Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 15

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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 15
The brown-haired maid startled and lifted her head. I studied her face for a moment. She was a stranger I’d never seen before, yet something about her felt familiar. Marienne had been the closest attendant to Tezebia and Brizni during their time in the empire.
The brown-haired maid smiled brightly despite her confusion.
“Yes, Princess!”
What is this strange feeling? I pressed my lips together and took a step backward.
Marienne wasn’t the only thing that felt familiar.
The original work “Brizni Wants to Be Happy” was a popular novel written with exceptional skill. The author had depicted not only the characters’ emotions but also each scene with such meticulous detail that it often felt as though I were witnessing it unfold before my eyes. Yet I never imagined that those events would actually become ‘real’…
I climbed the stairs toward the Second Floor slowly. The room directly in front of the Second Floor staircase. The room where Tezebia and Brizni had lived. As I opened the door, the flooding sunset light stung my eyes so brightly that I shielded my face with one hand.
Yes. This scene too had been described in the original work.
[As evening approached, that room would always fill with a red light so vivid it seemed ready to burst forth.]
I stepped slowly into the room. The room where the original heroine’s life—Brizni’s life—had begun. The strangeness of it all was overwhelming.
A world that had existed only as printed letters was now unfolding vividly before my eyes in reality. I had been certain of this fact for quite some time, so why did I feel this way now?
Something deep within my heart trembled and shifted. Perhaps it was because this was the place where Tezebia had suffered for ten long years. The thought drew a long sigh from me.
Yes. Either way, I did the right thing. Preventing Tezebia from being dragged all this distance to Belgot while pregnant was truly the right choice.
“…I’m exhausted.”
I murmured listlessly, brushing back my pale pink hair as it fell across my face. My condition fluctuated wildly between zero and one hundred, so no matter how much time I spent beside Auredhian, fatigue inevitably accumulated.
“Do you like the palace?”
“…!”
I jumped at the voice that suddenly came from behind me. The answer tumbled out reflexively.
“Oh… yes. I like it very much.”
“I’m glad.”
Auredhian stepped slowly into the room. His reddish eyes swept across the bedroom in a single arc. The neatly arranged bedding, the curtains tied in orderly folds, the desk, the wardrobe, and the vanity.
I regarded him with a somewhat unfamiliar feeling. Had he deliberately provided a palace with a similar atmosphere to Lebovni’s? In the original work, Tezebia had said it was an arrangement by the Belgot Emperor. To rephrase it slightly—he was a man who understood such consideration as a basic courtesy. Regardless of whether the recipient was me or someone else.
Now I was somewhat confused. A person who maintained a kind and gentle demeanor toward everyone. Yet when I recalled how coldly he had spoken to Soleia Elad earlier, it didn’t quite seem that way. Was he someone who severed connections with surgical precision whenever someone overstepped their bounds?
Since I was staring at him intently, he must have sensed my gaze. His violet eyes turned toward me again. And as if remembering something, Auredhian opened his mouth.
“And I’m curious about something, Princess.”
“Yes?”
“Why do you keep calling me Father?”
A pang of guilt.
I could never tell him. That in “Brizni Wants to Be Happy,” when you died, she had wailed loudly, crying “Faaaaaather!” at the top of her lungs. That secret would go with me to the grave…
I laughed carelessly and spouted whatever came to mind.
“Haha. You resemble my father?”
A lie. My father, the King of Lebovni, is small and round and cute like a fairy-tale monarch. I could only hope that by now he wasn’t shedding tears over the disappearance of his youngest daughter.
Auredhian clicked his tongue softly, apparently interpreting my smiling face in a particular way.
“You’re not very talented at making excuses.”
“I’m telling the truth.”
“You’re only good at insisting.”
“What?”
I bristled. His handsome face looked down at me as though I were some alien creature. Then came a soft sigh.
“We’re not even married yet, and there are no children.”
“….”
“Isn’t calling me ‘Father’ a bit much?”
His voice descended with a relaxed cadence. I blinked up at him. Now that he had returned to his own domain, his face was noticeably more at ease than when I first saw him.
Beyond the window, the sun was setting. The man bathed in the crimson glow of the descending sun narrowed his eyes languidly.
My heart began to race at the sight. The irritation I had felt moments before melted away like snow in spring.
This man is far too lethal in appearance. Ugh. I’m losing. I averted my gaze and muttered to myself.
