Chapter 116 - North Korean rabbit

Episode 116

“…….”

I truly had not anticipated this. It was so absurd that I was left speechless.

Naturally, only one thought came to mind.

*‘What is he saying, this lunatic.’*

However, it seemed Ludwig had misinterpreted my silence.

“Yes, you seem moved as well. You probably never imagined I would think of you to this extent.”

Spouting nonsense, Ludwig tried to stride closer to me.

At that, Lord Beltain, who had been guarding me from directly behind, stepped forward.

“Do not come any closer.”

“You wretch!”

Ludwig’s rust-colored eyes spat fire.

“How dare a lowly creature like you…!”

Lord Beltain’s arm, clad in armor, blocked my path.

“Did Her Highness not instruct you? Please return now, Your Grace.”

“Can’t you shut up?! How dare you block my way?”

A dangerous glint flashed in Ludwig’s eyes.

No matter how thin his imperial blood was, he too was one who inherited the dragon’s lineage.

*Thud!*

“Gah!”

The armor covering Lord Beltain’s chest caved in from the punch Ludwig swung.

“Get lost! I wish to speak with Hilia directly!”

Though groaning in pain, Lord Beltain refused to step aside from in front of me.

Ludwig seemed to have no intention of holding back.

As if he had forgotten this was the Imperial Palace.

He grabbed Lord Beltain’s arm and, with monstrous strength, slammed him to the floor.

*Bang!*

A loud sound struck my ears. Startled and worried, I cried out.

“Lord Beltain!”

Amid the commotion, Ludwig was finally able to face me.

Ani tried to block my front, but of course, she was no match for Ludwig.

“Kyaaak!!”

The Duchess of Müzen let out a horrified scream.

“Guards! Protect Her Highness at once!”

Amid the commotion, Ludwig was finally able to face me.

In that instant.

I smiled coldly and quickly snapped my thumb and index finger together three times, making a sharp *click-click* sound.

Then, one of the rings on my finger deployed a dazzling magical barrier of light before me.

Having unleashed a considerable amount of magical power all at once, Ludwig was pushed back.

“Kgh!”

I did my utmost to paint a fierce sneer on my face.

One that would make him feel insulted and enraged just by looking at it.

“As expected, you are truly ill-mannered, Grand Duke Kylern.”

“…What?”

My unexpected tone caused bewilderment to spread across Ludwig’s face. His reaction suggested he had never imagined I would take such an attitude.

Yes, that I would address him so formally.

“You seem foolish enough to still be under the delusion that you are my fiancé, so I shall go to the trouble of explaining it to you once more.”

My tone was, of course, an imitation of Arpad’s.

Because among the speech patterns of people I knew, his was the one most specialized in infuriating the listener.

Moreover, Ludwig harbored a long-standing sense of inferiority and inadequacy towards Arpad.

*‘So he’ll be even angrier.’*

“You made no formal request for an audience, showed no courtesy whatsoever, injured my knight, and attempted to threaten me. This alone is sufficient grounds for a charge of treason.”

“Treason?!”

I smoothed the hair that had been disheveled by the earlier use of the defensive magical artifact and retorted.

“Isn’t attempting to threaten a member of the imperial family and injuring an imperial knight typically called treason?”

“I am also a member of the imperial family!”

“But I am the Crown Princess. You are merely a collateral relative.”

I smiled as if benevolently.

“If you do not wish to be treated as a traitor, you should start observing proper etiquette now and offer an apology.”

In short, it was this:

*‘Get on your knees and beg now. Then I might consider it.’*

Of course, there was no way Ludwig could accept this.

His face turned red and purple. His attitude suggested he might rush at me again and resort to violence at any moment.

But surprisingly, Ludwig soon regained his composure.

It was a truly rare situation.

The Ludwig I knew had never held back his anger in front of me.

He smiled slyly and tried to placate me.

