STE 15

Chapter 15

I had thought I would be taking a quiet stroll just like any other day during the countless days I had spent sent away in the Imperial Palace.

However, less than five minutes after stepping into the garden, Tetis realized that assumption was entirely wrong.

“Well, well, look who we have here.”

Sauntering over, the man stopped right in front of Tetis.

“If it isn’t our Her Majesty the Empress, the very subject of the Oracle, whose sacred countenance is so terribly difficult to even catch a glimpse of?”

The unabashed gleam in his eyes, as though he had struck a jackpot, was anything and everything but normal.

Triggered by a primal warning from her instincts, Tetis took a cautious step backward, keeping her guard up.

She felt like she might have seen him somewhere before, but with the day growing a bit dim and the fact that she didn’t memorize the faces of every single Carnesian noble, it was hard to pin down who he was.

Frowning deeply, Tetis finally opened her mouth.

“Who are you?”

“Goodness me, Your Majesty. You don’t recognize me? I’m quite hurt. How many times have we laid eyes on each other, after all?”

Annoyed that she didn’t know him, the grinning man closed the distance, stepping closer without even waiting for Tetis’s permission.

Her initial feeling of unpleasantness at his utter lack of manners was fleeting; Tetis figured that even if she didn’t know who this specific man was, she could at least guess what kind of background he came from.

Among young aristocrats, the newly risen nobles often tended to observe etiquette even more meticulously, perhaps due to complexes regarding their lineage.

However, spoiled young nobles of the traditional aristocratic faction—who had been treated like royalty since birth—would occasionally display behavior just like this. Exactly like the man standing before her.

“I will not forgive any further rudeness. State your identity, right now.”

“Hahaha, my, my. You put it so sternly that my heart almost dropped out of fear? Yes, yes, I suppose I must tell you who I am, seeing as Her Majesty the Empress is so terribly curious!”

With a snicker, the man proudly introduced himself.

“I am Riomedon of the Count Grivas family. Do you remember me now?”

“Ah…….”

Only then did the face of Count Grivas overlap with the young man before her. However, unlike his composed father, the son apparently had not yet matured.

“You wouldn’t even respond to my audience requests, but to think I’d get to see you like this! Ha-ha!”

Or perhaps he was just an utter rake.

No matter how criticized or vilified the Empress might be, she was still the Mother of this nation, bearing the legitimacy of the Carnesian Imperial Family. Even if people whispered behind her back, none of them had ever dared show such an insolent attitude to her face.

Deciding he was no longer worth her time, Tetis cut off Riomedon, who looked as though he was about to say more.

“It seems I have nothing more to say to you. Therefore, I will take my—”

“Eh? Such words wound me! How can you cut me off so coldly when you don’t even know where, or what kind of relationship, Her Majesty and I might end up having?”

“…What did you just say?”

“Oh come now, don’t play hard to get. Are we really in a relationship where we wouldn’t know what might happen between a man and a woman?”

A chilly early-evening breeze swept past Tetis’s back.

Was that sinister gaze she felt earlier not just her imagination? Clear, unmistakable desire was visible on the face curving into a smirk.

An alarm bell rang out in her head.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about. As I said before, Count, I have nothing more to say to you.”

“If you don’t have anything to say, what, do you expect me to just vanish into thin air?”

With a greasy smile, Riomedon continued to press his body close against hers.

“Be honest with us, Your Majesty. His Majesty the Emperor doesn’t even give you the time of day anyway, right?”

As he grew closer, the overpowering stench of alcohol wafted off him, making Tetis realize that Riomedon was heavily intoxicated.

“So why don’t you look for a lover? As for me, well… I could treat you quite nicely…”

Slap!

Tetis’s pale hand struck hard across Riomedon’s plump, sagging cheek, padded with layers of fat.

No matter how drunk he was and how incapable of rational thought, Riomedon’s words just now were completely unforgivable.

“Ugh!”

With his face knocked completely to the side, Riomedon clutched his cheek and slowly turned his head back toward Tetis. His expression was filled with menace.

