How The Sub-Male Lead’s Stepmother Teaches Love

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Ting!! 

The sound of several piano keys crashing together under his clenched hands rang out.

 

Just when I thought it sounded like it was coming from somewhere other than the piano, Leonhard turned his head and kissed me a little deeper.

 

His kisses weren’t always passionate, but they were breathtaking. He was gentle but persistent. As if he cared about me, he held me tightly against his body so that I could not take even a single step back.

 

It was still the same now. His strong arms wrapped around my waist and pulled me close, so there was no space between his chest and mine.

 

I couldn’t even get it out with the tip of my nose, which made my chest heave with my ragged breath.

 

As if he sensed that, he tilted his head further to share his breath with me. Still, I was out of breath and had to push him away.

 

The strength that had been holding and restraining me until then disappeared like a mirage, and he was pushed back so easily.

 

But it didn’t go away. Like a wild animal circling around a piece of meat, he breathed lightly as his nose touched mine.

 

“Nell…”

 

“Wait a minute, let me take a breath.…”

 

I was wondering if he would listen to me, so I held his shoulders with my hands and lowered my head.

 

While I was breathing with my head down and my chest heaving, Leonhard kissed my forehead and the top of my head.

 

He finally hugged me and made me sit on the chair I was sitting on and sit on his strong thighs. Because of that, my eye level became higher than his.

 

He kissed my chin, his eyes softly curving as if he liked the way he was looking up at me. On my cheek, on the bridge of my nose.

 

It seemed like no place on my face wasn’t touched by his lips. I felt so ashamed of my flushed cheeks. I lowered my gaze and muttered quietly.

 

“Really, if you were just a little less handsome.”

 

“Can I take that to mean I can kiss you one more time?” 

 

“If anyone hears it, they’ll think it’s just one time.”

 

He smiled pleasantly as if confessing, ‘I have been caught.’

 

I said, “I don’t know,” and held his head, and leaned down to kiss him first.

 

Now, I was used to the strength of his hugging my body tightly. 

 

“Really… What is happening this early in the morning?”

 

I don’t know how many times we kissed. I could feel my lips swelling.

Leonhard pulled away from me as if satisfied, his arms still wrapped tightly around my waist.

 

“That’s right.”

 

“Is that what a person who traveled that far to break into his wife’s bedroom would say?”

 

I pinched the bridge of his handsome nose between my thumb and forefinger and wiggled it lightly, Leonhard just laughed, as if it wasn’t even itchy at all.

 

“I don’t understand either. When I came to, I found myself in my wife’s bedroom.”

 

“Isn’t it too late to come to your senses? If it were me, I would have come to my senses ten times more while riding the horse and feeling the cold wind on my face.” 

 

“The wind wasn’t that cold. It seems like spring has already come to Ajas.”

 

“Chi, no spring. Your face is so red from freezing.”

 

“It’s not because it’s frozen, it’s because I’m flushed because of my wife’s loveliness.”

 

“Looking at how red it is, I think that’s true.” 

 

Leonhard cupped both cheeks in his hands, and whether he checked them or not, he just laughed.

 

I dropped my gaze from his face and rested my head on his shoulder tiredly.

 

“Rather than that, let’s finish what we were talking about earlier. Are you really going to make Noah play the Spring Hymn?”

 

“He said he could, so I assumed he would, but I’ll have to talk to Noah about that.”

 

“If Noah says yes, please ask him twice. He’s only five years old, but it seems like he’s already been told to always say yes.” 

 

When I complained that I was upset, Leonhard, who was supporting my waist with his left arm and brushing the back of my hand with his right thumb, spoke in a bitter voice.

 

“My wife knows Noah better than I do.”

 

“You should really reflect. You don’t talk to Noah much, do you? You don’t see his face much? Is that okay If you say you’re his father?”

 

“I don’t think so…”

 

“You knew and you neglected him like that? Tell me why you did it, and I’ll listen.”

 

At my questioning, a silence full of hesitation drifted around him.

 

I know that’s not a good metaphor for a grown man, but I felt like he was a child who had done something wrong.

 

How could I know this would make me feel weak?

 

I gently patted the back of the large hand that was holding my hand, as if encouraging or urging him on.

 

It wasn’t until I noticed the ribbon tied around his wrist that I reached for it, and Leonhard’s voice came to me slowly.

 

“I originally told you that Ajax’s successor was my older sister, not me.”

 

“Yes, I remember.”

 

“At the very least, my sister would have taken the throne if I hadn’t manifested the pattern of Ajas, and I’ve always felt indebted to that fact…. The reason I set out to find my sister was actually to give her the position of successor…but I failed in the end.”

 

“Is that why you brought Noah in and made him your successor? Because of a sense of debt toward your sister?”

 

Leonhard hesitated for a moment and then nodded.

 

“It is right for Noah to inherit this position. At least I think so.”

 

“Hmm…So that’s why you insisted on Noah as your successor, I understand.” 

