Living as the Villain's Stepmother Chapter 55

Chapter 55 – The Shadow (1)

The door opened abruptly, and a neatly dressed Lacias barged in with the room guard following him shortly after with a shameful expression on his face. He knew the emperor wouldn't let him see the end of it.

“Lila! What are you doing here? I've been searching everywhere for you.” Lacias spoke as if the emperor didn't even exist. He did not even bother looking his way.

Lila couldn't tell if he was angry or in distress. His expression was dark and rigid, but his voice sounded worried and sad.

“Why are you just standing there? Come here. No, I will come, don't worry.”

Lila saw the opportunity to get away from Enrique as Lacias headed towards her, she took it with open arms she held Lacias and slid into his arms. She could feel his muscles tense at the touch.

“I was about to return to you.” She said dramatically.

Lila smiled and leaned against Lacias' shoulder, her intentions were clear from how she stared back at the emperor almost tauntingly. Despite knowing her intention Lacias' heart started beating faster.

The emperor finally decided to add his input. “Duke, can you not see who is standing before you?”

Lacias painstakingly shredded his eyes off of Lila and looked at the blond man standing in front of him.

“Oh, you're here?” He said, with obvious uninterest in his voice.

“What?” Enrique couldn't believe it, his respect was being shattered by the second.

Lacias shrugged his shoulders at his baffled response and looked back at the reason why he came in the first place.

“You're quite impertinent,” Enrique said infirmly.

Lacias chuckled and didn't even bother looking back. “Sure, I am impertinent, not the man who abused his power to drag this maiden who was about to be my entire life. ”

Faint signs of anger began to appear on the emperor's expression. “My Duke. I am the emperor of this country. I suggest you watch your words around me.”

Lacias looked at Enrique through the corner of his eyes, “Your Majesty. I'm sure you wouldn't want the ties between the Wipere family and the royal family to be severed.”

Enrique could just stare back in disbelief, he felt that doing anything else would be unwise.

“The only reason why I'm standing still right now is that it's not worth my time, not because I'm afraid of you.”

Enrique didn't understand why the duke was going above and beyond for the common woman, usually, he would just silently stay in his family's estate and obey the royal family, this was the first time he was receiving an act of rebellion from him. “Duke … do you know what you're saying?”

Lacias just continued as if he said nothing. “Your Majesty should be aware of one thing. If this ever happens again.” He laughed for a moment before continuing. “Let's just say I wouldn't be wearing this uniform.” And with that Lacias took off still holding onto his wife-to-be.

Enrique along with all the guards was left in complete shock. He knew that Lacias didn't have to continue his sentence because it was clear what he meant, he meant that he would be wearing armor.

On the way back Lila thought about her current problems. While she had refused, Enrique's words made Lila curious. There were a few things about Mrs. Marshmell's past that had not been mentioned in the original work. These presences, like Enrique's relationship with her, may hinder the progress.

Her thoughts were halted when she felt something refreshing brush against her chin. She was spacing out while staring out the carriage window.

“What is this?”

“There was something dirty on your face.” Said Lacias moving her chin around to check for anymore.

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Lila tried to look at him as he kept moving her around “Something dirty?”

“Yes, it did not suit you.”

It may have been Enrique's contaminated ring. It was persistent like its owner's personality.

Lacias, satisfied that her face was clean, finally stopped. “Lila.”

“Yes.” She replied innocently.

“The window is cold.” He said worriedly, feeling her cold cheeks with one hand.

He looked at her firmly shortly after. “What did you talk about?”

“I don't know … he mentioned something about a cat.”

“A cat? What do you mean by that?”

Lacias asked her further as he had about her talk at Hiln's party.

“I don't know why he said such things to me.”

“Hmm, why didn't you do what I taught you?”

“What are you talking about?”

“I told you to shoot anyone who bothered you.”

Lila frowned and looked him in the eyes. “You mean the emperor?” Lila laughed from surprise and Lacias felt a little embarrassed.

“I'm not joking.” He said, trying to act firm.

“What would you do if I shot the emperor and placed the blame on you?”

“I would take care of it of course.”

While Lila thought his words empty, she could not ignore the fact that it just might be true.

“So anyways don't be afraid to use your pistol when people try to kidnap you ok?”

“How did you know I was kidnapped?”

Lacias placed his lips on Lila's necklace that hung from her neck.

“I felt something filthy approaching you so I immediately ran to your manor.”

Please read this TL's note:

Rings are form of energies. It comes in different forms for each character, others may take creative forms such as butterfly. It's called a Ring as it comes from the hand literally. Inexperienced ring users uses pistol to summon their rings. The more experienced they are, the more rings they are able to produce.

Shadows are people who uses distorted rings which are called “Holes.” Rings such as these are colorless. They attach to other people's rings and sap its energy to gain power.

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Chapter end