When Pride Fell At My Toes - Chapter 47



Only Krnovel

#47. The Shadow That Casts
2024.02.16.

Since he was born, Alessandro had been told that the throne was his. No

matter how much he did, the king and queen would turn a blind eye to it. But now, the king and queen’s behavior of occasionally acting like this position was not perfect really bothered him.

When he was young, he never said anything even though he did countless bad things to animals and servants.

Of course, he knew that he would just watch as long as it wasn’t a big problem, not because he was weak-willed, but because he wasn’t the type to pick on things and make trouble. So Alessandro gradually took advantage of that vague gap as he grew up.

But the problem was that that gap didn’t only apply to him. The king and queen left Enrico Michelo alone as much as they handled it sloppily, and of course, that part continued to bother Alessandro.

My only uncle, Enrico Michele, was a gloomy man who pretended not to care about the throne, but who could show his true colors at any moment. Alessandro did not take lightly Enrico’s actions, who acted like a crazy person only for art, but also cleverly expanded his territory and increased his reputation.

‘Anyway, it was annoying since the beginning, and now he’s even bothering Emilia.’

Since he was young, he was always noticeable wherever he went and was a person who was good at acting coy, so he was secretly compared to Alessandro, who was not much older than him.

Enrico’s reputation went up just by being quiet and treating people around him well. It was all thanks to Alessandro.

When he was young, there were no longer those who looked at Alessandro with a suspicious look because he played a prank on an animal when he didn’t know anything, but his anger still remained.

Even if it was a bit cruel, how dare those lowly people look at him like that. The problem was that the royal couple came to visit them because of their noise, and eventually they were caught in the forest with blood that had been flowing, and since that day their eyes had become irritated.

Maybe because he was marked as a person of interest, Alessandro was unable to leave the palace for a while. And because of that punishment, he met Emilia Este, who had walked into his own hell.

“She was cute when she was young because she was so innocent, but she’s become a bit more thoughtful these days, so she’s hard to handle.”

Her innocent and beautiful face that aroused sadism immediately captured his heart.

In his eyes, where everyone was only afraid of him, Emilia, who looked at him with innocent eyes and even smiled brightly, was strangely the only one who made him feel good. Maybe it was

because she looked similar to the small animals he often played with, so at first he let his guard down and let her play with him.

But when Alessandro’s heart was starting to relax, Viscount Este heard rumors about him. A person who lives in a remote corner of the country can catch news quickly.

Watching him hide Emilia while being wary of me, I could guess that as long as that person was around, I would have a lot of troubles before I could get her.

“Why did you go to Barcorta? Surely that woman didn’t notice?”

I looked at Count Vallemont, who was looking at me with an anxious face, as if I was looking at a cockroach. I should have known since I brought Giorgio as my helper, but my impulsive choice when I was young was holding me back.

Count Vallemont knew too much to kill him now. He was an old raccoon who lived a ridiculous life, so he must have left something behind that could put pressure on me.

“Get rid of Giorgio. He willingly gave me that position and let me sit down, so I should have brought him a proper price, but he hasn’t done anything until now.”

Giorgio failed to fulfill even one of the two demands that Count Vallemont demanded: the right to invest in automobiles within the Viscount Este family, and Alessandro demanded that Emilia Este be thrown into the abyss and made into his lover. He

even lied about finding evidence of the right to invest, wasting time, and was caught trying to collect money again, so there was no reason to keep him alive.

If there had been talk of sponsorship between Enrico and Emilia in the first place, he should have come running to him right away, but he only confessed it so long ago. He regretted not having just killed her then.

Originally, Emilia, who had lost her parents, was supposed to appear and take over her lonely heart when she grew up in hardship and became an adult, but nothing went right.

Ah. There was one thing that went right. He incited Count Vallemont to kill the Viscount Este couple by pretending it was an accident.

“Oh, I understand. I will take care of Giorgio quietly.”

Count Vallemont immediately nodded as he looked at Alessandro, who was staring into space with a cruel smile on his face, wondering what was going on. He

was already in a situation where he would jump out of his sleep because he had been fooled by Giorgio’s lies and had been happily slicing and dicing until he got hit in the back of the head.

