Chapter 54
“Look at that girl. She actually had the nerve to show up looking like that.”
Tedrick stood off to the side, grinding his teeth as he hissed the words under his breath.
Normally, a boy of his standing would only be permitted to attend the birthday gala for the Assis Grand Duke. However, Viscount Lilius had successfully pressured the administration into granting him a spot in the hunting trials as well.
The intoxicating rush of newfound influence had been sweet, but it evaporated the second he laid eyes on Tulia Frazier. Foul insults crowded his throat, threatening to spill over.
It had been roughly a quarter of a year since she had turned her back on her own mother and father. Now, the delusional girl appeared to have tethered her fortunes to the twins of the Marquis House.
His eyes drifted to the tall, silver-haired youth strolling beside her.
Lisian Frazier. Just look at that stuttering fool acting like he owns the place.
The vitriol remained internal; he knew better than to voice such thoughts. The aristocracy of the Briyang Empire worshipped an ideal of flawlessness. The higher one climbed the social ladder, the more ruthless that standard became. By every traditional metric, Lisian’s speech impediment was a ruinous defect.
Yet, despite that weakness, the boy was constantly besieged by romantic overtures from high-born women.
It’s nothing but that face of his.
Lisian possessed hair that shimmered like pale moonbeams and a face so symmetrical it felt unreal. With eyes the color of clear spring leaves, he looked more like a celestial being than a man.
That saintly act of his is sickening.
Tedrick believed a person like that belonged in the gutters of the common class, not as the firstborn of the Marquis. With those looks, he should have been some noblewoman’s plaything, kept for a few seasons of her youth and then tossed aside. It burned Tedrick’s pride that a stutterer outranked him simply because of the house he was born into.
While he could occasionally dismiss Tulia due to her age, Lisian was a hurdle he couldn’t clear. He stood there, vibrating with a toxic mix of fury and inadequacy, when a voice broke his trance.
“Cousin Tedrick.”
He blinked, pulling his gaze away from the siblings to see Kanes Frazier standing before him.
“What’s happened to you? You look so gaunt.”
Kanes was the offspring of Count Nigela Frazier, but his status as an illegitimate child meant he was technically beneath Tedrick, the rightful heir to a viscountcy. Seeing someone of lower birth look at him with such genuine pity actually made Tedrick feel a sense of superiority again. His mood lifted slightly.
“I’ve had no appetite lately,” Tedrick replied vaguely. “There have been complications.”
He refused to breathe a word about the shame Tulia had heaped upon him. Since Viscount Lilius and Aubrey had also kept quiet to protect their dignity, only Count Nigela likely had any inkling of the truth.
Uncle Nigela must have kept the details from his son.
Tedrick felt a surge of misplaced confidence. “To be honest, that brat Tulia is the reason I’m in this state.”
“What? Tulia Frazier?” Kanes’s eyes went wide with surprise. “But she used to be terrified of you. She wouldn’t even speak up in your presence.”
“Precisely!”
The validation felt like a cool drink on a sweltering day. The suffocating weight in Tedrick’s chest finally began to ease. That was the reality he remembered. She was a girl who lived in fear of her father’s shadow. Even when she lost her temper, a sharp word from her mother would send her retreating, biting her lip and crying as she begged for forgiveness. She was a non-entity, yet somehow, the world had flipped upside down.
“Her reputation is trash anyway,” Kanes added. “And her attitude is even worse. I remember you telling me she doesn’t have a single ally in the entire Grand Duchy’s social circle.”
Tedrick felt a fleeting prickle of shame at that, but it passed quickly. Tulia was the only young lady of the direct line living in the territory. By rights, she should have been the center of a massive social orbit. It was his own parents who had systematically isolated her.
Even so, he told himself, with her vanity and that temper, she never would have kept friends anyway.
He turned back to Kanes, his voice sharpening. “You have no idea how manipulative she’s become. She actually convinced Grandfather to put me under a ridiculous house arrest.”
“No! How could he do that to his own flesh and blood?” Kanes cried out, sounding more offended than Tedrick himself. “No wonder you’ve suffered. You’ve lost your muscle and your color. I was worried you were dying of some plague.”
