In the reception room of the duke’s mansion, bright sunlight was streaming through the windows.
Esika slowly sat down opposite Resban, who was seated at the head.
Silence fell between the two while Sella prepared tea.
Unlike Esika whose gaze was slightly lowered, Resban kept staring at Esika.
Enough to make Esika uncomfortable.
“The duke will be here soon.”
After a long silence, that was all that came from her lips.
A faint smile flitted across Resban’s mouth.
“Is that all you have to say to me?”
“……”
At Resban’s words, Esika raised her eyes to meet his gaze.
She could see her own face reflected in the brilliant golden eyes, symbol of the royal family.
His red lips moved again.
“I even ate cookies that could be dangerous for me, for your sake. I haven’t heard a word of thanks yet.”
Esika’s eyebrows twitched.
Rather than truly wanting to hear thanks, it seemed he was playfully testing her.
“……Thank you.”
At times like this, it’s easier to just give the desired answer without unnecessary words.
Resban could be seen snickering at Esika’s stiff response.
“As expected, a reaction that doesn’t deviate from predictions.”
Resban’s intervention was far from what Esika had anticipated.
Callian didn’t have to eat the cookies.
What Esika wanted was to create suspicion between mother and son.
Rather than blatant alienation, cracks that form from within are more destructive.
By intervening, Resban had put a stake in Callian’s suspicions.
Although it was a better outcome than expected, feeling indebted to Resban was somewhat burdensome.
“It’s forced gratitude, but I’ll accept it.”
Resban’s hand picked up the teacup.
Even the way masters drink tea is different in its grace.
To the point where even the ripples in the tea cup feel subtly different.
“Does Your Highness really have a peanut allergy?”
“Yes.”
At the low voice, Esika’s eyes rippled faintly.
The face of the crown prince grabbing her wrist, staring at her, and biting into the cookie remained in her mind.
“Why did you do that? It could have been really dangerous.”
Here, there was no concept of using inner energy to suppress symptoms.
It means he might not be able to finely control the energy needed to alleviate allergies.
Such things were the work of imperial doctors who handled medications.
“You’re not the type to show your hand without certainty.”
Resban put the teacup to his lips with a calm voice.
“Rather than do it sloppily, you would have kept your mouth shut. Like this.”
His words seemed to imply he had figured her out completely.
After thinking for a moment, Esika opened her mouth.
“The reason you’re not asking for details about what happened earlier is……”
Esika opened her lips.
“Because Your Highness, who even knows the number of knives in House Klaus, already knows about the family situation.”
Resban’s Adam’s apple could be seen moving as he swallowed the tea.
A man in whom beauty and manliness coexist, he leisurely set down the teacup.
And with golden eyes filled with inscrutable thoughts, he simply stared at Esika.
Esika felt inexplicably stifled.
As if she was feeling indigestion without having eaten anything.
‘The reason he’s showing me favor is……’
As she reached for her teacup, Resban’s low voice was heard.
“Being from the Brigitte family, you must be familiar with Priehatz, the sea.”
At Resban’s words changing the subject, Esika inwardly flinched.
She was reminded of the word ‘Hasetz’ that was in the note he had sent.
Hasetz was an area notorious for smuggling even in Priehatz, and Esika had visited there with her brothers when she was young.
But there was no need to show that she had seen the hidden letters in that note.
“……Yes.”
When Esika answered in a calm tone, Resban’s gaze deepened.
Esika’s eyes did not avoid his.
Though she couldn’t understand Resban’s intentions, she silently looked at him.
After a moment, Resban’s lips moved.
“The currents are strong beneath the calm surface of the water. It seems House Klaus is like that too.”
Esika replied as if not particularly concerned.
“Everything in the world has different outsides and insides, how could this place be any different?”
“That’s too bad. Even Duke Klaus is not on your side.”
It was a blatantly piercing remark, without any trace of sympathy.
Resban, who had spoken as if teasing, continued with a snicker.
“Ah. It’s polite not to pretend to know about other people’s affairs, but I’m a man who’s forgotten manners after years on the battlefield, so understand.”
Esika knew that he was not like that.
Resban was neither ignorant of manners nor did he act according to his emotions and feelings.
Rather, he was a schemer who could see ten steps ahead while taking one step.
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be so difficult and troublesome for her, who easily reads people, to deal with Resban.
“……”
Resban leaned his upper body slightly to meet Esika’s eyes.
And in a low voice, he whispered:
“If someone like me, with blood-stained hands, reached out to help, would you be terrified and run away?”
Esika suddenly felt a chill down her spine at the golden eyes filled with a subtle madness.
It was a voice that felt like a sticky pressure.
