The Forgotten Field - Chapter 82

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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 82
“How could that possibly be!”
The man hunched his broad shoulders exaggeratedly, feigning terror.
“How would I dare presume to challenge the one destined to rule the Eastern Territories!”
Barcas, who had been quietly studying the man’s face, brought his wine glass to his lips without a word. When he failed to react immediately to the provocation, the man’s enthusiasm seemed to wane slightly.
The man’s playful expression vanished as he spoke with a growl.
“However, I am curious about one thing. What could possibly have driven the Young Lord to betray the First Princess and shoulder the Imperial Family’s burden?”
A heavy silence descended upon the hall.
Barcas moved only his eyes, sweeping across the faces of the nobles seated along both sides of the long table.
The loyal retainers of House Sierkan who dwelt in Kalmor, the heart of the Eastern Territories, wore expressions of displeasure.
Yet the provincial nobles observed his reaction with assessing gazes, seemingly attempting to gauge whether the young heir of the Grand Duke’s House was worthy of entrusting the Eastern Territories’ future.
He rotated the wine in his glass leisurely, building suspense before speaking slowly.
“Betray? That is an exaggeration. As everyone knows, my betrothal to her was not forged from political interests. When circumstances change, so too may their terms.”
“What exactly has changed?”
The man’s forehead flushed with anger.
“Are you suggesting that a few words from His Imperial Majesty are grave enough to shatter years of promise?”
“Tell me—do you consider the commands of the Empire’s ruler to be trivial?”
Barcas tilted his head, turning the question back on him. For a moment, the man’s thick lips sealed shut, words failing him. His face, darkened by his black beard, flushed crimson as he glared at Barcas and spoke loudly with derision.
“What admirable loyalty! I could never hope to match such devotion!”
“Grand Duke Alec Gutban, you seem to have become overly agitated.”
A middle-aged noble seated across from the man cautiously attempted to restrain him.
But the man paid no heed. He seized a goblet brimming with wine and drained it in one gulp, then wiped his mouth roughly with his sleeve before continuing.
“Yet someday, even our great Emperor will step down from his throne. Then His Highness the Crown Prince shall become the ruler of this Empire. What will you do then? Will His Highness graciously accept the Eastern Territories’ loyalty?”
“This marriage has the Crown Prince’s consent as well.”
Barcas, tilting his glass to gaze at his reflection in the red liquid, spoke deliberately.
“In fact, he later became far more instrumental in promoting it.”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“I shall merely say that this marriage held certain advantages for His Highness the Crown Prince as well.”
He cut off the conversation coldly.
“One cannot carelessly divulge the Imperial Family’s private affairs.”
Suspicion flickered across the nobles’ faces. His words could be interpreted as meaning he held leverage over the Crown Prince. Barcas watched them exchange glances before clearing the atmosphere with a lighter tone.
“If your doubts have been sufficiently resolved, let us conclude this pleasant conversation.”
With that, he raised his glass and surveyed the assembly slowly.
“Come now, everyone. As Alec Gutban said, this wine is hardly the reward for seventeen years of loyalty to the Eastern Territories’ next Grand Duke.”
Barcas, a smile playing at his lips, brought the glass close to his face as if savoring its bouquet, and continued with ease.
“When else will you have the chance to taste such a rare vintage?”
The nobles, uncertain how to respond, rolled their eyes before raising their glasses with awkward laughter. It was clear they all wished to end the debate here.
Yet the man showed no sign of backing down. He brought his fist down upon the table like a steel hammer and cried out.
“How can you expect us to believe that! Everyone in the Empire knows how dearly His Highness the Crown Prince cherishes the First Princess. He would never make a decision that tramples upon Her Highness the Princess’s honor!”
Barcas erased the smile that had lingered at his lips. His patience was beginning to fray against this man whose words seemed utterly unreasonable.
He leaned his head against the backrest and gestured with his chin for me to continue. The man didn’t hesitate and poured out his words.
“Do you know what rumors are spreading? That the heir of the Eastern Territories has fallen under the spell of the Taren Family’s witch—just as His Majesty the Emperor was deceived by that viperous woman and betrayed the Empress, the next Grand Duke Sierkan has been bewitched by her daughter and abandoned the virtuous First Princess! Such talk is circulating throughout the entire Empire!”
The last words were nearly a shout. His resonant voice filled the hall.
“If the First Princess were to follow in Empress Bernadette’s footsteps, how would you ever atone for such a sin!”
“Listen to this—there’s no end to it!”
Daren Dru Sierkan, unable to contain himself any longer, interjected into the conversation.
“Alec Gutban, you are a vassal of the Grand Duke’s House! Do you truly believe such an attitude toward the heir of the Grand Duke’s line will be tolerated in Laedgo Castle!”
“When a leader treads down a wrong path, it is also the duty of his vassals to voice their criticism!”
The man who had shouted boldly at Daren turned his gaze back toward Barcas.
“You could have made the First Princess—whom the entire Empire admires—the mistress of the Eastern Territories! Yet you brought only an evil woman of illegitimate birth as your bride. How could you possibly let such a calamity pass in silence…!”
The man who had been shouting suddenly fell silent. Barcas, who had been watching the absurd spectacle unfold, also went rigid.
A small figure, her hood pulled down to her eyebrows, approached from behind the bear-like man’s back and tilted a wine bottle over his massive head, pouring a blood-red liquid down in torrents.
At the sudden turn of events, rough intakes of breath echoed from various corners of the hall.
The man who had been assaulted seemed too shocked to react immediately. With a dazed expression, he stood drenched in the cascading wine, only rising abruptly to his feet once the bottle had emptied.
His enormous frame, nearly seven cubits tall and concealed entirely beneath a robe, loomed menacingly over the uninvited guest.
“What madman dares to do such a thing…!”
He seized the intruder’s wrist and tore away the hood covering her head. Long hair, like a golden waterfall, tumbled free from within her garments and flooded his vision.
The man, who had been raising his fist as if to strike her face, went completely rigid.
She shot a venomous glare through her disheveled hair.
As if struck by lightning from that intense gaze, the man trembled faintly and swallowed hard. His tar-black pupils dripped sluggishly across her face.
Barcas, gripping his goblet so tightly it nearly crumpled, rose at once. As he approached from behind her and pulled her slender frame into his embrace, the man instinctively gripped her wrist tightly, as if unwilling to let her go.
In that instant, something stirred within me. I looked down at the dark hand holding her with a shadowed gaze.
The man continued to stare at her face with vacant eyes, as if devouring every inch of it. A cold chill crept up my spine. As my nape grew cold with that strange sensation, suddenly a sound like a whip cracking across flesh rang out.
The man looked down at her with bewildered eyes, his expression utterly confused about what had just transpired.
She raised her arm and struck his wine-soaked face again.
“How dare you lay your filthy hands on me.”
Only then did the man come to his senses, releasing her wrist and stepping back.

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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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