Chapter 60

“I’m not a witch don’t worry. I’ll protect you. Don’t be scared.”

I comforted Blake who was still scared because of the story. Then Blake smiled brightly, after being silent for a while.

“Yes, I’ll protect my wife too.”

He came out of the blanket and hugged me tightly.

Blake’s a really nice guy.

***

A huge ball was held in the palace in order to commemorate the day goddess of light gave Phillip strength.

Representatives came, from the nobility, academy and many more to thank the goddess and praise Phillip.

Everytime I heard them praising Phillip, I was annoyed.

He’s the reason why Blake’s cursed. Yet, he was praised as a hero and the victim was despised.

After the congratulatory speech, the ball began.

Tenstheon left the ballroom with the duke of Cassil and Collin. I walked quietly to the corner of the dancing hall.

But people still try to approach me and talk to me.

The people always try to do so every ball, but they went too far this time.

The men has been asking me for a dance in particular.

“Your Highness, won’t you dance your glorious first dance with me?”

“I’m sorry, I’m not feeling very well today.”

“But just once…”

“I won’t dance.”

“….”

‘He’s so rude.’

When the dance requests flooded in, Countess Chardin and some women refused in my stead.

I was wondering why Richard was very quiet today while the others are doing this.

Suddenly, a man came up to me.

The silver haired, small eyes, liquor smelling man is Frank, Richard’s half brother.

“Just one song.”

He commanded me in a haughty manner.

It was against the etiquette.

However, no one could point out his rudeness because Frank is the emperor’s nephew and most likely candidate as the new crown prince.

I looked at Frank in the eye and said,

“I won’t.”

“What!”

Frank’s expression turned sour.

When he was rejected after committing a disrespectful act, his pride was broken.

“How dare you disobey me! Did you ever get a proper education being the fallen count’s daughter?”

The atmosphere turned cold. No matter how he is a candidate of the new crown prince, right now, she is the crown princess.

Everyone was astonished by Frank’s rude remark, but he didn’t stop talking.

“Everyone’s not a fool. No one’s going to believe the stupid rumour about the curse that will be lifted. Are you an idiot? I’m the next emperor! This Frank will be an Emperor! You seem to be underestimating me because you’ll be a princess, but if your husband is the emperor, that means you’ll be mine! You’re going to marry me anyway!”

He shouted gibberishly, his content and pronounciation are terrible, and he was not even standing properly, so his body staggered.

As he continued to pour out the rude words, I was rather displeased.

Frank is an arrogant human being. The duke of Cassil care about Frank, who is just like him and he adored him thinking that Frank is going to be the next emperor.

Frank too, thought of himself as the next emperor.

However, he was usually careful, not to make such a mistake in a ballroom where the important people are gathered.

I’ve encountered him several times at the ballroom.

But, he was suddenly on rampage today.

No way…

I looked at Richard.

Everyone was in a shock but Richard was smiling.

This must be one of his ruse.

He deliberately gave Frank a drink, which led him to be drunk.

“Frank, don’t do this.”

Then Frank’s fiancee, the daughter of Westin family stepped up and stopped him, Frank shook her off roughy.

“How dare you touch me! You’re so ugly! I won’t even make you as a fiancee if you weren’t from the westin family! Ah, I don’t need your family anymore, so just get lost!”

“Frank…”

Everyone was very shocked, but the smile on Richard’s lips grew.

“Sir Cassil, you should go now, you’re very drunk. I’ll ask you later about your rudeness today..

As I raised my hand to call a servant, Frank grabbed me by the wrist.

“Who are you to order me!”

“What are you doing! Let me go!”

“I am the emperor of Asteric! I’m the emperor! The monster’s going to die anyway and you’re going to be mine! Ahh—!”

Frank screamed and fell to the floor, and looked at the man who had knock himself down.

“Who are you! How dare you!”

“Your Majesty.”

Tenstheon was looking down at Frank.

“Father…”

“Ancia, are you alright? Are you hurt?”

He gave me a big hug and comforted me.

“I’m fine.”

Frank then hurriedly said,

“Your Majesty! I didn’t mean that!”

He spoke in a relatively clear pronounciation.

He must have came back to his senses after he saw Tenstheon.

“The crown princess seduced me first!”

Frank ended up blaming me. Tenstheon kicked him in the stomach.

“I- I was wrong!”

A sword was now pointed on him.

Silence came in the huge ballroom. People was overwhelmed by the emperor’s presence but no one thought to stop him.

Frank insulted the crown prince as a monster in front of everyone and said that he was about to die.

This of course was no secret to everyone, people always said this secretly. But Blake is still the crown prince of this empire.

Even though he was the heir to the curse, people should never say that in front of the emperor and crown princess.

Moreover, Frank called himself as the emperor of the empire.

Under these circumstances, there was no noble who sided with Frank. Only one person took his side.

“Your Majesty, stop!”

The duke of cassil tries to stop Tenstheon.

“Frank is your nephew! How could you do this for a slight mistake?”

“Slight mistake?”

Everyone held their breaths but the duke of cassil was still confident.

“Yes, if he’s drunk, it’s a mistake! I could tell that Frank was drunk!”

“Your Excellency, that’s enough.”

Reading the unusual atmosphere, Richard stopped the duke of cassil, but he shouted even louder.

“In addition, he is just expressing his opinions, so is there anything wrong?”

“I see.”

“I’m glad you understand it.”

“You must apologize at him, no matter what you say.”

The duke of cassil raised the corners of his mouth. He was very happy by his victory over Tenstheon.

Frank quicky stands up.

“Hey, that’s right! I need an apology!”

Tenstheon looked at the two men.

“I knew it, this idiot learned from you.”

“Idiot?! I’m not an idiot!”

The duke of cassil tried to protest but Tenstheon ignore him.

“Bring the duke of cassil and his eldest son in prison. They’ll be charged with treason.”

“Tr,treason? Brother, what do you mean?”

The duke of cassil widened his eyes.

He still haven’t grasped the situation, and there was no one who’ll explain the situation.

The duke of cassil and Frank were immediately taken away by the knights.

Richard didn’t expect this to happen either.

Tenstheon came closer to me.

“You must have been scared, I’m sorry I came so late.”

“No, it’s okay.”

He hugged me, I hugged him tightly too in response.

I wanted to comfort Tenstheon because he seemed more surprised than I was.

***

There was one good thing about Frank’s incident.

The dance, which was supposed to last all night ended early and I was able to return to Amoria palace earlier.

“Ancia, why did you come back so early?”

“I miss my husband.”

“What happened?”

Blake is quick witted. Even though I tried to spoke as brightly as I could, he quickly realized it.

“I go home early because I wanted to see the fireworks with you.”

“Really?”

“Yes.”

On the last day of the festival, fireworks will be everywhere.

The event was big enough to be seen from the crown prince’s palace.

“Hurry up.”

“Okay.”

We went up to the small attic on the top floor of the Amoria Palace.

Although it wasn’t a frequently used space, Melissa had cleaned it in advance.

“Melissa and Hans are at the square right?”

“Yes, they’ll be waiting for the firework to start on the square by now.”

I gave Melissa and Hans a vacation today. They both refused but I told them to spend some time together. At this point they probably forgot to hide their relationship and enjoyed a date together.

“We could do the same right?”