---Next Day---
The light of the morning sun trickled onto campus as Solaris and I headed out for a run. As we stepped out of the Men’s Dormitory, five familiar, delirious women ambushed us. They rushed forward, showering us with apologies and promises to do better. The moment they realized we were not Prince Julius and his entourage, they collapsed from exhaustion.
“Son of a… Were you five out here all night?! It dropped below freezing!” I lifted Stephanie and the fifth fiancée onto Solaris’s back, then pulled Angelica, Clarice, and Deirdre onto mine. “Let’s take them up to my room to get them warm.”
[Rawr!]
Solaris followed me back inside the building.
We placed the unconscious women on my sofa, wrapping them in heavy wool blankets. I brewed hot tea with honey and set out cookies for them.
“Damn those morons. They had five incredible fiancées, and they tossed them aside like garbage.” I placed the back of my hand against Clarice’s forehead to check for fever. “I understand things got out of hand with Marie, but the bitch had it—”
The moment I thought about her, my face contorted in rage. If that woman played her cards right, as I assumed she would, those five fools would soon be wrapped around her finger. I had put effort into trying to prevent this outcome, only for it to happen anyway—and far sooner than the timeline dictated.
“Luxion, where are Marie and those idiots right now?” I sat down in my recliner.
Luxion materialized beside my head. [Right now, Prince Julius and his friends are with Miss Lafan in the Academy’s Infirmary. They’ve been tending to her every desire since two this morning. It is safe to say any hope of reconciliation is gone.]
I gripped the armrest of my chair. Now that she had their attention, the future looked grim for the five women on my couch. Marie was not the type to forgive and forget. She would retaliate with twice the ferocity their supporters had shown her. Before long, these girls would become pariahs among our peers, driven off campus by the mindless crowd.
As I looked at their sleeping faces, my expression softened. ‘Angelica, Clarice, and Deirdre… you deserve better than what you received. You sacrificed your hobbies and personalities to cater to those buffoons. They are too immature to understand how incredible the three of you are.’
Freed from their engagements, all five were now eligible bachelorettes. As a Marquis, I possessed the political might to stand before their fathers and ask for their hands. Requesting to marry all three would be a tall order, but I had confidence. My achievements were vast—so substantial that none would dare raise objections to the unions.
“Thanks to the chaos yesterday, I doubt word of the canceled engagements has reached their houses yet. We should apprise them of the situation.” I rubbed my temples. “Luxion, could you relay the information to them via a proxy? Also, arrange a meeting with Lord Atlee, Lord Redgrave, and Lord Roseblade.”
[Yes, I can notify their houses. However, I implore you to speak with the men in person. You intend to request their daughters’ hands in marriage, yes? As a man, you should be the one to set the tone by showing your sincerity.]
I rose and cracked my neck. “Your assessment is correct. However, there is a more pressing issue that requires my attention. Their servants and supporters left them to freeze to death last night. Even if the women resisted attempts to drag them away, the least someone could have done was give them blankets to stave off the biting cold. Instead, while those cowards slept warm in their beds, the five of them endured the night alone.”
Luxion swiveled to the women, then back to me. Without another word, he nodded and vanished.
---3rd POV, Thirty Minutes Later---
In the infirmary, Marie Fou Lafan celebrated her newfound political standing as the prince and his entourage fed her. She remained confined to a bed because of the severity of her injuries. Unable to move her arms, which were bound in plaster casts, the five men took turns feeding her bits of meat, cheese, and fruit.
When the men looked away, Marie grinned like a fiend. ‘Who is the weak pissant now, stupid bitches! Your fiancés severed all connections to you, and they did it right in front of the entire student body. Aside from a few holdouts, most of your followers have jumped ship and sworn loyalty to me. Just you wait. Once my body is healed, I will find you and make you suffer tenfold for what I endured.’
Marie envisioned how she would make them suffer. Simple bullying and torture would not suffice. She wanted to break both their minds and spirits, ensuring they could never recover. Before she could devise a specific plan, the next bite of food appeared before her.
“Miss Lafan, have another piece of smoked pork.” Jilk’s radiant smile captivated Marie’s heart.
“As I keep telling you, please call me Marie.” Marie opened her mouth to accept.
