CH 68

Who is the Fake Bride? (10)

She felt that her tears were already welling up. But she didn’t shed any tears just yet. At the very least, she didn’t want to show even a single tear drop in front of them right now.

‘I love you.’

Roelin wished to say that to the man who was not here at the moment. She knew that she didn’t deserve to say that, considering her sin for deceiving him, but she still wanted to confess her feelings to him at least once.

‘That’s why I can’t leave here anymore.’

She didn’t want to leave him without confessing at all. Even if her secret was to be discovered and her sins were revealed to the world, even if everyone were to hurl stones at her, even if she were to sink at his feet and beg for forgiveness……

“I’m not leaving. So, you can just go home now.”

Roelin clenched her lips and reached for the bell once again. Then, Erita’s face became distorted. She chewed on her bright red lips and tried to shout as loudly as possible.

“How dare you!”

“Princess! Those who are outside can hear it!”

Then, Count McGree, who was watching the  whole situation, hurriedly went and stopped Erita. Only then did Erita nervously open her mouth once again.

“Then, what should I do? She actually dares to disobey me—without knowing her own place!”

“Leave it to me.”

The Count lowered his voice with a fishy smile as he took his grip off from the Royal Daughter. Erita saw that his eyes were now sinking grimly while he narrowed his brows—gleamingly.

“I don’t like to use that medicine, but……”

The Count’s voice soon sank indefinitely. He took out a small bottle in his arms. It was an anesthetic that had been used quite often by the Count himself, which revealed his own sexual urges. It was applied to subdue a woman who would usually make a strong resistance against him.

He immediately turned around and loomed over Roelin. Afterwards, Roelin was eventually caught by him before she could even shake off the suddenly approaching Count himself.

“What are you doing……”

Roelin struggled to escape the Count who was still holding on to her. But as soon as he opened the small bottle and put it under her nose, she instantly felt like her body was no longer moving like what she had wanted to.

“Uh…”

And her tongue grew numbed as well. Roelin became stiff as she couldn’t even make a single sound at all. She could only look at him and Erita as of now.

“What? What happened, Count?”

“It’s a scent that stiffens the whole body. It lasts for about a day. By that time…… can’t you just do everything  that you want then?”

Erita’s expression soon brightened as she listened to the Count. On the contrary, Roelin’s eyes had already sunk with despair as they began to darken as well.

“No! I don’t want to!”

Roelin eventually cried out in silence.

However, no one could hear the echoing of her desperate screams at all.

* * *

“……?”

Kergel narrowed his brows and turned his head to look out the window. Heinez was standing in front of him while presenting his report before he started to query.

“What’s wrong, Your Majesty?”

“I thought that I heard something.”

“I can’t hear anything at all though. I can’t even hear where all the birds have already gone.”

Bert answered back while he was still organizing the documents next to Kergel. But Kergel merely frowned and thought of something before he rose from his seat and headed straight to the window.

“No, I definitely heard it.”

It was mainly from the Imperial Palace. More precisely, what he had heard of was the voice of the Empress herself.

But of course, it was utterly ridiculous. Although his hearing was superior to that of such ordinary humans, it was still not enough for him to be able to hear voices from other Palaces. So, it was probably just a case of an auditory hallucination.

“I can’t do this.”

Kergel looked out the window for a moment and began to turn around.

“Sire, where are you going all of a sudden?”

Heinez and Bert looked back at him in sheer dismay. Nevertheless, Kergel immediately left the office without answering them.

The place he was headed for had been the Empress’s Palace. However, he had no other choice but to stop before reaching the Imperial Palace or even having left the Main Palace at that moment.

“Your Majesty.”

It was all because of ‘Erita’ who was just about to enter the Main Palace.

“……”

“Your Majesty, where are you going? It’s actually a relief. We almost missed each other.”

Erita smiled with a sigh of relief. She appeared a little brighter and even more cheerful than usual.

“……You look somewhat happy, Empress.”

“Oh, does it look like that? It must be because of the fact that I got some precious gifts from Rakain? Count McGree, who represented the delegation, also came to pay a visit. I’m just glad to see the people from my home country after such a long time after all.”

“……”

“So, I came over here because I wanted to share my joy with you, but are you busy? I’d really like to take a walk with you.”

Erita’s voice was louder than usual as well. But unlike herself, there was no smile painted across Kergel’s face. He just looked at her quietly.

“…Your Majesty? Why are you looking at me like that? It makes me shy…”

“Taking a walk…… is fine. Sure.”

Kergel squinted at Erita while a corner of his mouth became twisted before he nodded back as if nothing had happened at all.

Then, he began to stride forward. He seemed to be heading straight for the garden inside of the Palace.

“Your Majesty! Let’s go together. Why are you walking so fast? It’s too much to follow.”

Erita quickly approached Kergel as she spoke in a whiny tone. Nevertheless, Kergel didn’t even slow his pace down despite him hearing it clearly.

“……”