Duke, This Will Sting for a Moment (30 Chapters Left to Complete) - Chapter 13
Blanc Casa, the imperial palace located southwest of Yurahil, the capital of the Justera Empire.
Originally built on the site of a villa to display the glory and power of the previous emperor Stephanus, the imperial palace housed central ministries that oversaw the administration of the entire empire, making it closer to a vast city than a mere palace.
Blanc Casa, composed of the main palace and annexes built by the finest architects, luxurious interior decorations, and grand gardens, was bustling today as always, its gates wide open to ceaselessly welcome incoming visitors.
It was not even the ball season. It was barely the hour when nobles were just waking from sleep and rubbing their eyes.
Yet the long, endless procession of nobles who had packed their belongings from their territories to attend the emperor’s banquet showed no sign of diminishing.
Ever since the day His Majesty beheaded Solace Moretti, the commander of the Imperial Knights whom he cherished more than his own kin, and hung her head high on the walls of the imperial citadel, the nobles had shrunk their necks like turtles before the emperor and held their very breaths.
His Majesty had cherished and favored his right-hand woman to the extent of allowing her to speak informally even to himself and the court officials—only to turn her into eagle food overnight.
Was he still trembling with betrayal? Or was his heart twisted with regret for executing her?
Or was it because the void left in his chest by the Knight of Flames, whom he had never kept away from his side except when sending her to the battlefield, was simply too vast?
The young and beautiful Emperor Justin Della Ponti was precarious and dangerous, like a defective bomb that could explode at any moment.
Through the dazzling white palace gates, the splendid carriages of high-ranking nobles entered first.
To the nobles heading toward the Golden Hall, where the imperial ball had been held for fifteen consecutive days, the entrance path—adorned with precious magic stones that emitted mysterious light—looked like the gaping red maw of hell’s gate awaiting them, filling them with fear and dread.
Who would be the next to spill red blood on the floor of the Golden Hall today, caught on some absurd pretext by the emperor…
Beneath the blindingly brilliant jewel chandeliers, men and women in colorful fine dresses and nobles dressed like peacocks spun in circles to the cheerful melodies of the orchestra.
Lavish floral decorations, the perfume of noble ladies, the ardent courtship of heated young men, and the shy laughter of excited young ladies.
Though the ballroom seemed to grow hotter even in broad daylight, it was nothing more than desperate acting to appease the emperor’s mood.
Far away at the high table, the air around the beautiful emperor who sat propping his chin with a bored expression was colder than the eternal snows of the north.
Even high nobles dared not approach to greet the emperor who scattered icy aura, only exchanging wary glances.
When he frowned like that and suddenly drew his sword without warning, one could become an unreturning guest mid-dance or mid-drink without knowing why. Thus, they desperately rolled their eyes to avoid meeting his gaze.
Of course, the emperor had perfectly valid reasons.
The bastard who insulted Solace to her face. The bastard who slandered her behind her back. The bastard who coveted her with filthy eyes. The bastard who spread vile rumors with busy lips. The bastard who fabricated lies to drag her down from the position of Imperial Knight Commander…
They all deserved death.
Why was he now digging up the large and small wounds that Solace had silently endured? Why did those wounds lacerate his own heart so fiercely?
Why did he keep summoning crowds to fill this vast hall day after day? What on earth was he hoping for, restlessly scanning the room with his eyes even though he knew the face he wanted to see was not here…
The emperor unclenched the fist he had been gripping until his nails dug in and looked down at his hand. The bleeding palm was as deathly pale as his face.
“Please relax your expression, Your Majesty. Why not ask one of the young ladies who dressed up so beautifully to dance, so their efforts are not wasted? Look, Lady Karina over there has been looking at Your Majesty with such longing for a while now.”
Empress Dowager Sophia, seated beside him at the high table, spoke with a smile as warm as if painted for Justin. Her skin was unbelievably supple for a woman past forty, and her mysterious violet eyes sparkled seductively.
Justin indifferently turned his gaze to the young lady the empress dowager pointed out.
Among the pale-faced ladies, Karina Phioni alone blushed brightly and twisted her body in delight at the emperor’s attention. Her ebony hair dusted with jewel powder cascaded richly.
Lady Karina was a saint candidate who had awakened divine power at seventeen and had since received special care from the temple; the empress dowager took particular interest in her.
Though she was scheduled to compete with other candidates in next year’s saint selection, it was already confirmed that Karina possessed unprecedentedly powerful divine power, making her ascension to sainthood a foregone conclusion.
“I don’t like the hair color.”
The hair color Justin liked was vivid red, like a ripe apple. Like Solace’s.
“She’s short, and her body is thin as a thorn.”
