Emperor's Alternate - Chapter 11
“…I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Good. Tomorrow is the test, so even if you can’t pull an all-nighter, pay close attention to your body, then retire.”
“As you wish, Your Highness.”
As I walked out of the consort’s bedroom with the Sixth Prince, my head was still spinning.
Thunk.
“You wench.”
As soon as the door closed behind us, the Sixth Prince squeezed my shoulder fiercely in retaliation, but I only blinked silently. It was a lancer’s strength, and if it lasted a few more seconds, it would leave a bruise.
However, without a whimper, I briefly glanced at my shoulders before locking eyes with the Sixth Prince.
“The look in your eyes pisses me off.”
“…”
I hadn’t intended to seek help, yet the attendants instinctively averted their gaze and stepped back. Within the palace walls, if the Emperor’s mistress held the highest power, in her absence, the Sixth Prince was practically the emperor.
“Let go.”
“Why should I?”
“It hurts.”
“Do you think I’d obediently comply if you ask to be released? You can’t still be under the illusion that you’re a lady of a Grand Duchy.”
“…”
Facing someone’s desires so blatantly was not something I was used to. I grew up with minimal human contact.
Had my lineage not been extinguished, Rotea, the Grand Duke, would have strongly objected to the prince’s behavior. But as the Emperor’s illegitimate son, he is royalty, and I am the daughter of a traitor, worth no more than a slave.
I had no intention of causing a scene, but if he were to ascend the throne, my influence would be absolute. However, from his current actions, even if he became Emperor, he seemed unlikely to feel any gratitude towards me. After all, as long as he didn’t forcibly strip me of everything after his coronation, it would be considered a stroke of luck.
I anticipated that the Sixth Prince would harbor resentment towards me and my younger brother for taking away his mother’s attention from him. However, I didn’t expect the situation to turn out like this.
“Have you truly not yet realized that your know-it-all stare pisses me off, or are you taunting me with it?”
The prince moved his hand to the nape of my neck, as if to strangle me, but this time the contact was feather-light. It was ticklishly slow. I swallowed hard, nauseated by the rawness of the desire in his eyes.
“…It will be nothing more than a passing fever.”
“…”
Speaking in a whisper to avoid provocation, the prince’s eyebrows twitched oddly as he glared at me. Though the pressure on my throat intensified, I didn’t utter a sound.
However, I found it difficult to maintain my composure in the face of the Sixth Prince’s next words.
“There’s no way Lecan would recognize you.”
“…”
“If I catch you trying to seek his help again this time, I will personally tear you apart.”
“I won’t….” I tried to keep my voice from trembling, but I may have failed.
“No, you won’t.”
The Emperor’s mistress was wise, surely, to have given Lucian and the Sixth Prince the ‘Imprint of the Heart’ when they were children. If not for that imprint, I would have undoubtedly fled with Lucian anywhere to escape the Sixth Prince’s disrespect.
All the mages and knights who were there that day met their deaths at the consort’s hands. There were only two people in the world who knew about the contract as the consort intended: her and me.
“…”
I sealed my lips.
He seemed to have forgotten that tomorrow was the exam. But fortunately, if there is such a thing as thinking, the Sixth Emperor let go of me with a hard shove. I reflexively felt a surge of aggression, but I had to suppress it. I bowed politely to him and stepped back.
***
If Lucian’s first memory was the moment his lineage faced destruction, my first memory is…
“Bwook, wead to me. (Book, read to me.)”
It was me, holding out a book to Lecan.
