My Child's Father is The Emperor - Chapter 6.1
She turned her stiff head and there stood the Emperor, as always.
“Your Majesty the Emperor.”
Seeing Yuria and her handmaidens bow, Adele made a quick bow.
“His Majesty the Emperor.”
“Raise your head.”
Adele waited for the Emperor to sit down at the tea table.
A maid approached and poured hot tea into his teacup.
Adele, Leo, and the Emperor sat around the round tea table.
“Good morning, Leopold. Did you sleep well?”
“Yeah.”
When Leo responded informally, Adele was surprised.
Fortunately, the Emperor didn’t seem offended.
“Leo. Show some respect.”
Leo blinked as Adele spoke.
Leo usually only said “yo” to Adele when he was disappointed in her.
“What about you, Dad?”
“I slept well, too.”
“Why did Dad come home late?*”
(T/N: Leo starts using “-yo” here, speaking with honorifics.)
“For Jim. I have busy work to do.”
“What kind of work is it, Dad? Is it an easy job or a hard job?”
Speaking informally with him and using the ‘yo’ particle quite noticeably, Leo’s question surprised Adele.
Her head began to ache.
“Well, it could be easy or difficult.”
“Dad, I want to see you working.”
Leo bounced on his butt with a face reminiscent of a rose in full bloom.
‘How come he’s so happy to have a dad?’
Adele looked at Leo, her mind racing.
“How can he call him “Dad” so casually, even though I’ve never seen him before?
Adele pushed down her frustration with her young son.
“Sure, I’ll take you to the office next time.”
The Emperor was too nonchalant.
Leo, casually calling him ‘Dad,’ seemed perfectly natural.
Adele felt discomfort and awkwardness only within herself.
Adel didn’t know what to do with the lingering anxiety.
“Leo, you can go play.”
“Yeah.”
In response to the Emperor’s words, Leo rushed to the maids.
“Adele.”
Adel looked at the Emperor. As their eyes met, Adele’s face stiffened, mirroring the Emperor’s expressionless face.
“Yesterday was a misunderstanding.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t ask for you to be sent to prison.”
Adele fixed her gaze on the teapot on the table, not daring to make eye contact with the Emperor.
“There was a mistake.”
“It’s okay, I’m not misunderstanding Your Majesty.”
If he was misunderstanding, there was nothing else she could say.
What could she say other than, “Yes, is that so?
He was the Emperor.
“Thank you for your grace.”
Even if she says that, nothing has changed in her position. The place she stays in has changed from a prison to a clean room, but that’s it.
Adele felt like she had been thrown into a stormy sea, relying on a small boat, with her situation changed.
In this way, the one who threw her into the treacherous sea was none other than the Emperor.
‘Thank you for giving birth to the child. How have you been all this time? Not even a word of inquiry.’
Adele felt hurt and resentful towards the Emperor.
However, thinking of him as the notorious Emperor, she couldn’t utter such words. She built walls, kept her distance, and simply expressed gratitude to the one who wielded power.
Adele was just one of the roots under his feet, like a citizen of the empire.
It wasn’t a relationship that she could resist.
“I plan to take Leopold to the next nobles meeting.”
Adele raised her head.
Adele’s pupils trembled.
“Your Majesty, that means…”
The Emperor looked at her intensely and informed her firmly.
“Leopold is my son; he cannot be listed among commoners.”
“Your Majesty! I…”
“Your opinion on this matter is not needed.”
Adel was dumbfounded and couldn’t help but laugh.
The Emperor, seeing her expression, asked in confusion.
“Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing. It’s really nothing.”
To the Emperor, she was nothing.
The Emperor shifted his gaze away from Adele and sipped his tea.
“I’m going to choke on my tea now.
Adele felt that such an action would make her feel different from him.
‘Truly, I mean nothing to you.’
The Albrecht Empire’s caste system consisted of the imperial class, nobility, commoners, and slaves.
Killing commoners or slaves wasn’t considered a crime when done by the imperial or noble class. Murder could only be subject to trial if the victim had an equal or higher status. Unjust deaths, excluding certain items specified by law, couldn’t even be brought to trial.
Nobles could marry someone lower in status, be it a commoner or a slave. However, Imperial class members could only marry someone from the same imperial or noble class.
Adele has never married and is still “Miss Ernst.” Her family register lists Leo as the child she had out of wedlock.
The Emperor, too, was unmarried. However, now he was stating that he would place Leo in his imperial record as part of the royal family.
Adele, a commoner, and the Emperor, an imperial.
They could not marry.
So it was impossible for them to marry and put Leo under their names.
Leo’s status would change from commoner to imperial.
Adele was furious.
“Your Majesty,” she said, “doesn’t that mean Leo is no longer my son?”
If Leo became the Emperor’s son, legally, he wouldn’t be Adel’s son.
As a mother, she wouldn’t have any rights regarding her son.
“He will become my son.”
Adele felt empty.
‘Wouldn’t it have been better to die?’
She carried the child alone for ten months. After that, she raised him alone for three years.
However, she can’t even refuse the Emperor’s offer to take the child.
He doesn’t ask Adele’s wishes; he simply informs her that Leo will be taken away.
‘Is this the result of living through all that hardship?’
Life became meaningless.
There was nothing in sight, not the peaceful view of Lake Vigneron, not the tea table decorated with sweet things.
