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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: Two Slaps
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“Your Majesty!”
Having been waiting outside the banquet hall, I spotted Enoch from a distance and hurried over.
“Why are you waiting out here in the cold?”
“I just... didn't feel like being inside.”
Now that the immediate crisis was averted, the flood of stares had become overwhelming. I'd slipped out to escape them. Shivering in the chilly wind, I hunched my shoulders and looked up at Enoch.
“By the way, how did things turn out?”
“...Duke Herington will be dispatched to the Hashen war.”
“Ah.”
Hmm. I see.
“That's good. What a relief.”
As I nodded and scratched my chin, a large, warm garment was draped over my shoulders.
Enoch, who was bundling me up snugly in his own clothes, raised an eyebrow.
“You seemed completely uninterested in whether I went berserk or not. I never expected you to help me like this.”
“It's not that I was *that* uninterested...”
“Didn't you say you had no intention of becoming my remedy?”
He wasn't wrong. I let out a groan, and he reached his long, delicate fingers toward the nape of my neck.
His pale fingers smoothed the wrinkled fabric around my neck, as if adjusting my clothes, and only pulled away after fastening the button securely.
“There, that should do it.”
“Ugh, it's stuffy, Your Majesty.”
“Stuffy or not, it can't be helped. The wind is cold.”
Enoch stared at my neck for a moment, then covered even that with his coat before nodding in satisfaction.
“By the way, just how much did you drink?”
“Oh, not much. Just a sip?”
“...”
Averting my gaze from his clear, gray eyes, I timidly held up one finger.
“One... glass?”
“...”
Tch. He's not buying it.
Glancing at Enoch's expression, I furtively raised another finger.
“Two glasses...? Or was it three?”
A soft chuckle escaped Enoch's red lips as he watched my fingers slowly multiply.
“Riana. Have you already forgotten the doctor told you to cut back on drinking?”
“Of course not. I was just tasting it, just a taste.”
“Head to the carriage first. I'll be there shortly.”
“Huh? No, it's fine, Your Majesty. I can get there myself.”
Shaking off Enoch's offer to escort me, I started walking, only to tilt my head in confusion as a pillar, not the exit, loomed closer.
Just as I was about to have a very intimate encounter with the pillar that was now right in front of my face, Enoch's hand shot out, cupping my forehead just in the nick of time. He let out a long sigh.
“*Sigh.* I'll take you.”
“Mm... okay. I understand.”
***
“No, I'm walking perfectly straight. Why does the path keep bending?”
Walking toward the carriage with the knight Enoch had assigned me, I tried to plant my wobbly legs firmly on the ground.
But it was no use. My legs, flailing about, missed a step, and my body suddenly dropped.
*Splat.*
With a loud thud.
“Little Marquess! Are you all right?”
“Yeees... I think I'm okay...”
Except for the fact that I'm dying of embarrassment...?
My face burning red, I had the knight wait behind a corner. I tried to brush the dirt from my hands and stand up, but ended up plopping right back down.
“Ouch! Ugh... It's all scraped.”
The stinging sensation made me lift the hem of my dress slightly, revealing beads of red blood forming on my knee.
Shaking my head at my own absurdity, I was dabbing at the blood when a most unwelcome voice sounded from nearby.
“You incompetent fool! You couldn't handle one simple thing, and now I have to go to war?”
“I-I'm sorry, Your Grace. The Little Marquess suddenly interfered...”
A shrill, cracking voice, unable to contain its rage, was followed by the sound of something being smashed.
“However, it seems the information was incorrect. His Majesty showed no hesitation in making contact with the Little Marquess.”
“Is anything ever done right! To think I have to leave at such a critical time!”
“E-Even if you are away, Your Grace, I will ensure that the matter of the state marriage between the Duke's Daughter and His Majesty proceeds without a hitch. So please, do not worry.”
“Of course it must! And don't forget to keep a close watch on that child, Elisha, so she doesn't get distracted before 'he' arrives!”
“Yes, yes. Of course.”
“It's a relief there's still some time before my departure. During the remaining time, I'll handle the work-”
The duke, huffing like an angry bull, began to organize his schedule, even ticking off items on his fingers.
As I stood up and adjusted my shoes, I caught sight of this spectacle and scowled.
“Ugh. That man again? Honestly, what a temper.”
Why on earth is the heroine's father so cantankerous?
He was ambitious in the book, but I don't think he was *this* bad...