Justin liked tall women. Women with firm muscles and resilient bodies. Like Solace.
“The Phioni family has a short history but is loyal, and though they possess little, they have abundant potential. Above all, Lady Karina’s elder brother, Sir Aaron, is the commander of the Imperial Knights who pledges loyalty to Your Majesty, is he not?”
Speak of the devil—Aaron Phioni crossed the hall and knelt on one knee before the emperor.
“Your Majesty.”
Justin glanced expressionlessly at Aaron while propping his chin, then turned his head away.
A bastard not even worthy of polishing Solace’s shoes.
“I have sent crows to the northern skies.”
Solace had willingly offered her shoulder to monsters in his place, endured flesh being torn and bones shattered.
“This time the crows will surely return with the gold Your Majesty awaits in their beaks.”
A traitor who had traded his superior and subordinates for the mere position of Imperial Knight Commander.
He filled the Imperial Knights only with subordinates as greedy and selfish as himself, shamelessly using his knights for assassinations that even mercenaries would shun. Crows, indeed.
Tch. As the emperor sneered while looking away, Aaron prostrated himself flat on the floor, not knowing what to do.
“Your Majesty.”
Even at the desperate call, Justin did not turn.
“Your Majesty…”
The nobles dancing and chatting far from the high table flinched at the sudden sight of the Imperial Knight Commander prostrating before the emperor.
Unable to bear it, Empress Dowager Sophia ordered Aaron to rise, but he was frozen in place, unable to move.
If he knew the emperor was glaring at him with murderous intent because he had betrayed Commander Solace, he would have felt terribly wronged.
It was His Majesty who had secretly planted false evidence of rebellion in the north behind the commander’s back and ordered the holy sword Flama to be turned into a demonic sword. It was His Majesty himself who, unable to overcome a moment of rage, had beheaded Solace.
Yet believing the position of commander was His Majesty’s reward and firm trust for his merits, Aaron merely trembled, thinking he was being scolded for the repeated failures of the assassins sent north.
“P-please calm your anger, Your Majesty. This time, without fail, I will place the gold in Your Majesty’s hands!”
Justin snorted coldly while still looking away.
“Gold can freeze to death. Just say Grand Duke Eelheim openly. Is there anyone here who doesn’t know I’m frantic to kill my brother Frost?”
Even while turning away, the sight of the Imperial Knight Commander’s uniform at the edge of his vision irritated him, and Justin bit the inside of his mouth. The taste of blood spread.
He remembered when Solace first came for an audience after becoming Imperial Knight Commander—she had grumbled that the new uniform was too stiff and gaudy, yet couldn’t hide her blooming smile.
The way she awkwardly brushed her sleeve, her rich red eyebrows gently curving, the moisture quietly rising beneath those brows, and her vow of eternal loyalty.
“There is nothing eternal in this world, Solace. You… you’re not here anymore.”
A stinging pain at the pit of his stomach and dryness in his eyes made Justin simply close them.
“Your Majesty. This mother does not understand why you keep sending assassins north so noisily.”
Empress Dowager Sophia signaled Aaron to withdraw with her eyes and released the curiosity she had been suppressing toward Justin.
“The north is quiet only because they are stepping back to leap two steps forward. You must crush them completely before they recover their strength.”
“Is war child’s play? Especially a civil war.”
Justin, who had been idly tapping his foot, stood up, approached the empress dowager, and extended his hand.
When the empress dowager took her son’s hand and rose, Justin led her to the center of the hall and signaled the conductor to change the music.
As the baton rose high, the music flowing through the banquet hall slowed, and the dress hems that had been spinning cheerfully in circles retreated all at once.
Leading the empress dowager, Justin spoke in a tone as slow and leisurely as the performance.
“Troops must be gathered. Money must be extorted from the nobles. A plausible justification must be presented to the temple.”
The empress dowager brushed back the brilliant golden hair falling over her son’s straight forehead and whispered in his ear.
“When starting a war, do only my troops count as troops, and only nearby money as military funds?”
That again. Borrowing barbarian troops and their resources. As if anything in this world came free. How much blood and sweat had Solace shed to protect my land from them?
“I will consider it, Mother.”
“Anyway, the north is barren and worthless land. Give them the land the barbarians covet and take only the development rights to the resources we need.”
“Your words are reasonable, but I will think a little more.”
Justin drew the same hypocritical smile as his mother on his lips.
“What is the reason you keep only thinking and cannot decide?”
Reason.
“Are you still attached to that barren land?”
Of course not. He had no attachment to the north. Let the barbarians steam it or chop it up as they pleased.
“Grand Duke Frost Eelheim is terminally ill, and northern morale is lower than ever after the last subjugation. With one word from Your Majesty, the north can be finished. Wasn’t the reason you beheaded Solace to lay the groundwork for sweeping the north?”
