Ch#23

Episode 23

As soon as the audience hall door closed behind me, I unknowingly let out a sigh of relief.

"Haa……."

If I had relaxed just a bit more, I might have collapsed right there.

But I couldn't do that in a place where the Emperor's eyes and ears were undoubtedly present.

Striving to maintain as upright and dignified a posture as possible, I waited quietly for Arpad.

'Anyway, if I tried to walk to the Crown Prince's palace alone right now, I might collapse.'

A large, sturdy cane (?) Arpad was essential to me.

Moreover, since we officially had to play the role of love-blinded lovebirds.

It was better to move around stuck together.

Besides, I had promised Arpad with my own mouth.

"I'll wait quietly outside……."

Even I felt bad about breaking a promise I had just made.

But things in this world don't always go as planned.

Because I can't control every unexpected situation myself.

For example, when an ex-husband and ex-fiancé suddenly pops up…….

"Hilia!"

Ludwig, who used to pride himself on being always stylish and elegantly dressed, appeared before me in a disheveled state.

"...Ludwig?"

Why is this guy suddenly popping up here?

But his appearance was quite a sight. In many ways, it was a first.

The hair he always neatly combed and slicked back with oil was completely disheveled and covered in dust.

His clothes also looked as if they had been rolled in a dust pit ten times and torn up.

'Ah, he went chasing after the bait I scattered and came back after realizing it was fake.'

Considering that, I should actually think he arrived quite quickly.

I scattered about five bait groups, and it seems he only checked one or two.

Surprisingly, he approached me with a somewhat glad expression, taking large strides.

Calling my name once again.

"Hilia! I finally found you!"

While I hesitated briefly about how to respond, he was already in front of me.

And quickly reached out to grab my wrist.

"You can be at ease now. Let's go back, Hilia."

At that moment.

Memories of him, who had betrayed and killed me three times, struck my head like lightning.

The face of Ludwig who mocked, despised, and looked down on me.

"I'm saying your usefulness has ended now, Hilia."

"I never loved you for even a single moment from the start."

"Do you know how ugly you are right now? Let yourself die quietly."

A terrible disgust surged up my throat.

And I slapped away Ludwig's hand just like that.

Slap!

At that, he looked taken aback.

"What's wrong, Hilia?"

Without a word, I took a couple of steps back. Then my back hit the wall.

Ludwig didn't seem to properly comprehend the rejection and disgust I showed.

"Ah, you must still be in shock. Don't worry, I'm here now."

Bullshit.

But Ludwig's barking continued.

"Can't you see how I look? Don't you see how much I suffered to find you? We need to go home now."

An answer as cold as ice, even to my own ears, forced its way out of my throat.

"No."

"...What?"

He seemed unable to accept my refusal. And the informal speech as well.

I hammered it in once more to him, who seemed not to understand properly.

"I said there's no way I'm going back with you."

After spitting it out, my chest felt a tiny bit lighter.

Ludwig still wore an expression of not understanding what he had just heard.

Following that, I corrected a slip of the tongue he had made.

"That 'our home' you mentioned must mean the Delphin Residence, right?"

He had taken over my father's room and lived there.

And Evangeline used the best guest room as if it were her own.

The fact that the Delphin Residence was practically their newlywed home was not self-deprecation but truth.

"You no longer have the right to stay at the Delphin Residence, so pack your things and get out quickly."

Ludwig's face turned red and purple as if he had been verbally abused.

But he soon composed his expression and tried to placate me, pretending to be as affectionate as possible.

"Hilia. You must still be in too much shock and have lost your mind. Where else would I go but our home?"

"That means go back to the Kieln Grand Ducal Residence, small and shabby like a mouse hole."

I laughed just like the Ludwig who mocked me in my memories.

At that moment.

Ludwig roughly grabbed my arm and shouted.

"There's a limit to being lenient! Can't you behave appropriately?!"

At that moment.

The closed audience hall door opened, and a tall man slowly walked out.

The man's red eyes turned toward me and Ludwig.

His inhuman vertical pupils narrowed, and then an icy murderous intent that made the observer's spine tingle emanated from him.

I called out to him for help.

"Arpad!!"

As if answering my call, Arpad's figure disappeared.

"......?"

No, to be precise, he moved so fast that he seemed to disappear.

He had already approached right in front of me and Ludwig.

And he seized the wrist of the hand with which Ludwig had grabbed my wrist.

"What is this? Ludwig?"

"You're the one, Arpad!!!"

Ludwig gnashed his teeth and shouted in a tone full of hatred and inferiority.

"His Majesty the Emperor will hold you accountable for the crime of kidnapping my wife! I'm taking Hilia back!"

A sharp smile hung on Arpad's lips.

It was a smile that seemed capable of stabbing the viewer to death.

"Your wife? Where is your wife here?"

"You bastard! No matter what you did, Hilia is my wife! His Majesty the Emperor decided it so!"

At that moment.

Strength entered Arpad's grip on Ludwig's wrist.

Crunch!

A strange sound was heard. Like human bones breaking.

Along with it, Ludwig let out an unsightly scream.

"Gyaaah!!!"

As Arpad roughly pulled, Ludwig's hand holding me came loose.

He then threw his cousin to the floor like trash.

"Guhk!"

Ludwig rolled unsightly on the floor, clutching his wrist twisted in a bizarre direction.

A desperate scream echoed.

I covered my mouth with my hand.

It was absolutely not because I was surprised or scared.

'I mustn't let them see me smiling.'

Because seeing Ludwig rolling around in a pathetic state, my lips had curled up on their own.

And Arpad seemed to have noticed that.

His previously angry expression softened slightly.

He picked me up in his arms and whispered in my ear.

"Should I break one of his legs too?"

"It's fine. This is the palace."

I thought I heard a 'tsk' sound, but it must be my imagination.

Clutching his broken wrist while rolling on the floor, Ludwig cursed viciously.

"His Majesty, His Majesty won't let you get away with this! Who would let a barbaric madman like you……!"

While holding me, Arpad answered mockingly.

"His Majesty has lent me the Artanoos Hall for my wife's wedding banquet a month from now."

To be exact, it was a month and six days later, but that was close enough.

"What?"

Even in his agony, Ludwig's eyes bulged with astonishment.

It meant the Emperor, his only lifeline, had acknowledged us.

"That, that can't be! His Majesty wouldn't do that!"

"His Majesty seems to have taken quite a liking to my wife. That's probably why he personally permitted the Artanoos Hall."

And he threw in a condescending remark.

"If my wife allows it, I'll send you an invitation too."

"Arpaaad─!!"

Mocking Ludwig's desperate struggle, Arpad walked past him while holding me.

And near the end of the corridor, we could encounter another familiar person.

Standing there was Evangeline, her burning green eyes wide open.

She gnashed her teeth and asked.

"Brother, is what you just said true?"

She called not only Ludwig but also Arpad 'brother'.

Anyway, as the Empress's daughter, calling both of them 'brother' might be correct.

'Since she's practically a stepsister.'

But the look in her eyes as she gazed at me and Arpad was absolutely not that of someone looking at her brother and his wife.

Rather, it was even more blazing than when she saw me with Ludwig.

With obvious jealousy.

'What's this? Earlier too, wasn't she in sync with Ludwig?'

She asked again.

"His Majesty the Emperor permitted the Artanoos Hall for the wedding banquet?"

Her gloved hands were trembling violently.

Translator: Nox