Queen of Revenge - Chapter 49

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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 49
“Have you lost your mind? No. I said no…!”
“Then stay still.”
His lips finally made contact with mine.
Benedix’s lips were as cold as his voice. The world seemed to crumble beneath me.
The kisses we had shared countless times in those days when we were friends, family, and lovers—meant to save one another—returned now with an entirely different meaning.
It was a brutal, coercive kiss meant only to extort from the other.
“No, stop…!”
Tender flesh tore, and desperate breath flooded in.
An unwanted kiss held no sweetness, no thrill. The sensation of crossing an irreversible river was nothing short of horrifying.
“Let go! Bara, Bara…!”
Iolet barely twisted her head away, struggling with all her remaining strength. Her wounded chest felt as though it were splitting open.
In the moment I gasped beneath the deluge of pain, the door burst open with a deafening crash.
Someone wearing a deep hood stepped forward, shielding me behind them as they blocked Benedix’s path.
“…!”
From the broad frame and economical movements alone, I could tell who it was.
Even in my panic, I desperately seized his hand.
‘No, if your face is seen…!’
The man turned to look at me, his green eyes trembling beneath the concealing hood.
I barely managed to move my tongue.
“I’m fine. Don’t say anything—just help me up.”
Bara stood firm outside the open door. I couldn’t disobey her command to remain outside until called, so I had summoned Lucian as an alternative.
Lucian withdrew his hand from his sword hilt and turned fully around.
After checking whether blood was visible on my chest, he let me lean against him.
Benedix’s gaze traveled from the back of Lucian’s hooded head to the hand supporting me, and finally settled on my face.
My instincts screamed a warning: I must not show pain. I had to conceal anything that could become a weakness.
“If you cause any more disturbance, I’ll summon Commander Lefebvre. Surely you didn’t inform your Elder Sister of your whereabouts before coming here, so you’d find it inconvenient if this matter escalates, wouldn’t you, Duke? Let’s pretend this conversation never happened.”
“….”
“And don’t ever try to intimidate me like this again. It’s too vulgar for me to tolerate.”
Border Guard Soldiers poured through the open door.
Benedix let out a short laugh as he glanced at Lucian blocking my path.
“I don’t care who you do ‘vulgar’ things with. I can endure such trifles. But Iolet. All your firsts belong to me. The same is true for me.”
“Shut….”
“That can never be undone. No matter how much you deny it.”
Benedix pushed past the soldiers and approached me.
I heard his cold voice as he brushed past.
“Take care of yourself. We’ll see each other again soon.”
Only after Benedix disappeared from sight did I collapse into Lucian’s arms.
* * *
I fell ill that entire night.
Bara tended to me with meticulous care, and Lucian obtained a sleeping draught from the Military Physician and had me drink it, yet I could not find rest until dawn broke.
Lucian had no choice but to seat me on the sofa and wrap me carefully in a blanket.
I stared vacantly into empty space, my lips working restlessly as I rubbed them over and over.
“Your Highness. You mustn’t rub them like that.”
“Oh… yes.”
His admonition proved futile.
Seeing my lips chafed raw, Lucian rose to his feet.
He opened the medicine box and retrieved an ointment, when I suddenly spoke.
“Don’t step forward like that again, Lucian. Especially not before the Capital’s nobility.”
“Pardon?”
“You’re known to be bedridden with a broken leg. When I introduce you to others from now on, I’ll say you’re Bara’s brother. Even if it’s frustrating, you should keep your face hidden for a while. It would be best to drop the title altogether. I’d prefer to call you by your name.”
Lucian was bewildered in an instant.
With only Bara and myself as escorts, she was telling me not to be seen?
“Didn’t you once say you wanted me as your escort? I thought you kept me here to protect Your Highness.”
“Of course. But there’s no need for you to face unnecessary trouble. Later, I won’t have the face to see Simon.”
“I will be cautious regarding my own circumstances. Your Highness, you must be careful as well. Never meet anyone alone without an escort. Danger can strike at any time and place.”