“Alright, I understand. You must be very hurt and disappointed with me, Hilia.”

“What are you talking about?”

For a moment, the words came out before I could think.

Words so disgusting and irritating they made me doubt my hearing.

Ludwig continued stringing together those dreadful words.

“I understand that you’re sulking because you misunderstood and were disappointed. It was understandable for you to misunderstand. But taking me to court to strip me bare was going too far.”

I was currently taking Ludwig to court over charges of embezzling the assets and territories of the Ducal House of Delphin.

In order to secure a seizure of Ludwig’s territories and assets in return.

It seemed Ludwig had come to stop that.

“If your goal was to get my attention, well, I admit it. You succeeded. No, you won, Hilia.”

He swept his bangs back as if conceding.

“You succeeded in drawing me out like this.”

He was filled with an inexplicable confidence and self-love down to his fingertips, making it sickening to watch.

“The fact that you ultimately came to see me like this means you still have lingering feelings too, doesn’t it? Isn’t that right?”

I was so dumbfounded my mouth closed on its own.

“If you truly had no thoughts of me, you could have just ignored me. But you didn’t.”

He wasn’t wrong. That’s why the Duchess of Müzen had also warned me to just send Ludwig away.

Ludwig stretched out his hand to me as if he were a lover reluctantly conceding.

“Let’s go back together, even now. Let’s put everything that’s been twisted back in its place.”

“Back in its place?”

Ludwig smiled brightly. As if it never even crossed his mind that I might refuse.

“Yes. If you come back, I won’t see Evangeline ever again.”

My eyes flashed.

Ludwig had just all but admitted his relationship with Evangeline with his own mouth.

I glanced down at the necklace hanging around my neck.

The necklace with a large amethyst dangling from it.

A faint light flickered again. It’s working properly.

*‘I thought there might be a use for this if Ludwig came… and it’s really happening.’*

I slightly altered what I was about to say.

“Listening to you, it sounds as if I’m not returning to you because of Evangeline?”

I deliberately changed my tone. It wasn’t the tone I had used earlier, imitating Arpad to anger and insult Ludwig.

It was the tone I used daily during our engagement.

A glint flashed in Ludwig’s eyes. He had noticed it too.

The intentional change in attitude I had shown him.

He latched onto it.

“Isn’t that it? Isn’t it? It’s because you want me to get angry and jealous and look at you again, isn’t it?”

Ludwig was probably the only person who would interpret my marriage of abduction with Arpad that way.

No, perhaps it’s what he wanted to believe.

So that he could somehow reverse things even now?

I felt so absurd and furious that it seemed the blood in my entire body was running cold.

Interpreting my closed-mouthed silence in his own way, Ludwig became even more blatant in trying to placate and coax me.

“Don’t worry. It’s over with Evangeline now. You just need to come back. Then we can go back to how things were before.”

A bright smile appeared on my lips. This was 100% genuine.

Seeing my bright smile, Ludwig’s face lit up with joy. It was a smile as if he had regained a lost hope.

I shattered it right in front of him.

“Why on earth would I do that, when I’m not insane?”

“…What?”

The hope that had swelled within Ludwig at my gentle, affectionate smile seemed to have popped like a bubble.

“But, just now! Clearly…!”

I smiled coldly and changed my attitude again. Then I asked the Duchess of Müzen beside me.

“Duchess. Who am I?”

She, sensing the situation, quickly knelt before me and said.

“Your Highness, the Empire’s sole Crown Princess. Currently, the administrator of the inner palace entrusted with the Platinum Key.”

I turned my head to Ludwig. I looked him up and down, openly revealing my disgust and contempt.

“So why on earth is this man, who has now lost all substance to his territory and title, telling me I should go to him? I cannot comprehend it.”

“You—you were my woman!”

“No. I was never your woman, not for a single moment. Your woman was Evangeline, I suppose.”

Leaving the stunned Ludwig behind, I approached the passage leading to the adjoining room.

