Chapter 7
Serge, My Love
Seeing Leon nod with a grave expression, it seemed he had managed to stop the Crown Prince.
In truth, the Crown Prince, who held absolute authority, had been weighing heavily on Lucent’s mind.
If left unchecked, he would have stormed in and shouted, “This marriage is invalid.”
How would Applin react to such a Crown Prince?
Would she burst into tears, clutch the hem of her white dress, and run toward him?
All kinds of pessimistic imaginings tormented Lucent.
If such a tragedy were to occur, he swore he would never forgive the two people who had scarred his life.
‘If the Crown Prince comes back to you again, what will you do?’
With a slightly stiffened expression, Lucent fixed his gaze on the beautiful bride’s face.
Applin tilted her head in confusion, since only moments ago they had been smiling at each other.
Lucent’s greenish-blue eyes wavered with unease as he looked at Applin.
Yet it was strange.
The more her widened eyes sparkled, the more his tangled emotions seemed to be purified.
“Lucent, you don’t look well.”
“Is something wrong…?”
At Applin’s question, Lucent merely let out a faint chuckle instead of answering.
Soon after, he pressed a sacred kiss upon his beautiful bride.
For a brief moment, the stiffness vanished from Lucent’s face entirely, and his lips were hot, like a glass warmed by fire.
He kissed Applin with force, as though branding her, and the guests applauded even louder at the beautiful sight unfolding before them.
When Lucent finally pulled away, Applin’s face was flushed all the way to her ears.
With just one kiss, the blue apple had ripened red, a most pleasing sight.
Meanwhile, Lucent’s mind was filled with calculations layered with schemes and cold reasoning.
‘It’s over.’
For the Crown Prince, who might be lurking somewhere in the Grand Temple, Lucent curved his lips into a triumphant smile.
As if mocking the Crown Prince’s despair at failing to stop Applin’s marriage, Lucent kissed her once more.
The crowd erupted into loud murmurs of shock.
It was clearly an attempt to turn everyone present at the wedding into witnesses.
Applin smiled broadly, her face twitching slightly at the surprise kiss that ended like a sudden show.
Today, she had to appear as the happiest bride in the world.
Yet somehow, that earlier kiss felt less like Lucent’s true feelings and more like a deliberate act.
‘Did something bad happen…?’
Though momentarily confused, Applin decided that finishing the wedding safely was more important.
She tucked her worries away into a corner of her heart.
Meanwhile, Lucent’s heart twisted and surged in a strange way.
It felt as though he had firmly protected a right that was rightfully his.
The fulfillment of the sacred kiss spread through his chest like heat.
A flawless, beautiful apple.
He sensed an ominous premonition that she might completely shake the balance and order of his life.
More precisely, it was not entirely ominous, but rather thrilling in an unsettling way.
Though cool-headed reason had always prevailed, his calculations became meaningless, and ripples formed across his once-calm emotions.
After completing Lucent’s instructions precisely, Leon did not openly rejoice, but instead let out a sigh of relief.
By doing exactly as his master had told him, he had avoided committing the grave crime of harming a member of the royal family.
He informed Lucent that the Crown Prince would soon storm into the Grand Temple, and was just about to head out to carry out further orders when Lucent called him back.
‘Sometimes, you cannot see a method.’
‘That is because you are trying to find the solution in the present.’
‘Pardon?’
‘What do you mean, sir?’
‘Make the Crown Prince’s past tighten around his ankle like a snare.’
Up until then, Leon had not fully understood Lucent’s words.
The Crown Prince’s past…?
Could he not be more specific?
Just then, as if seeing straight through Leon’s thoughts, Lucent approached him with his hands tucked into his trousers.
‘Marita Belmont.’
‘She is a client of our bank.’
Only then did Leon’s eyes light up.
What Lucent had meant by resolving things with a single phone call, without harming the Crown Prince, became reality.
Marita, eager to reclaim her lost love, willingly stepped in front of Serge.
