Chapter 224

               

“A club?”

Abelus, who had been standing still as Megara dressed him, asked back, sounding displeased.

The young noblemen of the empire killed time by gathering amongst themselves at gentlemen’s clubs during the day. The higher the level of the club, the stricter its membership, making them coveted places for those seeking to build connections with men of noble birth.

However, this did not apply to Abelus, who lived in the Imperial Palace, the gathering place of the most noble people in the country.

Megara, who had anticipated Abelus’s reaction, quickly spoke in a charming manner.

“Your Highness said you wanted to discover more young talent. That you didn’t want to trust the people in the palace.”

“That’s right. Every last one of them thinks my sister is the Crown Prince, not me.”

Not long ago, there had been an uproar when the old Minister of Finance, Marquis Odroy, submitted a memorial regarding the matter of the Crown Princess. He claimed that since he had no daughter of his own, he was speaking purely out of loyalty to the empire…

‘Quickly welcome Valentin Elandria as the Crown Princess.’ It was obvious who had whispered that into the old man’s ear. Marquis Odroy had always sung Princess Camille’s praises. And who didn’t know that Camille disapproved of Megara, and that Valentin felt the same way?

For a subject to dare meddle in his sovereign’s marriage was one sin. To conspire with a royal other than the Crown Prince was a second sin. And thanks to him, Megara had cried her eyes out that day, and soothing her had been a third sin.

Out of resentment for these three sins combined, Abelus had publicly rebuked Marquis Odroy. It was not without a certain intention to make an example of him by getting angrier than necessary.

After she and Abelus had entered into their special relationship, she had cautiously pointed it out to him. That in her eyes, the relationship between Camille and Abelus was not normal.

As an older sibling, she was his elder, but why did she act as if she were superior to him even in his ‘public capacity’ as Crown Prince?

It was the plain truth. Was not her constant summoning of the Crown Prince, her policing of his every action, and her ultimate attempt to choose a Crown Princess candidate to her own liking a ‘protest’ against the Emperor and Empress who had chosen Abelus as Crown Prince?

As it was a matter concerning the power dynamics of the imperial family, Megara’s attitude had been the very picture of subtlety. But to Abelus’s ears, not a single word she said was wrong.

‘Yes, to be honest, I was thinking the same thing. Is my sister’s current attitude really that of someone who sees me as the future Emperor she will one day have to serve, and not as her puppet?’

And yet, it was deplorable that there were still fools like Marquis Odroy who took Camille’s side and failed to recognize the true Crown Prince.

However, while the denunciation of the Marquess was a necessary example from Abelus’s perspective, it seemed it did not sit well with the stodgy nobles.

‘So what, should the Crown Prince be at the beck and call of a Marquess?’

Nobles were truly thoughtless fools. And so, Abelus keenly felt the need for a new wind.

Nobles who looked only to him. Those untouched by his sister’s hand.

The one who would become the future Monarch had to gather his own people who would form the future axis of power anyway. Until now, Abelus had thought that with Nellusion by his side, he already had a stable foundation, but had not that very Elandria family now half-fallen to ruin?

Thus, Abelus was already inclined to find his own people. Megara knew this fact well.

“From what I hear, there are many lower-ranking nobles who are disappointed that they don’t have the opportunity to show Your Highness their abilities. They say there are some decent ones among them, but they just kill time at clubs every day.”

“Lower-ranking? Meggie, the lower-ranking ones are…”

“I know, Your Highness. It would be difficult for you to use lower-ranking nobles in high positions. But wouldn’t it serve as a warning?”

Abelus paused.

“A warning?”

“How insolent have the high nobles been to Your Highness until now? All the power they enjoy is granted by His Majesty the Emperor, yet they act as if they were born great! So it would be good for Your Highness to personally let them know.”

Megara smiled bewitchingly.

“That who is and isn’t important in the court is for Your Highness alone to decide, so they should watch their own conduct first.”

Her tone, her voice, her smile captivated Abelus as if to bewitch him.

Abelus was moved. Everything Megara said was right. It was absolutely true! Who was the master of this country, if not the imperial family? Yet if there were those who would meddle in the affairs of a royal as they pleased, then no matter how much they puffed out their chests about their great contributions to the empire, it was an absurd contradiction!

Elevating a well-behaved lower-ranking noble to a high position to serve as a warning to the great nobles would surely be beneficial to his reign later on.

“Alright, Meggie. You’re right. Then look into some clubs worth visiting.”

“Yes, Your Highness. I will.”

Smiling like an angel, Megara finished dressing Abelus. And as he left her small room to attend to his official duties, she waved her hand at his back for a long time.

The moment Abelus was completely out of sight, Megara’s gaze turned cold. She approached the mahogany desk adorned with gold and opened a drawer with a key. A letter came out from within.

“I did as you asked.”

The sender’s name was written only as N. But Megara knew very well who it referred to.

Nellusion Elandria. The current Duke of Elandria.

And the one who had requested she send Abelus to the club he ran.

Megara opened the letter and repeated the rereading she had already done several times. The content had not changed.

‘Send the Crown Prince to Club Finito, where a gambling den opens every night. I will take care of the rest. You wait, and when the Crown Prince has lost a moderate amount of money, play the part of one who willingly lends him money.’

Megara had joined hands with Nellusion, but she did not trust him. Their interests would one day conflict.

So, she had first investigated what kind of place Club Finito was. In terms of the level of nobles who gathered there, it was about lower-middle class, and the owner was a completely different person, not Nellusion. The gambling den that was said to open there was also, according to its reputation, nothing to worry about. It was just a place where the regulars who showed up almost every day played cards for fun to earn some drinking money.

That was why Megara got goosebumps. She was vaguely aware that black-hearted people ran these kinds of ‘traps.’

