The Flame of the Flames
Bianca Lasca ci was almost publicly humiliated.
Ruang had been right to worry.
The scandal had already spread like wildfire through the capital.
But Angela had stepped in at the perfect moment, turning the humiliation into delicious laughter instead.
That alone had been plenty scandalous.
Yet the real spice came next.
Angela mocking Bianca would have been tame, ordinary even.
That kind of thing happened every day in noble society—someone trampling someone else, someone making someone cry, someone biting someone behind their back.
It was not fresh news.
But forgiveness?
That changed everything.
Nobles knew revenge all too well, yet forgiveness remained foreign to them.
Even though religion preached forgiveness as a virtue, reality always pushed the opposite.
So the gossip took on a life of its own.
Ruang had felt eyes on him far more than usual while sparring with the Imperial Guard Knights.
Before the swords even clashed more than a few times, the whispers had already begun.
Today’s opponents were half-distracted, their focus elsewhere.
Their eyes kept drifting to his face.
In the end, Ruang called a halt to the spar, wiping only the sweat and pretending to be satisfied.
He shook the sweat from his blade, sat down, and began sharpening his sword on a whetstone.
“Are you all curious about the rumors?”
“Y-yes…? Ah, yes……”
With those words, the knights around him started to gather, slowly at first, then much faster than casual.
The Imperial Guard Knights here were mostly young men.
Only those with hot blood could spar directly with Ruang, so of course they were young and eager.
Young men of that age were obsessed with romance and women.
Add to that the romance of a royal prince, and the curiosity only grew hotter.
“I do think it’s time I started looking for a marriage partner.”
“Ohhhhh……”
The knights’ eyes lit up.
They reacted far more fiercely to the idea of marriage than to the sword fight.
They were still young, after all.
Ruang pointed at one of them with a finger.
“Have you married yet?”
“I have not. The family is still searching.”
The knight smiled awkwardly and shook his head.
In truth, Ruang’s influence had played a small part in many of these knights remaining unmarried.
Ruang was a prince of the Imperial family, yet he carried a flaw—a royal flaw.
More precisely, the stigma of having gone mad.
So nobles who wished to absorb the Imperial blood into their houses kept the purity of young ladies of marriageable age carefully guarded.
Was it really so wrong to treat them like merchandise?
Actually, arranged marriages in this world were not that different from buying goods.
People calculated profit, weighed exchange value, and put them on the market at the most profitable moment.
Therefore, the rumor that Ruang had returned to the marriage market would shake the calculations of several noble houses.
And it was not just the older nobles who felt the ripple effects.
If Ruang married, the unmarried young ladies currently tied to other contracts would also become available on the market again.
Opportunities would open up for everyone.
So all ears perked up.
“But all of this is ultimately the Emperor’s decision.”
Ruang added casually.
“Unless you are the direct blood of a great duke, you probably won’t satisfy him.”
That statement caused one knight’s face to twist with barely contained frustration.
“Then… with Goldren’s young lady……”
“So that’s exactly what you wanted to hear.”
Ruang smiled.
The knight’s cheeks flushed red.
Ruang was inwardly pleased.
That’s the spirit of a young man.
In the salon, everyone played coy.
They wrapped their words three times before speaking a single line.
But these knights were different.
If something piqued their curiosity, they asked directly.
If it surprised them, their faces showed it.
If they found it amusing, their eyes ignited first.
That blunt honesty was rather refreshing.
Back in his modern world, when marriage talk came up at a drinking party, people went straight for the throat.
Who? When? Show the wedding invitation! How much did you plan to contribute?
Something like that.
These knights, however, were looking at him with the bright-eyed enthusiasm of students listening to their first-ever romance story from a strict teacher.
Ruang deliberately steered the conversation elsewhere.
“Incidentally, is there anyone here who knows Goldren’s young lady personally?”
No one raised their hand.
“How interesting.”
A moment later, one knight spoke cautiously.
“Personally, I don’t know her… but I do know about Goldren family cosmetics.”
“Hmm? Cosmetics?”
Actually, Ruang knew very little about Angela.
She was an idiot.
She had strange lewd tendencies.
And, most importantly, she was very likely a transmigrator.
That was about it.
“Yes. I heard she researches shampoos, conditioners, perfumes, and many other cosmetics herself.”
“Oh……”
Ruang’s expression showed mild surprise.
He remembered hearing rumors years ago about using shampoos instead of soap for bathing.
The memory of it feeling quite good still lingered.
And now it came from the hands of the Goldren family, made by Angela herself.
It was the perfect product to open noble pockets.
Even a snail can roll.
Just for a moment, a fleeting thought crossed his mind.
Was this type the kind who made things for her own convenience, perhaps even something like a smartphone…?
Before the idea could develop further, he dismissed it.
Smartphones were out of the question.
Creating cosmetics and creating semiconductors were completely different worlds.
Still.
She seemed like a transmigrator.
She even seemed to understand the flow of this world.
There was no reason to miss out.
Ruang continued sharpening without pausing, tossing the words out casually.
“So the good scent must have been from that?”
“…!”
With that single sentence, every knight’s expression shifted dramatically.
Just moments ago they had been listening with eager curiosity.
Now they were openly thrilled.
Ruang deliberately slowed the whetstone on his blade, enjoying the reaction.
