I’m the Future Crazy Male Lead’s Mother Chapter 8

Duke Dazar stepped slightly away from me, who was frozen stiff like a statue, and gave me a smile straight out of a painting.

“Welcome to the Siastor Ducal Residence. Please, have a seat over here first.”

He then walked gracefully over and sat down on the sofa.

Dignified and polite?

Surely the definition of dignity and manners hadn’t changed overnight.

“I’ll cut your friend up starting from his feet, one by one. Where should I start with you? Your neck?”

The murderous gaze of the man who had looked down at me with a ferocious smile yesterday was not something I could easily forget.

Dignified and polite, my foot. What a joke.

The fact that the crazy man I had met yesterday turned out to be Duke Dazar, the heroine’s father, was so shocking that my head was spinning, but I had to pull myself together.

Remember why you came here!

Money! I need to make money!

I pressed my lips shut with both hands, which had unknowingly been hanging open, and then marched forward.

Honestly, even if you merely happened to pass him on the street…

Ah, that person must be one of the most powerful nobles around!

That was the kind of refined smile Duke Dazar wore as he spoke.

“I have heard countless praises about Lady Evanroar. However, I hear that because you possess such an unconventional hobby, you tend to distance yourself somewhat from worldly affairs. I have often wondered if I would ever have the opportunity to see such a remarkable face in person. It is an honor to finally meet you like this.”

It was the perfect insult.

In my head, his words translated into:

Ah. So you’re that woman who’s obsessed with farming? Hah.

Having witnessed the duke pointing a sword at someone he had just met and dangling a newborn baby around with one hand yesterday, I felt my teeth grind.

I could feel anger surging from deep within me.

But I had to endure it.

Patience. Patience.

Yesterday, he had merely been a crazy stranger I had happened to encounter on the street, someone with whom I had no connection whatsoever.

But things are different now.

Axion’s future was in his hands.

Besides, he was the heroine Vanilla’s father. Which meant he would eventually become my in-law!

Oh, God.

I really, really hated this……!

But I had to quickly throw away my bad feelings from yesterday and build a good relationship with him.

I am like water.

I was the kind of person who could adapt anywhere and blend into any situation like water!

Remembering the line I had once written in my self-introduction essay when I was job hunting before possessing this body, I forced the corners of my mouth upward.

“Hello, Duke Siastor. It’s a pleasure to meet you. My name is Cilia Evanroar.”

“Pleasure to meet me?”

Dazar’s refined smile faded slightly as he tilted his head to the side.

There was mockery in his golden eyes. It was almost as though they were saying, We met yesterday. What do you mean, ‘pleasure to meet you’?

“Ah, now that I think about it, I was wondering why Lady Evanroar seemed so familiar. You bear a striking resemblance to a childhood friend of mine.”

I looked at him warily, wondering what kind of ridiculous story he was about to tell.

“……A friend?”

He smiled sweetly.

“Yes. She had hair and eyes remarkably similar to your platinum-blonde hair and blue eyes…… She was a rather beautiful goldfish.”

“……”

“One day, my butler was away, so I fed her a great deal of food in his place. But she forgot that she was already full and ate everything I gave her as well. Eventually, her stomach burst, and she left my side. A goldfish’s memory really is something else.”

“Haha. That’s certainly a sad story.”

Correction.

Perhaps the term “self-introduction” has always been synonymous with “self-made fiction.”

I wasn’t like water.

I was like fire.

My lips twitched with anger at being compared to a goldfish by Duke Dazar.

If I stayed like this any longer, I felt like I might put this farming-hardened arm around Duke Dazar’s neck and put him in a headlock.

I hurriedly pictured adorable little Axion in my mind.

He’s my in-law. My in-law. My in-law.

No, wait.

Right. There was no rule saying I had to get along with my in-law, was there?

Even if we became sworn enemies, surely love would still find a way to happen, right?

I could make money some other way.

Right? Ha!

I had just reached that conclusion and was slowly rolling up my sleeves, preparing to lunge at him, when I stopped at Duke Dazar’s next words.

“So, I hear that Lady Evanroar may be able to solve the problem I’m currently facing…… Isn’t that right, Mr. Elston?”

Elston, who had been happily nibbling on the cookies the servant had brought, nearly dropped one in surprise.

“A-Ahem. Yes. I heard that the young lady possesses something that could potentially become a new source of food.”

“Oh?”

Dazar looked at me with renewed interest.

“It seems your refined hobby has finally come in handy. I’m very curious to hear what you have to say.”

“……”

He must have known Elston’s true identity as the Master of the Magic Tower, yet he was calling him by his alias. They must have agreed on that beforehand.

