*Edited

Ambrosia’s mansion was more iron-clad than the Imperial Palace. When this place was under attack, the Imperial Palace was, of course, already under attack. Who would dare to harm his successor, Claude, in Ambrosia’s mansion?

“……”

Sarah smiled awkwardly, feeling somewhat sorry.

“I blew it away.”

“……What is that?”

Sarah was a little embarrassed at the thought of being too excited from the first day, but she decided to be a little brazen.

“Young Master Claude’s door didn’t open very well. How about replacing it right now?”

“Oh, the door didn’t open well, so you blew it. Am I understanding this correctly?”

 “Yes.”

He was silent for a moment. He made a rather complicated face, but the smooth forehead was wrinkled a little.

“I did control the power. How fortunate that the Duke of Ambrosia’s garden is large.”

The Duke still had a dubious face. When Sarah decided to come as Claude’s nanny, he thought he was lucky, but in fact, he had a reasonable suspicion that it might be the opposite. Sarah laughed softly as if she understood the Duke’s agony.

“……”

There was a moment of silence. Ethan Ambrosia looked at Sarah, who was still smiling, and finally shook his head.

“There must be a reason for that. Okay, I get it. As you advised, I’ll instruct Claude’s door and windows to be replaced with stronger ones.”

When he nodded, it was Claude, not the servants or May, who was most surprised. It was because he was unfamiliar with his father, who was more difficult and fearful than anyone, nodding his head like a gentle sheep in front of the new nanny.

Claude, who thought his father would severely scold his nanny, was very disappointed. The child pouted his lips and expressed his displeasure, but Duke Ambrosia’s mind seemed to be already focused on the nanny. His father was so mean. If he had done that, he would have been scolded a lot.

“I’m staying obediently now…..”

Claude muttered quietly and looked up at the Duke of Ambrosia.

Platinum blonde hair that looked exactly like him was shining brightly in the sunlight pouring through the pierced window. Claude really liked that color, like it was proof that he wasn’t alone in the world. Usually, he was afraid of his father, who looked huge and firm. However, the current Duke was not as scary as before, perhaps because his appearance was a bit more disheveled than usual.

The child mustered up some courage, jumped out of the bed, and took one step closer to his father.

“Umm, Father……”

“……!”

The Duke of Ambrosia, who was absorbed in his conversation with Sarah, was startled and took a step back.

Claude and Duke Ethan Ambrosia.

The faces of the father and son turned pale at the same time.

“Ah……”

Tears began to fill up in the eyes of the child, who had turned white. Claude’s small hands were red and shaking. He realized that his father had instinctively rejected him. Ethan also noticed that Claude was seriously hurt. But he neither tried to appease nor approach the child. He made a low, sunken face and just straightened his posture.

‘That is it.’

Sarah swallowed her sigh inwardly in pity.

Duke Ethan Ambrosia seemed to want to leave the place like this. The thought that these two should not be left like this filled Sarah’s mind. It was because Claude had to be emotionally stable in order not to blacken like in the ‘Flower of Darkness.’

“Heave-ho.”

Sarah slipped her hand into Claude’s armpit and lifted him up.

“Ah!”

Claude’s feet were lifted off the ground in an instant and he had no time to struggle. Sarah just threw the child into Ethan Ambrosia’s arms.

“……!”

Ethan, who received Claude, stiffened. The same was true of Claude in his arms. The father and son were equally stiff with similar faces. Sarah, who was observing their expression, covered her mouth with her hand and laughed.

“Oh my, Duke Ambrosia. The way you hold a child is awkward.”

Sarah smiled and lowered the Duke’s arms to help support Claude’s butt properly. And Claude’s arm, which had stiffened with his arms wide open, was also naturally wrapped around the Duke’s neck. Thanks to Sarah’s relentless touch, Ethan Ambrosia was able to hug the child in a stable posture.

“Now, this is comfortable for both the child and the father.”

Sarah took off her hand and proudly admired the result of her creation. Now it seemed like a natural father-son relationship. With both the servants and the father and son who were frozen in shock, only Sarah smiled like a flower blooming brightly alone.

