The Male Lead isn't Following the Script!-Chapter 302: Ruined Plans

The Empress, pale and composed, followed after the Emperor. She was worried, for whom? For herself? She did not know. She had personally decorated the hall, made use of her family’s resources... All for Cassian!

But it was in vain. All her hard work was used on the pathetic ceremony between the Northern Duke and the damned Saintess who put on airs.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the Emperor, who stopped.

He spun around so suddenly that she took a step back. "This is how you’ve raised him?!" he bellowed, his finger pointing accusingly at her. "This is the Crown Prince of the Empire? Such an embarrassment!"

The Empress inhaled sharply, but the Emperor was not finished. "You were supposed to mould him into a ruler! And yet, look what he has become. All because of your incompetence! You failed him as a mother, as an Empress—and as a wife!"

Something inside the Empress snapped. Years of buried indignation, silent suffering, and bottled humiliation boiled to the surface.

"How dare you speak to me of failure?" she screamed, her voice echoing through the high ceilings of the corridor. Her hands trembled at her sides, but her eyes blazed. "I raised that boy alone while you buried yourself in your throne and your whore and your politics. I stood by and played the role of a perfect Empress for you, now you want to throw all the blame at me?"

The Emperor looked stunned for a heartbeat, but his expression quickly twisted back into rage.

"You will lower your voice," he growled.

"No! I will not be silent anymore!" she shouted, stepping closer. "You think you’re a ruler? You’re nothing but a coward who hides behind titles and crowns. You never cared about Cassian—only what he represented. And now you’ve lost him. You cared about your reputation and throne, you’ve lost the former now... As for the latter..."

She started to laugh...

Her laugh rang through the hall, high-pitched and maniacal. It was a sound that turned heads, made servants freeze in their steps. It wasn’t just defiance. It was madness born from years of repression.

He did not know that everyone hated him and vied for his throne. Who knows when he would be assassinated for that coveted throne?

---

The cheers had long faded. The guests had thinned. And yet, the tension in the air surrounding the newlyweds was suffocating.

Behind the grand doors of the inner chamber, where only the royals can step in and no one else, Annora paced like a storm waiting to explode. The gown weighed on her like a chain, and the golden circlet on her head may as well have been a crown of thorns.

She turned on him with fury in her eyes. "What the hell was that, Benedict?" Her voice cracked like a whip. "What was your plan? What did you think you were doing?!"

Benedict, still in his ceremonial attire, didn’t flinch. He stood tall, hands folded calmly before him, but his expression was earnest- too earnest.

"I was protecting you," he said with unwavering certainty. "This-" he gestured vaguely behind them, to the altar they’d just left, to the vows, to the audience still murmuring in the hall, "this was my way of showing you I loved you."

Annora let out a humourless laugh, almost choking on it. "Love?" she echoed. "You call that love?"

He stepped toward her, his voice low but steady. "Yes. Because when he left you standing there, humiliated in front of the entire empire, I couldn’t let that be your ending. Not when I could do something. Not when I could give you the dignity of walking away with your head high."

"You’re insane," she hissed, eyes blazing. "Do you know what people will say?"

"Whatever they saw now will be hundreds of times better than them calling you a poor bride left at the altar." He stepped closer, reiterating his point, "They’d say you were abandoned. Unworthy. Cast aside."

Annora clenched her jaw, struggling to hold in her rage. "And you think marrying me fixes that?"

He nodded. "Yes. Because I was serious. My feelings for you... They’re real, Annora. I’ve loved you for a long time. You’ve always looked elsewhere, always chased what didn’t deserve you. But I’ve always been here."

Annora’s fists clenched at her sides, her nails biting into her palms. "That’s not love, Benedict. That’s you projecting your feelings and deciding what’s best for me without even asking what I want."

This bastard ruined all my plans!

Silence fell for a beat before she exploded again. "What was your plan, Benedict?! You can’t just marry someone on a whim—what was your actual plan?"

He paused then. His lips pressed together in a grim line before he spoke.

"My faction should be making it clear who the next Crown Prince is," he said slowly. "The third prince may hold the title now, but for how much longer? Cassian came back a war hero. The people love him. Even his silence speaks louder than any of our proclamations."

Annora stared at him, barely breathing.

"I didn’t think this incident would be enough to shake his standing," Benedict admitted. "One small embarrassment—"

"Small?" she snapped, her voice rising again. "You think this was small? Being left at the altar in front of the Emperor, the Empress, the entire court and the temple is small?"

"To him, maybe," Benedict replied quietly. "To Cassian... It’s nothing. Just another move in a greater strategy."

That was what made it all worse. It was true. He hated Cassian, the way he could always have things under control, the way he did not even have to try. Everything was handed to him! Everything! He snatched many things away from him and he just had to snatch Annora away too...

Annora was hysterical at this point. "You meddled with my plan!" She screeched. "Now you... You will be the groom left by the bride." She turned to leave, not giving Benedict a second look.