The Prince Seduces Me with His Body Chapter 133

When exactly did she become an elementalist? After entering the imperial palace? Or from the very beginning? Did she end up interfering with me because she sided with Kayden, or was I her target all along?

 

Rebecca probed persistently, but the more she pressed, the heavier her doubts became. In the end, she gave up trying to think and struggled to stand up.

 

“Ugh…” Pain surged from the wound Ludwig had clumsily treated. Without warning, a groan escaped between her teeth. But Rebecca gritted her teeth and threw on her coat to cover her upper body.

 

I need to stop them for now.

 

Rebecca encountered the third prince and third princess consort in the duke’s secret chamber. This meant that they had seen the same things she had. Moreover, since she was a step late, they must have already seized the evidence inside. If they exposed it, even if Rebecca claimed ignorance of the duke’s experiments, politically, it would be tantamount to a death sentence.

 

For now, she needed to silence the third prince and his wife. Then, she would deal with Duke Findlay.

 

It was when Rebecca resolved to pull herself together. Bang! The door burst open with a loud crash. Ludwig would never act so rudely. So who was it?

 

Rebecca flinched reflexively, her guard up, and turned her body. She soon spotted a figure striding toward her, her eyes widening.

 

“…Duke?”

 

The one who had rudely barged into the princess’s quarters was none other than Duke Findlay, the very man she had vowed to destroy just moments ago. He, who always had an icy, cold expression, had never appeared so agitated before.

 

“How dare you.”

 

Duke Findlay’s eyes blazed with fury, sharp enough to devour even the continent, as he ground his teeth. Without giving Rebecca a chance to react, he raised his hand high and struck it down.

 

Smack! A sharp sound rang out as Rebecca’s head snapped to the side. For a moment, she couldn’t comprehend what had just happened. It was the first time since her birth that she had been exposed to such humiliating violence, and the shock was immense. But the words that followed inflicted even greater humiliation upon her.

 

“How dare a mere pawn try to take the master’s place. How dare you!”

 

“…What?”

 

Anger drove away the shock. Rebecca bared her teeth and glared fiercely at the duke.

 

But right now, Duke Findlay was not in his right mind. He had been in a foul mood ever since he realized that Kayden had escaped the imperial palace with his followers.

 

“W-We never took our eyes off them! Please spare us!”

 

“Please spare us!”

 

The duke had suspected that a dark attribute elementalist lurked near Kayden and had placed people to keep watch. But Kayden had eluded them, vanishing as if mocking the duke. Suspecting that it was the ability of the dark attribute elementalist only made his frustration grow. And the urgent news that had arrived from Findlay Duchy finally snapped his patience.

 

“Ma-Master! There’s been an intruder in the basement…!”

 

“We failed to capture them, but we inflicted serious injuries.”

 

“Most of the research materials are gone. It appears the intruder took them. Their abilities resemble those of the first princess…”

 

The duke had long known that Rebecca was wary and distrustful of him. But to him, that wasn’t of great importance. The research was almost complete, and even if it wasn’t finished, he could just capture the dark attribute elementalist near Kayden and rip that power away.

 

The power of the dark attribute spirit said to be the strongest in history, and the justification of being the sovereign’s maternal grandfather—if he could seize those two things, nothing could stop him. Eliminating his bothersome granddaughter and taking her place was no challenge at all. After all, Rebecca was just a pawn, groomed solely to provide the bloodline connection to the current emperor.

 

Without the name Findlay, which he had lent her, Rebecca was nothing—weak and arrogant, unable to accomplish anything on her own. And yet that insignificant pawn had dared to infiltrate his castle and steal what was his. She was so brazen, not realizing that she had been shown mercy.

 

From the Duke’s perspective, even allowing Rebecca to temporarily hold the throne had been a great mercy. But instead of being grateful for that mercy, she continued to defy him, raising her head again and again until, eventually, she had become a threat.

 

The duke had no intention of letting a pawn try to escape his control alone. He muttered coldly. “I don’t like that this will slightly weaken my position, but I can make up for that with power. Since you’ve decided to outlive your usefulness, I’ll dispose of you personally.”

 

Though old, the duke was a skilled elementalist, once trusted enough to stand behind the emperor.

 

Behind the duke, white flames flared up. Seeing that, Rebecca let out a fierce laugh. “… You’re the one who’s overstepping. How dare you dirty the princess’s quarters with your filthy feet.”

 

Rebecca had endured enough. She, too, was about to deal with the duke, who constantly treated her like a pawn. Though the duke’s rage stemmed from a misunderstanding, Rebecca didn’t bother to correct him. It was something that needed to be done anyway.

 

White flames also surged from Rebecca’s hand. Boom! The white flames collided, exploding and illuminating the room. Furniture shattered with cracking sounds, the walls crumbled, and the night wind rushed in.

 

“Fi-Fire!”

 

Soon, White Flame Palace lived up to its name, engulfed in white flames. Servants, belatedly realizing what was happening, screamed and scrambled to escape the palace, but the flames, fueled by the spirit’s power, could not be extinguished by water.

 

“Keugh!”

 

Amidst the flames, Rebecca lay on the ground, bleeding. Normally, she wouldn’t have been so helpless. But with her body still recovering from the severe injuries she sustained during her escape from Findlay Duchy, she was no match for the experienced duke.

 

Standing over her, Duke Findlay stomped on her head, glaring down coldly. He clicked his tongue and murmured in a low voice. “If you had behaved, you might have lived a little longer.”

 

“Cough, keu…” She wanted to tell him to stop spouting nonsense, but when she opened her mouth, blood came out instead of words.

 

Rebecca clawed at the floor, her eyes bloodshot. But before she could muster the strength to push herself up, the duke stomped harder on her.

 

“Stop struggling. No one in this palace is coming to save you. And even if there were, haven’t you already driven them all away yourself?”

 

The duke’s words struck a painful chord within Rebecca. She gritted her teeth.

 

There was nothing false about what the duke said. Aside from Kayden’s faction, the only people in the palace who might help Rebecca were Ludwig, the second concubine’s faction, and Duke Findlay. But Ludwig wasn’t an elementalist, and the second concubine’s faction had already been shattered by her own hand. And now, Duke Findlay, whom she had once considered her strongest ally, stood over her, crushing her underfoot and holding a finely sharpened spear. The spear in his hand was pointed at her heart.

 

Having vented some of his anger by beating her, the duke returned to his usual expressionless state and murmured. “If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not being satisfied with the power you were born with.” With those words, the duke ruthlessly thrust the spear downward.

 

Rebecca, mustering her remaining strength, moved to stop him. But just as the spear was about to pierce her, a voice cut through the air.

 

“Let me return those words to you, Duke.”

 

At the same time as the stranger’s voice pierced her ears, a purple thread wrapped around the duke’s spear, halting its descent.