Seeing Leon nod with a grave face, it seemed he had stopped the Crown Prince.
In truth, Lucent had been concerned about the Crown Prince, who held absolute power.
If left alone, he would barge in and shout, ‘This marriage is invalid.’
How would Aeplin deal with such a Crown Prince?
Would she shed tears, clutch the hem of her white dress, and run to him?
All kinds of pessimistic imaginings tormented Lucent.
If such a tragedy had occurred, he would never have forgiven the two who had scarred his life.
‘What will you do if the Crown Prince comes back to you?’
Lucent gazed at the beautiful bride’s face with a slightly stiffened expression, and Aeplin tilted her head, puzzled.
It was because, only a moment ago, they had been smiling at each other.
Lucent’s verdant eyes as he looked at Aeplin wavered uneasily.
Yet it was strange.
The more her widened eyes shone, the more his complicated feelings seemed to be purified.
“Lucent, you do not look well. Did something happen……?”
At Aeplin’s question, Lucent only smirked and gave no answer.
Soon he kissed his beautiful bride in holy matrimony.
For a moment, Lucent’s stiff face vanished completely, and his lips were as hot as a cup heated by fire.
He kissed Aeplin with force, as if branding her, and the distinguished guests clapped all the more loudly at the beautiful sight they had finally witnessed.
When Lucent pulled his lips away, Aeplin had turned red all the way to her ears.
The sight of a green apple ripening red from a single kiss was very pleasant to see.
In addition, Lucent’s mind was filled with calculations riddled with schemes and self-interest.
‘It is done.’
For the sake of the Crown Prince, who might be somewhere in the Grand Cathedral, Lucent smiled a smile of secret satisfaction.
As if mocking the Crown Prince, who must be grieving by now that he had failed to stop Aeplin’s wedding, he kissed Aeplin once more, and the people stirred greatly, as if startled.
His intent to make the wedding attendees into witnesses was abundant.
At his kiss, which ended like a surprise show, Aeplin smiled as broadly as her face would allow.
Because today she had to look like the happiest bride in the world.
But somehow, the earlier kiss had felt less like Lucent’s sincere feeling and more like a deliberate act.
‘Did something bad happen…….’
Aeplin was briefly confused, but finishing the wedding safely was more important.
So she decided to fold such worries into a corner of her heart.
Meanwhile, Lucent’s heart twisted strangely and pounded.
It was a feeling of having firmly protected a right that should rightfully have been given to him.
In the kiss of holy matrimony, fullness spread through his lungs like heat.
A very pretty apple without a single blemish.
He also had an ominous premonition that she might shake the balance and order of his life entirely.
More precisely, it was not entirely ominous, yet it lifted his spirits.
His cold reason had always come first, but calculation became meaningless, and ripples spread through his once-calm emotions.
* * *
After properly completing the task Lucent had ordered, Leon let out a sigh of relief rather than openly rejoicing.
By doing as his master had instructed, he had been able to avoid the grave crime of harming a member of the imperial family.
Leon had informed Lucent that the Crown Prince would soon arrive at the Grand Cathedral, and just as he was about to go out to handle the matter at Lucent’s command, Lucent called him back.
‘Sometimes there are times when a method is not visible. That is because you are trying to find the solution in the present.’
‘Pardon? What do you mean?’
‘Make the Crown Prince’s past bind his ankles like a noose.’
Until then, Leon had not properly understood Lucent’s words.
The Crown Prince’s past……. Could he not say it more specifically?
But as if he had seen straight through Leon’s thoughts, Lucent walked toward Leon with both hands thrust into his trousers.
‘Marita Belmon. She is a client of our bank.’
Only then did Leon’s eyes fly open.
The words that a single phone call could resolve things without harming the Crown Prince became reality, and Marita gladly blocked Serge’s path to reclaim her lost love.
Thus, the person who blocked Serge as he raced to reclaim Aeplin was Marita.
‘Serge, my love……!’
A voice both sorrowful and coquettish.
Marita did not budge from in front of his car until Serge appeared.
After a stubborn battle of wills, the two finally came face to face.
As expected, Serge and Marita wailed, raised their voices, and ended up in a lovers’ quarrel in the middle of downtown Lount.
‘Serge…….’
Marita rushed to the Crown Prince and wrapped both arms around his neck.
‘How dare you. From now on, call me His Highness the Crown Prince.’
‘Serge, did you not say that differences in status, adversity, and trials did not matter? Did you not say that love is noble and can overcome any hardship?’
Marita shed endless tears.
There had been a time when he had thought her tears pitiable.
But Serge could not forget the two children who had opened the door and walked in while he and Marita were in the midst of sex.
Because it had not been the picture he wanted.
The lowborn but beautiful singer Marita Belmon.
A heroine of tragic love, a love as bitter as poison and pure and devoted.
She should have been sorrowful like a poem of a bygone romantic age…….
But those children were a sinister scheme Marita had hidden.
‘I am still in love. It is just that the person is different. That feeling is not a sin.’
He had not expected to say to Marita the same words he had once said to Aeplin, but his conviction about his love had not changed.
‘Then why did you abandon me? Was it the existence of my children that made you despair?’
‘Not despair—rather, humiliation.’
‘You are too cruel……. Sob!’
Marita finally poured out hot tears, and Serge looked at her with a displeased expression and said.
‘Would you kindly disappear from before me? Mrs. Belmon.’
Because he had to run to the Grand Cathedral at once and rescue Aeplin from the villain’s clutches.
But Marita grabbed his ankle firmly with unexpected words.
‘I am pregnant. Serge, it is your child.’
‘Ha…….’
Serge laughed with a bewildered face, then slowly contorted his expression.
Then he spoke to Marita in a tone laced with disgust.
‘Is it even my child? A whore’s vulgar little trick is obvious.’
Only after obtaining the precious information that Marita was carrying Serge’s child did Leon leave the scene, and he reported it to Lucent immediately after the wedding ended.
In any case, with Marita’s appearance, the Crown Prince had failed to stop Aeplin’s wedding.
‘The Crown Prince’s interference will not end so easily.’
Lucent judged that it was too early to be relieved that the matter was over.
Because those who do not know failure and frustration try to take only joy and pleasure when they love, and turn away from anguish and hatred.
The Crown Prince also had the nasty habit of tidying things up alone, easily and simply.
Until he found what was his, he would throw a tantrum and struggle like a child.
Until the other party grew sick of it…….
* * *
After finishing a wedding grand enough to make Lount buzz, Aeplin and Lucent decided not to take an extravagant honeymoon.
Although they had rescued Count Hapen from the rebels in Senebaron, there had been no contact since, so they could not fully enjoy themselves.
Instead, at Lucent’s suggestion, they decided to take a simple week’s rest at a Blackakson-owned villa in Haven.
But in the automobile heading to Haven, a chill hung in the air.
As if they were not a newly married couple, they gave off a strange and awkward atmosphere, and the two merely looked out their respective windows.
‘Why did he make that expression?’
Aeplin could not forget the sneer Lucent had worn before he kissed her.
‘Since when did I become so sensitive to Lucent’s moods?’
Yet she could not help but be concerned.
Ambiguous feelings—clearly knowing it was a futile greed, yet not wanting to be disregarded…….
Aeplin suddenly felt pathetic.
‘I could just ask.’
By nature, noble ladies were raised to consider it modesty not to easily reveal their emotions.
‘When I sold my life, I did not hesitate……. How ridiculous, truly.’
“Lucent.”
Aeplin cautiously called his name first.
