Rejected by Daughter’s Second Male Lead Chapter 74

…Why did I just smile?

Yuan consciously hardened his expression. Ever since returning from the Harvest Thanksgiving Festival party held at the imperial palace with Gillen, he found himself smiling more often than usual. He was thinking about Gillen far more, and most of those thoughts weren’t even negative.

It was the same when he received the letter from Hexion about the ‘concert tour,’ which contained the emperor’s wishes. Yuan could feel himself inwardly welcoming the contents. As if he was happy to have an excuse to be with Gillen.

‘The sex was really great.’

Yuan attributed it to the sex and leaned his body slightly against the carriage wall. A refreshing breeze blew in through the large window of the carriage.

This was the largest carriage in the Blake estate, with large windows cut into both sides. The Blake family crest was embossed on the exterior, and it was pulled by four horses and a coachman in full uniform. The wheels were also conspicuously large and each was decorated with a vine pattern, drawing attention wherever it went. It was designed to make the couple’s cheesy displays of affection clearly visible from the outside.

However, for some reason, Yuan didn’t think Gillen had chosen this carriage for that reason alone. Even now, Gillen was sitting next to him, not opposite him. Gillen had deliberately opened the window and instructed the coachman to drive slowly. While talking, Gillen kept glancing at Yuan’s expression and posture… He was meticulously adjusting the environment to prevent Yuan from having another panic attack.

Gillen was a person for whom consideration for others was second nature. This wasn’t because Gillen was desperately in love with Yuan—though that might be part of the reason. He would have probably been the same with his partners at the last party, he would have been even more doting on his daughter Cecilia, and even more so on the late former Duchess…

When his thoughts reached that point, Yuan’s mood plummeted. Cecilia resembled Gillen in appearance and personality, but she had a much more innocent and pure feel to her. Unlike Gillen, who had naturally light copper-colored skin, Cecilia’s skin was as white as snow.

Then the former Duchess must have been that kind of pale, innocent person. He could bet his magical skills that she was quite the beauty, without even needing to see a portrait.

Suddenly, images of Gillen and his former wife acting lovey-dovey floated up in Yuan’s mind. Gillen holding his former wife’s delicate hand with his own, which was as big as a pot lid, to escort her. Gillen letting out his characteristic hearty laugh, hugging his former wife tightly as if she were the most precious thing in the world, and spinning her around. Gillen shortening his former wife ‘Marian’s’ name to a pet name like ‘Mari’ and praising her beauty every day.

“Fuck…”

As Yuan, who had been looking out the window and enjoying the breeze, suddenly cursed, Gillen’s eyes widened in surprise.

“What is it?”

“…Don’t talk to me, you’re annoying me.”

“All of a sudden?”

Gillen was bewildered, but Yuan had no intention of clearing up his confusion. His excellent and creative brain had already imagined Gillen and his former wife’s wedding.

‘They’re truly a handsome couple.’

‘A union between a dominant alpha, said to be the best among alphas, and an omega of deep lineage! How very aristocratic.’

‘Can’t you just see how much they love each other? Hohoho.’

‘A match made in heaven, a match made in heaven.’

“What a load of bullshit.”

Yuan said coldly to the imaginary wedding guests.

“B-bullshit? No matter what, I’m older than you, and a Duke… Isn’t that a bit harsh?”

He couldn’t even hear what Gillen was saying next to him. Yuan was completely immersed in his imagination, all the way to the moment Gillen and his former wife finished their wedding and were spending their first night together. However, he didn’t want to imagine Gillen having sex with a woman whose face he didn’t even know, so he just clenched his fists tightly.

Meanwhile, Gillen was once again surprised to see Yuan clenching his fists and trembling.

‘Is he this angry just because I told him to use honorifics for His Majesty the Emperor? Why, for goodness’ sake? Is he also someone who transmigrated from the modern world? Can’t he adapt to the class system? Or is it puberty? Isn’t twenty-five a bit too old for puberty?’

Since he had just been telling him to use honorifics for the emperor, Gillen thought that was why Yuan was angry.

‘Is his rut getting closer? Why is he so sensitive… no, wait. What kind of dynamic-discriminatory thought is this! I’ve really become an old boomer.’

Gillen quickly shook his head. In the end, he decided to remind himself that Yuan had always been this kind of person. Yuan’s train of thought was several times faster than others, so he often said strange things that others couldn’t follow. Moreover, since he was used to researching and working alone, that tendency seemed to have become even stronger.