Lucian held out the ointment to me.
I did not take it, merely staring at it blankly.
Since I turned my back on Duke Benedix and left, my lips had borne wounds. Seeing them beaded with blood twisted something deep within me.
“… When Benedix first kissed me, my lips were wounded like this too.”
I murmured suddenly.
“He was clumsy then. Neither of us knew how to kiss. But Benedix learns everything quickly, so after that, he was never as rough as he was at first.”
I could not fathom why she was telling me such things. The more I heard, the more my spirits sank.
“All of your firsts belong to me. The same is true for me.”
Lucian remembered vividly the expression on Iolet’s face when she confronted the Duke.
The voice she had hurled at the Duke was utterly different from her usual composed tone. The strategist who observed the world with detachment had vanished, leaving only a wounded girl bristling with thorns.
And what of the Duke himself?
Lucian had never seen Benedix Valer treat anyone with such informality. He had not known the man capable of wearing so many expressions.
From that brief exchange alone, one could discern what they had been to each other in the past and what catastrophe they now faced.
Yet the Duke still desired Iolet. Otherwise, he would never have invested such meaning in the word “first.”
A twisted resolve was evident—if he could not be her lover, he would become her closest adversary.
“Benedix knows my secret.”
I murmured in a daze.
“I think he knows that I… can come back even from death. That’s something that should never be revealed to anyone. Mother made me promise never to tell…”
Even as I spoke, I seemed unaware that I was confessing my secret to Lucian with my own lips.
This was the first time I had shown such weakness.
I appeared as a completely different person from the ruthless woman who meticulously planned even her own death and with mere words could plunge his house into peril, then resurrect it.
The Military Physician had repeatedly insisted that I required absolute rest. As my breathing grew increasingly unstable, Lucian felt a creeping dread.
Something was going wrong.
“Your Highness. Look at me.”
Lucian knelt on one knee before her.
He met the gaze of the woman with her head bowed. Iolet’s blue eyes glistened with moisture.
“Do you know how I died?”
“….”
“If you did, you wouldn’t speak so carelessly, would you?”
Iolet frantically touched her own neck. It was strange that it was her neck rather than her chest where the wound lay, but this was not the time to question it.
Lucian opened the salve container. He coated his index finger with the translucent ointment and brought it to Iolet’s lips. The moment his finger made contact, the soft flesh trembled delicately.
“Is it certain that the Duke knows the Princess’s secret? Does he have evidence?”
“…No. If he had evidence, he wouldn’t have tried to confirm it with me in the first place.”
“Then he knows nothing. Without evidence, it’s merely suspicion, not certainty. He cannot harm the Princess based on suspicion alone.”
“No.”
Iolet suddenly raised her voice.
“No, Lucian. With mere suspicion—no, without even suspicion at all—he can fabricate physical evidence as easily as he wishes. Look at what happened to Count Leon. I made it that way by giving poison to Ahil. And that’s how I died too, didn’t I?”
“Your Highness, please calm—.”
“Benedix knows far too much about me. I cannot erase what he already knows. Even now. I’m still trembling like this over that mere kiss!”
The Princess’s words were utterly incoherent. The trembling of her hand as she rubbed her neck following her lips was far from normal.
“Yet I still have no power. I cannot push him away or drive him out. I know I shouldn’t panic, but I can’t help it….”
Lucian instinctively realized he was witnessing the most vulnerable core of her being.
Simultaneously, a terrifying premonition seized him.
He had to soothe her at once. He had to calm her and restore her to her original state.
If the Princess crumbled like this, not only she herself but also his world, which he had rebuilt around her, would be in danger.
If Iolet collapsed, Lucian had nowhere to return to.
“Even just bringing up his father’s story to Benedix causes my heart pain, so how can he do this to me? Saying you’ll soon be me, still acting as though you love me, emphasizing my past like that…!”
Iolet, who had been pouring out words in a panic, opened her eyes wide.
Something touched her lips.

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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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