Claude, in the arms of the Duke of Ambrosia, rolled his eyes and looked at his father’s face. He was scared and wary that his father might be upset. Sarah did not miss every single action of Claude and engraved it in her mind.

“……Countess Millen!”

The Duke of Ambrosia called out Sarah’s name through his gritted teeth.

‘Is this still the limit……?’

Sarah clicked her tongue inwardly and took Claude from Duke Ambrosia and hugged him. Even Claude, who cried and cried because he hated the nanny, came into her arms as if he had been waiting. He even dug into Sarah’s arms and buried his face on her shoulder. The child’s body, which had been stiffened, had now relaxed as if relieved. Feeling Claude’s hot body temperature, Sarah patted the child on the back.

“Hing!”

Claude groaned a little, then wrapped his arms around Sarah’s neck and hugged her tightly. Being held in the arms of Duke Ambrosia for a short time seemed to have put him under much tension. The child’s pounding heartbeat could be heard.

“The two of you are so awkward, I’m all embarrassed. Has Duke Ambrosia ever hugged Young Master Claude?”

Duke Ambrosia breathed deeply, sweeping his head up trying to calm his mind.

“……I’m ashamed of myself.”

“If so, please remember it well. This is the most basic position to hold a child.”

She let out a deep sigh as the road to go was longer than she had expected. Come to think of it, Claude’s biological mother, Dieline, once told Sarah this.

‘You know what, Sarah? Duke Ambrosia is really kind to everyone, but on the other hand, that means no one can be special to him.’

‘What are you talking about?’

‘No one will be considered special. He won’t love anyone. Because Ethan Ambrosia is cursed.’

‘Duke Ethan Ambrosia is cursed?’

‘Hugel was like that, too. He said that no matter how hard he tried, he could not receive a piece of his brother’s heart. He’s under a curse that he can’t give his heart to anyone. Sarah.’

Saying that, Dieline laughed helplessly. She then added in a voice that filled with regret.

‘Who would love a man with such a terrible curse?’

A mysterious power was passed down from generation to generation in the Ducal House of Ambrosia. It was the secret tradition of Ambrosia for the child who inherited the power to become the head of the family.

Sarah knew what that power was. Because she saw the future through Park Hyeyeon’s ‘foresight’. It was ‘Ethan Ambrosia’, not Claude Ambrosia, who destroyed this Empire in the ‘future’ she had seen originally.

Lips that were neatly closed, eyes that were gently opened, and firm gaze that glowed. Sarah thought, staring into Ethan Ambrosia’s face.

‘No matter how you look at it, he doesn’t seem like a person to do so.’

As was known to the public, he basically had a gentle personality, excellent manners, and etiquette. Even the old Emperor was extremely respectful of him and could not treat him carelessly.

The Emperor and noblemen. Ethan Ambrosia was trusted by these two incompatible groups.

“……”

Only she knew how twisted his mind was. The future began to change little by little when Park Hyeyeon began writing the novel ‘Flower of Darkness’. One of them was that Ethan Ambrosia, who had been protecting the Ducal House alone without any children or family, now had a family.

Sarah thought there would be a clue here to change the ‘Flower of Darkness’ and the ‘future’ at the same time.

‘People don’t change overnight. There must be a dark corner of Ethan Ambrosia that I didn’t write about in ‘Flower of Darkness’.’

It seemed that she had to put more effort into it than winning Claude’s heart.

“Before the education of Young Lord Ambrosia, there is something that must be preceded. Did you promise me that you would cooperate?”

What Claude needed now was not a good educational environment and material support. The child who had been hurt and had grown up in a thorny environment and hated himself needed the warmest care and love of his parents the most.

At Sarah’s question, Duke Ambrosia nodded.

“Of course. If there’s anything you need, I’ll be happy to prepare.”

At his answer, Sarah smiled the brightest since coming here. The laughter of a woman, perhaps the most beautiful on the continent, captivated the servants for a moment. However, Ethan Ambrosia felt suspicious of her laughter.

“Really? Can you swear?”

“……Yes.” 

Ethan Ambrosia’s voice faltered. Sarah didn’t miss the opportunity, pointing at him with one hand and declaring firmly.

“Ethan Ambrosia. I need you.”