Chapter 16

“You’re in this situation and you’re……”

“Yes, hurry up.”

“Closing your eyes so defenseless.”

Briseyes didn’t feel threatened by him at all in that way, perhaps because he was wearing a chastity belt. She also thought there wasn’t much he could do anyway.

He doesn’t even know where the key to the chastity belt is.

Only she knew.

Briseyes suddenly became conscious of whether the key was still safely in the first drawer of the bedside table and gently opened her eyes.

“I can’t have s*x, but I can do other things.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean like a beast.”

Even as he said this, he was pale, perhaps because his blood wasn’t circulating properly.

Then he held his breath to calm down. After staying silent for about 1-2 minutes, he reopened the round ointment container, coated his fingers with ointment again, and looked at her.

Briseyes didn’t close her eyes. However, his lower body was too noticeable to keep her gaze down.

Then she looked at the drawer where the key would be.

Soon, thinking she might be caught if she kept looking there, she looked straight ahead, only to find Callisten staring at her with a terrifying expression.

“Are you going to eat me?”

“Don’t move your mouth. I need to apply this.”

He spoke while repeatedly holding his breath, and soon his fingertips touched her lips again. The ticklish sensation made her moan.

“Damn it.”

He trembled as he rested his head on her shoulder.

“It’s in the first drawer beside the bed. Take it out yourself and leave.”

She tried to get up from the bed, pushing his head away with her hand.

“You put it in the bedside drawer?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

She sighed when she saw him trembling in pain yet somehow smiling as if pleased.

“Don’t go. I’ll leave instead.”

He said this and struggled to get up first. Then, making a great effort not to look at Briseyes, he said:

“When Ella returns, ask her how the appointment went. I’ll help from tomorrow.”

Briseyes didn’t answer and just looked at him. He tried to smile despite everything, perhaps because he knew she was watching.

With that, he opened the door and left first.

Briseyes locked the door and sighed.

⁕⁕⁕

Callisten’s heat subsided as soon as he heard Briseyes lock the door after he left.

Then he took a deep breath to regain his composure.

From her room, he headed toward the room where the Mays matriarch was staying.

Recalling Ella’s letter that had just arrived, the matriarch must have come on her own, so she wouldn’t be in her room on the third floor. The servants would be cleaning it.

Then she must be in the guest room on the second floor, not the reception room on the first floor.

Not the third floor, but the second.

With this in mind, Callisten headed to the second floor with determined steps.

“Ah, the Empire’s small sun…!”

“W-wait! The matriarch is ahead…!”

Callisten ignored the servants and continued walking forward. Then he opened a door that the knight hadn’t opened for him and checked inside.

“Your Highness?”

Seeing the Mays matriarch alone inside holding a cup of tea, he entered and closed the door.

“I’ve come to address your rudeness earlier.”

“What? Oh, earlier was…!”

The matriarch put down her teacup and stood up.

“I behold the Empire’s small sun!”

She hurriedly came near Callisten and paid her respects. To avoid making another mistake, she kept her head down.

“I had thought the Grand Duke Mays family was neutral until now. But seeing your attitude earlier, it seems you’re joining the aristocratic faction.”

“What? Absolutely not! How does an argument between me and my daughter-in-law turn into that!”

“That daughter-in-law is my most precious family. And you hit my family.”

“Briseyes is not Your Highness’s family! She is my daughter-in-law! A member of the Grand Duke’s family!”

When the matriarch spoke in confusion, Callisten thought this game was already won. A confused opponent was easy to handle.

“My mother entrusted me to Marquis Philia’s family. You must know that? I spent my childhood with Briseyes.”

It was a famous story. Before the late Empress died, she had entrusted Callisten to the Marquis Philia’s wife. Because of that, he had lived at the Marquis Philia’s house during his time as a prince.

“You dared to lay hands on someone I consider family.”

“I-it was a mistake! I must be getting senile in my old age!”

The matriarch feared Callisten. Callisten had maintained close relations with the Marquis Philia family but helped them maintain neutrality.

This meant he had risen to the position of Crown Prince through his own power.

The Battlefield Demon.

That was what they called him on the battlefield.

He was also known among many noble ladies for his cruel temperament.

“Even senility should be graceful. How dare you raise your hand against Bri.”

