Road to the Crown

As I spoke my lengthy statement, I could watch with delighted as Peter's face turned from victorious, to a confused one all the way to one filled with wrath. While there were some great figures both in the past and in the times that have yet to come, most of the noble brotherhood wasn't known as capable of complicated political manoeuvres. Seeing how the realisation that I was playing him since the very beginning started to take root in his soul, guiding his hand towards the handle of his sabre, I only glanced at my own weapon, safely attached to my inner belt.

Still smiling, I hid my right hand under the table, just to be ready to react in the case Peter would lose his coolheadedness and decided to settle this matter here and now, without even asking me for a pardon.

As the atmosphere in the room turned tense with the guy unable to formulate any answer, I was ready to draw my weapon at any time, with some of my servants reaching to the backside of the room in order to grab anything that could serve as a tool of protecting themselves, when sudden laughter grabbed everyone's attention.

"You got me here, I admit! For a second, I really thought you would consider giving me up only because of the letter of that whore!"

Showcasing her somehow pearlish white teeth in between her wide-open lips, as she gasped for the air, only to throw it away with yet another burst of unrestrained happiness. Repeating the process of desperately fighting to not suffocate only to squeeze her lungs dry of the air the very next moment, she even had to cover her open mouth with her hand in order to not salivate the entire table and me at the same time!

With the tension dissolved by her sudden outburst, I decided against springing up into a fight and raised my cup instead.

"To be honest with you, I really don't understand your motive here. How do you expect her to accept any of your advances after she escaped the death from the hands of the bandits you or your allies recruited only thanks to my timely intervention? Do you think she would leap right into bear's jaws right after miraculously escaping from the bite?"

Taking a sip, I carefully watched the changes on Peter's face, but it seemed that he let my words enter through his one ear, only to let them out through the other, still busy digesting what Elia said a moment before.

Suddenly slamming his hands on the table, he looked sternly at the still giggling girl, with a look in his eyes akin to that of a father unable to understand how did his little and cute daughter turned into a pregnant tomboy after he left her alone for a single moment.

"Whore?! How dare you call your mother like that!"

This time, it was his turn to throw a fit, almost instantly souring Elia's face when she returned to her sensed and realised that this annoying young man was still here, bothering the both of us.

"I know you might not get along, but she is still a woman your father married! Even if you don't like, don't you think you should refrain from calling her like that just out of the respect for your own blood?! I can bet this man was the one to even teach you those words!"

Ah, so this guy was an idiot! No wonder Elia was so negative towards him, despite how he was clearly infatuated with her. But still, with the insane wealth that Ropian was most likely bringing from the trade, even when in the shadow of Tarnow's influence, would still be more than enough for crowds of young commoner maidens to invite him on the haystack for some interclass mingling! How come he was still acting like a damned horny virgin when it came to Elia?

"And who the fuck do you think you are? My fiance teaching me those words? Dick, pussy, arsehole, I picked them all up when I was running away from this whore! And why are you getting angry for me calling her that? Isn't a whore someone who sells her body in order to obtain benefits? Why do you even think my dear stepmother and stepbrother are wishing for me to die a dog's death?!"

Suddenly flaring up, all the laughter that just a moment ago Elia used to calm the atmosphere down disappeared, replaced by her pure wrath. With her fists clenched on the edge of the table, I could bet that if not for a lack of a weapon, she would jump towards Peter and start hacking him down!

Since her cup was now empty and no servant would dare to approach her when she was in such a state, I placed my own cup with over half of its height still filled with the liquid.

"Drink and calm down, he isn't worth your anger, dear."

Sending Elia a meaningful look, I continued to stare her in the eyes for as long as it took for her to cave in under my pressure and gulp down the content of the cup in one go. Just as she was taking the moment to wait for the effect of the drink to spread through her body so that she could pick the argument once again, one of the servants called by a single gesture of mine were already replacing her cup.

"I won't let you fight him. If you don't want to get wasted in such a wasteful way, you better calm down."

Seeing her face melting down when she realised what kind of ploy I created on the spot, I turned my face back to the Peter.

"As for you, I think it's the right time for you to leave. While I wouldn't mind if you were to leave this letter of promotion as well so that I could get another proof while striving to bring the hammer of justice on her demonic family."

Unless that guy would be ready to willingly give me the letter, I had no way to place my hands on it. With his status as the envoy, killing him here would bring the wrath of the Governor on me, especially since it would be most likely the first murder of a noble in the entire country since the coronation!

And since I had to let him go freely, if I dared to steal his letter marked with a proper seal, I would be instantly ostracised even by the people most likely willing to become my allies. At this point, I wasn't even sure if showing this letter of the promise wasn't just a bait aimed to throw me off the balance and put me at a political disadvantage!

"The hell are you even speaking about?! Not only you made her think that her family is making attempts at her life, brought her on a primitive road, and now you want me to give up the letter of promise? Dream on!"

Most likely seeing that he wasn't welcomed here anymore, and accomplishing anything was already not an option, Peter finally stood up from his seat and went outside. Even while still sitting at my chair, I could hear one of my servants going out of his way to guide him outside of the castle.

"The nuisance is finally gone. I hope you didn't make you drink more than you could handle…"