The Laurent family's car slowly disappeared beyond the main gates of Ashford Estate.
Lucien stood quietly on the front veranda. Both hands remained tucked into his trouser pockets as he watched the black sedan until it vanished behind the rows of oak trees lining the estate's driveway.
A gentle spring breeze drifted through the air. It carried the scent of damp earth left behind by last night's rain.
In the distance, Winston darted across the garden in pursuit of a butterfly, followed by the soft laughter of several house attendants who had long grown accustomed to the beloved Ashford cat's antics.
The estate became quiet once again.
Yet unlike usual... today's silence felt lighter.
Lucien let out a slow breath. He found himself replaying every conversation from that afternoon.
The way Evelyn greeted her parents. The way she treated the household staff without even the slightest hint of superiority. The way she listened without rushing to interrupt anyone.
And what stayed with him most...
Wasn't her smile. Nor her face. It was the way she always paused for a few seconds before answering a question. As though she genuinely considered every word before speaking.
It was a small habit. Yet surprisingly rare.
After years of attending gatherings hosted by noble families, Lucien had met far too many people who spoke simply because they wanted to be heard.
Evelyn wasn't one of them. She listened more than she spoke.
Lucien realized something.
During the nearly three hours they had spent together, he had never once felt the need to stay on guard the way he usually did. There were no sentences that felt like traps.
No smiles hiding ulterior motives.
No conversations that forced him to constantly analyze what the other person truly intended.
The feeling was...
Strange but pleasant.
"Thinking?" Adrian's voice drew Lucien from his thoughts.
His father stood in the doorway.
Lucien shook his head lightly.
"I'm organizing my impressions."
A faint smile crossed Adrian's face.
"That sounds exactly like something you'd say. Care to talk for a while?"
"Of course." Answer Lucien.
-----------
Adrian's study was located on the eastern side of the mansion. Compared to the studies owned by most noble family heads, it was remarkably modest.
There were no display cabinets filled with awards. No grand paintings. No oversized executive desk. Only bookshelves covering nearly every wall.
Most of them held books on economics, law, the history of the Kingdom, and psychology.
In one corner stood a glass cabinet containing dozens of academic journals. Every volume had a dark blue cover. The same title was printed across each spine.
Behavioral Dominance Theory
Lucien had long since lost count of how many times he had read those journals. Many of them were now filled with handwritten notes from discussions he had shared with researchers over the years.
Adrian sat down first.
"So... What do you think of Evelyn?"
Lucien didn't answer immediately.
He set his coffee down before speaking.
"I felt comfortable."
The brief reply caused Adrian to raise an eyebrow.
"Comfortable?"
"Yes."
"Nothing more?"
Lucien considered the question, "She's a good conversationalist. Honest. A careful observer."
"And..." He paused for several seconds, "...I never felt like I had to keep guessing what she truly wanted to say."
A faint smile appeared on Adrian's face.
"That's very high praise."
Lucien looked at his father.
"Is it?"
"Yes." He smiled knowingly, "Because every woman we've introduced you to over the past few years has usually been followed by the same sentence..."
Adrian mimicked his son's calm voice.
«"I still don't understand what they really want."»
Lucien didn't deny it. It was true. Nearly every meeting arranged by their family had ended that way. Not because those women were bad people. But because Lucien had never truly felt at ease.
He could always sense another agenda beneath the conversation.
Sometimes it came from their families.
Sometimes from the women themselves.
Sometimes from both.
But today... he hadn't felt that at all.
Adrian studied his son quietly.
"And?"
Lucien understood the unfinished question.
"I'm willing to continue with this arrangement."
For the first time since their conversation had begun, genuine relief appeared on Adrian's face.
"May I ask you one more thing?"
Lucien nodded.
"Why now?"
"Hm?"
"Why are you only now willing to get married?"
Silence settled over the room once more.
Adrian had asked that question many times before.
And Lucien had always given the same answer.
I'm not ready.
Today...
His answer was different.
"Father."
"Yes?"
"In your opinion..."
"...what was Grandfather Cedric's greatest mistake?"
Adrian hadn't expected the question in return.
He fell silent for quite a while.
"Your grandfather loved your grandmother. That never changed."
