Chapter 46

Briseyes was a cautious person. Though she hadn’t been that way with Callisten recently, perhaps because of her illness.

That was her true nature.

“I’m afraid I can’t sell it to you, Mother.”

“What? Why!”

“I’ll discuss it with Demian.”

“Wait!”

Abenr shouted as Briseyes tried to leave. But Briseyes ignored her words and left. The knights standing nearby might treat Memphis harshly, but they couldn’t behave that way toward Briseyes, the mistress of this mansion.

“Get Demian’s permission first.”

“I am that child’s mother!”

“But the money you want to spend is the Mays Grand Duke family’s assets. And those assets were increased by me.”

“Are you showing off again just because you made some money!”

Briseyes kept her mouth shut at those words.

There was no point in talking to someone who would only dig themselves deeper. It would only harm herself.

“I’ve told you. Let’s ask Demian. If Demian permits it, I’ll do as you wish.”

“Huh! What an impudent woman!”

“Mother, you are a woman too. Let’s use more refined words.”

“You, you…!”

Briseyes spoke coldly and turned around to leave.

She knew this would make the matriarch act more frantically. That way she would rush into things without thinking.

Briseyes had grown her trading company and increased the Mays Grand Duke family’s insufficient wealth like a snowball partly because of her exceptional negotiation skills.

—Click.

After closing the door, Callisten was waiting for her.

“What kind of dog are you?”

“I was waiting for my owner. You hate dogs, right? I’m a cat.”

“I used that comparison because I hate it. And I don’t hate dogs. I hate it when people act like dogs.”

At her words, he smiled ecstatically, raising the corner of his mouth.

“Meow.”

“Stop it, please.”

She said this and quickly turned to move away, with Callisten following her.

“Why? You said you like cat sounds.”

“Aren’t you embarrassed? What would the corridor knights think if they saw you like this?”

“A Crown Prince who makes good cat sounds?”

“You should stop talking.”

Even as she said this, she was confirming again that he indeed made quite good cat sounds. Then their eyes met.

“Meow?”

“I told you… to stop.”

Strangely, when their eyes met, his behavior didn’t bother her. Yet just a few days ago, she hadn’t wanted to hear it at all.

“Bri, I want to see the glass greenhouse.”

“Go see it. You have plenty of time, right? I’m going to study.”

“Ah, right. Let’s study. I’ll help you.”

Briseyes sighed, and he naturally headed toward her room with her.

“Where are you two going?”

“I’m going to help Bri study.”

“I’ll help too.”

“What rank was the Grand Duke at the Academy?”

Callisten asked mockingly.

“7th.”

“What can a 7th-ranked person teach the 1st-ranked?”

“Your Highness……”

Demian didn’t know Callisten’s rank. But he closed his mouth when he remembered the widely known secret about Callisten’s entrance exam score.

Just like Briseyes, he had entered with a perfect score on the entrance exam.

“Nothing to say? Then just Bri and I……”

“Let’s do it with the three of us, Demi.”

Briseyes interrupted Callisten. She didn’t trust herself to be alone in a room with Callisten.

“Let’s bring Dili too.”

“Do you think this is inside the Academy, Grand Duke?”

When Callisten asked irritably, Demian slightly frowned before relaxing his expression.

“I misspoke. It would be good for the three of us to do it.”

“It should be two. Me and Bri. And the Grand Duke and the courtesan.”

When Callisten mocked him, Demian looked at Briseyes.

“Stop it. Did you come here to pick fights?”

“I came because I wanted to see you, but there’s a lot to argue about. You must be very understanding, Bri. You tolerate so much that it makes others unable to stand it?”

At his words, Briseyes shook her head and entered the room first.

⁕⁕⁕

In the end, the three of them studied in Briseyes’s room. They sat at a round table studying.

They were reviewing the last class with open books, and Callisten had brought a different colored fountain pen to mark Briseyes’s book as he spoke.

“This will probably be on the midterm exam.”

“Ah, this part does seem likely.”

Briseyes looked at the place he had circled.

“You should also look at the dialectic for this.”

“But why don’t you have any formulas? Did you just copy the answers?”

“No? I did it mentally.”

Briseyes clenched her mouth shut in irritation at his words. She had to write several lines of formulas and calculations to reach the answer.

“Is that even possible?”

Demian also asked as if annoyed by this.

“Why can’t this be done mentally?”

