The mistress 8

 Chapter 8

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08. It would be pretty to have around like a cat

…

The pearls, which had a subtle luster, were thick and uniform in size.

They were essentially the tears of the shellfish's pain, so most of them were of different sizes and shapes.

Jewelry made from multiple pearls of the same size was therefore extremely rare and expensive, and no one dared ask for it.

It was not something to be given away. Above all, it was something only a married woman could wear.

Reina had been tempted to refuse the dress he'd sent her, but her previous tattered dress had been burned in her distraction.

Josef ran his fingertips over the smooth nacre of the pearl before turning his gaze back to Reina.

"You remind me of the painfully proud Duke of Aviles."

It was only their third meeting, and though Reina had been unconscious during one of them, Josef had easily seen through her.

If she hadn't gotten rid of the old dress that ripped at the slightest touch, she'd be wearing the same raggedy thing now.

Foolish stubbornness.

Josef accepted the pearl headband without a second thought, and Reina breathed a deep sigh of relief.

Then it happened.

Josef's large hands brushed back the curls that had fallen across Reina's forehead.

"What are you doing?"

Reina stood up and tried to push his hand away, but he wouldn't budge.

"Your hair is tangled."

The Sabelli had always prided themselves on their beautiful red hair, but Reina's was intense, as if she had swallowed the sun.

Josef ran a hand through her hair and stared in fascination.

From the barracks, he'd thought it was a faded, ugly color, but it was clear his eyes were distorted.

The silky strands tickled between Josef's long fingers.

The strange, languid sensation made him swoon.

He wanted to pull his hand away, yet he couldn’t.

"You’re very stubborn."

Josef froze Reina with affection, but to her, it sounded menacing.

"Even if you take it off a hundred times and give it back to me, I'll put it on you for the hundredth time. If you understand that, our relationship will be much easier."

Having never touched a woman's hair before, Josef's touch was crude, his tone even more so.

He placed the pearl braid back on Reina's head as he had said before.

"Much better."

Josef leaned down and looked at her for a long moment, and blue flashed in his heated eyes.

Reina clutched at her last shred of dignity.

"This was given to me, so it's mine now, right?"

"It is."

As soon as his words were out of his mouth, Reina tugged at her braid and ripped off the pearl ornament with all the strength she could muster.

The tear-like pearls fell to the floor at the base of her occiput, her red hair fluttering about.

‘Now I’m dead.’

Reina sobbed uncontrollably. She would be hanging from the spire again.

No, that was a luxury. She would be taken to the dungeons and tortured until she was skinned alive.

Her opponent was a man without mercy.

She was already feeling the urge to beg for mercy, to beg for her life.

But she mustn't.

Something as precious as a pearl headband was a gift she was only allowed to receive from her husband.

Ah, but as was often the case in human affairs, there were exceptions.

Such as the mistress having an inappropriate relationship with someone.

Just as Josef was treating her now.

Reina blinked back the rising panic and tears and stared straight at him.

"That reaction makes me feel like I've done something bad, when you're the one who's causing trouble."

Josef said to Reina, whose eyes widened with insult and turned white in anticipation of the violence to come.

"You’re the one who is the bad guy."

Reina's jaw clenched, but she remained stubborn, and Josef smiled bitterly.

He was as bad to her as she said he was. Why pretend he wasn’t?

Josef crossed the floor and crushed the fine pearls with his foot.

With an eardrum-scraping crackling sound, the pearls shattered fleetingly, and his foot moved on to another.

Repeatedly smashing pearls without meaning gave him an unknown satisfaction.

"Angulem Sabelli has signed over ownership of you to me. You are mine from now on."

Reina's face contorted in pain.

There had been moments when she had said maybe, just maybe, and forced down the doubts that had risen.

She looked at the new dresses and luxuries she was given every day, the fragrant ointments and salves for her skin, and she pretended not to notice.

"No! I............... I................"

Reflexively, Reina tried to resist her miserable reality, but she stammered, unable to complete the sentence.

‘What am I now?’

She couldn't think of any words to define herself.

‘What am I now, with my father dead, the Duchy of Aviles gone, and a prisoner?’

Josef grabbed Reina's wrists as she struggled to find words, grabbing her hair in anguish.

"You have nothing to worry about, Princess."

Reina looked up, her tiny face filled with despair, confusion, and sadness.

It was the look of someone standing on the edge of a cliff.

He hadn't meant it when he said there was nothing to worry about.

