My Arrogant and Insolent Shadow - Chapter 52

If she had never seen his real smile, she might have been fooled.

The young master was not someone who smiled often. So, anyone would think even that slight expression must have meant he was happy.

But after seeing his true, pure smile, Yurisiel now understood. That smile she just saw was empty and grey.

She stood there in silence, staring at Cassian.

His eyes slowly turned toward her.

The moment his red gaze met hers, she felt her breath catch.

Yurisiel quickly hid behind the curtain.

From the outside, all he could see would be a shadow. He wouldn’t imagine that it was her.

Still, she couldn’t breathe.

Some part of her foolishly believed that he would know it was her.

Her heart, which had been pounding wildly, finally calmed when the deep rumble of carriage wheels shook the ground.

She managed to pull herself out and approached the window.

Outside, the knights had finished preparing and were standing in line.

The area that had been bustling just moments ago was now quiet.

The young master had already gotten into the carriage and disappeared from view.

The duchess was gone too.

The carriage, elegant and refined like everything from House Blanchet, rolled away into the distance.

When it had become no more than a small dot in the distance, Yurisiel finally stepped outside.

She stood there, watching as it vanished, feeling a strange emptiness and sense of loss well up inside her.

Tears filled her green eyes.

By the time the fog in her vision cleared, the carriage had completely disappeared.

Inside the Blanchet carriage, the air was warm and calm, almost as if it were celebrating the long-awaited reunion between mother and son.

“Did you hear about the new medicine that was developed?” the duchess asked.

Cassian slowly turned his gaze away from the place where Yurisiel’s shadow had vanished.

“Of course.”

Just a moment ago, he had been smiling. Now, his expression had turned cold and unreadable.

“If you’re here yourself, then I suppose it’s finally real this time.”

He was referring to the many fake news articles they had previously used to attract investors.

“You know how cruel investors can be. If we hadn’t done that, they would have all turned their backs on us.”

“I understand. I know how much effort you’ve put into this.”

“What kind of mother wouldn’t give everything for her child?”

“Is that so?”

Cassian’s lips curled into the same familiar, jaded smile.

His gaze stayed fixed outside the window. It looked distant and tired.

Elise shivered slightly as she looked at her son.

She was a woman who never bowed to anyone. But in front of her son, she always felt unsteady.

Cassian was the heir she had built everything around.

Her son, born into House Blanchet, gave her life purpose and pride.

That was why, when she first heard he had a terminal illness, she felt her entire world collapse.

If she had more than one son, perhaps she could have handled it. But he was her only child.

She wouldn’t be surprised if one day Duke Deviron suddenly showed up with an illegitimate child, claiming he was the rightful heir.

She could overlook her husband’s affairs, but that would be a completely different matter.

Elise would have to endure the ridicule and gossip of every person she had ever met in high society.

When her husband died, she would be left a penniless widow, forced to return to her family under imperial law. She would become a burden.

A failure. Nothing more.

That was why she had never come to visit her dying son.

She had been afraid.

Afraid to see the masterpiece she had built with her life fall apart.

Instead, she threw her entire fortune into supporting the development of the new medicine.

She had paid for the endless clinical trials, the secret burials, and everything else.

She couldn’t even count how much money she had spent.

But in the end, it was worth it.

Her son would survive. He would be treated and proudly take his place as the next head of the family.

Becoming the perfect hostess and raising the heir to House Blanchet had always been her life’s mission.

It was only natural that a child from her own body would resemble her. But Cassian’s cold attitude was something she had never expected.

Even when he was young, he didn’t seem like a child at all.

Now that he had grown, the only difference was his height and build. Everything else was just as she remembered.

No, if anything, he was more frightening than before.

She had once worried that both his body and spirit would grow weak because of his illness. But those fears had been completely unnecessary.

Elise chose to see it as a good thing.

A person who could wear a gentle smile when needed and maintain a proud, commanding presence at all other times, that was exactly the kind of man who deserved to lead House Blanchet.

Inside the slowly moving carriage, Elise and Cassian continued talking, filling the silence between them after such a long time apart.

Cassian’s tone was calm, even dry, but to anyone listening, their words would have sounded like a gentle exchange between a mother and son.

“Fabreang said there’s about a seventy percent chance now.”

