[Chapter 135] That's disgusting

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"Why did she bring up her father so tactlessly?" Doris thought, recalling her father who, despite having one last chance, had rejected the union between her and Roardnes.

A father who couldn't even recognize the potential of a future emperor was better off lying down. Even if he were awake, he would have opposed not only Roardnes's ascension to the throne but also the union between her and Roardnes!

Wasn't the position of Empress, which she would gain by marrying Roardnes as a saint, far more valuable to the Castagna family than the humiliating position of Empress she would get by giving her younger sister, Rafaela, to Epero?

Doris smiled contentedly as she examined her reflection in the mirror.

"Nora, when you went north this time, was Blier still blonde?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

Doris narrowed her eyes and glared at her own black hair.

Blier, too, must have dyed her hair blonde upon learning of Adrien's existence.

'In the end, it's Adrien again.'

Her teeth clenched.

But that was only for a moment. Her fierce eyes gradually softened, and the corners of her lips, painted a pale pink, curled up slightly.

She could perfectly recreate the image of the fair-haired, innocent Adrien Pireta.

With a swift and decisive movement, her slender fingers loosened the knot at the front of her white dress, which was little more than a nightgown.

As her cleavage began to reveal itself, Doris smiled with satisfaction.

"Your Highness, the Second Prince's flag has been moved to the Emperor's Palace."

Doris jumped up from her seat at Nora's words, who had been standing by the window watching the Second Prince's Palace.

"Your Highness?"

Before Nora could stop her, Doris rushed out of the bedroom.

****

The corridor connecting the Emperor's Palace and the Second Prince's Palace.

A sense of excitement, like that of a bride waiting for her groom, filled her.

Doris soon spotted a figure walking towards her, a heavily armed man.

Even in the darkness, she could tell that it was Roardnes.

Doris walked towards him with the grace of a cat.

His deep red eyes met hers.

She was the saint who would quell the flames in those red eyes, the perfect complement to his deficiencies.

"That day would soon come for her."

She stood before Roardnes, who no longer bothered with formalities.

Doris preferred this Roardnes, who didn't bother with formalities, much more than the previous one who was overly courteous.

Finally, she wouldn't have to hear that damned title of 'sister-in-law' anymore.

There was an odd disdain in his eyes, which used to shine with an indifferent sensuality.

Doris chuckled in response.

Just as she had eventually gotten Bardenaldo to submit and silently consent to their union, Roardnes would eventually have to produce an heir once he became emperor.

"Roan, you can't escape it now. The whole world is blessing our union. The alliance between the ominous Second Prince and the Saint. Do you understand how much stability this brings to the empire?"

It was true.

Rumors of the Second Prince becoming the heir had caused unrest among the people, but when the rumor spread that she, the Saint, could control him, people welcomed the revival of the legal system.

With this strategy, she had even managed to absorb the forces that opposed the revival of the law, making them her own. If Roardnes wanted to become emperor without any incident, he would have no choice but to accept Doris, whom they supported.

Doris was certain of her victory.

Who was it who had united the Railon Earl, who had suddenly become a loose end, and the nobles of the West who were anxious about their father's absence?

It was Doris Castagna, herself.

"I did all this for you. To make you emperor. If you knew how hard I worked, you would kiss me right here, right now..."

"Disgusting."

"...What?"

Doris tilted her head, her ears ringing.

There was no trace of even the slightest mockery in Roardnes's face.

His sculpted face, which she had always admired, was still filled with nothing but coldness.

Why? Why?

Doris couldn't believe that Roardnes had rejected her, and her face turned red.

Who made her long for him so much?

"Are you backing out now?"

"...I..."

"You must have hesitated, even once, or many times, right?"

Doris took a step closer to him, her heart pounding with anger.

"So, on the day of Bardenaldo's funeral, in your office, when I tried to undress you and you just stared at me, you were actually waiting for me to take the initiative. Right?"

Doris laughed bitterly, shaking her head.

"Unlike Bardenaldo, who constantly whined for help, Roardnes was not one to ask for favors easily. He was a man who preferred to lean on others."

"So, I assumed he wouldn't easily utter those irritating words, 'please help me'."

"Oh, that."

Roardnes replied lightly, as if recalling yesterday's lunch menu, in contrast to the meaningful tone of her voice. Doris's smile hardened instantly.

"Oh, that?"

Mimicking Roardnes's tone, Doris sneered, finding a trace of Bardenaldo in his words.

"My specialty is killing squirming bugs."

"What are you trying to say?"

"I rather enjoy watching them squirm before I kill them, you see."

"What are you trying to say!"

"I want you to deeply engrave in your mind just how low my sister-in-law can stoop, so that I can stop pretending to be polite."

"...What?"

"I have a rather unpleasant memory. Did you perhaps think that by simply unbuttoning a few shirt buttons, I would be at your beck and call?"

No.

No, this couldn't be happening.

Doris shook her head.

She had wanted so badly to have a good relationship with Roardnes.

Her first love, which she had buried because she couldn't give up the position of Empress, was finally ready to be revealed.

She wanted to make him emperor and enjoy both the position of Empress and the joy of being a woman!

