“I heard someone talking about you. You should have been honest if these rumors were spreading.”
Elena had just been about to ask, “What are you doing?” but she swallowed down her words. She couldn’t understand where he was going with this, but she would accept what he said with the knowledge that he was on her side.
“Everyone listen.”
Carlisle fixed the room with a steely gaze.
“Elena Blaise is my woman.”
Carlisle’s voice rang clearly in the room, as everyone was holding their breath. At his sudden announcement, the nobles swallowed or gave a faint gasp of surprise. The truth about the rumor was moving in an exciting new direction.
“Lady Blaise has been seeing me for a long time. I was planning to keep it a secret before I officially announced it, but I didn’t expect this nonsense to spread.”
Carlisle bore down the room with a reproachful glare, but Helen shook herself to her senses and intervened.
“Then she cheated on you! There was a man who said he was with Lady Blaise, and if you have doubts–”
Carlisle’s expressionless face moved towards Helen.
“Who told you that bullshit? “
Carlisle’s voice was dangerously low, but Helen’s only thoughts were excitement over having made eye contact with him. At first she inhaled in embarrassment, but soon she put on the most innocent expression she could make.
“A viscount said–”
But Helen’s words did not last long. Carlisle issued a low order in the direction outside of the door.
“Bring it here, Zenard.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
Zenard replied with a polite voice and strode into the party.
“Put it down.”
Zenard began unwrapping a cloth from a round object in his hands. The object was released from its cloth binding and immediately fell to the floor and rolled forward.
Tong, tong, tong…
It bumped into a stop at the leg of the table. What everyone saw–
Was a man’s head.
“Kkyaaaaaa!”
The party was instantly filled with high screams of the women. Everyone, male or female of any age, had turned pale and watched the scene with widened eyes. Carlisle’s calm expression was severely out of place.
“Is this the man who said that?”
Helen stared at Carlisle with stunned shock, unable to answer. She couldn’t have been ignorant of who he was. He was the nobleman she had paid to pay false rumors.
“…Oh…oh my god…”
Helen was completely numb. Carlisle responded casually.
“Look carefully and answer. If there’s another one like him, then I’ll do the same.”
The room, which once held the sounds of merriment, was now engulfed in silence. The music had stopped long ago, and everyone held their breath as they watched Carlisle.
Sullivan had reigned for some time now. Up until then, the emperors of the Ruford empire were war-loving, brutal, and unafraid to spill blood. After Sullivan was crowned emperor, the country had stayed in relative peace. It was the first time that the young nobles had experienced something like this, while the older ones had a darkened face as they recalled the emperors of the past. For the nobility who had lived most of their days through the quieter times, Carlisle’s actions had to be shocking.
No one said a word to Carlisle. His presence was overwhelming.
“How dare anyone defame my woman. If anyone wants to continue to talk about this rumor, come forward now.”
No one spoke up, fearing for their necks. As it was, with Carlisle as the crown prince and Redfield as the second prince supported by the empress, there was little room to step out of line. The Ruford Empire had been such a place since the beginning, and the bloodstained history of the emperors proved it. The nobility were crushed to silence.
“…Your Highness.”
A gentle voice broke through the tense atmosphere. All eyes turned to its direction.
And there stood Elena.
“You can stop now. They have learned the truth about the rumors.”
Only then did Carlisle turn away to look at her. His face looked calm as usual, but Elena could see he was furious underneath the surface.
“You think this is enough? I won’t rest easy until I find out who started this rumor and tear them to pieces.”
Carlisle’s cool eyes immediately moved toward Helen, as if he knew from the outset who was responsible. Then this may not be the end of it.
Elena felt she should stop him. No matter how many former Ruford emperors would have spilled blood, she didn’t want Carlisle to turn into a tyrant before everyone’s eyes. And if he was doing this because of her, she wanted to stop it even more.
“That’s enough. I’m all right, Your Highness.”
Elena took Carlisle’s arm, and she could feel how solid he felt under her hand.
With that gentle touch and warm body heat…Carlisle’s posture finally loosened.
“Lady Blaise, you are my woman. And I hate when others touch what’s mine.”
It was a warning for everyone to hear. Elena nodded in understanding.
“I’m sure they all know. Don’t stay here anymore and come with me, Your Highness.”
Carlisle furrowed his brow when she pulled on his arm, but allowed himself to be lead away. Elena didn’t know it, but everyone was looking at her with the same astonishment as when the man’s head fell on the floor.
The butcher, the bloodthirsty devil, the conqueror–there have been numerous words to describe the emperor of the Ruford Emperor, but they had never heard of a weakness to a woman. They could hardly believe there was someone that could take Carlisle away with such docility when he looked ready to kill anyone in this room just moments before.
Eventually, Elena and Carlisle disappeared from the room.
Kwang!
The door closed, but the room was still quiet as they tried to process what had happened.
“…Heug.”
A sob broke the silence. Helen had burst into tears and was biting her lips. She wiped her cheeks with both palms and looked up, her eyes glazed with poison.
“…How dare she. I’ll kill her.”
Helen could not forgive Elena any more for this. Carlisle’s eyes had met hers. He must have admired her beauty, but suddenly, Elena took Carlisle’s arm and stole him away.
‘Disgusting bitch, taking my man from me.’
Helen left the party shaking with rage, her two companions beside her. Sophie ventured forward carefully.
“M-my Lady, what do we–”
Helen cut her off coldly.
“Shut up! You useless thing.”
Sophie and Sarah flinched at the sharpness in Helen’s eyes.
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