He spoke leisurely, but in reality, he was smiling as if extremely angry. However, the matriarch thought the atmosphere had improved a bit because he was smiling.

He walked toward the table where the matriarch had been sitting. The matriarch followed, thinking he might want to sit and talk with her.

“I hope you never raise your hand again.”

“Yes, o-of course… Ack!”

At that moment, he splashed the teacup of tea that was on the table into her face.

It had cooled considerably, so she wouldn’t suffer major burns.

“Your Highness, how could you…!”

“I’d like to hit you back the same way, but I’m restraining myself. If I hit you, your neck would break.”

The matriarch’s eyes hurt from the tea, but she involuntarily looked up and met his gaze.

Callisten’s bright red eyes were gleaming like blood, and although he was smiling, his expression didn’t look like a smile at all as he stared at the matriarch.

“But there won’t be a next time. If you lay a hand on Bri one more time, I’ll deal with you the same way.”

“Ah…!”

After saying this, Callisten sneered at her and went outside.

The matriarch thought Briseyes had ordered this. However, although she found it vexing, she was afraid of Callisten behind her.

So she couldn’t go directly to confront Briseyes.

⁕⁕⁕

“I bring good news!”

As soon as Ella returned to Briseyes’s room, she closed the door tightly and exclaimed in a small voice.

“The Jeronis office said they’ll put Madam’s case as priority number one in the waiting list!”

Ella returned with an excited expression and said this enthusiastically. Briseyes saw that Ella’s cheek was also swollen and pressed ice wrapped in cloth that she had prepared for when Ella would return.

Then she grabbed Ella’s arm and made her sit on her bed.

“I’m fine!”

“I’m not fine, Ella. Don’t physically block anyone from now on.”

Briseyes sighed sadly when she saw Ella’s cheek and pressed the cloth containing ice against it.

“I would do the same thing again if the same situation happened!”

“Don’t do it.”

“I hate that.”

“I said don’t do it! What if you get seriously hurt?”

“It’s better if I get hurt. Better than Madam getting hurt.”

Briseyes tried to hand over the paper Ella had casually brought, but Ella didn’t take it and kept holding the cloth. As the cold gradually reached her cheek, Ella’s expression softened.

“Besides, I’m tough.”

Briseyes deliberately didn’t answer. She was upset that Ella, who had grown up with her since childhood, had been hit, more than she was upset about being hit herself.

“What? I’m really fine, Madam. Please read the letter first.”

“I hate that.”

Briseyes thought she was acting childishly, but she truly couldn’t bring herself to do it.

After a long time, when the ice had almost melted, she put down the cloth and read the letter.

The contents of the letter were exactly as Ella had said.

「 I will consider the debt I owe to His Highness repaid with this matter.

I will prioritize this case, so I request a visit with Her Highness the Grand Duchess Mays.

-Jeronis Abein. 」

After reading these words several times, Briseyes sighed as if relieved.

⁕⁕⁕

The Mays matriarch, who had been warned by Callisten, couldn’t directly harass Briseyes.

That was why.

The reason she had Delilah, who was suspected of being a mistress and whom she considered insulting to sit at the same table with, sit at the same table was:

For a noble to share a table with a commoner was, in a sense, nothing short of an insult. The matriarch was a noble despite her many improper behaviors.

However, her desire to wash away the humiliation caused by Briseyes took precedence over that pride.

“You’re Delilah?”

“Ah, yes, Matriarch!”

Delilah was sitting in Briseyes’s seat, with Demian’s permission.

Just as the matriarch was about to say something to Delilah, Briseyes came down to the dining room with a resigned expression.

“Miss Delilah. That’s my seat.”

“Demi said I could sit here.”

Delilah smiled brightly, still sitting in Briseyes’s seat with no intention of moving.

“Sit next to Mother, Bri.”

Demian said this indifferently.

Seeing that Delilah wasn’t subservient like typical mistresses, the matriarch said with an excited upturned corner of her mouth:

“By the way, Miss Delilah. I heard you saved my son several times?”

“What? Ah…. The rumors are exaggerated!”

Yet she was subservient to the matriarch.

The matriarch said, seemingly quite pleased:

“The person who gets to have someone as wise as Miss Delilah as a wife will be truly blessed.”