Chapter 90

The moment I said “Ack.”, the view turned around, and I fell into his arms.

“What are you doing?! Let go of me right now!”

As I tried to shake his hand away, Aldor threw me on the floor and climbed on top of me.

The pain in my back and the weight pressing down on me made me suffocate. The view became dimmed.

“Move away from me… right now.”

“Why should I do that?”

“Lord Hutton!”

“In a situation like this, rather than calling me Lord Hutton stiffly, you should have called me Aldor affectionately.”

What a ridiculous thing to say. 

Not even worthy of a reply, I tried to push him away, but he didn’t budge like a giant prop. 

Of course, he’s a man and a navy. Physically, he was far superior to me.

“Please move away from me, Lord.”

I threw my pride and begged him to move away somehow, but he didn’t listen to me.

Jjiig-

“Kkyaag!”

The weak hem of the dress was ripped open by his violent force.

My shoulder, exposed to the cold air, trembled. If it had been ripped a little more, my chest would have been clearly visible.

I quickly covered my exposed shoulder.

My face grew hot with shame, embarrassment, and fear of what might happen. My tears were about to fall.

I can’t cry. I don’t want to cry in front of a man like this.

I mercilessly bit the soft flesh in my mouth, holding back my tears.

“That face, it’s nice to see it.”

His hot breath and damp tongue swept through the pinna of my ear.

“I want to see a more dizzying side of you than now, can you show me?”

His hand reached the bottom of my skirt and groped my leg. 

“I, I am the Emperor’s agent!”

I grabbed his arm that was groping my leg and shouted anxiously.

“Does the Lord think he would be safe after doing this to me?”

“Pfft.”

Why… is he laughing?

“Are you going to tell His Majesty what happened here?”

“Of, of course…”

“Then the Lady won’t be able to work as that great aide anymore.”

…what?

“Think about it, Lady. Would His Majesty want to keep a damaged lady by his side?”

I was speechless. I couldn’t confidently say that he was wrong because what he said was true.

It was for this reason that in the past, even though Countess Thebesa was displeased, she refused to do anything about what had happened between me and Andante. Because a noble lady with flaws couldn’t be put on the wedding market.   

So, even though it was buried, it still remained a great fear in my heart.

“Besides, does the Lady think His Majesty will believe you?”

“Do you think they’ll believe you?”

Suddenly, Andante’s voice was heard, and the harsh and ruthless event of that day came to mind. My body hardened.

“If you want to tell him, tell him then.”

Aldor said, rubbing his dirty lips onto my hand that grabbed his arm.

“But His Majesty would believe me and my father more than the Lady.”

His confident face was just like Andante’s. 

Andante said this with a face like that. 

There’s no way they would believe me. And of course, they would believe him. 

I thought it wouldn’t be possible, but it was all just as Andante said.

People didn’t believe me. It was no use crying out that it wasn’t me.

Everyone believed only Andante’s words and pointed at me, saying that I was an unchaste and shameless woman.

If it was His Majesty, would he… would he believe only Aldor’s words, not mine?  

Since I had already experienced something similar once, my doubts grew bigger and bigger like snowballs. 

Thinking that Kalian would do that, I lost all my strength and became lethargic. Unbearable tears poured down.

“Oh my, I haven’t even started yet, so you shouldn’t cry already.”

Aldor smiled fishily and wiped away the tears running down my cheeks. 

I turned my head to reject his hand and saw a long blue necklace hanging down. 

The spirit stone necklace that Kalian gave me as a gift before.

“Leila.”

“I think you can do it well enough.”

“That’s how much I trust you.”

Ah, what was I thinking now?

His Majesty said he would trust me, and I couldn’t believe I doubted him.

What greater disloyalty could there be than this?

If I saw him, I would definitely apologize for this. 

Before I knew it, the hand that was stroking my leg reached up to my thigh.

It was a creepy touch like a snake crawling up.

A little while ago, I had no idea how to get out of this situation, but not now.

A certain way came to mind. 

I squeezed all the strength I had to push him away, then grabbed the necklace tightly.

“Conversion!”

When I shouted the starter word, my arm holding the necklace became as thick as the arm of the orc.

POK-! 

I swung that arm as hard as I could.  

It’s not just a part of my body that changed, but it’s also getting stronger. 

The moment Aldor, who flew away so badly, collided with the wardrobe… 

BANG-!

Someone slammed the door roughly and came in.

“Sir Thebesa!”

One was Diane.

“…”

And the other one was Hiltine.

