Kays Translations

Just another Isekai Lover~

Chapter 127: Interlude – The Rose’s Secret

“Good morning.”

“Good morning, my lady.”

Inside a mansion within the tower, a relic from an ancient era, a young woman pushed a handcart as she walked through the courtyard.

She was a beautiful girl with reddish-brown hair and a cheerful smile.

That smile had captivated all the men in the capital, earning her the name of the single rose that bloomed in the Tower.

Her name was Adelaide, the eldest daughter of Viscount Girard.

She had a secret.

“How is Master Dion doing?”


The maid peeked into the handcart. Inside was a baby, still without a full head of hair.

“He’s more energetic than ever. So energetic that he woke me up early this morning.” 

Adelaide said, gently stroking her beloved son’s cheek. The baby laughed, “Kya-ha,” under his mother’s gaze.

Watching this heartwarming scene, the maid kept a vigilant eye on the surroundings, as if there was something they couldn’t afford to be seen.

“I’d love to take Master Dion outside the Tower…”

Adelaide smiled sadly. She shared the maid’s desire to let her child experience the real sunlight, not just the artificial one within the Tower.

“Father will understand someday.”

The maid, unable to agree, showed a subtle, ambiguous expression, understanding how difficult it would be to achieve.

“Lady Adelaide, you’re here again today.” 

A young gardener said, appearing at the edge of the courtyard. He was about the same age as Adelaide, a fine young man.

“Thierry, good morning. I wanted you to see how Dion is doing.”

As they drew closer, they looked into each other’s eyes. The maid, feeling awkward, quickly slipped away to the adjacent courtyard.

The young gardener waited until the maid had disappeared before turning his gaze to baby Dion.

“Thierry, go ahead and pet him.” 

Adelaide urged.

“Adel, I’ve just been cleaning the garden, my hands are dirty.”

“It’s fine. After all, he’s your child.”

“But… what about your husband?”

They clasped each other’s hands, yearning for each other.

They had grown up together as childhood friends, drawn to one another. It just so happened that her father was the master and his father the gardener.

But as they aged, the gap in their social statuses grew ever wider.

“I’ll convince Father. Status doesn’t matter. I’ll leave the Girard family and live with you. If the capital is difficult, we’ll move to the countryside and live together.”

The gardener Thierry shook his head with a troubled expression.

They both knew that marrying across social classes and finding happiness was a fairy tale.

Even so, Adelaide possessed the strength of will to accept reality, no matter how harsh, for the sake of their child.

“I cannot betray the ancestors who have served the Girard Viscounts for generations. Dion… no, Master Dion should be raised as a member of the Girard family. I will live my life hiding the fact that I am his father.”

“Thierry, why do you say such sad things?”

As Thierry struggled to find words, a shout echoed through the courtyard.

“Adel! Adel! Where are you?”

“It’s Father.”

Thierry and Adelaide quickly stepped back from each other.

A man appeared hurriedly walking through the corridor that cut across the courtyard. Viscount Girard looked at Thierry as if he were garbage.

“Thierry. What are you doing here? What about your work?”

“My lord…”

The gardener Thierry’s eyes darted around, unable to find words.

“Father, I asked him to look at Dion.” 


Viscount Girard glanced at his grandson in the handcart, as if he were something filthy.

“…Adel, Lord Roger is calling for you. Get ready immediately.”

Adelaide’s face turned pale.

“Father, I thought I had refused that matter.”

“Still being so selfish? Do you not realize your position among the nobles of the West? This is a chance to become the third wife of Lord Roger, the head of the West-Windsor family and the brother of His Majesty!”

“I do not wish to become a concubine. I don’t care if I am not a noble or if I have no money. I just want to be happy with the one I love.”

Though she was called the third wife, this country practiced monogamy. Thus, anyone beyond the second wife was in reality a concubine, merely a publicly recognized mistress.

Anyone, male or female, could become the head of a family, making polygamy impossible. However, it was customary for both men and women to seek multiple partners.

“Thierry… this is your fault! You’ve forgotten the gratitude for the generations of employment and have seduced my daughter!”

