Chapter 571 - Will it really be a narrow escape?

<Episode 571> Will it really be a narrow escape?

Rubina displayed superhuman strength. Without a single person to help her, she leaped from the dock to Cesare's small boat. Cesare, too, used every ounce of strength he had to catch his mother.

His hands were tattered. Their condition was not much inferior even when compared to Julia Helena's hands.

There were many places where the dermis was exposed and bright red. There was not a single undamaged spot on his palms or fingers. It was the trace of a desperate battle against the wind, currents, and waves in the pitch-black sea that had continued since dusk had fallen.

However, Rubina's interest was not in her son's hands.

“Princess!”

She called out to Julia Helena, who had slipped out of the embrace of her son, the cudgel-wielding man.

Feverish and dazed, Julia Helena looked up at Rubina. In the low light, Rubina's shadow in the darkness rose high like a mountain and intimidatingly engulfed Julia Helena.

"Mother. The Princess now is..."

Cesare was about to say that Julia Helena had suffered a severe burn on her left ring finger and needed to see a doctor immediately.

However, Rubina interrupted her son and immediately asked the Princess.

"Princess, this is your last chance."

Julia Helena certainly should have been seething with anger. As she crossed the sea, she vowed over and over again that she would protest if she ever saw Rubina. She could not live her entire life in a foreign country, trusting and relying on a woman like that as family.

However, the burn on her finger weighed heavily on her mind. Would this really be a wound that would heal without a scar?

If she leaves Cesare here and returns to Mancique, will she really be able to find another husband?

Julia Helena squirmed, burying her numb left hand deeper into the cloth. If Rubina knew her fingers were crippled, she would likely back out of the offer.

'That proposal being made by the late Grand Duchess Rubina of the Etruscan Kingdom might be the only chance I have in my life to rise to the highest.'

Rubina emphasized it one more time, worried that the young princess might not have understood. Of all things, the word 'opportunity' was repeated.

"This is your last chance to stay in the Kingdom of Etruscan."

However, Julia Helena still hesitated. She looked around. There were no familiar faces.

“...What about Irene?”

“Answer quickly!”

People holding torches were gathering at the dock. Julia Helena was immediately frightened. The murmuring could be heard all the way to the boat. Since it was a low, small boat, the distance wasn't far to begin with.

"That must be the Grand Duke!"

"Is the person next to you a Princess from a distant country?"

"A man and a woman came in at this hour, is that okay?"

"Right? Men and women are definitely different....

"Oh my! Look at the state of those two! You can tell something bad must have happened, can't you?"

The man was so exhausted he was on the verge of collapse, and the woman looked so shabby she seemed about to collapse at any moment. However, one of the onlookers cracked a nasty joke.

"It looks like the Rezo family always purifies themselves with a bath before carrying out the big event, doesn't it?"

There was the sound of someone hitting the back of the person who had spoken, and boisterous laughter erupted. It was a foreign language with a strong conglomerate, but the content was clearly audible.

They are now mocking her, saying that she must have lost her virginity. Julia Helena shuddered. If she returned without marrying here, that might be the treatment she's subjected to everywhere for the rest of her life.

When she was isolated on the island, the sense of reality, which had not touched the fantastic beach scenery at all, suddenly overwhelmed her.

In the meantime, Rubina gritted her teeth and urged again.

"Princess!"

Will I really be able to find a new spouse? Is my finger even that small? What if that crowd attacks the party? I miss Irene. Countless worries suddenly swirled in her head.

The final straw that broke the camel’s back—and brought Elia Helena to her knees—was a delusion that had arisen very recently.

'She cried for me.'

When she was nearly burned to death by the flames engulfing the tent, he threw himself to save her and shed tears for the first time.

If he were a man like that, wouldn't he become a wonderful husband once he eventually opens his heart to me?

Wouldn't he become my kind ally and protect me for the rest of my life, even from a terrible mother-in-law and a vile crowd? He must surely do so. She wanted to believe that. Because there was no other way.

In a hazy state due to a fever, Julia Helena answered. She even displayed some social skills and smiled shyly.

"Well, somehow it just ended up that way."

She was a poet who slept with Cesare.

Bianca of Taranto, who was rushing toward the end of the dock, couldn't believe her ears.

However, above all, Cesare himself, who was standing together on the creaking deck, turned around with the most dazed expression.

“...What?”

However, he could not protest any further. This was because she suddenly lost consciousness due to the relief that she, whose fever had risen to its breaking point, had reached the water, combined with the pressure of her current situation.

Plop!

"Princess?"

Cesare let out a scream. It was a scream imbued with various meanings.

