/
Episode 98: Ugly Plan (II)
30 minutes ago—
Rixus was getting dressed before going to meet Yuria.
Beside him, Ires had just finished his briefing on the wedding preparations.
“Your Majesty the Crown Prince, everything is almost ready now.”
“Almost everything is ready…”
He casually picked up a shirt and draped it over his broad shoulders, and he asked as if his thoughts just spilled out.
“It should be perfect. Is it perfect?”
Ires answered neatly, straightening his spine.
“Yes! Perfect.”
Rixus replied, with a quiet smile on his face, slowly fastening the buttons on his shirt.
“Yes, it should be perfect for you too.”
“?”
‘……Why? ……It’s your wedding, so why is it perfect for me?’
As Ires rolled his ignorant eyes, Rixus grabbed his shoulder and said,
“If you make a mistake on that day… you will die.”
“!”
The soul slipped out of poor Ires’ face.
Rixus continued his words, stroking his aide on the shoulder as if encouraging him.
“I’m joking. Smile.”
“Hahaha.”
‘What joke… He’s serious……!’
Ires trembled and laughed.
Meanwhile, Rixus pulled out a set of cufflinks from the drawer.
Ires recognized it. He got it a while ago.
Those cufflinks were a kind of magic tool, and they were made with much difficulty after the Fireworks Festival.
It was the latest magic tool from the Magic Tower, which contained the powerful magic stone Terra. Small ones were inserted during crafting.
The principle was that the color would change when there was a poison or an object with magical powers around it.
If it was poison, it would be black. If there were malignant spells, it would be purple. The others were red.
Of course, it might not be as good as the artifacts of the imperial family given to Berylia, but it was a product that would do its job well enough.
“…But what’s going on? You’re wearing this stuff today.”
Actually, Ires was surprised from the first moment his master asked for it.
Because it wasn’t like Rixus. To some extent, after his power was on track, he didn’t take much care of his body as there were fewer attempts to hurt him.
Rixus said with a nonchalant expression, with cufflinks on his sleeve.
“I promised.”
“…What promise?”
Rixus recalled the conversation he had with Berylia during the Fireworks Festival.
“Please take special care of yourself until the wedding.”
“What do you mean?”
“Just in case, we never know. It’s a marriage with a lot of talk and weariness.”
Berylia repeatedly asked him to make a promise.
She looked like she was worried about him.
How cute was that?
A smile crept across Rixus’ lips.
“You don’t have to know.”
“….…”
Ires’ expression darkened. Anyway, his boss was very respectful of his wife’s opinion…
Right now—
Such a tendency of Rixus was holding Yuria’s ankles. Like a snare or a trap.
(TL/N: his tendency to respect his wife’s opinion.)
Rixus looked down at the teacup with a blank expression.
At first glance, it looked like ordinary tea. However, his cufflinks were red.
It wasn’t poison. It also wasn’t a curse.
‘……If so, what the hell is it?’
He thought that one day these cufflinks would do their job, but he never knew the day would come so quickly.
He didn’t even expect that the offender would be Yuria.
Without changing his expression, Rixus slowly picked up the teacup and brought it to his lips.
Then his eyes calmly met hers.
“Try it. It is a precious tea from the Western Continent, so it will taste good.”
Yuria smiled softly with an angelic face.
‘There’s not even a speck of guilt.’
Did she become ugly because she was desperate, or did she have an ugly soul from the beginning?
Yuria didn’t know, but at this moment, Rixus lost all his affection for her.
Although he didn’t care about her as a woman, she was one of those people who he wished would not die and would live well.
He hoped she could live with the price he made to save her life.
But he felt that she had been looking at him the wrong way…… For a long time too.
At that moment, Rixus’ gaze caught a man walking from the far side of the garden.
“Count Parfernon.”
He hurriedly walked over and politely greeted them.
“I see the Crown Prince, and… Lady Mavis!”
“…Hello, Count.”
With a pale, tired face, Yuria greeted him with a rather gentle smile.
Then she nervously turned her gaze back to Rixus.
“!”
For a moment, her heart skipped a beat in shock. Rixus was drinking the tea.
As her pounding heart felt like it was going to burst out of her throat, Yuria squeezed her trembling hands and clasped them together.
On the other hand, Rixus calmly put down joi the teacup and even had time to wipe his lips with a handkerchief.
