Don’t Ask, It’ll Hurt If You Know - Chapter 69

“Taking it out on you?”

Antonio laughed like someone who had heard an amusing joke and tilted his head slightly.

“When did I ever take it out on you?”

“Are you saying that is not the case?”

“It is not.”

While Antonio spoke firmly that he had never taken it out on him, he did not deny the part about disliking him.

“The reason I went to visit Miss Chloe Elena was purely because I was worried about her. You must know, don’t you? That I have a profound interest in her. I even have intentions of making her the Crown Princess.”

At the following answer, Ian’s pupils wavered, but only for a moment. Having regained his composure soon after, he merely gazed at the Crown Prince indifferently, showing no other emotion.

That fact pricked Antonio’s pride incessantly. It felt as though it was saying that no matter what he did, he would never be able to bring him down.

‘This son of a b***h has always been like this.’

No matter how much Antonio struck or scratched at him, Ian MacMilden didn’t even blink. Rather, since he looked at him as if he were pathetic, it was Antonio’s pride that got hurt the more he attacked.

As the wounds deepened, his desire to see his damn cousin groveling flat at his feet and pleading grew stronger.

He would do anything if he could only see that. Even if it meant selling his soul to the devil. Looking at the cousin he detested so terribly, Antonio’s eyes glinted sharply.

“About Miss Chloe Elena.”

Chloe Elena. She was the only being capable of drawing a reaction out of the indifferent Ian MacMilden, to the point where one wondered if emotions even existed in him. Even now, as soon as her name was mentioned, a minute crack appeared on his cold face.

“I was worried because I heard her condition was poor enough that she spent most of the day sleeping, but she was overflowing with energy to the point of making those worries feel pointless. Her complexion looked fine, as well.”

As the crack deepened, a smile spread across Antonio’s face.

“Contrary to the concerns of His Majesty the Emperor and others, she seemed healthy, so I took the opportunity to bring up the matter of the Crown Princess. And then, she showed interest. Well, it is a position that could make one the First Lady of the Empire, so naturally…….”

“……Haha.”

A sudden burst of laughter cut Antonio off. He thought Ian had lost his mind from a great shock, but the laughter was too cheerful for that. The sight of him laughing as if truly amused was unfamiliar yet unpleasant, causing Antonio to frown deeply.

“Why are you laughing?”

“My apologies.”

After erasing all traces of laughter from his face along with a brief apology that lacked even a shred of sincerity, Ian nodded with an indifferent expression.

“I see.”

Could it be that he noticed it was a lie?

Even so, laughing like that made no sense. Since this was clearly an act of looking down on him, Antonio glared at Ian with piercing eyes.

“It seems you do not believe my words.”

The reason he asked a question about a fact he already knew was because he wanted to hear an answer saying he believed him. If he answered like that even if it were a lie, it would mean he was being mindful of Antonio. Antonio wanted to restore his damaged pride even in this way.

“Yes, I do not believe you.”

But as always, his damn cousin did not move as he wished. Rather than being restored, his pride was crushed once again, and rage surged up as much as his pride cried out in pain.

“You must always be wary of Ian MacMilden, Crown Prince. The moment you let your guard down, he will try to take away everything you have. So, be cautious of Ian MacMilden at all times, whether awake or asleep, and strive to become a more outstanding and excellent person than him. That is the only way to protect what you have.”

When even the words his mother, the Empress, had frequently said until her mouth ran dry from a time so young he could hardly form memories resurfaced, Antonio found him even more detestable.

“Why? Do you dare to doubt me?”

“It is not so much that I doubt Your Royal Highness, but rather that I believe she would never have done such a thing.”

Even at the razor-sharp question, Ian replied calmly in a voice with almost no intonation.

“Because the Chloe Elena I know is not someone who would have an interest in the position of Crown Princess.”

Antonio scoffed at the remark that he believed the words of a mere noble lady more than him, the Crown Prince. Although it was annoying, the reason he could dismiss it relatively easily was that he had definitive evidence to refute his claim.

“Can you still say such a thing after seeing this?”

The Crown Prince held out a paper to Ian. On the paper was written the content of Chloe’s promise to participate in the Crown Princess selection exam. At the very bottom, the seals of the Crown Prince and Chloe Elena were stamped respectively.

