TPMBHSW 10

Chapter 10

When Damon’s hand, clasped with mine, grew damp with sweat, I couldn’t hold back and told him I wanted to end things.

“I would like to terminate our contract as of today’s banquet, Your Highness.”

From the moment I inherited the title, it was fair to say the reason to continue this relationship had disappeared. After all, the reason I had proposed a contract relationship to Damon in the first place was to avoid my father’s marriage pressure.

When I made my request to break up, I had anticipated two possible reactions from Damon. Either he would get angry, or he would accept it calmly.

“Bella, did you really think I didn’t know your father was slowly siphoning off my money?”

I never imagined he would threaten me. I drew in a sharp breath of the chilled air. The moment I received that impossibly heavy dress, I had considered the possibility that Damon might know about the privy purse.

So even if he used that as leverage to threaten me, I wouldn’t have batted an eye. The fact that Damon knew about it meant he was entangled in this matter as well.

However.

“I also know you can’t forget that damned knight. You’re going to break up with me? Bella, do you think I can’t do anything to a count without backing?”

I hadn’t expected him to bring up Richard.

‘I was foolish.’

Why hadn’t I thought of that?

“I don’t intend to blow this out of proportion either. Betraying Bellua over a few gold coins would be laughable, and I’m not so petty as to be jealous of a childish first love. You’re going to be my wife soon, so I should be generous.”

I learned for the first time in twenty-eight years that you can cry from anger.

Damon had truly been thinking of marrying me. He intended to make the Duke of Bellua the Crown Princess, and eventually Empress, and swallow the Bellua Dukedom whole.

That’s why he hadn’t said anything when I took the title. He had known everything and was watching me as if observing from a distance.

“I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you run, do I?”

Damon foolishly seemed to believe that the privy purse would be what held me back.

But the reason I was held back was something else entirely.

“You know better than anyone how easy it is to catch and break a fresh noble who’s just become a count, don’t you?”

Richard.

By the time the piece ended, only one thought filled my mind.

If Damon truly intended to go after Richard, then as he said, Richard, whose foundation was unstable, would be easily uprooted. And he would never recover.

‘Absolutely not.’

I gripped the railing.

“Become Empress as your father wished, Bella.”

Cliffs on all sides. I could neither retreat nor advance.

Should I warn Richard? Tell him Bellua would help, that if he hid under my shadow, he could somehow endure?

This time, I would surely receive a gaze full of contempt.

‘What should I do…’

Click.

I turned, startled by the sound of the door opening.

Hadn’t I locked the door? Surely Damon hadn’t followed me?

“Bella.”

The one who stepped into the terrace with the brilliant lights at his back was neither Damon nor any other noble.

“You, why are you crying.”

Richard Winston.

The man who filled the doorway approached me. Behind him, the glass door that had been gleaming closed. The latch locked without a sound, and the people laughing and chattering among themselves vanished beyond the pitch-black curtains.

And then.

“I asked why you’re crying.”

With a voice sunk dreadfully low, a rough and calloused hand wiped the area around my eyes.

“Was it the Crown Prince who made you cry, Bella?”

With a fierce face that looked as if he would cut Damon’s throat this very moment if I said yes.

The man standing with his back to the terrace door looked larger and stronger than I remembered. The absurd delusion that Richard might listen to me was brief.

I pushed him away.

“Why do you care why I’m crying?”

It would be a lie to say I didn’t notice the fine crack that appeared on Richard’s face at my retort.

“Richard Winston, look carefully at who it is you’re offering to help.”

Richard had said he would help me. Asked what was wrong. But I struck down hard on the cracked place. So that it would shatter completely. So that Richard wouldn’t throw himself into a fight he couldn’t win.

“It’s better not to concern yourself with other people’s affairs any longer, Count Winston.”

The moment I faced him as he stepped back with wounded eyes, I felt something had gone wrong, but by then it was already too late.

—

“Ah, ah, aagh!”

I thrashed and rolled off the bed. At the thud, I waved off the maids who came running and buried my head in the bed just like that.

“I’m going crazy, seriously.”

I must have briefly lost my mind. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have said that to Richard. This was no different from ten years ago.

Richard was the same. What on earth was he thinking, repeatedly asking me if it was something Damon did?

“What are you going to do about it!”

Were you going to kill Damon?

A sudden thought made me lift my head. Surely not. Even so, Richard was a count now. If only Damon didn’t interfere, he was a man who could quickly establish his foundation and settle in the capital based on a vast territory and a powerful knight order.

What could such a Richard possibly lack?

“Your Grace!”

Just then, one of the maids I had sent away rushed urgently into the room. I was about to shoo her out when I saw what was in her hand and furrowed my brow.

An envelope stamped with a golden seal.

It was from the imperial family.

“A letter from His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived. The messenger insisted it had to be delivered immediately, so…”

“I’m sure he did. It’s fine, give it to me.”

I soothed the restless maid and took the envelope. The maid slipped out of the room, saying she would bring warm tea.

My condition must have looked rather poor.

Holding my throbbing head, I tore open the envelope. Damn him, his handwriting was elegant at least.

[If my words yesterday wounded you, I apologize. Bella, I wish to get along with you. As you know…]

The long-winded words that followed were nothing but a meaningless string of words. I skimmed over them and suddenly stopped.

[I hear Count Winston had an audience with His Majesty early this morning. Did you know?]

Richard had an audience with His Majesty the Emperor?

And from the morning?

[It seems His Majesty is thinking of appointing the Count as Sasha’s guardian. The Count hasn’t given a definite answer yet, but if it happens, well. Bella. Don’t you think Count Winston will need my mercy even more? Sasha’s guardian. I need a justification to leave a dog that snaps at me alone.]

Richard becoming Sasha’s guardian.

I read that one sentence over and over on the letter, which was an extension of his threat. No one would deny that Sasha, who had been away from the capital for so long, needed a guardian. Usually, in such cases, an imperial elder or the head of a family close to the imperial family took on the role.

But the current imperial family had no one suitable for the role, and the heads of families of any significant size were all on Damon’s side.

So I knew the Emperor was struggling to find someone suitable, but…

‘Why Richard?’

Damon must have thought the same as me, because speculation about the reason followed.

[He probably wants to connect the two of you. In that sense, he said to work so that Count Winston can naturally blend into noble society. As long as those two don’t entertain any odd ideas, I can overlook that much. There’s no need to dispose of a childish first love for you to reminisce about. You and Sasha suit each other well, after all.]

I couldn’t even guess how much had happened in just half a day. Didn’t they say the Emperor was too ill to even attend the banquet?

[So I’m thinking of moving the hunting festival up a bit…]

“Damn it.”

There was no need to read what followed. I kicked back my chair and stood.

“Oh my, Your Grace. Where are you going?”

The maid, who had just come in with tea, asked with wide eyes. I took the teacup from her hand, cooled to the perfect temperature for drinking, and gulped it down.

Every year in October, at the beginning of late autumn, the hunting festival was customarily prepared by the family closest to the imperial family.

By the Bellua Dukedom.

And right now, Noah was conducting a pursuit in the territory.

I bit my lip and said.

“I’m going to the imperial palace. Prepare the carriage.”

I didn’t know how much Damon knew, but I had to prevent the worst.