Viscount Girard, shaking with anger, drew the light sword from his right hip and struck Thierry with the sheath.

The sudden commotion caused baby Dion to start crying.

“Ugh… I-I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what? Then stay away from my daughter!”

“Father, please stop! I will go to the castle, I will go right now!”

She pleaded with her father, who was beating her beloved man. Breathing heavily, her father reluctantly returned the sheath to his waist.

“Hurry up! The carriage will arrive in an hour!”

“…Yes.”

Adelaide entrusted the care of Thierry, who had fallen to the ground, and her child to the maid. She then dressed herself in makeup and a dress.

Dressed to turn heads, both men and women, she boarded the carriage and headed for the royal castle.

In the center of the reception room where she was taken, there were two men: the king and his brother Roger West-Windsor.

Surrounding them were the high-ranking officials and the heads of the four great noble families.

“Oh! You’ve come, Adel. Still as beautiful as ever.” 

Roger, a fat man, said, casting a leering glance from his seat.

“Lord Roger, thank you for summoning me.” 

Adelaide replied, diverting her gaze as she curtsied.

“…So, have you thought about marrying me?”

“I have something to discuss regarding that matter.”

Sensing the unease, Viscount Girard grabbed Adelaide’s shoulder.

“Adel, don’t do it.”

However, Adelaide’s eyes were lit with determination, a resolve to protect her child at all costs.

“I have someone I love and a son. Therefore, I cannot become Lord Roger’s third wife.”

Roger nearly fell off his chair at her words.

“A-a son!? Girard, what is the meaning of this!?”

“Th-this is…”

Viscount Girard stammered, flustered.

“Roger, that’s enough.” 

The king, who had been watching, admonished his brother.

“This is none of your concern, brother!”

“You already have several mistresses. Isn’t that enough?”

Roger turned his moist eyes toward the king.

“So, brother, you aim to take her for yourself, don’t you? After taking the throne from me, you, a man born to a common maid, now you intend to take my rose as well!?”

The current king’s mother was a maid who had worked at the castle.

Officially, it was said that he and Roger were born from the same mother, but it was an open secret. As a child, he was treated coldly by Roger’s mother, his foster mother, and was forced to live a life even lower than the lowest-ranking servants in the royal castle.

However, with his inherent drive and initiative, he formed connections with vassals, knights, and commoners, educated himself, and surpassed his younger brother in every field.

“It was Father’s decision to leave the West-Windsor family succession to Roger and grant me the candidacy for the throne. Complaining about it now won’t change anything.”

“That’s because Father didn’t care if you died! You just happened to win the throne by chance!”

Like a child throwing a tantrum, Roger publicly insulted the king in front of the vassals. Unable to stand it any longer, a royal guard stepped between Roger and the king.

“Lord West, even you must be careful with your words to His Majesty.”

Roger glared in turn at the royal guard, the king, and Adelaide.

“I am the legitimate child! Why must I suffer such humiliation!?”

Roger, embarrassed, began to assert the legitimacy of his bloodline.

It was none other than Adelaide who responded to his words.

Naturally, for in a situation where he was trying to make her a concubine, he had just declared that only children of the legitimate wife had value.

“If the children of the legitimate wife are to be valued, then I cannot become your wife, Lord Roger.”

“Damn it! Everyone looks down on me!”

Roger, enraged, stood up, his jowls quivering.

“Viscount Girard, come with me! I’ll get to the bottom of this!”

“Yes, sir.”

Taking the pale-faced Viscount Girard with him, Roger retreated to the back.

“Your Majesty, I apologize for causing such a disturbance.”

Adelaide bowed deeply.

“Please, forgive my brother. He is usually more reasonable, but he loses control when it comes to matters of blood. More importantly, I did not know the Rose of the Tower had a child. Is he well?”

“Yes, he laughed a lot this morning.”

The king smiled.

“Is that so? If there is a wedding, I will bless it. It would be a bright topic for the citizens of the capital. Though some will be furious.”

The king smirked and made a noise with his mouth.