An ordinary woman would be frightened just by encountering such a gaze.
But Esika was different.
“My affairs……”
Esika opened her lips.
Somehow, it felt more difficult than usual to make her voice heard.
“……I can handle them myself.”
At Esika’s words, Resban’s eyebrows twitched.
Esika continued speaking with a calm face.
“I appreciate Your Highness’s concern, but I’m not so foolish that I can’t pave my own way forward.”
Of course, Esika did not trust Resban.
Resban’s true intentions were unknowable. She couldn’t gauge what his interest in her was based on, or how dangerous it might be.
A faint smile crossed Resban’s lips at her face that smiled without revealing her inner thoughts.
“As expected…… you’re interesting.”
Shortly after, Callian entered the reception room.
Unlike when he had questioned Esika earlier with sharp eyes, his face was now hardened.
“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, Your Highness.”
Resban spoke to Callian with a calm gaze.
“How is the Grand Madam?”
“……She’s recovering.”
Callian’s eyes could be seen wavering at Resban’s question.
Esika could glimpse the confusion and doubt that remained in those eyes.
Resban shifted his gaze to Esika and said:
“Your wife has responded satisfactorily, so it wasn’t boring.”
Esika, who hadn’t expected those words, twitched her hand.
Callian slowly looked at Esika.
However, Esika, who hadn’t met Callian’s eyes even once, lightly bowed her head to Resban in greeting before leaving the reception room.
**
After leaving the reception room, Esika walked down the hallway.
The maids who had been wandering about stopped, and the whispering servants closed their mouths.
Everyone knew about what had happened today.
The incident where Riona tried to pin allergy-inducing accusations on Esika and failed.
And that the duke’s mood was quite displeased.
Sella, who was following behind her, had her nose held high as high as it could go.
“……”
Maids who had never greeted Esika before in their lives bowed their heads.
This atmosphere quickly spread to all the employees in the mansion.
Those who had worked under others all their lives were quick to read the atmosphere.
Who holds the power, who is second-in-command, who is being ignored by the other family members.
They quickly calculate how to treat their superiors based on such information.
The mistreatment of Esika was blatantly encouraged by the Grand Madam.
But today, the Grand Madam had tried to fake an allergy and ended up being carried away.
The duchess who had won the war against her had even briefly entertained Resban Deon Lucein, the empire’s crown prince.
“You were really amazing today……”
Sella, who had entered the room, chattered excitedly to Esika with sparkling eyes.
“I don’t know how everything happens just as you say. It’s so amazing.”
Esika had known that the Grand Madam would try to frame her at the tea time.
She had shamelessly ordered peanut cookies to be made through the head maid Yuri.
If Esika hadn’t taken precautions in advance, she would have been framed.
Callian, who had deep sympathy for his mother, would have been angry at Esika.
“I’m a bit tired today.”
Esika furrowed her brows and looked out the window.
Despite it being a successful day, her heart was pounding at an uneasy pace.
Unlike the sunless back room, the beautiful garden could be seen at a glance.
Her eyes caught sight of Resban, with Callian beside him seeing him off.
Now that the sun was high in the sky, Resban’s shadow was short, but it felt as if an invisible shadow was reaching all the way here.
As she tried to take her eyes off him, Resban suddenly raised his head and looked at Esika.
Her heart pounded again at that intense gaze.
She lowered the curtain, but the smile that had played on his lips suddenly remained like an afterimage.
When scheming men desperately battle for her favor in the male harem
This one’s also on my reread list! The rivalry, scheming between the men in the imperial harem are just as intense and thrilling as in classic palace drama novels, where concubines fight to the death. Give it a read, girls! I promise you won’t be disappointed.
Synopsis:
“I am not worthy of her… but I still want to be by her side, even if only as a loyal dog…”
Those were the painful whispers of Yue Guanyi – the proud Crown Prince of the Great Qi, who was torn between deep love and a guilty conscience. Despite holding the supreme power of the Imperial Guard, he still could not forget the dark past when he was sold into a brothel.
Fate played a cruel twist when Qiu Shuzhi – a young female official who had just passed the imperial examinations with top honors – stepped into his life. She did not know that she was the one who had saved him from a tragic fate many years ago. And now, her heart was the target of pursuit for both Yue Guanyi and the powerful Empress Dowager Qin Qing.
While Yue Guanyi only dared to silently care for and protect the one he loved from afar, the Empress Dowager Qin Qing openly expressed his feelings and did not hesitate to take advantage of his power to approach Qiu Shuzhi. The covert struggle between the two most powerful forces in the imperial court began…
Trigger warning: All men in this novel are yandere style.
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