Chapter 13: 13

Michelle kept leaning against Ivona, pretending to be weak, while she observed as the Emperor Maximilian Wajana approached them with a dark face. He was angry at the Crow Prince Leonard Wajana. “Son, what is the meaning of this?” the Emperor asked sternly.

Hearing his father’s voice behind him, Leonard Wajana knew that he was in trouble, but he still didn’t know what happened. He didn’t understand why everyone was staring at him with obvious and unconcealed disgust.

Leonard slowly turned to look at Maximilian Wajana. “Father, what do you mean?” he asked meekly.

But Maximilian just shook his head with a sigh. “Crown Prince Leonard Wajana, who are you trying to challenge by releasing such thick killing intent all over the banquet hall? As the future ruler, you should be considerate of your people, but you ignored the fact that people were fainting and released killing intent into the hall just to vent your anger on a helpless young lady! Are you trying to make me die of anger?!” the Emperor’s voice got louder and louder in anger as he spoke at Leonard.

The Emperor even released some intimidating coldness, but he controlled it so that only Leonard felt it.

Before Leonard could react, Maximilian turned to Michelle and Ivona. “Young Lady Beltrez, Young Lady Grace seems exhausted. Do take her to rest,” he spoke calmly, still carrying the grace of an Emperor.

But behind the calm and graceful facade, Michelle could see the anger and panic, hoping for the Archduke not to break off the engagement between Michelle and Leonard as that would mean that the Archduke would retract his support towards the Imperial family and return to being neutral.

Unfortunately, his worries came true. As Ivona led Michelle away to “rest”, the Emperor turned towards the Archduke to appease his anger, but he was met with a dark face.

“Your Majesty…” the Archduke bowed his head down low, looking apologetic. “This subject apologizes, but this subject can’t see his daughter in such a weak state. This subject is worried that his daughter is no longer suitable to be engaged to His Highness, the Crown Prince, as her weakness would only worsen if she had to carry out royal duties, and this subject is too selfish to see his daughter get weaker. Please, break off the engagement for the sake of the country and this subject’s daughter.”

The Emperor’s face turned sour for a moment, but he quickly covered it up with a smile. “Archduke Grace, We understand your concern about your daughter, but since this is something concerning the children, let’s wait for them both to be present before deciding.” The Emperor basically brushed the Archduke off, hoping that Michelle was still love struck and would refuse to break off her engagement with the Crown Prince.

But the Archduke didn’t mind being brushed off, as he had seen through the Emperor’s intentions and knew that it wouldn’t go according to the emperor’s wishes as Michelle was no longer who she was before, and she couldn’t wait to break off the engagement.

Meanwhile, on a balcony, Michelle was sitting on a couch with Iona by her side and other Young Ladies surrounding her, all “pitying” her and trying to “calm her down” from being so “frightened” by the Crown Prince.

“My Ladies, thank you for your concern, but I’m really fine,” Michelle spoke with a “gentle” smile, but she made sure that her hands were slightly trembling.

Seeing that Michele was still trembling in “shock and fear” the Young Ladies all felt pity for her, no matter how hard they despised her in the past. They all had to admit that at the moment, she was in a pitiful situation and that she was already a completely different person compared to the Michelle they knew in the past.

Just like that, Michelle had very easily gained allies, some who were more loyal and some who were just going with the flow. But the most important ally was Ivona Beltrez, as she might have been from a not so prestigious noble family, but her wits and perfect acting made her a very reliable and competent ally.

Of course, Michelle wasn’t just going to put her full trust in Ivona right away, even though Michelle could see through her right from the start because of two reasons.

One reason was that if Michelle warmed up to Ivona too quickly, Ivona might start doubting her abilities and start thinking that she’s too naive, which wouldn’t really get in the way of Michelle’s plans, but she didn’t want Ivona to think of her like that since she was planning to further use her and maybe even befriend her in the future.

The second reason was Alexander Terce and the other person who were observing Michelle. She didn’t want to let them see her full capabilities.

Michelle knew that Alexander knew that she was only acting in front of the nobility, and her guess was that even the second person saw something through, but Michelle wasn’t happy to let them see more of her capabilities so she wanted to make them think that she wasn’t scheming enough to see through Ivona right away and that she decided to take her time before showing more.

And just like that, everything fell within place according to Michelle’s wishes. The Achduke announced to the Emperor that he wants the engagement to be broken off and thus gave her a reason to meet up with the Emperor.

At the same time, Michelle let the Archduke vent his anger a little by seeing Leonia Phelerion collapse, and what made Michelle feel the mos satisfied was the fact that she was able to manipulate nearly all the Young Ladies into becoming her allies, even though some might only be temporary, and all except Ivona would be basically unnecessary.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep