#53
The half-demons intended to use this ball as an opportunity to further expand their voice within the empire.
A golden opportunity to force cooperation from the Crown Prince with information he couldn’t ignore, and to obtain actual trading authority from the Marsien ducal family.
They took a hard-line stance but angled it to look like formal negotiations.
The information was meticulous, the pressure was precise, and the proposals contained subtle temptation.
Every word they should speak at this ball, every glance, every angle of their hands was already a designed script.
But an unscheduled figure had popped up at that place.
An unexpected variable.
A person who could change the flow with his name alone.
That was Marcus.
‘Troublemaker Marcus! Why is he here?’
Rico’s gaze trembled slightly.
This was definitely unexpected interference.
He certainly wasn’t someone they had confirmed on the ball’s guest list.
The Crown Prince wasn’t even visible.
And the situation was making them more uncomfortable.
No, he was there but quickly left.
He had definitely been in the ballroom, but disappeared swiftly as soon as the Second Prince collapsed.
No protocol, no excuses.
‘The Second Prince had come?’
There was no information about him.
He, whom they didn’t even know had visited, had appeared in the middle of the ball?
What was that supposed to mean?
Rico shook his head.
Whether he ate poison or collapsed—that was just a simple accident.
Whether he had eaten poison or died, it was absurd that this would be reason for the Crown Prince to move.
The Crown Prince wouldn’t show such emotional movement.
That’s why the unpleasant premonition grew stronger.
But the deed was done.
Plans went awry, expectations missed their mark.
The Crown Prince had disappeared, and Isabella also looked distracted.
They had hoped everyone would play within their palms, but unexpected variables had all moved at once.
Damn.
Rico gritted his teeth.
Everything had gone wrong today.
“Young master. Is this incident also your doing?”
He glared at Marcus and asked in a low voice.
His voice was calm, but the edge was standing straight up.
This was why he hadn’t informed this troublemaker.
He hadn’t expected Marcus to attend this ball.
So he had deliberately excluded him, deliberately not exposed it.
“What did I do?”
Instead of answering, he laughed.
Indifferent eyes, a nonchalant tone.
But that was rather adding fuel to the fire.
Marcus smiled innocently.
His expression was naive, his voice even warm.
But deliberate mockery was embedded within.
“Honestly, if I had known what you all were scheming, I would have actively stopped it. Right?”
The ending was soft, but the content was thoroughly hostile.
The words he threw were fact and provocation at the same time.
“……”
Rico said nothing.
His lips hardened into a straight line, and his pupils narrowed sharply.
……It was the right thing to say.
Perhaps that was most infuriating.
Because it was true.
And because he knew this opponent wasn’t a simple fool.
Rico clamped his mouth shut. Around him, the half-demons in black cloaks tensed up.
‘But I can’t believe it at face value.’
Marcus pushed that thought behind his lips.
His gaze was still fixed on Rico, but his pupils moved slowly.
The minute tension applied to a single pupil was penetrating the true meaning of this conversation.
He pretended it was no big deal in words, but his entire body was collecting this moment.
It had to be that this bastard was involved and caused the breakdown.
Rico’s mind was complex.
From this point where Marcus appeared unexpectedly, the plan went awry, and even the minimal organized structure felt collapsed.
Elder Hascal always told Rico.
Failure doesn’t come from incompetence but from ‘reporting omissions.’
Those words kept ringing in his ears.
That way he wouldn’t be questioned by that unlucky elder.
Sweat beaded on his nape.
Rico ignored that sweat and raised his head.
Hascal’s words always led to punishment.
The justification was loss, the method was condemnation.
He muttered.
It was a tone trying not to reveal his inner thoughts, but somehow it was edged.
“Still shameless as ever, young master.”
Those words were criticism wearing the shell of politeness.
They always conversed like this.
Hiding weapons and intentions beneath expressionless faces, concealing blades beneath their voices.
“Hmm. You have to be shameless to survive. But seeing that reaction, it seems it wasn’t you guys’ doing.”
