Chapter 111

Chapter 111: Chapter 110

“Sir Chester, if you’re going back to the mansion right now…”

“No. wait for me here.”

Ober coldly passed by the servant waiting for him at the entrance of the main palace.

Just looking ahead, he walked down the stairs.

The approaching shadow also slowed down its pace as if it also sensed Ober’s slow pace.

“I’m honored to see you, Lady Marianne,” Ober bowed to her elegantly.

“May God bless you. Please get up, sir.”

Marianne hurriedly answered and asked him to stand up. Poibe, sitting on her arm, flew over and landed lightly on her shoulder.

“I was sorry yesterday. His Majesty recommended so strongly, I couldn’t reject it…”

“It’s fine. As he made the decision in consideration of your fatigue from the long journey, I think you would find it difficult to reject it.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Marianne smiled brightly as if she was pleased. Cordelli, who supported her, looked at him with an unpleasant expression and laughed awkwardly after discovering that she smiled.

“Are you on your way to see the emperor?” asked Ober.

“Yeah. He wanted to discuss with me about the reception of our engagement ceremony…”

“Ah, you had an engagement ceremony. I was so surprised that I even forgot the purpose of your journey to Roshan.”

“It’s okay. If you’re busy, you can sleep on it. As you said, so many terrible things happened. I still don’t realize that I have been engaged.”

While hearing her reply, Ober lowered his gaze slightly. The engagement ring on her left hand sparkled in the sun.

He recalled Mrs. Chester’s warning last night.

“Bale, don’t underestimate her. Too much trust will make you pay the dear price by all means. Love and vow are fleeting. Fear is the only weapon that will keep your power.”

“How was your engagement ceremony? I heard you held a simple ceremony because the emperor was injured. Despite both of you were happy throughout the ceremony, I hear.”

“Oh, that’s…”

“You may not have had a ton of aftereffects of the accident — I’m glad you look okay and mature. I heard that you went out of your way to save the emperor while you were missing. Indeed, you have all the qualifications of the next empress.”

“Not that…”

Marianne didn’t finish; she had a troubled face.

Ober smiled softly and looked down at her. Ridicule and discomfort were always hidden in his kind smile.

“Can you give me some time? I have something to say to you.”

In the end, Marianne gave in. Asking Cordelli to excuse her, she hurriedly led Ober to the shade of the garden.

The central garden in front of the main palace was large and spacious. Unlike the back garden, which was the emperor’s private garden, it served as an intersection that could lead anywhere in the Lucio Imperial Palace. There were often lots of knights and a bunch of maids seen passing by the sculptures along the artificial waterway next to the garden.

Marianne pulled Ober into the shadow of the nearest sculpture. Poibe, sitting on her shoulder, flew away.

When she looked at the other side of the waterway, there were several attendants who were going back for a shift duty after lunch.

“I was going to tell you later when I met you, but I think I have to tell you because you misunderstood so much.”

Ober crumbled his eyebrows, blocking her in front of a statue. His big shadow pressed on her heavily.

“Misunderstanding? Did you say I misunderstood you?”

“Yes, you are misunderstanding me a lot.”

As she didn’t convince him, there was some ridicule in his ashen eyes.

“Don’t you remember what I told you before? I said I wanted to go back to you…”

“Of course I remember it. It’s a vain promise now, of course.”

“Why do you think it’s a vain promise? Sir, are you trying to give me up?”

She reached out and grabbed his upper arms. Standing right next to him, she was much closer to him now.

Ober twisted his mouth and squeezed her wrist and slowly let it go. He did it indifferently as if he were taking off a worm or a leaf stuck on his arm.

“Give up? Didn’t you give me up? It’s me, not you, who betrayed my trust.”

“No! I was engaged to the emperor to keep my promise to you!”

She shouted with a perplexed look.

Partly because her voice was too loud or partly because what she said was too absurd, Ober looked around with a frown. While looking at a group of servants over there with a sharp gaze, he looked back at her.

“You know that emperor and I fell from the falls because of a wagon accident, right? And you also know that he was seriously injured, right?”

Ober nodded once with suspicious eyes.

“It was a terrible night. The rescue team didn’t arrive that day. I was with the emperor alone.

There was no doctor, no maid, no knight. I was so scared that I was crying for a while. Then, the emperor suggested an offer.”

“Offer?”

“Yeah. He promised that if he and I can go back alive like a miracle and hold the engagement ceremony safely, he can cancel his planned marriage with me before the wedding ceremony.

Although he can’t cancel it right away because of the dignity of the imperial family, he promised to break off the marriage by all means, saying my reward for having saved his life was greater than I imagined.”

Each time she added explanation, his expression was strangely distorted. He soon made an expression that was neither smiling, nor frowning.

“So, you tried to save the emperor and got engaged in a good mood to curry favor with him?”

“Yes! It’s a huge opportunity. If the emperor breaks off his engagement, my honor and my family’s honor may be disgraced a bit, but what use is that honor if I can return to you?”

She tried to persuade Ober with a desperate look. She grabbed the collars of his stiff coat with both hands and pulled them so that he could only focus on her without paying attention to other things at the moment.

“Ober. You love me, right? Even if my name and my honor are disgraced a bit, you want me even without that, right?”

He did not immediately answer.

He looked down at her for a long time, who was desperately begging for his understanding. But when he was not persuaded. After all, there was a faint smile on his twisted mouth.

“Haha. How naive you are…”

What was reflected in his ashen eyes was a feeling of relief. It also looked like contempt or shallow sympathy.

“Lady Marianne…No, Marie.”

He called her pet name with a low voice. The smile on his face quickly disappeared.

Then he slowly lowered his body. She shrugged her shoulders because of his hot breath that she felt around her ears.

“If you really wanted to come back to me, you should have returned alive alone when you fell from Benoit Falls.”

He recited advice close to rebellion with a creepy low voice.

She blinked her eyes unnaturally, as if she did not immediately understand his words.

She tried to move her lips as intended.

Ober raised his body and came closer to her. When he put his left arm on the statue, she couldn’t move. A shady and big shadow, which was too dark for a human body, covered her forehead.

“What are you talking about…”

“Do you think the emperor really will keep that promise? Do you think he will let go of you smoothly when he has already announced his fiancee to the whole empire? Besides, you have already been engaged to him at the temple.”

“… ”

“He can’t. The emperor deceived you. If he can come back to Milan alive, he can break any promise he made without any witnesses.”

“Oh no. He clearly promised…”

“Marie. The emperor is different from me. It’s not because he loves you that he wants to have you as his wife by even abusing the power of the imperial family. What he wants is your family, your honor, your wealth, and…”

Ober deliberately fumbled his words. He knew silence was a more useful weapon than any word at this moment.

He was a good hunter, and she was a very good game. She was already a trapped animal, and a weak herbivore would not even dare to run away. Even if she ran away, he was confident that he would be able to catch her again at any time.

And Marianne wanted him to believe her even if he continued to despise her.

Marianne, not the fake Marianne that Ober was seeing now, but the real Marianne, who was doing a good job of a foolish scapegoat, clenched her fist, trembling at his brazen-faced threat.

Although only one month had passed, she grew beyond what Ober could imagine. Unless he attacked her with physical violence such as putting a knife on her neck right now, his threats and lies would no longer hurt Marianne. She was now confident that she would not fall for his lies.

“Think about this. Why do you think Duke Kling has been stuck in the castle of Lennox up until now?” Ober asked. In fact, this was not a lie.