“No! Wake up!”

The Grand Duke rushed in, grabbed the fallen Princess by the shoulder, and shook her. The people on the dock whispered amongst themselves.

"Looks like she's married."

"It's touching."

That’s why they get into trouble and end up getting married.

“I said no!”

Cesare answered roughly.

"I didn't even manage a single finger!"

However, before a crowd that had already reached a conclusion, his voice was a meaningless echo. For one thing, it was barely audible.

Even if they heard it, no one would believe what Grand Duke Cesare said about women.

"No, really. Just look at the state of things. I've been through several near-sinking crises, so even if I had the heart to, I wouldn't have the time for it..."

"Hohohohoho."

Rubina covered her son's mouth. She really physically grabbed and twisted his snout.

"Ugh, ugh ugh!"

"Our Grand Duke is such a gentleman, isn't he?"

"Ugh ugh!"

"Look at him trying to protect her reputation just because she's the lady he's going to marry?"

Rubina smiled at the nameless crowd with crescent-shaped eyes. It had been truly over ten years since she had acted so coquettishly at a gathering in the absence of Leo III.

***

Princess Julia Helena opened her eyes in the bed at the Marquis Guatieri's villa where she usually stayed. The first face Julia Helena saw upon waking was Viscountess Irene Panamere.

Overwhelmed by guilt, she peeked her eyes out from under the covers and quietly called out her name.

“Irene..."

"...Princess."

It was even scarier because Irene's expression wasn't stern or angry. Julia Helena drew courage from deep within jer stomach and asked.

"...What happened?"

Viscountess Panamere let out a very deep sigh.

"I have sent a report to my home country immediately. I told them to go as quickly as possible, so you should hear from your father soon."

That wasn't what Julia Helena wanted to know. Irene was changing the subject.

It felt strangely uncomfortable. It stemmed from Irene's attitude, but it was something more instinctive than that.

She wiggled her toes. She had moved from there because she, too, was inwardly afraid.

Her toes were fine. Her legs, knees, thighs, waist, and arms were all fine. Soon, she raised her hands and looked inside.

"...Ah."

Irene spoke without expression.

The report even includes the fact that the Princess has lost the use of her left ring finger.

The black skin on the outer layer of Julia Helena's left fourth finger had peeled off and was gone. Instead, in its place was something that was burnt bright red and shriveled, neither bone nor flesh.

She couldn't feel any dampness, but the area around it was tickling like crazy. She tried to move the finger, but only her innocent little finger and middle finger twitched.

It was just like itchy jerky. In its appearance, its texture, and the role it performed.

Irene added in a flat voice.

"...And that you acknowledged the religious relationship with Grand Duke Cesare."

The moment she heard these words, Julia Helena felt as if she had been stabbed in the chest. It hurt incomparably more than a finger. Finally realizing what she had done, she burst into tears.

"...I, Irene. I..."

Instead of coming over to hug her as usual, Viscountess Panamere stood with her back to the window and silently gazed at Julia Helena.

The southern sunlight, piercing even the foamy glass and filling the room dazzlingly, obscured Irene's exact expression. She was terrified.

When Viscountess Panamere opened her mouth, what came out was worse than Julia Helena's worst prediction.

"...The Marquis will be disappointed. Very disappointed."

Julia Helena began to wail uncontrollably. She clenched her fists and pounded the bedsheets. Her left hand could not even be properly clenched into a fist. With every hit on the soft sheets, a dull pain shot up her left arm.

She sobbed like a small animal. Eventually, Viscountess Panamere came over and hugged Julia Helena tightly.

Julia Helena was so sad that Irene could not tell her that a proposal for engagement had arrived. It was a letter sent by the late Grand Duchess Rubina, requesting an engagement to Princess Julia Helena of the Principality of Manchike in the name of the House of Grand Duchy Pisano.

***

Early in the morning on the same day that Cesare and Julia Helena arrived at the docks.

Trevero's envoys arrived in Taranto.

Despite the late hour, they were treated with great hospitality and escorted to the finest guest quarters of the Winter Palace. This was possible because the Princess of Manchike was staying at the Duke of Guatieri's villa.

The attendants of Carlo's royal court were well-trained and courteous, but during Trevero's time, he felt that the palace was somewhat chaotic.

"...What is going on at the palace?"

There was an uneasy and chaotic atmosphere that could not be hidden from the eyes of the foreign dignitaries, with lower-ranking officials whispering in small groups, some attendants passing by with their heads bowed, and people turning a blind eye.

"No."

Lord Delpiano, who was guiding the delegation, firmly held on tight.

“Is that possible?

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