Chapter 08
The moment was filled with murderous intent.
Nanael was taken aback. It was the first time she had ever seen Alferen openly display his emotions.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
Having barely endured the killing intent radiating from him, Nanael continued to play dumb.
To be honest, even she hadn’t expected Alferen and Adrian to show up.
She should have paid closer attention to her surroundings.
But Lady Peris’s irritatingly harmless face and incessant smiling had gotten under her skin, and Nanael had acted on impulse.
Fortunately, there was no physical evidence proving that she had pushed the girl, and since Lady Peris had been dead drunk, Nanael had plenty of room to wriggle out of the situation.
So that’s why he agreed to my request so readily.
Nanael belatedly realized what he had been planning all along, and her mood soured.
Meanwhile, Alferen made no further attempt to press Nanael, who continued to feign ignorance.
He had never expected her to be someone he could reason with in the first place.
Honestly, the moment he saw Rodelia fall down the stairs, it felt as though time had stopped.
Under normal circumstances, he would have immediately caught her with telekinesis.
But when he actually saw Rodelia falling, his body moved before he could think.
He cast a defensive spell a moment too late, and it failed to absorb the full impact of her fall.
As a result, a scratch had appeared on Rodelia’s delicate, beautiful hand.
She was so fragile that I used to worry she might break if I hugged her too tightly.
If he had known this would happen, he would have stopped her from provoking the princess.
He had a rough idea of why Rodelia was approaching Nanael.
How could he not? For eight years, she had diligently insisted that they break off their engagement.
Her methods had been so creative and adorable, however, that he had failed to stop the viper from opening its jaws.
Given the circumstances, it was obvious that Nanael had deliberately pushed Rodelia.
Alferen had never cared whether Nanael entertained other men or indulged in extravagance.
After all, he had never become engaged to her because he desired anything about her. Their relationship had existed in name only.
If not for his father, he would have broken off the engagement with her long ago.
Nanael knew that, too, which was probably why she had been so brazen.
But today, he finally realized just how careless he had been.
Princess Nanael had picked a fight with someone she should never have touched.
If anything serious had happened to Rodelia…
The very thought made his blood run cold.
The fact that Rodelia had provoked Princess Nanael first no longer mattered to him.
In Alferen’s eyes, Nanael was nothing more than a hunter tormenting a small, adorable creature.
Once his head had cooled, Alferen spoke in a low voice.
“You will find out soon enough. You will learn what price you must pay for what you did today, Your Highness.”
“What happened just now was an accident. Are you trying to say that I deliberately pushed Lady Peris? Without a shred of evidence?”
Nanael was in the middle of protesting indignantly when she suddenly fell silent.
His gaze had grown even colder than before, and the words caught in her throat.
The sheer pressure he exuded was enough to send a chill down her spine.
“Have a safe journey.”
Alferen politely closed the carriage door, as though he had never directed any killing intent at her at all.
Only after the carriage had begun to move did Nanael finally manage to exhale.
“Hah!”
A mage who directed killing intent at an ordinary person…
Nanael rubbed the back of her now-chilled neck and let out a shaky breath.
“Was he just trying to kill me?”
It was an outrageously disrespectful way to treat one’s fiancée.
To be honest, Duke Ainluke was a rather dull man.
Unlike Nanael, who changed lovers at the drop of a hat, he had never been involved in even the slightest scandal. He spent all his time in the Magic Tower.
In fact, he spent so much time with his friend Adrian that she had once wondered whether he might be gay.
And yet he had lost his temper like that simply because his friend’s younger sister had nearly been injured?
“What on earth is so special about that girl?”
To be fair, even Nanael had felt a moment of alarm when Alferen had fallen down the stairs with Rodelia in his arms.
She had nearly been caught red-handed doing something she had thought no one would witness.
And Adrian Peris had been there, too, which made the situation even more troublesome.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem to know that she had pushed Rodelia.
The problem was Alferen Ainluke.
