(BL) Rejected by daughter's second male lead-Chapter 22

"The more money you have, the better. It fills what is lacking."

Yuan immediately retorted. But Gillen did not back down either.

"There is a saying, ’too much is as bad as too little.’ Having too much is no better than having not enough. This kind of money will ruin Ivy."

"That little kid looks foolish at a glance, so if he gets his hands on that much money, he might go astray or become crooked. But...."

Yuan’s gaze sharpened in an instant.

"He could also become happy. A child who used to curse his own life might suddenly come to accept it as a blessing. Because money makes that possible. Now that I have decided to sponsor him, I cannot leave him unhappy. So just accept it. I do not care if he becomes conceited and uses me for support, or if he becomes lazy."

As if the conversation was over, Yuan stood up from his seat. Then, like someone who had ended the conversation on his own terms, he turned sharply and left the study.

Gillen stared blankly at the closing door for a moment, then grabbed the document and quickly chased after him. Then, he tore the document right behind Yuan’s back as he walked away.

Rip, rip, at the sound of paper being torn, Yuan turned around with a cold face.

"What are you doing right now?"

"You are right. Ivy, receiving an enormous amount of money every month, might become happy. Or he could go astray and commit all sorts of bad deeds using your name."

Gillen threw the torn pieces of paper toward Yuan. The small scraps of paper fluttered down between them like snow. Gillen continued.

"It is the same for me. I would like the child to grow up to be a fine and good person, but I do not care even if he does not. What is important is that if he receives that much money every month, Ivy will definitely become dependent on you."

At Gillen’s point, Yuan’s face hardened.

"Is that what you want?"

"Who would want such a thing—"

"When a child who received a monthly allowance that most commoners could never earn in their entire lifetime on their own grows up and the sponsorship ends, do you really think he will be able to live properly in this world?"

There was a set period for sponsorship from the Blake Foundation. It was until the ward became an adult. After that, there was a system where a staff member from the foundation would be personally assigned to help the ward find a career path for three years.

"The children we sponsor are not beggars. And we are not simply giving them charity. We must sponsor them with the hope that we are helping each and every child find their own path, and that they will build a life lived solely by their own will."

A life lived solely by one’s own will. To Yuan’s ears, that sounded utterly absurd.

Yuan was poor from the moment he was born. Even before he lost his family and home in a natural disaster at the age of five, he grew up under a violent father and a mother who worked as a maid in a noble house. After being taken to the temple, he was subjected to harsh training, torture, and brainwashing repeatedly. The days he spent wandering the streets after accidentally escaping from the temple were just as terrible. If he had not caught the eye of the Magic Tower Master, Yuan would have probably died on the streets.

No matter how beautiful he was or how excellent his talents were, such things did not matter when it came to life and death. Because he was a commoner. Because he was poor. And because he was young. He had to let stronger forces, such as money, status, and fate, control his life.

And that was the life of most human beings. Yuan hated that. That was why he practiced magic to death, saved money, and became a noble. Even someone as outstanding as Yuan had to try so desperately. So how could an ordinary person, a foolish little kid like Ivy, live such a life? A life lived solely by one’s own will? Does this man even know how hard that is? A man who was probably raised being pampered and adored as the heir of the Blake family, one of the most prestigious of the prestigious, since birth?

A twisted smile naturally formed on Yuan’s lips.

"How truly detestable. Duke, are you living such a life?"

"I try to." 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

"And you think it is entirely thanks to your own will?"

"That may not be the case, but—"

"When I was young, I hated nobles like you the most. More than the high priest who beat me, locked me up, starved me, and did perverted things, the nobles like you, who came to the temple on Sundays wearing fine clothes and acting prim and proper, then returned with refreshed faces, were more ridiculous to me."

A coldness settled over Yuan’s beautiful face. He walked toward Gillen, step by step.

"It is just wealth and status that you were lucky enough to be born with, yet you are pickled in a sense of privilege, and others thoughtlessly admire and envy that... It was indescribably contemptible and nauseating."

Having come right up to Gillen, Yuan looked down on the slightly shorter Gillen as if looking down on an inferior.

"The Duke right now is more disgusting than when you confessed your love for me."

Yuan turned away before Gillen could even say anything in response.

"Send the new sponsorship document by mail. I will write it again and return it to you. I will make the monthly sponsorship amount 20 gold."

Yuan, who seemed to take a few steps, disappeared in an instant. It was teleportation magic.

Gillen looked at the empty hallway and muttered in a daze.

"No... I never even confessed my love in the first place...."

*

Returning to the study, Gillen was lost in deep thought. He had a rough idea of why Yuan had reacted so sensitively. After all, he had read the original novel, and there was also the past he had heard from Yuan.

But regardless of Yuan’s background, Gillen could not help but reflect on whether he himself had objectively made a mistake.

’I must have lived as a duke for too long.’

Gillen could not properly answer the question Yuan had thrown at him before leaving. It was not simply because Yuan had cut him off.

Certainly, Gillen had lived comfortably from the beginning, having been transmigrated into the body of Duke Blake. He also had a lot of information from reading the original novel. As the father of the female lead in a childcare and regression story, his future was a smooth and open road. It was a world set up that way, and he had the conditions to live that way.

There had been many trivial incidents and accidents over the past 20 years, but there had been nothing that could truly threaten him. The reason he came to have such beliefs about autonomy and equality was because he had been educated and lived in modern South Korea, not because he was particularly smart or great.

He encountered the life Yuan had experienced through text. But he could not say that he truly knew the life of Yuan, who had personally endured poverty, torture, and oppression.

I should probably apologize.

He had no intention of apologizing for his statement itself. It might have sounded like the idealistic fantasy of an ignorant nobleman, but Gillen still believed that social systems and support were necessary for everyone to be able to live their lives by their own will. This modern setting within the romance fantasy world was clearly lacking in that area.

But he wanted to apologize for not having considered once more how his words might have sounded to Yuan, and for speaking in a preachy way.

"Haa...."

Gillen sighed, rubbing his dry face with his hands.

"I do not want to see him again... but I guess I have to go."

He immediately pulled out a sheet of letter paper and, with a single stroke of his pen, inscribed elegant handwriting.

To Marquis Yuan Hampton.

I am in admiration as the elegance and style of Capelli become more widely known through the praise of the noble Marquis Hampton, who has enhanced the honor of the Empire...(omitted)...I wish to visit the lord’s castle myself to deliver the sponsorship document for the Blake Foundation and to apologize for my...