Chapter 42
Chapter 42
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 42
Chapter Title: #42. Smiling Like That In Front of That Guy
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm genuinely worried about Esther. Unless it's sincere, how could you defy His Highness the Crown Prince like this?"
The air sharpened as if someone might raise a fist, coldly brushing past between the two men. Noel was the one who broke the silence.
"Do you really think my father wouldn't know His Majesty the Emperor is targeting the Elpis Merchant Group—and that's why he's pushing the engagement with Esther?"
"What?"
"Can Your Highness, who doesn't even treat her sincerely, blame me?"
"Not sincere?"
With those words, Helios seized Noel by the collar. His hand trembled visibly enough to see.
Watching the enraged Helios, Noel grabbed the hand clutching his collar and whispered lowly.
"When Your Highness was just tapping away at your abacus for gains, Esther was struggling—and I was by her side. That's the truth."
At the same time, Helios's grip tightened further. Backgrounds and vested interests had been cast far aside long ago.
"You're talking as if you're some monumental presence."
"It's true that I'm more helpful to her than Your Highness. I'm letting you know it was I—not you—who guarded her side. I wouldn't have left her neglected like this."
"..."
"Do you really think she needs you?"
Helios's fist crashed into Noel's face. With a tremendous thud, Noel tumbled onto the grass.
"Think it over carefully."
"What?"
Noel turned his head toward the grass and spat out the blood pooling in his mouth.
Noel's eyes gleamed with the satisfaction of victory.
"Noel!"
As Helios scowled, someone urgently shouted Noel's name and came running. Soon Esther brushed swiftly past Helios and dropped to her knees beside Noel without hesitation.
"Are you okay?"
"There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding."
"You're bleeding!"
Esther cried out, staring at the blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. Then she drew a handkerchief from her bosom and gently wiped it away.
Watching that, Helios felt his heart plummeting off a bottomless cliff.
"Your Highness."
While Helios stared at them blankly, still dazed by the sensation, Esther turned toward him.
"I don't know what my friend did, but please overlook his rudeness just this once—for my sake."
Esther knelt unflinchingly before Helios.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"It's all my fault. I said I'd handle it myself, yet I dragged Your Highness into it. And Young Lord Micarus displeased you by claiming he'd defend me. I apologize on their behalf."
Helios lost all drive at the sight of Esther desperately taking Noel's side and begging forgiveness right before him.
Her eyes were still red-rimmed, her breaths coming in hitches as if her emotions hadn't fully ebbed.
He had to admit it. Helios hadn't protected Esther. He hadn't been there when she needed him. He was the one who had failed to protect her.
"I, without knowing a thing..."
And now Esther was fighting tooth and nail to shield that pup right in front of him. Not a single inch remained for Helios in her world.
"I'll come see you personally and apologize properly for this. So for now..."
Her face strained as if barely holding back tears, eyes fluttering pitifully—Esther couldn't hide her trembling voice.
"Can't you just pretend you saw nothing?"
Helios finally turned his back to her. He knew nothing could be salvaged from this chaotic mess.
In that instant, Noel's triumphant expression flashed through Helios's mind.
That man's words rang true. He hadn't helped her at all.
Returning to the Imperial Palace in silence, Helios began drowning in alcohol every night from that day on.
Each morning, upon entering his room, Elick couldn't conceal his worry amid the pervasive stench of liquor and the toppled bottles strewn about.
"Your Highness, you're drinking again today? You'll ruin your health at this rate."
Hearing Helios order more alcohol brought in, Elick could no longer hold back. He entered the room and pleaded desperately.
But Helios, eyes lifeless as he stared into empty space, mechanically uncorked the bottle before him and lifted it to his lips.
"Out."
"Your Highness, how long will you keep this up?"
Elick pulled out his final card, hidden in his bosom, at the sight of Helios drinking wordlessly in response to his question.
"What's this?"
"A letter from Countess Elpis just arrived."
"What?"
Helios swiftly snatched the letter from the table before him.
Skimming its contents rapidly, he soon let out a hollow scoff and tossed it aside.
"Whatever she's sorry for, her letters to me always start with an apology."
As Elick stood mute, Helios pressed on.
"She smiles so brightly for him—yet before me, it's always a death mask."
"She requested a meeting. What shall we do?"
Cheeks flushed crimson, Helios struggled to steady his bleary vision. Even so, she lingered inescapably in his thoughts.
"Decline. Now's not the time."
"Yesterday, His Majesty summoned Your Highness... was it perhaps because..."
