Chapter 188
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 188
He was perfect.
He was far too perfect.
He felt like an angel who had descended to the mortal realm.
However, the layer of cold apathy beneath Ferdinand’s gaze made him feel like something more cruel than a mere angel.
And so, Sophia Frezier, feeling as if she were trapped in a dream, thought blankly:
An angel who presides over war…
If such an angel were to descend from the heavens, would he not look exactly like Ferdinand, the Crown Prince?
His tall, straight stature; the firm muscles discernible beneath his perfectly tailored imperial uniform.
His features were handsome enough to easily bewitch any woman’s heart, yet his unrealistically cold, red eyes remained chillingly distant.
Perhaps due to the powerful divine power surrounding his soul, Ferdinand exuded an aura as sharp and cold as a beautiful sword sealed away on an icy mountain peak.
Everything about him felt like a legend. From head to toe, there wasn't a single trace of human frailty.
The Crown Prince, who had transformed from an object of ridicule to one of adoration in just a few days, felt utterly surreal even as he stood right before her eyes.
“It was I who requested it, Imperial Father.”
Even the moment he opened his mouth felt that way.
At the same time, Sophia felt as if she were waking from a dream. A shudder ran through her body.
Was I insane?
Why did I insult the Crown Prince?
Why did I kick away such a magnificent man with my own two feet?
Only a few days ago, she had been this man’s fiancée!
It wasn't as if he had been involved in scandals with other women; he was a man as perfect as a painting!
In an instant, a tidal wave of self-loathing, thirst, and jealousy began to consume her.
However, no one in the room noticed Sophia’s twisted transformation.
No, there was exactly one person.
Grand Duke Asis Frezier, seated in the highest place of honor.
It was him.
But the Grand Duke merely observed the scene with a terrifying expression, worlds apart from how he treated Tulia. To be fair, that was the expression most people were more familiar with.
Asis was observing Sophia, weighing several factors in his mind.
He was aware that she had been the subject of numerous scandalous rumors at the Academy.
It wasn't for the purpose of investigation or surveillance. Whether she was adopted or not, Sophia was still his granddaughter.
Therefore, Asis had simply assigned people to her for the sake of protection. Asis Frezier was not of such low character as to discriminate against an adopted granddaughter.
But seeing that flame of burning desire in this situation…
It wasn't difficult to realize.
If I leave Sophia be, she will bring great ruin upon the entire family.
It was a cold judgment made as the head of a great house.
“Ferdinand!”
At that moment, Emperor Alexander raised his voice.
“Why did you request an annulment? Speak for yourself!”
At the Emperor’s roar, Aubrey and her relatives stared at the Crown Prince as if he were a lifeline.
No, rather than a lifeline, their glistening eyes looked like they were staring at a piece of attractive prey they were dying to devour.
But the Crown Prince—Ferdinand—seemed not to care in the slightest about their starving greed.
In fact, he seemed indifferent to the point of ignorance.
With a face that remained consistently detached, he simply drove the dagger home.
“The annulment is due to my change of heart.”
Aubrey shrieked, trembling violently.
“Your Highness! How could you do this to our daughter! To cast aside my daughter, who was faithful only to Your Highness, simply because of a change of heart! And to declare an annulment in a public place where all the nobles and foreign guests were gathered, as you did yesterday!”
Aubrey’s tears were full of resentment.
It was only yesterday, at his triumph banquet, that Ferdinand had brought up the annulment.
Thanks to that, the midnight banquet had been thrown into chaos, and this emergency council had been summoned before anyone could even recover from the sweet dreams of wine and music.
Yet, Ferdinand, the party involved, showed no change in expression. His face was serene, as if he were a mere spectator rather than the protagonist of this grand drama.
That only ate away at Aubrey’s heart further. It would have been one thing if he had never been theirs, but now it felt as if an entire gold mine had slipped through her fingers.
After having the family’s internal management rights completely seized because of Tulia, Aubrey had become someone who could no longer maintain her composure in such matters.
“Your Highness! This is too much! No matter how much the situation has changed, to cast my daughter aside like this! Your Majesty! Please, look upon us with mercy! Even if a monarch’s word is law, this is too cruel a treatment!”
