The End of Your Arrogance - Chapter 54

“Your Highness, the Illusionist has left the headquarters of the Holy Knights and returned to the Dark Citadel. He’s there now.”

“For how long?” Elias inquired.

“Pardon?” The knight didn’t quite grasp the question.

“I asked how long he stayed in the quarters of the Holy Knight Commander.”

The knight seemed to tremble, hearing the tone in Elias’s voice.

“About 30 minutes, Your Highness. They didn’t stay long. The Vice Commander of the Holy Knights escorted the Illusionist Mage to the Dark Citadel.”

“Very well, you may leave.”

As the knight departed, Elias reclined on the couch in his bedroom. He covered his eyes with his hand and let his body sag.

“I’ve never felt this filthy before.”

Not even when he’d heard rumors about his own wife and his stepbrother in Tartar. It felt like he needed to tear apart the silver-haired man to ease this rage within him.

There was no denying it anymore.

Evelyn Maduse, his wife, was poisoned.

She was nothing more and nothing less than a living sedative, slowly seeping into his life and eroding his sanity day by day.

Sometimes he wanted to be affectionate, especially after returning from the long wars. After all, his wife had given him the gift of a peaceful daily life.

A life that bore no resemblance to Maduse… to the Maduse bloodline.

Yes, occasionally, he would forget that his wife was a Maduse. There were times he even yearned to snap that delicate neck of hers.

In moments like these, when the fragile thorns tried to escape his grasp, he was plagued by cruel impulses, just like now.

His heart, torn between coming and going a dozen times a day, threatened to drive him mad.

Elias rose from the couch and urgently opened the door, and the eyes of the guard knights outside widened.

“Your Highness, where are you going?”

The knights followed him anxiously as he walked away.

*****

Elias stood at the entrance of the Eternal Tournament, enduring the pouring rain. Raindrops trickled down his meticulously sculpted face like polished stone.

“Your Highness, aren’t you going inside?” a knight asked.

“I’ll go in alone. Don’t follow me.”

Ignoring the protests of the knights, Elias ventured into the entrance of the tournament grounds. With each step he took, magical torches lit up automatically.

Elias’s gaze fell upon a portrait of his stepbrother, now so battered that it was barely recognizable. In life, he had been an adversary Elias could hardly fathom defeating. But in death, he had become this pitiable figure.

Continuing past the portrait of his stepbrother, Elias came to a halt before another painting. It depicted a man with an expression utterly unlike his own—sensitive and irritable. Elias chuckled softly, addressing the man in the painting.

“It’s been a while, Father.”

Raindrops fell from Elias’s hair, one by one.

“Do you mock me as you look at my pitiful state?”

His father’s painted image remained silent.

Elias had harbored contempt for his father since he could remember. His mother was no different, but this man, the so-called Duke, with a wife and a son, had shown his true colors through his disgraceful actions driven by such insignificant emotions.

“When you first met Mother, What was it like?”

The man in the painting offered no response, but Elias felt he might have an inkling of the answer now.

Elias began to name his emotions one by one.

Interest.

The pull of his heart towards something, his gaze repeatedly drawn in that direction.

“Did your gaze keep going back to Mother?”

“Just like I did.” He swallowed his last words.

“Did you keep thinking about her, longing to see her?”

The burning desire to see someone

Elias quietly gazed at the man in the painting.

“So, did you think you should possess her, forcibly if necessary?”

Possession. Wanting something to be yours, to belong to you.

Finally, Elias asked his father. He hesitated for a long time as if his lips couldn’t part.

“Father, after you took her body, How did you feel?”

He already knew the answer.

After taking her body, he must have coveted her heart. And when they tried to possess each other’s hearts, what happened?

“It’s okay to have a sense of ownership, but not beyond that.”

As he always did, he buried the monstrous emotion that had almost devoured him deep within.

Eyes as deep and turbulent as a stormy sea returned to their usual coolness.

The emotions he held for his soon-to-be-divorced wife were limited to interest, longing, and possession. That was it.

With that conclusion, he turned away from the man he couldn’t stand to look at.

As he left the Eternal Tournament, Elias once again became the composed Duke of Ajauntice.

It wasn’t until midnight on the following day that Elias emerged from his bedroom. He sat down in his study chair without bothering to properly dry his wet hair.

As his damp hair grazed his forehead, he recalled the delicate white hands that used to towel him dry.

“Now it haunts me incessantly, just like that,” he thought, wincing as if his head would split open. In the past, immersing himself in a warm bath had offered some relief from his headaches, but now even that proved futile.

Elias absentmindedly reached for the painkiller bottle on the table. On the opposite side, Stas quietly rose from his seat and poured water from the kettle into a cup, handing it to Elias.