‘In the end, it must be because the kid is having a hard time…’

In fact, the speed and flow of Gillen’s own conclusions were just as formidable. He recalled a time long ago when Cecilia, after regressing, couldn’t adapt to life as a child and shut herself in her room.

Back then, Cecilia was burning with vengeance and sorrow, eating away at herself. Unlike her plump and vibrant child’s body, her adult mind was torn to shreds as it chewed over the miserable past again and again.

When he secretly went to the child’s room at dawn, he would find pages full of past events written in squiggly handwriting. ‘Duke Gallot made money through human trafficking’, ‘Too many children died’, ‘Dynamic discrimination’, ‘Omega slave market, this must be eliminated (crazy bastards)’, ‘Also prevent Crown Prince’s pheromone glands from getting blocked by poison’, ‘Future Master of the Magic Tower, Yuan’, ‘Blake family framed for treason’, ‘My dad’, ‘Dad’…

Watching her clench a pen in her small, fern-like hand and endlessly write the word ‘Dad’ over and over again, his heart felt like it was breaking.

In the original story, the Blake family is framed for treason by the Gallot family and sentenced to death. Gillen Blake spent his entire life never speaking a word to his daughter, acting as if he hated his child, but in the end, he offers to die in the most painful way possible on the condition that Cecilia alone be spared. And he is hung in the square and burned alive at the stake.

Cecilia, who learns of this later, wails and vows to at least recover her father’s ashes. However, the day before she is to be released from prison, she eats a poisoned meal given to her by a guard and dies. And then she regresses to her three-year-old self.

Of course, Gillen knew. He had been a student in the Department of Webtoons and Webnovels, after all. Having read countless works, it was a national rule for regressors or transmigrators to write down the events they remembered on paper.

But seeing it in person was on a different level from simply reading it in a webnovel or webtoon. It was only on that day that Gillen learned that the records of someone trying not to forget something can be, at times, both solemn and tragic.

Gillen couldn’t even begin to fathom what this child had been through, or with what sorrow and pain she had pressed these letters onto the page. So… the beginning was definitely pity and compassion.

At the time, Gillen made every effort to draw Cecilia out. In the early days of her regression, Cecilia cried often. It was partly because she was in a child’s body, but also because the memories of her past life tormented her so vividly.

Young Cecilia would stay in her room all day, then suddenly cling to Gillen’s side, refusing to be separated from him except to go to the bathroom. There were many times when she would be giggling while talking with Gillen, only to burst into tears. For a while, she didn’t want to go out, and at other times, she was full of motivation and would stir up trouble outside. She coldly said she would never make friends, but she also strongly insisted on becoming the Crown Prince’s page. On the days she returned from the imperial palace, she would blush with what seemed like genuine joy, and gradually showed herself opening up to the Crown Prince.

Gillen watched the entire process from the side. The process of reconstruction, as the child’s heart broke, stood back up, wavered, and gradually found its way.

He never once told Cecilia “Why are you so fickle?” or “Get a grip.” He never scolded her, never demanded anything. He just quietly stayed by her side. He constantly reminded himself of the role of the parent he had wanted when he was young.

And so, one year, two years… as time passed, Cecilia gradually grew. The child who had suffered from trauma and had been erratic grew strong amidst love and trust.

In other words, Gillen was already experienced. He had already raised one person. Moreover, it wasn’t simple parenting.

‘Well, Cecil’s mind was already that of an adult back then.’

So, doing the same for Yuan wouldn’t be difficult either.

“Stop staring at me. Do you think I’ll fall for you just because you look at me with those eyes?”

…It won’t be difficult… I think.

“Did you yawn on purpose? Why are your eyes so moist? Don’t try any tricks. As you know, I’m only going on this trip reluctantly because of the imperial order of His Majesty the Emperor, and because of our contract.”

“…”

It’s already excessively difficult, what should I do?

Gillen squeezed his eyes shut.

Right, how can I compare my angelic Cecil with this shameless, devilish bastard? Be patient, be patient. I don’t know why he’s like this again, but as the adult, I’ll be the one to endure.

And so began the journey of Gillen, who was enduring with the mindset of child-rearing—no, of raising a single human being properly—and Yuan, who was engulfed in a jealousy that was close to a sudden outburst.