Of course, there were two sheets, and on the other sheet, the condition ‘upon the fulfillment of Chloe’s request’ was written, but he did not show that one.

Ian, who had no way of knowing that fact, had pupils that wavered more violently than ever before.

He had obtained it in writing just in case, and to think it would be used like this. The smile blooming at the corners of Antonio’s mouth deepened.

“You said you were long-time friends, but it seems you still do not know each other well.”

Antonio murmured as if truly pitying him and took out a cigar. He offered one to Ian as well, but there was no answer. He merely stared at the paper as if it were coated in honey. Smoking the cigar while watching that sight felt very sweet.

Around the time the Crown Prince had smoked half of the cigar, Ian asked.

“……Did you threaten her?”

“No way. As you will find out if you ask her later, I have never threatened Miss Elena. This was written purely of her own will.”

“That cannot be.”

When Ian firmly denied it, saying it was absolutely not true, Antonio smirked and stubbed out the cigar in the ashtray.

“Well, whether you believe it or not is your freedom, but…… doubting me is a bit unpleasant.”

At the warning that he would not be forgiven if he overstepped any further, Ian had no choice but to remain silent. Because he was the Crown Prince. He was an opponent one dared not challenge.

Even so, he had no intention of letting this slide. How could he just let it go when he had touched the woman he loved, of all people?

“His Majesty the Emperor suggested how I would feel about joining the Emperor’s Direct Knights rather than the Imperial Knights.”

As the Emperor’s Direct Knights were a position that guarded and assisted the Emperor at the closest distance, one would receive the full trust of the Emperor and, of course, grasp powerful authority.

Not only that. It didn’t matter even if one did not listen to anyone else’s orders besides the Emperor.

In other words, if Ian became an Emperor’s Direct Knight, it meant Antonio would no longer be able to suppress him using his status as the Crown Prince as he did now.

“I hadn’t been able to make a decision on what to do, but because of our current conversation, I have made up my mind to do it.”

It was terrible enough just hearing him say that, but the tone that seemed to sarcastically imply that everything was his own doing grated on Antonio’s nerves. As even his subsided rage flared up, Antonio’s face contorted hideously.

As expected, I should have dealt with this bastard for good back then.

Antonio deeply regretted having been cautious, since getting caught in any mistake would have resulted in something like a mutual suicide with Ian. Because of that, the plan he had ambitiously prepared had come to naught.

Perhaps choosing such a woman as a chess piece had been a mistake from the start.

He had no intention of giving up just because one thing had failed. If he were going to give up over just this much, he would have quit a long time ago. As long as one of the two didn’t disappear forever, this fight would never end.

“I like Ian.”

That was why he had gone to meet Chloe Elena, Ian MacMilden’s only weakness, in person. Also, to check if his expectations were correct.

It would be easy to make Ian MacMilden yield if he only held that woman in his hands, but the problem was that even that was not easy.

Antonio couldn’t understand Chloe at all for choosing this bastard over him even though he had pushed the position of Crown Princess toward her.

Could it be that this bastard told her to do so? Thinking that since he would take the throne anyway, there was no need to listen to the Crown Prince’s proposal…….

Emotions like doubt, anxiety, and worry, tangled like residue from a sewer, transformed into rage toward Ian MacMilden.

Grind. Antonio glared at his cousin, clenching his teeth hard enough to grind them.

It was a murderous and bone-chilling gaze that would have stabbed someone hundreds of times if it were possible to do so with a look, but Ian was not shaken in the slightest. He checked the time with his pocket watch, adjusted his disheveled collar, and stood up.

“If you have nothing more to say, I shall take my leave now.”

“Where do you think you’re going……!”

“I am going to give my answer to His Majesty the Emperor that I accept the proposal for the Emperor’s Direct Knights.”

At the answer that seemed to ask why he was asking something so obvious, Antonio’s hand, which was about to grab him, stopped in mid-air. His fingertips, permeated with rage, trembled violently.

“May eternal glory always be with the Little Sun of the Empire.”

As if he didn’t care about the Crown Prince’s rage in the slightest, Ian gave a perfectly polite greeting and left the drawing room.