Aww, my little…(12)
T/N: Remaining chapter for last week.
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Everyone was watching quietly, trying not to make a sound. And at a Tarkan’s words, a wave of unrest swept through the crowd.
‘Her Majesty?’
‘Did he say the Queen?’
Anyone could tell why the Queen’s name had come up in this situation. What else could it be other than to say that the Queen was behind whoever broke into Aristine’s break room?
‘No way! Did the Queen take a decision she shouldn’t have?’
‘Why not cleanly acknowledge things instead…!’
Everyone’s eyes turned to the queen.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
The Queen opened her mouth, looking displeased.
“I have been enjoying the party in the banquet hall, so do you mean to say I intruded or something, Prince Tarkan? I suppose I have two bodies?”
“Many things can be done without acting personally. Especially for someone like Your Majesty the Queen.”
“Such insolence, Tarkan!”
The queen flicked her fan and shouted at Tarkan.
Of course, something like that wouldn’t even make Tarkan blink.
Unfortunately, there was someone who not only blinked but even stumbled back…
“Ah…”
“Rineh?”
“Rineh!”
Tarkan and Nephther, who were by Aristine’s side, were taken aback and held her up.
“Ah, I’m fine,” Aristine looked up at Nephther with a paling smile. “I just heard a loud noise, and my head just…ah…”
She stumbled again, holding her forehead.
Tarkan held Aristine by the shoulders and carefully seated her on the large sofa.
Despite the clearly soft backrest of the sofa, Aristine leaned against Tarkan’s chest in a very natural manner when he sat next to her.
Once he confirmed that Aristine was safely seated and not about to collapse on her floor, Nephther spun around to face the queen.
“Queen, you must know Rineh is currently carrying a royal grandchild. How can you rage and raise your voice in front of Rineh!”
His turquoise eyes gleamed with piercing anger.
“How can someone who is the Queen of Irugo be so thoughtless!”
“Your, your Majesty…”
The Queen went pale, and her body trembled as she called out to Nephther.
She couldn’t believe that Nephther was reprimanding her in such a public occasion.
‘Just because of a mere Princess Consort…’
Right at that moment, a high-pitched voice cut through the stiff atmosphere.
“Well, Her Majesty the Queen has always had such a valiant personality that when she speaks, her spirit always comes through…mmm, it’s strong indeed.”
It sounded like a compliment, but it was basically saying, ‘she has such a bad temper that her voice is this loud even when she’s just talking.’
The queen flicked her fan and gave the smiling woman a deadly glare.
The woman was one of the queen consorts, Queen Consort Kaena.
The queen consort, who was usually watchful of the Queen and lived with her head down, was now obstructing the Queen so blatantly.
‘She’s started to cross the line…!’
This was a clear sign of her intent.
A sign that she wanted to cut ties with the queen and stand on Aristine’s side.
What Queen Consort Kaena said was insulting by itself.
However, what infuriated the Queen even more was that she could see the power clearly shifting before her eyes.
“Oh, you can tell too, Queen Consort Kaena. I was once worried my teacup would break.”
“Queen Consort Ruarwen!”
The queen barked at Consort Ruarwen, who was backing up Consort Kaena’s words.
Queen Consort Ruarwen brought her fan to her lips and visibly shivered.
“Oh my, so scary. But Your Majesty the Queen, why don’t you lower your voice a little?”
Normally, the Queen would have lost her temper and admonished the queen consort for having the audacity to speak to her like that.
However, she was currently being watched by numerous nobles, and most importantly, Nephther had just scolded her for raising her voice.
‘These things have the nerve to push me around…’
Her cheeks were trembling with anger, but she had no choice but to endure right now.
Just as she was calming down, Nephther asked.
“So, Queen, what happened here?”
By asking that, it was as if he already assumed that the queen was behind the intruder and was asking her to confess.
Naturally, the queen protested.
“Your Majesty! If you’re asking me, does that mean you think I’ve done something?!”
“I only ask because I was told to ask you, Queen. You don’t necessarily have to do something to know what’s going on, isn’t that right?”
