Demon Prince's Forsaken Bride-Chapter 64: A Deeper Conspiracy (2)

Seeing her exhausted appearance, he pursed his lips for a moment before saying, ’’You have worked very hard tonight. Just sleep. I will handle the things from here.’’

She did not reply to him, nor did she spare him a glance. He clenched and unclenched his fist before he turned to leave. But the moment he had turned around, the woman suddenly called out to him from behind.

"Your Highness, what do you want to do with the crown prince?"

Azrael’s eyes narrowed and he strode towards the bed, covering the distance between them, ’’You must not say such things carelessly,’’ he chided, albeit in a tone that seemed to lack his usual indifference.

Lareina’s brows furrowed, ’’Earlier, those people claimed that the royal court had sent no one significant to resolve this matter. But the crown prince was here for a long time. And even if he stayed here in a disguise and failed to eradicate the ghost, it would be impossible that his presence did not make the slightest difference in lessening the consequences of the current situation. However, from what the people said, it seemed that the crown prince was never here to begin with and then they managed to send you here. Isn’t it like sending you to your death, waiting till you die to reap the fruits of your efforts and...’’

Her words were cut off when the man suddenly pressed his palm on her mouth.

’’Not another word,’’ he warned, his voice low, ’’Whether I die or not is a future affair but if someone heard you saying such things...’’ He did not continue, seeing how her eyes had widened.

Those hazel eyes seemed to sparkle with unshed tears. The lips under his palm moved a little, tickling his skin, making him feel like a cat had scratched his heart.

Now this woman was finally afraid after saying all these outrageous things? Azrael thought to himself but after a moment, he sighed and retracted his palm that was covering her mouth.

However, the woman who was, in his thoughts, supposed to be afraid, inched away from him with a look of disgust on her face as she eyed his hand. She quietly fetched her silk handkerchief and rubbed her mouth a couple of times, elegant at first and then a little roughly.

Azrael shot her a scathing glare before he got up and walked out of the room. Once he was at a distance, he stopped in his tracks. Looking to his left and right, he brought his hand closer to his nose and sniffed.

’’Your Highness, does your hand still stink after touching the corpse? Did the Lady despise you for it again?" Astra popped up in front of Azrael with a curious look with Rune standing beside her quietly.

Azrael’s face darkened.

’’They sell flowery soaps around here. Shall I buy some for you, Your Highness?"

"Go to a nearby forest and slay 50 demonic beasts,’’ Azrael said without a single fluctuation in his expressions.

"_" Astra staggered. She... was merely showing concern...

...

Lareina slept through the entire morning the next day. When she woke up, the sky was bright. She sat up on the bed and leaned against the headboard.

’’My Lady, you are awake!" The door opened and Rosie popped in like her daily custom, as energetic as ever as if yesterday’s incident had not brought down her morals in the slightest, ’’I will immediately make preparations for the breakfast...’’

’’Rosie, wait!" Lareina pushed herself out of the bed and walked towards her to examine her face, ’’I could not take revenge for you and she got away after harming you like that. Don’t you think such a situation would not have occurred if you served some other noble lady?"

Rosie’s eyes widened and then she smiled sheepishly, ’’No other noble lady would stand up for a slight injustice their maid suffered. Moreover, that vixen is as sly as it gets, always trying to get her dirty paws on His Highness...’’

Speaking up to this point, Rosie seemed indignant as if the said person in question was being taken advantage of.

Lareina refrained from stating that probably those are the kind of paws that person preferred on himself.

’’But because of you, now everyone knows she is not as gentle as she shows herself to be and moreover, His Highness is kind. Even in such circumstances, Lady Astra brought a healer to see me last night...’’ Rosie arched her neck, ’’To make sure that it doesn’t leave any scars.’’

When Lareina heard that, she wondered if Astra did it on her own. But then, she was Azrael’s subordinate so she would not go out of her way to act on her own accord in these matters.

’’My Lady, I should go and get you something to eat here.’’

’’No, I will go to the tavern downstairs to eat.’’

’’But... My Lady, you should not.... When I woke up, I got to know that there has been a lot of chaos here last night and today also...’’