Helios nodded at Elick's words.
Rumors swirling among the nobles had swiftly infiltrated the palace itself. They weren't limited to high society—the servants gossiped freely too.
"Yes, he knew everything already."
That meant every detail had reached the Emperor as well. Yesterday's summons had been for precisely that reason.
"He knew full well that Esther and that brat had known each other for ages."
Recalling that moment's sting, Helios clenched his fist.
The Emperor, privy to it all, had drawn Esther in. It went beyond merely co-opting her merchant group—it was clearly a ploy to land a blow on Marquis Micarus through her.
"Damn it."
Esther would be exploited in the Emperor's clutches and discarded. Helios dredged up yesterday's exchange with His Majesty.
"I heard you don't even attend banquets with that woman. Well, with those rumors flying, who could blame you for cooling off?"
Even as he spoke those words, the Emperor never relinquished his suspicions toward Helios.
"Word is you recently stirred up a huge ruckus at a banquet she attended."
To the Emperor's casual probe, Helios had drawn a firm line, resolving not to drag her down.
He'd believed distancing himself from Esther was necessary. Lately, realizing its impossibility, he'd wanted nothing more than to curse his own futility.
Helios spat a sneer, replaying the Emperor's barbs.
"The rumors paint quite the picture—a cunning balancer between House Micarus and the palace? Birds of a feather, indeed."
The Emperor had relished it like a delightful pastime.
"What I'm most eager to see is good friends crumbling together amicably. Picturing that fool gloating over your weakness? Priceless. Ha!"
Even now, the Emperor's hearty guffaws turned Helios's stomach.
"If your feelings have evaporated too, all the better. I never planned to tie you to that wench anyway."
Back in his chambers after the audience, Helios had been wracked by guilt—his own ineptitude had cornered her this badly.
Unable to muster a single rebuttal against the Emperor, forced to watch her tormentors unchecked—that gnawed at him relentlessly.
Looking back, that marked the beginning. When he'd first sought out liquor he'd never touched before.
Helios shook his head roughly. This wasn't the time for woolgathering.
Gazing at Elick before him, Helios issued a resolute command.
"Keep her away from the palace vicinity for the time being. I'll reach out later—tell her to wait until then."
Entering the palace now would only fan the flames of scandal. Far too risky.
"Understood."
With that curt reply, Helios hoisted the bottle once more. Elick opened his mouth again to intervene.
"Your Highness."
"If that's all, get out."
But it fell short of stopping him. Elick departed the room, powerless once again to halt his lord's anguish.
Elick returned to Helios's chambers merely a day later.
"Your Highness!"
"What's all this racket first thing in the morning?"
Helios rose, clutching his head against the hangover. His brows knitted in irritation at the frantic voice resounding from outside.
"What's the matter?"
"Countess Elpis..."
The name spilling from Elick's lips was one Helios dreaded hearing—his eyes flashed as he wrenched the door open.
"What about Esther?"
Under his insistent gaze, Elick blurted the rest in haste.
"A guard reports the Countess just passed through the palace entrance."
"I specifically ordered a letter telling her not to come."
"We sent it that very evening as Your Highness directed. But she insisted she had something quick to drop off and came anyway."
Helios bolted from bed in a rush, flung open the terrace overlooking the entrance, and scanned the surroundings feverishly.
"The guard recognized her as the Crown Prince's fiancée and cleared the way—Countess Elpis has entered the palace proper..."
"Damn it."
Helios slung on the shirt slung haphazardly over a chair and stormed from the room.
"Where is she now?"
Daunted by Helios's ferocious aura, Elick answered cautiously from behind.
"Likely entering the main palace by now. I rushed straight to Your Highness upon hearing."
"Ha."
It was the moment Helios rounded a corner at an accelerating pace.
"Your Highness?"
The crimson locks he'd been seeking swayed gently in the breeze.
Helios exhaled lowly upon beholding Esther standing right before him.
Her eyes rounded wide as she regarded him—utterly devoid of wariness. A surge of emotion welled up within, raw and overwhelming.
Did she grasp her precarious position? The implications of stepping foot here now? Whether she truly bore the weight of that contract—and the Emperor's machinations?
This woman had shared none of it with Helios. That alone drove him to the brink.
No—perhaps she'd confided in that brat. Maybe she kept him at arm's length alone.
"The... Empire's Little Sun..."
Mood plummeting in his wavering gaze, Helios questioned in a low voice.
"Why are you here?"