Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 112

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 112
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He said he’d sent marriage proposals. Multiple times, no less. So why didn’t I know about them? My thoughts turned white-hot with fury, numbing my mind.
Stomp, stomp, stomp, stomp! I stamped my feet as I stormed out of the Tavern. The moment I put weight on my legs, a sharp, stinging pain shot through my lower back from last night’s ordeal. Raulus, who had been dozing with his body curled up at the base of the Staircase, slowly lifted his head.
[Are you coming down now? I’ve been waiting so long I’m about to grow old and die….]
Raulus trailed off mid-sentence, tilting his head as he caught sight of my grotesquely twisted expression.
[Didn’t you have a good time, little one?]
“Where is he? Sergei Lebanon.”
[Uh…?]
I scooped Raulus up and clutched him to my chest. My teeth ground together involuntarily. He’d sent marriage proposals—sent them multiple times—and I was ignored? Not a single word to me?
“Damn it. The letters must have all been intercepted by Father and Mother.”
[Intercepted?]
“Or maybe my sister!”
I’d never imagined the letters could be intercepted along the way. I hugged Raulus so tightly I nearly split him in two.
“Sergei that bastard—he couldn’t possibly not know.”
“Yerenika.”
Auredhian Belgot, who had followed me down, gently grasped my arm.
“Wait. Don’t be angry.”
“How can I not be angry in this situation!”
I cried out sharply, wrenching myself free from him and darting into the street. He had to be nearby. Since I’d vanished without a trace in the dead of night, he was undoubtedly tearing through this entire district like a man possessed—and I’d wager I could catch him with just one hand.
“Yeni!”
And my prediction proved perfectly accurate. I watched as Sergei Lebanon came sprinting toward me from a distance, drenched in sweat, moving at a terrifying speed, and I smiled crookedly.
“You’re dead. You’re dead today.”
“Yerenika….”
“You stay quiet.”
I roughly yanked his mask up and turned away again. Sergei Lebanon looked absolutely haggard, as if he truly had spent the entire night searching for me.
“You, you…. You crazy bastard. How can you just disappear like that!”
Sergei Lebanon burst out in anger and grabbed my shoulders. His green eyes rapidly swept from my head to my toes.
“Are you hurt? Look, when I saw how drunk you were, I should have either come to pick you up or at least given the Family Knights a heads-up!”
….
“When I came to my senses, you were gone, and no one had seen you. Do you know how shocked I was? Ah…. My head.”
Sergei Lebanon pressed his palm to his forehead, his face pale. I regarded him with cold eyes, then brushed his hand away. So his pathetic state wasn’t from searching for me all night—it was clearly because he’d been detained by the Family Knights yesterday and drunk excessively. The last shred of guilt I felt evaporated entirely. I ground my teeth and spoke with deceptive sweetness.
“Tell me the truth, Sergei Lebanon.”
“What… what?”
Sensing something amiss from my icy expression, Sergei Lebanon flinched and withdrew his hand from me. I smiled.
“What happened to all my letters?”
“Uh, uh…?”
His green eyes darted nervously in a circle. Roll, roll. I immediately narrowed my eyes into a glare.
“I can hear your eyes rolling! Answer me now. Where did you hide all my letters?”
“Well, that is. Wouldn’t it be better to go to the Royal Palace and talk about it? His Majesty and the Queen have been waiting anxiously….”
“Why, were you trying to get your stories straight in the meantime?”
“T-that’s, that’s, that’s not it!”
True to form as my friend, Sergei Lebanon’s lie bore a striking resemblance to my own—which is to say, it was painfully transparent. I gently grabbed him by the collar and gave him a friendly shake.
“Are you going to tell me the truth? What happened to all those letters I sent to Belgot, you wretch!”
“Why are you asking me about—!”
“Why? Because I asked you to mail several letters for me!”
Was he really trying to tell me they’d all vanished into thin air? But I couldn’t press him further.
“Yerenika.”