Fabreang was the chief researcher at the lab, trained under House Blanchet’s support. He was often used for personal purposes, but he had never been wrong.

Thinking about that made Cassian’s lips curl into a faint, bitter smile.

His chances of surviving had increased.

Compared to the day he was told his chance of living was only 0.01 percent, this felt like a miracle.

But to save just one person like him, many others had likely been sacrificed during the clinical trials.

Of course, none of that had anything to do with him.

Those people were probably desperate. Willing to risk everything for even a single drop of Blanchet’s mercy.

Just like that girl in Alphonse had once said.

Her last image stirred in his mind, and his mouth felt dry.

It was like something sharp had taken root inside him.

He had never promised her the medicine.

If he said he hadn’t hoped she would come back one more time, it would have been a lie.

Even if it was only to ask for his mother’s medicine, even if that was all she wanted, he still wanted her to return.

Maybe part of him hoped she would cry and ask him not to leave.

Or that she would tell him to come back alive.

Or maybe he wanted to hear her say she loved him.

Yes, that must have been it.

It was ridiculous.

He had even saved her voice in a memory stone so he could listen to it again. Yet somehow, he still wanted to hear it from her again, with his own ears.

Did she really think he wouldn’t see her, hiding and watching from the shadows?

Her face had been so small in the distance, but he thought he saw tears in her eyes.

He knew those tears weren’t for him.

Even so, something heavy inside him began to lift.

Leaving Alphonse and heading for the capital suddenly didn’t feel so painful.

A soft smile appeared on his face.

Elise noticed the change and couldn’t hide her surprise.

Since when had her son learned to smile like that?

A shadow of doubt passed through her mind as she remembered the estate.

“I saw a young lady in that mansion,” she said, pretending it was a casual observation.

Was his mother trying to test him?

A young lady living there. It was obvious who she meant.

Cassian slowly turned his head toward Elise.

“That’s not possible.”

His voice was quiet and firm, calm and dry as always.

Elise raised one eyebrow.

“Really?”

She recalled the slender girl in the dress she had seen walking through the halls.

Was her son hiding something? Or was there truly no such girl?

If some bold servant had sneaked in and stolen a noblewoman’s dress, that might explain it.

“There was a girl in a dress walking around. She wasn’t dressed like a maid.”

“You must have been mistaken.”

Cassian’s voice was as detached and dismissive as ever.

Elise relaxed and smiled, clearly pleased with his answer.

Even if someone like that girl did exist, her son would never pay her any attention.

That was the kind of person he was. That was the kind of heir House Blanchet needed.

Her son, born of her own body, raised with care, would never allow himself to be distracted by something like that.

He was nothing like her husband.

She almost laughed at herself for even thinking otherwise.

“While you were gone, the imperial hounds wouldn’t stop barking.”

“You mean my uncle?”

“So you’ve been keeping up with things in Alphonse.”

The truth behind noble society was just as ugly as what happened inside the palace.

On the outside, everything looked elegant and graceful. But underneath, it was a mess of hidden struggle.

“Lord Alten couldn’t stop saying that House Blanchet’s power was falling apart.”

Lord Alten, Cassian’s uncle, was the second son of the family. He had always wanted more, but was pushed aside in the fight to become the heir.

Long ago, during a campaign where he was named a count, he was accused of trying to kill his own father.

He never succeeded, but since then, he had changed targets.

Now he aimed for Cassian instead.

He had always dreamed of holding the title of Duke before he died.

Not just so he could be buried in a grand coffin.

He had a son Cassian’s age. It was clear he wanted to pass down House Blanchet to his own child.

His obsession with his son was intense.

Everything had worked out the way he wanted. Cassian fell sick and was given a terminal diagnosis.

After that, the servant he had planted inside the house took his own life. There was no proof left behind.

“Every time I thought about what that man might have done to you, I couldn’t stop crying.”

Cassian looked at his mother, who was wiping her tears.

His face showed no emotion.

Elise looked at him with determined eyes and smiled.

“But now, there’s nothing left to worry about. You will survive and return.”

They say the gods listen to those who are desperate.

But who was more desperate?

His uncle, chasing power.

His mother, clinging to pride and fear.

Or that girl far away, with no choice but to pray for his safety.

“Of course. That’s how it should be.”

Cassian leaned back in his seat.

He wondered, just for a moment, whose hand the gods would choose to take.

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