Justin’s feet stopped dead.
The dance music stopped.
Sophia stumbled, but Justin did not catch her.
The empress dowager, barely regaining her balance, looked up at her son and ground her teeth.
‘Still…’
She could clearly see what held her son back. Solace…
That girl who even in death completely captivated her son had always been the problem. One could not kill a child already dead again. Tch.
“Forget Solace. That child’s usefulness is over.”
Justin silently turned and left the hall, abandoning the empress dowager.
His feet naturally headed toward the private training ground Solace had favored.
After killing Solace, the emperor woke more often on the dirt floor of that training ground than in his own bedchamber.
Throwing off the heavy ceremonial attire and stifling cravat, Justin lay flat on his back on the training ground floor and exhaled the breath he had been holding.
No trace of Solace remained in the cleanly swept training ground.
‘It’s over, you said…’
Yes… it was over.
He had beheaded her with his own hand. Hung the coldly stiffened corpse on the wall.
He had pathetically clung to the excuse of covering her face and body with helmet and armor because he did not want to show them.
Every night he had stood beneath the wall watching the eagles descend upon her, watching, watching again, to prove to himself that it was truly over.
‘Why…?’
Why did it still not feel over?
Why did he feel this anxious urge that he still had to wait for something?
Justin rolled over, pressed his face into the ground Solace had stepped on every day.
“Solace…”
The emperor’s tears soaked the dirt floor.
“Solace… Solace…”
*
‘Justin, you damned bastard!’
Yuriella inwardly ground curses as she gripped Mars’s reins and flattened herself against him.
It was exhausting to pull the wildly bucking reins of Mars amid the pouring rain of arrows, but she desperately made him circle and calmed the horse.
Frost kicked off Mars’s back with his toes, spun in midair, and blocked the arrows pouring from all directions.
‘Impressive! Even poisoned with horse venom, he shows not the slightest tremor.’
Yuriella made the horse circle ever smaller while clicking her tongue in admiration at Frost’s flawless parrying.
But she was not the only one impressed.
Even as he deflected arrows with his sword, Frost’s eyes never left the slender body of Yuriella clinging tightly to the horse’s back.
‘She’s controlling the horse completely as she wishes…! A rampaging wounded horse, and Mars of all horses, without the slightest agitation…!’
Frost’s eyes narrowed.
A strange sense of dissonance, as if shell and contents were separate. A woman who, each time he saw her, only deepened his questions rather than his understanding.
‘Lady. Just what is your true identity?’
Male lead is a clingy little husband
One-line summary: The male lead is initially an arrogant, noble, love-deprived brat, later a cute, clingy, scheming little jealous one.
Introduction:
One day, Lu Yuner’s soul transmigrates into a female-dominant world. She enters the Imperial Academy and takes up the position of a doctoral instructor, teaching classes and grading schoolwork.
One day, she encounters the young prince Su Qingwan secretly skipping class from the male academy.
As a result, Su Qingwan is punished.
From then on, Su Qingwan sees Lu Yuner as a “thorn in his side”.
But before long, this “thorn” becomes the person he cherishes most, and he goes to great lengths to win Lu Yuner’s affection.
Mini scene 1:
One day, the sun is high in the sky but Su Qingwan still hasn’t gotten up for class.
Servant Xiaoyuan: “Young prince, it’s time for class. You’ll be late otherwise.”
Su Qingwan says arrogantly: “I’m not going. I am the esteemed prince, my status is so noble, why should I suffer this hardship? Besides, isn’t learning all this just to please women? Hmph, they’re not worthy!”
Mini scene 2:
After Su Qingwan falls for someone, he completely changes. He no longer skips class and diligently learns how to be a good husband and father. But he discovers that Sister Yuner is always surrounded by admirers.
Drunk and overcome with jealousy one day, he clings to Lu Yuner, crying beautifully like a pear blossom in the rain.
Su Qingwan: “Qingwan likes Sister Yuner.”
Lu Yuner: “Young prince, you’re drunk.”
Su Qingwan: “Qingwan isn’t drunk. Qingwan likes Sister Yuner, likes you so much, likes you to bits…” Before he can finish, Lu Yuner’s eyes flash with emotion and she leans in closer.
[Reading Guide]
1. The female lead is gentle, gracious, humble and polite but not weak. The male lead is initially an arrogant, noble, love-deprived brat, later a cute, clingy, scheming little jealous one.
2. 1v1, a bit torturous in the beginning but definitely sweet later on.
_____
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Hahahaha!!! She is so funny!!!!!! How she changed so much!
I love how she realized she loved him from the begining. But I die seeing him jealous of himself.
Awww