Chapter 82
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 82
“As if I would ever dare!”
The man hunched his massive shoulders, his face twisting into an exaggerated mask of terror.
“How could a man like me possibly be so bold, when you are the one destined to rule the East!”
Barkas studied the man’s face in silence before bringing his wine glass to his lips. When he failed to rise to the blatant provocation, the man’s momentum seemed to falter.
Wiping the playful smirk from his face, the man spoke again, his voice dropping into a low growl.
“However, I am curious. What on earth was the Young Lord thinking? To betray the First Imperial Princess and take on the Imperial Family’s greatest pariah instead?”
A heavy silence descended upon the hall.
Barkas moved only his eyes, scanning the nobles seated along both sides of the long table.
The family loyalists—those who resided in Kalmor, the heart of the East, and served as the hands and feet of the Sieorkan household—wore expressions of deep displeasure. The provincial nobles, however, watched his reaction with calculating gazes. They were gauging whether the young heir of the Grand Duke’s house was a man they could truly entrust with the future of the East.
Barkas swirled the wine in his glass, letting the silence stretch just long enough before he finally spoke.
“Betrayal? You exaggerate. As everyone here knows, my engagement to her was born of political interest. When circumstances change, the terms of such an arrangement change with them.”
“And just what exactly has changed?”
The veins on the man’s forehead bulged.
“Are you saying a few words from His Majesty the Emperor are enough to break a promise held for years?”
“Tell me then, do you consider a command from the ruler of the Empire to be a light matter?” Barkas countered, tilting his head slightly.
The man’s thick lips clamped shut as if he had been struck dumb. His face, framed by a dense black beard, flushed a deep crimson as he glared at Barkas. Then, he let out a loud, mocking sneer.
“What remarkable loyalty! A lowly man like me couldn’t even dream of such devotion!”
“Lord Gutvan, I believe you are overstepping,” a middle-aged noble sitting across from him cautioned gently.
But the man didn’t even pretend to listen. He grabbed a goblet full of wine, drained it in a single gulp, and wiped his mouth roughly with his sleeve.
“But the day will come when our great Emperor must step down. Then, His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince will become the ruler of this Empire. What do you intend to do then? Do you truly think His Highness will graciously accept the East’s loyalty?”
“The Crown Prince also consented to this marriage.”
Barkas spoke slowly, watching his own reflection in the red liquid as he tilted his glass.
“In fact, he was the one who pushed for it most actively toward the end.”
“What in the world does that mean…?”
“I will simply say that this marriage provided the Crown Prince with a certain… benefit,” Barkas cut him off coldly. “It is not my place to go about blabbing the Imperial Family’s private shames, is it?”
Suspicion spread across the nobles' faces. His words implied he held some form of leverage over the Crown Prince. Barkas watched them exchange glances before speaking in a lighter tone, as if to clear the air.
“Now that your curiosity has been somewhat satisfied, let us conclude this delightful conversation.”
He raised his glass and took a slow look around the room.
“Come, everyone, drink up. As Gutvan said, is this not the wine the future Grand Duke of the East received as a reward for seventeen years of loyalty?”
Barkas curled the corners of his mouth into a smile and brought the glass close to his face, savoring the aroma. He added leisurely, “Who knows when you will ever get to taste such a delicacy again?”
The nobles shifted their eyes, unsure of how to react, but soon raised their glasses with awkward laughter. It was clear they wanted to end the verbal sparring.
However, Gutvan had no intention of backing down. He slammed his fist, heavy as a steel hammer, onto the table.
“How can we believe such words! The entire Empire knows how much the Crown Prince dotes on the First Imperial Princess. There is no way such a man would make a decision that tramples upon Her Highness’s honor!”
The smile vanished from Barkas’s lips. His patience was finally reaching its limit with this man who refused to listen to reason. He leaned his head back against his chair and gestured with his chin for the man to continue.
Gutvan didn’t hesitate to pour out more bile.
“Do you know what rumors are circulating right now? That even the heir of the East has fallen for the witch of House Taren! That just as the Emperor was deceived by that viper of a woman and betrayed the Empress, the next Grand Duke of Sieorkan has been bewitched by her daughter and betrayed the virtuous First Imperial Princess! Such talk is spreading across the entire Empire!”
His final words were practically a roar, his booming voice filling the entire hall.
“If the First Imperial Princess ends up following in the footsteps of Empress Bernadette, how do you intend to atone for that sin?!”
“I’ve heard quite enough of this nonsense!”
Unable to watch any longer, Daren Dru Sieorkan intervened.
“Alec Gutvan, you are a vassal of the Grand Duke’s house! Do you think such an attitude toward the heir of the family will be tolerated here in Raedgo Castle?!”
“When a leader strays onto the wrong path, it is the duty of the vassals to raise their voices in criticism!”
The man shouted boldly back at Daren before turning his gaze back to Barkas.
“The Young Lord could have made the First Imperial Princess—whom the entire Empire adores—the mistress of the East! And yet, you brought home a woman of bastard birth, a creature of pure evil, as your bride. How can we possibly sit idly by while this—”
The man, who had been screaming at the top of his lungs, suddenly stopped. Barkas, who had been looking down at him as if watching a ridiculous play, also froze.
A small figure, shrouded in a long hood pulled down to the chin, had stepped up behind the bear-like man. The figure tilted a wine bottle over his massive head and poured the blood-red liquid over him in a silent torrent.
Sharp gasps echoed throughout the hall.
The victim himself seemed too stunned by the outrage to react. He sat there, drenched in the pouring wine with a dazed expression, and only stood up abruptly once the bottle was empty.
His massive frame, nearly seven kvet tall, loomed ominously over the uninvited guest who was completely covered by the robe.
“What madman would do such a thing—!”
The man twisted the intruder’s wrist and yanked the hood off. As he did, long tresses of hair that had been tucked inside spilled out like a golden waterfall, dazzling everyone present.
The man’s body froze, his fist still raised as if he were about to strike.
Through her disheveled hair, the woman shot him a look filled with venom.
The man trembled slightly, as if electrocuted by that intense gaze, then swallowed hard. His pitch-black pupils crawled over the woman’s face with a sticky, unsettling intensity.
Barkas, who had been gripping his goblet as if to crush it, stood up instantly. As he stepped behind her and pulled her slender body into his arms, the man instinctively tightened his grip on her wrist, refusing to let her go.
In that moment, something writhed in Barkas’s gut. He looked down at the dark hand clutching her with a shadowed gaze.
The man was still staring at her with vacant eyes, his gaze licking over every inch of her face. A chilling coldness crawled up Barkas’s spine. His eyes narrowed at the sensation of his blood turning cold, when suddenly, a sound like a whip cracking against a horse rang out.
The man looked down at the woman with bewildered eyes, looking as though he couldn’t comprehend what had just happened.
She raised her arm and struck his wine-soaked face once more.
“How dare you lay your filthy hands on me.”
Only then did the man snap back to his senses, releasing her wrist and taking a stumbling step back.