“You little… cheap bitch…….”

What Tetis had overlooked, however, was that night had fallen by now, and there was no one else around except this drunken wretch.

“You just hit me, you wench?”

Even in her worst imaginations, she could never have foreseen running into someone who would act with such lawless audacity.

Her body felt as though it had stiffened into stone.

“S-Stand back.”

“The hell I will. You sold out your own blood just to survive, so letting me have a taste of that cheap body of yours is that hard?”

“Count Grivas. Do not say another word you will regret.”

Tetis tried her best to mask her terror as she commanded him, but Riomedon seemed to realize through her trembling voice that she was scared out of her wits.

With a sinister chuckle, Riomedon stepped forward with long, heavy strides.

“Stop playing the Empress and just strip. You’re just a broodmare anyway. Come to think of it, if I plant a seed in your belly, you can bear me a child.”

“Don’t come any closer.”

“That cuckoo chick can then rule the Cara Continent. Heh, heh, heh.”

Despite her desperate warning, Riomedon closed the distance without hesitation and grabbed her roughly.

Her frail wrists were caught in the thick, fat-covered hands of the man, unable to slip away. Tetis couldn’t shake off his persistent grip no matter what she tried.

“L-Let go of me!”

“You love it, stop pretending. Heh. Besides, I’ve already found a nice private spot, you know.”

The suffocating reek of alcohol and sweat. The human before her, saturated in base desires aimed directly at her, truly intended to carry out his words.

“Your High-and-Mighty Empress, let’s have a deep, passionate conversation of the flesh.”

She had no idea what horrors awaited her if she were dragged away here.

Never once in her life had she found herself in such a situation, but instinctively, she knew what she had to do right now.

“Let go! I said let go!”

After struggling with all her might, Tetis caught a brief opening and kicked squarely at Riomedon’s groin with the sharp toe of her heel.

Thud!

“Aargh!”

Yelling in pain, Riomedon loosened his grip.

Seizing the chance, Tetis spun around and immediately started running.

She had no idea where she was heading. Her ankles, completely unaccustomed to such violent movement, began to ache fiercely at once, but she couldn’t stop.

“You crazy bitch, if I catch you, you’re dead!”

Quickly recovering, Riomedon dragged his heavy body after her, trailing a string of vicious curses.

“Get back here!”

Hearing Riomedon’s barking voice made her heart feel as though it were shriveling up.

Where, where should she go?

This was the Empress’s garden, which she had roamed countless times as a child, but whether due to the darkness or her own sheer panic, she couldn’t even get her bearings.

Tetis wandered through the overgrown bushes, hunted like game.

Please.

Even if she just made it to the edge of the garden, there would be guards stationed there.

Given that not even a shadow of a person was in sight, it seemed he was keeping her trapped in the central maze.

Strength rapidly drained from her legs, and the heavy footsteps of the man pursued her relentlessly, without a single thought of giving up.

“Ah!”

Then, at an unexpected moment, a blinding pain tore at her scalp as her center of gravity was yanked violently backward.

“You persistent little…!”

Grabbing Tetis by her long hair, Riomedon glared down at her as she sprawled out onto the ground with a devilish expression.

Rather than the physical pain, the terror of what was about to happen trapped Tetis in a chokehold of absolute helplessness.

All she could read in Riomedon was the fury of wanting to retaliate for what she had done to him, coupled with dark, murky desire.

“You brat, even when I tried to treat you nicely…”

As his hot, panting breath brushed against her cheek, goosebumps broke out all over her body.

“Consider yourself lucky. The girls on Fleur Street just melt the moment I touch them.”

Babbling utter nonsense, Riomedon fumbled for a moment before finally undoing his pants.

Eyeballing something that no woman on earth would ever want to look at, Tetis bit down hard on her lower lip to stifle the groan rising in her throat.

Perhaps misinterpreting that very expression, Riomedon let out a greasy laugh and delivered his declaration of war.

“Yeah, pretty big, right? I’m gonna make you feel amazing tonight.”