North x Northwest

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“Did you hire Mireille?”

“Is that what the Marquess told you? It seems like that damned bastard has been trusted too much. Even though I warned the Duke that that freak wasn’t trustworthy, René Mireille stubbornly insisted until the end…”

“Why are you looking for me now?”

“…”

Standing in front of Lil, Venua’s blue-green eyes shone dully.

‘…Such familiar eyes.’

In the past, whenever those cold eyes looked at her, her whole body used to tighten. She was merely facing him, but it felt like Lil was already being pushed back into that box. A box meant for forgetting who she was.

While being tied up in her memories, Lil began to hallucinate the screams she used to scream as a child.

Pulling herself together, Lil calmly addressed her relative she met again after many years.

“Brother.”

Venua glared at Lil, but Lil only raised her head even more when confronted with the clear contempt in his eyes.

“Are you twenty-four or five now? I can’t believe it. Who on earth will accept you now? The dowry will be needlessly high… Damn it, I should’ve found you sooner…”

“…”

“Your face used to be worth looking at, but now it’s clearly over 20 years old. And with your body growing older, I wonder if you’ll even be able to bear children properly…”

Lil finally heard why Venua had come to search for her. It was so obvious that she could barely contain herself from laughing.

‘Ha… It’s almost embarrassing that I had been this clueless.’

“Was it my marriage that caused this mess after all? I didn’t know my brother was this worried about my life.”

“Don’t call me that. Every time I hear you call me ‘my brother’, I’m starting to wish more and more that we could bring back the tradition our family honoured 200 years ago.”

“…”

“Because back then, we could still publicly execute the filthy bitches in our family with our own hands.”

“…”

Venua took a drag on his cigarette. With a sigh, the smoke from the cigarette spread across Lil’s face. Her vision became blurry in an instant and it even forced her to turn her head. After coughing a few times, she opened her eyes again and noticed the clock on the fireplace. It was pointing at midnight.contemporary romance

“I expected it, but still, it’s extremely disappointing. I’m actually the foolish one for thinking you committed suicide. For a moment I had forgotten that you were an animal without any shame. You let yourself be wheedled by that Marquess and rolled bodies with him, didn’t you? No need for you to lie to me, I know all about it. It’s a miracle that you haven’t given birth to an illegitimate child yet…”

Lil’s pulse, which had been calm even after meeting her own blood for the first time in many years, suddenly started racing. She could pass off the verbal abuse directed at her, but she really didn’t like to hear Ed getting dragged into this mess as well.

Eventually, Lil couldn’t stand it anymore and reacted sarcastically.

“I, too, can see how the Prince Regent must’ve lived.”

‘The truth is that Venua can still lawfully publicly execute me. It might be frowned upon, but no one would blame him. However, there’s a reason why I was brought here unharmed. Venua needs me and he needs me alive…’

“…”

“Still a Prince Regent despite being an all-grown-up firstborn son. My poor father, even though he’s old and sick, I guess he felt uneasy about completely entrusting the principality to my brother. I heard that you yourself have been fighting an illness for several years? Shouldn’t you at least go south for recuperation? And yet, even though it’s precarious, you are holding on to the throne. I fully understand how trustworthy my brother is to father…”

Venua immediately lost his temper and threw the glass he was holding against the wall while shouting.

“You crazy bitch!”

“…”

The shattered glass spilt the alcohol in it.

Not knowing how to cope with his anger, Venua’s body shook uncontrollably. As he got closer, his bloodshot eyes glared at Lil as if to devour her.

“Who gave you permission to use your tongue like that?”

“…”

At that same time, Venua raised his right hand high, his blazing eyes looking like he intended to kill her.

Lil clenched her jaw.

‘It would be beneficial to get hit.’

As soon as she braced herself, Lil’s cheek flared up. Despite being able to withstand the weight-loaded blow, Lil fell sideways, pretending she couldn’t overcome his strength.

“Fuck!”

Venua was about to kick Lil as well, but swerved at the last second and kicked the chair instead, causing the seat’s leg and armrest to shatter and collapse.

Blinking slowly, Lil came to her senses. She then raised her body and spit out blood. No matter how much she expected it, the impact of Venua’s slap was still a lot for her weakened state to handle.

“…What’s going on?”

Maxwell burst through the door and came inside.

