Chapter 44

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***

“Tell me where it hurts.”

Alexis’ face terrifyingly hardened as he frantically looked at her.

“I’m not hurt.”

Kathleen trembled as she watched the blood seeping across the fountain. Alexis stopped her from seeing Count Winston with a bizarrely broken arm.

“Why are you here?”

His hands were warm as he carefully rubbed the tendon between her fingers and even the small bones on the back of her hand.

“I’m fine.”

Count Winston groaned and Kathleen flinched at the sound. At the same time, the right hand held by Alexis grew cold, and tiny ice crystals began to freeze.

She had handed her gloves to Count Schenberg so their appearance was clearer because she was bare-handed.

“Ah…….”

She hadn’t been able to control it like this in a while, so she had forgotten. Alexis wrapped his hand around hers but she tried to pull away out of embarrassment. In an instant, her icy hands were hidden.

“Let’s go back.”

Alexis spoke briefly and left the banquet hall. The duke’s carriage was waiting at the entrance. He let Kathleen in first, and unlike when they came, he sat across from her, scouring her with a piercing look, and reached out.

“This fell off.”

He found one of her earrings from the dress frill and handed them over. It must have fallen off during the confrontation. Kathleen took it with trembling hands and put it back on her ear.

“Was that Count Winston?”

He asked as soon as the carriage left.

“That man earlier. I’m asking if he was your father.”

“Yes.”

Kathleen felt her ice crystals melt away from her hands as she replied.

“Did he hit you before?”

“…..”

“Answer me.”

A blue vein swelled in his hand as he held the carriage window frame. His jaw seemed to be tightening as well.

‘Is it hurting your pride?’

Kathleen nodded her head. His face contorted.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“It’s not a fun topic to talk about on purpose. You never even asked.”

“…..”

“I thought it was unnecessary to inform the Duke.”

Alexis’ gaze turned to her clasped hands. Not wanting to be caught trembling, Kathleen hid her hands in the hem of her dress.

“How much more do I not know about you?”

The voice she heard after a long time was unexpectedly filled with despair. It sounded like he wanted to know more about her.

She had waited for this for so long, but now, it was quite funny that he was speaking as if he were truly concerned.

“Does the Duke know anything about me?”

His chest heaved greatly at the brief response. It was the first time she had seen him like this ever since she had known him.

Alexis asked again.

“Is it because of your father that you came into my bedroom to better your situation?”

They were cold words, but they weren’t wrong at all. The reason why she saved her former master, the Duke of Walten, was to live safely with Emily in the Duke’s residence after she escaped her father.

“Yes.”

“Then.”

The moment he was about to ask something urgently, the carriage stopped. Kathleen held her breath as she heard the coachman come down from his seat.

He said.

“Why did you love me after becoming the duchess?”

The coachman knocked lightly on the door. It was a signal that meant they had arrived.

Kathleen got up without answering and opened the door. It was fortunate that the wind blew hard and her hair fluttered which then covered her.

“…I don’t know why you suddenly became curious about that.”

She said as she took the coachman’s outstretched hand.

She still didn’t look back.

“It’s just a useless story now.”

Kathleen got off the carriage and headed straight for her bedroom. Alexis did not follow her.

As soon as she reached the bedroom, she closed the door and sat down on the floor. It was absurd. She laughed as she burst into tears.

For some reason, he was reflecting on the past now. The time when she received nothing but pain.

Kathleen wiped her wet eyes. She would no longer be fooled no matter what he says to melt her heart.

She didn’t want to know more about how fleeting it was to believe in a whim and risk her life.

***

Peter could not hide his embarrassment at the tall, young man who suddenly appeared.

“Count Schenberg?”

“Your Highness, the Crown Prince.”

He smiled skillfully and bent his knees.

“Let’s stop with the formalities. I already received it in the banquet hall.”

“It’s the first time we’ve met in person, so it’s right to greet you properly again.”

“What brings you here?”

“Well. I came to the lounge on the west terrace.”

This was the farthest from the banquet hall and it was so narrow that hardly anyone used it. Moreover, if it was your first visit to the Imperial Palace, it was such a remote place that you could not easily enter even if you got lost.

A white glove appeared in Peter’s eyes. He looked at him as he put his hands together with the tip of his chin slightly raised. It was Kathleen’s.

“What is it?”

“I heard it was a pass for this place.”

Count Schenberg, who politely held out the gloves, had a smile in his eyes, unlike his lips now.

“Sit down.”

It was suspicious, but Peter took it and sat down on the sofa.

“No matter how many times I asked for a private conversation, you were silent, so I thought I would have to go back without seeing you again.”

Count Schenberg said as he sat across from him.