But she clearly knew that was not the case.
But unable to say it out loud, the Queen tightly squeezed the edge of her dress.
‘Forget it, I can dump everything on Marten.’
She let Marten act without using any of her own cards in case something went wrong.
‘That foolish thing! He can’t even do a proper job on something so easy!’
The queen glared at Marten who was standing among the warriors, then calmed her agitation and opened her mouth.
“I simply came to celebrate the Princess Consort’s return and her pregnancy. And I have not left the banquet hall the entire time. I do not know what happened while the Princess Consort was resting.”
“Right, Your Majesty the Queen has no idea.”
Nephther’s gaze turned to Tarkan.
This was good news for Tarkan since he wanted the Queen to deny it. Just as he was about to continue, a voice interrupted him.
“I’d like to hear what happened first.”
It was Hamill.
His blue eyes kept looking at Aristine with concern.
“An intruder? Was it an assassination attempt? Thankfully, it looks like there are no injuries.”
His voice was full of relief and concern.
Aristine raised her head and looked up at Hamill.
Both of their eyes met in midair.
Hamill’s clear turquoise eyes and the expression on his face. All of it was captured in Aristine’s eyes.
‘Is this really acting?’
If he was truly acting, then he deserved an applause.
“It was not an assassination attempt.”
Tarkan said, getting in between Hamill and Aristine.
“Then what happened?”
The question came from Nephther, not Hamill.
Durante quietly approached Nephther and respectfully handed over several photos that he was holding.
Nephther received the photos with doubt and his face quickly hardened once he saw them.
His hands practically flew through the photos.
Hamill, who was viewing the photos next to Nephther, also turned cold faced.
The nobles who had never seen Hamill without a gentle smile were shocked and began to whisper among themselves.
“This is my first time seeing His Highness Hamill make such a face…”
“What in the world happened?”
“I immediately thought ‘assassination’ when they mentioned an intruder but…”
If it wasn’t an assassination, then there was only one thing they could think of.
“If it wasn’t an assassination, then don’t tell me…”
There are scoundrels who try to sneak into a noble lady’s break room. The purpose of such scoundrels was usually to disgrace the noble lady.
“Marten.”
Nephther called his son in a rigid voice.
“R-Royal father, your majesty…”
Marten, who had been watching with his neck shrunk like a turtle, immediately fell to his knees.
“His Highness Marten…to the Princess Consort?”
“Impossible, that would be insane…”
“But this is Prince Marten; it’s very possible. He has never hidden his indulgences.”
“You’re right. I remember that time when he was rebuffed for harassing a princess.”
Everyone thought that Marten, who was blinded by carnal pleasures, had done this.
His usual behavior made it easy to believe.
The queen covered her mouth with her fan and smiled.
Sensing the mood in the air, Marten hurriedly opened his mouth.
“I, I had no choice. It was Her Majesty the Queen’s order…”
When the Queen’s name came up again, everyone froze.
Now that they thought about it, the Queen was the person mentioned from the very beginning, not Marten.
And there was a good reason for that.
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Oh sheesh! Shit’s about to hit the fan.
i need to know what happened next ASAP aaaaaaaaaa thank u sm for this ruby-nim!
Translation much appreciated, but the cliffhanger was not 😭
😏 Our Rineh and Tarkan: ♥️.
Merci pour ce dur labeur. Cela égaye ma journée. Tellement hâte que la reine soit éliminé du tableau.
Thank you so much for the translation and upload, Miss Ruby!
I mean, the queen had never hidden the fact that she held Tarkan in contempt. It’s also not the first time she tried to defame Aristine, accusing her of poisoning Nephther. So if people took a moment to think about it, along with the fact that Martin is someone under the queen’s power and influence, it shouldn’t be difficult to not only connect the dots, but also see how believable it would be.
The Queen can deny her involvement in these things only so many times before it becomes clear that maybe she had more of a hand in the incidents than she says.
Thank you so much for the updates!! This chapter so was soo good! I hope she gets what she deserves!