Lucien nodded.
"I know."
"The problem was never his love, it was the way he expressed it."
Lucien waited.
Adrian continued.
"He became too convinced that every decision he made was automatically the best decision for Eleanor."
"And yet... no one is always right."
Lucien's gaze drifted toward the journals inside the glass cabinet "Even when their intentions are good."
"Yes. Even when their intentions are good."
Silence once again filled the study.
For generations, the Ashford family had never hidden its own history. Cedric Ashford had not been a cruel man.
He had never raised a hand against his wife.
He had never been unfaithful.
He had never humiliated Eleanor in front of anyone.
On the contrary... he had loved her with everything he had.
And perhaps because of that... he had slowly begun making too many decisions in the name of love.
Choosing her clothes.
Planning her schedule.
Answering questions that should have been directed to Eleanor herself.
Deciding whom she could and couldn't meet.
Every choice came from the same conviction. «"I only want to protect you."»
No one noticed what was happening at the time. Not even Eleanor herself. Because it happened so subtly.
So thoughtfully.
So sincerely.
Until many years later...
Eleanor confessed something to Adrian.
Something the Ashford family had never forgotten.
«"My husband never took away my freedom."»
«"I simply forgot, little by little, that it was still mine."»
That sentence was never made public. It was never recorded in any journal. Only the Ashford family knew it. Yet to Adrian, that single confession was more painful than every criticism their family had ever received.
Because for the very first time...
They realized that a person didn't have to be imprisoned to lose their freedom.
Sometimes... protection that never stops can lead to the very same outcome.
Lucien's gaze remained fixed on the glass cabinet.
"Father."
"Hm?"
"If time could be turned back... do you think Grandfather would make different choices?"
A faint smile crossed Adrian's face.
"Yes."
Lucien looked at him.
"You're certain?"
"Completely."
"Why?"
"Because I knew my father Cedric."
Adrian let out a slow breath, "Most people remember Cedric Ashford as a stubborn man."
"I remember him as the husband who checked every night to make sure Eleanor was sleeping under a warm enough blanket."
"As the man who secretly learned to cook simply because Eleanor once mentioned she wanted to try homemade soup."
"As the husband who willingly canceled important meetings just because his wife had caught the flu." His smile carried a trace of bitterness. "He wasn't a bad man. He was simply... too late to realize that loving someone does not give you the right to live their life for them."
Silence settled over the study once again.
Lucien slowly lowered his gaze.
"That's why I postponed marriage."
Adrian didn't interrupt.
"I'm not afraid of being a husband." Lucien spoke quietly, "I'm afraid of repeating a mistake Grandfather never even realized he was making."
He lifted his head.
"If someone as kind as Grandfather could do that... how can I be certain I won't do the same?"
Adrian watched his son for a long moment.
Then he smiled "That is the greatest difference between the two of you."
Lucien frowned slightly.
"Grandfather never questioned himself."
"But you..."
"...question yourself far too often."
Lucien let out a quiet laugh "Maybe that's true."
"Not maybe." Adrian smiled as well. "Professor Morgan once complained to me about it."
"Complained?"
«"Your son is far too critical of himself."»
Lucien rubbed his temple "That does sound like him."
"He told me that every time your evaluation scores improved you insisted on being evaluated again."
"I just wanted to be certain."
"There." Adrian pointed at him "You just did it again."
The silence became lighter.
A few moments later, Adrian walked over to the glass cabinet. He opened it. Not to take out one of the journals but to retrieve an old brown folder. It looked far more worn than the journals surrounding it.
Faded black ink was still visible in the upper corner.
Ashford Family — Research Participation Archive
Lucien recognized the folder but he had never read it.
"This is our family's earliest archive."
Adrian gently brushed a hand across the cover "From the days when Behavioral Dominance didn't even have a name yet."
Lucien looked at the folder "Did Professor Morgan create it?"
"No. The entire team did."
Adrian handed it to him.
"Behavioral Dominance Theory wasn't the work of a single person."
"Professor Morgan led the research."
"But behind him were developmental psychologists, statisticians, neuroscientists, and family counselors."
"They called themselves..." A small smile appeared on Adrian's face "The Behavioral Dominance Research Group or BDRG."
