Chapter 78: Chapter 75: Night of the Chimera’s Cry – Banquet (6)

After a servant led the Duke and his partner to one of the guest rooms under the Earl's command, Lucius quickly chased him away.

Rather, that servant was happy to escape and found himself on the other side of the door in under two seconds. With his tail tucked behind him, he made his great escape.

With his knees trembling, he leaned against the wall for support. "Whew..." The servant released a sigh of relief.

He was working on bringing food from the kitchen when he came upon a scene from hell. Almost all the guests had nearly passed out. Suddenly, the Earl gave him an order to bring the Duke and his fiancée to a guest room. He was shocked at first like the others, but didn't dare to ask questions and completed his tasks.

And then, without knowing the full story, he became a victim caught in a cross between two weird people.

Since the moment they entered the room, Aurora refused to speak, look, or even sit near Lucius. She only focused on drinking the delicious herbal tea placed in front of her.

‘Why is she angry?’

Lucius felt awkward by this silent treatment. It was the first time anyone treated him in such a way that it baffled him. When he was thinking of asking her, she opened her mouth.

“I thought we were to not announcing our engagement until my Coming of Age ceremony?”

!! Can it be she was mad at him for revealing it tonight without her permission? “That’s…it wasn’t on purpose…”

“Hmm...” She didn’t say anything more and gave him the silent treatment again.

??? Was that not why she was angry at him? Now that he thinks about it, she was not the type who would find fault in him over that. Then, why?!

Lucius, one of the four guardians of the Empire, was about to go insane because of a woman.

When Aurora finished drinking her tea, she set the cup on the tray. “Yulia Vel Nolbeia.” She said in a monotonous tone. “You protected her. Why?”

Incredulous, the Duke found himself shocked by her question.

When he looked at her with an bewildered expression, Aurora realized what he was thinking. With her hands in her lap, she turned her head away from his piercing gaze.

“Can it be, you're…?”

“No.” She immediately denied.

“Are you…?”

“No.”

“…Jealous?”

“I’m not!!!” The tip of her ears turned a blushing red color.

Lucius chuckled, his laugh reverberating through the room. "Don't worry, I will only have one woman in my life. It's just, it could get a troublesome if her daughter was harmed right now."

"I am not worried!" Aurora's cheeks puffed as she said this, as though she desperately wanted him to believe her.

“Oh, is that so?” He stood up and approached from the other side by going around the couch. The Duke pinched her chin and lowered his upper body until his eyes met hers. “Then, why are you making such a face?” Without waiting for an answer, he placed his lips on her ears, giving her a kiss.

In her defense, she only wanted to know why the Duke, who was said not to care about outsiders did such a thing like protect the earl's daughter. At least, that's what she tried to convince herself.

Aurora’s eyelids trembled at his words.

A crack was exposed in her usual cold and indifferent mask, revealing an expression that made Lucius want to embrace her right then and there. It didn't matter when she was the one to intimately touching him, but when he initiated it...it was different. It felt different.

Before, when Lucius only looked at her as a tool, it didn't scare her. Instead, she was relieved. He was the first person she met who did not hide their true intentions.

But...

Ever since the marriage contract, he started showing her so many different expressions. He started showing her the person he forcefully locked away due to the curse. 

Aurora was already aware that the man she met that day was the same as her. They both wore a mask to protect themselves.

Still, why was he treating her like this?

Why was he looking at her like that?

As if he...

Her heart shook as she became distracted by his blue eyes.

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To her, cruelty was better than senseless kindness hidden behind false smiles. So, seeing Lucius tear his mask off frightened her. It made her want to run again.

"I...already...I can't take this anymore...so..." Her voice broke as she said.

So, please stop.

When he saw her face, Lucius found himself at a loss for words. She had on a expression as if her world had come crashing down. He wanted to ask her what was wrong, but she placed her hand on his and lightly pushed him away.

He let her do so, but his gaze didn’t move away from hers.

Still immersed with each other, the two had no clue that another person had long stepped inside the room.

"Ahem!" A cough sounded by the door.

Aurora and Lucius both turned to see the Earl standing there awkwardly.

The Duke stood up straight and glared at her menacingly. “It is rude to interrupt without knocking, Earl Nolbeia.”

“…I apologize.” No, why should she have to knock on the door in her own house?? And why did she apologize?!

Trying to regain what little dignity she had left, Ruben walked with an air of nobility to sit in a chair. Lucius followed and sat back down next to Aurora. He crossed his legs and arms while glaring at the one who intruded in his conversation with his future wife.

The Earl wanted to cry but felt that the little tears she had left would dry because of it. She could only sigh in resignation. “The guests have all left. I will keep my end of the bargain since you have kept yours, albeit in a unique way.”

Aurora suddenly stood up, and without looking at the Duke, she walked past him. "Your Grace, I will wait for you in the carriage." The servant standing on the other side of the door heard her voice and opened the door to let her out.

He didn't stop her, but Lucius' eyes flashed coldly as though he was ready to kill someone. “Continue.” 

Seeing this, the Earl was scared silly that he might take the divine sword out again. She quickly started to tell him about what happened. “My daughter was targeted by an assassin a few days ago. She does not know about this, which is why we were able to keep it a secret until now."

“And?”

Ruben takes a deep breath as she resolved herself. She knew her next words would bring about a great change in the Duke. “Sigel.”

Lucius’ hand twitched when he heard this name, but he didn’t have any other reaction.

This really stunned the Earl. Only a few people know about this organization that was supposed to have been wiped out by the former Duke. It was the same one involved in killing the girl Lucius first fell in love with as a child.

“Why bring those bastards up?”

“There were several odd things about that assassin. I realized there was a weird smell of medicine and blood on her body. A few days ago, I remembered where I smelled that drug from before. It was the same drug they used in their experiments.”

As an Earl, Ruben has a rank three familiar, called a bjorn, that matched with her current noble status. Bjorns are bear spirit beasts that are good in close combat with a strong sense of smell. And Ruben's familiar shared its sense of smell with her.

So, the moment the Earl mentioned smelling the same drug those bastards used, he did not doubt her.

“Her?”

Ruben nodded her head. “And a young one at that. She wasn't using a sword or runes but her movements were similar to that of a trained Knight. While she was in a weakened state, her arm was strangely strong.”

The Earl explained how there was a sort of armor around her right arm. “It covered her entire arm from her shoulder and only left her hand exposed. But she was wearing open-ended gloves, and her nails were very sharp.”

Lucius lowered his head and put his hand on his chin as he tried to sort this new information he found.

“Even though I clearly sensed her bloodlust, she didn't attack my daughter directly and only observed from far away. I don’t know what her intention is, but I can say with certainty that this young woman is the one you're looking for.”

"...Alright. Is that all?"

“There is one more. Although it was brief, I was able to spot the black sun tattoo on the back of her left wrist.”

The black sun......

The Duke of Rizar narrowed his eyes.

The rune for the sun was Sigel. It was their way of declaring that the world will only prosper after being reborn through fire from the sun.

It was the same symbol he saw carved on the corpse of the little girl he once swore to protect.