“I cannot call Father ‘Father’….”
“….”
“Because Father is Father, so calling Father ‘Father’….”
“Princess.”
Even I could tell it was obvious nonsense. In the end, I answered obediently.
“I won’t do it again. I’ll be careful.”
“….”
“I’m terribly sorry.”
I heard Auredhian let out a soft laugh. His pleasant voice continued at an unhurried pace.
“Very well. In any case, you’ve had a long journey, so rest well. And I’d prefer it if you’d stop using that peculiar form of address. Should you need anything, summon a maidservant at once.”
“…Yes.”
“Though the process was somewhat improper, since you’ve agreed to cooperate, you are no different from an honored guest of Belgot. You need not hesitate in requesting anything you desire. So long as you remain in this land.”
His words were delivered matter-of-factly, yet I couldn’t fathom why my heart trembled so. His ingrained consideration tickled something deep within me.
Curiosity stirred within me. Auredhian Belgot. The sole master of Belgot, the eastern power of Laigar, and the man who possessed the most formidable divine blessing of Raulus in this land. This man who was always kind but merciless when boundaries were crossed—where exactly did his ‘line’ lie?
“Then let us go.”
Before my thoughts could settle, Auredhian turned to leave.
Wait, I still had questions to ask…! Without hesitation, I hurried forward and grasped the hem of his garment.
“Just a moment! Father, no. Your Majesty.”
“…?”
The moment I seized his black tunic and pulled, the thin, stretchy fabric extended considerably. Auredhian’s expression registered surprise for a moment before he let out a short laugh. His well-defined lips moved as if to speak.
I opened my mouth first before he could say anything.
“Are you going to marry that woman?”
“Soleia Elad?”
“Yes.”
“Well, it seems that’s how it will be.”
Auredhian answered slowly. His tone was indifferent. But to me, it mattered greatly. My brow furrowed involuntarily. It seems that’s how it will be? What does that mean?
And at his next words, I pressed my hand to my head.
“She is a woman without fault as an empress.”
It’s not that she’s without fault—she’s unsuitable, Father.
I opened my eyes sharply and looked up at him. My mind raced furiously. Where should I begin? How should I persuade him? Should I confess that Soleia Elad is actually a dark mage? That the woman nearly killed me earlier?
But I had no evidence. If I revealed that the second-strongest mage in Belgot was actually a dark mage with no proof whatsoever, who would suffer the loss? No matter how much the Emperor treated me as an honored guest, I was ultimately a hostage. A hostage taken by necessity, versus a mage who had rendered great service to the empire’s advancement. The outcome was far too certain. I bit my lip hard.
Then what I needed to do was clear. Somehow, I had to prove my worth to this man. Make him trust me more than Soleia Elad.
My grip on his garment tightened. And in the very next moment, a familiar warmth covered my hand.
The moment our skin made contact, the accumulated fatigue vanished and my condition was forcibly restored. A clean, refined scent wafted toward me.
Auredhian hadn’t taken my hand—it was merely contact. His hand had settled atop mine as I clutched the fabric of his garment, stretching it between his abdomen and waist.
Auredhian opened his mouth slowly.
“The Princess of Lebovni.”
His eyes, burning a vivid crimson in the sunset’s glow, curved with a dizzying intensity. Perhaps it was my imagination that the sight seemed dangerous. I blinked blankly and listened to what came next.
“You certainly lack caution.”
“I, what?”
Surprise made me hiccup. Auredhian smiled loosely and withdrew my hand from his garment with a gentle touch. My hand looked impossibly small nestled within his larger one. I held my breath, gazing up at that subtly smiling face.
His hand, lowering mine, brushed across my cheek and rose to tap gently at the hair beside my ear.
“First, one does not carelessly invite others into intimate spaces such as a bedroom.”
“But you were the one who followed me in, Your Majesty…”
“Second, should someone enter uninvited, you must expel them at once.”
“What do you mean by—”
“And third, you must not detain a man who wishes to leave of his own accord.”
Each protest that rose to my lips was swallowed before it could emerge. Moreover, that final statement was clearly aimed at this very moment. The way he’d said “man”—so deliberately specific. While I fumbled for a response, his hand withdrew from my hair with composed grace.
I stood with my mouth agape, then pressed it shut, then opened it again, driven by half-formed impulse.
“What if I have feelings for you?”

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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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