The Seat of My Heart

4 No Wife Or Child

Author's Note: It's ace week right now so how about some additional chapters for this ace novel? Here is one for today and there'll probably be one tomorrow as well 😉

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Jusha Lale had a few choice words to say about what he had just heard but he didn't start with that immediately. Anyway, even if he felt insulted, there was a more pressing matter. Everything else could be discussed afterward.

Thus, when Susha Unhuor stepped into the room, he looked up with a calm expression. The two of them kept quiet though until Shunche had asked a servant to escort Agur Suhi out of the building and let him return to his temporary home in the next city. Only when they were sure that the minister would not be able to overhear anything did Jusha Lale speak up.

"Did you uncover anything?"

Susha Unhuor shook his head though. He went over and sat down at the table next to him, lowering his voice to make sure that Agur Suhi in the room. "Nothing definitive. But I do think that it has something to do with your family."

Jusha Lale slightly raised his brows and turned to face him. "Does zhireng Susha really think that I am not my father's son?"

Susha Unhuor raised his brows as well before taking a glance at Shunche. The guard was looking at him just as indignantly as he had before, making him guess what was going through his mind. "Why is everybody thinking that I'm insinuating that you aren't your father's son?

"I never questioned that. I don't think anyone would be so bold as to lie to the king like that. Rather than that, what if your mother and uncle aren't actually related? What if she was adopted or maybe he was? Wouldn't that be a possibility? I mean, did they look alike?" Since he had seen neither of them he couldn't say for sure but he had the faint guess that it might not be the case.

Jusha Lale reached up and touched his cheek. "My looks were inherited from my mother. Do you really think that there is any kind of resemblance between me and my uncle? We really did not look alike."

"That's what I thought. But in that case, maybe ..." Susha Unhuor shrugged his shoulders. It was probably easy for Jusha Lale to guess what he meant.

The dan indeed had no problem to guess his thoughts. He smiled faintly in response and leaned closer to him and lowered his voice further. "There is only one problem with your conjecture, zhireng Susha: Both my mother and uncle look a lot like my maternal grandparents. They were definitely related."

"An affair maybe?"

Jusha Lale's smile turned from the faint teasing to a genuinely amused one. "Now you are starting to make things up. Seeing all of them side by side, it was always obvious that they were one family with nobody else being a part of it. They just didn't take after their parents the same way. Just like I take more after my mother than my father. Although I do have some resemblance with my paternal grandmother as far as I've been told."

Susha Unhuor gave a hum. Well, so much for the only explanation he had been able to come up with so far. "Well, I guess I was wrong then. Unfortunately, there wasn't really anything else that was worthwhile in what Minister Agur said. I still think that in some way, this has to be related to your family. I can't explain it. It is more of a gut feeling."

Jusha Lale glanced at him and then nodded. "I believe you."

Susha Unhuor raised his brows and tilted his head, the doubt obvious in his eyes. "Why?" Even if he wasn't trying to insinuate that Jusha Lale wasn't the previous dan's son, this would still mean that there was a secret hidden in his family. Shouldn't he argue against that as much as he could?