’’I know about it. Don’t worry,’’ Lareina sent Rosie off, thinking that the girl must be talking about the murder and probably got herself frightened with.

It wasn’t until an hour later when she got ready and finally went out of the room did she finally realize what was wrong.

From her room to the tavern, people greeted her with utmost respect. Heads bowed and eyes starry, some of them even came with presents in their hands. Lareina was quickly surrounded by the crowd who started flattering her.

She stepped back, refusing everyone with a smile.

Suddenly a broad back covered her vision and a deathly aura lingered in the air. The crowd was forced to halt their advances towards the ’expert’ as her husband blocked her out of their sights with a look on his scarred face that seemed menacing.

The air went still and nobody spoke a word in the tense atmosphere.

Astra, who had just entered the place, almost tripped on her way when she witnessed this scene, her heart rising up to her throat. Her disguise was undoubtedly perfect but why was it hard for her master to keep up appearances and the act?

2

Suddenly, Azrael let out a small smile and cupped his fist towards the crowd, ’’Brothers, my wife is pregnant and she can hardly stand crowds so kindly make some space...’’

The people who had held their breaths at his fearsome aura relaxed at his usual voice. Some even easily swung their hands around the man’s shoulders even though they barely reached there.

Only Azrael’s subordinates were familiar with that tone that spoke so calmly with the hidden threat of ’Step back now or wait for your heads to fall off, plebs’.

Azrael wrapped a protective arm around Lareina and led her to an isolated table that was already occupied by the rest of the ’family’.

When Moira spotted Azrael, her gloomy eyes lit up and she immediately moved closer to him, sitting on his right side while Lareina sat on his left, ’’Last night, I waited for you. I had a lot of things to say to you, Your High... cough... Brother!"

Lareina was not sitting that far away and the rest of ’family members’ on the table had a sharp hearing so everyone heard her words loud and clear.

Moira’s hand clutched Azrael’s arm, ’’But you never came and I was very upset. Only later did I realize what you were busy with. I am sorry for misunderstanding you. I...’’ she rubbed her breasts, that had been flattened in a corset by Astra onto Azrael’s biceps, ’’I...’’

’’If you can’t sit still, then go back to your room and practice,’’ Azrael calmly spoke before moving his hand away.

Nevertheless, that did not discourage Moira who still touched him every once in a while. Moira was dressed as a young woman in her late teens, her delicate stature helped her with that and with some flashy and sparkly accessories, she seemed like a pampered young lady but her actions were indeed questionable.

To the onlookers, this family of six was very weird. The wife was a prominent expert who sat quietly in her place and who seemed disinterested in her husband. The husband and wife had minimal interactions but still the husband came to the wife’s rescue in crucial times and they worked together like they were two peas in a pod.

The husband’s parents were awfully obedient as they sat still and looked at their son, as they were just waiting for orders. The wife’s little sister was always ready with a handkerchief to clean the wife’s face or hands or whatever got dirty and the husband’s little sister seemed to be unable to keep her delicate paws off her brother.

Hmm, what a weird family. But again, this must be the way of experts.

Unbeknownst to people’s analysis, Lareina focused on eating. She surmised that it must be Rosie’s great efforts that the table was filled with fruits and some of the foods that she could survive on. After not eating anything proper for a day, she was way too starved to care about husband and whatnot.

The awkward meal soon came to an end and this time, the person who ate contentedly was Lareina.

Throughout the meal, Azrael’s subordinates seemed to have something to report. So once they finished eating and Lareina was safely escorted to her room by Astra, the trio disappeared. Moira was also sent back to the room.

’’My Lady, you might not like it here. We could have gone outside but we don’t know if it is safe or not. Why don’t we ask His Highness?" Rosie suggested.

’’No need. Just give me a book,’’ She spent years in her room in the demon palace, just reading this and that. What more could possibly happen to her in two days?

At this moment, there was a knock on the door. When Rosie went to open the door, she waited for a while and only after ensuring by noise outside that it wasn’t a huge crowd like before did she open the door.

But both Rosie and Lareina were surprised when they saw the person who stood outside the room.