I Abandoned the Male Lead Who Cheated with the Villainess - Chapter 77
‧₊˚ ☁️⋅♡𓂃 ࣪ ִֶָ☾.
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Ivonne decided it was time to address the situation.
“Rix, did I do something wrong?”
Rix quickly shook his head no. His glasses had slipped down his nose a bit; when he pushed them back up, his tears suddenly stopped.
‘Oh, they stopped.’
The tear duct was like a faucet. It seemed almost magical how his tears could just start and stop so suddenly.
While Ivonne was still pondering this, Rix spoke, “Ivonne….doesn’t make mistakes.”
His tone carried an unwavering belief in her. Something beyond compliance and obedience. An intense loyalty that seemed to border on blind devotion.
Ivonne’s hand trembled for a moment.
“But…”
Rix’s hand, which had been holding her thin wrist, slowly fell away, leaving a sense of lingering regret. As Ivonne wiped the cold tears from his cheek, Rix grasped her hand.
He leaned into her palm as if hiding his face in it and murmured softly,
“Sometimes you can be so cruel…”
It almost looked like he was covering his face with Ivonne’s hand.
‘Cruel….?’
The vibration of his voice tingled through her palm. Like kissing, a ticklish yet somewhat poignant sensation. Dismissing the thought that his actions were odd, Ivonne reflected that maybe she had been unintentionally cruel.
As Rix breathed slowly with his face hidden in her palm, Ivonne felt a chill run down her spine as if his breath was seeping through the lines of her hand. His lips suddenly brushed against her pinky finger.
“Ah.”
A sharp, tingling sensation shot through her at his touch—it was the finger she had linked with Isaac.
‘Why does it sting? Maybe his lips are dry from crying.’
Perhaps it was just the rough skin that pricked her.
Ultimately, Rix didn’t explain why he had burst into such desperate tears.
⚜ ⚜ ⚜
Several months later.
Ivonne was shocked by a headline she read in the newspaper.
On a day when late summer was still fierce, it was revealed that the Master of the Western Magic Tower, who had recently been defeated in a duel with the Crown Prince, was a spy from the Kingdom of Osbloom.
“He wasn’t even an ancient wizard after all!”
“Did you read that article? His ultimate goal was to incite civil unrest in the Sortenic Empire.”
“Yeah, apparently the destruction of our empire would pave the way for the independence of his own country, Osbloom.”
The revelation that ‘Isaac, the commoner-turned-Master of the Western Magic Tower’, was not an ancient wizard but a spy from the Kingdom of Osbloom intent on inciting civil unrest in the Sortenic Empire caused an uproar.
The one who uncovered this was none other than Prince Herix, who had previously declared the end of the war with Osbloom. Consequently, Herix’s stature soared while the Emperor’s plummeted, given the tower’s direct allegiance to the Emperor.
“Should this be considered negligence on the part of the administration?”
“The Magic Tower is directly under His Majesty’s command, and yet they’ve been shrouded in security excuses while collecting taxes all the while.”
“And after all that secrecy, it turns out the corruption was festering from within.”
“What exactly is the purpose of the Magic Towers then?”
This question began circulating among those who doubted the very existence of such institutions.
“You heard about last night? There was a brawl between the nobles of the emperor’s faction and those of the Crown Prince’s faction.”
“There are also rumors they’re exchanging assassins.”
“One should really watch their step. Even so, the emperor is still our sovereign.”
“Pfft, look where trusting ‘the sovereign’ got us. Master of the Magic Tower position in the hands of a spy.”
As the conflict between the emperor’s and the Crown Prince’s factions intensified, so did the overall atmosphere in the imperial capital. The ‘spy’ incident not only stirred anxieties due to its sensitive nature.
The systemic class disparities and discrimination inherent in the Sortenic Empire, where nobility usually dictated one’s fate, though lately, ‘dragons from the gutter’ had also been rising to high administrative positions.
“This is why you can’t trust those of common origin!”
“Watch your words. We too are officials appointed by His Majesty the Emperor!”
Disobedience and insubordination followed naturally.
This unsettling mood persisted for over a month until it was decisively quelled by the Crown Prince himself.
“Who dares to stir such chaos within the imperial castle?”
The spoken words were soft and low, yet their impact was immense.
Herix had stopped in the middle of the corridor where a civil servant and a deputy from the Ministry of Industry and Resources were in confrontation. Surprisingly, it was the civil servant who was raising his voice.
He was the second son of a baronial family well-known in the west for their large trade syndicate. In contrast, the deputy was a commoner who had entered the service as the second top scorer in the public recruitment exam and had dedicatedly worked his way up through promotions.
Johann, who was accompanying Herix, quickly understood the situation.
“It’s insubordination.”
The commoner deputy had ordered the noble civil servion to travel to a barren region in the north, and the civil servant was rebelling against the directive because of the destination’s harsh conditions and because it was a commoner who had issued the order.
“Such incidents have become quite frequent these days.”
Given the ongoing issues of class disparity and insubordination between nobles and commoners, this situation was proving problematic for Johann, the head of the internal affairs department.
Seizing the moment, he decided to bring it up with Herix.
“The Miss also.”
He said the ‘Miss’ quietly, almost as if ventriloquizing.
