# 79
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Having been born a prince, Andrew had never been hit in the chest like this.
After a long, painful cough, he looked at Kenneth with bloodshot eyes.
“Brother! You, you, crazy…!”
“You haven't had a sense for a long time, Andrew Claude.”
“Ugh, ugh!”
“You had no sense when you kidnapped my wife.”
"or…!"
“And to bring in women who look like Ariana…”
Kenneth swallowed hard.
[He told us to feel honored because he treats us like a princess]
So said one of the maids who was hit with a candle holder.
It was a fact that Kenneth should have known but didn't want to know. I only realize now.
He hated Ariana, thinking she was “living happily as the prince’s beloved,” but the truth he was hearing now was much worse.
He believed the lie as truth, and missed every opportunity to hear the truth directly from her. This fact made him feel extremely miserable.
When Andrew saw Kenneth's misery seeping through like a crack, he began to laugh derisively. For the first time, he felt that he had finally defeated Kenneth Clifford, so he laughed ugly.
“Ha-ha-ha…!”
“Yes, now you remember? Ariana knows now too, right? That her life was ruined because of you.”
Kenneth's turquoise eyes, which had been looking at the dirty mud emotionlessly, lit up with a strange light at these words.
“You thought all along that your life was ruined because of that girl, didn't you?”
“No, Kenneth… I supported the Aberdeen family because I knew you were all about that girl.”
Since childhood, the Little Duke had been arrogant as if he could own everything.
But when Andrew discovered that this man was infatuated with a girl from a viscount family low in the capital's ranks, he thought: If I steal that girl and destroy her, wouldn't that be the biggest blow to Kenneth Clifford's pride?
“If you weren't interested in her, you wouldn't have touched her. So, it's a life you ruined.”
"And yet, damn it, she wasn't even your fiancée. I was laughing at the sight of her crying waiting for you... What did you do, Kenneth?"
“Come on, tell me the secret. How did you attract her so much that she would rather die than be under the prince?”
Kenneth looked silently at the talking insect on the ground.
But in his mind, he was thinking about the card in his coat pocket.
[To dear Kenneth,
In the season of blooming flowers, I hope the warm sun has been shining on you today]
She couldn't even talk to him without using the excuse of flowers.
That girl who suddenly started calling him “Mr. Duke,” and was no longer pleading with him, and acting as if she was not afraid of death, almost drove him crazy.
A petty trick. A rebellion that drives him crazy...that's how he saw her, and he kept pressuring Ariana relentlessly.
He mocked her, saying that she longed to be a mistress, or wanted to become governess to his heir one day.
But Ariana didn't need to hold onto him, she had no reason to do so.
She was not guilty, so why did she have to keep ing him and live in fear?
“The night before the engagement, I just tried to be nice to her, but she threw a fit, so I got angry...”
Why does every word this bastard utters make Kenneth feel more miserable?
He made fun of the photo of Ariana in her engagement article, smiling as if she longed to be a princess, but he felt bad that she ended up as his wife.
'Stupidity needs a certain level to be forgiven.'
He was blind to the truth even though his eyes were open, and this stupidity deserved eternal ridicule.
Ariana was smiling desperately to survive.
He couldn't see it...
Meanwhile, when Andrew saw Kenneth's silence, he changed his tone and cringed again.
"But Kenneth, I swear I didn't really touch it. I didn't enjoy it."
“I only hit her a little...no scars, you know that well, right?”
“So, you have nothing to lose.”
His attempt to infiltrate the imperial palace failed.
But a high noble could not publicly kill a member of the imperial family, no matter how deep the grudge was, this was unacceptable in the upper class of Cremisia.
“Weren't you going to discuss it with my father and me? Then, I should be fine-”
So, Andrew thought that Kenneth Clifford would not kill him here.
But when he raised his head with an obsequious smile, a spark lit up before his eyes.
Severe pain washed over his face after his stomach, and his vision went white.
He was used to seeing others beg in front of him, but he had never suffered the crack of a whip from his imperial parents.
“Ah… ah!”
“I haven't lost anything, you say?”
Kenneth muttered coldly, looking at the bastard lying on the ground like a rag.
He used others as an excuse until the end, but the one who wanted the Clifford family to fall was this bastard.
And now Kenneth Ariana lost, and says he "lost nothing"?
He should have been looking for her instead of wasting time with this insect…
[Taking a dead person's things isn't a crime, right?]
Ariana, dead?
'Impossible.'
It was a woman who found a pawn shop despite her injury, and sold everything she had of value. If she didn't have the will to live, she wouldn't have done it.
So, I can't believe what that damned tramp says.
These bastards are good at making plausible excuses.
So…
“I will find my woman.”
Kenneth had only two options left.
Either he finds Ariana alive.
Or at least find her body.
“Until then, you will keep crawling at the bottom so I won’t give up.”
* * *
After the events in Port Elysia ended, Theodora was released on bail.
Despite the consistency of the maids’ testimonies, it was not possible to impose an “appropriate punishment” on a lady from an ancient family for committing heinous acts.
Theodora came out of the police station in a wrinkled dress. But when she found no one waiting for her, she bit her lips from this shameful situation.
“Ha...”
How could the Clifford family, who considered her a “true lady,” and the Byrne family’s only daughter, be left out like this? Especially with the rain, which made the scene even more depressing, and the looks of passers-by...
'How dare they...'
People were looking at her with eyes full of blatant curiosity, but when their eyes met, they would rush to turn their heads as if they saw something shameful.
Theodora, who had been treated like a queen all her life, had never imagined such a humiliating moment. She continued walking, wiping the annoying rain from her dress and face.
When the Byrne family's butler came late to receive her, Theodora took cover under his umbrella and asked in a nervous tone: “Where is my father? Hasn't he called you?”
“Miss...”
The butler lowered his head in embarrassment.
During the days Theodora spent in prison, the Byrne family became a mess, and she was unfortunate to be angry that her father did not come to her aid himf.
“Miss, I apologize, but the main house in the capital is under siege by creditors. The master does not have the ability to come here himf-”
“Creditors...! What is this talk?”
Theodora's eyes widened at a word she did not expect. But as the butler continued to speak, the color on her face faded.
It was the commercial rights offered by the Duke of Clifford as a reward for helping him regain his position that supported the Byrne family.
When signs of treason appeared, the Duke quickly withdrew these rights from the Count's family, without giving the Count time to convert them into other assets.
These rights were what boosted investors' confidence to expand the business.
But when the Duke suddenly withdrew it, the cruise venture that relied on investments collapsed.
The butler could not tell her that angry creditors had destroyed the drawing room and some valuable rooms in the Count's house.
'And saying they are pimps...'
Among the angry creditors were extraordinary servants.
How could the empire's most noble lady lead an attack on unknown maids as the prince's playthings?
So, returning to the capital now was suicidal for Theodora. Even the Summer Palace in the south was in a state of turmoil.