The problem was that Aubrey’s words weren't entirely wrong.
Emperor Alexander looked at the Crown Prince with a face flushed with rage.
Seeing his son standing there bluntly with that inscrutable face made his anger soar.
It was because Ferdinand’s face resembled Olivia’s, no matter who looked at it.
That woman—the cold Ice Empress and his wife—whom he had loved for a very long time but who had never opened her heart to him…
At the very least, that woman despised any situation that brought even a speck of disgrace to her honor, even if it meant losing her husband.
So, if Ferdinand was the son Olivia left behind, if he was her biological child who inherited her blood, he should have been as upright as she was!
Emperor Alexander finally lunged to his feet.
“Ferdinand!”
Because the Emperor stood up, every noble except for the Grand Duke and the four Dukes had to stand as well.
Emperor Alexander spoke with eyes full of fury.
“I do not believe your lie! If you intend to insult your own honor and, by extension, the Brillant Imperial Family with such a ridiculous reason as a ‘change of heart,’ then I, as your father and your monarch, shall impose a fitting punishment!”
“If it is a punishment from my monarch, I shall naturally accept it.”
Seeing Ferdinand pointedly omit the word ‘father’ even now made the Emperor feel as if a fire were raging in his chest, but Alexander was still an Emperor.
He struggled to regain his composure and spoke in a smoldering tone.
“The crime of deceiving the monarch for gain is grave indeed. If you continue to speak nothing but lies, I will not permit your annulment from Sophia Frezier!”
It was the first time.
The dry expression that had been etched between the Crown Prince’s brows vanished in an instant.
Emperor Alexander, consumed by his own rage, did not notice. The one who caught the Crown Prince’s subtle shift was none other than Marquis Aster Frezier.
Tulia’s father.
Aster Frezier, who had been watching the situation while standing, felt one of his eyebrows twitch slightly.
Why am I suddenly uneasy?
Just why was that Crown Prince so desperate for this annulment?
Because Sophia was actually just the daughter of a vassal?
If he were that kind of person, Aster would have known long ago, but the reports his subordinates had brought him over time never mentioned the Crown Prince having such a personality.
What makes him want this annulment so badly? Is there another woman he’s fallen for? But for that to be the case, he’s never been involved in a single scandal.
There were hardly even any maids in the Crown Prince’s Palace.
Strangely, he had a feeling that this wasn't a good sign. It was a sort of intuition. So, Aster Frezier questioned his own gut feeling.
What did it matter to him if the Crown Prince wanted an annulment? Why was his mood souring?
“Viscountess Aubrey Frezier!”
Meanwhile, a roar like a thunderclap filled the council chamber.
Aubrey, who had been incessantly reddening her eyes, flinched at the Emperor’s shout.
She hurriedly bowed her head.
“Please, speak, Your Majesty…!”
“Since the Crown Prince will not open his mouth, I shall ask you directly. Is it true that the annulment is solely due to the Crown Prince’s change of heart?”
“I truly know nothing, Your Majesty! If His Highness says his heart has changed, what could I possibly know?”
Aubrey collapsed to the floor and wept piteously. But she didn't know. She didn't realize that the Emperor’s eyes looking down at her were cold as ice.
And there was one more thing she didn't know.
“Bring them all in!”
At the Emperor’s command, about ten men walked out in a line with their heads bowed low.
Aubrey and her relatives looked bewildered, but the look on Sophia’s face—which had been fixed on Ferdinand’s back—was different.
Her complexion began to turn deathly pale.
Most of them were men who had no significant ties to the Brillant Empire, but they all had one thing in common: they were tall and exceptionally handsome.
In short, they were all quite good-looking…
“Lady Sophia Frezier, you wouldn't claim not to know these young lords, would you?”
At Emperor Alexander’s question, Sophia began to shake like a leaf.
Aubrey’s face changed instantly. She whipped around to look at her daughter.
No way, surely…
“If you truly cannot speak, I shall inform you instead. Viscountess Aubrey Frezier! These are all young lords who attend the same Academy as Lady Sophia Frezier! They are also the ones who have been secretly involved in scandals with your daughter!”