(BL) Rejected by daughter's second male lead-Chapter 15

Did I hurt his pride?

Left alone, Gillen scratched his cheek and put away his dagger. Then he stroked the head of his black horse, Connie, who had loyally waited for him.

"You didn’t even tremble in front of the bear, you’re so brave, Connie."

She was a mare Gillen was particularly fond of, and they had worked together for a long time, but he had not known she was such a calm horse. He took two sugar cubes from his pocket and fed them to Connie.

"What should I do with this bear."

The brown bear was still standing with its front paw swinging and its eyes open. There was no sign of the magic wearing off. Standing like that, it looked just like a vividly taxidermied bear.

"I can’t just leave you like this either. Stay like this for a little while. I’ll ask Hampton to release you on the way back after the picnic is over."

Gillen said that and got on his horse. Yuan, who had left first, was nowhere to be seen, having gone so fast. About twenty minutes later, Gillen found Cecilia and Yuan already arrived at the picnic spot and sitting together.

Oh dear. This was not the time for me to be taking it easy.

Gillen hurriedly dismounted and approached the young man and woman sitting on the white cotton cloth.

"I’m a little late, aren’t I? Ha! Ha! Ha! What were you two doing?"

Gillen said with a laugh and squeezed in between Cecilia and Yuan. Watching Yuan frown and shift his bottom to the edge, Gillen let out a sigh of relief inwardly.

"Papa! Did you go for a walk by yourself? Why are you so late?"

Gillen glanced at Yuan. It seemed he had not talked about encountering the bear.

"I got lost on the way. I’m sorry, Cecil. Did you wait long?"

Gillen stroked Cecilia’s hair.

"We haven’t even laid out the food yet, we were waiting for you, Papa. Claire, let’s eat now!"

Cecilia clapped her hands, speaking to the maid and servant girl standing nearby. As Claire opened the large picnic basket, the servant girl, Rosie, took out all sorts of tableware, food, and wine from inside. But Rosie, who was taking out the plates one by one, suddenly let out a short scream.

"Oh my goodness!"

Everyone’s gaze turned to Rosie. The red-haired, curly-haired girl blushed and bowed her head.

"I-I’m sorry! One of the plates was broken..."

Indeed, what she had just taken out was a sharp fragment of a plate. And there was a rather deep cut on Rosie’s finger.

"Goodness, Rosie, are you alright?"

Cecilia quickly got up and helped Rosie to her feet. Gillen looked at the thin, rough index finger from which bright red blood was dripping, and took out a handkerchief from his breast pocket. It was when he was getting up to approach Rosie.

"First, use this to stop the bleeding—"

From behind, there was the sound of a finger snap. At the same time, the blood on Rosie’s finger stopped, and the wound disappeared without a trace.

"Oh my!"

Rosie raised her index finger in surprise. Cecilia and Gillen also stared at Rosie’s clean finger with wide eyes.

"Everyone, stop making a fuss and sit down."

Yuan said arrogantly.

"Did you just use healing magic, Yuan?"

Cecilia asked in surprise.

"Then who else would have? Healing magic of this high level can’t even be attempted by anyone who isn’t a genius like me."

His words were true. Divine power healed human illnesses and injuries by borrowing the mercy of God. Creation was the domain of God, and healing and recovery were the unique abilities of priests who had received a share of God’s power.

In contrast, magic followed the laws of nature more closely. Magic was strong in creation and killing. Mages were those who added and subtracted from what already existed to create something new, or to injure and kill.

Therefore, ’healing magic’ was the most difficult among all magic, and there were not many mages who could use it. Especially since the priests almost demonized and condemned healing magic—the reason being that it encroached upon God’s domain—research in that field had not progressed well.

And now, Yuan had performed that healing magic simply with a single hand gesture. If another mage had seen it, they might have kissed Yuan’s instep and said, ’From now on, I will serve you as my god.’

"That’s really amazing, Yuan. You must be really smart."

"It’s flawless. Well done, Hampton."

But for some reason, the praise and admiration from the Duke Blake father and daughter were lackluster.

"That’s great, Rosie. Give me the basket in case you get hurt again."

"Oh, no! How could I possibly give it to Your Grace the Duke...! I’ll do it! It’s all healed!"

"Yes, I am the Duke. I, the Duke, am ordering you to give it to me now."

