Beguiling the Enemy’s Patriarch - Chapter 179

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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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Side Story Part 3, Episode 1
Side Story 3. A Winter’s Pursuit
Snow drifted gently across the Capital on a winter’s day, blanketing it in serene silence. While Belgot’s winters were typically harsh, this year’s season proved unusually mild and temperate. Wrapped snugly in a blanket, Yerenika gazed out the window at the courtyard transformed into pristine white, when she suddenly spoke.
“I just realized something incredible, Edi.”
“What is it?”
Auredhian Belgot, who had just finished bidding the imperial prince and princess goodnight, paused in loosening his cravat and waited for her to continue. Rather than answering, Yerenika breathed onto the windowpane and began drawing something intently with her finger. Small sketches appeared on the glass, reflecting the night sky.
A smaller circle rested atop a larger one. Soon the smaller circle gained eyes, a nose, and a mouth, while the larger circle received lines resembling arms. Having completed her charming snowman, Yerenika turned to him with a radiant smile.
“Did you know we’ve never dated in the Capital during the depths of winter?”
“Have we not?”
“No. It’s been twelve years since we married, and I’ve never walked through the snowy streets of Barishard. That’s absurd.”
“Is that so? Now that you mention it, I suppose you’re right.”
Auredhian Belgot willingly settled beside his wife as she gestured. As always, her cool, delicate hand familiarly finished untying his cravat. The violet cloth that had constricted his neck slipped away smoothly. With perfect naturalness, Yerenika began unfastening the buttons of his shirt one by one.
“I thought by now we’d have done far more together than we haven’t, but perhaps that’s not the case. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Her sky-blue eyes sparkled with anticipation. Whenever he witnessed that innocent expression paired with hands decidedly not innocent, Auredhian Belgot felt a familiar thirst. He touched her moist, rosy lips before answering belatedly.
“We still have far to go.”
“Pardon? What do you mean?”
“To leave nothing undone together, we still have far to go.”
The hand that had been unfastening her shirt buttons was completely covered by his larger one, and her blanket-wrapped form was gently pressed against the sofa’s backrest. He unwrapped the blanket from her body as though unwrapping the most precious gift.
Their lips met, and after the sweet affection that marked their daily routine left them both tingling for some time, their interrupted conversation finally resumed.
“Shall we go out? It looks like the snow will continue until tomorrow.”
“Can you postpone your work?”
“I can.”
“No, not you—me. Felix has been nagging me for three days about reviewing the Secondary Palace construction budget.”
“Postpone it.”
His answer was brief solely because he continued kissing her face and body in various places. Only after a final kiss accompanied by a sweet sound did a proper response emerge.
“What you wish to do takes priority. Tell Felix to handle the budget himself.”
“Felix will cry if he hears that.”
“How many times has that happened?”
“Don’t say it like that. It makes me sound like a tyrant and a wicked empress.”
Yerenika giggled and buried her face in his embrace.
“Then shall we go out tomorrow morning? It’s been so long since it’s been just the two of us without the children.”
Excited whispers continued at length. Revisiting the places they had gone during their honeymoon one by one didn’t sound like a bad idea. Come to think of it, going out alone together really had been ages. I was looking forward to it…
Her voice was filled with affection greater than yesterday’s, and perhaps even greater still tomorrow. Auredhian Belgot held his still-beloved wife close despite the long years they had spent together.
* * *
The Emperor and Empress had temporarily left the Imperial Palace. Since it was not a secret inspection, all the servants working at the Imperial Palace, as well as the nobility who frequented it, were aware of their absence. There was only one person who remained completely oblivious to this fact.
“This is a betrayal.”
Decarve Belgot frowned and declared with considerable sharpness. However, those who heard his declaration showed little reaction. When he struck the table to draw attention, the basket of homemade cookies sitting atop it trembled.
“Eek!”
The young girl who had been lounging on the table with her feet, reading a book while eating cookies, jumped straight up in surprise, maintaining her posture. The doll-like girl with shimmering silver hair swept it back and glared at her older brother with irritation.
“Ugh, really. Don’t startle people like that.”
“This is serious, Jena!”
“What’s serious now?”
“Mother and Father! How could they sneak off on a trip without us? Abandoning their rabbit-like children like this!”
“That’s what this is about?”
