66. Prince Leighton

It wasn’t just Psyche who discovered Prince Leighton.

Since Clint wasn’t pleased with his appearance, Psyche took a step forward.

Reading the atmosphere, Leighton seemed hesitant for a moment before speaking first.

“Duke Valentine, and Duchess, it’s been a while.”

Leighton opened his mouth with a voice that excluded as much emotion as possible.

Upon this, Clint responded to his greeting with a smile.

“It’s surprising to see a prince in a place like this.”

Clint returned the dislike. Leighton, who couldn’t understand that, responded with a gentle expression as if to become someone who couldn’t understand.

“Ah… The Duchess did something remarkable, so His Majesty insisted that I come and see…”

The prince made an excuse pretending not to know. There was no better excuse than that.

The emperor sighed inwardly as he watched the marquis and his wife tense up at the prince’s appearance.

He felt that this was necessary to ease the tension of the emperor.

In fact, the emperor had invited the marquis and his wife to this banquet with the intention of watching their downfall.

There would be no one among the nobles who didn’t know how important the succession was.

So, hoping that the marquis would fall along with the man who bore a son without knowing his status or rank, the emperor expected the marquis to fall into ruin.

The emperor thought this was a perfect opportunity to diminish the marquis’s influence.

Of course, he knew that merely exposing the flaws of the Duke would not be enough to break the Duke’s arrogant power. However, power, in essence, begins to crumble from excessive weaknesses.

The emperor, who detested the marquis like a thorn in his side, secretly hoped for his downfall. However, ironically, that weakness became the very thing that gave the marquis wings.

He had brought Prince Leighton, whom the marquis disliked, because he wanted to put them off emotionally.

The emperor, still clinging to his delusions and old age, didn’t realize what a huge mistake it was.

The marquis had considered the matter settled long ago by sending Rachel away. So, because the emperor believed that Leighton hadn’t been involved in that matter, he could appear with him.

He thought the marquis simply disliked the prince.

“It seems like it’s not a place for a prince to be.”

The marquis cut in coldly.

Although Leighton seemed flustered, he didn’t back down because he secretly wanted to meet Psyche.

“The marquis is always rude and cold to me.”

Leighton said with a resentful expression.

And at that moment, he sensed a change in the atmosphere between the marquis and his wife.

If before it felt like the marquis simply had one-sided possessiveness towards Psyche, now it seemed like there was a strange bond flowing between them.

Leighton realized there was no room to delve deeper and quickly approached Psyche.

“Why is the Duke silent?”

“…”

Psyche still felt awkward about dealing with the prince.

Even when they met before, she showed her discomfort, but this man seemed unaware of stepping back.

She slowly spoke up.

“It was an honor to meet you here. May I take my leave now?”

“Already leaving? That’s disappointing.”

The prince was quite stubborn.

Now, Leighton poured out his lingering feelings to Psyche, as if forgetting past mistakes.

The emperor observed the three with great interest.

Now, the prince’s well-being or whatever was less important; dragging down the marquis had become more critical.

An interesting thought crossed the emperor’s mind that maybe he could use the prince to separate them. He quickly finished his calculations and intervened to stop Leighton.

He judged that there was no need to set up a confrontation so soon.

“Prince, the Duchess seems tired. Let’s not be rude.”

As Leighton approached Psyche, he hesitated and backed off.

The emperor looked at Clint’s face, which seemed to be glaring at Leighton as if he wanted to kill him, with great interest.

“I thought he was a man of steel without weaknesses. But to have a real weakness this close…”

The emperor felt his discomfort melting away.

He thought the Duke was Psyche’s weakness.

He never showed emotions on his face in any situation.

But what was revealed on his face now was as blatant as seeing someone naked, piquing the emperor’s interest.

But it was fleeting. The face of the marquis, who quickly suppressed his emotions, was as cold as the previous expression, making the emperor think that the earlier expression was a misconception.

“If the Duchess is tired, I can’t help it.”

