That night, the female lead whose thoughts had been seen through tried to hypnotize the Wade Dukedom"s heir to make him sign a contract saying he was willing to be wed to her. The girl had an outburst before that, spitting out her desire to be freed of the crown prince"s grasp. Yet at the same time, she still wanted to retain her n.o.ble status and take care of her household. Let"s say it was not entirely out of greed, but pragmatism.
But how should Jiang Li face a woman who had seemingly gone a bit crazy due to the villainess" appearance and her nearing doom?
While the other girl was busy formulating plans with the Pope to make herself the Empress, the one here was clutching on the person she thought could fulfill all her wishes.
She wanted to cancel the engagement, but the plot would not let her. She didn"t want to love the future Emperor, but even the right to that was being taken away from her. Was it strange for her to momentarily lose her reason?
When thought from a different perspective, the desires of the two women did not truly clash. Yet because of divine intervention, they could not just talk it out between themselves and not involve Jiang Li. He suddenly felt tired.
"Is this the plot"s machinations against me? Rumina Bolden is not playing by its rules sometimes, so it wanted to use that to get rid of me before forcing her to be with the male lead?"
Lèse-majesté. No. Jiang Li actually didn"t know what it was called. But a man coveting a woman betrothed to royalty was treason, right?
"I like you, Luke Wade." That was the first time in her two lifetimes that the female lead confessed to somebody.
Yet even though she was a sobbing mess, the sight was in no way touching nor heartbreaking. It was making one"s blood cold. In her momentary fit of insanity, the girl wanted to put him under a spell and then control him.
He laughed. "... She doesn"t like me, but my ident.i.ty and status."
A woman in her mid-twenties wearing the skin of a gentle and delicate girl barely sixteen years old. Was she under the control of the Creator or the will of this world? He was not interested to know. He just couldn"t help but wonder whether he had been too cold to even attribute her weirdness to the plot instead of pitying her helplessness.
She wanted to be saved. But if he did, who would save his own villainess?
System: ... Uh, is my host is finally being humane?
Looking at the emotionless face of its host, the system kept its silence. Anyways, it was muted, as usual. Silence was golden.
Half a minute pa.s.sed since the girl"s outburst. Jiang Li was forced to left his wheeled seat. The female lead who firmly believed he was not ill was not surprised, but was alarmed. A couple of seconds later, he flickered to her side.
All sorts of scenarios played in the girl"s head, but she didn"t panic much since she had confidence in her own skills.
Only, she just didn"t antic.i.p.ate that he would be faster than her and would attack her before she could react or cast any spell.
"Stop! Don"t come ever! I said, stop!" When he closed in and raised his hand, she hurriedly yelled, apparently still trying to cast the mind control magic on him
However, the fist mercilessly and heavily fell on her stomach. "Sorry. I"m done testing you. And your hypnosis failed, Miss Vessel."
"Luke..." She cried as her vision blackened slowly. The attack instantly made her groan in pain and knocked her out.
He expressionlessly let the woman fall on the carpeted floor.
No matter what small schemes and accidents the plot arranged for her, he wouldn"t easily fall for it. If he does, that would be the greatest shame of his life.
Even if the curse was still on him, he was a warrior and a magician. He was also a general, a martial artist, a black arts pract.i.tioner. The latter ensured he wouldn"t fall prey to hypnosis and other mind attacks unless he taxed his mind so much and there was no way to recover. Unfortunately, that was not the case yet in this world.
Hence the reason for the female lead"s surprise upon seeing him not fall down or become dazed.
"Tell her, I didn"t agree." He simply said to the father of the female lead.
Duke Bolden"s mouth was wide opened, in great disbelief seeing his beloved daughter and her servants sliding down in front of him through a carpet of ice. The prophet was a known ice magician so he knew it was the handiwork of the young man in the wheelchair looking down at them from the second floor.
A father always had a soft spot for their child. Seeing Rumina"s state, the duke momentarily lost composure and shouted, "Your Excellency. Why did you do that my daughter!?"
Allen Wade who had crossed the flight of stairs arrived at Jiang Li"s left side and anxiously checked his son. He disregarded all decorums too and left the fuming guest downstairs. "Son, what happened?"
Jiang Li did not remove his gaze from the right hand grasping the armrest. He smiled. "Father, the night is no longer young. Please tell our housekeeper to escort the guests out."
"Luke Wade!" The other duke seething in rage deliberately did not address the second-highest figure of the church by his t.i.tle. "Don"t think just because of your status you can escape explaining to me!" The tall middle-aged man"s roar was very thunderous and full of boundless anger.
Yet the person he spoke to that way was not intimidated. The young man was equally in a bad mood.
He was in the middle of contemplating about the missing G.o.ddess when the female lead barged into their mansion only to hypnotize him into being her fiance.
"Are you sure you want my explanation, Duke Bolden?" There was a slight smile on the young man"s face. The one asked was a bit taken aback due to the sudden tingling of his scalp. But where did the sense of danger come?
A second later, the female lead"s father froze.
From the prophet...?
In the end, the whole group of people from the crown princess" house went back in a daze, apparently getting nothing from this night trip.
None of them couldn"t fathom what had happened, all of them were waiting for Rumina Bolden to regain consciousness and tell them.
As for the duke, his face grim, he blamed himself for forgetting that before and on the earlier years of getting reinstated as the messenger of the G.o.ddess, the prophet was a competent swordsman who had already bathed in blood, beasts and humans alike.
Among the younger generation, which individual had the ability to render someone speechless and frozen just with a stare?
It was a mistake to provoke that person, the duke realized. Now depending on how his daughter had acted in that place, they have to accept that they were no longer in the good books of House Wade.