Episode 29
So Damn Beautiful
After the nobles surrounding the two of them withdrew, Heredin handed Katrina a glass filled with wine and spoke first.
“Are you afraid of me, Your Majesty?”
Katrina, sipping the wine she had received from him, burst into laughter as if she had just heard something amusing.
“Afraid? Me? Of you?”
When Heredin looked at Katrina, his wife’s face came to mind. Blair resembled her. At least that devastatingly beautiful face that had once been called a nation-toppling beauty.
The moment he realized that, the woman before him became even more repulsive.
“Isn’t this just brainwashing? Acting as though you fear I might uncover the truth. Saying that I am the nephew of a criminal, and that you graciously forgave me and accepted me as family. As if that were the truth.”
The sight of her trying so hard to suppress him was almost laughable. His mother-in-law still seemed to see him as a fifteen-year-old boy.
Heredin set down his empty glass on the table and added,
“The more transparent the intent, the stronger the backlash becomes.”
Katrina’s face, which had been watching him, lost its smile entirely.
“What you know is the truth. That fact will never change.”
Her voice was filled with certainty, but Heredin, as if he had no intention of engaging further, politely bowed and turned away.
Moving to a quieter corner of the banquet hall, he moistened his dry throat with wine and scanned the room.
His eyes, now accustomed to Blair’s presence, quickly found her even among the crowd.
Blair was speaking with a woman on one side of the hall. The conversation seemed serious, as both of their expressions were quite grave.
But what bothered him more were the men hovering around Blair, glancing at her repeatedly.
Like wolves, waiting to pounce the moment she showed the slightest gap—ready to approach, to speak, to touch her hand.
Just imagining what kind of thoughts were inside those heads made his blood run cold.
At the wedding, Blair had been constantly by his side, so he hadn’t noticed. No matter how depraved their thoughts, they wouldn’t dare approach the bride of the day with the groom right next to her.
But at the victory banquet, it had been different. Those kinds of men had always swarmed around Blair. Only she herself had been unaware of it.
At that moment, someone placed a hand on Heredin’s shoulder as he downed the remaining wine like whiskey.
“Do you like her that much?”
Johannes Felix, the second son of the Felix Marquis family.
To Heredin, he was one of the few strange people who approached him without fear. Johannes, however, seemed to proudly call him a friend.
Heredin didn’t even look at him as he spoke.
“What are you talking about.”
“Your wife. At the victory banquet too—you said you weren’t looking, but you couldn’t take your eyes off her.”
“Ridiculous.”
The answer came out smooth, without the slightest hesitation.
Johannes stared at him in disbelief.
Even now, he couldn’t look away. Even now, he was glaring at the men stealing glances at his wife as if he wanted to kill them all.
Unable to reconcile Heredin’s words with his actions, Johannes came to his own conclusion.
“Well, to be fair, she is beautiful. Who wouldn’t fall for that face, that body?”
Heredin was simply like any other man, drawn to Blair’s appearance.
‘Of course, unlike the others, his wife is the target, so it’s technically legitimate.’
He had never shown interest in any woman before, but his opponent was the most beautiful woman in the empire—the imperial princess. It made sense.
“If I’m being honest, if she wanted to, she could probably make every man in this banquet kneel at her feet…”
As Johannes rambled as if understanding everything, Heredin’s gaze turned even colder, and Johannes quickly added,
“Ah, I mean, not me. I do have some dignity. I’m not some shameless bastard who’d have impure thoughts about my friend’s wife.”
Johannes hurriedly raised his glass toward Heredin’s, smiling awkwardly.
Heredin looked at him with utter disdain, as if witnessing something painfully pathetic.
Without clinking glasses, he set his down and turned away. Johannes’ glass froze awkwardly in midair.
“Hey, where are you going? It’s been so long since we’ve met!”
Ignoring Johannes’ voice calling after him, Heredin headed toward where Blair had been—
Then stopped.
She was gone.
“Haah…”
Blair’s breath turned white in the cold winter air of the balcony.
‘Dizzy…’
She had come outside to clear the alcohol with the cold wind, but instead her body felt warmer, as if the alcohol had intensified. Her head was foggy.
She lightly slapped both of her cheeks and sighed.
“What do I do… If I go back in like this, people will think I’m a drunk…”
She normally had a low alcohol tolerance. While talking to others, she must have unknowingly drunk more than she could handle.
She didn’t feel completely drunk, but she couldn’t return to the banquet in this state.
Among nobles, getting visibly drunk at a banquet was considered disgraceful. That was why the wine served at such events was usually light.
And yet she had gotten drunk on that.
‘I need to go back soon…’
But instead, sleepiness began to creep in.
Just as Blair was about to drift off, the door clicked open and someone stepped onto the balcony.
“…Lina?”
Thinking it was Lina returning with water, Blair froze when she saw who it was.
“Who do we have here? Our Princess?”
Wesley of the Baldwin Marquis family.
He had always been friendly toward her since she was a princess, but now he reeked of alcohol as he approached.
“People say women become more beautiful when they understand men more… You’ve become even more beautiful after marriage.”
His staggering steps and half-lidded eyes sent a bad feeling through her.
“…I should head back first.”
Blair carefully articulated each word despite her slurred tongue. There was no benefit in revealing she was drunk to someone approaching her with obvious intent.
But Wesley blocked her path.
“Don’t be like that. It’s such a shame to meet like this. Please spare me some time.”
“I’m sorry, I’ve been gone too long…”
“Wow, playing hard to get, huh?”
Wesley grabbed her wrist roughly. The intoxicated Blair couldn’t resist and was easily pulled toward him.
“Let go!”
“You’re not a virgin anymore, so why act so innocent? Let’s be honest about desire, Madam.”
As he dragged her, someone suddenly grabbed Wesley’s wrist from behind. The grip was so strong it seemed it could break bone.
Wesley was forced to let go of Blair’s wrist.
“Ugh… Who the hell—!”
He swung his fist toward the intruder—but froze when he saw him.
Heredin stood there with a face colder than the winter wind.
“Who the hell, you ask…”
Heredin kicked Wesley in the stomach, sending him rolling across the balcony floor.
Wesley tried to get up, but was kicked down again.
Heredin knelt down to meet his eyes.
“This woman’s husband.”
Then he raised his fist.
“Clench your teeth.”
Just then—
Hic!
Blair, startled by the situation, hiccupped loudly.
Heredin’s fist paused midair.
“…”
“…”
Only Blair’s hiccups echoed in the silence.
Heredin slowly lowered his hand. Instead, he grabbed Wesley by the hair and leaned in close.
“If I hear even one more sound out of you, you won’t be able to taste anything with that tongue again.”
His voice was so low Blair couldn’t hear it.
He released Wesley’s head and stood up.
Blair was still hiccupping.
Even like that, she was beautiful.
Trembling eyes like spilled water, flushed cheeks from the cold, slightly parted lips.
And then Johannes’ words echoed in his mind.
‘Honestly, she is beautiful. Who wouldn’t fall for that face?’
Yes.
That was it.
She was damn beautiful.
So damn beautiful that this mess had happened.
If all the men inside the banquet hall were staring at her with the same filthy desire as Wesley, he felt the urge to rip their eyes out.
Before that happened, he wanted to lock her somewhere only he could see.
Of course, he knew it was a mad thought.
Suppressing his boiling emotions, Heredin took her hand.
“…Come with me.”
