This could be called an unexpected pleasant surprise.
Iver had never imagined that he would learn the true identity of his biological mother so easily...
Annie de Vendome.
That should have been Iver's mother's real name before she married.
If Annie was still alive, she was probably already in her forties.
Arsene was now around forty... and Angelique was eight years older than Arsene, which meant she should be at least close to fifty. She should be Annie's older sister—in other words, Iver's aunt.
The current Duke of Vendome was an old man. Iver had no idea exactly how old he was... but since Angelique was his second daughter, he should have been at least over seventy.
Yet Abigail, whom Iver saw now, looked only about seventeen or eighteen!
"How many children does the Duke have?"
Iver could not help asking, "Generally speaking, shouldn't upper-level Transcendents have reduced fertility?"
"Yes, but His Grace is only at the Fourth Level himself, so the reduction isn't that severe. And the blessing of the Path of Love allows him to have many children... In any case, he can afford to raise them."
Arsene nodded. "His Grace has seventeen children in total. My wife, Angelique, is the second... and the Duke's eldest son has already died of illness. That's why I, as a live-in son-in-law, was able to join the Vendome Family... The Old Duke wants Angelique to inherit the family."
"A duchess?"
"Yes. We have quite a few duchesses in Iris. That's different from Avalon and Antimony."
"What about Abigail? Which child is she?"
"The youngest. She's only sixteen this year and is still in middle school. That's probably why Mia dreamed of her."
In other words, Abigail should be the Duke's youngest daughter... Iver's little aunt? Although she was his aunt in