Chapter 29
Episode 29. Damnably Beautiful
2023.09.29.
After the nobles surrounding them withdrew, Herdin handed Katrina a glass of wine and broached the subject.
“Am I frightening to you, Your Majesty?”
Katrina, who had been sipping the wine he offered, burst into laughter as if hearing an amusing tale.
“Frightening? Me? Of you?”
When he looked at Katrina, his wife’s face came to mind. Blair resembled her. Only in that beautiful countenance once called the empire’s greatest beauty.
The moment he realized that fact, the woman before him became even more loathsome.
“You’re brainwashing me as if afraid I’ll uncover the truth. That I’m the criminal’s nephew, and you’re the one who forgave such a me and took me into the family. That that is the truth.”
Her efforts to suppress his momentum were somewhat amusing. His mother-in-law seemed to still view him as a fifteen-year-old boy.
Herdin set his empty glass on the table and added,
“But if the intent is too transparent, it only breeds resentment instead.”
The smile had vanished from Katrina’s face as she gazed at him.
“What you know is the truth. That fact will never change.”
Katrina’s voice held utter conviction, but Herdin bowed politely as if he had no further desire to engage her, then turned away.
Moving to a quiet corner of the banquet hall, Herdin wet his parched throat with wine and surveyed the room.
His eyes, accustomed to Blair’s presence, quickly found her amid the crowd.
Blair was speaking with a woman in one corner of the hall. Their expressions seemed quite serious, as if discussing something grave.
But what drew his attention more were the men circling Blair, stealing glances at her.
Vultures who pounced the moment she showed even a slight opening, eager to strike up a conversation or grasp her hand.
Imagining what thoughts filled those heads chilled his blood cold.
At the wedding, Blair had stayed by his side, so he hadn’t noticed. No matter how single-minded those men were, they couldn’t approach a newlywed bride with her groom plainly beside her.
Yet recalling the victory banquet, such men had always swarmed around Blair. She alone had been oblivious.
At that moment, as Herdin downed the remaining wine like whiskey, someone placed a hand on his shoulder.
“That good, huh?”
Johannes Pelik, second son of the Pelik Marquisate.
He was one of the few peculiar men who approached Herdin without fear, casually. Though Johannes himself boasted of their friendship.
Without even glancing at Johannes, who had appeared out of nowhere spouting nonsense, Herdin asked,
“What.”
“Your wife. Even at the victory banquet, you said no but couldn’t tear your eyes away.”
“Nonsense.”
The denial flowed smoothly, without a hint of hesitation.
Johannes stared at him in disbelief.
Even now, unable to look away? Glaring at the men stealing glances at his wife as if he’d kill them all?
Gazing at him as if unable to comprehend the disconnect between words and actions, Johannes soon guessed his psychology.
“Well, honestly, she is pretty. What man wouldn’t fall for that face and figure.”
Herdin, like any other man, was simply drawn to Blair’s beauty.
‘Of course, unlike the others, it’s legal since it’s his own wife.’
He had shown no interest in any woman until now, but the object was the princess hailed as the empire’s greatest beauty. It made sense.
“Exaggerating a bit, if she wanted, she could have every man in this hall on their knees at her feet……”
Johannes, rambling as if fully understanding Herdin’s heart, met his even more menacing gaze and hurriedly added,
“Ah, not me, of course. Even so, I have some morals. I’m no bastard harboring vile thoughts about a friend’s wife.”
Johannes quickly raised his glass near Herdin’s with an awkward laugh.
Herdin regarded him with eyes deeming him the world’s most pathetic creature. It was absurd how he spoke of something so obvious as if upholding a millennium of loyalty.
Avoiding the toast, Herdin set his glass down and turned away. Johannes’s glass awkwardly brushed empty air.
“Hey, where are you going? Leaving a friend you haven’t seen in ages.”
Hey, Duke!
Ignoring Johannes’s call, Herdin headed toward the corner where Blair had been—but halted.
Blair had vanished in the interim.
* * *
“Haa……”
Blair’s exhaled breath spread white into the chilly winter night.
‘Dizzy…….’
