My Sweet Deceiver - Chapter 63

“Yes, Tehez. It’s been a while. Let’s have tea together.”

 

Richard said with a kind face.

 

Then she added.

 

“Because Max seems to be happy with you, too.”

 

“What? Who said that?”

 

Max shouted first. The room reverberated at his shout.

 

Richard tilted his head and replied to Max.

 

“Well. I wonder if I don’t know you.”

 

The relationship between Richard and Max somehow seemed better than before.

 

Tehez, as Richard said, decided to take a moment since it had been long.

 

“Okay, brother.”

 

Tehez smiled and affirmed.

 

* * *

 

The fire was blazing in the fireplace, and a colourful refreshment table was set in the tea room with freshly picked fresh flowers.

 

It was common knowledge that fresh flowers could not be obtained in the middle of winter. However, common sense did not work for the Ingeliger family, one of the three most noble families in the capital.

 

Now that the Briem duchy had disintegrated, the Ingeligers could be called the most prestigious aristocratic family in the capital.

 

Things that ordinary people couldn’t get, things that were hard to see.

 

Such noble and expensive things were overflowing in the Marquis’ family.

 

“Come this way.”

 

Richard guided Tehez into the tea room for the first time in years.

 

It was the first time she had entered here since leaving the mansion six years ago to enter the royal family.

 

Even if she came to the mansion, she only went back and forth between the dining room and the Marquis’ study.

 

Ever since she was a child, she had always looked around, sitting in the seat she used to sit in.

 

Expensive artwork and flower pots hung on the walls.

 

The placement of the chairs and table was also the same as when she lived in the mansion.

 

It was just the way she liked it, impeccably old-fashioned, unblemished and dignified.

 

Tehez considered this unchanging nobility to be aristocratic, but at times she felt frustrated that she wanted to escape.

 

As she grew up, the Marquis’ demands became more and more specific.

 

If she failed to perform beyond the Marquis’ expectations, the Marquis would punish Tehez mercilessly. He didn’t hesitate to call her names and use violence against her.

 

So when entering the Ingeliger Mansion, Tehez seemed to go back to those days.

 

To her childhood when she only cried with her swollen face.

 

At that time, she was only focused on getting out of this mansion. So she finally felt a slight sense of liberation when she succeeded in her betrothal to Dennis and left the mansion.

 

She knew that if she went to the palace, she would be able to start all over again. At that time, she thought everything would be solved once she left the mansion.

 

But just like the mansion didn’t change over time…

 

And just as the Marquis hadn’t changed, she hadn’t gotten out of those days either.

 

“Nothing has changed.”

 

Tehez conveyed brief impressions to Richard.

 

It was like she was talking to herself.

 

“Right.”

 

Richard sat in his chair, and Max sat in his usual seat.

 

When everyone was seated, a servant came in and poured tea.

 

The scent of flowers and fruits bloomed as the water dripped from the tea leaves filled the cup.

 

“It smells good.”

 

Tehez lifted the teacup and smelled the tea.

 

“Max bought it.”

 

“Oh, did you, brother Max?”

 

Tehez looked at Max with a surprised face.

 

Max’s face was flushed as if he was embarrassed.

 

Seeing that, Richard said as if teasing Max.

 

“Yes. Isn’t that surprising?”

 

Richard was smiling until one of his cheeks was hollowed out.

 

A charming smile made the ladies in the capital fall in love.

 

“Don’t say that. Just drink some! By the way-“

 

Max seemed ashamed of the words that flattered him, so he slurped his tea into his mouth and spat it out as if it was hot.

 

“How do I drink this if you bring something this hot?”

 

Max complained, blaming the servants for no reason.

 

“It’s not too hot. You’re as childlike as you are, Max.”

 

In a gentle tone, Richard rebuked Max.

 

“Don’t you think you’re old?”

 

One of the servants brought Max a bottle of chilled water. He grunted at Richard as he refused.

 

Both of them had a smile on their lips, perhaps half-joking.

 

Tehez looked at those two and laughed out loud without realizing it.

 

She always felt uncomfortable with Max.

 

Young Tehez was often hurt by Max’s outspokenness and lack of manners.

 

But looking at it now, she realized that her second brother was just a person who was honest with her.

 

Max seemed to have changed in the meantime. Maybe it was her way of looking at Max that had changed.

 

“Brother Max, you’ve grown a lot.”

 

So she threw the words of her own thoughts out of her mouth.

 

“Is that what you’re going to say to your brother?”

 

Seeing Max suddenly angry, Tehez said in a playful voice.

 

“I think you’ve become a sound young man while I haven’t seen you. I think proposals are going to pour out. Were you only in the mansion?”

 

Unlike the mild-mannered Richard, Max was quite famous in the capital as a lively handsome man.

 

So when he left Valloise, saying he would not come back for a while, many women went to the port to watch his back and wipe their tears.

 

Richard, who had been quietly watching the conversation between the two, responded while searching for his memories.

 

“Come to think of it, you didn’t even meet your friends and were only at the mansion, Max.”

 

“…Where would I go when father was lying unconscious in bed? I live with that level of courtesy.”

 

Max grumbled, crossing his arms.

