The Duchesses

Chapter 56 : Obsession

Another thunderstorm passes by, and it's gradually scary each time. Duchess Medea takes another breather after meeting Princess Isis and Lady Leonora by walking through the Imperial Garden. How strange. Whenever she walks into this garden, it brings back to her the night of the birthday banquet, where she was on the verge of death. Where she was in the dark on who to blame for her pain. Now, she walked again there, feeling something unsettling on the bottom of her stomach.

"Medea," there's only one person who addresses her that way in private, and that's Ares.

"Your Highness," she gazes at the man standing alone without any guards, slightly lower down her body. She doesn't know that he is too brave or overconfident by there's no assassination would be launched at him.

Of course, she wouldn't use such cheap tricks to get the throne. The pain she experienced all this time isn't even half of the pain Ares feels now. He must be enraged as Eryx's influence grows over time. Seeing his face now, it is hard for her to stifle her laughter.

"Today reminds me of the day we met. We were just kids back then," he started the conversation.

"Out of people. Tsk."

The previous Duke and the Emperor attempted to present themselves to one another on the day they first met. The Emperor and the House of Valimos agreed to set up a marriage between the two families since the children were born. They were destined from the very beginning to rule the Angelos Empire as the Emperor and Empress of the Empire, respectively. Were.

If only Ares didn't discard her last time and pushed boundaries by having blood on her nanny last time, she would have probably helped him to get the divinity power. Not that she is a good person, to begin with. But that's completely changed now.

The Duchess doesn't say anything about his remarks as he turns his attention to her again.

Finally, she replies, "It was such a fond memory to end with tragedy at last."

By tragedy, she undirectly meant the broken engagement between both sides. Ares is smart. He understands the meaning behind her words immediately.

"It's not at last when the starting point hasn't even started yet. So, with that, would you do honour to be at the starting point with me?" the Crown Prince takes her hand, putting his mouth on it.

"Hera's engagement is already halfway with Ares. Therefore, he must see me as his future Empress as the alternative way to take me back."

"It would be humiliating to be discarded twice before the starting point then," Medea pulls her hand from Ares, smirking at his reaction.

The way Medea behaves with dignity and grace from only a daughter of a mere Duke until she ascended to be a Duchess that almost wed another Crown Princess from another despicable Empire enraged him. Besides that, the woman wouldn't fall on her knees to beg for him. More worst, she looks at him with such ambition rather than blind desire like Natalie and Hera did.

Just like he sees Hera as a stepping stone for him to be a God, it drives him up to the wall when Medea did the same to him. She only saw him as a stepping stone to becoming the Empress of the Empire. Only she would dare to look at him in such a way. After all, he is the Crown Prince of the mighty Empire.

The man then extends his hand again, holding on to the Duchess' chin, making sure she looks at him upward. However, the eyes never show any submission towards him except that night. The night, Hera in Medea's body wavers to see him. It enthralled him to see how much submissiveness was behind that amethyst eyes cowering in his presence.

"It's time for you to learn your place correctly, Medea. I am generous enough to give you a second chance to redeem everything you have done. Remember that everything happens in the past and you becoming a Duchess now is because I let it slide," his fingertips graze on her luscious lips.