Chapter 26

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Translator: Harry Potta

Chapter: 26

Chapter Title: The Annoying Woman

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Arpad elegantly stroked his sharp jawline with a graceful hand gesture.

Reading his expression to gauge his emotions was impossible even for his father, the Emperor.

But right now, the situation was a little different. He himself didn't quite understand his own feelings.

More precisely, he didn't know the cause of those feelings.

His mood, however, was crystal clear.

‘Annoying.’

Yes. An ambiguous displeasure reminiscent of a fishbone pricking the throat while eating.

And while he claimed not to know the reason, he wasn't entirely clueless.

He knew exactly when his mood had plummeted like this.

“Actually, I’m someone who lived in the future, died a miserable death, and regressed?”

The woman's response to Arpad's efforts to pry out her secret had been that nonsense.

It wasn't just the mocking tone of it. What truly irked him was how she hid behind such words, refusing to reveal the truth.

Annoying.

‘A woman shrouded in too many secrets.’

In truth, Arpad despised people like that.

Who would like someone hiding so much from them? But in Arpad's case, his "dislike" took on an extreme form.

‘Yet why don't I feel the urge to kill her? That's strange.’

For Arpad, "dislike" or "suspicion" often led straight to "kill."

With so much already demanding his attention and vigilance, he had no desire to waste effort on minor irritants.

‘When I could go mad and die at any moment, do I really need to bother with such things?’

Thus, anything that annoyed him had usually been eliminated—by death.

Of course, he hadn't gone around swinging a sword in public.

That would only spark rumors of his mania relapsing.

He had simply used convenient opportunities like accidents or assassination attempts against him to handle them discreetly.

But remarkably—or perhaps not so remarkably—the woman he had placed in the Ivory Bedroom didn't inspire the usual solution of "kill to end the annoyance."

Even though he felt verbally toyed with by her.

Arpad's brow furrowed once more. Without realizing it, he muttered with genuine feeling.

"Really annoying..."

At that, Yulken, the secretary in the middle of briefing him in the office, raised his voice slightly.

"What is annoying you, Your Highness?"

"Who knows."

Naturally, Arpad offered no polite reply to Yulken. Yulken hadn't expected one anyway.

But Yulken was among the sharpest-tongued of Arpad's followers.

"It seems you're not even listening to my report because you refuse to say what's bothering you."

Only then did Arpad turn his head slightly.

"How far did you get?"

"How far did you hear?"

Seeing Arpad's eyebrow twitch, Yulken let out a long sigh.

"Not a single word, I take it."

"Start over."

"As I always say, could you please spare a thought for my throat's health?"

And as expected, Arpad let his subordinate's chiding go in one ear and out the other.

Yulken had to recite the report from the beginning.

The lead item was the woman who had recently become the talk of high society.

"As per Your Highness's orders, we've planted reliable informants around the Delphin Duchess. Every move she makes is being reported."

Just then, a servant entered through the door and handed him a small note.

Yulken added the latest update.

"The Delphin Duchess has summoned a lady who was expelled from the Empress's palace into her reception room. Oh, and the Empress's palace has blocked the noble ladies from attending the ball at Artanus Hall a month from now."

"She's scheming something absurd again."

Dismissing his stepmother's plot—who was no better than an enemy—in a single phrase, Arpad turned his gaze to his secretary.

His crimson eyes gleamed over the silver rims of Yulken's glasses.

"But isn't the form of address incorrect?"

The secretary knew exactly what his lord meant.

And that it was tantamount to "correct it properly yourself."

But if he were the sort to bow his head at a mere word, he wouldn't have lasted in the Crown Prince's palace.

Yulken responded boldly.

"His Majesty the Emperor hasn't issued the official edict appointing her as Crown Princess yet."

"Even so, she's my wife. We've already consummated the marriage."

Yulken's face twisted as if beholding something utterly impossible.

"Your Highness, don't tell me you truly fell in love at first sight on the main street and abducted her?"

"And if I did?"

Yulken drew forth what he always carried close to his chest.

"I'll resign on the spot. If that's true, Your Highness's mania has undoubtedly relapsed!"

Arpad incinerated the proffered resignation letter with a burst of magical flame.

"Ah! My resignation!"

"You have spares anyway."

"That's true, but still."

Arpad knew it well.

His competent yet sharp-tongued secretary's hobby was drafting resignation letters.

And offering one carried a clear message:

‘Are you in your right mind, my lord?’

Apparently, this abduction marriage struck him as that level of madness.

Especially from a subordinate's perspective.

"Everyone's already itching to bet on when you'll snap. Did you secretly wager on the 'mad' side yourself?"

"Enough. Before I cut out your tongue."

"Not the tongue! Just behead me first!"

If Hilia had seen this, she might have thought: Does the subordinate have to lose his mind if the lord does?

Yulken hadn't heard a proper reason or explanation for the abduction marriage from start to finish.

Yet as the one who had managed all the messy aftermath and fulfilled every one of Arpad's demands,

From Yulken's view, it felt like:

‘Don't I at least deserve to gripe this much!’

Knowing that, Arpad kept it to mere threats.

Yulken adjusted his glasses and asked.

"But what sorcery did the Delphin Duchess work exactly? To wrest Artanus Hall from His Majesty the Emperor, no less."

"I don't know."

"Can't you at least tell me?"

Arpad shrugged.

"I really don't know. They threw up a barrier and whispered conspiratorially between themselves, then suddenly Artanus Hall landed in her lap."

"...?"

Yulken's expression turned to one worrying about a mania relapse.

But as a longtime close aide, he quickly discerned the truth from Arpad's phrasing and habits.

"Is that for real?"

"Yes."

Yulken fell into thought.

"From what Your Highness says, it sounds like she brainwashed His Majesty the Emperor."

"...The fact that it doesn't seem impossible makes it all the more amusing."

To put it more precisely, Arpad himself seemed the one brainwashed.

Otherwise, he never would have gone through with an abduction marriage insane enough to prompt a resignation.

"Well, we'll serve her closely from here on and judge accordingly."

Both lord and retainer knew "serve closely" meant "monitor closely."

"So you'll keep calling her the Delphin Duchess until then?"

Yulken grinned.

Just as he had chosen to serve the universally feared Arpad of his own accord, no one could force him to accept Hilia as Crown Princess.

Arpad knew his temperament well.

But he pointed it out anyway.

"Refrain from 'Delphin Duchess' in my presence. It's annoying."

Yes. Annoying.

He wouldn't hesitate to silence a mouth spouting irritants.

Even his close aide Yulken was no exception. That was Arpad's way.

Sensing the sincerity, Yulken swiftly stepped back.

"Then, the mistress of the Ivory Bedroom. That acceptable?"

Though surprised, Yulken accommodated his lord's wish.

Of course, he still studiously avoided "Crown Princess."

"Handle it yourself."

"Yes, Your Highness."

Yulken eyed his perpetually inhuman lord with puzzlement.

‘He's doing things the usual him would never tolerate. His Majesty the Emperor too.’

And at the heart of every astonishing event stood one woman.

‘Hilia Delphin Duchess.’

He voiced a different title at Arpad's command.

But his heart wouldn't follow suit.

He'd address Hilia as "Your Highness" only after genuinely acknowledging her as the lady of the house.

Until then, he'd suspect, surveil, and test her to the utmost.

That was precisely why Yulken remained in the Crown Prince's palace.

"Waaah! I told you over and over it wasn't meant that way, but it was no use."

The woman known as Viscountess Filern continued weeping noisily before me.

Negative words—especially someone crying and wailing—weren't pleasant to hear.

But when valuable information hid within those tears, it became tolerable.

My decision to bait the woman chased from the Empress's palace, who had been skulking around the Crown Prince's palace, had been spot on.

Thanks to her, I could gauge the Empress and Evangeline's responses.

And above all...

"I, I don't know what to do now... Waaah!"

Viscountess Filern kept pouring out tears like a shattered inkwell before me.

But I knew sharp eyes were scrutinizing me from between her handkerchief and long bangs.

And well they might—I knew this woman's face far too well.

She was the one who had first approached claiming she wanted to be friends, only to betray me at the critical moment.

Edith Filern.

Viscountess Filern.

‘She's approached to betray me again this time. And far too quickly compared to before.’

That meant the Empress and Evangeline were already on high alert regarding me.

‘And there's no foolhardier move than pretending to fall for it when I already know.’