Marcus’s tone was consistently relaxed.
But his word choice was sharp, and his reaction accurate.
Intentional ‘set speculation’—.
The words he casually threw weren’t doubt for the sake of doubt.
That was fishing.
Rico hesitated.
That moment of silence was brief but fatal.
The trembling of eyebrows, the movement of his neck, the trajectory of his gaze avoiding the center.
All were caught by Marcus’s eyes.
As if surprised, Marcus chuckled and muttered.
He didn’t attach particular emotion to his words.
But that expression held unexpectedly deep joy.
Perhaps it was the feeling of a hunter facing prey whose inner thoughts had been exposed.
“Really unexpected?”
Those words were a trap as they were.
The law that the person speaking with a smile has a high probability of winning.
Marcus was pushing his opponent out of their orbit in this conversation.
It seemed like Marcus’s voice could be heard shouting ‘Thanks for even providing confirmation like this!’
Rico bit his lower lip.
He was being drawn in.
This place was originally supposed to be a space where the half-demons led the plan.
But at some point, Marcus had been taking the lead.
Rico, who had unintentionally given the desired information, gritted his teeth.
The situation he hated most.
Knowing that a single word would return as a weapon, yet having reacted to the thrown words.
Marcus, while pretending to be relaxed, was reading much from his opponent’s reactions.
He hadn’t wanted an answer from the beginning.
Changes in expression, reflexive movements, unconscious finger trembling.
All of that were indicators revealing the truth.
The incident where Lady Isabella used poison was a situation the half-demon side hadn’t anticipated.
That was now almost certain.
Their leader was perplexed, subordinates were wary, and reactions weren’t manipulated.
That itself was important information.
With just this one piece of information, he could prepare the next move.
If it was Isabella’s solo action, the half-demons’ movement would be for another purpose.
And if those two weren’t connected—.
It was Marcus’s role to split and wedge between them.
Marcus looked around. He could hear nobles still murmuring. Some of it was about Isabella, and some about Ersen.
The commotion was spreading in an inconspicuous way.
Like cracks in porcelain that aren’t visible at first but grow over time.
The nobles’ gazes scattered like fragments, and words floated around, following each other in their ears.
“Poison, they say? What on earth?”
Suspicion laid low.
“That’s what I’m saying. Why specifically to the Second Prince? Surely not the Lady.”
Suspicion began targeting specific subjects.
The fact that names were being mentioned meant the arrow had already left the bowstring.
“How could that be?”
There were no assertions yet, but it was a matter of time.
The arrow had set its direction; now it just needed to find its target.
The murmuring gradually spread into specific speculation. Since the ball couldn’t be disbanded, it would become more rampant.
Their silence was a weapon, and their rumors spread like truth.
This place was no longer a festival but a spark.
Marcus shrugged and spoke like talking to himself.
Though it was a monologue, it was at a volume audible enough.
“So, what did you come for today? I’m really asking because I don’t know. If the Second Prince was the target, then he’s a failure, right?”
Intentional daggers were hidden in his words.
‘Failure.’
That word was deliberately chosen.
Because he knew better than anyone how these people perceived Ersen.
“……”
Silence was confirmation.
Rico maintained his expressionless face, but the half-demons around him shifted their presence somewhat.
Breathing became sharp, and shoulder tension was felt.
“He collapsed today. If he was your target, it’s a complete wasted trip.”
Marcus was still smiling.
Hiding the edge of his words, he stabbed at the truth with an indifferent tone.
At those words, Rico gave him attention again. Marcus’s expression was playful, but the nuance contained within was strangely provocative.
In that brief moment when gazes crossed, tense currents circled the distance between them.
Words were light and actions relaxed—but their essence was close to a black blade.
Ersen’s position among the half-demons was very low.
He was the legacy of impure blood.
Cursed birth.
He was considered an existence that shouldn’t have existed in the first place.
Though he was a being inheriting Eris’s blood, he was considered the one who caused his mother’s death, barely clinging to life for the sole reason of being royalty.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