A place that, on the surface, seemed like an ordinary spot not even worth being wary of, but was in fact created to toy with those who naively wandered in.

She didn’t want to take on any unnecessary risks by sending Abelus to such a suspicious place. So, Megara, who had at first pretended not to know of Nellusion’s request, made her decision today.

She couldn’t just be a woman who sat around waiting for Abelus. The end of such a life was already determined.

‘I will prove my usefulness.’

Megara had always believed in her own nobility. A special lineage, an elegance that came naturally with her station.

But that nobility was something that could vanish like a bubble overnight.

She needed something that would never vanish like a bubble. There was only one thing that could continue to make her an important person.

‘Money.’

To be precise, the ability to make others believe that she had money.

Fortunately, she had a benefactor who had plenty of money.

‘It’s a funny world, that woman being helpful to my life for once.’

Wincing at the revulsion that reflexively arose whenever she thought of her commoner birth mother, Megara put Nellusion’s letter back in the drawer. Then she picked up a pen to inform him that things had gone well.

The elegant script, a product of long education, was written quickly. Megara was about to end the letter with a short ‘It went well,’ but she stared down at it for a while. Then, after some thought, she added a few more sentences.

‘It wouldn’t be bad to be trusted more.’

Abelus loved Megara. She was confident of that fact. But to do bigger things in the court, she needed deeper trust.

If she had to stab a sword into someone who was already an enemy for that purpose, she would do it.

❖ ❖ ❖

“Are you alright?”

After successfully finishing their first dinner at the castle, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess went up to the bedroom.

Nerys, her face flushed, was supported by her husband. It was a public occasion, so she had naturally controlled the amount she drank, but it had been too long since she’d last had alcohol, and the liquor of Maindulante was all strong, so she was more intoxicated than she’d expected.

Seated on her bed, she grinned from ear to ear. Ellen and Dora quickly prepared a change of clothes and a bath.

“I’m veeery, alright!”

Her pronunciation was as precise as usual, but her voice was clearly excited. Cledwyn let out a laugh.

“Were you in a good mood today? I’ve never seen you like this before.”

“Of course, I’m in a good mood. How could I not be?”

‘Splish, splash.’ The maids carried countless buckets of water boiled in the kitchen and filled the ceramic bathtub. In the meantime, Ellen poured clear water into a crystal glass.

Cledwyn took the water, sat next to Nerys, and had her drink it. Nerys accepted the water as meekly as a baby bird, but she raised her eyebrows as if she didn’t understand why he was treating her this way.

“Good girl. I’ll go wash up.”

She was cute. Cledwyn handed the glass back to Ellen and was about to stand up. Before Nerys wrapped her arms tightly around his waist.

A hot body temperature like a young animal, a soft touch. Cledwyn froze stiff. Ellen tactfully dismissed the others and slipped out herself.

Alone in the room, Cledwyn caressed his wife’s cheek like a sigh.

“What is it? Don’t go?”

“Don’t go.”

“I’m just going to change, wash up, and come right back.”

“No. I’m going to hold you.”

‘So cute.’ Cledwyn smiled like a blooming flower.

“Alright. Shall we bathe together then?”

The usual Nerys would have been embarrassed by such a suggestion from her husband. Though she would quickly give in if he coaxed her.

But today, she was compliant. Cledwyn showered pecking kisses on Nerys’s red face as she stared up at him and nodded. His long, firm fingers moved nimbly, undoing the fastenings of her dress.

Nerys was the first to be ready to enter the bathwater. While Cledwyn undressed, she clung to him, stroking him here and there and kissing him earnestly. He finally burst out laughing.

“You really shouldn’t drink. It’s a good thing you don’t usually.”

“You don’t like it?”

Her gray eyes, already feverish and half-gone, glinted sharply.

“I like it so much it’s a problem.”

Two ragged breaths, no need to distinguish whose was whose, tangled and slipped past each other. Nerys let out a sweet sigh and placed her hands on Cledwyn’s shoulders.

“In the past… I used to drink, haah… a lot.”

“But you don’t now.”

“Hk, I’m scared… of drinking and making a mistake…”

“Right, you did well today. By tonight, praise will be spreading that Her Grace the Grand Duchess can hold her liquor, so she must be a Maindulante native by birth.”

Come on, let’s get in the tub now, Cledwyn gently soothed his drunken wife and lifted her into his arms. Nerys, who had been glaring cutely at him for stopping what they were doing, wrapped her arms around her husband’s bare neck and sank into the water. The unfinished business resumed.

The warm, fragrant water churned like waves.

“Ah…!”

The panting breaths soon took on the desperation of a person being strangled. The overflowing water from two bodies glistened under the candlelight, soaking everything around them, but no one cared.

By the time the water had cooled, Nerys was limp like a languid cat. Cledwyn said with a satisfied face.

“I’ve been thinking, it might be good to let your mother have the West Palace to herself.”

It was common for high nobles to have multiple bedrooms in their own castles. Apart from the bedroom in this main palace, the bedchamber of the previous Grand Duchess in the West Palace should now officially be Nerys’s. To be precise, that one was furnished with the proper formality for a Grand Duchess’s official bedchamber.

But Nerys didn’t particularly want that room anyway, so she nodded.

“Alright.”

“We can sleep here, right?”

It seemed that the ‘here’ he was referring to did not include his own bedroom right next door, but Nerys nodded again.

“Alright.”

Before she could come to her senses, her body was laid upon the soft bed. Nerys felt the heavy weight press down on her and whispered as if in a dream.

“You know.”

“Yes.”

“Let’s have a child.”

“Alright.”

‘I’ll love them so much.’

‘I’ll teach them so many things.’

‘Including how to be happy without hurting others.’

She couldn’t remember if she had said those words out loud, but Nerys knew that she had been very satisfied that night.