🔊 TTS Settings
Chapter 8
Objectively speaking, the Empire’s Second Prince, Balthazar, was quite an impressive man.
Blessed with handsome features, he was the only son born between the Emperor and the current Empress, and his maternal family was the House of Marquis Ludes, famed for its immense wealth and influence.
The Empress adored her son enough to put him in her eyes if she could, and because the Emperor could never oppose her, Balthazar grew up obtaining nearly everything he desired.
And yet there was one reason he could never be happy.
The First Prince, Carsiel.
He was Balthazar’s half-brother and the sole child of the late First Empress.
It was only natural that Balthazar harbored resentment toward Carsiel. In every regard, Carsiel surpassed him ever so slightly.
A slightly more dazzling appearance.
A slightly taller stature.
A slightly sharper mind.
A slightly swifter body.
Even a slightly more charming personality.
As the two grew older, the gap became increasingly obvious, and public opinion truly split because of the Empress.
Whenever the Empress—who regarded Carsiel as a thorn in her side—sent him off to the battlefield, he would always return as the hero of victory. Those achievements turned Carsiel into the Empire’s champion.
Naturally, voices soon arose insisting that the outstanding First Prince should quickly be named successor to the ailing Emperor.
Each time, the Empress and Balthazar’s faction strongly pushed Balthazar forward in opposition, but this only led society to compare the two princes more and more often.
Since Carsiel proved superior in nearly every field, Balthazar’s personality became increasingly twisted. He vented the stress he felt onto various people.
Today, I was his target.
“So you’ve been shut up at home for so long that you can’t even tell your place anymore. You dare try to lecture me?”
Balthazar growled.
“As I mentioned before, Iris has never received any formal etiquette education.”
Bartol, standing behind me, cut in eagerly as though he had been waiting for the opportunity.
“It would be a great honor if Your Highness personally instructed her.”
“Oh? Is that so?”
A malicious smile spread across Balthazar’s face, and at the same time, his hand shot out to seize my arm and yank me beside him.
“But what a shame. I don’t have time to give personal lessons to an insolent young lady.”
He glanced around before shaking his head and shoving me away to the other side.
“Damon, you take her. Teach her yourself.”
“Hah, Your Highness really is something.”
Before I realized it, Damon was standing opposite the Second Prince. Clicking his tongue, he grabbed both my shoulders.
“A beauty’s welcome, but untamed girls aren’t my type.”
Without even giving me time to steady myself, he shoved me hard toward the man on his right.
“Huh? Why are you pushing her this way? I don’t want her either.”
As I staggered from being passed around, the young men burst into snickering laughter.
Nothing had changed.
This was a kind of hunting game they enjoyed.
I knew because I had already experienced it in my first life.
The prey they sought was always the same: someone irritating to them, but lacking a powerful protector nearby.
The third son of a viscount family who had come alone from the frontier and entered the Imperial Knights at the youngest age ever.
The second daughter of a poor baron family who had rejected Damon’s advances.
Both had become prey at banquets like this.
This crude and violent game was surprisingly effective at ruining the victim’s reputation, and it usually continued until Balthazar found his next target.
“My lady, don’t pretend to stumble just so you can lean on someone. I thought you understood etiquette.”
The long-faced young man snickered and shoved me back toward Balthazar.
Pretending to reach for a wine glass from a nearby shelf, Balthazar swiftly stepped aside.
From the opposite side, Damon stretched out a leg to trip me, only to catch my waist right before I fell.
Another wave of laughter erupted.
“You should apologize now, Iris.”
Watching from the side, Bartol whispered quietly.
“If I ask, His Highness will stop.”
What an idiot with no self-awareness.
In my first life, I had believed that too, but the bullying had only grown worse.
I scanned the banquet hall from the corner of my eye, but most people either hadn’t noticed us in the corner or deliberately looked away even if they had.
What had Lisian from the Hunters’ Guild taught me to do when facing a stronger enemy?
“If your opponent lets their guard down, you’ll still get one chance.”
Good. This was only a banquet hall, after all. Even if things became a little chaotic, all I had to do was escape.
I waited for Damon to place his hand on my shoulder again.
“Your Highness, avoiding her is too much. Surely you don’t think Lady Iris is ugly or anyth— huh?”
The moment strength entered his hand, I quickly twisted my body and slipped beneath Damon’s arm.
Though only for an instant, Damon had turned his back to me.
I didn’t miss the opening.
Putting my weight into it, I shoved hard against the back of his waist.
“Ugh?!”
Damon, who had been enthusiastically trying to push me around, couldn’t withstand the combined force of his own momentum and my shove.
