Soon, Grant's expression changed.
"Benjamin... He has been in contact with you all the time?"
"No, this is the first letter he has sent back in a long time." Claude quickly explained, "He is writing this letter to you, but he may not be able to deliver it to you, so he asked me to deliver it... "
Grant suddenly waved his hand, interrupting Claude's words.
"Do you know what he did abroad?"
Hearing this, Claude looked at Grant's suddenly excited expression and fell silent. After a moment, he answered the question silently with a nod.
Grant realized his gaffe, took a deep breath, and tried to remain calm, but there was still a sense of resentment in his voice: "He hid this secret from all of us and became a mage, and he even told this secret on the rack. Make it public... It's true that he escaped, but has he ever thought about what we should do?"
Claude raised his head: "He is going to be burned on the stake for you."
"It's not like I asked him to go up there!" Grant's voice suddenly became louder as if he was being stabbed in pain, "I would rather be tied to the stake and burnt to death than to be like this, where everyone feels like I owe him of."
After hearing this, Claude finally couldn't help but slap the table. He threw away all the etiquette when facing the Pope and returned to the stern father he was before.
"I didn't say you owed him, but... he is always your brother!"
"So? So, as he said in his letter, I want to abolish the teachings of many years and tell everyone that mages can actually live in peace with other people?"
"you… "
Claude was so angry that he slammed the table again and was speechless.
Grant's face was as cold as ice.
He felt that since he had become the Pope, he shouldn't reveal his true emotions for this kind of thing, but he couldn't do it. Once he faces Claude, he will become surly and irritable, and he will explode at a moment's notice. The irritability and resentment poured out like a dug spring, and I couldn't control it at all.
He just doesn't understand...
"Why do you always have to speak for him?" Grant said suppressing his emotions.
"I have never!" Claude snorted coldly and put his hands behind his back. "My attitude towards you two has always been the same! You usually behave well, so I give you more freedom. He used to behave If you don't do well, I will strictly discipline you. I have never favored anyone!"
Grant shook his head and sneered.
"But, you destroyed the entire family for the man who betrayed the family and learned magic." He stared at Claude, "Since the day he left, you haven't said a word to me again. .You think... you think this is all my fault."
"I never said it was your fault!" Claude almost roared, "This is your mother's mistake. I have never scolded you for this!"
"No... Although you didn't say it, I can feel it." Grant also suppressed his anger, and his whole body was trembling slightly. "When I was released from the confinement of the church, I finally returned home. You The way he looked at me was... like that."
He would never forget the look in Claude's eyes at that time.
Doubts, accusations, anger... But more than anything, it was extremely deep disappointment, as if at that moment, Claude didn't want to have such a son.
Grant was locked in a secret room and went on a hunger strike for four days. When he returned home exhausted, he couldn't even speak when faced with that look in his eyes.
Claude was still furious and said: "I look at you that way because you used your own brother to cover up the dirty crimes you committed! I am very disappointed in you!"
"I didn't mean it!" Grant couldn't help it. "My mother knocked me out and sent me to the church to be locked up! I didn't know anything at the time!"
"If you really don't know, why don't you look guilty at all after you come back?" Claude pointed at his nose and shouted, "You have been detained for four days and you feel aggrieved? You have suffered even this little bit. No, where did you throw all my usual teachings? If your brother hadn't secretly learned magic, he would have died on the stake in your place! And what about you? Just like a normal person, you can learn from you with peace of mind. Divine magic, being your pope... That is your biological brother! Do you still have your family in your heart?"
"Why am I gone?" Grant was so angry that he couldn't speak for a moment and yelled incoherently, "When I... When I came back, I did it all to protect you! There is a mage raised in the family, and His Majesty the Pope wants to tie you all up. Burned on the stake, if...if I didn't listen to them, if I continued to be stubborn, the Riese family would have ceased to exist!"
"you… "
"Obviously I am the one who has done the most, why can't you see it?" Grant interrupted and continued to yell, his eyes full of resentment, "Benjamin walked away selfishly, leaving all the mess to me. I've given up my dignity and finished cleaning up, but you still think I'm hypocritical... Those priests are threatening me with your lives, how can I not give in?"
Claude froze on the spot, and the anger in his eyes finally began to subside.
"You...why never said it?"
"Because you have never given others a chance to speak, this family must always run according to your ideas without any resistance." Grant shook his head, took a few steps back, with a sarcastic sneer on his face, and continued, "Come on Well, I know what you are really disappointed about, you don’t have to hide it anymore.”
At this point, for some reason, his hands suddenly started to tremble.
Claude's expression also changed.
"W-what..."
"What are you still pretending to do? You know what I'm going to say. If you don't mention that issue, and I won't mention it, you can plug your ears and pretend it didn't happen, but did it really happen?"
"What did you say? I..."
Grant interrupted irritably, yelling at the top of his lungs: "I slept with a man! I'm a filthy rapist!"
Suddenly, Claude slammed the table angrily, and the loud sound shocked Grant.
"shut up!"
"I… "
As if the shadow of his childhood resurfaced in his mind, Grant subconsciously took a few steps back, maintaining childlike fear for several seconds before taking a deep breath and realizing that he no longer needed to be afraid.
But Claude picked up a book, slapped Grant on the face, and cursed viciously: "You... can you still say it? Are you still my son? You became the fucking pope! Say this In other words, are you worthy of the glory our ancestors brought to the kingdom?"
Suddenly, Grant's entire face darkened.
"…What did I say?"
"You said... you said the filthiest word!"
When Grant heard this, he suddenly let out a few chuckles. His widened eyes turned slightly red, and you could even see the red blood in them.
At that moment, he became aggressive: "What? Is it so scary? It's just a word. If you say it, it won't dirty your mouth. You say it... you say it... you say it ah!"
"Unlike you, I still have a basic sense of shame." Claude pointed at his nose and cursed, "Take that sentence back and don't mention it again from now on. I can pretend that I didn't hear it and still You can be regarded as the son of the Rise family, otherwise... otherwise... "
Grant suddenly stepped forward, grabbed Claude's throat, and pushed him to the wall of the study with a strong force.
"Otherwise what? Are you going to kick me out of the house? Are you going to deny me as your son..."
Suddenly, Claude suppressed a blush on his face, and his majestic appearance disappeared. Grant grabbed his throat and pushed him against the wall, and he suddenly fell into a state of breathlessness.
"Relax, let go... I... can't, can't breathe..."
He struggled desperately, kicking his legs wildly, trying to break away Grant's hand from around his neck. But...but he was already old, and the little son who always looked up to him in his memory was already taller than him accidentally.
He was very surprised by this.
Feeling the huge pain coming from his throat, Claude's vision began to blur after a while. He couldn't concentrate on what to think, and he couldn't see his son clearly in front of him. The only thing he could see in his sight was a pair of red eyes.
Those eyes seemed to be crying.
"Say it...Say that word...Say it...Why don't you say it..."
Intermittent sounds reached his ears, and soon he was completely inaudible.