“It seems you had quite a bit to drink last night.”

Elias blinked at Stas’s words.

“Your Highness, would you like to take a short break?”

“Anyway, I can’t sleep.”

His last words were barely audible.

“Perhaps I should ask for the Mistress’ help.” Stas entertained a ludicrous thought. After the commotion last night, it was as if he were fanning the flames in a burning house.

“By now, the rumors about the Duke must have spread throughout the entire realm.”

“Not just the realm,” Stas said sardonically.

Normally, rumors, especially scandalous ones like adultery or poisoning, spread quickly. But the rumors about the bizarre events of last night had spread at an astonishing pace.

Tears of blood from the former Duke’s portrait had become the stuff of legend, spreading like wildfire throughout the entire Sais Empire.

The young war hero, his deceased stepbrother, and the enemy general’s daughter had become the subjects of countless ballads and songs. In the social circles of the capital, not knowing their story meant being excluded from conversations.

Meanwhile, the central figure of the scandal sat there with an indifferent expression.

After a brief hesitation, Stas continued, “Your Highness, the rumors regarding your relationship with the former Duke… they are absurd.”

Elias burst into unexpected laughter. “A love triangle involving a dead man? That’s utter nonsense.”

Stas tried to calm Elias down. “Your Highness, it might be wise to be discreet when discussing your relationship with the former Duke in the future. Many eyes are watching you now.”

Elias ran a frustrated hand through his hair.

“Rumors involving the Mistress will likely die down if more scandalous scandals emerge. But poisoning is a different case. If we mishandle it, things could get…”

Knock, knock.

The sound of a door being knocked interrupted them. Elias glared at the door with irritation.

“Your Highness, the Commander of the Holy Knights, requests an audience.”

A glimmer of life briefly crossed Elias’s gray eyes.

Stas couldn’t help but wonder if the two of them had always been so at odds.

“They may exchange harsh words, but they seemed to get along well in their younger years.”

Elias bit his lip and then shouted towards the door.

“We have a visitor, so leave.”

A bewildered Stas cautiously observed Elias’s reaction.

“Your Highness, it would be advisable to discuss last night’s events with Lord Lauren. No, it’s imperative.”

Elias didn’t flinch. Stas spoke firmly.

“If mishandled, it could strain your relationship with Baron Lauren. There are even rumors that the former Duke was poisoned. Your Highness, are you listening to me?”

It was as if Elias couldn’t hear anything. The knight knocked on the door again.

“Your Highness, I apologize, but Sir Lauren insists it’s an urgent matter.”

Elias erupted in frustration.

“I don’t want to see anyone right now! Tell them to leave!”

With a loud crash, Elias picked up a vase from the table and hurled it. The vase shattered into pieces with a sharp sound.

“Commander, please! You should not enter!” the knight pleaded.

But then, the man Elias wanted to see the least appeared at the door, his face peeking inside.

“In the Duke’s mansion, we do not entertain guests in this manner.”

“Commander of the Holy Knights, that’s my statement. It’s not appropriate to visit without notice.”

Nikolas entered confidently, step by step.

Stas was taken aback when he looked at Nikolas’s face. It was a face with dark circles under the eyes, a stark contrast to his usual cheerful demeanor.

Stas stood up and greeted Nikolas. “I regret what happened last night.”

“While I’ve seen my fair share of oddities in my role as Commander of the Holy Knights, it pains my heart to see such an incident involving my nephew.”

Elias hadn’t even offered him a seat, but Nikolas casually sat down on the opposite side.

Sensing the tension in the room, Stas spoke up. “Your Highness, I will leave the rest for another time.”

“Sure, just go.”

As Stas left, a heavy silence filled the room.

“I’ve come to relay Baron Lauren’s testimony.”

“The rumors spread quickly. Have they already reached the western regions?”

As Elias grumbled, Nikolas furrowed his brow deeply. Both of them had completely lost their usual composure.

“It’s not the cursed portrait, but the cloth fragments found in the cabin.”

Taptap,

Elias’s fingers began to tap on the armrest of the chair.

“We can’t be certain if those cloth fragments belonged to my brother.”

“Based on the circumstances, it’s likely they belonged to your nephew. The bloodstains on them are also consistent.”

Elias fell silent.

“Your Highness, I’ve been thinking carefully about what happened last night.”

Taptaptap, the fingers tapping the armrest sped up at the mention of “last night.”

Nikolas continued, undeterred by Elias’s agitation.

“No, not just last night, but from the moment we visited the cabin in the Duchess’s garden.”

Elias shot back, “Lauren, what exactly are you trying to say?”

“My lord, my nephew didn’t die of natural causes, even if it happened several months ago.”

The gazes of the two men clashed fiercely in the empty air.