🔊 TTS Settings
chapter 24
A Man’s Pride
Serena didn’t leave her room all day, using the excuse that she had caught a chill from the night air. Strangely, the Crown Prince, upon hearing this, did the same—without complaint.
It was as if the two of them had conspired: identical behavior for identical reasons. To anyone unaware of their conversation by the window last night—or of why Serena had kicked off her blanket all night—it must have seemed quite perplexing.
“Milady, how are you feeling? I’ve brought some ginger tea.”
In truth, Serena was perfectly fine. She merely didn’t know how to face Lucas, so she used the excuse of illness to remain in bed.
“I’m fine.”
“Since you’re finally resting, please take a good rest.”
Anna placed the tea by her bedside with a kind smile.
“Oh, and Peter mentioned that another missive has arrived, stamped with the Papal seal.”
“Do we know its contents?”
“No.”
The only hope remaining, for now, was Serena’s unpredictable father, Roger. Even if they managed to reach him, there was no guarantee that his reply would side with the Crown Prince.
“The last letter from Father… was three years ago, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. He praised you greatly for managing Astel as the duke’s representative.”
Roger had always been a free-spirited man. He could have become a fine noble, but whether he could be a responsible ruler for his territory was questionable.
Unlike other corrupt lords, he didn’t extort taxes or force labor excessively, but his general lack of attention left Astel feeling as though no one truly governed it.
“Wherever he went, he must have heard of your successes and felt proud.”
“No, Father was pleased only that, thanks to my accomplishments as acting duke, he could wander freely without criticism or responsibility.”
Serena’s assessment was spot on. Anna quietly agreed.
“Father is a good man, but he’s not fit to be a ruler. If I were gone, he’d be the one in the most trouble.”
“So… the duke would recognize this engagement as void?”
“I think so.”
Anna nodded. Serena had already established too many enterprises in Astel. Especially now, with reform and prosperity arriving, the duchy needed a capable ruler.
But if that ruler left to become the Crown Princess, what would happen to Roger’s freedom?
“It doesn’t change anything. The Crown Prince is merely a passing storm in this land anyway.”
Lucas being treated like a natural disaster by his long-awaited fiancée was rather pitiful, but Anna still sided with Serena.
“And it’s not like this is the first time someone has persistently proposed marriage,” Serena added, laughing mischievously.
“You two are different,” Anna pointed out accurately.
Serena’s cheeks flushed slightly, though she had no fever. Despite having resisted Hyde’s persistent proposals over several years without faltering, now, just a few days of Lucas’s presence had filled her mind with thoughts of him from the moment she woke to the moment she slept.
“Now, the Grand Duke must know that the visiting guest in Astel is the Crown Prince—and that he’s come for me as his bride.”
“That’s worrying. Grand Duke’s fiery temperament could be disastrous if provoked.”
Serena’s subtle smirk revealed a youthful playfulness beneath her composed exterior.
“You don’t mean… deliberately, do you?”
“Well, the rumors will spread anyway. And there’s that saying: treat your opponents as enemies.”
“They aren’t enemies—they’re proposing to you.”
Serena shrugged casually, pretending to be unaware. In reality, this was a carefully calculated move.
“Milady,” Anna said, sitting by the bed, “The Crown Prince will care for you and not harm you—but the Grand Duke is different.”
Farrell Duchy was not part of the Empire. Politically and socially, a confrontation between the two men could be catastrophic.
“The Crown Prince appeared suddenly, surveyed my lands, and evaluated me without warning.”
No matter how favorable that evaluation might have been, Serena did not like it. Even if she were physically larger, or a cruel ruler, would his feelings remain the same? Certainly not.
“I hate being judged by others,” she muttered.
Her cold refusals to the Crown Prince’s ardent proposals had a reason. If Lucas had sent a proper letter and requested a normal meeting, she would never have felt animosity.
“So I’ll test him. It’s only fair, isn’t it?”
Fairness. Only Serena could speak this way to the Crown Prince.
“If I can’t handle even the Grand Duke, then there will be no freedom in the marriage the Crown Prince promised me.”
“What? The Crown Prince promised a free marriage? When?”
Ah.
Anna’s eyes shone as she asked, and Serena’s cheeks burned again.
