Chapter 89. Bollonico’s Secret

2023.12.28.

Yuan Pelliese’s face, which had struggled to maintain a faint smile as if everything were fine, went completely blank.

Although Noel had indeed been necessary during the time she was effectively trapped in this detached palace, Yuan had not entered this palace to grow close to Noel Euphris.

Yuan had no time to spare, and her tasks were many. Now was the time to choose Bollonico over Noel.

After a brief silence, she shook off Noel’s arm without hesitation.

As she passed him by and followed Marquis Companni toward Bollonico’s palace,

Yuan did not look back even once. No—she could not look back.

It felt as if Noel’s gaze were clinging to her.

Rushing forward like the wind, they arrived at Bollonico’s bedroom.

Yuan stood speechless, her mouth falling open at the bizarre sight before her.

***

As the heavy golden doors swung open, an extravagantly dazzling scene unfolded, momentarily making her vision swim.

Nearly naked women knelt in one corner, playing harps, while attendants of various skin tones stood guard behind them.

Artificial streams trickled around the area.

Along the stream’s edge, clusters of vividly fragrant flowers bloomed in full.

Thick, enormous purple blossoms, dotted with yellow speckles, stood out prominently.

‘Growing poisonous plants in a bedroom? Has he lost his mind?’

Yuan briefly covered her nose, then gasped in shock upon noticing the arms of the large attendants.

Distinct marks of what could only be whip lashes were clearly visible, peeking out from beneath their sleeves.

So it wasn’t only the blue-skinned attendant, Kuntan, who bore such scars?

As Yuan scanned her surroundings, she caught sight of various-sized whips hanging on the wall and held her breath.

Her stomach churned again.

With a casual wave of Marquis Companni’s hand, the attendants—previously standing like mere decorations—quickly filed out of the bedroom.

Following the marquis’s guidance, Yuan approached the massive canopy bed.

Before she could even react to the sharp herbal scent that stung her nose, her pupils dilated.

Bollonico, seated at the head of the bed, was injured.

His beautiful, sculpted muscles—clearly crafted for display—were marred by bruises and contusions across his snow-white skin.

Moreover, one of his arms appeared broken, secured with a splint.

Court physicians who had been frantically applying ointment to reduce his pain and fade the bruises greeted Marquis Companni like he was their savior the moment they saw him.

Then, Bollonico suddenly stretched out his uninjured arm and slammed a diagnostic instrument from the wooden bedside table into the head of one physician.

With a dull thud, the physician let out a death rattle.

“Aaagh!”

“It hurts! It hurts! It hurts!!”

“F-Forgive me! Forgive me, Your Highness!”

“Ugh, uhh—uhh—.”

Whether from moving too abruptly or straining his injured arm, Bollonico stiffened and groaned in pain.

After groaning for a long while, Bollonico finally noticed Marquis Companni and Yuan’s presence and turned his bloodshot eyes toward them.

Over his slick shoulder, his icy blue eyes glared at Yuan.

“You should’ve come only after Bollonico was dead?”

Marquis Companni discreetly dismissed the court physicians and handed Yuan the ointment he had just received from them.

Instead of glancing back at the people who had swiftly passed all responsibility to her and vanished, Yuan ignored Bollonico’s resentful glare and examined his bare upper body.

The obvious signs of brutal beating made her frown.

Gasping heavily, Bollonico grunted as he struggled to sit up and stood directly in front of Yuan.

Yuan stared at the reddened cheek marked by handprints and his disheveled golden hair.

And before he could start shouting or hurl another object, she placed her hand gently on his cheek.

Bollonico instinctively tried to swat it away, but then froze, stunned as the pain rapidly faded, leaving only his ragged breathing.

Feeling the pain in his cheek and arm gradually diminish, his flushed face turned thoughtful. He cautiously moved his arm, only to be struck by excruciating agony again and collapse back against the headboard.

Yuan sat beside the increasingly agitated Bollonico and began applying the ointment. Then, she absorbed his pain.

The dull ache of repeated blunt trauma and the sharp pain of a fractured bone made Yuan’s fine hairs stand on end.

Though the pain was clearly unbearable enough to make Bollonico so irritable, compared to Clade’s suffering, it was somewhat tolerable for Yuan.

With trembling hands, she finished applying the medicine and waited for Bollonico’s ragged breathing to calm.

Bollonico buried his face into a snow-white pillow, making sounds that were neither clearly crying nor laughing.

Yuan watched his trembling shoulders for a long while before quietly speaking.

“Was it the Emperor who did this?”

“That’s none of your concern, sister-in-law.”

“I can hardly believe it. No father would beat his son so severely.”

“As long as Bollonico hasn’t given the order, it’s best to stay silent and know nothing, sister-in-law.”

“No one knows Your Highness’s pain better than I do. You were struck on the cheek first, weren’t you? It still feels numb, but the pain is the mildest. Then, you were kicked in the abdomen? That still hurts just as much, even after some time has passed.”

Instead of answering, Bollonico peeked one eye out from behind the pillow and glared at her.

