Chapter 111. We Should Consider It fortunate
“Exactly what are you doing here!!”
The first to break the silence and move was the noble lady with a terrifying expression.
She strode quickly to stand in front of the two people and fiercely shouted at Count Lyster, who was clutching Deborah’s hair.
Startled by that resounding voice, the count finally released the hand gripping her hair and hurriedly straightened his appearance.
“M-Madam. So, th-this is, um, what happened was—”
“You couldn’t hold back again!”
The person standing in front of the count appeared to be none other than his wife.
Despite her short stature, her aura was so ferocious that the flustered count looked exactly like a mouse in front of a cat.
The count, rolling his eyes this way and that, suddenly put on a servile smile.
“I-It’s a misunderstanding, Madam.”
“A misunderstanding?”
As if outraged that he would make excuses even after being caught red-handed, the woman’s glaring eyes flashed sharply.
“Th-That is, I came out for a moment to get some air, and this woman sent someone saying she wanted to see me briefly—no, wait, Madam may not know, but previously when I came here—”
“Enough!”
The countess finally cut off her husband’s incoherent, rambling words with a single sharp stroke.
Deciding he was no longer worth dealing with, the countess’s gaze shifted to Deborah standing behind him.
A spotlessly clear face, a sensual body contrasting with a slender waist, and rich brown hair flowing down below.
Even in shabby clothes, there was something inexplicably captivating about her appearance, causing the countess’s eyebrows to twitch fiercely for a moment.
Deborah looked at the countess—who had taken one bold step forward—with anxious eyes.
And soon after, the woman’s hand shot upward.
Slap!
It happened so instantaneously that there was no time to brace herself.
Another blow landed on the cheek that had already been struck once; before she could even feel the pain, her body tumbled backward.
“How dare a lowly thing commit such vulgar, shameless acts without any sense of shame!”
Whether because her cheek kept being slapped or because of the impact from hitting the floor.
The shouting raining down from above made her vision spin and her stomach churn in an instant.
Deborah supported her upper body with one arm and forced herself up.
In that moment, a surge of injustice overwhelmed her.
It was true—as the count and countess said—that she was of low and humble status, but even so, she could not comprehend why she had to receive such unjust treatment.
Both the previous incident and this one now.
None of it was something she had wanted; strictly speaking, she was nothing but a victim—yet why did everyone always blame her instead of that beastly man? It felt so unfair and infuriating.
So, forgetting that she had been holding her breath until now, she lifted her head and glared at the count and countess.
That defiant gaze caused the countess’s anger to shoot straight to the top of her head.
Even though she had been desperately suppressing her temper because they were in front of the crown prince, for a lowly maid to dare raise her head and glare at her—a countess—with such insolence was more than enough to make her notoriously volatile temper explode.
The countess bent down and seized Deborah’s hair.
“You impudent thing—how dare you raise your head in front of whom?!!”
With one hand shaking the gripped hair violently and the other fist smashing down onto Deborah’s face, she looked almost like a madwoman.
How eerily similar the husband and wife were.
The way they so easily lost their reason, the way their hands moved first—everything about them was identically twin-like.
She should have just endured it… She knew full well that talking back to people like this would only bring back harsher verbal abuse and violence, yet in that moment she couldn’t hold back.
While her vision shook wildly in all directions and—for some inexplicable reason—short bursts of laughter leaked out.
Suddenly the surroundings fell silent.
The dizzy spinning vision froze in place.
“…….”
At the abrupt hush, Deborah’s puzzled gaze quickly darted across the floor.
Through the disheveled strands of hair, someone’s legs came into view.
Without realizing it, her breathing stopped completely.
“Wh-What is the meaning of this!”
The countess’s voice flipped upward in apparent panic.
“It would be best to stop here.”
At the coldly delivered warning, Deborah unconsciously squeezed her eyes shut.
She regretted once again the action she couldn’t hold back earlier that had only fueled the countess’s rage further.
No—more than that, she regretted the foolish act of believing some unknown person’s words and leaving the attic.
She became so furious at her own stupidity and foolishness that tears welled up to the brim.
“What kind of disgraceful behavior is this in front of His Highness.”
The sharp rebuke that followed immediately seemed to finally bring the countess to her senses; a short hiss escaped through her gritted teeth.
A brief silence spread, and it seemed the situation might calm down.
Deborah remained seated on the floor, desperately praying for this moment to pass quickly.
Hoping that today’s events would end as nothing more than a trivial farce that happened in the ducal residence.
While she wished for it so fervently.
Something large thudded down beside Deborah.
The familiar scent that pierced her nose caused her closed eyes to slowly open on their own.
As gentle fingers brushed through her messy hair, the face that had been hidden finally came into view.
The man’s water-blue eyes, hardened with an unreadable expression.
“…….”
“…….”
In an instant, a hot surge of emotion rushed up her throat without warning.
The hand that had softly swept her hair now carefully held her chin and quietly examined the swollen right cheek.
Tsk—his tongue clicked, and for a moment a murderous glint flashed through his blue eyes.
“Can you stand?”
At the quietly asked question, Deborah could only nod, unable to speak.
At that small action, the man immediately wrapped an arm around her shoulders as if supporting her, and Deborah relied on that strength to slowly rise.
Even though she normally would never have understood why this man was acting this way in front of everyone—
Right now, no thoughts came to her at all.
The firm embrace that wrapped around her trembling body, the arm that protectively pulled her waist close—it felt like that was everything, and she could think of nothing else.
Raymond, who had been holding Deborah and moving, suddenly stopped walking and turned back toward the count and countess standing in front of him.
Facing the two, whose mouths hung open in stunned expressions, Raymond spat out cold words.
“Today’s events.”
“…….”
“Because this is taking place in front of His Highness, you should consider it fortunate that it ends at this level.”
After delivering the warning to the pair, Raymond’s gaze shifted back to Count Lyster’s face.
“If you ever dare to lay such filthy hands on this woman again—”
“…….”
“I will make sure you regret that action without fail.”
As if to engrave it into memory, the chilling, bone-chilling warning caused the count to audibly swallow.
Raymond glared at the two once more in turn, then finally turned his body the other way.
After just a few steps, several people appeared ahead.
The predominant emotions on most of their faces were not so different from what had been on the count and countess’s faces moments earlier.
Shock, bewilderment, confusion.
The ones most visibly shaken were, of course, Eleanor von Cheister and Cecilia standing behind the crown prince.
But Raymond ignored all those gazes and approached only Crown Prince Philip.
“Your Highness, I will step away for a moment.”
Normally, in such situations, it was customary for the head of the house to remain until the end of the banquet.
Moreover, today’s welcome banquet’s central figure was none other than the crown prince himself.
No matter how urgent the matter, leaving before Crown Prince Philip under any circumstances was absolutely unacceptable.
Raymond, as a duke, could not possibly be unaware of this—yet what exactly was he thinking by doing this?
Everyone waited anxiously for the words that would come from Crown Prince Philip’s mouth.
The crown prince, who had been looking at Raymond with an inscrutable gaze for a while, finally turned his eyes to the small woman standing beside him.
Perhaps only now realizing who he was upon hearing “Your Highness,” her wide-open pupils remained fixed downward and showed no sign of rising.
Well, considering her status, that was only natural.
‘I’d like to take a closer look…’
Although they had known each other closely since childhood, among everyone he knew, the person whose inner thoughts he understood the least was Raymond von Cheister.
For such a man to act this protectively toward a woman.
Moreover, considering her status, he could not be unaware of how enormous the repercussions would be—yet his attitude, as if it didn’t matter at all, was both puzzling and extremely intriguing.
It was only natural to be curious about the face of the woman who had made such a man fall so deeply.
But seeing her keep her head bowed so low, it seemed unlikely he would get to see that face today.
Given the situation as well.
Philip swept his eyebrows upward once, then gave a light smile and nodded.
“Very well. Anyway, with the atmosphere like this, ending things around here isn’t a bad idea either.”
Speaking nonchalantly, the crown prince glanced around once.
In contrast to him, the expressions of the people watching the crown prince were extremely grim.