“He… said it in that way. Anyway!” Serena struck her knee firmly and fixed a determined expression.
“He came uninvited and evaluated me, so I want to see his abilities for myself.”
Ideally, the two men would argue until they tired of the situation and focused on Serena instead. But from experience, Serena knew that neither man would back down so easily.
“Oh?”
Lost in thought, Anna rose, slightly drawing the curtain and peering outside.
“My, my.”
No wonder it had been noisy outside for a while.
“Milady, the Grand Duke is arriving at the Astel mansion!”
Serena had anticipated this, and she merely smiled.
“As expected, he’s impatient.”
“Yes? That, and… something major might happen at the Astel mansion!”
Lucas was stubborn, and the Grand Duke was not to be underestimated. Two men confronting each other over one woman would not be a simple affair.
“Even if you’re unwell, please go out and stop them.”
“No.”
Serena burrowed deeper into the blanket in defiance.
“I was resting, so I didn’t hear anything, right?”
“But, milady…”
“Thanks to the Astel knights, we’ll be fine. Just tell me the outcome.”
For perhaps the first time in a long while, Serena’s eyes sparkled as if enjoying a story.
News soon reached the annex where the Crown Prince stayed. Unlike Serena, Lucas stiffened and strapped on his sword.
“Your Highness, you can ignore him. Why bother engaging him?”
“Isn’t it good that he came today? Otherwise, I’d have had to go myself to deal with him.”
Hyde had persistently proposed to Serena more than ten times over the past six years, which Lucas had found exasperating.
Now, Hyde had walked straight into the prince’s mansion—Lucas was actually grateful.
“Let’s go.”
Without a chance for Cedric to intervene, Lucas strode out of the annex and toward the courtyard where the Grand Duke’s horse was waiting.
“Your Highness, allow me to announce myself first,” Cedric hurried, seeing the Grand Duke still on horseback. Lucas shook his head.
“I’ll do the introductions myself.”
They say opposites attract—or perhaps clash. Lucas calmly approached the horse. It was his first meeting with the Grand Duke, Hyde Farrell.
“I came out because it’s noisy outside.”
Lucas spoke first.
“Milady has a mild cold and is resting, so please keep it quiet.”
Hearing Lucas speak so naturally, as if married, Hyde ground his teeth unconsciously.
“I am Lucas Tern, Crown Prince of this Empire.”
Hyde still clenched his teeth as Lucas, shrewdly, mentioned his status first.
“And you… are you? I don’t recall seeing you in the Empire.”
Lucas’s low, relaxed voice provoked Hyde.
Coming lazily from a mansion he had never been allowed to enter, and speaking as if Serena were already his wife, enraged him more than anything.
“I am Hyde Farrell, Duke of the Farrell Duchy.”
Hyde offered the minimum courtesy. Lucas merely nodded.
“Milady has only a mild cold. As her fiancé, I am here, so you may leave without worry.”
Lucas arrogantly lifted his chin. He secretly took pride in matching the stature of the strong, warrior-family Farrell Duke.
“Pardon, but it’s my first time meeting Your Highness here as well.”
Hyde’s red eyes fixed on Lucas.
“Even though I’ve been coming and going here for six years.”
That provocation touched Lucas’s pride. Six years of absence was why Serena had initially ignored him.
But now that Hyde had roamed freely here, it felt almost as if Lucas might have lost his fiancée.
“Oh? I heard you were banished from Astel.”
“That… was more of a game with Milady.”
Lucas chuckled softly. That brief laugh pierced Hyde more than any words.
“If you know Astel so well, you must also know the hill with a full view of this place.”
“Not just that hill,” Hyde replied.
Truly irritating. Lucas glanced at him briefly, then signaled Cedric to bring the horse.
Soon, the black stallion that always accompanied the Crown Prince’s travels appeared, kicking up dust.
Lucas mounted the massive horse with ease, gripping the reins.
“I’ll see from the hill,” he said.
Hyde mounted his own horse competitively.
“This isn’t a race, so don’t overexert yourself,” Lucas warned, his words stirring up a cloud of dust as he rode off. Hyde, gritting his teeth, spurred his horse after him.
Now, this was no mere race. This was a battle of pride—man versus man.
