Chapter 52
‘Why are you tormenting a good husband!’
Asil glared sharply at Cedric.
“And I’m not a lizard!”
I don’t know why they keeps calling me a lizard.
Lizards can’t even breathe fire or fly.
‘Bad humans.’
Suddenly feeling sad, Asil sniffled.
Meanwhile, Cedric, who was genuinely displeased, twisted one corner of his mouth.
For a mere countess’s daughter to interrupt his conversation.
His interest in Asil vanished in an instant. With Edenber on his back, he approached right up to her face.
“Yeah, you might not know since you just came up from the countryside.”
Then, he precisely pushed Asil’s forehead twice, hard, with his index finger.
“But ignorance isn’t innocence. This isn’t a place for you to butt in, you insolent little brat.”
“No. There’s no place where Asil can’t butt in.”
Asil is the person involved, so if she doesn’t butt in, who can?
And why is he pushing her forehead!
In fights like this, the beastkin kindergarten teacher said to give back more than what you received.
Asil shoved him away hard.
“Argh!”
Cedric, who was defenseless, lost his balance and fell straight backward.
The astonished retainers rushed over to support him.
“Y-Young Duke! Are you alright?!”
“That thing hit me!”
Cedric, his face flushed red with anger and embarrassment, jumped up and down.
Regardless, Asil reached out with both hands again. Because she still needed to push him one more time.
Cedric, his face distorted unpleasantly, shook Asil off with all his might.
“Get lost! Don’t touch me!”
Smack! Asil blinked as her hand was struck on the back.
She had only tried to return what she received, but she ended up being attacked so hard that her skin turned bright red.
“You hit Asil?”
Cedric flinched, sensing a momentary ominous glint in the pink eyes that seemed to shine ferociously.
And at the same time—
Thwack!
“Aaaah! My arm! It hit the bone! Aaaaaah!”
Cedric let out a bellowing scream.
It was because it really hurt that much, but the surrounding nobles, unaware of Asil’s strength, all frowned in unison.
‘Such a drama queen.’
‘Anyone would think he was seriously injured.’
Meanwhile, Asil was taken aback by Cedric’s intense reaction.
‘Did Asil hit him that hard?’
No, she hit him really gently.
Asil glanced at Arcian’s expression. Did Asil really hit him that hard?
Then Arcian, avoiding others’ eyes, subtly raised his thumb.
What? Asil did well after all. Her hunched shoulders straightened proudly in an instant.
‘Asil is indeed a cool dragon. That human was just being overly dramatic.’
Feeling proud, Asil flashed a V-sign.
Then, to finish what she started, she toddled over to Cedric, who was yelling at innocent people.
“Get on your knees right now for that— Wait, hold on!”
The terrified Cedric tried to use his retainers as shields, but it was no use.
Thud!
Pushed hard by Asil, he rolled across the floor with a loud noise for a few turns. As a bonus, he bumped his nose while falling, causing a nosebleed.
For a moment, the surroundings fell silent.
Even Edenber, who had been about to say something like “Don’t be so dramatic,” swallowed his words upon seeing Cedric’s state.
Cedric groped his philtrum with trembling hands.
Bright red blood was on them.
“Blood… blood!”
Seeing the blood, he began to tremble all over.
Then, suddenly, he scrunched up his face and burst into tears.
“Waaah, Mommyyyy. Hweee!”
No one could open their mouth at the sudden situation. Even the retainers froze, unable to think of comforting him.
It was then that the Starrafit Duchess appeared.
“Oh my god! Cedric!”
She, who had briefly gone to the garden, jumped upon seeing her son.
“Oh dear, oh my. Look at that face. Who did this? Who dared to hit my son!”
Her fierce gaze naturally turned toward Edenber.
In this place, the only one who would touch the young duke was the Monlepe Duke, so it was a natural conclusion.
However, the person Cedric pointed to was completely different from expectations.
“H-Her, hweee, she did it!”
“What?”
A fleeting look of confusion appeared on the duchess’s face.
“M-My son. You’re saying you really got hit by that lady and ended up like this?”
“The young duke was pushed by that lady and got injured.”
A retainer quickly explained in Cedric’s place.
At that, the duchess’s face became even stranger.
“My son… got beaten by that seemingly weak Erzébet lady and ended up with a nosebleed?”
It was hard to believe.
However, with witnesses present, thinking she couldn’t let it slide, she approached Asil.
But Edenber blocked the duchess’s path.
The duchess, furrowing her brow, raised her voice.
“What are you doing right now, Duke?”
“It’s an incident the young duke brought upon himself, with no one at fault. He exaggerated his fall to frame the Erzébet lady.”
“Hey! You didn’t even see it, so shut up!”
“And even if the Erjebet lady did push him hard, the other side has no right to discuss fault.”
“What did you say?”
“If you want to argue right and wrong, shall we start by addressing how he brought up that my mother came from a brothel?”
“……!”
No smoke without fire. The duchess, genuinely flustered, flinched.
It was something she herself always harped on, that the previous Monlepe Duchess came from a brothel.
But she quickly regained her composure and changed the subject.
“It seems like a one-time slip of the tongue, and magnanimity is a virtue a noble should have.”
“Then overlooking the matter with the Erzébet lady as if it never happened would also be a virtue a noble should have.”
“That’s different! Cedric only made a verbal mistake, but the Erzébet lady injured a precious body—”
“What is this commotion at my ball?”
Eocaste appeared at just the right timing.
In fact, she had been standing back with her hands behind her, watching until things escalated, but she pretended to know nothing as she looked around.
Then, upon seeing Cedric a mess with tears and blood, she openly sneered.
“Ahahaha! What kind of state is this for someone who will lead a ducal house in the future!”
“Princess! That Erzébet lady dared to make me like this!”
“Oh, yes. I saw that spectacle well too.”
Eocaste, laughing so hard her eyes teared up, suddenly hardened her expression.
“So, what do you want me to do about it.”
“……Pardon?”
“Shall I punish you for daring to cause a disturbance in the ballroom? Or shall I throw you in prison for ruining the atmosphere of this sacred ball by prattling on about dirty bloodlines?”
Cedric didn’t know it, but Eocaste hated talk of bloodlines with a passion.
“The princess’s hair color……. Is that rumor true?”
“Be quiet. She’s looking this way.”
Eocaste took after her mother, the Empress, completely—not just in hair and eye color, but in appearance as well.
On the other hand, she didn’t resemble her father, the Emperor, in the slightest.
Because of that, rumors circulated in the imperial palace that she wasn’t the Empress’s child from fooling around outside.
Even though calculating the months backward made it clear she was undoubtedly the Emperor’s child.
Of course, such talk vanished completely after Iocaste began acting tyrannically.
Moreover, the Starrafit Ducal House was on very close terms with her rival, the Crown Prince.
How close must they be for the Crown Prince to hold a consolation banquet after they lost a friendly match, and how much so for it to end only with a ban from the palace even after Pier burned off all that silver hair he was so proud of.
So, in a way, it was natural for Eocaste to side with Asil.
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By Anna 💓