He was not satisfied with just the punishment, and he sympathized with Giorgio’s incompetence, so he had nothing else to say in rebuttal.

However, I had kept it just in case because of the investment rights, but since I hadn’t found any traces of it yet, it seemed better to just proceed without Giorgio.

Then how would I deal with the family whose head had disappeared? Since I couldn’t predict what would happen if Emilia was involved, I couldn’t handle it on my own, which was frustrating.

‘What is that Emilia Este woman, why is she so obsessed?’

I remembered when I had asked her before if she was going to marry Emilia, and Alessandro had said, as if he was pathetic, that he had a fiancée, and that he would take her as his lover.

It made no sense to do something like this just to have her as his lover, but since I could just wait for the beans to fall down, I watched Alessandro’s expression.

“… … What are you going to do with Barcorta? Should I just tell him to go and look?”

“No.”

Alessandro muttered with his unfocused eyes.

“I should get rid of something that’s bothering me.”

***

Emilia blinked her tired eyes. That night, Enrico said he would call a doctor, so I was surprised, and I told him repeatedly that it was okay to take a hot bath and relax, and I was lucky that I barely managed to avoid the situation. Who

would have thought that my ankle would hurt at that exact moment? I groaned inwardly, wondering if I should call the Duke’s doctor as soon as I returned to Deshiro, and a whole day passed by in a flash. In fact, I hadn’t even been able to go to the basement because he semi-forcibly kept me from getting out of bed.

‘But I didn’t know he would help me like that.’

Emilia thought of him wrapping his arms around her. For the first time, his arms, which had been so big and overwhelming and burdensome, felt secure.

At the time, I was so surprised that I didn’t even think about it, but I never dreamed that he would even block the box for me.

‘No matter how much he cherishes his belongings, he would throw himself at me like that to protect them… … .’

Emilia’s expression became subtle. If someone else had done that, I would have thought he was helping her out of good intentions, or that he was interested in me, but the other person was Enrico.

His expression as he rushed toward me urgently, his strong arms wrapping around him, his firm body turning his body like a cushion to prevent her from hitting the floor. Memories of that day came back to me one by one.

“Ha… … .”

I thought about this all day yesterday, and I thought I was going crazy, but here we go again. Her ears felt hot, as if the hot body temperature she had felt when she fell on his chest had transferred to her. On top of that, she felt like the sound of his heart beating hard was still ringing in her ears. There was

no way I could come up with an answer today, if I hadn’t come up with one yesterday. I shouldn’t have tried to understand him in the first place, but I kept making mistakes.

‘Let’s not think about useless things, the other person is Enrico Micheli.’

Emilia took a deep breath, reminding herself that if she returned to Desiro, she would once again become a dancing puppet and have to suppress her emotions in front of him.

‘I really need to get out of the room today.’

Emilia opened the desk drawer and looked at the letter she had carefully placed inside. It was fortunate that she had brought her father’s letter, otherwise she might have thought that the incident in the basement was a dream.

She got up from her chair and stood in front of the mirror for no reason to check her outfit. She was wearing a simple beige blouse and a long scarlet skirt, and she adjusted the lace part that reached the middle of her neck and headed toward the door.

“… … You really can move around a bit today.”

But she didn’t expect to run into Enrico as soon as she opened the door.

How did he end up standing in front of her again? She reflexively blurted out the words as their eyes met. Enrico looked down at her cautious attitude for a moment, then wiggled one eyebrow and turned around.

“Are you okay with the fall you fell over?”

She considered going later, but she felt she had to say hello anyway, so she followed Enrico.

“You’re asking too early.”

“Ah… … .”

You didn’t give me a chance to talk. Emilia swallowed her last words and stood next to him. She slowly examined him, and fortunately, there were no visible wounds. She looked at his beautiful face, which still looked clean today, and put both hands together in front of her.

“I’m sorry. I should have been careful, but I was in too much of a hurry. Thanks to you, I avoided an accident. Thank you very much.”

As her pace gradually slowed, he eventually stopped. His eyes, looking down at her as she bowed her head politely, were deeply sunken. His eyes, which had seemed complicated somewhere, disappeared as she raised her head.

“… … Be careful next time. That body is not yours alone.”