Aizena clicked her tongue and propped her feet properly back on the table. Had Roxanne and Marienne witnessed this sight, they would have sighed as if the earth itself were collapsing, or turned away unable to bear the view. The fact that the seven-year-old Imperial Princess of Belgot had sold all propriety and was blossoming into a promising young wastrel was the Belgot Imperial Family’s secret second scandal.
Then what was the first secret?
“I wanted to go too! You never let us leave the Imperial Palace alone. This is… this is betrayal! We’ve been abandoned!”
The sole Imperial Prince destined to be named Crown Prince had recently fallen into tragic fairy tales, his sensitivity not merely full but overflowing. And the Belgot Imperial Family’s final secret was that such behavior only manifested when the young royals gathered among themselves.
The siblings behaved with perfect courtesy and composure whenever eyes were upon them, as if they’d never been lax or pessimistic. This was thanks to the Empress’s nuclear option last spring: “If you cause one more incident, I’m sending you to the Academy the moment you turn ten.”
“Brother, Mother and Father didn’t really abandon us. They mentioned it beforehand at lunch today.”
Aizena, resting her chin on the back of her hand, pointed this out in a languid tone, and Decarve pouted his lips.
“I don’t remember, Jena.”
“That’s because you didn’t hear it, Brother. You overslept this morning and missed breakfast with us. But we definitely heard it. Right, Uni?”
Both their gazes turned simultaneously to the right. The baby, who had been eagerly stretching her short arms toward the strawberry plate, looked at them with wide eyes. Then she let out a few adorable babbles.
“See? Uni remembers.”
Aizena, who had been indifferent throughout, fed a strawberry to her younger sister with an expression of utter adoration.
“Did you see how she answered my question? Our Uni is going to grow up to be a genius.”
The youngest of the three siblings, who had just passed her third birthday, simply laughed with delight. Unie, with her cotton-candy-pink hair grown fluffy to her ears, was the only one among the three to inherit Mother’s coloring.
Of course, Unie couldn’t escape the deep blood of the Belgot Imperial Family. Her reddish eyes blinked innocently as she looked back and forth between her siblings.
“So where did they go?”
“I don’t know. They said something about inspecting the Capital after a long time, but they’re obviously going on a date.”
“Really? How long ago did they leave?”
“About thirty minutes?”
Thirty minutes. Decarve calculated the time and slammed both fists on the table with a bang.
“That’s not long at all! Let’s follow them!”
“Huh, sure. These strawberries are delicious. …Wait. What did you say, Brother?”
Aizena, who had been carelessly tossing strawberries into her mouth with an annoyed expression, looked at her brother—two years her senior—with startled eyes. Decarve had already leaped down from the tall chair.
“Uni, let’s go see Mom and Dad!”
“Kyaa!”
The nine-year-old boy hugged his youngest sibling tightly and scurried out of the room. When his second sister didn’t follow, he glanced back and reproached her.
“Uni wants to go. Aren’t you coming, Jena?”
“…Brother, using Uni to blackmail me like that is a bad habit.”
Jena retorted stubbornly while shoving all the strawberries from the plate into her mouth, then bounced down from her chair. The eldest and second child, carrying the youngest, scattered to their respective rooms to arm themselves thoroughly with thick padded clothes, hats, scarves, and gloves, then assembled in the courtyard before the Central Palace where they habitually played. They had completely ditched all the knights and maidservants stationed to protect and monitor the Imperial Prince and Princess who caused trouble every single day.
Few could control the Imperial Prince and Princess—seven and five years old respectively—who possessed such extraordinary talent for the sacred that they could already summon the flames of purification. Moreover, those few who could simultaneously suppress them had all left the Imperial Palace.
The children, heavily bundled in thick clothing, began waddling southward toward the Imperial Palace. Only the three of them knew the secret of the small hole in the fence beyond the brush behind the Training Grounds that led outside.
“Are we ready, everyone!”
“Readyyyy.”
Aizena answered half-heartedly, while Unie responded with a giggle. Wrapped in three hats, two scarves, and two layers of fur clothing, Unie looked like a giant cocoon. Decarve, who had bundled his youngest sister onto his back with a sling, shouted courageously.
“Charge!”
Aizena, though wearing an annoyed expression, matched her brother’s enthusiasm.
“Let’s go find Mother and Father!”
Delicate footprints dotted the pristine snow-blanketed field, a charming trail left by the siblings. Thus began an outing that would become legend—the Imperial Family’s three precious direct heirs venturing into the Capital on a winter’s day.

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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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