 

Tehez covered her mouth and laughed at Max.

 

It was a really relaxing feeling after a long time.

 

She sometimes laughed and sometimes rebuked Max while listening to the anecdotes that Max had experienced abroad.

 

In particular, when he said he gave away all his money to a poor child and became homeless himself, Tehez was genuinely angry.

 

When they were having such a happy time, one of his servants informed him.

 

“The Marquis is awake again. When he heard that the Princess has come, he said he wanted to talk to her.”

 

Tehez jumped up from her seat.

 

* * *

 

A man and a woman were sitting opposite each other, drinking tea.

 

It looked like they were going on a date, but in reality, the atmosphere was not so good.

 

The woman spoke first.

 

“It’s hot tea.”

 

“Can I get you more?”

 

The man’s hand holding the teacup was trembling.

 

His shoulders drooped like a guilty puppy sitting with his tail curled up.

 

“It’s okay.”

 

When the woman refused, the man withdrew his hand from the teapot.

 

“What did First Prince say?”

 

The woman sitting across from him, Giselle, put down the teacup. She then looked at Fabrice with sharp eyes as if they were looking right through him.

 

Giselle looked at his face as if she already knew what had happened in the palace over the past week.

 

Still, it was clear that she was asking to hear it directly from his mouth.

 

Sensing her reprimand in her words, Fabrice couldn’t sit still and flinched.

 

After the curfew was lifted…

 

Giselle broke into Fabrice’s palace.

 

Without hesitation, she ran straight to Fabrice to confirm what had happened inside the palace.

 

She asked straight away without greeting.

 

Fabrice opened his mouth to make excuses.

 

“It’s…”

 

Then he wiggled and mumbled his hand. It was because he was afraid that if he answered incorrectly, he would be scolded by Giselle again.

 

“No, that’s what I mean. Things are a little…”

 

Fabrice was only looking at Giselle in her eyes. Giselle clicked her tongue as she looked at him.

 

Sitting with his shoulders hunched over, Fabrice looked like a scared boy.

 

She was terribly frustrated.

 

He couldn’t do one thing correctly.

 

However, she said it calmly without expressing her emotions.

 

“Do you know what the atmosphere in the capital is like now? There was an uproar about placing the First Prince on the throne. In just one week. What do you think, Prince?”

 

If that was the case, Fabrice had something to excuse.

 

“Well, I was going to go to the fire site, but I fell asleep…”

 

“You said you slept?”

 

“Yes, about two days…”

 

Fabrice’s answer crept in at Giselle’s question.

 

Then she said in a loud voice at once.

 

“You must have had something in your drink! A lot.”

 

Fabrice barely endured his swearing in front of Giselle.

 

He didn’t know what the punishment would be for him if she got angry.

 

Fabrice just clenched his fists and shook them. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

 

He couldn’t have fallen asleep like that without something in the drink that Dennis had offered.

 

No matter how much he slept, he woke up after two days.

 

But after he had been down for two days, it was clear that he had been drugged.

 

At Fabrice’s words, Giselle was silent as if lost in thought for a moment.

 

She tapped the handle of the chair with her fingertips.

 

Then, after a while, she opened her mouth.

 

“I’m sure you gave the Prince a definite answer, right?”

 

“Of course. To me, the throne-”

 

“That’s it. We can come out a little stronger.”

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

Fabrice asked Giselle with a polite face.

 

Giselle smiled as she raised the teacup.

 

“I sprinkled some news at the closing ceremony, so wouldn’t you believe me if I said I was pregnant?”

 

“What?”

 

Fabrice did not understand Giselle’s words, and asked back.

 

“It means that from now on, the Prince’s seed is in my womb. Prince, you know that.”

 

Last time, whether or not her union with Fabrice was a success, Giselle was determined to spread the word she had conceived.

 

To shake Tehez.

 

She had already spread the dirty rumour that the First Princess was encroached on by evil spirits in the capital city, so wouldn’t the news have also reached the woman’s ears?

 

Giselle was convinced.

 

Her good working staff must be carrying rumours like pigeons.

 

If so, it was rather a relief.

 

The rumour had been successfully delivered to Tehez.

 

“Ah, yes.”

 

Fabrice nodded his head and agreed with her.

 

“And I’ll set the news of a miscarriage at the right time. So before that, you must drive the wedge, Prince.”

 

“Yes, I will.”

 

Fabrice nodded his head as if he understood.

 

Gisele spoke to him casually, looking at her own well-manicured fingernails.

 

“If things go wrong, we might have to bring a baby boy who looks like the Prince.”

 

“What?”

 

Giselle smiled sinisterly in front of Fabrice, who was taken aback.

 

“So, become the Crown Prince before that. Unless you want to see a second generation without a drop of blood.”

 

Giselle looked at him menacingly.

 

Fabrice’s face turned pale.

 

It was an opportunity he got, but it shouldn’t happen.

 

Fabrice hardened his face and nodded at Giselle’s words.

 

“And I have something to do.”

 

“What are you going to do?”

 

“If I said that I had conceived, wouldn’t the First Princess collapse? I want to see her face. Her face collapsing terribly.”

 

(To be continued in the next episode)

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