Chapter 452: Chapter-452
"Oh, is that so?" Heena nodded smoothly, her tone perfectly conversational. "Fine. Go and let me rest."
This time, Samuel didn’t grovel. He didn’t play the persistent, clingy husband, nor did he beg for another moment of her time. He simply turned on his heel and walked out, closing the heavy doors quietly behind him.
The moment the latch clicked shut, the warmth entirely drained from Heena’s face. Her eyes turned pitch-black, radiating a terrifying, frigid aura.
The System, floating invisibly at her side, visibly trembled at the sudden shift in temperature. ’[H-Host...]’ it chirped tentatively, its blue screen flickering with anxiety. ’[Are you angry?]’
Heena stood up from the vanity chair, stretching her arms above her head with the fluid, lazy grace of a predator. "So, what do you think about Samuel, System?"
The blue screen paused, its processing gears turning. ’[Do you want me to give you the truth, or the facts?]’
"Kick the facts aside," Heena replied coldly, walking over to the window. "Tell me the truth. What do you think?"
’[Normally, Samuel looks like he is completely obsessed with you,]’ the System spoke up, its robotic tone carrying a rare hint of genuine confusion. ’[But his behavior literally does not match his core character design. I don’t think he should be acting like this at all.]’
"Why?" Heena asked, leaning against the window frame, a mocking glint in her eyes. "You know humans say love can drive people to do anything."
The System’s digital avatar shook its head sideways. ’[Love can do a lot of things, okay, but... I don’t fully comprehend this human emotion, but doesn’t it confuse you? Why would a high-class, prideful scholar accept such immense public humiliation and still say absolutely nothing to defend his dignity?]’
Heena let out a soft chuckle. She walked back toward the floating blue screen and lightly tapped the top of its digital interface with her fingertips, as if patting a pet. "Look at that. My little kitty is actually getting smarter."
The System’s screen suddenly flushed a bright, neon pink. ’[A-Are you teasing me, or are you praising me?!]’
"Well, guess it yourself," Heena said with a faint smirk, watching the little AI practically vibrate with a mix of embarrassment and excitement.
But a second later, her amusement vanished, replaced by a cold, calculating gravity.
"You’re right, System," Heena said, her voice dropping into a dangerous whisper. "A person can change their behavior, their habits, or their way of doing things when they fall in ’love’ or whatever nonsense they want to call it. But a person’s core personality—their fundamental character—never changes from the inside."
She turned back to the closed door, her eyes narrowing into slits.
"If he were a normal human, no matter how crazy in love he was, his brain would have functioned. He should have asked me basic questions. ’’Where have you been all night?’ ’Why were you gone for twelve hours?’’ He didn’t even ask what I was doing inside this room just now, or who I was talking to. He showed absolutely zero confusion about my sudden disappearance or my sudden return."
Heena tapped her chin, the pieces of the puzzle clicking into a chilling new reality.
"It seems a lot less like the blind devotion of love," she murmured, "and a lot more like the absolute certainty of a man who already knew ’exactly’ what I was doing tonight."
The System processed her deduction, its digital screen flickering with a hint of stubbornness. ’[Host, your logic is scary, but... what if you’re overthinking it?]’ it buzzed, trying to play devil’s advocate. ’[Maybe he just trusts you completely. Like, blind, unconditional faith. He knows you’re powerful, so he doesn’t question your whereabouts.]’
Heena didn’t argue. She just stared out the window, a cold, mocking glint in her eyes. "Trust, huh?" she murmured under her breath.
Without another word, she walked back to her bed, slid under the heavy velvet covers, and pulled them up to her chin. Closing her eyes, she let the silence of the room wash over her. She needed sleep; the chess board was getting crowded, and she needed a clear head for what was coming.
One Month Later: The Imperial Banquet
A full month had passed since Heena’s late-night ambush of the Seventh Prince. In that time, her relationship with her parents had reached a stable, albeit hilarious, equilibrium: ’they weren’t actively trying to murder each other.’ After spending half the month locked away in the estate’s strict Punishment Hall on the Marquis’s orders, her mother and father had emerged completely hollowed out. To them, Heena was practically dead. They completely ignored her existence, which suited her just fine.
As for her four "groom candidates," the house was down to three. The remaining three were left untouched for now—not because Heena couldn’t break them, but because she simply lacked the time. One was under her mother’s strict protection, and the other two were shielded by her father. What irritated Heena the most, however, was that Kavien and the other groom were actually ’hardworking’. They spent their days diligently completing tasks assigned to them, leaving her with zero excuses to violently kick them out.
But today, the domestic drama had to wait.
Heena sat at her vanity, staring at a lavish, gold-embossed invitation. The Imperial Banquet. The ultimate playground for high-society vipers and, more importantly, the perfect place for a hidden Regressor prince to plot.
Stretching her arms with a lazy yawn, Heena tossed the invitation onto the table. "Prepare a carriage," she commanded.
Standing nearby, a woman in her early twenties immediately smiled. "Are we going to the boutique to buy some new dresses, my lady?"
This was Naya, the new maid servant assigned to Heena by her grandfather. After the explosive incident with the Iron Convoy, the Marquis had found out everything. Realizing his granddaughter was playing a high-stakes, dangerous game, he had personally selected Naya to be her shadow.
Naya was an absolute elite. Years ago, she had disguised herself as a man to join the Imperial Army, taking her injured father’s place on the front lines. The Marquis himself had eventually seen through her disguise. But instead of executing her, he was so impressed by her lethal skill that he made her his left-hand operative. A few months ago, he scrubbed her military record, changed her identity, and placed her by Heena’s side.
As for Samuel? He was currently being dragged through hell. The Marquis, deciding that a personal servant who couldn’t even wield a sword was utterly useless, had dragged Samuel to the private training grounds two days ago to beat some basic martial arts into him. He was out of commission for the day.
"I’m going alone," Heena replied smoothly to Naya’s question. "And don’t get a Marquisate carriage. Find a completely ordinary, unmarked hackney carriage from the lower districts. Oh, and prepare a servant’s uniform for me."
Naya blinked, pinching the bridge of her nose. "My lady, are you sure about this?"
"Perfectly sure," Heena smirked. "And make sure the clothes belong to a servant ’man’, not a woman."
Naya literally grabbed her own head in despair. She used to disguise herself as a man to survive a brutal war, but she never imagined the high-born, pampered lady of the Marquisate would willingly choose to dress up as a common male servant just for fun.
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