 

I nodded, and then unconsciously frowned at a thought that suddenly occurred to me.

 

“So, it doesn’t mean that you only think of Noah as a successor and not as your son, right?”

 

‘Then I think I will be very, very disappointed in this person if that is true…’

 

Fortunately, Leonhard immediately shook his head at my words. 

 

‘Well, if that were the case, he wouldn’t have chosen someone who could be a good mother to Noah as his wife.’

 

“It’s just that…I  didn’t know what to do.” 

 

“What?”

 

“Well, when Noah was very young, I think it was until he was a year or two old, up until then I could see him easily….. There was trouble east of the Hiyela Mountains, and I left the castle for a year or so, and when I came back, the newborn child I remembered was gone, and he was all grown up.”

 

Leonhard paused for a moment, closed his mouth once, and then opened it again. 

 

“And he called me Marquis, as politely as a vassal.”

 

My mouth opened wide at the sound of Leonhard’s bitter voice. 

 

I stuttered, saying, “No, how?” and finally managed to come up with the right question. 

 

“Noah, he really didn’t know you’re his father?”

 

“No, he knows. Even the fact that I am not the biological father but the adoptive father.” 

 

“ah….”

 

“You know who told him that? His nanny. She said she’d take good care of Noah while I was away.”

 

To calm his momentarily agitated voice, Leonhard swallowed dry saliva once.

 

“If I had known that’s what she meant, I wouldn’t have left Noah in her care.…Now it’s too late to regret it.” 

 

Like a voice filled with emotion, strength went into Leonhard’s hands. 

 

He seemed to have done it without realizing it, but he quickly relaxed, but I held his hand tightly to show that it was okay. For some reason, I felt like I should, so I touched the back of his hand as if to comfort him.

 

Then Leonhard hugged me tightly around the waist and leaned his cheek against my head. As if leaning on me.

 

“I dismissed the nanny at once, but I didn’t know what to say to Noah, who promised to repay the favor by becoming a worthy successor who would not tarnish Ajas’s name. At that moment, I really couldn’t think of anything, so all I could say was to call me father.”

 

As I listened to Leonhard, I suddenly remembered the time I asked Noah what his dream was.

 

Noah said that too back then. Later, I remembered that he had said that when he grew up, he wanted to go on a trip.

 

‘If that’s sincere….’ 

 

‘The former must be a dream implanted by someone. No, can I call that a dream? There was no excitement, no anticipation, just a weight of responsibility on his shoulders…’

 

“Ever since then, whenever he sees me, I can see his face stiffen, and I don’t know if it’s nervousness, difficulty, or fear….. Either way, I didn’t know how to resolve it, so I just avoided him, even though I knew it wasn’t a good solution…”

 

“So the solution you came up with was to find a good mother?” 

 

Leonhard nodded in response to my question.

 

I let out a small sigh at the sight. I could feel Leonhard’s body stiffen in response, and I sighed again, wondering what I could possibly do with this man.

 

“For now, I’ll give you a good score in that you have been thinking about it.”

 

“For now?”

 

“That’s right. Other than that, there are only minuses. You won’t even talk to Noah and you can’t be a good father, so you have to find a good mother. That’s just passing your work onto someone else.” 

 

I don’t know the details of his story, but the fact that he mentioned his dead sister a few times and never mentioned his parents, I don’t think they were very good parents.

 

‘Isn’t this evidenced by the fact that Leonhard has no idea what to do as a ‘good father’?’

 

But no matter what.

 

“You are Ajas. When you are faced with a monster you have never dealt with before, do you run away because you know nothing about it?”

 

“No, I don’t.”

 

“Okay. You’ll face it again and again until you figure out its weaknesses, so why didn’t you do that with Noah?”

 

“…….”

 

“No matter how tactfully the servants behaved in front of you, if you had paid just a little more attention, you would have known right away that they were looking down on Noah. No, they just looked at it funny because you didn’t pay attention.” 

 

“Everything you said is correct. I have nothing to say.”

 

‘I’m glad he didn’t deny it, but I felt even more frustrated because he so obediently admitted his mistake.’

 

“I don’t know why someone who knows it so well would do that. You don’t hate Noah, do you?” 

 

Leonhard could not easily continue speaking. The reason I waited patiently for his answer was because the shadow on his face was so dark.

 

‘If he really did hate Noah, it was only fair that he should be so distressed by it…Still, I hoped it wasn’t the case.’

 

Leonhard let out a hoarse voice as if he were wringing out a dry rag. 

 

“When I see Noah… Even though I try not to, I keep thinking of my dead sister.”

 

‘That’s why he avoided Noah….’

 

Leonhard lowered his pitch-black gaze as if he were a defendant in a trial fully equipped with witnesses and physical evidence.

 

Then he spoke in a low voice. If I hadn’t seen the dryness of his pale cheeks, I would have thought he was crying.

 

“In our last sword duel, just before she left the castle, I was nearly killed by her.”

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