Chapter 1727: Compromising Position
Chapter 1727: Compromising Position
Rex spent the rest of the night meditating, mending the holes in his Imbalanced Spiritual Veins.
He wanted to devour Lucen’s body, but he decided to do it later.
It doesn’t feel right to do that when he was still within the House of Dara’s territory.
By morning, the news that the second lord of the House of Dara died after offending Lord Rex spread across the land. Even though Count Dara ordered the information to be suppressed for a little longer, it leaked to the people anyway.
Most turned hostile towards Rex, knowing that he was a usurper.
Since it had already come out, Count Dara had no other choice but to post an official statement stating that Lord Lucen had hired assassins to kill Lord Rex due to a misunderstanding. It was a quick response, one that clarified what happened as clearly as possible.
Some people accepted it, while some still blamed Rex due to their personal biases.
Either way, Count Dara did this in order not to offend Princess Davina again.
It would make things worse if Princess Davina misunderstood that the house was the one who spread the news deliberately to turn the public’s eye against Rex. Losing one son is enough, Count Dara—and Countess Dara didn’t want to lose more.
Count Dara even assured Princess Davina directly that Rex’s name will stay clean.
Unlike the normal people of the empire, all nobles knew that Princess Davina was incredibly sensitive when it came to her own reputation. She’s also a perfectionist who hates anything that could stain her spotless reputation.
Some people in the past tried to use that against her.
But it all went incredibly bad due to her immense talent that rivalled even the crown prince.
Not even Count Dara would be spared if his family were the cause of the taint in her image.
All of this happened in the background.
Rex wasn’t aware of any of them as he frankly didn’t care, solely focusing on regeneration and also his next moves to rescue Devo. He wouldn’t stay for much longer in this realm anyway, so he didn’t care if people looked at him favorably or not.
Once the sun emerged, Rex’s eyelids trembled.
“Emmh…” He groaned slightly and opened his eyes.
He was greeted by the ceiling, and when he turned, the makeshift sun blinded him.
Even though it was a bright, beautiful day with no sign of threats anywhere, Rex didn’t feel refreshed.
He woke up sluggish and tired.
“Tch… It hasn’t been that long in the Mortal Realm, and she’s already causing trouble?”
Rex placed his arm over his face as he was visited by Calidora in his dream.
She didn’t say anything to him other than glaring at him—like he had wronged her somehow, and that glare somehow drained him of stamina. It was clear that Calidora was already impatient for his return, and that’s not a good sign.
At this moment, Rex didn’t know what the others were up to.
But since he left when nothing was happening, it should be rather peaceful down there.
It would be bad if Calidora started acting up again when he’s not there.
Not to mention her bad blood with the others.
“Just wait a little longer,” Rex sat up—and rubbed his forehead, stressed at the possibility that Calidora and the girls were going to an altercation without him being there. “I’m finishing up the matters here, so wait a bit more.”
He spoke as if Calidora could hear him.
But then again, stress does that to people.
Rex rubbed his face and took out the Telepathic Crystal again.
A thin pristine white crystal fragment appeared in his hand, and without hesitation, he pressed it against his forehead with Linthia in mind. Last night, he tried finding Linthia—before he meditated, but there was no reaction.
He already asked the System about this.
And the System told him that—as long as Linthia was within the Spirit Realm, the Telepathic Crystal could be linked to her. Since there was no reaction, Linthia should not be in this realm, but that made Rex even more confused.
Linthia should be in this realm, so this was puzzling.
There was no reason the Telepathic Crystal shouldn’t be able to locate her or establish a connection.
“Unless… Did she find the Well of the Untold?”
Rex smiled at the thought.
Knowing how motivated Linthia was ever since Dindora’s death, forcing her to mature—and shape her into a new person, he could already tell that she was going to be a force to reckon with as long as she was able to go through this hurdle.
And he couldn’t wait for her to break out of her cocoon and become a butterfly.
“Davina still hadn’t come back, huh…?” Rex scanned the room as he scratched his bare chest, recalling that she said it wouldn’t take too long, but it doesn’t seem to be the case.
Just then, his brows knitted together at the sight of someone in the chair to the side.
“What’s she doing here?” Rex tilted his head in confusion.
Sat atop a chair with her back leaning against the wall was Lady Ravyn.
She was clearly fast asleep, her breathing slow and steady—and for a noblewoman, it was very unusual to find her dozing in a sitting position. The posture was anything but comfortable, and her strained expression made that unmistakably clear.
But then again, why is she here anyway?
Rex threw his legs down and sat on the edge of the bed.
He paused for a second to rub his eyes and let his mind wake up properly, and then walked over to the supposed sleeping lady. Even as he stood before her, there was no sign of waking up. “How can a noble be this reckless? It’s not even her own room. I can kill her and she wouldn’t even notice.”
Rex’s eyes landed on the table and saw a chalice of water.
Inside was the fragrant scent of strong wine.
“She said that she understood, but Lucen is still her brother, I guess.” Rex grabbed the chalice with two pinching fingers and, without hesitation, splashed Lady Ravyn with the remaining wine in it. Not that much, but more than enough to wake her up.
Lady Ravyn’s eyes shot open as she abruptly stood up.