At Gillen’s words, Rosie hesitated before pushing the heavy basket towards Gillen with a grunt. Gillen lifted the basket with one hand, set it down in front of him, and carefully took out the remaining items.

"There might be fragments, so let’s not use the tableware at the bottom, and we should only eat the food that is tightly sealed."

Gillen took out the rest of the contents and handed the basket and a handkerchief to an escort knight. He told him not to just shake out the ceramic fragments anywhere but to carefully gather them in the handkerchief, tie it up, and bring it back. He was worried that the animals in the forest might get hurt.

’I just used healing magic, of all things, and that’s what you’re concerned about?’

Yuan, dumbfounded, let out a dry laugh. He considered whether he was deliberately acting that way to get his attention, but it did not seem to be the case.

Gillen really did not seem very impressed by Yuan’s magic. Come to think of it, he had not even noticed him casting the calming spell on the horse earlier, and when he had cast the stasis spell on the bear, all he had done was wipe Yuan’s sweat and act all high and mighty.

Yuan’s mood gradually soured. It was because he felt that Gillen was deliberately pretending not to know how great he was. He even suspected that he might be playing mind games already because of the chess game they were going to play later. Otherwise, how could a man not show a single speck of interest when the man he likes performs such amazing magic!

"Ahem!"

Yuan cleared his throat unnecessarily and snapped his fingers for all to see.

"Huh?"

The knight let out an involuntary exclamation. Everyone turned to look at the knight. Inside the basket he was holding, the broken ceramic fragments were floating up. Then, the plate that had been broken into several pieces was instantly and neatly put back together.

"Goodness!"

The maid, Claire, screamed and then covered her mouth in shock. The healing magic was amazing, but seeing a broken plate become clean and whole without a single crack was a sight one would only see in dreams. The servant girl Rosie and the other knights also stared with their mouths agape, completely captivated by the wondrous magic.

"Wow, that’s incredible, Yuan."

Cecilia marveled once again.

But Gillen just clapped a few times and said, "That’s great!" He was busy portioning out food onto the plates.

"Then let’s use that plate too. That’s really great."

What is with this mister, really?

Yuan furrowed his brow. The first one to notice his uncomfortable mood was Cecilia. She looked at Yuan as if he were pathetic, then shook Gillen’s arm.

"Papa, let’s take a walk around here after we eat."

"That sounds good."

Gillen smiled warmly and served Cecilia some cheese, jam, pâté, and bread. There were also various hams and fruits.

"Oh my, how can I eat all this." 𝗳𝐫𝚎𝗲𝚠𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝘃𝚎𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝗺

"You can just leave what you don’t eat. Take your time and eat as much as you want."

Then Gillen put a similar amount of food on another plate and distributed it to Claire and Rosie as well.

"Ladies first. You understand, right?"

Gillen gave Yuan a wink and then belatedly served him food.

Yuan usually handled such chores with magic, but he had never seen a nobleman do it himself. Nobles were the type to have their servants hold a handkerchief to their mouths even when they coughed. Such were the shameless, arrogant, and incompetent humans that were the nobles Yuan knew, yet the middle-aged man in front of him not only distributed the food himself but also took care of the maid and the servant girl.

Well, a man who worries about the forest animals getting hurt wouldn’t neglect someone just because their status is low. Yuan pouted in an unnecessarily disgruntled manner and picked up a grape.

"The grapes are so sweet and delicious. Aren’t they?"

Cecilia said to Claire and Rosie. The two girls blushed and nodded.

Ah, grapes.

"Come to think of it, Cecil, I had something to give you."

Yuan said.

"That time I went to the jeweler’s, it was actually to buy a gift for you."

The diamond brooch, made in the shape of a green grape, had been completed to his satisfaction and was enshrined in Yuan’s house.

"I heard you like green grapes, so I had a diamond cut into the shape of a grape and made into a brooch. I colored it blue with magic."

Yuan said, feigning nonchalance, hoping that Cecilia would be impressed. It had cost a great deal of money and effort, but not showing it off would make him look cooler.

"How romantic!"

"You’re so lucky, my lady!"

The maid and the servant girl fanned the flames appropriately from the side. Yuan pressed down the corners of his twitching lips and elegantly swept his hair back.

But Cecilia asked with wide eyes.

"Is that by any chance for a proposal?"

Her expression did not seem as impressed as he had thought, but Yuan answered nonchalantly.

"Of course."

"Then I refuse."