“Your Majesty, it is very difficult to say, but the one I love is not a noble, but a mere gardener. I would be deeply grateful if you could keep this in mind.”

“Do not worry. You must know, my mother was a commoner.”

“In that sense…”

Adelaide’s face paled and twisted.

“It’s fine. A child of a commoner and a noble will not be scorned. Hold your head high.”

“Thank you very much.”

Feeling relieved, Adelaide smiled broadly for the first time in a long while.

Meanwhile, in the back, Viscount Girard and Roger.

“Lord Roger, please forgive me.”

Viscount Girard immediately apologized.

“I have taken good care of you for so long! Is this how you repay me!?”

“No, not at all. My daughter… is she of no value anymore?”

Viscount Girard looked up at Roger fearfully.

“Tch. Of course not… no, wait.”

Roger began to consider something after hearing Viscount Girard’s words.

“If she has given birth to a child, there are still ways to have fun. It might not be bad to see the Rose twisted.”

Roger, his jowls quivering, began to indulge in a perverse fantasy that would be incomprehensible to ordinary people. After indulging his desires for a while, Roger beckoned Viscount Girard over and whispered something to him.

“What!?”

Viscount Girard’s eyes widened in shock.

“Choose. Will you follow me, or remain confined in the tower?”

“…Of course.”

Viscount Girard suppressed his emotions, bowed, and left the room.

The next day.

In the end, her father, Viscount Girard, did not return. After taking over her father’s duties, Adelaide returned to the room where her child was.

Upon opening the door, she found a boy standing next to the maid caring for her child.

“Van, thank you. You were looking after Dion.”

“Sister!”

The boy ran to his sister.

“Master Vincent insisted on seeing him.”

“Huh? You’re being cheeky.”

Though Vincent was her adorable little brother, he was much like their father in that he placed great importance on status.

“Van. The maid is part of our household. You should treat her with more respect. And don’t be too harsh on Kyrgyz.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

Adelaide patted Vincent’s head as he pursed his lips.

“After I leave this house, you will support Father and Mother and become the heir to the Girard family—”

Just as Adelaide began to speak to her brother, the door to the room opened. Without knocking, Viscount Girard entered.

His eyes had large dark circles under them, indicating he hadn’t slept.

“Father. Yesterday…”

Without a word, Viscount Girard walked over and stopped in front of her. Then, he slapped her face.

“You’ve forgotten the debt of raising you and brought disgrace upon us. I need to bring you back to who you were before he was born.”

He pointed at Dion, and behind him appeared five members of the Kyrgyz clan.

Each of them had a puppet with them.

Sensing danger, Adelaide shielded her child with her body.

“Father, what are you going to do with Dion!?”

“I will abandon him on the third level of the tower. I should have done this sooner. We must cut off what is unnecessary before it corrupts everything else.”

The Kyrgyz clan members and their puppets quickly surrounded them. One of the Kyrgyz stepped forward.

“Princess, we are grateful to you. You were one of the few who treated us as human beings. But duty is duty. Please, step back.”

“Stop, please. Don’t take my beloved child—”

Just as Adelaide began to plead, pain shot through her back. She turned to see needles protruding from the arms of two puppets, stabbing into her back.

Her consciousness quickly began to fade.

“Please… Dion…”

And then, as her mind became enveloped in fog, she lost consciousness.

The next time she awoke, Adelaide was lying on the bed in her private room. She leaped up and peered into the crib beside her.

—Empty.

Her hope that it had all been a dream was immediately shattered.

“Come, Zepar.”

A horse made of red minerals appeared from Adelaide’s right hand. She had no idea how long she had been unconscious. Without delay, she mounted the horse and burst through the window, flying outside.

Her destination was, of course, the third level of the tower.

A world of desert and rocks.

If her infant Dion was abandoned on the scorching ground, he would die within hours, if not sooner. He could even be killed by the monstrous creatures before that.

—Please! Let me be in time!

Passing through the teleportation magic circle, Adelaide arrived at the desert of the third level.

“Dion! Dion!”

She kept calling out in the den of demons, but there was no response.