He flew straight forward—
Toward Balthazar, who still held the wine glass.
Thud— crash!
Unable to control his long limbs, Damon instinctively grabbed onto Balthazar, while the wine glass struck Damon’s head before shattering on the floor.
“What the—?!”
I stepped backward, searching for an escape route.
But before I could move, something utterly shocking—something I had never planned—occurred.
As Balthazar turned his head with an enraged shout, Damon, using Balthazar’s shoulder to push himself upright, accidentally crashed his lips directly into Balthazar’s.
“Mmph?!”
“Gah!”
“Uwah!”
Balthazar and Damon froze in horror, while the long-faced man and Bartol screamed at the same time.
As a result, every eye in the banquet hall turned toward us.
A suffocating silence followed for several seconds.
Even the musicians had stopped playing.
Nothing moved except frantic darting eyes.
Until Balthazar finally roared loud enough to shake the hall.
“How dare you touch me, you bastard!”
“M-My deepest apologies!”
Damon hurriedly tried to apologize and kneel, but Balthazar’s fist was faster.
Thud!
With a sickening sound, Damon’s body slammed into the wall.
“Y-Your Highness, please calm yourself.”
“Move! Since when do men put their hands on each other?!”
Bartol and the long-faced man grabbed him from either side, but Balthazar violently shoved even them aside.
Breathing heavily, he searched for another target to vent his rage on.
Then his eyes met mine.
“Iris Aphelemion.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
I answered without avoiding his gaze.
Everyone in the banquet hall was watching us.
No matter how much of a prince he was, if he continued harassing me for absurd reasons, he would not escape the Emperor’s wrath. No matter how powerless I was, I was still the only direct descendant of House Aphelemion.
“You dare attack me?”
“It was Young Viscount Gideon who suddenly lunged into Your Highness’s arms. And it was Your Highness who kissed him.”
“Shut your mouth! Since when did I ever kiss some disgusting man—”
“There are this many witnesses, yet you still deny it? Besides, love between men is hardly shameful. In the southern provinces, it’s already quite comm—”
“I told you to stop spewing filth!”
I had only said it to draw even more attention from the crowd, but Balthazar turned red to the tips of his ears and shouted furiously.
Just as expected.
Though the Empire itself was fairly open toward same-sex relationships, the Ludes March—the Empress’s homeland—held conservative values, and Balthazar had inherited that mindset strongly.
Though unintended on my part, to Balthazar there was no humiliation greater than kissing another man.
“Young lady, you have insulted me, a prince of the Empire. Surely you don’t think I’ll let you go simply because others are watching?”
So he understood perfectly well.
He might not be brilliant, but his instincts were sharp.
His widened eyes gleamed with madness.
I realized then that Balthazar no longer cared about the Emperor’s wrath.
“Your Highness, perhaps we should discuss this later—”
“If you wish to keep your head attached, then keep backing away.”
I retreated step by step, searching for a route to escape, but Balthazar closed the distance far too quickly.
Before I knew it, he stood directly before me, reaching for my throat.
“You won’t leave this place in one piec—”
“…?”
I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for pain.
But instead of agony, all I heard was a sharp grab.
“What… what do you think you’re doing?!”
When I finally opened my eyes again, I saw Balthazar glaring furiously at someone behind me.
His outstretched wrist had been seized by another man’s hand emerging from behind my shoulder.
“How disgraceful, Balthazar.”
A low but unmistakably clear voice rang out behind me.
“Have you no thought whatsoever for the dignity of the Imperial Family?”
Still gripping Balthazar’s wrist tightly, the owner of the voice slowly stepped out beside me.
In front of Balthazar’s flushed face, a white uniform sleeve entered my vision.
Only then did I turn and fully see the man beside me.
A snow-white military uniform adorned with golden epaulettes.
A height at least a head taller than Balthazar or Damon.
Bright golden hair like the morning sun descending to earth.
A flawlessly sculpted face.
Cold blue eyes that gleamed like sharpened steel.
And from his entire body emanated a chilling killing intent impossible to conceal.
Carsiel Parnas.
The First Prince of the Parnas Empire.
“We greet the First Prince!”
“We greet the First Prince!”
Those standing nearby hurriedly bowed one after another, but Carsiel did not move.
He only stared at Balthazar.
“Step aside, Brother. That woman attacked me. She must be punished immediately for insulting the Imperial Family!”
“What nonsense. You, who came with five subordinates, could not handle a single woman?”
Grinding his teeth audibly, Balthazar glared at him.
Carsiel quietly replied,
“Then was it not you who disgraced the honor of the Imperial Family?”
