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Chapter 24
Rai grabbed Butteri by the scruff of the neck without hesitation and yanked him up. Despite Butteri’s bulky size, Rai lifted him effortlessly with one hand and sat him down beneath the balcony railing.
Then he folded back Butteri’s undamaged ear in half.
“Aaaaargh!”
Butteri, who had fainted, snapped his eyes open at the searing pain that jolted his brain awake.
“W-what are you… Ugh, my jaw!”
Though he’d regained consciousness, his vision was still blurry, and he couldn’t recognize who stood before him.
On top of that, the pain belatedly surged in, and as he clutched his aching jaw with both hands, he felt something foreign inside his mouth.
He spat, and two molars flew out.
“M-my precious teeth?! H-how dare you…!”
Butteri looked up sharply at the one in front of him. Finally, his vision cleared, and the face became distinct.
“Uuurk!”
Rai was silently glaring down at him, his sharp gaze radiating immense pressure.
The instant their eyes met, a chill ran down Butteri’s spine, and he dropped his head deeply.
“M-my apologies.”
“For what?”
“F-for everything. It was all my fault. Please forgive me.”
Butteri tried to offer a hasty apology, planning to crawl away on his knees.
But Rai had no intention of letting him go. He grabbed Butteri by the shoulder and shoved him back down.
“There’s someone else you ought to apologize to.”
“Eh? W-who do you mean?”
“Quit flapping your mouth and think.”
At the merciless look in Rai’s eyes, Butteri racked his brain.
He’d done so many wrongs that he couldn’t immediately think of one person. So he retraced what happened just before Rai got involved.
He’d drunk heavily, wandered into the hall, and kept pestering people until he was thrown out repeatedly.
Then he spotted an easy target—a member of the preparatory group. He had grabbed her hand and refused to let go. That was when someone appeared—Eva.
“Ah!”
Butteri’s eyes widened as he met Rai’s gaze.
“Captain, d-did you perhaps hear from that wench that I was the one who struck His Highness on the cheek?”
“…What?”
“So she ended up blabbing! P-please listen to me! That incident was all a misunderstanding. I never knew His Highness Claude was there—urk!”
The longer Butteri babbled, the more Rai’s brows furrowed. There were countless things wrong from beginning to end, but one issue had to be corrected first.
“How dare you attach the word ‘wench’ to her name.”
“Ghhk! Ughhh!”
Rai seized Butteri’s already broken jaw in one hand. The crushing grip felt like it would rip the jaw clean off. Butteri tried to pry Rai’s hand away with both his own, but it didn’t budge.
The tightening grip was terrifying, but the predatory glare, as though he would devour him whole, was even more horrifying.
“I-I won’t do it again! Ugh!”
“Say it properly.”
“L-lady Eva Blanche!”
Only after he spoke her name correctly did Rai release his grip. Butteri gasped, frantically checking to see if he had lost more teeth.
“Gaaah!”
But then his neck was seized and slammed against the floor. Rai pinned his back with his knee, subduing him effortlessly.
“Why are you doing this to me?! I said her name properly!”
“You said you struck His Highness’s cheek. Explain exactly what happened.”
“Eh? D-don’t you already know?”
“Don’t make me ask twice.”
Rai pressed harder with his knee, crushing Butteri’s belly against the floor until breathing grew difficult.
“Aaagh! F-fine, I’ll tell you everything!”
Terrified, Butteri spilled the truth. Because he was face-down, he didn’t see how dark Rai’s expression became when he admitted that he had reached for Eva, only for Claude—masked as a white tiger—to take the blow instead.
“T-that’s all! It was truly a mistake. I didn’t know it was His Highness Claude! I kept my mouth shut, just as I was told to! But then that w—no, Lady Blanche must have told someone, urk!”
As he babbled, his head was yanked backward, cutting off his words.
“Neither His Highness nor Lady Eva ever told me about that day.”
When Rai heard the full story Claude had never shared, a sharp ache constricted his chest.
It felt as though he had intruded on a secret meant for Claude and Eva alone.
“Wh-what? They never told you?!”
Butteri’s face turned pale. He realized he had dug his own grave.
“Butteri.”
“Y-yes?”
Rai’s voice was even lower than before, sending chills down his spine. The sound alone felt like strangulation.
“Today’s incident, and His Highness’s as well—they’re all your fault.”
“Y-yes, that’s right.”
“If you went missing right here and now, do you think anyone would come looking?”
“…Eh?!”
“If you disappear without a trace, it will simply be handled as a classified matter that took place in the palace. That’s the end of it.”
The implication was clear—he could lose his life here, and no one would ever know.