Lucien nodded. He had attended several of their seminars over the years. Most of the original members had since retired or accepted teaching positions at other universities.
Adrian continued.
"Lucien."
"Yes."
"Do you know why the Ashford family agreed to participate in their research?"
Lucien shook his head "I always assumed it was because of Grandfather."
"That was one reason, but it wasn't the main one."
Adrian sat down again "Around the mid-1980s..."
"Professor Morgan was still a young lecturer at the Royal University."
"At the time, he spent much of his work providing counseling for families and corporations."
"That was when he began noticing the same pattern appearing again and again."
Lucien slowly opened the folder.
The first page contained a list of the earliest research participants. The Ashford family was listed there, but they weren't the first. Several other family names appeared above them—names he didn't recognize.
"He noticed that a small number of people..." Adrian continued, "...consistently carried far greater responsibility than those around them."
"Not because anyone asked them to."
"Not because of their position."
"But because they themselves felt responsible."
Lucien nodded "That could still be explained by personality theory."
"That's exactly what Morgan believed at first, but after years of research... he discovered something unusual."
Adrian picked up one of the journals.
"Most personality theories explain how people behave."
"But very few explain why two people with remarkably similar personalities can build relationships in completely different ways."
Lucien understood immediately.
For example two people could both be calm. Both intelligent. Both responsible. Yet once they entered a relationship...
One would instinctively shoulder every burden alone. The other would naturally trust their partner enough to share those burdens.
That difference couldn't always be explained by existing personality theories.
"That became BDRG's first question." Adrian spoke quietly, "Not..."
«'Why do some people want to lead?'»
"But rather..."
«'Why do human beings feel safe in different ways?'»
Lucien slowly closed the folder. He still remembered the sentence Professor Morgan repeated at every seminar.
«Good science is not born from answers.»
«It is born from asking the right question.»
Adrian smiled.
"Seven years."
"Seven years of longitudinal research. Hundreds of participants. Different backgrounds. Families. Couples. Children. Companies. Even military institutions."
The more data they collected...
The clearer one fact became.
Most people showed no consistent behavioral pattern.
But a small minority continued displaying the same underlying tendencies even when raised in completely different environments.
It wasn't their behavior that remained identical. It was the direction of their instincts.
Some people were naturally driven to carry responsibility.
Some naturally built their sense of security through trust.
Some could move between both depending on the situation.
And most people didn't display a strong enough tendency toward either.
"That's why..." Adrian looked at his son, "...Behavioral Dominance Theory has never been about good or bad."
"It has never claimed that one type is superior."
"It has never decided who deserves to lead"
"BDT simply describes natural tendencies."
Lucien nodded "Instinct."
"Exactly."
"And choice?"
Adrian smiled "That remains humanity's responsibility."
Those words left Lucien silent.
Since childhood, there had always been a simple framed quotation hanging on the wall of this study. It wasn't the Ashford family motto. Nor was it the Kingdom's crest.
It was a single handwritten sentence from Professor Morgan, written when Behavioral Dominance Theory was officially published.
«Instinct explains. Responsibility decides.»
Instinct explains.
Responsibility decides.
It served as a constant reminder to the Ashford family that no matter what natural tendencies a person possessed...
No theory could ever free human beings from responsibility for the choices they made.
Adrian took a sip of his now-lukewarm coffee "Do you know why I asked you to visit the institute today?"
Lucien nodded.
"Yes, for an evaluation."
"But not only that."
Adrian looked at him calmly.
"For the past three months you've been making the biggest decision of your life."
"As a researcher Professor Morgan will undoubtedly want to know whether that decision has also been accompanied by psychological growth."
Lucien smiled faintly "That does sound like something he'd say."
"No." Adrian smiled back "He'd probably say it in language far more complicated than that."
Both of them laughed quietly.
Then Adrian stood "You should go. Professor Morgan doesn't like being kept waiting."
Lucien rose as well. He handed the old folder back to his father.
"Thank you."
"What for?"
"For never hiding our family's history."
Adrian gently shook his head.
"Mistakes that are hidden are simply passed on."
"But mistakes that are understood..."
"...can become lessons."
Lucien lowered his head in a respectful nod.