Chapter 428 - 427. Say What? (3)
Soon enough, I saw a girl flanked by a couple of maids, all of them looking down on the one person I had been searching for. The blonde girl, brimming with arrogance, was unmistakably the same figure I had seen years ago. She had grown—but only in the physical sense. The rest of her remained as petty and haughty as ever.
"Who goes there?" one of the royal guards barked, stepping toward me.
I didn’t answer. Instead, I released a fraction of my Dragon’s Presence. It hit him like a hammer, forcing him to his knees, and immediately turned the attention of the princess and her maids toward me.
"Who are you, and how dare you barge into the royal garden?" the lady-in-waiting beside Princess Colette demanded.
"I apologise." I spoke without a shred of apology in my tone.
Remi turned at the sound of my voice. One look at his bruised cheek and swollen eye sent a ripple of fury through me.
"Master?" he whimpered, his voice hoarse.
My fists clenched, and with that, my Dragon’s Presence surged, untamed. The very air seemed to tremble. Everyone in the vicinity gasped, buckling under the weight of it—everyone except for Remi. I had shaped the release so he remained untouched. As for Colette, she bore only half the force—out of courtesy, if one could call it that.
"I am Marquis Ocean Ryujin," I said, voice cold as ice. "I greet the star of Sestia, Princess Colette." I bowed, even though every cell in my body rebelled against it.
"May I ask," I said, straightening up, "why my attendant is in this state?"
The lady-in-waiting’s breathing grew labored. "Wh-What’s going on? I—I can’t breathe..."