“…Damn her. It’s all her fault.”
Tedrick looked down at himself, suddenly self-conscious. A powerful frame—broad shoulders, sturdy thighs, and a lean, athletic build—was the ultimate mark of a noble man in the Empire. Young lords spent countless hours honing their physiques.
But during his confinement, he had spent his time throwing cold meals against the wall in a rage. He had been barred from the training grounds. While the main house had servants to draw hot baths at a whim, the drafty warehouse where he’d been kept had only a skeleton crew who took hours just to warm a kettle.
Exercise in that frozen shed? He would have caught pneumonia.
Now, he was forced to appear at the Grand Duchy’s most prestigious outdoor event looking like a shadow of his former self. He had hoped the expensive new hunting silks his mother had commissioned—dripping with gold embroidery—would hide the weight loss, but Kanes’s reaction proved it was a failure.
The embarrassment was so acute he wanted to vanish. It only got worse when he looked at Tulia’s brothers. The twins were the literal embodiment of the aristocratic ideal, and the contrast made his blood boil. They were already his superiors by rank; did they have to humiliate him physically as well? And in front of every noble in the territory?
The resentment he had nursed while shivering in that warehouse reached a breaking point. It bubbled over into a dark realization.
Wait.
He wasn’t the only one who could be shamed today. Unlike Tulia, who was effectively an orphan, he had parents who actively fought for him. Her name was still mud in most circles, and the truth of his own recent disgrace hadn’t spread yet.
High society thrived on bloodsport. How many people here were just waiting for a reason to see the arrogant Tulia fall flat on her face?
A cruel grin spread across Tedrick’s face.
“Cousin? Why are you smiling like that?”
“Kanes. What do you say we put Tulia back in her place?”
“What?”
“Don’t tell me those Marquis brats don’t get under your skin too.”
“Well… they do, but…” Kanes looked hesitant, clearly weary of crossing the twins.
Bastard coward, Tedrick thought, though he knew he needed the help. “I have a plan. Just do exactly what I tell you.”
After Lisian departed to join the senior lords for the start of the hunt, I found myself with nothing to do but observe the crowd.
I wonder just how many vassals the Grand Duchy actually supports.
The sheer volume of people was staggering. It was hard to wrap my head around the fact that every single person here held a title.
At least the view is nice.
Everyone was draped in their finest silks and jewels. It made sense; the Frazier Grand Duchy wasn’t exactly known for its frequent parties.
There’s no one left to play hostess, after all.
The former Grand Duchess? Deceased.
The Marquis’s wife, who would have been next? Also gone.
The daughter of the house, Tulia? A known disaster.
“…”
I sighed to myself. When Aubrey was running the household, she at least managed to throw the occasional tea party or ball. But Aubrey’s influence was currently non-existent. I didn’t have the authority to plan anything, and Viscount Lilius was far too busy trying to consolidate his own power to bother with social graces.
Grandfather’s birthday is going to be a somber affair this year.
There was simply no high-ranking woman to oversee the arrangements. Ruk and the rest of the inner council were out in the field with Grandfather, and while the estate had an army of servants and a capable butler, they lacked a lady’s direction.
The Grand Banquet Hall is probably a mess right now.
Compared to the opulence of this hunting camp, the actual party venue would likely look neglected.
Lilius is such a petty man.
The Viscount had organized this entire hunt. If he had any decency, he would have handled the birthday preparations at the same time, but he was intentionally ignoring the upcoming gala. His spite was truly exhausting. To think he was actually Grandfather’s son.
Ruk and the advisors would likely have to scramble to put something together the moment they returned and saw the state of the hall.
Actually, maybe I can convince them to let Adel handle it?
Adel was incredibly efficient, and since she was Ruk’s sister, the transition would be seamless.
I should try to make that happen.
If my personal head maid took over the management of the main castle’s events, my own social standing would be cemented. I was busy daydreaming about my rising influence, a small smile on my face, as I wandered aimlessly.
Thwack!
A stray arrow hissed through the air, burying its head in the dirt inches from my toes.
