No Entry Except for the Master - Chapter 58

If only she hadn’t loved Teia, perhaps the two of them might have made decent partners, gaining mutual benefit.

But Eris had harbored unrequited feelings for Teia for a long time, and it was only natural that she would want that love to be returned.

Eris had done her best alone, but all she ever received in return was Teia’s characteristic, mildly kind, and courteous responses.
It was a hellish ordeal where she couldn’t even complain to anyone, and her heart was the only one burning.

Though she had a vague idea of Ludvio’s intentions when he approached her, she didn’t go along with him because she had fallen madly in love.

She simply wished Teia would feel a tinge of jealousy.
She wanted to show that she, too, was worthy of love—that she, too, could be cherished.

But even that choice was turning out to be a failure.

Ludvio, who had once poured all his passion into her, stopped being affectionate once he realized that Eris’s presence did little to provoke Teia.

Since their relationship had always been one of mutual exploitation, Eris didn’t blame Ludvio. After all, he was the Crown Prince.

So long as he didn’t let his emotions get the better of him, like Teia had, and simply held his position, Eris believed that the title of Empress would still be hers someday.

Dreaming of that future, she did her best to endure Ludvio’s temperament.

“Wait—! I said no! You need to come to your senses first!”
“You just say no? What, you still haven’t gotten over him, is that it?”

But even that patience had finally run out.

When Ludvio said he would visit for the first time in a long while, Eris had dressed herself up nicely and waited.

But he arrived in a disheveled state, reeking of some foul stench that made her want to gag, and without a word tried to embrace her.

Even when she kindly suggested he take a bath and talk afterward, he lunged at her without hesitation. And when she rejected him, he shouted and flew into a rage.

Between the rotting corpse smell and the madness glinting in his eyes, Ludvio was clearly not in his right mind.

On the rare days he wasn’t angry, he looked like a man whose soul had left his body.

Eris could tolerate a lot—but the day he tried to strike her while shouting Teia’s name after she refused him, that was the moment Eris realized the Crown Prince was no longer the man he used to be.

“I’m going to go see His Grace the Grand Duke.”
“What? Milady, what are you planning to do?”
“I need to meet him and talk to him. This could be a mutually beneficial deal for the Grand Duke as well.”

In the end, Eris made up her mind to visit Teia with a warning and information: that the Crown Prince had been behaving erratically lately.

After all, if he was a man incapable of loving anyone, then surely he wouldn’t love another woman either. Though the lingering hope born from the wounds of her long unrequited love still remained, Eris was now truly ready to settle for a hollow title.

She had confidently gone to the duchy to meet Teia, but the problem was—Teia refused to see her.

She had expected she might not have the freedom to come and go as she once had, but she hadn’t expected to be rejected at the gates.

Eris was stunned.

Is he still bitter over the broken engagement?

Her pride was wounded, but it was true that she had betrayed Teia first. If he was hurt by that, then it was something she had to bear.
Trying to rationalize it—telling herself he was just hurt—Eris visited the estate several times.

“His Grace has given permission for you to wait in the garden. However, he also says he will not be coming to meet you. The choice is yours—what would you like to do?”
“Very well. I’ll wait inside.”

Responding with dignity to the servant’s thinly veiled discomfort, Eris gracefully took her seat at the table in the garden, as she was shown.