Chapter 668: The Unlikeliest Proposal
Before breakfast... and after breakfast?
With his hair... and without his hair?
HUH???
The Marquise blinked, her finely shaped brows twitching as her thoughts scrambled. This was, without a doubt, the first time she had ever heard such an introduction in her life.
But she wasn’t alone.
Because this was also the first time Oliver Mylor himself had ever given such an introduction. The poor blonde didn’t even know if it had been the right one
After all, he had seen how the Duke and Duchess reacted to Xavier. He had seen how the Empress and Emperor reacted to Luca. He had even seen how his own parents reacted to Kyle.
So what about him?
Was he about to be slapped? Or paid off?
Was this finally the scenario predicted by D-29?!
His entire body trembled as he sucked in a sharp breath, chest heaving. And it did not help that the beautiful woman in front of him, the Marquise of Nox herself, looked utterly flabbergasted. For a moment, she opened her mouth, only managing:
"Ah, I see. H-how inter—"
The words hadn’t even formed fully before Ollie’s panic exploded. His mind raced. If she wasn’t impressed, if she wasn’t convinced, then clearly his introduction hadn’t been sincere enough!
The next moment, the blonde shot to his feet.
And then, to the absolute horror of the Nox couple, he promptly dropped to his knees.
"!!!"
Both Minister Kordell and Marquise Evelyn jolted upright in alarm.
"Oh no! Oliver! Child, what are you doing on the ground?!" Evelyn gasped, her hand reaching forward.
The Minister himself looked like he had aged ten years on the spot, his stern face cracking as he bent forward in disbelief.
But just as they were about to lift him up, Oliver lowered himself even further, practically kowtowing, his bright eyes watery and pitiful as he burst out with the most desperate plea of his young life.
"My Lord, My Lady! I-I forgot to say that I’m in school and have passed all my exams! I’ve also gotten a mercenary license for mechanics and am capable of feeding your son! Worst comes to worst, not only won’t he be lonely, but we also won’t be hungry or cold! Also, when it really counts, I am even capable of shutting up! S-so please! Allow me to keep your son, Kyle! I swear I can earn enough money for our future!"
It was said with a sincerity that could have moved mountains, echoing through the booth with the force of a life creed.
And then—
The door opened.
Two tall figures filled the entrance, their shadows spilling across the floor.
Kyle froze on the spot. Killian froze beside him.
Both brothers stared at the sight before them—Oliver Astrea Mylor, the little mop, Ollie, looking like he was on the verge of tears, groveling on the floor in front of their parents.
Ollie’s head shot up, his eyes wide with horror as he saw them by the door.
"Kyle?! Even Brother Killian?"
The air itself seemed to lock.
Kyle looked like he had just been stabbed in broad daylight. Killian’s jaw fell open as if he had walked into the single worst possible scenario.
But the most shocked of all were the Minister and the Marquise.
Both parents, proud and powerful, stood frozen as they stared down at the trembling blonde on the floor. Their minds screamed in unison, unable to comprehend how the situation had escalated into this.
"???"
The booth was already filled with enough shock to drown a possible attack, and yet, just when everyone was already shocked to their socks, the trembling blonde found another way to make everyone choke.
Because just when all eyes were fixed on him, Ollie suddenly sprang to his feet.
It was so fast, so sharp, so reflexive that even the blue-haired giants by the door flinched back.
Kyle’s hands had been reaching for him, desperate to pull his little star to safety. But before those hands could land, Oliver Mylor spun like a whirlwind, turned them both around with surprising strength, and pushed them right back out of the booth.
"You can’t be here!" Ollie blurted, face crimson from neck to ears. "This is an important conversation I’m having!"
"?!"
The door clicked shut behind them.
The sons of House Nox were left blinking in the corridor, stunned into silence by a single mop-haired cadet.
Inside the booth, the Minister and the Marquise stood frozen, jaws dangling in disbelief. Their giant kids had just been... ousted. By someone so tiny. So frail, and so scary?
And yet, before they could even process what happened, the unpredictable blonde returned to his knees with pitiful sincerity.
He looked up at them with those wide and pure eyes, and a drooping little hair antenna that seemed to sag perfectly with his mood. The sight was almost too much. Evelyn’s chest squeezed.
But the boy pouted faintly, dimming before their eyes. He clearly felt that he had failed, that he had crumbled under pressure and nearly needed rescuing. His lips trembled, his small frown threatening to break them.
Then, finally, a female voice broke the heavy silence.
"Young Lord Oliver," Marquise Evelyn said softly, her tone careful. "I hope you don’t mind if I call you Oliver. I thank you for your... very thorough introduction. But may I ask... why and how you intend to keep our son, Kyle? As much as we’re his parents. We cannot just simply give him away if he doesn’t agree to it."
Her words were measured, but her mind was in turmoil. She had seen this boy being shielded earlier by Kyle, and though she suspected closeness, she had only wanted a proper introduction. That was all. A name, a background. Certainly not this.
They had asked the ushers for a competent guide, and suddenly, here they were, cornered in a booth with a cadet declaring he intended to keep their son. It wasn’t the first time someone had said something about marrying their children, but it was the first time they’d encountered it in such a situation.
So what were they supposed to do? What was the correct response here when, unlike the others, their son was close enough to this young man to even drag his older brother all the way here?
Ollie’s fingers gripped at his chest, his heart initially thundering with terror. Then the unusual words struck him like a blow. "If he doesn’t agree to it???" he echoed in disbelief.
His head tilted one way, then the other, as if trying to check if he’d heard her correctly. His brows furrowed in innocent confusion.
Then, with the guileless sincerity of a boy on the verge of fainting, he answered.
"But My Lady... he even asked me to sign off my firstborn child to be his heir. And then he asked my father for a blessing for our relationship."
"WHAT?!"
Minister Kordell Nox’s voice cracked the booth like thunder. His hand flew to the back of his neck as though bracing himself from whiplash. Evelyn gasped audibly beside him, her hand flying to her mouth.
"Child," she stammered, eyes wide as the floor seemed to tilt beneath her, "are you saying you’re in a relationship with Kyle—our reticent son?"
Somewhere below, in the fever-pitched chaos of the auction floor, the first item of Luca’s appeared: the 72% CF Alloy Arm Actuator. Gasps erupted, the energy roaring to a level that made the auction house quake. Master mechanics clutched their chests as medical staff rushed forward to assist in stabilizing them, while the others twitched with the urge to storm the stage.
But in the quiet booth above, a very different kind of chaos unfolded.
Because right there, in front of their stunned eyes, the terminal screen projected a candid image of their usually absent, overworked son—Kyle—embracing that same blonde boy.
And just to twist the blade, there was a crude doodle of a little heart and a star decorating the corner of the image.
The Minister’s knees gave way.
The Marquise fell back into her seat.
And then—
Ollie nodded earnestly. "K-Kyle, he’s my boyfriend."
The world tilted.
BANG!
Who knew if it was the sound of a gunshot, a gavel from the auction below, or simply their sanity collapsing into dust. But Minister Kordell Nox was certain of one thing: he was seeing stars.