Rejected by Daughter’s Second Male Lead Chapter 85

See, wasn’t I right? You need to take better care of yourself. Once you get older, your joints will get injured in no time, and so on… Yuan, as if gaining momentum, poured out his nagging.

But none of it reached Gillen’s ears. Yuan had attributed Gillen’s behavior to ‘his ego as a dominant alpha and a duke being so bloated that he believes he can do anything,’ but Gillen knew that wasn’t true. That meant there was another reason, and that reason was…

Just as Gillen’s thoughts were about to move to the next stage.

“We have arrived in Crowning!”

From the front, the coachman loudly announced their arrival in Crowning. Gillen decided to stop thinking for a moment. Right now, it was time to show a proper appearance in front of others, and a friendly one with Yuan.

“I don’t know if this is a good thing or a bad thing…”

Gillen clicked his tongue and lowered the curtain that had been hanging by the carriage window. Yuan, too, rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“You should have been more moderate. You, of course, but I am currently the most famous hero in the empire. Naturally, everyone will rush to see us.”

“…Sigh, right. You’re right, you’re right.”

The problem had started the moment they entered Crowning. For some reason, there were far too many people, and upon seeing the large carriage marked with the Blake family crest, they had all cheered and rushed forward.

The knights, who were on edge because of the assassins from before, thought it was an attack and immediately drew their swords, but their opponents were all unarmed commoners. Among them were many young children.

When the bewildered knight commander asked what was going on, the people scrambled to shout things like, “Is the person in the carriage His Grace, Duke Blake?”, “Is Marquis Yuan Hampton, the conqueror of the continent, with him too?”, and “Kyaaaaah!!”

It turned out that the promotion of their romantic relationship while touring the previous regions had spread throughout the entire empire. In this era, the closest thing to celebrities were opera singers or stage actors, but what overwhelmingly surpassed their popularity was, of course, a war hero. Especially if that person was a young, handsome, dominant alpha—there was indeed a solid basis for Yuan’s constant, tireless self-praise.

To the commoners, the royal family and nobles were terrifying figures who could ruin their lives if crossed, but a war hero was different. A hero was a symbol of hope. Moreover, Yuan, who had been a commoner and was instantly appointed to the rank of marquis, was bound to be the talk of the people for months on end.

And such a person is in a romantic relationship with the duke of this empire, the noble blue-blooded Gillen Blake? And the two of them are touring the country as if on a honeymoon trip? In reality, this was like a superstar’s concert tour for the people!

For that reason, people had flocked to Crowning, and Crowning had now become the most crowded tourist destination in the Moore Empire.

“Your Grace, the Duke! There are too many people gathered! It’s dangerous, so please wait inside for a moment! We will clear a path.”

The knight commander shouted from outside at the top of his lungs. The moment he spoke, the people let out excited roars of “Waaaah!”, so the knight commander had to raise his voice just as loud to avoid being drowned out.

‘This reaction is like they’ve just turned on a jumbotron before a concert.’

Gillen touched his forehead with a weary expression. He had not anticipated this situation at all. Of course, when he traveled with Cecilia, there were sometimes people who came to see the noble duke, but this… this was not the kind of reaction you’d see for a legendary foreign rock star’s concert in Korea.

‘I overlooked just how lacking in entertainment this era is.’

It was a world without smartphones, OTT services, content platforms, or game consoles. Everyone lived focusing on survival and livelihood rather than their own happiness or fun, and at most, visiting the street markets during the Founding Festival or religious holidays was a great amusement.

Nobles could devote themselves to various hobbies or travel, but commoners were not so fortunate. But now, a war hero and a duke couple are putting on a lover’s performance… even I wouldn’t want to miss that. Gillen let out a sigh.

He could hear the voices of the knights outside, parting the way and asking people for their understanding to move aside. There were no onlookers who recklessly refused, but because the crowd was so large, just clearing a path took an eternity.

“If it’s like this from the entrance, I wonder what the inn will be like.”

Yuan said cynically from beside him.

His point was spot on. After taking over two hours to slowly crawl into Crowning like a turtle, Gillen’s party was turned away from the largest inn in Crowning. Strictly speaking, they weren’t turned away, but they were told that every single room had been fully booked every day for the past week.