She raised her arms and looked down at her dress and found a big stain of wine on it.
Almost instantly, she raised her gaze, ready to curse the person who did this to her.
But all the words that she was about to say got stuck in her throat when her gaze met Rex’s.
“L-Lord Rex…?”
Lady Ravyn was sleeping—a few seconds ago, but seeing Rex’s blank expression, she crumpled to her knees. She was sleeping, so she shouldn’t have done anything to displease Rex, but in case she did, it’s better for her to apologize first.
“If I did anything wrong, I’m sorry, Lord Rex. I’m sure it was unintentional…”
She apologized passionately.
She was so frightened she didn’t even notice her dress slipped slightly off her left shoulder.
“What are you saying? It’s nothing like that.”
“Then why did you wake me up with wine? I was sleeping, didn’t I?”
“That’s the problem,” Rex placed both hands on his waist—and looked around the room once again, making sure that he was not mistaken that this was his bedroom. “Why are you sleeping here? If I’m not mistaken, this is my residence, not yours.”
“Hmm…?” Lady Ravyn looked up at him in confusion. “You haven’t told me that I can leave yet.”
“Huh? Are you still hung up on that?”
“You emphasized it to me multiple times. How am I not still hung up on that?”
Rex rubbed his forehead as this was undoubtedly his fault.
He did emphasize to Lady Ravyn multiple times that she can’t leave until he says so.
But that’s because I don’t want her to convince Lucen not to attack me. That will ruin the killing intent quest, and I’ll be eating the penalty.
“Have some common sense, will you? Once the problem is done, you should drop this.” Rex sighed.
“Common sense? My life is on the line, so of course I’d rather be wrong than be killed,” Lady Ravyn then pointed at the dark circles under her eyes. “Look at this. I couldn’t sleep because I kept on fearing the princess would come inside and misunderstand us, all because of you.”
“Alright, alright, it’s my fault,” Rex waved his hand. “You can go now.”
Just as Lady Ravyn straightened her back to stand, the door swung open.
Rex and Lady Ravyn snapped towards the door and tensed up at the sight of Princess Davina.
From dealing with matters all night long, including Lucen, she also has dark circles under her eyes, but the moment she saw the scene she was greeted by when all she wanted was to sleep, her eyes widened in surprise.
Princess Davina stared at Rex, processing the situation.
He was bare-chested, both hands on his waist, and his hair was a mess.
Before him, Lady Ravyn was kneeling very close, and her head was at the same level as his crotch.
Her dress was loose and messy.
Color flushed her cheeks from the embarrassment and mild anger she felt for staying behind, Princess Davina mistook it for a smoldering face. Her half-lidded eyes, from waking up a few seconds ago, looked like unguarded desire.
And then the wet stain on her dress.
Just the sight alone made Princess Davina’s blood boil inside.
“Yeah,” Rex smiled awkwardly. “She just had to appear at the worst possible moment…”
…
“I’ll be taking my leave then, Princess Davina,” Lady Ravyn bowed ninety degrees—as blood trickled down from her nose all the way to her chin. “I apologize for the misunderstanding. And Lord Rex…On behalf of the family, I apologize for what my brother did once again.”
Once she said that, she excused herself to leave.
Rex, who was sitting on the sofa, turned to look at Princess Davina across the room.
She was breathing heavily, gripping the edge of the dressing table, and was also sweating.
It seemed she was really shocked by what she saw.
“Do you really have to press her that hard? She’s bleeding, and her internal life energy flow is damaged.”
“She’s lucky that I stopped there.”
Princess Davina exhaled through her mouth, regulating her breath from the shock of her life earlier.
To see Rex and Lady Ravyn in such a compromising position almost gave her a heart attack.
“Besides, you’re the last person who can say anything about what I did,” Princess Davina glanced over her shoulder sharply. “For killing such a weakling, how petty can you be? I know you set Lucen up. I’m curious… Why didn’t you kill him instantly?”
“Hmm? What do you mean?”
“Lucen tried to kill you, and considering your temper, I thought you would’ve killed him on the spot.”
“Why…? Of course, because if I kill him right there, it’s going to give you trouble, especially when his alibi was to protect Lady Ravyn. But if he were to attack me again? Killing him is not unreasonable. It is natural.”
Upon hearing this, Princess Davina paused.
Then, her lips curled a little, as she wasn’t expecting Rex to be good at politics.
“It’s partly my fault, so it’s fine if you gave me a little bit of trouble.” Princess Davina shook her head.
Rex’s eyes narrowed as the two of them hadn’t talked about the elephant in the room, that he came from another realm. But even so, he decided to follow Princess Davina’s flow, “In any case, are you finished? It took you a lot longer than expected.”
“Yes, it’s finished,” Princess Davina let loose her flawless hair and headed for the bed. “But let me sleep a moment, I’m exhausted.”
“Go ahead, it’s not like I have anything to do,” Rex shrugged his shoulders. “I’ll wait in the living room.”
Just as he stood to leave, he stopped mid-way.
“Rex, can you stay here?” Princess Davina asked, her voice gentler than before.
“Fine… I’ll stay.” Rex sighed. “I thought you wanted some privacy.”
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