts.

"Plus, she looks so much like Yulian that sometimes I think Tina isn\'t the grandchild, but Yulian is!"

"Who looks like who, Harte!"

"That brat isn\'t fit to lick my boots for a thousand years!"

An old saying goes that strong denial is strong affirmation. Harte thought that old saying was quite reliable.

Afterwards, having skillfully deflected the anger of the ducal bloodline, Harte calmly opened his mouth.

"To be honest, we\'re not doing this solely for Yulian\'s achievements. While I feel this way too, Elphisia especially wants to give Glen a chance to meet his birth parents."

Then Harte concluded his statement while gazing at the golden particles gathering in his hand.

"And if I set my mind to it, I could make that happen right now."