“At this rate, isn't *he* the tyrant, not Enoch?”
Muttering to myself, I rotated my ankle and prepared to leave.
I figured nothing good would come from running into the duke again.
But either life isn't that easy, or I'm just particularly unlucky.
Of all the paths he could have taken, the duke chose mine, and as he stomped along, he spotted me.
“Ha! Look at you, eavesdropping like a little rat!”
“I wasn't eavesdropping, I fell down first and then you came along...”
Seeing the duke up close again, my body tried to freeze, but this being the second time, I felt somewhat accustomed to it and managed to move my lips to mumble a reply.
The only problem was that my voice was so quiet only I could hear it.
In any case, unlike before, my body was now somewhat obeying my will, and I turned to go to the knight waiting beyond the corner.
At that moment, a sharp *smack* echoed, and a searing pain, as if my face had caught fire, landed on my cheek.
“Where do you think you're going? Running off to tattle to the emperor about what you overheard?”
*Smack.*
With the second slap, my legs, which had been barely holding me up, gave way.
“You ungrateful wretch! How dare you try to ruin my plans after all I've done for you?”
The taste of metal. No, is that blood?
As the coppery scent of blood slowly filled my small mouth, I sluggishly blinked my eyes, but the duke continued to scream.
“Like always! You should just stay quiet like a doll! Why do you always cause trouble at banquets?”
Unable to contain his rage, the duke was tearing at his own hair when he noticed Enoch's uniform wrapped around me. He scoffed in disbelief.
“Oh-ho, it seems you've caught the emperor's attention. So what? You think getting close to the emperor will save you? That something will change? That you've found some breathing room?”
*What is he talking about now?*
Licking the edge of my split lip, I frowned slightly.
The duke's words made it sound as if Riana's reason for approaching Enoch wasn't to become empress, but...
*Because she wanted to live.*
What? Is this like one of those other novels where Riana is secretly terminally ill or something?
I patted myself down here and there and concluded that wasn't it.
She may have been small and thin, but Riana was, for all intents and purposes, a healthy young woman.
Though who knows what would happen if she kept pouring alcohol down her throat like this for another decade or so.
As I racked my alcohol-soaked, creaky brain, the duke must have taken my silence as defiance, because he raised his hand again.
“Are you ignoring me now?”
“N-No, that's not it...!”
Ah. Seriously. I shouldn't have come here today.
Just as I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for the pain that was about to strike like lightning, a cold voice stopped the duke's hand.
“What do you think you're doing?”
“Your Majesty? What brings you here—”
“I believe I asked what you are doing.”
Enoch, who usually paid no mind to others, was reacting with a sharp edge to his voice, which seemed to fluster the duke.
After a moment's hesitation, the duke quickly put on a benevolent expression and pulled me up from the ground.
“This child caused a disturbance at the banquet, so as a family elder, I was giving her a small scolding.”
“Is that so. However, strictly speaking, a member of House Herington is not an elder of House Daphne.”
Enoch pulled me away from the duke's rough grasp and spoke, his expression hard.
“Just..., where on this small body is there a place to strike?”
“Ow, Your Majesty, that hurts. Please don't press there.”
“Ah. I'm sorry. Does it hurt a lot?”
At my pained cry, Enoch's hand hovered in the air as he studied my face.
Of course it hurts.
I was about to say that his brutish hand felt like it had rattled my teeth, but the duke shamelessly beat me to the punch.
“I did not do that, Your Majesty. The child simply fell on her own.”
Would it kill him to just shut up?
The way he stroked his greasy beard while spouting such smooth lies was so infuriating it made the back of my neck ache.
My ear was still ringing from his slap, yet there he was, lying through his teeth.
Dumbfounded, I glared at the duke, then pressed my index finger against my tingling lip.
The pressure was too much for the small cut, and I felt it split open with a faint tear.
The sensation wasn't pleasant, and I grimaced before looking up at Enoch, who was watching the duke with a cold expression.
“Your Majesty.”
“...? Riana! Your lip is bleeding...!”
The moment I opened my mouth, I felt blood trickle from the split. I pointed the same finger I'd used to press my lip at the duke.
“Your Majesty. That man—no, the duke—he hit me.”
“N-No! Riana, how dare you lie before His Majesty!”
Look who's talking.
Ignoring the duke completely, I drew back the finger I'd been pointing at him and held it up in front of Enoch's face.
Two fingers, my index and middle, held up firmly.
“He hit me. Twice.”