“Get out! How dare you come in here without my permission!”

Venua, looking around with red eyes, strode towards the table. He then grabbed the bottle standing on it and threw it towards the door. Avoiding getting hit, Maxwell quickly left the inner room and shut the door. After the bottle made impact with the closed door and glass pieces shattered in all directions, the strong scent of distilled liquor filled the room.

‘This is also in my favour, I’m sure that no matter what fuss Venua makes from now on, Maxwell won’t come back.’

Venua, who had been fuming for a while, even had to place his hand on the table in order to support himself. In between his pauses to catch his breath, the finger from his other hand pointed at Lil.

“You probably thought it would be easy to get away with it, right? Yeah, a bitch like you would definitely have thought so.”

“…”

“I guess I need to educate you again. It becomes clear to me that I was much too lenient in the past.”

“..?”

Lil raised her hand and wiped the side of her mouth.

‘It feels sore… perhaps he actually managed to tore my lip.’

Meanwhile, Venua’s expression, as he looked down at the squirming Lil, suddenly overlapped with the face of the Gualtiero guard who wanted to take a look at the rotten eggs.

“How dare you look straight at me with your filthy eyes?”

“Why am I filthy?”

“You were rumoured to be the Marquess’ mistress.”

“Ah.”

“Do you think I will simply leave the Marquess alone? His Majesty might not want to give him up, but there’s always a way for me to avoid the eyes of even the imperial family. Sooner or later, I will cut off his head and shut him up for good.”

‘This is exactly what I’ve been worried about. It has always been evident to me that my brother was going to do something about Ed if word got out… Fearing this would happen, I couldn’t bring myself to hastily show my feelings for him or approach him without hesitation… But apparently, during my stay in Roahn, rumours spread that I was his mistress nonetheless. It’s obvious how much Venua wants to deal with Ed now…’

Regardless of the feasibility of Venua’s ‘method’, anxiety rushed forward and indiscriminately encroached on Lil. Still, she managed to open her mouth with a sneer.

“Do you know how many men I have had attached to my stomach? Does this mean you are going to find and kill all of them?”

“…What?!”

“…”

Venua walked towards Lil.

“What did you say?”

“How many years have passed between me leaving Sesbron and you finding me hanging out with the Marquess? As my brother said many times before, I lived my life bouncing around from one man to another. I thought you would have guessed it all by now as my dear brother was always so sharp-eyed…”

“You crazy bitch! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!”

“..!”

Venua reached for Lil’s hair and shook it, causing her neck to bend violently in all directions.

“So have you given birth to a child? Huh? Do you have an illegitimate child?!”

Venua’s other hand pressed roughly against various parts of Lil’s abdomen, as though he was able to tell how many times Lil had been involved with men or given birth that way. Lil gritted her teeth against the pain of her injured area being crushed and held out her hands under the pretence of begging Venua to stop. Her vision became blurry again, so she had to rely only on the touch or her fingertips. Then, out of nowhere and without letting her hair go, her body was violently pushed by Venua and hit the sofa. Lil didn’t even have the time to feel the sudden pain in her back as it felt like not only her scalp but also the skin of her face would be torn off due to his tight graps.

Lil, now reaching behind her to find her balance, coincidentally felt something in the waistcoat lying on the sofa.

‘A little closer, come on a little closer…’

While blindly struggling with her hands, Lil reached closer until the cold metal behind her waist brushed against her palm. Lil then immediately pulled it out and shoved it under Venua’s chin.

Upon feeling a foreign object being pushed against his skin, Venua froze.

“Those old habits of yours have been proven quite dangerous.”

Lil slapped away the hand that was pulling her hair before placing her thumb on the ball. At the sound of the pestle going down, Venua’s eyes widened and rolled down. Lil put more force on the barrel of the gun and pressed it further into his chin.

Soon, the hands that fell from Lil rose hesitantly into the air…

TN:

Hi guys!

As a little surprise, we came back one upload earlier!

For the people who are interested we had an amazing time together touring the Netherlands! And as a result, saying goodbye was a hard thing to do! Fortunately for us, this didn’t feel like a real goodbye, but more a ‘see you later’. So who knows what the future holds for us?

From Monday on we’re back to our regular upload schedule! See you then!

Happy reading!

Pru and Formidable

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