“I am truly sorry. If you would just wait a moment, I will ask the guests for their understanding and try to make a room for you.”

The innkeeper begged, sweating profusely.

“Wait. Does that mean you’re going to kick out the guests who are already here?”

When Gillen poked his head out of the carriage window and asked, the innkeeper quickly prostrated himself on the ground.

“Yes, yes! Do not worry, Y-y-y-Your Grace, the Duke! I will absolutely not make Your Grace the Duke and the Marquis wait! Right now—”

“No, no. Don’t do that, please. We can just go to another inn. I’ll accept the thought.”

The innkeeper, almost in tears, insisted, ‘I really can kick them out!’, but Gillen hurriedly told the coachman to depart.

But the next inn, and the one after that, were the same story. In the end, the only place Gillen’s party could stay was a very old, small inn in poor sanitary condition. It didn’t even have a sign.

Seeing that no one had booked this inn even amidst the chaos of the largest tourist influx in history, the inside was clearly also in terrible shape.

‘It’s okay. There were plenty of places like this in Korea. Let’s just think of it as an exposed concrete interior design.’

Gillen, having entered the inn’s lobby, forced himself to think positively and smiled brightly.

“Still, it’s a relief that we get to sleep under a roof tonight! Isn’t that right? Ha! Ha! Ha!”

“You’re quite carefree.”

Sure enough, a jab from Yuan came right away. He had just teleported a rat that had been scurrying across the middle of the inn.

It would have been a relief if it were just rats. Behind the wall where the innkeeper, an old woman, stood, a family of cockroaches was moving in a group somewhere, and cobwebs hung hazily in every corner of the walls.

“Your Grace, the Duke… How about we move on to the next region instead? It would be better for us to set up camp for the night than to have Your Grace the Duke and the Marquis sleep in a place like this.”

The knight commander whispered into Gillen’s ear, but Gillen shook his head.

“Now that this many people have gathered in Crowning, we can’t just skip it. The facilities are a bit poor, but I’ve seen much worse places than this.”

Gillen had accumulated numerous shocking experiences leading up to his decision to build an orphanage. He knew many children who would be grateful for an inn like this, treating it like a palace. He could not tolerate leaving just because the inn was shabby and dirty for a single night’s sleep.

“Innkeeper, give us rooms.”

Gillen concluded with a smiling face. Eye gunk and tears streamed down from the filthy old woman’s eyes, which were covered in liver spots and had dirt in every wrinkle. The others grimaced, and Yuan closed his eyes altogether, but Gillen still looked at the old woman with warmth.

“Thank you. Thank you, Your Grace the Duke. How many years has it been since a guest came to this inn my husband used to run… After my husband died, I grew old and sick and couldn’t manage it. It just felt like a heavy burden, so I couldn’t even clean any room other than the one I use myself. But for you to stay here, ah, if my husband were here, he would have died a second time from a heart attack.”

“Ahaha…! W-well, no need for that. Don’t worry about cleaning or food. We just need a place to lay our heads.”

“Oh my, yes, yes. But, how many people in total will be staying…”

“Knight Commander, how many are we in total?”

At Gillen’s question, the knight commander answered quickly.

“Excluding Your Grace the Duke and the Marquis, there are a total of thirty men and eight horses.”

“It’s perfect, it’s perfect!”

The old woman exclaimed cheerfully, wiping away her tears. She said there were exactly six rooms available, and exactly four stables.

“How on earth is that perfect?”

Yuan asked, sounding dumbfounded. It seemed he had failed to keep his eyes and mouth shut.

The old woman, while humbled, answered proudly.

“I may be old and my head may be fuzzy, but I can still do some math. The married lords can sleep in the largest room, and the underlings can be divided among the remaining five rooms, six people to a room, and the horses can rest in the stables, two to a stable, can’t they? If you calculate it like that, the total for one day is…”

The old woman seemed to be muttering numbers to herself, then said clearly.

“That will be three gold coins and 80 silver coins. If you don’t have 80 silver coins, you can just give me one more gold coin. So that’s a total of 4 gold. Oh my, thank you.”

The old woman seemed overwhelmed with emotion at her own calculation. But the knight commander immediately drew his sword.

“What a swindler!”