Monsters were beings made of magic energy. To maintain the manifestation of her summon, it required the most magic power among her four different summons.

Zepar dissolved into mist, and Adelaide was thrown out, rolling across the sand.

Yet she did not stop calling.

“Dion! Dion! Please! Answer me!”

When she looked around, she saw monsters swarming over a distant sand dune.

Mustering the remaining magic power, she summoned her horse again and dashed across the sand.

“Dion!”

As she approached, she noticed a man at the center of the swarm of monsters.

It was Thierry, the gardener.

Thierry was crouched over the sand, cradling something.

Adelaide leaped off her horse and sent it charging into the swarm of monsters to drive them away.

“Thierry! Why are you here!?”

“…I…followed…Dion…”

Thierry was an ordinary human without magic cores or summons. He had likely been lured here intentionally. He was bleeding from all over his body, using his own flesh as a shield to protect something.

When Thierry collapsed, a baby was revealed beneath him.

It was Dion.

“Wait! I’ll take you to a healer right away!”

Thierry shook his head.

It was clear that he could not be saved.

“Please…take care…of Dion…”

The light faded from her beloved man’s eyes as he lay lifeless on the sand.

“Thierry? …Thierry, Thierry!?”

Prompted by his mother’s tearful voice, Dion began to cry. In a panic, Adelaide scooped up her child from the scorching sand.

“It’s okay! Mother is here! It’s okay—”

The crying from Dion in her arms suddenly stopped.

Blood splattered across her face.

“What…”

In her arms, Dion’s neck was bleeding profusely.

In her line of sight was a puppet in the shape of a girl, holding a bloodied dagger.

“No…”

She pressed down on the bleeding from his neck.

“No… no, no, no, no, no… No! You must not die!”

She continued to hold his neck.

“No, Dion. No, no, don’t die! Please!”

The cut was so deep it reached an artery.

Just pressing with her hand wouldn’t help.

Her child grew paler and paler.

He still didn’t know the world.

But in his mother’s arms, the infant grew colder.

Still, Adelaide pressed down.

Tears streamed down her face alongside the blood as she continued to hold his neck.

“Please… Please…”

Blood overflowed between her fingers, slipping through her hands along with his life.

“Please… No… Don’t die…”

Dion’s face turned pale, and his heartbeat ceased.

Still, Adelaide did not release her grip on his neck.

She couldn’t let go.

If she let go even once, she would have to accept her child’s death.

That day, Adelaide did not move away from the side of the dead bodies of the man and her child.

Two years later.

Adelaide was in a corner of the royal palace.

Her belly, rocking in the chair, was large.

“Adel, are you feeling alright?”

“Your Majesty.”

Adelaide tried to get up while holding her belly, but the king stopped her.

“It’s okay. Stay seated.”

“I apologize for being such a mess in front of Your Majesty.”

“No, you’re practically family now. What about Roger? What is he doing at a time like this?”

“Lord Roger seems to be busy preparing to welcome another mistress. I am pregnant and unable to accompany him, so there’s nothing to be done.”

Adelaide forced a perfectly crafted smile.

“I’ll speak to him as well. It’s a child we’ve been blessed with after all.”

“No, it’s not a problem.”

“I see. Do you know the gender?”

“Yes, it’s a boy. His name will be Dion.”

“Dion, a gift from the gods. A good name. I look forward to my nephew’s birth.”

“Thank you for your kind words.”

The king, considerate of Adelaide’s pregnancy, promptly left the room.

“Dion, I swear I will never let anyone harm you. I will make you into a noble being that no one will ever discard.”

There was not a trace of the kindness that once overflowed from the woman’s eyes.

Because it was directed at only one person.

“Hey, my dear Dion.”

Adelaide smiled gently as she stroked her belly.

Shortly before Dion was born, Viscount Gerald died in an unfortunate accident.

Immediately after Dion’s birth, his father Roger fell ill with a mysterious disease and died, leaving Adelaide to take control of the household.

The legendary fortunes and misfortunes of the West-Windsor family were whispered about.

“You will become a king.”

This was a story from just before the western nobles began to fear Adelaide.

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