“How can this be done mentally?”

“If Bri says it can’t be done, I’ll say it can’t be done. But when I look at this, it just comes to me.”

He looked down at the formula and spoke. Then he smiled as if he had already found the answer to the next problem.

“Try doing this one mentally.”

Briseyes was quite familiar with this situation, but the problem he pointed to this time was a difficult one.

He looked at it indifferently and said:

“The answer to this is 1.”

“You’re really annoying.”

Briseyes turned to the next page to check the answer and sincerely said so.

“And I really like Bri.”

Callisten said this while drawing a heart on her notebook. Demian narrowed his brow watching their interaction.

“Bri is my wife. Even if you grew up like siblings, please maintain boundaries.”

“You talk about boundaries while bringing a mistress to live with you?”

“Do you know how common mistresses are among nobles?”

“Dirty things are always easy and common. That’s why being virtuous is more difficult.”

Callisten glared at Demian and spoke provocatively.

“Why can you have a mistress, but Bri can’t? Isn’t that nonsense?”

“Are you saying you want to be my wife’s lover?”

“Is there any reason I can’t be?”

“Stop talking nonsense. I don’t have the slightest intention of accepting you as my lover.”

“That’s harsh.”

As their conversation became concerning, Briseyes answered instead.

“I, I hate people like you who are tactless and say whatever they want. And don’t treat my husband like that.”

However, Callisten wasn’t hurt by her words. He was watching her expression and knew that even this didn’t carry much meaning.

“I just……”

She found it difficult to say harsh words as Callisten smiled with a strange expression. Usually, it would have been easy to push him away.

“I don’t want Demian to feel what I’m feeling.”

Demian was the most surprised by those words.

He had overlooked how he had brought a mistress and hurt Briseyes.

He looked at Briseyes as if moved by her words, and Briseyes glanced at Demian before giving a bitter smile and looking at her book.

“If you insult my husband any further, I’ll ask you to leave.”

“I’ll be careful.”

“Apologize to Demian too.”

“I apologize, Duke. I was just saying how precious Bri is to me.”

“I understand. I also know that Your Highness prefers men.”

Demian spoke about the rumor he had heard before after listening to Briseyes’s words. Of course, it was a false rumor.

“What? Me?”

“Yes. Aren’t you someone who hates women so much that you wear a chastity belt?”

“My goodness. Me?”

“Yes.”

Callisten wanted to refute this, but Briseyes was looking at him as if telling him not to say more.

“Alright… keep it a secret. But do I look like I prefer men?”

“Yes.”

Callisten looked at Briseyes as if shocked, but she was now looking at her book as if no longer interested in his words.

Meanwhile, Demian felt quite pleased, as if he had won by mentioning something that shouldn’t be revealed about Callisten.

“But if you succeed to the throne, you’ll need to have children.”

“…My successor to the throne could be a child born from Bri.”

Callisten spoke with a weak smile, perhaps shocked by what he had heard. Demian became convinced that this was why Callisten could be closely connected to the Grand Duke’s family and the Philia Marquis family.

He was certain that this was why they hadn’t engaged Callisten, who was the First Prince, to Briseyes when they were children at the Philia Marquis house.

Though that wasn’t the real reason at all.

Thanks to Callisten being at a loss for words, their studying progressed smoothly.

“I’ll go to the bathroom for a moment.”

“You don’t need to report such things, Grand Duke.”

Callisten spoke with a gloomy expression as Demian stood up to go to the bathroom. As Demian left his seat, intoxicated with a sense of victory, Callisten glared at him.

Soon the door closed.

Callisten sighed as he leaned on Briseyes’s shoulder. She pushed his head away with her finger and spoke.

“Preferring men?”

“Don’t say such horrible things.”

He answered as if appalled. The fact that he wore a chastity belt for her sake once again made her chest feel tight.

“Should I prove to you that I don’t prefer men?”

“How?”

“Let’s kiss. If I kiss you and stand, it would definitely prove I don’t prefer men.”

He held her chin and gazed at her intently.

“If that’s the proof, then forget it.”

“Mine doesn’t stand for anyone but you.”

His words made her feel ashamed as she recalled the outrageous things he had done in her bedroom. Just as she grabbed his hand that was holding her chin and tried to push it away—

—Click.

“Bri, I think there’s something wrong with the water supply here.”

Demian returned silently and opened the door.