You Are Gentle, But You Don’t Love Me - Chapter 51

Several decades ago, the Aragon royal family was thrown into chaos. It was brought to light that Princess Bellanea, who had been discussed as the next heir to the throne of Aragon, was, in fact, not the king’s daughter.

“Though she was conceived with another man’s seed, never forget that Bellanea is undoubtedly my daughter, the Queen of Aragon and the Queen of Castile. She will not be deprived of her position as a princess of Aragon.”

Had the queen not been both the Queen of Aragon and the Queen of Castile, or if she lacked the courage to boldly declare this, Bellanea might have been cast out, leaving the royal palace without a second thought.

Fortunately, she did not lose her title as princess. However, the royal succession in Aragon was shaken by the incident. In the end, Bellanea’s younger stepbrother, Juan Carlos, was named the crown prince.

For Bellanea, who never had much interest in the throne, this was no great tragedy.

“I will not marry.”

“Bellanea.”

“I understand that being able to remain a princess of Aragon is the extent of my fortune. I don’t expect anything greater in this lifetime.”

“How can you say such a thing? Fortune, that is…”

“No, it was indeed a stroke of luck. And marriage requires the greatest fortune of all for a woman.”

“…”

“I do not wish to risk my remaining fortune by marrying.”

Bellanea, fully aware that she could not continue living in the royal palace once she left, refused marriage by her own will and lived quietly within the palace.

Carlos, suspecting that Bellanea still had ambitions for the throne, persistently pressed her, but it was he who, after some time, met an untimely death due to an accident. Eventually, their youngest sister, Isabella, unexpectedly ascended to the throne.

Thanks to this, Bellanea lived a quiet life in the corner of the palace, treated as the queen’s only sister.

“Did you hear the news? Apparently, Bellanea…”

“Princess, please be careful with your words.”

“Ah, well, they say she appeared with a swollen belly!”

During this time, Bellanea became pregnant with the child of an unknown man.

She never revealed the identity of the child’s father, but rumors spread that it might be Duke Escalus of the Escalus family.

“Duke Escalus still has no heir, doesn’t he?”

“I hear he’s barely on speaking terms with his wife, only seeing her once every few years, if that…”

Duke Escalus, who guarded the vast estate in the northeastern part of the peninsula, where the coldest winter of Aragon could be felt, was seen walking hand-in-hand with Bellanea through the palace gardens. This story only fueled the rumors that Duke Escalus was the father.

It was, in short, the royal bastard bearing another royal bastard.

“Leave me, Your Majesty.”

“Bellanea, how can you say such a thing? How can I…?”

“My Isabella, my only sister… the Queen.”

“…”

“You must abandon me. For the sake of your kingdom.”

In truth, Bellanea had asked Isabella to send her away, along with the child, to a foreign land. She loved the royal family, which had always protected her, but feared that they would be blamed for her actions.

However, things took an unexpected turn.

There were rumors that Duke Escalus had long loved Princess Bellanea and had neglected his wife. Some speculated that Bellanea also loved Duke Escalus but had avoided marrying him because of her royal birth.

The rumors about their relationship became romanticized over time, and soon, the tragic and beautiful love story of Bellanea and Duke Escalus was known by everyone in Aragon.

“It’s clear that they were in love from the start. The Duke couldn’t forget that love…”

“Ah, how romantic! To think that such a cold exterior concealed such a burning love.”

What had been an affair involving a royal bastard became a tale of the century’s romance.

Thanks to this, the Aragon royal family received not the scorn it would have faced, but rather, a tale of romance and passion that young people secretly dream about. Both Bellanea and Isabella sighed in relief.

The romance that swept through the kingdom of Aragon ended in a somewhat happy conclusion.

However, Duke Escalus had a wife, and Princess Bellanea had no husband, so their child, inevitably, became a royal bastard.

“But wouldn’t it be better for him to be raised in the palace rather than be acknowledged as the Duke’s heir?”

“What nonsense! How can a child who hasn’t even been baptized live a life of luxury in the palace? What use is that?”

“True, he doesn’t even have a name yet…”

And so, the tragic and beautiful love story ended with one final misfortune.

That child was none other than Cassio.

＊ ＊ ＊

Queen Isabella, unwilling to let Bellanea’s child live forever as an unblessed bastard, gave her a nominal husband and acknowledged Cassio as his son.

But by then, Bellanea and Duke Escalus’s romance had become so well known.

