Chapter 2
“The reason why Duke Ferio Voreoti suddenly decided to adopt a child was incredibly trivial.”
“My son spoke yesterday!”
It was a single offhand remark from his only friend.
Two years ago, Count Carnis Rinne, who had welcomed his second child, would take any chance he could to brag about how adorable and precious his children were. Ferio always found it strange that his friend would go on and on about his kids every time they met, and yet, despite all that talking, he never seemed to lose his voice.
But that was just the way Carnis was.
Count Carnis Rinne was one {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} of the few people who could approach Duke Ferio Voreoti without hesitation and have an honest conversation with him. If Ferio was a towering, merciless snow-covered mountain, then Carnis was a warm, sunlit meadow. Despite their polar opposite personalities, the two got along surprisingly well.
“So, when are you getting married?”
“When you’re dead.”
“I really want to be in-laws with you!”
Carnis would constantly talk about the joys of marriage and the adorable nature of children. The plump little bottoms in diapers, the chubby arms, the way his eldest daughter would run to greet him whenever he came home exhausted—he wasn’t just bragging at this point; it was practically evangelism.
Normally, Ferio would have let it go in one ear and out the other, but for some reason, that day, he couldn’t ignore Carnis’ words. Maybe he had heard them so often that they had been permanently carved into his brain.
“A father is truly a noble existence.”