Chapter 14

“What?”

“In my marriage contract with Demian, the first clause was that he would not take a lover.”

Briseyes spoke dryly as she entered through the door. Then she looked at her mother-in-law, who was half a span shorter than her, and said:

“Demian is the one who violated that clause.”

“Hah! Do you know how divorced women live? They all have to shave their heads and go live in widows’ villages!”

“That’s already an obsolete custom, Mother.”

Although it had been abolished recently, originally common women who became widows or were divorced had to cut their hair and live in the mountains. If not that, they had to go to widows’ villages and live miserable lives.

However, such things no longer happened.

Because even the Emperor was free to remarry and had taken lovers.

“Hah! Do you think you’ll be any different? Our Demi married someone like you only because he momentarily lowered his standards. Normally, you wouldn’t have even caught his eye!”

“That’s what I should be saying. I must have been out of my mind. Marrying Demian, of all people.”

Briseyes’s voice trembled with misery even as she spoke.

Until before her marriage, she had thought no man was as perfect as Demian. He was a considerate person who prioritized and understood her in every aspect.

She had never even dreamed that he would meet another woman besides her.

He truly was a perfect person.

So in a way, when Delilah hadn’t appeared, she understood why he was the male protagonist. She also understood why the Grand Duke, not the Crown Prince Callisten, received the female protagonist’s choice.

She had thought it was natural.

‘I like that Bri is wise.’

He had been someone who respected her, saying such things.

But Demian had changed after returning from earning military merits. In fact, it was Briseyes who had loved him, persuaded her family, paid off his debts, and used her dowry to clear the Grand Duke’s family debts.

“Are you done talking?”

“Do I seem done? I have a lot more to say.”

—Slap!

At that moment, the matriarch struck Briseyes’s cheek. Briseyes seemed weaker than usual, perhaps because her body was covered in bruises.

—Slap! Thud!

Briseyes, who had barely endured the first blow, collapsed to the floor under the successive strikes.

“How dare you speak to your mother-in-law like this!”

—Slap!

“Stop it!”

Ella, who had rushed over after hearing the commotion, gasped and embraced Briseyes’s body. As a result, Ella was struck in the face instead.

“Get out of the way! How dare a mere maid!”

At that moment, Briseyes regained her senses and stood up.

—Slap!

“You crazy bitch!”

Briseyes slapped the Mays matriarch’s cheek and glared at her.

“You’re the crazy one, Mother. How dare you hit someone?”

“This girl, even so!”

At that moment, Briseyes’s red hair was grabbed by the matriarch’s tenacious hand and shaken back and forth.

“Stop this! Let go! Don’t do this to the matriarch!”

Ella cried out, trying to pull the matriarch away from Briseyes.

“Kyaa!”

But the matriarch shook Briseyes so violently that when she pushed, both Briseyes and Ella fell to the floor together.

Ella, who tightly embraced Briseyes, used all her strength to prevent the matriarch from hitting Briseyes again. Eventually, the matriarch huffed and raised her hand again.

“How dare you lay a hand on my face?”

“Would you prefer I use my foot?”

The voice came from the doorway.

“Y-Your Highness the Crown Prince!”

“What am I seeing right now?”

“Your Highness! This is because our daughter-in-law was being disrespectful to me…!”

“Does disrespect justify raising your hand?”

Callisten was smiling. However, Briseyes knew he wasn’t really smiling.

“Then how should I repay the disrespect of looking directly at my face? Should I gouge out eyes? Cut off arms? Who dared to say it’s acceptable to look directly at an imperial family member’s face?”

“I-I apologize!”

The Mays matriarch quickly bowed her head. Callisten clenched his fist and said:

“Disappear from my sight immediately. Otherwise, I’ll wring your neck.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

The matriarch had more to say, but thinking the situation unfavorable, she disappeared to her room as if fleeing.

“Sob… Your Highness…”

Ella called out to Callisten while sobbing. She still couldn’t release her grip on Briseyes, as if she wasn’t yet reassured.

“You should have called me sooner. I almost went to the imperial palace.”

Callisten had been on his way back after receiving an urgent message from his aide.

“I-I called as quickly as possible…! As soon as I received word that you were coming today, I sent a letter to the imperial palace!”

From the conversation between Ella and Callisten, Briseyes realized that he had come thanks to Ella.

“Step aside for now. Let me check her condition.”

