Marked as the Tyrant's Daughter-in-Law - Chapter 26

“……”

Meanwhile, Lariel Matzert glared at the servant offering her sherbet.

She was the one who had seen Arinel’s back as she entered the kitchen earlier.

She had hoped that the girl would mess something up, but instead of messing up, she became the star of this party again.

Even though her dress and mask were much prettier than that girl’s.

“Drink this cheap sherbet yourself!”

At Lariel’s venomous voice, the servant’s hand stopped.

The tall, handsome servant with brown hair had an unusually cold impression, unlike a typical servant.

“Your words… are quite irritating.”

Lariel slowly turned her face again to look at the servant at his low voice.

She had visited the imperial palace several times with her father, but she had never seen a servant with such a face.

He couldn’t be a servant trusted by the royal family, just serving at the ballroom.

“What did you say?”

The servant just looked down at her with arrogant eyes, showing no sign of being flustered by his slip of the tongue.

At his brazen attitude, the corners of Lariel’s lips twisted and trembled.

Anger began to rise like a mirage in her pitch-black eyes.

“…Ha! You, did you just speak to me? You said my words are irritating?”

All eyes turned to them.

The servant just looked down at her with calm eyes, unfazed by Lariel’s angry voice.

Lariel pointed her finger at the servant and shouted.

“How dare a mere servant speak to me like that! Do you know who I am?!”

She then snatched the sherbet glass from the servant’s tray and threw it to the floor.

With a crash, the beet sherbet mixed with glass shards, making a mess on the floor.

The servant’s eyebrow twitched as he watched, and a cold chill filled his eyes for a moment.

Lariel was satisfied to see the crack in the servant’s expression as the sherbet was ruined.

But… what was this chilling aura emanating from a mere servant?

Whisk-

Duke Matzert, who was conversing with other nobles, turned his head in surprise at the sudden feeling of murderous intent.

There he saw his daughter pointing her finger at someone.

Following her finger, he felt as if his heart had stopped.

“Lariel? Who dares to our Lariel!”

The Duchess also seemed to have seen the scene, frowning and moving to go there.

Duke Matzert hurriedly grabbed his wife’s wrist and said through gritted teeth.

“Damn it. Listen carefully. You fed something wrong to Lariel today. Understood?”

“Wh-what? But that lowly servant is now…”

“Remember. Unless you want our whole family’s heads to roll.”

The Duchess’s face hardened at the Duke’s words.

Duke Matzert strode over and stood in front of the young lady.

Feeling his presence, Lariel turned around and smiled fiercely, seemingly pleased to see her father.

Then, sneering at the servant, she said.

“You’re dead now. My father won’t let you…”

But Lariel couldn’t finish her sentence.

Because Duke Matzert reached out and suddenly pushed her head down.

With an adult applying force, Lariel couldn’t help but fall to her knees.

“Ugh, Father!”

“We have committed a mortal sin.”

But Duke Matzert, who had pushed her head down from behind to make her kneel, bowed to the servant.

It was a posture typically done by commoners.

Lariel couldn’t believe that her father was making her kneel and apologizing to a mere servant.

Her face turned red, then even her ears became crimson.

“……”

And at that moment, everyone gasped. Some covered their mouths with their hands.

The servant’s hair color began to change.

From the tips to the roots, it turned into a mesmerizing silver color, as if by magic.

The servant’s common brown eyes also gradually took on a red hue, becoming a vivid ruby color.

“Father! Why on earth to a mere servant… Gasp!”

Lariel shook off Duke Matzert’s hand pressing her head and looked up at the servant irritably, feeling as if her breath would stop.

The silver hair, the symbol of the Aslet Imperial Family. And those red eyes with a chilling aura that made one’s heart constrict.

It was the face of the great Emperor Parmes Aslet, master of Albreon, whom she had seen at the Founding Day celebration.

“Y-Your Majesty?”

For a moment, her head spun. She felt like she might faint, but the situation quickly organized itself in her mind.

It was her survival instinct kicking in.

‘What… what have I done?’

Lariel’s hands began to tremble.

She thought he was just a servant. She was just annoyed because a servant told her to eat that tasteless sherbet…

Duke Matzert spoke with a desperate voice, his neck veins bulging.

“She ate some spoiled food at lunch today, I hear. We sent her out in a dazed state, and she ended up committing this disrespectful act. I sincerely apologize, Your Majesty.”

“Oh, dazed? …Mmph!”

Duke Matzert covered Lariel’s mouth.

“Your Majesty, it’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have brought her to the masquerade ball today…”

The Duchess, who had turned pale upon seeing the servant transform into the Emperor, also bowed deeply with a trembling voice.

To speak and act disrespectfully towards the Emperor was tantamount to asking for one’s life to be taken.

They were among those who knew better than anyone how cruel Parmes could be.

☁⊹₊┈ㆍ┈ ▫ ┈ㆍ🌱ㆍ┈ ▫ ┈ㆍ┈₊⊹☁

I watched the current situation turn into thin ice.

Lariel, you poor thing.

I wondered if I should have warned her not to be rude to servants beforehand…

But I quickly shook my head.

Well, she brought this upon herself.

“Insulting me…”

Parmes’s lips moved.

The cold chill mixed in his voice made one’s blood run cold.

“I can forgive.”

The nobles gulped.

‘Judging by the nobles’ expressions… it seems this hasn’t been the case until now?’

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so disciplined.

“Your Majesty… Please have mercy…”

The Duchess’s lofty dignity that I saw at Lariel Matzert’s birthday party seemed to reach the sky.

But that air was gone, and now she was bowing to Parmes with a terrified face.

“However.”

Parmes continued.

His gaze turned to the sherbet glass and its contents spilled and ruined on the floor.

Lariel was trembling, looking as if she wanted to pick it up.

“I cannot forgive the mistreatment of the beet sherbet.”

At Parmes’s words, all the nobles froze.

“…!!”

“Especially the one Arinel made.”

At Parmes’s next words, everyone’s eyes turned to me.

Even in their terrified state, their eyes seemed to say, ‘Indeed, it was incredibly delicious.’

And there was admiration that even Parmes acknowledged the value of that sherbet.

‘…This is too embarrassing!’

But contrary to my internal scream, Parmes continued speaking with a solemn expression.

“Yes, you dared to throw away the sherbet that Arinel put her heart into making, little one.”

People shrank their arms as if chilled by that piercing aura.

‘Mister, please stop. You’re going to make everyone sick. Getting sick from cold food lasts a long time…’

I wanted to say, but the atmosphere was already too terrifying for me to intervene, and Parmes seemed to have no intention of forgiving.

Lariel was trembling, clutching the hem of her dress with her head bowed low.

“Y-Your Majesty. Please forgive us.”

“It’s all our fault. We will make sure to educate her better from now on.”

Her parents were also bowing deeply, not knowing what to do, admitting the sin of miseducating Lariel.

At that moment, Parmes’s gaze turned to me.

Unlike the icy gaze he had when looking at Lariel, his eyes were filled with infinite warmth when they met mine.

He playfully mouthed a question to me.

‘What should I do with her?’