Thus, the person who blocked Serge as he raced to reclaim Applin was none other than Marita.
‘Serge, my love…!’
It was a voice filled with sorrow, yet tinged with coquetry.
Marita refused to move from in front of his car until Serge finally revealed himself.
After a persistent battle of wills, the two inevitably faced each other.
As expected, Serge and Marita ended up crying, shouting, and raising their voices, causing a scandalous lovers’ quarrel in the middle of Round City.
‘Serge….’
Marita rushed toward the Crown Prince and wrapped both arms around his neck.
‘How dare you.’
‘Address me as Your Highness now.’
‘Serge, didn’t you say status differences, hardships, and trials didn’t matter?’
‘Didn’t you say love is sacred and can overcome any adversity?’
Marita wept endlessly.
There was a time when Serge had pitied her tears.
However, he could never forget the two children who had burst into the room while he was in bed with Marita.
It was not the picture he had desired.
Marita Belmont, a lowly yet beautiful singer.
A tragic heroine, a love bitter as poison yet unwavering.
It should have been as heartrending as a poem from a bygone romantic era.
Yet those children had been a vile scheme Marita had hidden away.
‘I am still in love.’
‘It is simply with someone else.’
‘That feeling itself is not a sin.’
He never imagined he would say to Marita the same words he had once said to Applin.
Yet his belief in his own love had not changed.
‘Then why did you abandon me?’
‘Was the existence of my children what drove you to despair?’
‘Not despair.’
‘More like humiliation.’
‘That’s cruel…!’
Marita finally broke down in hot tears, and Serge looked at her with displeasure as he spoke.
‘Would you please disappear from before my eyes?’
‘Madam Belmont.’
He needed to rush to the Grand Temple immediately and rescue Applin from the villain’s grasp.
Yet Marita caught him off guard with unexpected words.
‘I’m pregnant.’
‘Serge, it’s your child.’
‘Ha….’
Serge laughed in bewilderment, then slowly twisted his face in disgust.
With revulsion dripping from his tone, he said to Marita,
‘Are you certain it’s my child?’
‘It’s obvious this is nothing more than a prostitute’s vulgar trick.’
Only after obtaining the crucial information that Marita was carrying Serge’s child did Leon withdraw from the scene.
Once Lucent’s wedding ended, he reported everything immediately.
In any case, thanks to Marita’s appearance, the Crown Prince failed to stop Applin’s marriage.
‘The Crown Prince’s obstinacy will not end so easily.’
Lucent judged it too early to feel at ease.
Those unfamiliar with failure and frustration sought only joy and pleasure even in love, while turning away from anguish and hatred.
The Crown Prince also had the bad habit of neatly wrapping things up alone, in the simplest way possible.
Until he reclaimed what he believed was his, he would throw tantrums and struggle like a child.
Until the other party grew sick of it.
After concluding a wedding grand enough to leave Round City buzzing, Applin and Lucent decided against an extravagant honeymoon.
Although they had rescued Count von Hafen from the rebel forces of Senevaron, there had been no word since, making it impossible to relax wholeheartedly.
Instead, at Lucent’s suggestion, they chose to spend a modest week of rest at a Blackcarson-owned villa in Haven.
Yet inside the car heading toward Haven, a chill lingered in the air.
Hardly like newlyweds, the two sat in awkward silence, each staring out their own window.
‘Why did he make that expression?’
Applin could not forget the sneer Lucent wore just before he kissed her.
‘Since when did I become so sensitive to Lucent’s mood?’
Even so, she could not help but worry.
Though she knew full well it was a foolish, unattainable desire, she did not want to be ignored.
Those vague emotions made Applin suddenly feel pathetic.
‘I could just ask him.’
Noblewomen were raised believing that easily revealing one’s emotions was a lack of modesty.
‘Yet I sold my life without hesitation….’
‘How ridiculous, truly.’
“Lucent.”
Applin cautiously called his name first.