That was when it happened. Ludwig, filled with rage, lunged at me.

My attention was focused on opening the door, so I couldn’t activate the magical defense artifact in time as I had before.

“Ugh!”

He grabbed my wrist and then hissed menacing words into my ear.

“You’d better think carefully, Hilia. I told you. I came to give you one last chance.”

I glared at Ludwig with an expression that wanted to spit.

“I wouldn’t take that kind of chance, or you, even if you offered it.”

Then Ludwig used an even more intense and blatant expression to whisper threatening words to me.

“————————.”

This was a voice deliberately lowered so no one around could hear.

Throughout hearing those words, I was checking the necklace.

*‘Good. It’s working well.’*

If so, then the ‘evidence’ was also securely obtained. Relaxing my hardened expression, I smiled brightly.

And then I clicked my tongue softly.

“?”

Ludwig, not understanding the meaning, looked puzzled.

At that moment.

*Thud!* The door to the adjoining room I was about to open swung open on its own.

And the person who rushed through that door like the wind seized Ludwig’s wrist.

The very hand that was holding my wrist.

*Crunch!*

Along with the chilling sound of bones seemingly shattering, Arpad’s voice, filled with cold killing intent, pressed down upon the floor.

“How dare you lay hands on my wife again, Ludwig?”

“Kgh!”

“Indeed, it would be better to render these filthy fingers of yours completely useless.”

“Gyaaak!”

A pained groan was squeezed from between Ludwig’s teeth.

Arpad was emanating a sincere killing intent, and it was at a level even Ludwig, who shared the same dragon bloodline, found hard to endure.

Untrained women like Ani or the Duchess were clutching their hearts and sinking to their knees.

I stopped Arpad.

“That’s enough!”

I reached out and grabbed Arpad’s cloak, pulling it.

Wanting to make it clear I wasn’t stopping him out of concern for that wretch Ludwig, I immediately explained.

“The ladies-in-waiting will faint. Please stop.”

The expression on Arpad’s face, which had been twisting with even darker thoughts, softened a little.

And he confirmed in a voice so low only I could hear.

“Did you secure the evidence well?”

“Yes. Perfectly.”

That was precisely why I had made Arpad wait in the adjoining room and not come in, even though he was there.

Upon hearing that Ludwig had come, Arpad, who had rushed over, insisted he wouldn’t let me meet him in a situation where he wasn’t guarding me.

So we decided that Arpad would wait in the adjoining room, and I would meet Ludwig after sufficiently equipping myself with defensive magical artifacts.

I touched the necklace.

*‘It was all for this.’*

Arpad turned his head, baring his teeth in a smile. Towards his cousin, discarded on the floor.

“Are you so unable to let go of your lingering attachment to what you’ve lost that you come here and cause a disturbance like this?”

Arpad openly mocked Ludwig.

“Then maybe you should have treated her better, huh?”

That was a somewhat satisfying remark. I shook my head while patting Arpad’s shoulder.

“It’s useless, Arpad.”

“Why is that, Hilia?”

The gazes of both Arpad and Ludwig turned towards me simultaneously.

A gaze mixed with expectation and dread for what answer would come.

“No matter how affectionately someone else might have treated me, in the end, I would have fallen in love with you.”

The expressions of both Arpad and Ludwig hardened at the same time.

* * *

Arpad knew.

That the smiles Hilia showed him, the natural skin-ship, and the embarrassing words were all calculated.

That statement was no different.

And yet… even knowing all that, Arpad felt as if his heart were melting.

That’s why. He added an unnecessary remark.

“You probably have no idea how sweet and joyful those words of yours are to me.”

At that, Hilia looked slightly flustered. But given the situation, she didn’t show it outwardly.

Not missing that opening, Arpad decided to indulge his selfish desire a little more.

“Say it just once more.”

Hilia’s eyes widened in astonishment.