After coming to love the child, Gillen felt a strange emotion for the first time in his life. Cecilia always seemed so pitiful to him. Why did she feel so pitiable and adorable? Why did he want to protect and help her so much? Could this be paternal love? I'm a lifelong bachelor, so is it normal to feel paternal love?
Perhaps he wanted to pour the love he never received from his parents, who felt he was a burden, onto Cecilia instead. Or maybe it was just because Cecilia was such an adorable and beautiful child.
But whether he felt confused or not, Gillen had already reached a point where Cecilia's mere smile brought tears to his eyes, and even seeing her made him miss her more. So, when the child felt anxious about old memories, he pretended not to notice and encouraged her, while secretly using information from the original story to help her behind the scenes.
Twenty years had passed in this way. Gillen became Cecilia's dependable father and closest friend, and Cecilia became Gillen's daughter and treasure. My daughter, who wouldn't hurt even if I put her in my eyes. Cecilia had already become such an existence to Gillen.
And that Cecilia had recently started a fling. With the male protagonist of the original story, Hexion Moore, no less.
To be honest, male lead or not, in Gillen's eyes, Cecilia was too precious. If only she could skip dating or marriage and live by her father's side forever…
But Hexion Moore was the crown prince of this empire, decently good-looking, and his character was passable enough. Cecilia was now an adult, and the flow of this romance-fantasy world had moved past "#childrearing" and "#revenge" toward "#romanticcomedy." If Cecilia had to end up with someone, the male protagonist was the best among them.
As the heroine of Adorable Princess, the lovely and charming Cecilia attracted a lot of sub-male leads. A crazy slave, a crazy high priest, a crazy marquis…
Yes, the sub-male leads were all lunatics. The slave was a madman who only thought about imprisoning Cecilia, the high priest was a rebellious dreamer who wanted to establish a holy empire and become pope, and the marquis was a pathological narcissist obsessed with his own greatness, practically no different from the main villain.
For reference, Gillen had rescued the slave early on in Cecilia's place and granted him freedom. He sent the slave, who said he'd do anything ordered, to a foreign country, preemptively blocking any meeting with his daughter.
The high priest was difficult to banish with Gillen's power alone. So, he simply kept Cecilia from going anywhere near the temple. He occasionally badmouthed the gods and the temple to instill a negative impression. Thanks to that, Cecilia grew up to be a skeptic well-versed in temple corruption.
The problem was the marquis. Yuan Hampton, the marquis, wasn't originally a noble. Having lived in the isolated mage tower since childhood, Gillen couldn't meet him beforehand. He wanted to prevent Yuan from meeting Cecilia, but since Yuan was involved in something Cecilia had to do according to the original story's flow, Gillen couldn't arbitrarily intervene.
Gillen could only meet Yuan after he achieved great feats in war and was granted a hereditary title. In the original story, Yuan, a former commoner mage, sought out his first love, Cecilia, and proposed to her as soon as he became a marquis.
His misdeeds were varied: proposing out of the blue and publishing an article claiming they'd marry, kidnapping and imprisoning Cecilia with magic, forcibly dousing Cecilia with pheromones, attempting to assassinate the crown prince, and so on.
Of course, it was a "Hexi-Cecilia" ending—Hexion was the male lead, after all. Despite all the hardships, Cecilia marries Hexion. But as a parent, one naturally wants to pave a highway of flowers and jewels for their child. Knowing that Yuan caused the Cecilia-Hexion couple to face several crises in the original story, Gillen wanted to deal with Yuan in advance.
As a mental bachelor who suffered a tragic accident right after returning to school and ended up a married man with a child, Gillen also had a small desire to meet a compatible omega woman and enjoy a sweet romance once Cecilia got married. Once Cecilia married and left, he felt utterly lost about how to live in this world alone.
In any case, for Cecilia's and his own happy future, he had to deal with Yuan on his terms.
"Look at this pebble!"
For that reason, Gillen had been spending a dreadful month alone with Yuan.
"The color, shape, and hardness, filled with the affection of the late duke! Isn't it moving?"
"…Yes, it is. By the way, could I use the restroom—"
"Restroom? I was just about to go myself. Let's go together."
"Sigh, no, it's fine. I don't really need to go. You go ahead."
"Actually, I don't need to go either. I just said that because I didn't want to be apart from you."
Gillen smiled brightly and picked up another pebble. Fortunately, this garden had plenty of uniquely shaped pebbles, making it easy to come up with things to say.
