The Slave Is Too Handsome - Chapter 7

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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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The slave is far too handsome!
007.
The two made their way toward the Garden. Eloïse led with practiced ease, and Lucian followed in her wake.
Lucian pretended indifference while his eyes drank in the surroundings, his wide gaze absorbing every detail.
Indeed, the estate proved as sprawling as befitted a ducal residence. The Garden itself was a masterwork of rare trees, exotic grasses, and blooms arranged with unmistakable artistry—the careful hand of a true expert visible at every turn.
For Eloïse too, it had been a long time since her last visit. The Garden was a labor of love tended by her biological mother, the former Duchess.
Since her mother’s death, Eloïse had overseen its care, though she left most of the work to a skilled gardener and visited only occasionally to check on things.
“Sit.”
Eloïse, who had already taken a seat at the table in the center of the Garden, gestured with her chin. Lucian settled into the chair across from her.
He glanced about with apparent interest in the plantings, then rose briefly from his seat and crouched down to examine a shrub closely.
Eloïse watched him with quiet observation.
After studying the shrub for some time, Lucian straightened and returned to her side.
“?”
“Apply it to the wound. It will help.”
Lucian held out a handful of an unnamed herb. His gaze was fixed on the raw scrape that marked Eloïse’s skin.
“You know about these things too?”
Eloïse accepted the herb with a small sound of wonder. So the insolent wretch was concerned for her. The realization lifted her mood. She found herself increasingly curious about Lucian.
Lucian settled back into his chair with a casual thud.
“It’s nothing much.”
“Thank you. I’ll apply it properly once I’m back in my room.”
“Tell me about the conversation we didn’t finish yesterday.”
Lucian asked this while folding his arms across his chest.
“Lucian. Do you know what your name means?”
“That’s not what I’m curious about.”
“It means ‘one who shines.'”
The two of them answered past each other. This was their second battle of wits—a continuation from that dawn encounter.
“Do you know why I gave you that name? So that you would become the most radiant, most noble presence in the Empire—or rather, the second most.”
“Ha.”
At this absurd pronouncement, Lucian let out a mocking laugh.
“Of course, the first is me.”
“Did yesterday’s slap perhaps rattle your senses?”
Lucian asked this with a twitch of his lip, but Eloïse dismissed his sarcasm without effort.
“I’m going to make you Emperor.”
At these words, Lucian blinked like a fool.
Make me… what?
After drawing a sharp breath, Lucian studied Eloïse’s face intently, searching her eyes for signs of madness.
“I, Eloïse, am going to make you, Lucian, Emperor.”
“…….”
“By any means necessary.”
As Eloïse spoke with unmistakable gravity, Lucian’s expression hardened.
What he had asked earlier—whether yesterday’s blow had addled her mind—was clearly meant as mockery. But now his assessment shifted entirely.
‘This woman is genuinely mad.’
The green of her eyes burned with an unshakeable certainty as she held his gaze.
“Ha. Hahahaha.”
Lucian erupted in laughter, his expression one of bewildered incredulity.
“Don’t you find my proposal intriguing?”
“You’re insane, aren’t you?”
“You’ll need to correct that manner of speech if you’re to become Emperor, Lucian.”
The name Lucian—which had grated on him from the start—now filled him with inexplicable irritation. He could not begin to fathom the depths of this noblewoman’s delusion.
“You truly believe this is possible? Are you proposing some sort of rebellion?”
“Why must you make this so tedious?”
“…….”
“I will make you Crown Prince, and then Emperor, through perfectly lawful succession.”
Lucian made a decision then: by any means necessary, he would escape this estate and this unhinged woman.
“…….”
For a long moment, Eloïse and Lucian simply stared at each other in silence.
It was Lucian who broke the stillness first. For the first time, he wore a servile smile—the kind that made him seem like a man the world could trust.
“Yes, young lady. I have heard your grand ambition most clearly, and I sincerely wish for its realization. However, I fear that a humble wretch such as myself cannot be part of such a path. I shall take my leave now.”
With a respectful bow, Lucian rose from his seat. Eloïse’s gaze remained fixed upon him.
“It has to be you.”
“No, surely. There must be many more qualified candidates. Why, even those fellows I brought with me…….”
“Refuse, and I’ll kill you.”
“…….”
Watching Eloïse’s smile, Lucian felt a chill run through him. Her lips curved upward, but her eyes were ice.
He recalled the way she had drawn that Short Dagger with practiced ease last night, how she had leveled an Arrow at him without hesitation.
One misstep, and he would have become her first preserved specimen—a thought more horrifying than death itself.
And her brother, the Young Duke—what of him? Did he not come to this lady’s room late in the night and threaten her with a blade as casually as drawing breath?
In just one day, it was clear that the members of House of La Croix were all half-mad.