She had come to the balcony to shake off the alcohol with the cold wind, but instead, heat rose in her body, making the intoxication worsen. Her mind felt hazy.
Blair lightly slapped both cheeks and sighed deeply.
“What do I do. If I go back to the hall like this, rumors of me being a drunkard will spread……”
She already had low tolerance, and unbeknownst to herself, she had drunk more than her limit while dealing with people.
She felt somewhat hazy but not that drunk—still, she couldn’t return to the hall in this state.
Nobles considered becoming so intoxicated as to lose decorum unbecoming, even at a banquet. Thus, the wines provided were mostly light, low-alcohol varieties.
To get drunk on such wines.
‘I need to go back soon.’
But contrary to her intent, drowsiness poured over her instead.
Just as Blair was about to nod off completely, the door clicked open, and someone entered the balcony.
“……Rina?”
Thinking it was Rina returning with water, Blair froze upon seeing the approaching figure.
“Well, if it isn’t our Princess Imperial Highness.”
It was Wesley, heir of the Baldwin Marquisate. He had always been friendly toward her as princess, but the stench of alcohol wafting from him as he strode closer was overpowering.
“They say a woman who knows men becomes even more beautiful, and indeed, you’ve grown prettier after marriage.”
His staggering steps and half-lidded eyes filled her with ominous foreboding.
“……I’ll head back first.”
Blair forced her slurring tongue to enunciate her intent clearly. Revealing her intoxication to someone approaching with clear intent was unwise.
Yet Wesley blocked her path, showing no intention of letting her go easily.
“Come on, we’ve run into each other like this—don’t be so heartless. Spare some time for me too.”
“Sorry, but I’ve been away too long……”
“Tch, playing hard to get.”
Wesley roughly seized Blair’s wrist. Unable to steady herself from the alcohol, she was easily dragged along.
The startled Blair tried to pull her wrist free, but it only hurt more.
“Let go!”
“What innocent maiden act for a woman who’s no longer a virgin? Let’s be honest about our desires, Madam.”
As Wesley brutishly yanked the staggering Blair, a hand from someone entering the open balcony seized his wrist. A grip strong enough to snap it if mishandled.
Wesley couldn’t endure the pain and released Blair’s wrist.
“Ugh…… Who the hell!”
Charging to swing at the hand’s owner, Wesley faltered upon seeing his face. Before him stood Herdin, expression colder than the winter wind.
“Who……”
Herdin kicked Wesley in the abdomen. Wesley comically rolled across the balcony floor.
Herdin approached the groaning Wesley. In that gap, Wesley rose, but far from counterattacking, he tripped over Herdin’s foot and rolled again.
Herdin crouched to meet his gaze and added in a low voice,
“This woman’s husband.”
Then, raising his fist, he warned,
“Bite down on your teeth.”
Just as Herdin was about to strike the terrified Wesley.
Hiccup!
A hiccup escaped Blair, who had been too shocked to speak. At the sound, Herdin’s fist paused.
“……”
“……”
In the silence, only Blair’s hiccups rang out rhythmically.
Herdin lowered his raised hand. Instead, he grabbed Wesley’s hair and whispered in his ear,
“If I hear you barking even once more, you’ll lose that tongue before tasting anything.”
A voice so low Blair couldn’t hear.
Herdin released Wesley’s hair as if discarding it and stood. Blair was still hiccupping. Even amid it, she was beautiful.
Her large eyes brimming with tears ready to spill at a touch, white cheeks flushed slightly from the cold wind, small lips parted in surprise.
Gazing at her, Johannes’s words suddenly resurfaced.
‘Well, honestly, she is pretty. What man wouldn’t fall for that face and figure.’
Yes, that was it.
Damnably beautiful—that was why this mess had occurred.
Thinking every man in the banquet hall harbored lecherous desires like Wesley, toying with and coveting her with their eyes, he felt the impulse to gouge them all out.
Before that happened, he wanted to confine her where only his eyes could reach. Where no one else could see.
Of course, he knew it was madness.
Herdin suppressed his mad thoughts and boiling emotions as he took Blair’s hand.
“……Follow me.”