He was convinced that Nanael had done it deliberately.
“Hah!”
As she gradually regained her composure, a strange sense of displeasure began to creep over her.
Isn’t that an awfully strong reaction for nothing more than a friend’s younger sister?
The more she thought about it, the more irritated she became by the very existence of Rodelia Peris.
Alferen Ainluke was a man her brother and mother had been working hard to secure.
His power was essential to her brother’s bid for the imperial throne.
And the fact that the Peris family supported the crown prince only made matters worse.
Even Nanael had always taken it for granted that she would one day become the next Duchess of Ainluke.
But seeing her own fiancé fuss over his friend’s younger sister more than he cared for her made sparks fly.
Especially when that girl was Rodelia Peris.
She looked frail and weak at first glance, like some delicate young lady who could barely stand on her own.
Judging by how she smiled obliviously even when Nanael openly directed malice toward her, she was probably no different from any other naive noblewoman.
“The duke made a mistake.”
Nanael’s eyes gleamed sharply as she glared at the receding carriage and muttered under her breath.
“I will never tolerate someone else taking what’s mine.”
Upon arriving at the imperial palace, Nanael flung her accessories onto the floor and ordered her personal maid:
“Put someone on Duke Peris.”
The next day.
“Ow, ow, ow…”
As always, my hangover had arrived right on schedule, and I couldn’t help groaning.
“Ugh, I feel like I’m dying.”
Had I ever suffered this badly from a hangover in my life?
Every muscle in my body ached, and my stomach was so queasy that I couldn’t do a thing. Meanwhile, May handed me some honey water and launched into a lecture.
“That’s what you get for drinking so much when you can’t even hold your liquor!”
“It’s because Her Highness Princess Nanael kept offering it to me.”
“Then why did you accept every single drink she offered you?! Honestly, my lady, you could have just politely declined!”
“Well, that’s true.”
I replied sheepishly before downing the honey water in one go.
May wasn’t wrong. I’d been far too reckless.
Even now, just thinking about tumbling down the stairs sent shivers running down my spine.
If Alferen hadn’t caught me, I would have suffered at least a fracture.
That woman pushed me and smiled. I’m sure of it!
The moment I recalled that chilling smile, goosebumps spread across my entire body.
May, meanwhile, excitedly recounted everything that had happened the previous day.
“Do you remember being carried back on the young master’s back yesterday? His expression was absolutely terrifying! May is still shaking just thinking about it!”
I couldn’t remember anything after climbing into the carriage. I’d probably been so shocked that I’d fallen asleep as though I’d passed out.
“Anyway, stay away from alcohol for a while. It’s a good thing the duke and madam are away on their trip. If they’d been here, the whole estate would have been turned upside down.”
“I have no intention of ever drinking like that again. I think I’d throw up just from smelling wine now.”
I shuddered, rubbing my queasy stomach.
Just talking about alcohol made me feel as though I could smell it.
I hadn’t been able to eat anything other than drink water for a while when Alferen came to visit.
He was dressed in his formal uniform, so he must have stopped by briefly before heading to work.
“How are you feeling? Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Thanks to you, I’m not injured. But I think my stomach is still upset from the hangover.”
When I answered weakly, Alferen looked at me with concern.
“You certainly look like it.”
“What about you, brother? You fell, too, while saving me.”
My gaze naturally drifted toward his wrist.
It was wrapped in bandages, so it didn’t look like he had come away entirely unscathed.
“It’s just a minor bruise.”
“Still, it’s my fault you got hurt…”
“Deli, can I see your hand?”
Alferen gently took my hand and poured a healing potion over the scratch on its back.
Only then did I remember that I’d scraped it. I muttered awkwardly,
“Is it really okay to use such an expensive healing potion on that?”
“Are you seriously worrying about the cost of a healing potion in front of a mage?”
Alferen let out an incredulous laugh.
After all, worrying about the price of a potion in front of someone from the Ainluke family, a prestigious lineage of mages, was rather ridiculous.