At those words, Ella slowly released Briseyes. Briseyes felt somehow ashamed.

‘You’ll regret it if you marry him, Bri.’

‘I won’t regret it.’

‘The Grand Duke doesn’t love you. He just needs the Marquis Philia family’s money.’

‘Still, I believe in Demian.’

She recalled the words she had promised to Callisten before her marriage, without any shame.

Her swollen cheeks hurt, but her heart felt colder, perhaps due to the shame.

“What should I do? I’m so angry.”

When Callisten saw Briseyes’s cheeks swollen from being hit, he was trembling and smiling like someone truly enraged.

“It’s not your business.”

“You’re so calm even in this situation. I can’t be like that.”

Even as Briseyes said this, she tightly gripped Callisten’s sleeve.

“It’s strange. If she had hit me instead, I don’t think I would be this angry.”

“Don’t lie. You would have been angry no matter who got hit.”

Briseyes struggled to say this despite not having calmed down. She still felt ashamed but couldn’t let go of his hand.

“Sob… Waaah…!”

As if knowing that she was pretending to be fine, Ella began to sob and cry.

“I’m not okay! Our Miss was hit…!”

She should have called her Madam, but having followed her since childhood and called her Miss, Ella unconsciously reverted to the old title when she became emotionally agitated.

“Huff.”

Callisten took a small deep breath and helped Briseyes up by her hand.

“Let’s go to your room. May I carry you?”

“I’ll walk.”

“Please carry our Miss!”

Ella shouted while holding her breath to stop hiccupping.

“Yes, that would be better.”

“I hate that! I’m not five years old… Kyaa!”

When Briseyes tried to resist being carried, Callisten hoisted her up and moved.

“Was your room on the third floor?”

“Yes!”

“Put me down! What are you doing!”

“Transporting a patient.”

When Briseyes struggled, Callisten tightened his arms and continued to her room. He didn’t seem to find her heavy at all as he carried her all the way to her room.

Upon entering the room, he looked around familiarly and brought out a first aid kit.

“Ella, bring some ice wrapped in cloth.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

So only the two of them remained in the room.

“I’m married. Being alone in a room with a married woman isn’t good for you. Whatever rumors might spread… Ow!”

Callisten pressed Briseyes’s cheek firmly, as if he didn’t like what she was saying.

“Are your ears okay? No ringing?”

“…Yes.”

Only then did his expression soften, as if he had calmed down a bit. His eyes were already so red that when even his eyelids reddened, it was an expression she had never seen before.

“Why do you just take the hits?”

“I didn’t just take them. I fought back, but I was physically outmatched.”

Briseyes answered honestly. The matriarch definitely had a good physique. She was half a span shorter than Bri but much more robust.

“You said you wrote to Attorney Jeronis’s office.”

“How do you know that?”

“I know everything about you.”

Briseyes instantly came to her senses. The conqueror in front of her, who pretended to be a herbivore now but would lose interest the moment he got what he wanted, was not someone she could rely on.

“You’re trying to divorce, right?”

She didn’t answer and lowered her gaze.

“If you want to divorce, I’ll help you.”

“You didn’t say anything unnecessary to Brother Mihail, did you?”

“I didn’t.”

Briseyes was reminded that none of the people in the Marquis Philia family were on her side. And those people from the Marquis Philia family were people who really liked Callisten.

If Callisten truly declared his intention to become Emperor, they might abandon their pretense of neutrality and completely turn to the Crown Prince’s side.

“If my brothers find out, they won’t help me. I need to stay in the Grand Duke’s household to be of help to you….”

“I don’t need the Grand Duke’s help. It will be difficult for me not to annihilate the Grand Duke’s family before I become Emperor.”

He growled lowly and looked directly at Briseyes.

But Briseyes knew well that his sadness wasn’t because she was his childhood friend, but because something he wanted to possess had been damaged by someone else.

That was the kind of person Callisten was.

‘Why did you break all my toys?’

‘So you would play with me.’

Recalling their childhood conversation, Briseyes was desperately trying to return to rationality.

“Just treat me.”

She said this, regaining her composure.

He sighed and said to her:

“You probably have teeth marks inside your cheek.”

Briseyes suddenly felt the taste of blood in her mouth.

“Huh?”

He seemed to be trying to look inside by pressing her chin and making her open her mouth.

“Open wider. I need to see how swollen it is inside.”