"I'll keep you by my side like a cat. Your red hair would be decorated with pearls, and you’d have a gold bell around your neck that would jingle with every movement, even if you scratch with your claws...................."

He chuckled softly.

"I'll pet you like a spoiled cat."

Stunned and barely able to stand on wobbly legs, Reina threw herself at Josef.

With all her might, she slapped him across the cheek.

A red handprint appeared on his beautiful face.

"You..................."

Josef rubbed his stinging cheek and looked at Reina, who squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away, taking a defensive stance.

Josef's face crumpled into a frown. Did she think he was going to hit her?

She put him on the same level as Angulem! What did she think he was!

He just pulled her dying self thing out of the spire and brought her back to life, and this was how he was being treated?

But Josef touched his face, suppressed his anger, and schooled his expression.

"It's okay."

He grabbed Reina's chin and turned her face toward him.

Then he ran his fingers through her silky hair as if nothing had happened.

It was a tantalizing, tickling, flavorful act that aroused something.

It was so pleasurable and addictive that he worried it would become a chore.

"I promised you, I’ll treat you preciously even if you use your fingernails.”

A tear slipped out of Reina's closed eye and trickled down her cheek, collecting on the tip of her chin.

She was scared and terrified. She didn't want to cry, but the sobs kept coming.

The sobs were horrible to his ears.

Josef's eyes followed the tears as they slowly fell.

He suddenly realized that she would look good with the red ribbon around her neck.

+++

While the King of Naparoa, Dunois, was mourning the death of his brother and the destruction of the Iron Cavalry, a letter arrived.

The king's eyelids twitched as his chamberlain read the letter slowly.

When he came to the part where Angulem pledged his loyalty to Josef, Dunois snatched the letter from him and tore it to shreds.

"Angulem, you wretch! You can’t face death with dignity as a member of the royal family, so what are you going to do?”

Dunois went mad and trampled on the torn letter. His subjects turned away, too scared to watch their king in such a state.

The war was over.

There was no more money to fight another war, and the cause was lost.

Who would fight for Angulem, who had become a vassal of the human butcher?

What a laughing stock the cowardly boy had become by staying in his castle instead of going to war.

Dunois could not understand how such an unholy thing could come from the bravest brother in Naparoa.

Ten years earlier, Dunois had had a great dream.

He had planned to make Angulem king and make him regent.

The ultimate goal was to station the Naparoa ironclad cavalry in Kalev, taking advantage of Angulem’s youth.

Not only that. He also broke off numerous marriage proposals in order to make his youngest daughter, Louise, who was seven years old at the time, the queen of Kalev.

All his efforts were in vain.

The Ten Years' War ended with the loss of the beautiful Aviles, which had been given to the king's second son for generations.

"This war could have been won without these bastards Ascania! They hired mercenaries to hold out against Kalev, you traitors!"

Ten years ago, Dunois had said the same thing. Perhaps this was the millionth time.

The cursing and shouting continued for a while in the king's office.

When Dunois had calmed down somewhat, Count Roeak, who had been waiting patiently, stepped forward.

"What do you think we should do with the Prince of Aviles and the Princess? I think it would be best to exchange prisoners.”

Dunois hesitated, rubbing a hand over the throbbing veins on his shaved bald head.

A prisoner exchange would cost a fortune.

The treasury had already been drained to the bone by the war, scraping every penny.

He didn't want to spend any more time or money on a losing war.

The last thing he wanted to do was to disappoint the impatient Josef Ascania.

"Well, there's no hurry, is there? Let’s take it slowly."

Time was of the essence in a prisoner exchange. If left alone, they'd either be killed or taken.

But he didn’t want to pay money to save his nephew, the man who threw his honor into a dumpster. He didn't even think about Reina.

Count Roeak had read the king's hidden intentions, and he had not urged him further.

They did not yet know that Josef had made Reina his mistress, nor did they know that Angulem had gained the right to rule Aviles by proxy.

If he had known, Dunois would have had Reina brought back and thrown into a convent even if he had to spend a thousand gold.

He had no such qualms about the Sabelli bloodline becoming the mistress of barbarians.

He even cursed King of Kalev out loud for giving his daughter to the barbarians and making an alliance with them.

And his niece was a mistress?

But even if he had offered a thousand gold coins to exchange prisoners, it would have been useless.

Josef had no intention of doing so, no matter how much Dunois offered.

***

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