He had never used such aggressive words before.
Every word sounded unfamiliar, and even the prince was completely surprised.
No matter how urgent the situation was, the Duke always observed procedure and etiquette.
What made him act like a madman?
The prince looked at him with a puzzled expression before he finally managed to catch his breath.
“Are you really suggesting that you want to kill Rachel, even if you say it out loud?”
"Yes."
Clint's response was brief and decisive.
“Are you ready to kill in front of me?”
The prince was also apprehensive of the duke's willingness to shed blood.
However, he remained steadfast in his stance, as if he was not affected.
Rachel, already exhausted by color, sat trembling behind the prince.
I knew it instinctively. She knew Clint really intended to kill her.
"Please step aside. I have to kill this girl here today."
Cold warning for the second time.
Clint tilted his chin towards Rachel, holding the sword on the ground, and focused his gaze on her.
“Rachel.”
“…”
Her boldness had completely disappeared, replaced by the fear of impending death.
"Do you remember? The day you tried to kill me. The day you pushed me into the lake like that."
He pretended to slowly trace the air using the hand that wasn't holding the sword as he spoke.
He felt that the events of that night, of his youth, were strangely vivid.
At the time, Rachel was much taller and stronger than him. Clint probably would have wished for a day like today, helpless and weak.
“You made me fall, didn't you? Because the situation had changed and it was amusing for you.”
Clint laughed.
The dim moonlight cast a shadow that seemed to extend straight toward Rachel.
At that time, he had no choice but to listen to her to save his life. But the frail days of his youth are long gone.
He had been planning to get rid of Rachel for a while. And the only reason he kept Rachel alive so far was because of one reason.
He was by nature a person who liked everything he did to have an elegant ending. He hated anything that could cause chaos or lead to gossip about what he did.
So he put a lot of effort into finding the right time and the right way to deal with Rachel. Killing someone was not easy, even if she was a duke's concubine.
But everything was already twisted.
“…”
So now, it no longer seemed important to him if everyone saw him killing Rachel right in front of their eyes.
He concluded that she was the cause of all the problems.
Clint scoffed again.
“However, I tried to protect your honor. You are the one who chose a miserable death.”
Clint changed the speed of his walk.
Now he was really going to kill Rachel. Although the prince tried to stop him, it seemed as if he saw nothing. Clint stood in front of Rachel and immediately raised his sword without giving her a chance to catch her breath.
The end of the sword was heading towards Rachel in an instant.
“Stop, what are you doing!”
At the moment the sword was about to pierce Rachel's throat, the door opened, and elite knights wearing purple cloaks entered.
Originally, the place was spacious, but with so many people pouring in, it quickly became cramped.
From behind the elite knights appeared the Emperor himself, the Emperor appeared with an extremely angry face.
Because of all the commotion the knight had made, enough time had passed for news to reach him.
"duke!"
The Emperor appeared, waving his red cloak, and headed towards Clint, addressing him.
The Emperor was naturally standing in front of Clint.
This allowed Rachel to breathe a sigh of relief. Her face, which had grown pale, seemed to have regained some color.
“Hello, Your Majesty.”
The Duke's greeting upon the Emperor's arrival was far from his usual nature.
He replaced his usual polite and gentle demeanor with a slightly sarcastic tone. It was clear that he was mocking the person in front of him, who was clearly the Emperor.
Even though he knew that the man in front of him was the Emperor, he still pointed his sword at him.
The Emperor raised his hand and blocked Clint's sword that was pointed at his head with the back of his hand. Clint remained alert, still pointing his sword at Rachel.
The Emperor once again stepped forward, blocking his gaze.
"Let's talk. Isn't this your favorite thing? There's nothing that can't be solved with words, right? Why are you suddenly like this, Duke?"
“There are things that cannot be solved with words, Your Majesty.”
“Yes, yes. I understand everything. There must be a reason why the Duke, who usually speaks so rationally and wisely, acts this way. Then talk to me!”
“…”
The Emperor stepped forward to convince Clint. Unlike before, he approached the Duke closer with a gentle smile.
“If Rachel does something wrong, I will definitely punish her. So there’s no need for you to do it to yourself like this!”
“Hmm.”
Clint didn't seem particularly interested in what the Emperor was saying.
Rachel, who stood up slowly, turned away from the Duke with the prince's support, and Clint, who was watching her intently, narrowed his eyebrows in annoyance.
"duke!"
The Emperor called back impatiently to Clint, who wasn't paying attention to his words.
“Rachel, or rather, even mentioning that name now seems dirty to me.”
Just then, Clint turned his gaze to the Emperor and spoke.
“Maybe she would know it even without me pointing out what I did wrong, Your Majesty. But what you should worry about is not her.”
The Emperor also narrowed his eyes upon hearing Clint's words.
“If Rachel… if His Highness was involved in her wrongdoing, how would she deal with it? Would she punish both of them?”
"…What!"
The Emperor exclaimed in slight confusion.
“If I had killed that girl here, Your Majesty, you might have thanked me because you wouldn’t even know about the Duke’s concubine. You would have been buried there.”
Even though he said it in an indirect tone, Clint's words were very clear in their meaning.
If there was a mistake on the prince's part, from the emperor's point of view, it was a clear threat that he might cause problems when he became emperor later.
“You never run out of words, do you?”
“No, I definitely don't.”
"Why are you doing this? And even if Rachel did something wrong…"
The Emperor, who was fully aware of the Duke's prestige these days, did not show it, but he was internally tense. He took a deep breath for a moment and spoke again.
"You have no right to meddle in women's affairs! It seems that the matter concerns the Duke's wife. For example, if something happened between the Duke's wife and Rachel! You should have let the Duke's wife handle it! Isn't that the right thing to do?"
“…”
The Emperor's words were not entirely wrong. Among the nobles, husbands never intervened in problems between their wives.
But in this case, it seemed a bit awkward to put it that way. When I heard Clint's words from the Emperor's point of view, it was clear that they were meant to be threatening.
“You should not dismiss this matter as a simple matter of women. Because of that woman, I might have lost my successor. And if my child truly dies, you should know that I have no intention of excluding His Highness from responsibility, Your Majesty.”
Perhaps due to his father's influence, his obsession sometimes seemed a bit pathological to others.
The Emperor smiled awkwardly and spoke slowly.
"Who doesn't know that loving one's child is a great thing? If Rachel was in her right mind, this wouldn't have happened. There must be a misunderstanding. I will take care of it."
The Emperor could not ignore the Duke's status, so he suppressed his intense anger to persuade him. At the same time, he hoped that his son, Crown Prince Layton Phillips, would not do anything foolish.
At this moment, the Duke's political power was not strong enough to confront the imperial power. He did not want any unrest until the Crown Prince ascended the throne.
“No, I'll take care of my own business. I'll leave now.”
Realizing that arguing here would be futile, the Duke nodded briefly and turned away, maintaining proper etiquette.