Yuan's expression visibly worsened. He was probably thinking something like, "How do I get rid of this leech of a man?" But that wasn't happening. Gillen was determined to stay vigilant until the day Cecilia walked into the wedding hall with Hexion. Yuan was that dangerous.
At that moment, Yuan loudly set down his teacup and let out a big sigh.
"Enough, Your Grace."
Unable to endure Gillen's antics any longer, Yuan finally exploded.
To be fair, a month was a long time to put up with it. Knowing how strange Yuan's personality was, Gillen was confident he wouldn't be surprised by anything Yuan did.
But there was something Gillen had overlooked. Yuan's personality wasn't just strange—it was far beyond that.
"I didn't want to say this since you're Cecilia's father…"
Yuan was really, truly, extremely strange.
"I have no feelings for you, Your Grace."
"…?"
"I understand you might want to say even a single word to a young, beautiful alpha male like me, but don't you think this is a bit too much?"
Yuan swept back his shimmering long hair and continued.
"Please give up on me. I'm sorry, but you'll never taste my exquisite body in your lifetime. Or in the afterlife, for that matter."
"What… what?"
"If being rejected bothers you, I'll come back later."
With that, Yuan dabbed his mouth with a napkin, stood up, and left. Gillen sat there, mouth agape, until Yuan exited the garden.
Shortly after, the butler Brian entered the butterfly garden.
"Your Grace, Marquis Hampton just left for his residence… Your Grace? What's wrong? Are you unwell?"
At Brian's question, Gillen stiffly turned his head.
"Brian, just now…"
"Yes?"
"I… got rejected by Yuan Hampton."
"Pardon?"
"I was rejected by Yuan Hampton."
Brian narrowed his wrinkled eyes. His master was a jovial and kind noble who interacted casually with the servants, but he wasn't frivolous enough to make up stories. So, Brian cautiously asked,
"Did you… confess to the marquis?"
"Confess?"
All Gillen had said was that he didn't need to use the restroom. What kind of twisted logic would interpret that as a confession?
"Confess… I didn't. Why would I? To an alpha man twenty years younger than me?"
Gillen glared at Brian with wide eyes. Brian cleared his throat and bowed.
"Please forgive this old man. I asked because it was beyond my comprehension."
Gillen rested his forehead in one hand and waved the other to have Brian stand.
"I feel the same. My common sense can't… even if he's a lunatic… Could it be because I'm old? Is saying you don't want to go to the restroom some kind of love confession among young people these days?"
"Well, perhaps you should ask Miss Cecilia rather than this old man nearing sixty."
Brian winked and gestured toward the garden entrance.
"Daddy!"
A nightingale-like voice echoed through the garden. Soon, a fairy-like young lady came running with light steps. Gillen, who had been sitting with a dumbfounded expression, grinned as if nothing had happened and stood up. When he opened his arms, a beauty in a pale blue dress rushed into his embrace.
"Oof! So heavy."
"Hey, Daddy! Put me down then!"
"No way."
Gillen teased and spun Cecilia around. A clear, bell-like laugh rang in his ears.
"Duke Blake."
A young man's voice, tinged with amusement, came from ahead. Only then did Gillen realize Cecilia hadn't come alone. He carefully set Cecilia down and greeted the young man.
"I greet Your Highness, the star of the empire."
"The bond between father and daughter is as strong as ever."
The young man with honey-blond hair and a warm smile was Hexion Moore, the crown prince of the Moore Empire and Cecilia's friend. He was also her future husband, though only Gillen knew that in this world.
"Who was here?"
Cecilia asked, noticing the two cups on the garden table.
"Oh, just some peddler. Don't worry about it."
Gillen waved it off as if it were nothing.
"Oh, does the duke serve tea to peddlers too?"
Hexion asked, surprised.
"Hahaha… well, yes."
Let it go.
Gillen shot a subtle glare at his oblivious future son-in-law and signaled Brian behind his back. Unlike Hexion, Brian quickly caught on and began clearing the teacups and dessert plates.
"I'll bring fresh tea."
"Yes, yes. Sit here, Cecil. Your Highness, please take a seat as well."
At Gillen's suggestion, Cecilia and Hexion happily sat down. As they enjoyed the new refreshments Brian brought and laughed together at Cecilia's charming banter, Gillen completely forgot about the earlier incident.