Chapter 21
By the time Lucy finally cast her shadow over them, the woman noticed her and furrowed her elegant brow.
But the woman, who’d been about to snap something, soon let out a short shriek. The rose bouquet had come lashing down across her seductive face like a whip.
“Kyaak!”
It wasn’t only her. Lucy lashed out wildly with the bouquet, making no distinction between the woman and Laegar.
“What is this! You never showed up the whole time!”
Flushed with fury, Lucy’s face looked considerably fiercer than usual. The voice she shouted in wasn’t bright, as usual, but sharp.
“What are you doing with another woman right now? Have you been sitting here with her this whole time?”
“Kyak!”
Soon soldiers burst in, and the hall instantly became chaos. Yet even as they circled Lucy, they could not bring themselves to lay a hand on her.
Because they had received Laegar’s silent cue.
Thanks to that, the woman who’d been assaulted with the rose bouquet scrambled up and fled, and the hesitating soldiers had no choice but to carry out the order to close the chamber curtains and withdraw.
Immediately after, the orchestra’s music in the hall swelled as if to scatter the gathered attention.
The nobles, who had briefly sparkled with hope of glimpsing even the hem of the Great Emperor’s garment, sank back into the hazy, debauched revelry.
Of course, they too had witnessed Laegar being soundly thrashed by a lowly woman’s bouquet whip, but swept up in deep intoxication and the lewd atmosphere, they forgot.
The temperament of the Belluk people was partly to blame. They only delighted in things cruel, dissolute, and obscene.
Meanwhile, inside the inner chamber shrouded by crimson damask curtains, the reckless assault continued.
To Laegar, of course, it was a moment of blood-boiling satisfaction.
“You’re truly awful!”
Simple-hearted Lucy didn’t hide her emotions.
“I waited the whole time!”
Laegar, too, didn’t grab her wrist or try to stop her. He simply took every trivial blow and kept his gaze fixed on Lucy.
That made her feel even worse, so Lucy swung the bouquet whip relentlessly.
‘Not even a single word of excuse.’
“Awful, awful! You philanderer! With another woman…!”
Alfredo, who had been agonizing over whether Lucy’s neck was about to fly off, eventually transformed into a crow and fled to the window. He feared the sparks might catch him, too.
If the Great Emperor let even a trickle of his wrathful demonic power slip, someone like him would simply have his innards burst.
But Laegar showed no particular reaction. He only let the scratches from the rose thorns keep blooming across his broad chest, bared through his shirt.
Lucy was so furious that the lower lip she’d bitten down on had gone pale.
Seeing Laegar’s still-tranquil gaze and strangely curved eyes, her blood boiled even hotter.
Even if she were to be executed on the spot, Lucy couldn’t contain her rage, so she raised her hand high.
But the moment the bouquet lashed down, Lucy’s body floated up into the air with a whoosh.
Laegar, who had silently taken the rose whip the entire time, had risen from his seat, holding her.
Lucy thrashed, but she had no strength to break free from his grip.
So she could only scream out her spite.
“Why, why won’t you say anything? You have no excuse at all, do you? Then we’re finished now!”
Laegar calmly strode across the hall holding her, and the nobles, at last beholding the emperor said to be as beautiful as a demon from up close, fell to their knees in fluster.
“Great wings of darkness, the northern subjects behold your noble visage.”
But Laegar, exiting the hall, didn’t spare them a single glance.
Inside his arms, Lucy, acting out wildly, was shrieking in a ringing voice.
The rose bouquet still in her hand kept smacking against his neck and chest.
Then, just as they reached the quiet corridor leading to the bedchamber, something like a white light suddenly flickered out from Lucy as she thrashed to escape his hold.
Only then did she stop her rampage, her eyes rounding. Laegar’s quiet gaze, too, wavered slightly.
“Wh-What is this…? That thing that just came out of me….”
Laegar, who had tilted his head slightly to evade Lucy’s demonic power, furrowed his brow and seemed lost in thought for a moment, then resumed walking.
But she had already thrown the roses aside and was examining her own two hands, asking again.
“Do you know what that was just now, huh?”
At that, Laegar, seeming slightly agitated, changed the subject without any context.
“That woman earlier. She climbed onto me and sat without permission.”
Simple Lucy’s train of thought promptly tilted back in that direction. Instantly her face reddened and she grew angry again.
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