Naturally, he followed with the next question.
“I wonder if the balcony incident has also spread as gossip?”
“…Yes.”
“What kind of rumor exactly?”
“Th-the one from the balcony… Ahem.”
One knight tried to cover his nervousness with a cough.
Ruang clicked his tongue inwardly.
Angela’s voice had surely reached well into the mansion.
Even with curtains, soundproofing was never perfect.
Yet he had not expected the nobles’ imaginations to burn so hot.
Do they really think I did something like that out there?
Ruang was innocent.
A man who had never even held a woman’s hand properly before.
Yet the world was already turning him into a Casanova.
He had expected yellow press in noble society to be intense, but facing it directly still felt astonishing.
“Why, they said our bodies overlapped, didn’t they?”
“Y-yes! Ah, yes……!”
One knight shouted spontaneously, then immediately lowered his voice upon sensing the stares around him.
Ruang chuckled.
“Nothing wrong with that.
Isn’t it embarrassing?”
He continued without a hint of shame.
“We were all born from our parents’ love.
Love is neither something to hide nor something to feel ashamed of.”
“Ah, ahahaha! That’s true!”
The others laughed, but Ruang felt a strange discomfort in his chest.
His marriage contract was about to be decided soon.
This kind of vulgar gossip was not welcome.
Should he directly deny it?
That would be the worst.
Even in this world, the notion that “intense denial equals positive affirmation” had already spread widely.
If he denied it himself, it would only fuel even hotter rumors of love.
So he changed direction.
“But such things would be too early, wouldn’t it?”
The knights fell silent.
“Before having a fiancé and children, you’re already involved with an affair.
As nobles, you should take responsibility first.”
“Hmm, that’s true.”
Good.
He had laid the proper foundation.
For nobles, the most important thing was a legitimate heir.
The child of an affair had weak succession rights by principle.
Of course, there was no absolute rule.
If the child was born first and one used power to support it, things could change.
That was why nobles with more assets always prioritized formal marriage and a legitimate heir.
Even if they had an affair and a child, it came afterward.
Or they simply took the property and sent the woman away.
Ruang smiled slowly after voicing this common sense.
“She seemed to like me, so we shared some intimate conversation.”
“…What kind of conversation was it?”
“She asked me to tell her directly what I like about her.”
The knights swallowed hard at the same time.
Ruang deliberately paused for a beat.
The sound of the blade sliding over the whetstone was the only thing that continued for a moment.
“Unfortunately, I cannot say that.”
A brief silence followed.
And the knights’ faces flushed even hotter.
Perfect.
The rumor was changing now.
Instead of the crude rumor about overlapping bodies, it had become a far more elegant and delicious story of sharing hearts.
Noble romance was not just physical.
Before that, spiritual exchange was far more important.
Nobles could not treat each other like servants or maids.
The moment you dragged someone into bed against their will, it stopped being romance and became war.
So the first thing was to touch them with words.
Through seductive glances, exchanged letters, whispered sweet nothings, you shook their hearts.
Only then could you proceed to the next step.
In other words, Ruang was now swapping the rumor of denial for a far more plausible and noble-sounding love story.
“Because I once went completely mad.”
Ruang gave a light laugh.
“She showered me with many compliments that would be embarrassing to say myself.”
“Haha, His Highness is truly a good man.”
“Yes, that’s right.
We who face the swords know it well!”
The knights’ voices were sincere.
Knights judged a person’s character by how they fought with the sword.
Someone who fought honestly and fairly in front was an honorable man.
Someone who cheated or stabbed from behind was a filthy man.
Ruang had always pushed forward head-on even with his dual blades.
A martial style that crushed opponents with strength, speed, and technique.
Large, flashy, and irresistible to men.
That was why the knights quickly brushed away Ruang’s mad-sounding words.
At least the Ruang before the sword was a man they could accept.
Ruang confirmed the positive atmosphere and tossed the final spark.
“I felt something when I saw Goldren’s young lady coming toward me first.”
The knights focused.
“Perhaps all young nobles are hiding a burning flame of passion in their hearts, just like her.”
“……”
Everyone had closed their mouths, but their eyes were different.
They were merely holding it back, not denying it.
Young blood was always hot.
“The family may decide your fate for the sake of its interests,” Ruang said in a low voice.
“But you are still nobles.
Does acting for love make it a great blemish?”
“No, it doesn’t!”
One knight stood up abruptly and shouted.
The reaction was far too intense.
There must have been someone on his mind.
Ruang watched the reaction and gently wrapped up the conversation.
“Before your young days pass you by, I hope you act without regret.”
“…Thank you for the kind words.”
“What an engaging story.”
Some of the knights’ expressions had clearly changed.
Just a moment ago they had been listening to someone else’s romance.
Now they looked like they were putting it into their own lives.
Good.
That was enough.
The story spreading through the banquet hall would change as well.
Instead of Ruang and Goldren’s crude gossip, it would become the story of young knights’ hot first-love turmoil.
Yellow journalism always craved a new spark.
They rushed toward a story that had just caught fire rather than one that had grown cold with time.
Whether some of these knights would succeed in confessing or not was another matter.
But it did not matter.
Whether romance or stocks, if you challenged and failed, it was your own responsibility.