I Became the Villain Alpha's Omega (BL)

Chapter 327: A Suspicious Glance

The worst part about Iryna’s chamber wasn’t the tension or the fact that a dozen heavily armed imperial guards were pacing the hallway outside.

It was having absolutely no idea what was happening out there. No matter how often Marielle opened the windows to let in the cool afternoon air, the room still felt sealed off from the rest of the palace. At this point, the pigeons flying past the windows probably knew more than they did.

Cherion sat by the narrow arched window, his fingers loosely wrapped around a silver cup. The tea hadn’t been touched. Its still surface caught the gray clouds drifting over the palace courtyard.

Across the room, Iryna sat on the massive bed while Marielle hovered nearby. The two of them were conversing in low, hushed murmurs. Cherion watched them out of the corner of his eye, silently noting that it was a minor miracle the two of them weren’t actively at each other’s throats anymore.

"Lord Cherion!"

Reiner practically bounced into the room, bringing enough nervous energy to wake the entire chamber. Even with the palace in chaos, Reiner somehow still looked like a sunflower that had taken a wrong turn into a cemetery.

He didn’t stop until he was right beside Cherion’s chair, leaning in so close his breath hitched in a frantic, whispered rush. "My lord! Are you alright? After healing the Princess, you must be completely exhausted. Please tell me your head isn’t splitting."

The corner of Cherion’s mouth twitched with reluctant amusement. It was hard to stay entirely detached when Reiner was looking at him with the wide, terrified eyes of a golden retriever that thought the sky was falling. He offered a small, dismissive wave of his hand.

"Relax, Reiner. I’m not going to crumble into dust," Cherion replied. "Remember the subjugation? I healed quite a few, then promptly made up for the lost energy at dinner. There is absolutely nothing a long sleep and a ridiculous amount of roasted meat won’t fix."

He paused, his eyes drifting over to Iryna, and let out a soft, humorless chuckle. "Well... except for for whatever it was that found its way into Princess Iryna’s bloodstream. That one took a bit more out of me than I’d care to admit."

Reiner let out a loud, dramatic sigh, pressing both hands against his chest as if his heart might actually pop out of his tunic. "Thank goodness. I mean, thank the gods she’s stable. But ugh! Lord Cherion, I swear to you, If it weren’t for the guards standing right there, I would’ve kidnapped those nobles."

Cherion raised an eyebrow. "Kidnap them?"

"Yes!" Reiner hissed, his face flushing a bright red. "I wanted to stuff their mouths full of the bitterest tea leaves I could find, tie them up, and wheel them down to the public town market. I would have paid the commoners out of my own pocket to throw them with spoiled fruit. The absolute nerve of them! How dare they even hint that you were the one who poisoned the Princess when you were the only person working yourself to exhaustion to keep her breathing?"

A genuine, wry smirk touched the corner of Cherion’s mouth. He looked back down at his untouched wine. "Oh. Well, thank the gods that’s just a plan living inside your head. I’m fairly certain that’s not an approved diplomatic expense."

Reiner’s ears turned a deep pink, and he quickly dropped into a sheepish, low bow, his energetic shoulders slumping into a display of pure guilt. "I am deeply sorry, my lord. Truly, I am. I should have remained at your side. I should have been the one attending to the tea, standing at the door, or seeing to anything you required. Instead... I only appear now."

"Stop vibrating, Reiner. You’re going to shake the floor," Cherion said, his tone perfectly casual, though his sharp eyes never stopped analyzing the room. He leaned his head back against the stone casing of the window. "Come to think of it, where did you and Ezek go? You both just vanished. I was beginning to think the two of you had been swallowed by the palace. Are you alright?"

"Oh, yes! Completely fine! Nothing happened at all," Reiner said instantly.

The response came out just a bit too fast, the syllables clipping together. Reiner offered a wide, incredibly bright smile that looked like it had been pasted onto his face with old starch. But even as he spoke, his eyes didn’t stay on Cherion. They instinctively drifted across the expanse of the bedroom, tracking toward the double doors at the far end.

Ezek was standing there like a carved block of dark granite, his broad frame casting a long, imposing shadow across the polished floorboards. He was caught in a low, intense conversation with Flio and Elios, their heads bowed over whatever important business had claimed their attention. But right at the exact moment Reiner’s eyes traveled toward the door, Ezek’s head shifted.

He stopped listening to Elios entirely for a split second, his gaze snapping straight across the room toward the window.

For a single, breathless heartbeat, Ezek’s intense eyes locked directly onto Reiner’s face.

Reiner flinched as if he’d been stuck with a pin. His face burned hot, and he abruptly tore his gaze away, staring down at his own boots while his fingers nervously twisted the hem of his tunic.

Cherion didn’t say a word. He didn’t move an inch. But his gaze slowly traveled between the two of them, the bright, usually unshakeable aide who was currently trying to dissolve into his own shoes, and the rigid, silent guard by the door who was already turning his attention back to the Elios with a stiff jerk of his chin.

A quiet, dangerous spark of curiosity flared deep in Cherion’s chest.

Experience had taught Cherion that the world operated on a handful of very simple rules. One of those rules had never failed him. Whenever someone went out of their way to insist that nothing happened, it almost always meant something had happened. Not just something, either. Something spectacularly inconvenient, deeply embarrassing, and complicated enough to ruin everyone else’s day.

Cherion kept his face perfectly blank, but he didn’t look back out at the courtyard.

Instead, Cherion kept watching from the corner of his eye. Sure enough, Ezek’s attention drifted back toward the window again. It lasted no more than a heartbeat before the guard forced himself to look away, but it was enough.

Almost immediately, Reiner couldn’t seem to help himself either, stealing another cautious peek across the room before guiltily dropping his eyes to the floor.