When the Female Lead Went Off-Script, the Main Male Lead Became the Tyrant's Empress - Chapter 13.1
“Hmm.”
Arden crossed his arms and cast a questioning look at Haster and Troanne.
As far as he knew, Troanne had surprisingly little desire to become involved with the imperial family despite her extensive network of connections.
She couldn’t avoid dealing with them publicly, but she avoided becoming privately entangled with them.
While the Empress was still alive, she had once asked Troanne, who was around Anaris’s age, to become the Princess’s lady-in-waiting.
And not just any Imperial Princess, but the Crown Princess.
It was an honorable position that even a great noble couldn’t obtain easily.
It also meant that she might later act as the next Emperor’s representative, but Troanne politely declined on the grounds that she lacked the necessary qualifications.
Those who had looked upon Troanne with envy and jealousy criticized her for being arrogant.
Yet not long afterward, Anaris fell in love with Baron Lurie and left the imperial palace, and her existing ladies-in-waiting were expelled from the palace.
Not only that, they were even punished for failing to conduct themselves properly while serving the Crown Princess.
Rumors spread that Troanne had refused because she had already known this would happen.
Whether that was true remained unclear, but the incident gave Troanne a reputation as someone who was not to be underestimated.
How in the world had he persuaded such a Countess?
Could ‘that’ Grand Duke Haster Valtor really have lobbied on behalf of his goddaughter?
Arden couldn’t understand it.
‘It’s not as though he seduced her with his face…….’
The Countess had many admirers.
Her beauty played a role, but it was her even more exceptional eloquence that captured men’s hearts.
She chose whichever men suited her tastes and dated them.
Their style, age, and occupation were always different, but every one of them was exceptionally handsome.
Arden examined Haster.
His gaze was directed toward Clary, who was dancing with the Emperor as they moved across the floor.
Setting aside personal feelings and describing him objectively, Haster was quite handsome.
His hair was as glossy and as black as obsidian, and his prominent nose and jawline boasted flawless angles without a single harsh edge.
His blue eyes, which resembled an autumn sky, were impossible to criticize even if one wanted to.
His eyes were slightly sharp, but that too stirred a peculiar sensuality.
“What are you looking at?”
Haster turned toward Arden, who had been staring at him with an openly appraising gaze.
“Your face.”
One might have been intimidated after receiving the same question from the same person twice in one day, both times accompanied by a cold glare, but Arden was far from that type.
Far from watching Haster’s mood, he even added with a shameless expression,
“You’d look more handsome if you relaxed your jaw.”
“…….”
“I’m serious.”
Haster relaxed his gaze.
Arden had expected him to become displeased like he had at the Great Temple or snap something sharp at him, but he reacted as though he had merely heard a dull joke.
Arden felt slightly annoyed.
If he had known this would happen, he would have handled it this way that morning too!
Haster hadn’t given him a chance to explain, but still.
“Enough nonsense. Do you have something to say?”
“How in the world did you bring Countess Troanne in as Clary’s chaperone?”
At the question implying that he surely hadn’t been staring merely to examine another man’s face at leisure, Arden answered without hesitation.
As though he had expected that question, Haster replied in an indifferent tone.
“I was lucky.”
“Lucky?”
What a load of nonsense.
Arden narrowed his eyes.
Haster was not the sort of man who believed in superstition.
The North was geographically little different from a landlocked nation, which meant disputes and battles were frequent, and monster waves occurred periodically. As its ruler, Haster valued reason and intellect.
He kept his distance from superstition and strange supernatural claims, and he looked down upon those who pursued empty strokes of fortune.
Yet a man like that was attempting to dismiss the matter by saying he had simply been lucky.
More than anything, the fact that Haster wasn’t even bothering to lie and was merely brushing him off made Arden feel as though he were being looked down upon.
“Ah, then I suppose you were the lucky man chosen by the Countess this season.”
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