The Prince's Taste - Chapter 4.10
“Lady Emers… the portrait of His Highness…”
“Judy wanted my portrait?”
“……”
Hans couldn’t bring himself to say that she had smashed it with her fist. He just turned his head and sighed. How could he tell Richard, “Your face is completely ruined, Your Highness. Please don’t chase after her now.”
“If she wanted it so much, I would have sent her a full-length portrait if she had asked.”
“Your Highness, please consider…”
Hans couldn’t say that if he sent a full-body portrait, the lower part would be ruined. So, he thought, please be gentle, even if you love her.
“My Lord.”
The comms went live.
“Where is Lady Emers?”
“……”
The Shadow couldn’t bring himself to speak and instead turned the viewing sphere around. The visuals showed a street at the festival. Amidst the passing people, Richard recognized two figures at once.
“Why is Judy with that man?”
Judy Esther was standing with Calix. No, Calix had his arms around Judy Esther. Seeing Judy Esther lower her eyes slightly, Richard’s eyes rolled back in his head.
“How long have they been together?”
The discomfort in his voice was palpable.
“It’s been a while.”
“Damn it.”
Richard felt a sense of crisis when he saw the Empire’s Crown Prince Calix in the reception hall. Although Calix said he came to enjoy the Founding Day Festival, no one believed it at face value.
During dinner, one of Calix’s knights whispered something to him, and then the crown prince suddenly stood up, saying he had urgent business.
It is said that a predator recognizes another predator. Call it kinship hatred — or beast’s intuition.
Calix’s red eyes gleamed with raw, untamed hunger, filled with a sharp focus — the kind a hunter has before striking down its prey. The same look Richard himself knew all too well.
“Damn it. He must have gone to meet Judy.”
A chuckle escaped his lips. Now, the true intention behind Calix’s visit to the kingdom was clear.
Calix had probably planted his people around her. Judy Esther’s movements would have been reported directly to him. Did he also know they spent two nights together? Perhaps this banquet was part of his plan to separate Judy Esther from him. That was unthinkable.
“After leaving the reception hall, he exited the palace, saying he wanted to experience the life of commoners first hand. Maybe it was just a coincidence that he met Lady Emers on the street.”
“There’s no way it was a coincidence.”
Hans tried to calm Richard down, explaining that it wouldn’t be good for him to confront the Empire’s Crown Prince in his agitated state.
The Shadow reported that Judy Esther had almost been involved in a carriage accident and was saved by Calix who happened to be with her at the time.
“A carriage accident? Were there any injuries?”
“There were many injured civilians.”
The Shadow calmly relayed the situation.
“See to it that the injured civilians are taken to the infirmary for treatment.”
“Your Highness, that we will lose sight of Lady Emers.”
“First, take care of the injured civilians. Then, find out who was inside the carriage.”
Richard was furious. The carriage had not only sped through the crowded festival streets, causing injuries, but the noble inside had also yelled at the civilians for blocking their path.
“Hans… prepare my horse.”
“You’re going outside the palace?”
“My woman, I must protect her.”
Richard wasn’t in his right mind. He knew that the Imperial Crown Prince was interested in Judy Esther, but he hadn’t expected Calix to be so brazen about it. And of all people, it was Calix who had saved her life. Everything was unsettling because he had yet to win Judy Esther’s heart completely. He pulled on a long hooded cloak over his head, mounted his horse and hurried out of the palace.
Hans could only let out a long sigh. Left behind in the palace, he could do nothing but pace anxiously, eyes lifted toward the heavens. He thought about the temperamental Marquis of Emers, and the ruthless, calculating Duke Daniel, the Young Lord of Emers. And for the nobles inside that carriage, could they even continue living comfortably in Adrian after today? He prayed for the soul of the carriage owner, who had crossed paths with the Emers family and Richard.
