Troublesome Prince (6)
“…The Duchess?”
“Yes, I am the new Duchess of Esbaden.”
With a smile, Duha approached the Prince with light steps.
“I apologize for the late welcome, Your Highness. I was unwell, even though you came to congratulate me on my marriage.”
Justin stared blankly at the approaching Duchess.
He had heard that the new Duchess was supposed to be the ugliest woman in the world, but who was this?
Her dazzling silver hair and graceful figure, which shimmered with every step, were far from being ugly.
Duha, in her light cream-colored dress, truly looked like an angel.
Meanwhile, Duha glanced at Leila, who was held by the knight, and the head maid sitting on the floor, then spoke again.
“But that’s not something someone who came to congratulate a marriage should be holding.”
With a gentle smile, Duha lightly grasped one of the Prince’s wrists.
Whatever she did, the strength in his hand holding the sword dissipated.
As a result, it appeared as if Justin was willingly handing the sword to Duha.
She naturally took the sword from the Prince and placed it behind her as if tossing it away.
“Such dangerous things are best kept at a distance. But…”
Duha trailed off, looking as if she didn’t understand the situation.
“Did my cherished child do something wrong to Your Highness? Why is the knight threatening her?”
At her question, Justin seemed to come to his senses and shook his head before speaking.
“That girl, no, that woman dared to scar the face of a Prince. The crime of injuring a member of the royal family is severe.”
“That child did such a thing? That’s strange, she’s not someone who would do that without reason.”
“Are you saying that I, a Prince, am lying?”
“Of course not, that couldn’t be.”
Duha shook her head with eyes wide in surprise.
“There’s no way Your Highness would lie. Why would someone as esteemed as a Prince of the empire need to lie?”
Duha said with an innocent smile.
“However, as Your Highness knows, the Duchy of Esbaden is an administrative autonomous region recognized by His Majesty the Emperor. Only the head of the Duke’s family can punish criminals.”
The days spent reading books about the empire in her room had paid off.
She could now easily recite the political position of the Duke’s family and the power dynamics of the empire.
“If that child has committed a crime, she is no different from a criminal, and I will thoroughly investigate her crime according to the laws of the Duke’s family and impose a fitting punishment.”
She bowed her head lightly with a gentle smile.
“Please, do not dirty Your Highness’s noble hands.”
The Prince listened quietly to Duha’s words and then ran his hand through his hair.
“Well, our Duchess is not only beautiful but also has a sharp tongue.”
“……”
The anger in his eyes had been replaced by a different kind of heat.
“This makes me even angrier.”
The Prince approached her slowly.
He came close enough to hear each other’s breaths and whispered in her ear.
“If I had known you were this beautiful, I wouldn’t have refused. It’s truly a shame.”
He lifted the end of Duha’s hair.
“Is this why the Duke accepted this marriage without hesitation?”
Despite the Prince’s rude behavior, Duha remained expressionless, staring straight ahead without any reaction.
“What are you doing to the Duchess! Let go of her right now, you damned bastard—! Aagh!”
Leila, on the other hand, was so shocked that she shouted in Bashar, but was restrained by the Prince’s knight.
“Duchess, you said you care for that child, right?”
Justin glanced at the commotion Leila was causing and continued speaking.
“Even if you talk about administrative autonomy or whatever, it’s very easy for me, a Prince, to take that child’s life.”
Even for a Duke, harming a Prince was not something that could be easily overlooked.
Moreover, a foreign woman from Bashar, not even a noble, had injured a Prince.
“The reason I haven’t killed that child immediately is because this is the Duke’s territory, and I respect the Duke’s position. It’s purely out of my goodwill.”
Although the Duke of Esbaden was a powerful noble who could rival a Prince, Justin was still a Prince, and the Duke was a servant of the royal family.
There was an unbridgeable gap in status between them.
In other words, if the Prince asserted his authority and gave an order, the Duke had to comply.
“But if you accept my proposal, I’ll overlook that child’s wrongdoing. What do you say?”
“…A proposal?”
“It’s a proposal that’s not bad for you either.”
Justin smiled slyly like a snake.
“They say Bashar women are quite skilled in bed.”
At such a vulgar and shocking statement, everyone present turned pale.
The Prince’s words were a thorough insult not only to her, the Princess of Bashar, but to all Bashar women.
“I’d like to see that skill for myself.”
Unaware of the mistake he was making, Justin dared to place his hand on the Duchess’s waist.
“Originally, you were meant to be mine. There seems to have been some misunderstanding.”