His sharp gaze swept over her sweat-dampened forehead, straight nose, and lips in turn.

“So, are you in pain only as much as Bollonico is not?”

“……”

“That’s why you understand Bollonico’s pain—as well as Bollonico himself does, sister-in-law.”

Bollonico’s piercing eyes softened slightly.

Hunched slightly, Bollonico straightened his upper body and leaned toward her.

His smooth lips moved closer to Yuan as if drawn by an invisible force.

Just as his breath touched her lips, Yuan abruptly stood and took a step back.

Then, in that instant—

-Crash!

With a loud noise, an expensive-looking crystal ornament shattered at Yuan’s feet, rolling across the floor.

“So that’s why you came so late. To avoid pain. Leaving Bollonico like this.”

“……What are you doing?”

“What about you, sister-in-law? What are you doing?”

The canopy that had briefly hung between them was abruptly pulled aside in irritation.

Bollonico sat leaning on one arm against the bed, glaring fiercely at Yuan with wide eyes.

He seemed thoroughly enraged—like he might grab one of the whips hanging on the wall and lash her cheek at any moment.

“This morning! When that damn dog Eugene Kimfri came, and Bollonico twisted his ankle and fell! Why didn’t you come running to me then? Why?! And now you show up so leisurely only after I sent Marquis Companni? You abandoned Bollonico because you didn’t want to feel pain!”

“To be scolded like this after healing you—I’m truly at a loss.”

“Don’t change the subject!”

Enraged, Bollonico grabbed a large pillow behind him and hurled it at Yuan.

Yuan caught it effortlessly.

“If you’re Bollonico’s person now, then act like one. Whatever your abilities are, they belong to Bollonico now—so don’t let Bollonico suffer even a hair’s worth of pain!”

“But Your Highness, was that ability something I could use in front of others?”

Bollonico, still shouting in fury, suddenly froze.

“So this morning, when I rushed over with those knights, holding Your Highness’s hand and absorbing your pain… I should’ve let them see you suddenly walking perfectly fine?”

“!”

“Then it would’ve been better if I had told Empress Marilyn about my ability and the real reason I came to this palace earlier. If I had, the Empress would’ve been delighted and made full use of me. Then I could’ve freely moved around this palace to serve Your Highness. I might’ve even been the first to rush here before you even called.”

Yuan brought up Empress Marilyn to provoke Bollonico.

She needed to clearly understand the relationships between Bollonico and Empress Marilyn, and between Noel and the Empress.

‘There’s no strong trust between Bollonico and Empress Marilyn.’

Yuan realized her assumption had been correct.

Suddenly mentioning the Empress had turned Bollonico into a mute, glaring at her in silence.

Empress Marilyn had given up on Emperor Marcello, who frequently absented himself from the palace under the pretense of hunting trips, indulging in pleasures. She was instead fiercely struggling to seize as much power as possible within the inner palace.

Empress Marilyn seemed to have realized her own precarious position early on.

Despite bearing two princes, neither son had been named Crown Prince, and her family’s influence was weak. Thus, she was desperately trying to arrange suitable noble daughters as matches for Bollonico and Noel.

After all, who could predict that someone might suddenly appear at the palace claiming to have secretly borne the Emperor’s child and demand entry?

Judging from the Emperor Yuan had encountered, such a scenario was entirely possible.

The Empress Yuan had observed during her visits was completely absorbed in selecting new handmaidens.

Though choosing women of similar age would’ve been easier, the applications and recommendations flooding into the Empress’s quarters were from young nobles around Yuan’s age.

In truth, while it appeared she was selecting handmaidens, she was actually screening noble daughters from suitable families to match with Bollonico or Noel.

And Yuan suspected the Empress intended to pair those daughters with Noel, not Bollonico.

Evidence was in the stack of applications from noble daughters that Noel carried when he came to deliver books to Yuan.

Each time Yuan pretended to read and secretly glanced at them, Noel had been reading them with a heartbroken expression. Given that he had confessed to having someone he liked, such documents must have been painful to look at.

Furthermore, the Empress was always worried about Noel, while she never visited Bollonico’s palace to check on him—whether he had been summoned by the Emperor to go monster hunting in the north or not.

It wasn’t that she lacked affection.

She consistently received reports about Bollonico, subtly asked Yuan if she planned to visit Bollonico’s palace, and sighed deeply whenever she heard news about the Emperor or Bollonico.

But it was different from her concern for Noel.

Unlike their first meeting, the Empress had begun to genuinely grow curious about Yuan when she noticed Noel, who rarely visited, suddenly mentioning Yuan more often and becoming unusually talkative.

Yes—this was the very image of a mother who loved her son.

Empress Marilyn might actually wish for Noel, rather than Crown Prince Bollonico, to become the Crown Prince.

The moment this conclusion formed in Yuan’s mind,

“……I discovered the Pelliese treasure myself. I couldn’t just tell Mother so easily. Good. Never speak of it.”

Bollonico warned her, his eyes flashing an icy blue.