Chapter 7
Count Betia sat down next to Uriel, and a maid poured tea for both of them.
Haela raised her teacup and added, “If I hadn’t been told, I wouldn’t have known you were here even until today.”
“Is that so? I don’t know why the servants didn’t inform the Princess,” Uriel said in a sarcastic voice.
Haela remained unperturbed and scanned her with a calm gaze. With her wavy red hair and friendly-looking eyes, Uriel was beautiful enough to be unforgettable after one look.
Uriel also looked back at Haela. Haela was short; even when standing with a straight posture, she only reached about the level of Uriel’s nose. Therefore, when they faced each other, Haela had to look up at her, yet Haela’s gaze felt as if she were looking down from a high place.
Seeing the woman before her, the scene of the grand wedding day came to mind again. The guests filling the large hall, the tastefully decorated venue, and Kersian’s appearance in his white wedding suit—it was enough to almost blind someone. The formal dress Haela had worn was more extravagant and beautiful than any dress Uriel had seen in her life.
Remembering all those things that should have been hers, Uriel felt a surge of resentment and even an impulse to kill the woman in front of her. She had heard enough about Kersian’s bride-to-be from the servants of the Duchy she had bribed. Her youthful face was merely pretty, not a peerless beauty, and her small, thin frame was no different from a child’s, so it couldn’t compare to Uriel’s own feminine, full body.
However, even if she was like a child, a member of the Imperial Family was still royalty; the way Haela looked down on people and her pressuring aura were different from what she had heard. Even so, this was a Duchy where the influence of the Imperial Family did not reach, and the master of this land was Kersian. Since she had become the Duchess and settled on this land, she too would have to watch his reactions. Even if her opponent was an arrogant royal, she was nothing more than an interloper, and the person the servants were truly loyal to was herself, not the Princess.
“Uriel.”
Count Betia sent a short warning glance toward Uriel. She turned her head with a pouting face.
“I assume you know why I called the two of you?”
When Haela set down her empty teacup, the maid poured her fresh tea.
Count Betia swallowed hard. His gaze moved past Haela and landed on the knights standing behind her. They were not knights of the Duchy, but escorts brought from the Imperial Palace—men directly assigned to her by the Emperor, who dearly loved his daughter.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t really know,” Count Betia said.
The next moment, Haela splashed her tea onto him.
“Princess, what is the meaning of this?”
Count Betia spoke while trying hard to suppress his anger, but he couldn’t hide his furious tone. Uriel froze with her eyes wide open in shock, and the others were equally surprised.
“You ask what this is? That’s what I should be asking. Instead of begging for forgiveness, you respond so calmly. I’m beyond angry; I’m so bewildered I don’t know how to react.”
“Princess, there seems to be some misunderstanding. Let’s talk again when your excitement has cooled down. I see no reason to stay here and continue receiving such insults, so I will be leaving.”
As Count Betia stood up, Uriel stood up as well. Although it was a rude action, Haela did not point it out. She set her teacup down on the table.
“Count, I am more than capable of judging whether this is a misunderstanding or intentional.”
Haela stood up and faced the two of them.
“Looking at you now, it seems the reason your attitude was so confident was because you thought I was someone you could ignore. To think a mere Count’s family would look down on the Imperial Family so lightly…”
She was smaller than even Uriel, let alone Count Betia, but her aura was not overwhelmed by the two of them.
“I don’t know what will happen if this matter reaches my father’s ears.”
At those words, Count Betia looked at Haela as if he couldn’t believe it. It might be words spat out by a child in a fit of anger, but if she truly did that…
It wasn’t the Chaos Duke’s family; the Betia Count family could not handle the charge of treating the Imperial Family with contempt.
“Princess, it’s a misunderstanding. I have never dared to harbor such a thought. My daughter insisted on taking a separate carriage, so it was something even my wife and I didn’t know about. My daughter made a mistake due to her ignorance, so I beg you to forgive her just this once,” Count Betia said, wiping cold sweat from his forehead.
At his desperate excuse, Haela sneered and shifted her gaze toward Uriel.
“If it was a mistake made out of ignorance, there is room for consideration, but I wonder if the young lady thinks the same.”
Uriel bit her lip. She felt that Count Betia’s reaction was excessive and even damaged her own dignity. It wasn’t that she didn’t feel any fear regarding the Imperial Family, but as long as Kersian was there, she felt the Princess wouldn’t be able to do anything to her.
“Princess, even though a few days have passed since the wedding, it seems you still consider yourself a person of the Imperial Family rather than a person of the Duchy,” Uriel said.
The busy Emperor wouldn’t personally take action over such a small matter. However, if this matter reached others’ ears, Haela’s dignity would hit rock bottom. A mistress who went out of her way to cause trouble for her family would not only incur Kersian’s anger but the servants wouldn’t follow her either.
“When you get married, what changes is your last name, not your bloodline. I am a person of the Imperial Family and the mistress of the Duchy at the same time. Either way, I am not someone a mere noble lady can insult.”
“You are troubling your home family with such a trivial matter after getting married; don’t you worry at all about what others will think? If others find out, they will think the Princess doesn’t care about His Grace or the family at all.”
“A trivial matter? Is ruining the Princess’s wedding a trivial matter to you?”
“If you punish me over just a dress, the person who will lose face is the Princess. Duke Kersian is not someone who would put people in a difficult position over such a small thing, and what the Princess is doing now is also something that hurts His Grace’s dignity. Above all,” Uriel continued with a triumphant face and one corner of her mouth lifted, “I cannot understand why you are questioning a matter that His Grace has already forgiven, now that several days have passed.”
“Hearing what you say, it seems Kersian mediated, but you seem to have misunderstood something. I don’t know about Kersian, but I have never forgiven you. By the way, Count, your daughter’s education is quite a mess.”
Haela looked at them with an unimpressed gaze. Uriel must have used Kersian as a shield thousands of times. Unlike her past self, who was terrified of losing his love and had been looked down upon by Uriel, Haela had grown increasingly withered and patient until she eventually fell ill. She had reached a point where her chest felt tight and it was hard to breathe, requiring her to take medicine.
“The crime of insulting the Imperial Family is not light, but since the Duchy and the Count’s family have interacted for a long time, I intended to call you quietly and decide on a punishment out of consideration for Kersian. However, since you refuse even my last favor, I have no other choice. Thanks to you making me a laughingstock in front of many people, there are plenty of witnesses, so I don’t know whether that’s a blessing or a curse.”
Uriel could no longer endure Haela using the Imperial Family in every sentence, treating her like an inferior, and bringing up Kersian’s name.
“Do you know this? Duke Kersian likes gentle women. So, if he learns about this side of the Princess, he will surely be disappointed.”
Unexpectedly, Haela did not get angry. She replied with an indifferent face.
“When Kersian was courting me, he said he would love me no matter how I looked. And since those are matters between a husband and wife, it is presumptuous for a young lady like you to bring it up.”
At those words, the light in Uriel’s eyes wavered for the first time. She had been in a deep relationship with Kersian for a long time, but instead of choosing her, he had married a woman of higher status. The moment she learned Kersian would marry another woman, her heart felt like it was tearing apart; she resented her own status for the first time and hated Haela enough to want to kill her.
“I am like family to the Duke. Therefore, I believe I can interfere this much.”