“It was a good thing I asked the Duchess of Walten as well.”

“Do not approach her. My sister-in-law is not the subject of this negotiation.”

As if somewhat surprised, Count Schenberg broadened his shoulders.

“The Duchess is reluctant to talk about it to His Highness, and Your Highness is concerned that the Duchess will be involved. I did not know that the love of the Imperial Family would be so great.”

“It must be interesting that the atmosphere is different from the Schenberg Royal Family?”

At the lightly spoken words, his gentle face cracked. Peter rested his chin on his hand and looked at his face with interest.

Count Schenberg, whose expression disappeared in an instant, said.

“It’s been a long time since the royal family has disappeared, but how can you say such a thing? I was just happy to say that the members of the imperial family are close. Don’t get me wrong.”

“I’m sorry if I misunderstood. But I didn’t know that the Count was even looking at the atmosphere within the imperial family.”

Peter was raised as the heir to the emperor from the moment he was born. So he didn’t have a hard time noticing the impatience of the negotiating party, and instinctively knew he had to step on top of it.

“You don’t have to worry about Lady Kiana Schenberg not fitting in with the Imperial Family. Did you think I won’t be generous to your only blood?”

“I’m relieved that you said so, but in fact, I’m here today to ask Your Highness for a favor.”

“What is it?”

“Dear Crown Prince, my sister is lacking. Please reconsider this marriage.”

Count Schenberg’s words were what Peter had hoped for, but he refused.

He furrowed his eyebrows as if rather displeased.

“Did you ask me to see you so that you could say that?”

“I’m sorry. But Kiana is a very small child compared to Your Highness. For her to become a Crown Princess, she is not only weak, but also . . . ”

“No one is born a Crown Princess. She will be educated.”

“The Schenberg family is just a Count. I’m ashamed that we can’t even be compared to the Trivellian Imperial Family.”

“The title can be raised any number of times. Although you are from a ruined country, I cannot agree with what you are saying as you were once members of a Royal Family.”

“Her body is very weak. She is a child who has been ill since birth and does not come out of her room often. I do not know how long she will be able to hold the position if she becomes the Crown Princess.”

“Then she will need to live in the Imperial Palace even more. We also have the best doctors in Trivellian.”

The conversation, which continued without a single step back, began to gradually overheat. Peter acted as if he had great interest in Count Schenberg’s younger sister, whom he knew only by name.

“I don’t know why the Count is so opposed to his sister’s marriage. Is it because your sister is so precious that you don’t want to let her go, or is it because I’m not good enough?”

“I spoke out of sincerity and loyalty to Your Highness.”

“There’s only the two of us here, so you can stop talking like that.”

Peter leaned back a little more on the sofa and continued to speak slowly.

“Tell me what you really think.”

“What are you talking about……”

“If not Lady Schenberg, how about you marrying into the Imperial Family?”

“What?”

“Are you also going to say no to that?”

Count Schenberg looked at the prince without saying a word. Unlike his brother, the Duke of Walten, he had a slender and pretty appearance, but their personalities resembled each other, they were both tenacious.

Currently, there are no direct princesses in Trivellian, but he thought that he was gracious enough to receive him and finally talk about the political marriage. Perhaps it is the characteristic of this Imperial Family to never let anything go even once.

Count Schenberg said with a smile.

“If she’s from the Imperial Family, then she’s a princess and she will be resentful because I still like a free life.”

Despite the euphemistic refusal thrown like a joke, Peter did not laugh.

“Then how is Schenberg going to be loyal to the Empire?”

Peter got up from the sofa and said coldly.

“You don’t have the power to suppress the riots of the people you ruled in the past. No will to lend the name of a fake lady, so where is the loyalty?”

“Your Highness!”

Count Schenberg stood up with a frozen face.

“What do you mean by that? What do you mean a fake lady, there’s a misunderstanding…”

“Oh. Is it more accurate to say that she was a sister who is already a dead sister?”

Kiana Schenberg’s death was top secret, so even in the South, very few people knew. He has no idea how Peter found out. If he feigns innocence, the crown prince would go straight to the Schenberg Estate and declare that he would get married.

“If you were going to hide it, you should have hidden it till the end. Then I might have sent a letter of annulment.”

Peter, who had risen as the victor in an instant, approached Count Schenberg.

“You have no reason to refuse. The Schenberg girl will be my fiancée. If you don’t like it…”

He reached out and pressed the crest hanging on the Count’s shoulder.

“Wear this and go down South to give a speech.”

Count Schenberg’s square jaw became tense. Peter issued an ultimatum.

“Choose, Kieron Schenberg. It’s up to you to choose how to be loyal to the Empire.”