Chapter 231 --231
Hearing that, Damien paused. He looked at her and said, "I heard that the royal Celeste family has legendary fighting ability. How could it be that you could so easily and calmly let Larus leave, Your Majesty?"
Hearing that, Heena looked at him and said, "Well, looks like your intelligence is really old. This news has already been circulating around the whole nobility for years. So it is not something new. When you get something new, then comment to me."
With that, she turned to leave.
As she turned, suddenly Damien grabbed her hand.
Heena directly raised her other hand and punched him in the mouth, causing him to hit the drawer on the side with a crash.
Heena looked at him and jerked her hand free two to three times, then looked at him and said, "Next time, ask for permission before touching. You see, I have a cleanliness obsession. I cannot handle dirt."
Hearing that, Damien slowly stood up and wiped his head slightly. There was a slight scratch that had happened, which caused blood to start flowing. He looked at her and said, "Dirty? But that night you were not saying this ’dirty’ line, Your Majesty. How can you suddenly have such a disease?"
Hearing that, Heena looked at him and said, "Well, I had also not thought that you would be such a bastard and a fool who would dare to challenge my power again and again, just to see what happens."
She walked forward, grabbed his chin and pinched it tightly, and said, "Damien, I don’t care about the others—what they think of you or what. You can act whatever you want, however you want, but just remember: I am not your plaything, nor a fool. I have eyes, ears, and a mind that works much faster than yours. The place where your thinking ends, my thinking starts from there. What you are doing, I know before you even lift your hand. Before you even lift your leg, I know which direction you are going to take. So don’t play this nonsense trick on me. Go and fool your dear friends, the four idiots who still think that you are quite a good man."
Hearing that, he looked at her and said, "I don’t understand what you mean, Your Majesty."
Hearing that, Heena looked at him and said, "The day I fell into that coma, and the nobles signing the petition—just tell me one thing: who gave them that much courage? And how did that thought even come to their mind?"
Hearing that, Damien paused and said, "Your Majesty, you cannot blame me for everything."
Hearing that, Heena looked at him and—as she raised her knife—stabbed it into his hand.
"AH!" he screamed.
Heena looked at him and said, "I was going to let you go. But it looks like you cannot understand mercy. Then let me be the one to tear off this hideous mask of yours. What did you do, huh? That Helmut, or whatever his name was—he was instigated by you. You were the one who spread the rumor that I would never wake up. And it was also you who made sure that High Priest completely hid the fact about his nephew and silenced him so that I would never capture him. It was also you who made the nobles stand against Larus and encouraged this so-called war. I don’t know how, but you are into it, and I know that for sure."
Hearing that, Damien looked at her and started to laugh. As he wiped the tears that came from laughing so hard, he said, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, sometimes I really could not understand how you can be so smart and so irritating at the same time."
He looked at her and said, "Yeah, I played some tricks, but come on—it’s not like I am the one who put those thoughts into their minds. It is their own thought. So you cannot punish me for it. Second, there is no evidence, no proof that I was the one who told the High Priest to kill his nephew to silence him, and I definitely have no connection with him, so that also does not make sense. And thirdly, in all of this, I never told anyone to appoint me as the regent in your absence. So that last option that you’re going to throw at me—it is not me also, so you cannot pinpoint me as the person who did the treason."
Heena stared at him for a long, cold moment.
Then she twisted the knife in his hand slightly.
Damien gasped but didn’t scream this time, his face going pale.
"You’re right," Heena said softly, dangerously. "I cannot officially charge you with treason. Not yet. Not without the kind of evidence that would hold up in court."
She leaned closer, her voice dropping to barely above a whisper.
"But here’s what I ’can’ do, Damien. I can make your life absolutely miserable. I can strip away every comfort, every privilege, every small pleasure you currently enjoy. I can make sure every noble family knows you’re under my suspicion. I can isolate you politically until you’re completely alone."
She smiled coldly.
"And most importantly, I can wait. Because arrogant men like you always slip up eventually. And when you do—and you ’will’—I’ll be right there, watching, ready to destroy you completely."
She pulled the knife out of his hand in one swift motion.
Damien hissed in pain, clutching his bleeding hand to his chest.
Heena wiped the blade clean on a handkerchief and sheathed it calmly.
"This conversation never happened," she said formally. "You will get that hand treated by a physician and tell them you had a training accident. Are we clear?"
Damien, despite the pain, managed a strained smile. "Crystal clear, Your Majesty."
"Good."
Heena walked to the door, paused without looking back, and said, "Oh, and Damien? My husband returns today. If anything—and I mean ’anything’—happens to interfere with his safe arrival, I won’t bother with evidence or trials or legal proceedings. I’ll just kill you myself."
Damien looked at her and then he laughed out loud.
And Heena could not believe herself sometimes—in the whole world, the person she felt the most urge to kill was none other than this bastard.
She looked at him, her eyes darkening.
As he spoke, "Aha, kill me?"
Then he looked at her and smiled brightly and said, "Well, dying by your hand would not be that bad, dear Majesty. Or should I say... wife?"
Hearing that, Heena looked at him and said, "I have never thought that the word ’wife’ would sound so disgusting ever by hearing it from someone’s mouth. But now you have proven that it can."
He paused for a second, looked at her and said, "What is so special about that bastard prince that you go out of your way to send the guards that you never even gave us? Let him use the portals and everything? I cannot actually understand you. Why? What is so special? What is different about him when I am also a man? He has two legs, I have also two legs. Then why?"
He tilted his head mockingly.
"Aha, could it be because of the special bloodline of the Marus royal family?"
Hearing that, Heena paused.