Chapter 695 - lt is About Retribution
Adela curled her fists in rage as she sat in her seat across from her elder sister. She could hardly believe what she was hearing. The young woman was so outraged by her husband"s actions she had half a mind to leave him for good. Ava merely drank from her teacup as she listened to her little sister"s enraged ramblings.
"I invite you into my home, because I took pity on you, and you thank me for my kindness by sleeping with my husband!"
Ava was not the slightest bit ashamed of her actions. Ever since she witnessed Berengar"s transformation from a foolish boy to a competent lord, she had desired to ditch her husband and get with him. Truthfully, she was not expecting such a thing to occur. However, she was glad that it had. Instead, she tried to deflect from the issue by making a snide remark about a past comment.
"I don"t know if you remember, but there was a time where I asked you to share him with me many years ago. If you had just said yes, then you wouldn"t be so angry right now..."
Adela could no longer contain her fury. She stood up from her seat, and slapped her sister across the face as hard as she could, living a red handprint on the woman"s pretty face. With tears in her eyes, Adela screamed the words she had wanted to say to her sister for many years.
"I hate you!"
After saying this, she stormed off from the sitting area and entered one of the castle"s many rooms. Berengar generally slept with one or more of his wives in the royal bedchamber. However, it was not an everyday occurrence for all of them to share the same bed, because of this several rooms were designated for the use of the Kaiser"s wives. Adela was crying on the bed she used when she was not by her husband"s side. She could not believe that the man had hooked up with her sister.
Then again, the more she thought about it, the more she realized she shouldn"t have trusted the man around a pretty woman. Especially if that woman was married to a man he wanted to get revenge on. With a defeated voice, she called out to n.o.body in particular.
"Berengar, you dummy!"
---
While Adela was crying alone in her room, Linde was chastising Berengar for his actions. She was actually amazed that her husband was so shameless. In the entire time she had known the man, she had never been this angry with him.
"You slept with her? What on earth compelled you to do such a stupid thing?"
Berengar listened to the woman"s fury with a deadpan expression on his face. He had severely regretted his actions after doing them, knowing full well what trouble they would cause. Unfortunately, beautiful women were his weakness, especially when there was alcohol involved.
However, as the Kaiser, Berengar could not admit to his wife that what he did was wrong. No, it was not his position, but his pride that would not allow him to do so. Naturally, when pressed into a corner, and forced to explain his actions to his wife, Berengar not only doubled down, but tripled down.
"What did you expect me to do, Linde!?! That b.a.s.t.a.r.d Wolfgang struck our son!"
For the first time in Linde"s life, she was actually furious with Berengar"s womanizing, not because she cared he had slept with a random harlot, but because she was concerned about the distress such a thing would undoubtedly cause to Adela when she found out.
On top of this, the man came up with the most illogical reasoning for his actions. If he had admitted he was drunk, h.o.r.n.y, and made a mistake she would be more lenient, however the moment she heard such obtuse reasoning for his actions she screamed at the man with every fiber of her being.
"And so you slept with his wife!?! How does that make any sense? If someone slaps our child, you cut off his hand, or have the man executed, you don"t f.u.c.k his wife! Especially when that wife is the elder sister of your wife! You"re unbelievable. Why don"t you just admit you made a mistake?"
Berengar refused to relent, even though he was well aware of how much he had f.u.c.ked up, but if he submitted to Linde now and apologized for his actions, she would never respect him in the same way she had in the past. In his past life, Berengar"s father had imparted a certain phrase of wisdom unto him and that was the phrase:
"Never apologize to a woman. If you do it once, she will expect you to do it every time she thinks you are wrong..."
It was this reasoning that Berengar had utterly refused to apologize and instead a.s.serted his dominance by questioning Linde"s loyalty.
"You dare say what I, the Kaiser, can and can"t do? What gives you the right? You may not understand this because you are a woman, but taking Wolfgang"s life is too easy. If I did, he would just be another head on the chopping block.
If I truly want to make that imbecile understand the depths of his sins, then I must claim his wife as my own before executing him. Only then will he realize just how much he screwed up by touching my child! It"s not about logic or reason, Linde, it"s about retribution!"
Upon seeing that Berengar was not willing to relent, or apologize for his actions, Linde simply turned away and headed for the door. When she did so, Berengar called out to her.
"Where the h.e.l.l do you think you"re going!?!"