"To me, you're just an annoying fly. Nothing more, nothing less."

There was not a hint of hesitation or regret in Roardnes's face, which should have given up and obeyed.

"I wanted to see how far you would go. The Empress of Ronta seems to have very loose morals. Just because you unbuttoned a few buttons, you thought you could seduce me and went this far? Your audacity is quite impressive."

It was Doris who should be pleading and trying to keep him. It was Doris who would suffer if she made him an enemy.

"I told you. Even if you stripped naked and waited for me, I would never be moved."

As if to emphasize his point, he muttered to himself, "I have very specific tastes, you see."

His beautiful lips made it even more insulting.

She had known it wouldn't be easy.

She had seen how, even when she had everything a noblewoman could desire, Roardnes's eyes never lingered on her.

When she had finally tracked him down at the Royal Academy, she had seen where his gaze rested.

"Adrien Pireta."

It was the first time she had ever envied someone so much that she couldn't sleep.

Doris, the princess of the West, was feeling a sense of inferiority for the first time. A frail, pale, blonde country girl from the East.

From then on, the sophisticated princess of the West began to imitate Adrien.

She was disgusted by Adrien's carefree smile, as if she didn't know who she was playing with or studying with.

The first time she dyed her hair blonde.

Doris hovered around the library where Roardnes and Adrien always met.

And the touch of his hand on her back.

The moment she met Roardnes' eyes, filled with hidden excitement, even behind the mask.

And then the moment she saw his eyes filled with disappointment when he realized it was Doris, not Adrien.

Those brief moments of eye contact, even if they were changed by the mana stone, shone the most beautifully in the world and captured Doris's heart.

"Taste. Yes, taste."

Doris's eyes narrowed viciously.

"I'll match your taste. I'll match that damned taste. Don't you understand? In this world, the only woman who can be most like Adrien Pireta, the only person who can imitate her most closely, is me!"

After that day, no matter what she did, whether it was blonde hair or an Eastern dress, she couldn't catch Roardnes's attention. But Doris kept trying.

She was so used to changing her appearance to look like Adrien Pireta.

When that vulgar woman, Blier Acacia, secured the position of Roardnes's new lover with just a similar face, she felt unbearable jealousy but also hope. Roardnes Kozma de Ronta, he was just a man, after all.

"If I were Adrien Pireta..."

"It doesn't matter if you're not Adrien."

Contempt beyond indifference.

Those eyes, which everyone avoided but which she thought were beautiful.

The jewel she wanted more than any other.

They were shimmering with that color.

"No matter how much you claim to be a saint, even if you bring the dead back to life and wear their skin, it wouldn't be the same."

"I am... I am your soulmate chosen by the gods..."

"If you were truly such a saint, you would at least try to bring the dead back to life."

A kind younger sister.

A polite sister-in-law.

"That mask was completely off, and the raw Roardnes openly mocked her."

It was a careless, disdainful sneer, his slitted, seductive eyes never once softening.

That careless sneer shattered Doris's self-esteem to pieces.

"Unless you reincarnate as the saint Maryni and bring the dead back to life, you can't dream of sitting beside me, you ominous little creature."

She had always disliked Roardnes's excessive politeness, but this was not what she wanted.

His words and actions, as if he were dealing with the most lowly person in the world, mercilessly cut through her heart.

She felt a deep sense of humiliation, as if she were the one who didn't even have the strength to smile.

"Don't ever mention Adrien's name with that mouth of yours again."

"Ro...!"

"If you do it again..."

Roardnes leaned towards her, his massive body looming over her. Fear and excitement bound her, leaving her unable to move.

"I will erase you and your family from this world without a trace."

Roardnes's voice echoed coldly in the corridor.

His body, which had been so close, moved away again. His red eyes, fixed on the open front of her dress, were filled with mockery.

The scent of him, which she had dreamed of, invaded her nostrils and then vanished as if to mock her.

"Roan!"

Roardnes's black cloak fluttered in the wind as he turned and left without looking back.

No matter how much she screamed and wailed, Roardnes simply faded into a dot and disappeared.

Literally.

She was treated worse than a fly.

She had killed a husband who could have been saved if left alone.

She had even tried to kill her father, who was an obstacle to Roardnes's path.

All for him.

She had sacrificed everything.

'There's nowhere else to retreat now.'

Doris stared at the empty space where Roardnes had been, feeling the cold wind.

She had never experienced such humiliation in her life.

Her pale hand clenched into a fist, trembling.

Nora, who seemed to have followed Doris with her coat, approached from a distance.

Doris grabbed the coat that Nora draped over her shoulders and glared at her.

Nora bowed her head silently, waiting for her orders.

"I need to meet the High Priest again, Nora. We need to expedite the Saint's inauguration ceremony."

It was a way of saying she needed to prepare more donations.

Seeing Nora bow her head so servilely, a small part of the anger that had consumed her began to subside.

'At the ceremony to announce the birth of a new saint, Roardnes, you will finally realize that I am the only answer for you.'

A smile crept across her trembling lips.

As Doris indulged in the fantasy of humiliating Roardnes and forcing him to submit, a cold light flickered in Nora's eyes, who had bowed her head in obedience.

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