Well, it was only natural. The identity of the Master of the Magic Tower shouldn’t be casually exposed here and there.

Don’t forget why you came here. Relax, relax.

It was more convenient for me to pretend not to know Elston’s identity as well, so I played along and spoke.

“Yes. I heard that House Siastor was looking for something that could serve as a new source of food.”

I lowered the sleeve I had been subtly rolling up.

“Yes, that is correct.”

“I happen to have a plant that I brought in from the Eastern Continent. I think it could be useful.”

“The Eastern Continent……”

The Eastern Continent was an unknown land separated from us by a vast ocean, with all contact between us having been cut off.

And the reason contact had been severed wasn’t simply because of the ocean. It was because of the various barriers surrounding the continent of Quizen, the land we lived on.

The barriers erected to prevent invasions from the demon realm also interfered with communication and travel to other continents.

Therefore, anyone would naturally look surprised if they heard that a plant had been brought in from the Eastern Continent, a place with which contact was impossible.

“I have heard that Lady Evanroar graduated from the Imperial Academy as the top student every year. However, even exceptional intellectual ability alone would hardly explain how you managed to visit the Eastern Continent. I am quite curious as to what sort of fortuitous encounter allowed you to travel there.”

Apparently, what people called “manners and refinement” was the ability to take a short sentence and turn it into an extremely long one.

In short, he wanted to ask:

How could someone like you possibly have gone to the Eastern Continent?

Even Elston, who was listening beside me with cookie crumbs around his mouth, looked quite curious.

Just then, Dazar suddenly looked at Elston as though he had remembered something.

“Oh, Mr. Elston. Come to think of it, didn’t you have something to discuss with Vanilla?”

Elston dropped his cookie in surprise.

“With me?”

“Yes. I believe you did.”

“……”

Elston blinked.

His expression seemed to say, Did I make some kind of appointment?

Dazar spoke to him with absolute certainty.

“Vanilla is waiting for you.”

Since someone as important as Dazar was saying it, Elston had no choice but to stand up with a helpless expression.

As he left, he kept glancing back at me, clearly very curious about how I had supposedly managed to visit the Eastern Continent.

And then, only the two of us remained in the drawing room.

Immediately, I heard a laid-back voice.

“Hey, Rattle. Your backer is quite impressive.”

“……”

The moment Elston left, Dazar crossed his legs and sprawled comfortably against the sofa.

He looked incredibly irritated.

With his chin slightly raised and his eyes half-lidded as he stared at me, he had reverted to the crazy-man version I had encountered yesterday.

I wasn’t exactly thrilled to see his true personality emerge, but I forced a smile.

“My backer?”

“Oh? You were speaking informally before, but today you’re suddenly being polite?”

I smiled sweetly.

“Oh my, was I speaking informally? Me? Your Grace, you certainly have quite the sense of humor. Someone might think I was an impolite person like someone else.”

“That someone certainly isn’t me.”

“Of course, of course. Your Grace would never be such a person.”

“Hmph.”

Dazar folded his arms, looking amused.

“You seem awfully confident, perhaps because you have someone backing you?”

“My backer?”

“Elston.”

“Ah. You mean the Master of the Magic Tower?”

“So you did know. I thought you would. It seems you used that naive fellow to get all the way here. And even lied to him.”

Oh, this man.

Listen to the way he talked.

He had a real talent for making facts sound incredibly irritating.

Calling me someone who seduced the naive Master of the Magic Tower and came here?

I twisted my head, openly displaying my disbelief.

“Lied? What are you talking about?”

“The Eastern Continent, my foot. Even Transcendents cannot cross into that place. If you’re going to lie, at least make it a convincing one.”

He gave a mocking laugh.

“Lady Evanroar. You’re quite famous. After nearly ruining your family’s finances with your eccentric hobby all this time, I suppose you’ve finally come to your senses. Judging by the fact that you came here talking about food, you must be hoping to squeeze something out of me.”

This man was talking as though I had come here specifically to scam him.

Getting angry like fire in this situation would only put me at a disadvantage.

I calmly asked,

“You’re exceptionally good at misunderstanding people. And if I were really using Elston, why would you blatantly expose me? Why send him away first, only to say all this afterward?”

He raised one corner of his mouth.

“Because it’s amusing watching that curious fellow nearly drive himself crazy wondering how you managed to visit the Eastern Continent.”

“……”

He really has an awful personality.

This bastard—

No. My future in-law.

“You have such a…… certified-public-document kind of personality.”

“Certified…… what?”

I mean you’re absolutely rotten, Your Grace.