To make matters worse, Cassio was unfortunate enough to bear a striking resemblance to Duke Escalus, rather than Princess Bellanea. His vivid red hair, pale skin that rarely tanned, long limbs, and large frame were all unmistakable traits of the Duke.

Unavoidably, anyone who saw the red-haired child growing up in the palace thought of the tragic and beautiful love story that had once swept through the kingdom. Thus, Cassio Bellanea became the most famous bastard in all of Aragon.

“Cassio!”

As time passed, when the boy grew into a young man, a new nickname for him emerged.

“The Prodigal Son of the Aragon Palace”

“Hey, Cassio’s here. José! Fernando!”

“Martina! Come over here, quickly!”

It all started out of necessity. Though he was the queen’s nephew and the son of a princess, he was still a bastard. It was better for him to live as a debauched wastrel, enjoying endless feasts, than to hear whispers about how such a person was seeking power from the royal family.

However, once he stepped into that debauched lifestyle, he found it surprisingly enjoyable. Time passed quickly, and each day seemed to drift away like smoke. Surrounded by expensive liquor, imported cigars, the sound of laughter, and endless jokes.

Or perhaps, simply by never being alone.

“I’m in love with you. I love you…”

“You’re being swept away by a fleeting illusion, my lady.”

Those who had called him out of curiosity soon opened their hearts to him, captivated by his beautiful face and his naturally kind and cheerful demeanor. Cassio, however, never once opened his heart to them.

“An illusion? A mistake? I’m sincere, Cassio!”

“Do not dare speak the name of a lowborn like me with your noble tongue. We may mingle as friends for a while, but I am nothing more than a bastard who can never stand alongside you.”

“…”

“Remember this, my lady. Illusions are short, but life is long.”

He never once forgot his place.

So when Cassio Bellanea’s marriage was arranged, he regarded it with detached interest.

Who, exactly, would marry such a man as her husband? The proud Aragon nobles would never accept such a famous bastard as a son-in-law, unless their lands were no bigger than a palm or they had mountains of debt.

He heard that the daughter who had been raised as the heir had married the heir of another family, leaving the Duke’s family with a bleak future.

“Normally, they would have trained that daughter to become the successor, but it seems she’s a pretty unreliable lady…”

Perhaps, she was the overprotected daughter of her parents, one who had lived her whole life in comfort, dreaming of a quiet life as a Duchess.

As for Cassio Bellanea, the man who was to become her husband, he was already set to head to the battlefield upon marriage.

The arranged deployment was essentially a foregone death sentence. For anyone heading to the battlefield, it was a possibility, but for Cassio, it was a definite certainty.

“Once you return, there will be no one left to call you the prodigal son of the palace.”

The Queen, whom he respected, had said this to him, but the words felt more like a deception than anything else.

Though he was famous as an expert marksman, his skills were only ever displayed at hunting competitions. How could someone who had never shot at a person be suddenly sent to the front lines? Wasn’t that simply a death sentence?

Still, he understood that Queen Isabella, his mother’s sister, sincerely wished this for him. Even without that, he wouldn’t have avoided the glorious grave that awaited him.

“If I die, at least it will help that woman.”

Cassio Bellanea made this dry, detached thought as he headed for Sardinia.

The early spring, with sunlight that could not even warm the earth.

“Juliet Calliari.”

“Yes…?”

The woman he met at the wedding mass seemed as frail as her parents had painted her. A small frame, a skinny body. Her constantly trembling eyes were filled with the fear of marrying a stranger.

Yet, the pale sunlight that shone down upon her hair was strangely memorable. Under the colorful stained glass, the sunlight seemed to make her abundant curls gleam with a reddish hue.

“It’s okay.”

“…”

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

But in the end, it didn’t feel like his own situation. A marriage? How could it make sense that an unbaptized child, who had grown up without a name, was now getting married? How could such a thing even be possible?

The night they spent together was not driven by any malicious desire. It wasn’t the perverse satisfaction of coercing a frightened young woman into intimacy.

“It will be fine. I promise. So don’t push yourself.”

Yes, it would be fine. After all, marriage was just a formality. A procedure that would either send him to the grave or prepare him for whatever glory lay ahead.

Taking the unfortunate woman as his wife, just a part of the ceremony, was laughable. If bl00d needed to be spilled, it would only be his own. No one else’s—just Cassio Bellanea’s bl00d.

His birth had never been blessed by the gods, so surely there was no divine will in the bl00d that ran through him.