Grand Duke Cajarte

Chapter 12

"I was a commoner's son," he started while gazing up at the ceiling. My head, resting down on his arm. Naked underneath the white blanket after we had a steamy night. As I close my eyes with only lending him my ears, he began telling me his backstory. I did not mind, hearing his words makes my wild heartbeat rest in calmness and it was easy to silence my loud thumping chest with his dominant voice.

"My father was a gambling addict. We were drowned by debt. Mother on the other hand, was a decent woman. She's gentle and caring. Always trying her best to sell the herbs she gathered."

His stone-cold voice that sounds like a music box, I will never imagine that hearing him like this was peaceful. It appears as if this man beside me had never swung a sword for a countless time.

"Then, where are they now?" I softly inquired. My warm hand on his up and down chest, feeling his calm heartbeat. I never saw them in person or in this mansion. So, I assumed they're not living in Celtic. However, I only noticed the portrait in his office.

"We couldn't pay our loan nor the tax that went higher each day. And all he does was leave a bruise to mother's fragile skin. I killed him on the spot, with my little fingers. To think the first crime that I will committed was strangling his neck. Mother was shocked but instantly recovered. Then, we decided to bury him secretly and to continue with our lives."

"Our peaceful life didn't last though." Even in this dim scene, only with the hope of the light from the moon that pass through in the glass window that I can see his reaction.

A sudden flash of him darkening his blue eyes that didn't escape from me. I wanted to ask, a lot of them were running in my mind. But I will give these seconds for him.

"Father, being foolish man. Before he passed away, he told his debtors that they can have his wife as a payment. The greedy lord of the land that always knock in our door to charge us the tax and the moneylender nobles have planned together to rape my mother and slit her throat in front of me, they killed her to hide the evidence."

A paused in the moment made me look at him sternly. "She said in the middle of the insolence, to close my eyes."

He let out a small broken laugh, enough for me to understand how he was hurt. "I would have killed them if she wanted to be saved."

"But you didn't and I'm glad." My hand crawled on his cheek, he then caught it and damp a light kiss on my palm.

Perhaps the reason why her mother said that, was for him not to be imprison. Commoners are people who don't have the power, the most lowly ranked in status. If they hurt a noble, they will be punished. It was a cruel world, indeed.

"Are you fine now?"

"That was a long time ago."

We stared each other's faces. Not letting each other's gaze. The silent was deafening so, I broke it first.

"Right, I was meaning to ask you. If you were from a poor family, how did you become a Grand Duke?" Usually, it was a hereditary title. A sovereign that rules independently called as Grand Duchy instead of being named as a Kingdom where a king reign.

"War, my wife. The Emperor is exceptionally wise, he bestowed me a tittle as reward and gave lands with full control. He calculated that someday, I will be a man deserves to be a leader. However, I requested to continue serving him."

"Why? Perhaps, he has a large contribution in your life?"

"You're wrong."

"Then?"