Linde turned around and gave her husband a chilling stare before responding to his words with a tongue laced with venom.
"I"m going to go comfort your wife!"
When Berengar heard this he was dumbfounded, but he supposed Linde would have a better time cheering up Adela, then he would at this point in time. After all, he refused to apologize for his actions, and Adela would not want to hear his excuses right now. Thus, Linde left Berengar alone, where he drowned his complicated emotions in copious quant.i.ties of alcohol.
---
Having fought with her husband, in a foolish attempt to force the man to apologize for his actions, and admit that what he did was a mistake, Linde soon found her way in the halls where she saw her son cheering up the harlot who had caused this controversy.
Linde was furious when she saw the woman in tears. There was a visible red handprint on her cheek, which Linde guessed was from Adela. She quickly called out to her son and forced him away from his aunt.
"Hans, come here this instant! I don"t want you hanging around that woman!"
Hans feigned ignorance after witnessing the furious state of his mother. He had never seen the woman so outraged, and truthfully, he was a bit frightened at what she might do while in her current state. Evidently, his plan had worked, and his father had taken Ava as one of his mistresses, or else there would be no reason for his mother to be so enraged.
Still, the prince found it weird that his mother was acting this way when she was so supportive of all the other women in her husband"s life. He was beginning to think that he did not understand the complexities of human romance after all. Normally, he would fight to stay by his aunt"s side and comfort her, but when he saw the glare that his mother was giving him, his skeleton nearly jumped out of his skin.
Hans quickly waddled over to his mother with his head hanging low. Inadvertently, this had given away his schemes as Linde gazed at the boy"s guilty state with a curious glint in her eye. She immediately grabbed hold of Han"s ear and yanked on it as she interrogated her child about his scandalous actions.
"You little brat! You did this? Didn"t you!"
When Hans heard his mother"s shrill voice, he nearly soiled himself. He would not deny his mother"s questions when she was in such a fl.u.s.tered state, and merely responded with a slight nod of his head. Upon seeing the boy submissively respond to her, Linde smirked before inquiring further about his motives.
"What in G.o.d"s name compelled you to do such a thing?"
Hans could not even meet his mother"s glance as he tried to justify his scheming behavior.
"I only wanted everyone to be happy! I didn"t think it would actually work!"
Linde felt compelled to smack her own child then and there, but instead she took a deep breath and calmed herself as she gazed upon the boy"s cute face. She couldn"t stay mad at the boy, even though what he had done had caused her quite the headache. However, his actions would not go unpunished. She quickly dished out a sentence for her son as a reprisal for his delinquent actions.
"You are confined to your room for the next two weeks. Aside from school and the Cadet Corps, you are not allowed to leave your quarters until I say so! Shame on you, messing with the heads of adults! I hope that you will reflect on your actions and the trouble you have caused. I will also be expecting a thorough report on why you thought it was necessary to act as a matchmaker between your father and your aunt!"
Hans immediately protested his mother"s decision. He felt the extent that his mother was disciplining him was unjust. The punishment clearly did not fit the crime. Or so he thought. However, under the frightful gaze of his enraged mother, the boy could not fully voice his argument against the sentence she had given him, and merely responded with a childish quip.
"That"s not fair!"
Linde was not in the mood to hear the boy"s excuses. She quickly grabbed hold of her son"s hand and dragged him to his room while continuing to lecture him.
"You have no idea the trouble you have caused by manipulating your aunt and Father. You should consider yourself lucky that you are only grounded for two weeks. It is clear that your father and I have given you too much freedom. From now on, things are going to be much more strict around here!"
After saying this, Linde tossed her son into his room and locked the door behind him. Truthfully, it was not exactly the worst punishment in the world. Hans"s room was larger than most penthouse suites, with its own bathroom, desk, and library. The most difficult portion of his punishment would be writing a report to his mother, explaining the reasoning for his schemes. He did not know how he would logically explain his reason for wanting Ava as another one of his mommies.
Linde, on the other hand, would proceed to Adela"s quarters, not worrying in the slightest about Ava who witnessed the entire scene display itself, and was dreadfully confused about what had been said. If Ava was foolish enough to be manipulated by a child, then Linde would not bother spending the effort to explain it to her. As for Adela, she was still crying her pretty little face into her pillow. The news that her sister had seduced her husband devastated her.