*****

“Young master has entered the room.”

At the servant’s report, Marquis Hutton smiled contentedly and drank champagne.

It was all Marquis Hutton’s plan to feed Leila with high alcohol champagne through Aldor and send her to Aldor’s room.

A plan to make Leila Aldor’s wife.

It took a little while because Leila was the emperor’s agent, but he had perfectly prepared the countermeasures for that. So nothing was a problem. All that was left was for Aldor and Leila to spend the night successfully.

“Report to me as soon as Aldor comes out.”

Marquis Hutton told his servant again and again and enjoyed the party leisurely.

In his head, he happily thought when it would be a good time to hold a wedding.

If they got married, he wouldn’t let her work as the emperor’s aide anymore. Because there’s nothing good about a woman working outside.

It was when Marquis Hutton emptied about two glasses of champagne.

“Ma, Master!”

The servant came running panting and puffing.

At the servant’s unusual behavior, Marquis Hutton looked at the servant with a frown.

“What’s going on?”

“Big, big problem has occurred!”

The servant shouted urgently, unable to catch his breath properly.

“The Emperor’s knight appears and says he will punish Young master Aldor!”

“What? Punish?!”

What kind of ridiculous thing is this? 

No, more than that, the Emperor’s knight?

At those words, Marquis Hutton was reminded of the Crowd Knights. The merciless, infamous knights who work only for the Emperor of the Empire.

Don’t tell me that they are here?

It can’t be. Because there was no member of the Crowd Knights on the delegation list.

However, what bothered him was the strange presence he felt every time he met Leila.

Was… the Crowd Knights secretly escorting Leila?

A bad feeling ran down his spine.

“Lead the way right now!”

Marquis Hutton ran straight to Aldor’s room where they were.

The front of Aldor’s room was already crowded with people who had heard the news.

They stepped aside as Marquis Hutton approached.

“Father!”

Aldor, who found Marquis Hutton, called him desperately. 

Marquis Hutton glanced dissatisfiedly at Aldor, who was sitting unsightly on the floor, then looked at Hiltine standing next to him.

He already thought that a member of the Crowd Knights might be here, but he didn’t expect it to be its leader, Hiltine.

Is she really not the emperor’s mistress?

Unless the Emperor was crazy, there would be no way that he would attach a knight leader to escort a single aide.

If Leila was really the emperor’s mistress, things got complicated.

He had an ominous feeling that it would be really complicated, but the water had already spilled. There was no turning back.

Marquis Hutton was flustered by the completely unexpected situation, but he pretended not to be at all. 

“I don’t know what’s going on, but will you release my son first?”

“Don’t you think it’s more important to understand the situation first than to ask for your son to be released, Marquis?”

A sharp voice was heard from inside the room.

It was Diane.

Next to Diane was Leila with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders.

When Leila met Marquis Hutton’s eyes, she was startled and averted her gaze. Her hunched shoulders trembled.

Judging by Leila’s reaction, it seemed like it would be possible to bury this case if he did well.

Although Diane and Hiltine were annoying, one was a foreign noble and the other was a commoner known for being mute. So Marquis Hutton, who decided that only Leila should be coaxed well, said to the butler.

“Take everyone off here.”

“Yes, Master.”

When the butler made everyone leave, Marquis Hutton closed the door and approached Leila.

“Oh my, I haven’t looked into it thoroughly. If you don’t mind, could you tell me what happened, Sir Thebesa?”

Instead of answering, Leila crouched down, clutching the blanket she was wearing.

Diane shouted as she stopped in front of Leila.

“Sir Thebesa is still in a state of shock, unable to speak properly. So you can ask Lord Hutton over there about the situation, Marquis.”

You impudent, how dare you meddle in someone’s business?

Marquis Hutton didn’t like Diane very much when he first saw her.

If she had been a noble of the empire rather than a noble of another country, he would have given her a scolding.

However, as a noble from another country, there was no benefit to him in the current situation, so Marquis Hutton stepped down quietly.

“My mistake. This is the first time something like this has happened, so please understand.”

Marquis Hutton emphasized the word ‘first time’, then looked at Aldor. 

“Aldor, what happened?”

“I’m innocent, father!”

Aldor made excuses as if he had been waiting.

“I came back to my room in the middle of the party, and Lady Thebesa is lying on my bed!”

Aldor glared at Leila with bloodshot eyes and continued.

“But, of course, I knew she did that because she wanted to get along well with me, but the Lady suddenly pretended to be a victim and accused me of being a molester!”