This woman in particular seemed capable of accomplishing anything she set her mind to, whatever the cost.
‘I should buy myself time.’
Lucian settled back into his chair with the utmost deference, placing his hands carefully on his lap. For now, his only priority was to avoid provoking her.
“Perhaps you would explain why you wish to make me Emperor?”
Though he had crawled in the dust of slave markets mere days ago, he knew at least that the position of Crown Prince remained vacant.
In the end, the Second Prince—the eldest by age—would likely claim it.
“I must take control of this House.”
“My lady?”
Lucian’s brow furrowed. Everything that came from Eloïse’s lips seemed to arrive without warning.
“There are two methods by which a noble house determines its Successor. First: the holder of the Peerage designates the next heir—in other words, the Duke of La Croix holds the power to choose the next Duke.”
“…….”
“Second: the Emperor designates the heir.”
Now Lucian began to grasp the logic behind Eloïse’s otherwise impossible ambition.
She could not obtain the title through the first method, no matter what she attempted. So instead, she would make him Emperor, and then he would appoint her as the next Duke. That appeared to be her plan.
“Forgive me, but isn’t that an unnecessarily roundabout path? Wouldn’t it be faster to win the Duke’s approval?”
Even a stranger could see that Eloïse was far more suited to the ducal seat than that scatterbrained Young Duke. Anyone of sound mind would agree.
‘Is the Duke also mad?’
Eloïse, who had been speaking with such candor, now pressed her lips together and hesitated before continuing.
“The Second Prince wishes to marry me. And my father approves of the match.”
“……You would become Crown Princess?”
Eloïse’s face darkened as she nodded, and she frowned as if at some unpleasant thought.
Lucian crossed his legs, amused despite himself.
“Is that not a better outcome? Crown Princess is surely superior to Duke…….”
“Absolutely not.”
Eloïse shot him a look of displeasure at what amounted to her father’s argument.
“That is a spoiled sentiment.”
To Lucian, born in the streets, Eloïse’s objection seemed like the pointless complaint of a privileged noblewoman.
“You think I should marry that simpleton, talented and beautiful and good-natured as I am? And then lock myself away in that dreary Imperial Palace, a puppet dancing on strings?”
Eloïse’s voice trembled with suppressed rage, her small hands shaking.
Lucian barely suppressed a laugh, disguising it as a cough. He had to admire her nerve, at least—singing her own praises without a shred of irony.
Though, to be fair, her claims did not seem baseless. She did appear intelligent, capable, and yes, beautiful as well…….
‘Though her temperament is questionable.’
Eloïse’s eyes burned with passion. It was, admittedly, somewhat entertaining to witness.
Now with both fists clenched, she continued.
“That would be an insult to my entire life, lived with dignity as a lady of noble birth!”
Though Lucian had never seen the Second Prince, the man apparently cut a poor figure—or possessed a disagreeable character. Watching Eloïse shudder, Lucian pondered this.
Not that he overlooked the possibility that one of her small fists might soon be flying toward him, which prompted him to subtly lean back in his seat.
“……Forgive me, but that very remark of yours would likely warrant an arrest for Insulting the Imperial Family.”
“Do you know of the First Prince who disappeared?”
Having tamped down her anger with visible effort, Eloïse regained her composure and spoke again. Lucian nodded. He wondered what revelation was coming now.
“The Prince who was abducted as a child, yes? Given that he was never found, he’s almost certainly dead by now.”
“Precisely. Yet the current Emperor still cannot bring himself to abandon hope for the First Prince. The only Crown Prince the Emperor truly acknowledges remains the First Prince.”
“But the missing First Prince will not return simply because the Emperor hopes he will…….”
Lucian let his sentence trail off mid-thought.
Ah. The puzzle pieces aligned.
“So you’re asking me to pose as the missing First Prince.”
“Bingo!”
Eloïse beamed with satisfaction, even offering light applause before she added:
“We have until the Second Prince’s next birthday. The Emperor cannot delay the proclamation of a Crown Prince any longer. Then, naturally, the Second Prince will become Crown Prince.”
“…….”
“Of all the current sons, he’s the least objectionable, in my assessment.”
Eloïse spoke through gritted teeth, as though the words themselves pained her.
‘I’ve stumbled into something terrible.’
Having heard the full scope of Eloïse’s grand design, Lucian’s desperation to escape intensified. One wrong move, and he could find himself charged with Treason.
“What do you say? Isn’t it thrilling? A man risen from slavery to Emperor—Lucian.”
“Much as I consider it, I fear I am far too insufficient to take part in such an ambitious undertaking…….”
Lucian averted his eyes from her gaze.
“You’re still laboring under a misunderstanding. You have two choices: obey me.”
“…….”
“Or die by my hand.”

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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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