Leighton, showing lingering attachment to attachment, backed off only after kissing Psyche’s hand.

“Wow, were you all here?”

The surroundings became noisy with a woman’s voice.

It was.

“We’ve been looking for a while. It’s nice to see Your Majesty here as well.”

Sandrine smiled broadly as if everything was going well.

“It’s already the day for the queen to return. Time flies.”

The emperor praised Sandrine insincerely.

Sandrine smiled and approached Psyche, holding her hand.

“Your Majesty, I’m so grateful to the Duchess that I want to give her a gift. It’s probably something you’ll like too, so I wanted to present it in front of everyone.”

Sandrine’s face was flushed as she spoke excitedly.

The emperor stepped forward.

“What kind of remarkable gift has gathered so many people?”

At the emperor’s question, Queen Sandrine gently smiled and led Psyche to the center.

“It’s a gift that Your Majesty will surely be pleased with.”

Sandrine walked to the center and swiftly removed a red cloth covering something.

“Wow!”

“Is that a ship, not just any ship?”

People exclaimed in surprise. Under the cloth was a round glass bowl with about three-tenths full of shimmering water.

And above it was a small miniature ship swaying. Some nobles who carefully observed it quickly recognized what kind of ship it was.

“That’s not just any ship, is it?”

“It’s a merchant ship!”

On the opposite side of the ship bearing the emblem of Tarang, surprisingly, there were imprints of ‘Valentine’s’ and another unknown emblem.

The emperor came out with a surprised face and looked at the glass bowl.

“Oh, isn’t this the Tyren merchant ship, the symbol of Tarang? The model is beautiful.”

He simply thought Sandrine was giving a model. Even if it was just a ship model, if it had been crafted with gems, it would have been a valuable item, so among nobles, it wouldn’t have been considered a bad gift.

However, Sandrine added with a chuckle.

“It’s not just a model. We’re really giving you the Tyren merchant ship. This Tyren merchant ship is docked at Silen Harbor right now. And here, each family’s emblem is engraved.”

The emperor’s face twisted momentarily.

“The owner of this ship has already been designated as the Duke.”

Then Sandrine approached the glass bowl, pointing to a strange pattern next to the Valentine emblem, and spoke again.

“So, I had the emblem of ‘Alistair’ of the Duchess’s family engraved.”

At those words, Psyche’s eyes widened, and she stared blankly at the ship.

In Capital, she had always been referred to as ‘Psyche Valentine’ or simply as the ‘Duchess’.

At the mention of the Alistair emblem, Psyche felt an indescribable surge of emotion.

It was touching to know that there was someone who remembered her surname, her castle.

Sandrine added more.

“So, this ship is entirely the Duchess’s.”

People cheered and applauded.

“This ship can freely visit all ports of Tarang at any time. I plan to go through the administrative procedures as soon as I return.”

“My goodness.”

“What does that mean?”

The nobles gathered, curious about the truth of her words.

And the one who understood the truth of those words better than anyone else was the emperor.

The emperor chewed on his words in anger unknowingly.

Wasn’t that what he had wanted for so long?

But if what Sandrine said was true, then it was nothing short of saying that Psyche would have priority over trade rights with future eastern countries, including Tarang.

In that case, it was obvious that the Duke’s power would be strengthened even more.

“It’s what Your Majesty wanted, isn’t it? Everything is thanks to the Duchess.”

Sandrine smiled brightly as if she knew nothing and raised the wine glass next to her.

Then she looked at Psyche and praised her.

Everyone raised their glasses and praised Psyche.

It was a moment when her status changed completely.

It was the moment when she stood as ‘Psyche Alistair’ with legitimate power, not just as a Duchess.

She had thought it was too much of a price to pay just to find parents for the child, but from Sandrine’s perspective, this level of reward was nothing.

So, that day was truly a festive day for everyone.

Except for the emperor.

Psyche inadvertently found Clint among the crowd, looking at her.

Their eyes met, and Clint responded with a smile.