CH 172

By the time Ridrian swung his sword, Dylan had drawn his, so quickly I almost hadn’t seen it.

The sound of swords clashing filled the study.

“Iona, are you okay?”

“Stop!”

Eris and Ravis, who’d come in shortly after Ridrian, tried to stop them, but Ridrian, who had lost his temper, and Dylan, full of his belief, disregarded them. The fight between the male main Ridrian and the first sword Dylan was quite a sight. With each swing came the sound of a house collapsing.

“Iona, are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I told Ravis.

Immediately, he set up a simple defensive wall around me. A vase that I liked sailed over it. As it shattered on the floor, so did my patience.

I hadn’t decorated this place with my money, but this was too much! I shot up from the sofa, calling them the names I knew they would respond to.

“Stop this instance, Your Highness! Dylan!” I shouted.

They both flinched and froze at the sound of my voice.

“This is too much,” I said.

“His Majesty started this,” Dylan protested.

“This is my home! Are you going to destroy the entire house? This isn’t the Palace!”

I gestured furiously at the chaos that had, moments ago, been my study. The table and bookshelves had been overturned and destroyed, almost unrecognizable. Ridrian and Dylan gazed around and seemed to come to their senses. They sheathed their swords.

“I’ll pay for what we destroyed,” Ridrian said.

“My apologies,” Dylan told her. “I’ll take any punishment.”

I don’t give a damn! Fighting inside…what were they even thinking?

Also, I’d have to do the cleaning up here. Well, the attendees would do the actual cleaning up, but I’d have to buy new furniture. I was already busy being a secretary. I didn’t need the extra work!

I realized my chest was heaving with anger. Had I spoken out loud? Ridrian sent his sword away and came to me. And then he lifted me up.

“Huh? Wait—Your Majesty? No—Rian! Where are we going?”

I struggled, surprised, but he simply carried me out of the mansion.

“Bring the carriage,” he ordered.

The servants rushed to prepare the carriage.

“Rian!” I said. “We can’t go like this!”

“No, this is the best way.”

“Huh? What do you mean!”

Ridrian didn’t reply. I was frustrated, but too afraid to ask further. Not now, while he was still likely to order the deaths of Dylan and all the crusaders waiting behind. I wanted to mention that we couldn’t just leave, but just then the sound of footsteps reached our ears and a carriage arrived before us.

“Let’s go.”

He didn’t even look back as he ordered the carriage to take us away. I knew exactly where we were headed: the Palace.

“Saintess!” cried a voice.

Dylan was chasing the carriage. On his feet! I nearly stuck my head out in surprise, but Ridrian closed the curtain, causing me to sit back down.

“Let him be,” he said firmly.

“But—”

“Iona, please don’t say anything now.”

He went silent.

“Saintess!” Dylan’s voice began to fade.

It was a crazy birthday.

***

“Your Majesty?”

Raven blinked at Ridrian in surprise. He must have him to be sleeping over, but instead Ridrian had returned looking furious with me. Elmeria, the head maid, looked just as surprised.

“Hello.” I waved and flashed them an awkward smile.

“Raven, tell the knights at the Lesprey mansion not to even think about coming back unless they kick out all of those crusaders.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Raven seemed to realize exactly what was going on. He instructed the servant who was passing by to call Kraman, and Ridrian hugged my shoulder.

“Head maid,” he said, “Iona will be staying for a while, so prepare the room she used to use.”

“As you wish.”

She didn’t seem agitated, even though Ridrian was embracing me in front of her. It was I who grew agitated as she turned and walked away.

“W-wait. For a while? Your Majesty!”

“Stay here until they leave.”

I felt my jaw clench. Was that an order?

“It’s my house,” I said. “Why do I have to avoid them and come to the Palace?”

Suddenly, the stern look vanished from his eyes. He lowered me and grabbed my arms, and my heart nearly stopped. He looked like he was trying to hold back tears.

“Please, listen to me this time, Iona,” he said. “If you get dragged into the temple, I don’t know if I’ll be able to stop myself from destroying them completely.”

“Rian.”

Judging by the look on his face, I couldn’t say I wanted to go home anymore.

Okay, staying here is probably for the best, right?

“Also, with an important invasion of Lucretia coming up, we can’t make them our enemy,” Raven added on behalf of Ridrian. “The reinforcement from the priests and holy water is very important in war.”

“Hmph, we’re completely fine without it.”

“If I may say, it’s not fine at all.”

He fixed his glasses and looked at me.

“Anyways, it’s good that you’re staying here for a while. It seems I can finally go home this time.”

My brows rose slightly. “Huh? What do you mean?”

“He was sleeping during the day for a while,” Raven replied, “so we had to work at night. I think we can finally sleep at home.”

“Raven.”

“I hope you guys have a comforting night.”

Raven smiled at me, bowed to Ridrian, and took his leave. The second he was gone, I glared at Ridrian.

“Raven and Ravis,” he said, “they both are quite annoying when you’re around. Is it that obvious I’m weak to you?”

I tilted my head at his quiet mumbling. I’d realized that the people seemed a bit less disciplined than in the original novel, but was that because of me? I hadn’t thought about that.

“No way,” I said. “They wouldn’t be like that to the Emperor of the great Empire.”

“Don’t call me that,” he snapped.

“Rian.”

“Like I said, stay here—no, by my side for a while. I’ll protect you from the demons, so stay close.”

“There will be weird rumors.”

“Hmph, I’ll do something to any of those…no, that wouldn’t happen.”

“Rian.”

I continued to glare at him, and he raised his hands as though in surrender.

“I won’t kill them,” he said. “So don’t look at me like that. It’s hard to hold back.”

What was hard to hold back? I blushed at his joke. It seemed this man had no intention of hiding his feelings since his confession. He hadn’t even said anything like this in a while!

It’s a bit difficult with the rumor of me being Rian’s lover.

I decided I should probably hide in my room for a while, unless I was working.