WHYMCF 15

Chapter 15

Lizbeth inwardly snickered before looking at the noblewoman standing before her.

Should I thank her for setting the stage for me?

Though the young lady herself had no idea she was doing so.

“And… were you just speaking about my honor, Lady?”

“……”

“Of course, I may have appeared rather reckless to you.”

Lizbeth gave a weak smile. To anyone watching, it was a completely harmless and sorrowful smile.

But the young lady standing before her flinched.

Because up close, Lizbeth’s pink eyes contained a chill as sharp as a blade.

It felt as though that coldness were piercing straight through her.

“But even after seeing the name ‘Armierosha’ attached to mine, I find it somewhat unpleasant that you would say such things to my face.”

Lizbeth had expected that such words would follow after creating such an obvious scandal.

Especially that certain people would take an interest in it…

Lizbeth’s eyes briefly shifted toward a group of men murmuring among themselves in one corner before returning to the young lady.

The young lady drew a small breath.

“I understand that this may simply mean you hold His Highness the First Imperial Prince in such high regard… but your words could easily be interpreted as an insult to my entire family.”

Lizbeth even added a gentle warning.

“You would do well to choose your words more carefully.”

With that, Lizbeth took hold of Calix’s arm.

When he flinched slightly, Lizbeth whispered softly to him.

“I think we should leave now.”

Calix followed her without protest.

Taking her hand in his, he headed toward the banquet hall’s exit.

The people who had been watching Lizbeth and the young lady’s confrontation quickly moved aside, allowing the two of them to leave the banquet hall without difficulty.

The refreshing summer-night breeze swept away the hot, sticky air of the banquet hall.

Having accomplished what she had intended by attending the banquet, Lizbeth enjoyed the cool breeze as she wandered through the garden before eventually sitting on the edge of a fountain.

Calix stood tall before her and finally spoke, as though he could no longer hold himself back.

“I should have stepped in.”

“For what?”

“……”

“Instead of simply standing there and watching you be insulted.”

His low voice sounded as though he were desperately suppressing his anger.

Lizbeth chuckled softly.

She waved him off as though it were nothing important.

“Calix, you’re a knight. What could a knight possibly do against a lady?”

“But if the person being insulted is my lady, then there’s no question about what I should prioritize.”

“I’m fine. They’re allowed to think that way. That I’m a promiscuous, reckless, or fickle woman.”

Everyone among the nobility who was worth their salt already knew that Lady Armierosha had been pursuing the First Imperial Prince since before her coming-of-age ceremony.

There’s nothing I can do about that.

If she had been able to go further back in time, perhaps she could have changed that part as well.

Unfortunately, this was the point in time she had been given.

Denying everything that had happened would only make things more difficult.

Therefore, this was the best she could do with what she had now.

After thinking it through, Lizbeth looked up at him.

“They don’t know anything.”

“……”

“They’re people who know nothing, so of course they can say whatever comes to mind. Don’t let it bother you.”

Her sparkling pink eyes seemed to tell him:

Unlike them, you know everything. And because you know everything, you’re angry on my behalf. So I’m fine.

A warm breeze swept through Lizbeth’s disheveled hair and brushed against her dress.

Calix stared down at her silently for a moment before covering her knees with his jacket.

“I’ll bring you something to drink.”

“Okay.”

Lizbeth nodded, and Calix went back inside the banquet hall.

Once he disappeared from sight, Lizbeth turned her head toward the fountain.

Clear water bubbled upward, forming concentric circles across the surface.

Laughter and music drifted out through the terrace doors that had been left open.

“Pretty.”

As one would expect from Marchioness Rosemary, the greatest social butterfly in high society and a woman who frequently hosted banquets, even the garden was extraordinarily magnificent.

Freshly blooming roses and the fragrance of flowers filled the air from every direction.

Lizbeth had attended several of the Marchioness’s banquets in her previous life, but returning here like this gave the experience an entirely different feeling.

Lizbeth dipped her hand into the clear water of the fountain and playfully swirled it around before suddenly pulling it back.

Rustle.

Someone had stepped on the bushes.

At the unmistakable sound of someone’s presence, Lizbeth belatedly sprang to her feet.

But by then, someone had already suddenly emerged from the bushes and seized her wrist.

“……Gasp!”

Before Lizbeth could even attempt to flee, a rough, powerful hand clamped tightly around her wrist.

Her eyes trembling with fear, Lizbeth forced herself to look straight ahead and found herself face-to-face with a heavily built man.

His cravat was loosened, and his flushed face made it clear that he was already thoroughly drunk.

“Let go of this. Do you not know who I am?”

Lizbeth put all her strength into her gaze and enunciated every word clearly.

But despite her efforts, the man merely grinned.

“I know. I know very well. You’re Lady Lizbeth Armierosha, aren’t you?”

“If you know that…”

“The woman who toyed with the First Imperial Prince and a war hero at the same time!”

“……”

Lizbeth’s face hardened, instantly filled with disgust.

She remembered the men who had been watching her from the corner of the banquet hall.

Had they been watching her from then on, waiting for Calix to leave so they could approach her without fear?

I already made it clear. I told you to look at the name behind me.

Even after hearing that—knowing exactly who I am—you dare treat me like this?

Anger burned fiercely in Lizbeth’s eyes as she glared at the man.

The man, however, was too busy snickering.

The sharp smell of strong liquor wafted from his half-open mouth.

It was a stench that even his expensive clothes couldn’t conceal.

I’d rather smell the sewage from an alleyway.

Lizbeth wrinkled her nose and warned him again.

“Let me go. Unless you want to make the entire Armierosha family your enemy.”

“My, aren’t you being awfully expensive.”

The man spoke suggestively as he suddenly yanked on the arm he was holding.

Lizbeth gritted her teeth and resisted, but she was inevitably dragged toward him.

“How about it? Hic… Why don’t you come with me tonight?”

“You crazy—”

Unable to endure his harassment any longer, Lizbeth raised one hand.

But the man seemed to notice and grabbed that wrist with his other hand as well.

Now holding both of Lizbeth’s wrists captive, he spoke in an angry voice.

“You little bitch, where do you think you’re trying to pull something?”

The man’s grip around her wrists grew tighter and tighter.

Lizbeth winced and let out a small groan from the pain.

And then—

“Ugh!”

The crushing force that had felt as though it might break her wrists suddenly disappeared, and the man was sent flying away from her.

With a dull thud, he hit the ground.

Blood immediately began streaming from his nose.

The man stared blankly at the drops of blood falling onto the ground.

“Blood… I’m bleeding… You insolent excuse for a knight! Do you know who I am?!”

Lizbeth staggered, unable to properly support herself, and bumped into someone behind her.

Thump.

With a soft sound, she felt a warm, solid body supporting her back.

Lizbeth tilted her head backward to see who it was.

Between strands of black hair, a pair of vivid blue eyes gleamed fiercely.

“I don’t know. I’m not so free that I have time to remember trash like you.”

Calix muttered the words in a voice colder than anything Lizbeth had ever heard from him before.

He glanced down at Lizbeth in his arms.

There were red marks left around her delicate wrists.

Lizbeth clearly saw blue flames flare in Calix’s eyes when he noticed them.

“Lady Lizbeth, are you all right?”

Calix asked her first, his teeth clenched tightly.

Lizbeth stared blankly at him.

His anger was on an entirely different level from what she had seen when he had been offended on her behalf inside the banquet hall.

She finally managed to nod.

The jacket he had dropped when he rushed to the fountain was picked up and shaken out before Calix draped it over her shoulders.

Then he turned his head toward the man.

His cold gaze settled upon him.