A clean, familiar scent brushed against the back of my head and neck. The moment I felt it, my movements froze. I spun around in confusion.
“Why, why…?”
Auredhian gently pulled me toward him and wrapped his arms around me from behind. A soft kiss settled between my ear and jawline.
“Don’t be angry.”
Somewhere along the way, he’d lowered his mask again. The lips touching mine were impossibly soft. The fierce expression I’d been wearing melted away of its own accord. His lips, which had pulled back slightly, returned to the tip of my ear. The ticklish sensation made my body jerk. I answered hastily.
“…I understand, I understand.”
“Don’t get too close to others.”
“What do you…?”
“I’ve held back several times yesterday already. You being overly intimate with other men.”
The last words were a whisper meant only for my ears. Heat rushed to my face. The anger that had been about to boil over vanished somewhere, replaced by a tingling sensation spreading through my body.
“Who are you…?”
But that moment of clarity was short-lived. At the shocked voice, I suddenly snapped back to attention. Sergei Lebanon was staring blankly between me and Auredhian behind me, as if he’d witnessed something he shouldn’t have. Seeing his expression, the anger that had briefly subsided began to bubble up again.
“…Hmph.”
I took a breath, trying not to get worked up. Then I spoke calmly.
“A dear friend.”
“‘Dear’?”
“…An esteemed friend.”
As I meekly corrected myself at his immediate objection, Sergei Lebanon’s expression twisted into something almost grotesque.
“Wait, hold on. Who is this—no, wait. Before that. Yerenika, you spent the whole night with this man…?”
“Don’t interrupt me, friend. Those letters I sent, the ones that came to me. Who intercepted them? I was the only one left in the dark, wasn’t I? Wasn’t I?”
“You’re insane, you really are. Staying out all night? All night! If the Emperor and Queen find out, you’ll be cast out on the spot!”
This wasn’t a proper conversation. The moment I reached that conclusion, I turned around without hesitation. Rather than shake down Sergei Lebanon, I needed to go to the Lebanon Duke’s Residence and find my sister first.
“Hey, at least explain properly before you leave. Who exactly is this man…? Ah.”
His voice, which had been rising in anger, cut off abruptly mid-sentence. I was about to drag Auredhian along and turn to leave when the strange silence made me glance back at Sergei Lebanon.
“Huh…?”
Sergei Lebanon’s face had gone completely blank. His gaze had shifted slightly away from me.
“Mm.”
Auredhian’s lips curved upward in an awkward smile. Because I’d yanked him along so forcefully, the hood he’d been wearing pulled back halfway, revealing a shimmer of silver. The man whose very coloring made his identity unmistakable opened his mouth loosely.
“Well… let’s just say it’s been a while, Prince Lebanon.”
I heard Sergei Lebanon murmur quietly.
“…Insane.”
For someone suddenly confronted with the Emperor of Belgot appearing unexpectedly on Lebovni soil, it was a remarkably restrained reaction.
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“So you came all this way just to see me?”
“Yes. Stop asking about it already.”
I shoved Sergei Lebanon’s face away irritably. Throughout our entire journey back to the Royal Palace, he’d asked the same foolish question over and over again with that dumbfounded expression.
“The Emperor of Belgot came to Lebovni himself, without a single escort knight?”
“…Yes. Even I think it’s a bit insane when I consider it. But apparently, that’s what happened.”
Now that I reflected on it, it was indeed a claim I wouldn’t have believed either. My lips curled upward involuntarily. Sergei Lebanon seemed utterly flabbergasted by my expression.
“You…. You…. Even so…. With an unrelated man….”
“If you keep spouting nonsense like my Mother would, Sergei Lebanon, I really will pinch you.”
I responded flatly while quickening my pace. Sergei Lebanon and I were heading toward the Lebanon Duke’s Residence. He clung close behind me, shouting at the top of his lungs.
“So, you’re not actually planning to bring him into the Royal Palace, are you? Yerenika!”
I didn’t bother answering Sergei Lebanon’s question. Because he’d already guessed correctly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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