“……”
“Well, it’s not without precedent for a married woman to become a Prince’s consort, so don’t worry. Being a Prince’s consort is far better than being a Duchess. I’ll certainly guarantee your position……”
The Prince’s hand, shamelessly, began to creep up her body.
“Princess—! What are you doing?! Hurry up and knock that bastard down—!”
Leila shouted in Bashar, agitated, but Duha didn’t move an inch.
Normally, she would have thrown a punch before the Prince could finish such vulgar words, but the situation was different now.
This wasn’t some insignificant stable boy, but the empire’s only Prince.
As long as this bastard before her was a member of the royal family and her husband was a knight serving the royal family and a loyal subject of the Emperor, she couldn’t just beat him up recklessly.
If she did and the Emperor’s trust in the Duke was broken, how could she take responsibility?
‘Even if the Prince harassed me, all the nobles would probably take this bastard’s side.’
After all, in the empire, Bashar was seen as nothing more than a “strong barbarian tribe.”
Although she was an important figure for the alliance, she was still a foreigner here.
No one would take the side of a foreign Princess.
‘…Him too.’
Duha thought of Duke Leonhardt, who always looked at her with cold eyes.
If he were here, how would he have reacted?
Since it wasn’t a marriage he wanted anyway, he might even push her away, telling the Prince to take her if he wanted.
Why did she feel so depressed just imagining it?
Duha bit her lip, eyes downcast.
“Indeed, I like you. Unlike the Duke, you’re easy to talk to……”
Just as she was clenching her fist, ignoring the Prince who was pressing against her like a dog in heat—
“Gah—!”
The Prince, Justin, made a strange noise like a badger caught in a trap and fell away from her.
“When you treat a beast worse than a human, it doesn’t know its limits and climbs up.”
It was a voice that felt like quiet yet intense anger, like lava boiling beneath the ground.
Duha slowly turned her head.
The man who had reached over her shoulder to grab the Prince by the collar was clad in bloodstained armor, emitting a fierce glare.
It was Leonhardt.
*** *** *** *** ***
“Kuhuk, D-Duke, what are you doing……”
Justin was disoriented by the Duke’s grip choking him.
“Duke of Esbaden—! Do you realize what you’re doing right now! Release your hand immediately—!”
The startled knight rushed over and shouted, but it was useless.
Leonhardt, as if he couldn’t hear the knight’s words, was glaring only at the Prince.
“Prince, there are exactly two things I hate most in this world. Do you know what they are?”
“Kuhuk—!”
“First, people who touch what’s mine, and second.”
He gritted his teeth as he watched Justin struggling in mid-air.
“Those who are worse than beasts, not even trying to hide their base nature.”
As Leonhardt’s grip tightened, the Fourth Prince’s eyes began to roll back.
“My lord, stop! He’ll really die at this rate—!”
At the words of a knight who seemed to have hurriedly followed his master, the Duke finally loosened his grip.
“Uwaagh—!”
As soon as the Duke released his grip, Justin fell limply to the floor.
“Kuhuk! Cough, cough—!”
“Your Highness, are you alright!”
The Prince’s knight shouted while supporting the pale Prince.
“Duke! You will surely regret this day! Do you think His Majesty the Emperor will stand idle when he learns of this? To dare to do this to His Highness Justin……”
“Do as you please.”
“W-What?”
The knight looked at him with a dumbfounded expression at the Duke’s excessively confident attitude.
“I won’t stand idle either.”
Leonhardt looked down at the Fourth Prince with cold eyes.
Meeting that gaze, Justin, cradled by his knight, snarled.
“Y-You—! You think you’ll get away with touching a Prince—!”
Is that all he can say?
Duha found herself looking at the Prince with contemptuous eyes.
“It seems you still haven’t come to your senses.”
It appears Leonhardt also found the Prince pathetic.
“Since it seems the only thing you can boast about is your status, let me tell you something.”
He knelt on one knee to meet the Prince’s eye level.
“The position of Grand Duke is essentially equal to that of a Prince. Unless you’re the Crown Prince, our status is the same.”
“T-That’s…!”
Justin knew this fact very well.
However, because he thought of himself as practically the Crown Prince, he was wary of the Duke but not afraid of him.
“So, what you’ve enjoyed while staying in this castle wasn’t a given, but purely out of my goodwill.”
Justin trembled all over as if insulted by the Duke’s words, which refuted his own statements one by one.
“My goodwill towards you, a Prince, ends here.”
The Duke, who had been watching this scene, stood up and turned his back without hesitation.
“Get out of my castle immediately.”
With that final word.
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