The teacup, whose base was almost exposed, made Yuria’s heart flutter.
Finally, finally.
Finally!
‘His Highness the Crown Prince will love me!’
“…….”
Demonic joy lingered in Yuria’s innocent eyes.
Of course, she was told that it would take a day for the effect to appear.
However, it was a fact that the crown prince was caught in her trap.
With the anticipation that he would long for her and want her from tomorrow, Yuria could hardly control her expression.
“You must have come to see Ires.”
“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince. We are doing the final inspection of the wedding.”
“It should go ahead without a hitch.”
“I’m paying special attention.”
Yuria thought to herself as she listened to the conversation.
‘It will be a sad wedding.’
Definitely. Since the groom entering the wedding would have a desire for another woman.
Yuria felt that she had defeated the queen for the first time.
……She didn’t feel too bad.
Obviously, it was done solely for the sake of Rixus in the first place. But a strange feeling of pleasure was coloring her heart.
“You’re having a conversation with the princess. Can I go back for a while?”
“Yes.”
Count Parfernon quietly disappeared when Rixus’ permission was granted.
The two were then left alone at the table.
Quietly looking at the documents, Rixus said.
“Let’s continue the discussion.”
“…Yes, Your Highness.”
Yuria couldn’t concentrate on talking about the business.
She was inflated with her anticipation for the future, and had a dreamy time.
She was not even aware that the ‘Heart of Eros’ that she carefully prepared was being sucked up by the grass by her feet.
After a while, Rixus finished the conversation with Yuria and returned to his office.
Ires also seemed to have finished working with Count Parfernon.
He greeted Rixus politely.
“Oh, your expression… Did you talk about the Terra Mine business with Lady Mavis?”
Ires asked cautiously while gauging the mood of Rixus, which was different from usual.
“It’s interesting…”
Rixus mused, frowning, with a hazy, contemplative thought.
He then nodded his head with a smirk.
“It was red. In many ways.”
It was not only interesting, but it was a meeting that raised a lot of questions.
“Ires.”
“Yes!”
Rixus pulled out his handkerchief.
The handkerchief had stains of the liquid he had earlier wiped and buried.
“Find out the identity of the liquid here and bring it back. You have until tomorrow.”
He just wondered what the innocent-looking girl was going to do to him.
“Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince!”
Ires moved quickly.
* * *
<Keep your date promise.>
In the office, I frowned as I read Johann’s note, which arrived just in time for lunch.
“… Archduke Marquis, are there many rumors about him being persistent?”
The chicks responded to my question in a brawl.
“No! Seryl hasn’t heard of such a rumor…?”
“The only rumors are that he is a very faithful man and that he mainly prays.”
“There are rumors that he’s handsome.”
So he was either a pervert or a very obsessive person.
There were no such rumors.
‘If there weren’t any, I’d have to spread such rumors around the neighborhood. It’s too annoying.’
I nodded my head firmly.
Was ‘obsession’ a heredity engraved in the bloodline of the Aktoum royal family?
It must have been so.
It has been only some days since we met, so I didn’t know why he was already urging me to pay off my debts.
I was wondering if I should read the note again or not… Then I remembered what he said last time.
“…To my letter, please reply immediately.”
But the more someone tells me to do something, the more I don’t want to do it.
I crumpled up the note and focused on something else.
And after a while.
For some reason, I was standing in front of a mansion with a black crow.
‘Damn, I can’t help but have a personality that can’t live without stains!’
No matter how hard I tried to ignore it, my conscience was pierced by the thought of Johann willingly giving away the fragment of Zephyross’s tombstone.
Without it, I would never have known what Deborah was up to.
I might have become the food of that vicious shadow wolf.
“The Archduke is waiting inside.”
I walked to the drawing room following Melfis’ guidance.
Then Johann opened the door himself and welcomed me.
With fresh, bright eyes and black hair, he smiled softly.
I asked the handsome face very sullenly.
“The wedding is just around the corner… isn’t it a bit like dating another man, Archduke?”
“Oh, Your Majesty the Queen…”
Johann put his lips on the back of my hand very slowly, and with a Rixus-like mischievous expression on his face.
“So it’ll be a more exciting date.”
……Oh my god…… Anyone who saw it would think you were flirting……
He whispered sweetly.
“Come in.”