Butteri shivered as though all the blood in his body had drained away.
“You wouldn’t want that, would you?”
“S-spare me! Please, I beg you, spare me!”
“Then you’d better live the rest of your life in complete silence. Like a man with his tongue cut out.”
Rai ground his teeth as he whispered. Though human, he exuded the menace of a great beast growling. Butteri squeezed his eyes shut in terror.
“I-I will! I swear it! I’ll never even set foot near the palace again!”
“Not just the palace—don’t even glance at the Blanche household.”
“Th-the Blanche household too?”
“Do I need to cut out your tongue to make sure you obey?”
“Uuurghh! I-I unnershtan’! (I understand!)”
Butteri shook his head violently, clamping his mouth shut in fear of losing his tongue.
“Behave yourself from now on. No matter where you are, I’ll be watching.”
At that heartfelt warning, Butteri was nearly in tears. Rai finally stood, releasing his hair and lifting his knee away.
Even freed, Butteri was so drained with fear that he couldn’t get up.
“Escort him out of the palace.”
The knights who had just returned from seeing Eva home quickly dragged Butteri away.
“Was that when they spoke of a proposal?”
Left alone, Rai pictured the moment Claude and Eva had met, as Butteri described.
What kind of looks had they exchanged? What had passed between them? The thought that Claude knew a side of Eva unknown to him filled Rai with both resentment and guilt.
He had no right to harbor such feelings toward a royal.
“Don’t grow impatient. You promised to wait.”
Though he pretended calm before Eva, deep down Rai feared that she would ultimately choose Claude instead of him.
Alone in the hall, he recalled holding Eva close in his arms for so long.
Knock knock.
“Lady Eva Blanche?”
“Huh? Y-yes?”
Eva, lost in thought, snapped back at the palace coachman’s voice.
“We’ve arrived at your estate. I called several times, but you didn’t respond.”
“Oh, I did? Haha, I must be very tired.”
She smiled awkwardly and stepped out of the carriage, where Jane was already waiting.
“My lady, the party ended so late—oh! What happened to your hair?!”
Jane had carefully styled Eva earlier, but now her hair was a complete mess. She hurriedly checked her condition.
“How much did you drink?! Wait—there’s no smell of alcohol?”
“I didn’t drink much.”
“Then did you get into a fight with someone?”
“…Something like that.”
“What?! What on earth happened?”
As Jane fussed and examined her, Eva remained calm instead.
“It’s fine. That guy’s already been wrecked.”
“Wrecked? My lady, did you hit him yourself?”
“I’ll explain later. Right now, I’m too tired. I just want a bath.”
“I’ll prepare it immediately.”
Noticing how uncharacteristically quiet Eva was, Jane obeyed without pressing further.
While waiting for the bath to be prepared in her bedroom, Eva remained dazed.
Too much had happened in a single day.
Julian, once known as an adopted daughter, suddenly revealed herself as a princess. She still wasn’t sure whether her plan to make Brigitte laugh had succeeded.
On top of that, Butteri’s shameless behavior, and Rai’s confession… Everything had come crashing down at once, leaving her head pounding.
“You already know who I love, don’t you?”
“Eva Blanche.”
“It’s you. You’re the one I truly love.”
The memory of Rai’s heartfelt confession stirred her troubled heart once again.
“Why confess like that, so sincerely, when you were trying to pull away from me?”
In all three of her lives, Rai had never spoken with such raw sincerity. She didn’t know how to respond.
Being ignored and cast aside was far more familiar.
“I told him I needed time to think, but… there’s only one answer I can give.”
She would have to reject him. Perhaps it was better to leave before he confessed again.
She was anxious about being entangled like this, and even if she accepted, she had no hope of living happily ever after with Rai.
She wasn’t a fool. After being betrayed twice already, she couldn’t possibly nurture expectations again.
“My lady, the bath is ready.”
“Alright.”
Eva dragged her weary body to the mansion’s bathhouse, large enough for five people at once.
To cheer her up, Jane had even scattered rose petals across the water.
“My lady, shall I wash you—”
“Jane, let me be alone today.”
“Understood. Then please call me when you’re done.”
“Okay.”
Alone, Eva sank into the bath until the water reached her chin. The perfect warmth made her eyes close naturally.
Smooch.
“F-forgive me! Lady Eva, you just looked so lovely. I—I couldn’t help myself.”
The memory of Rai’s kiss on her forehead resurfaced, and she felt as though she was still in his arms, his hand stroking her hair and back.
Eva raised her wet hand, rubbing her forehead, then scrubbed at her head and back as though to wash the feeling away.
It was the most suffocating day of her three lives.