Just as she was about to close her lips around the fork, the door to her private room tore off its hinges. The group spun toward the entryway as a seething Gilbert Rapha Redgrave and several muscular male students stepped inside.
“Lord Gilbert!” The men shot to their feet, sensing his lethal aura.
“So… Lord Aremus’s information was accurate. You have some balls breaking my sister’s heart and rushing straight to this whore’s bedside.” Gilbert held the hilt of his blade with a white-knuckle grip. “Do you have any idea what you have done to Angelica and the others?”
Gilbert’s fury was legendary throughout the Holfort Kingdom. He was a calm, sensible man most days, but whenever someone targeted his family, a darker nature surfaced. Over her sixteen years of life, Angelica had attracted countless admirers, both young and old. The smart ones fled the moment Gilbert leveled an annoyed look at them. Those who stayed ended up crippled, dead, or worse.
“Lord Gilbert, our engagements were brought to an end by their own actions. Their jealousy over a woman approaching us led them to commit atrocities.” Julius kept a neutral tone, gesturing to the bedridden woman. “Miss Lafan—Marie—was beaten, bullied, and tortured under their orders. We are upstanding noblemen. How could we allow ourselves to be married to such coldhearted, monstrous women?”
Gilbert’s face contorted with disgust. “You speak as if the five of them are the scum of the earth, yet refer to that shameless harlot like a saintess. Allow me to enlighten your small minds. Miss Lafan and her entire family are traitors. They have been aiding the Principality of Fanoss and the Rachelle Holy Kingdom behind the scenes. Their services are payment for the mountain of debt they carry.”
The men shook their heads. To them, Marie was an innocent, kindhearted woman. There was no way any of that was true. Before they could speak, Gilbert snapped his fingers. A second later, several women were hauled into the room, their eyes devoid of light.
“Your ‘saint’ ordered her new followers to leave your ex-fiancées out in the cold last night.” Gilbert shoved one woman forward. “Tell them the truth, or I will summon Lord Aremus here to make you speak.”
At the mention of his name, the remaining strength left the captives’ bodies. They collapsed onto the floor, curling up and trembling. A short time ago, they had been asleep in their beds when an enraged Lord Aremus stormed into their quarters, dragging them outside while their peers watched in terror.
Lord Aremus had demanded an explanation, but they refused to answer. Marie held the Prince’s favor, and they believed their silence would keep them in her good graces. That choice led to their minds being forcibly dismantled. Without a shred of mercy, Lord Aremus seized control of their thoughts and forced them to divulge everything.
Refusing to endure that searing pain a second time, the captive noblewoman lunged forward and grabbed Julius’s pant leg. “It is true! Lady Marie ordered us to ignore your ex-fiancées and restrain those who remained loyal to them! She hoped they would succumb to the cold and drop dead! We did as she demanded to gain her favor!”
Unwilling to believe Marie was a villain, Julius and his companions glanced back at her. In the short time they had known her, she had been nothing but kind and sweet. There was no way such an innocent woman could give a cruel order.
Marie opened her mouth to speak, but one of Luxion’s cloaked surveillance drones beat her to it, projecting a recording captured during the night.
[No one is to help those five stupid bitches tonight. If they are lucky, the cold will take their lives, and they will pass on heartbroken. Should they survive, see that they are run off campus with only the clothes on their backs. Once they believe they have escaped, jump them and take them to where I was held. I will deal with them once I recover. — Marie]
[What about their supporters? — Noblewoman]
[Do what you have to keep them confined to their rooms. — Marie]
It took everyone a moment to process what they had heard. That was Marie’s voice, but it had not come from her mouth. Gilbert assumed this was Leon’s doing, and he took full advantage of the opening.
“Do you see now? That is no saint. That is a venomous, two-faced snake!” Gilbert pointed a finger at her.
The five men waited for Marie to refute the audio, but the words never came. Aware she was being monitored, her eyes darted around the room in a panic.
“Marie, what we heard, that wasn’t you, right?” Julius approached her bedside with a hopeful smile. “Go on and tell everyone. Someone is attempting to frame you and sully your name.”
“I… I…” Marie’s mind frazzled. No matter what she said, her unseen observer would refute it with recordings. “I may have said something I shouldn’t have in the heat of the moment! Can you blame me, though? They have tormented me since school started. It is natural for me to hold resentment toward them!”
Upon realizing Marie was identical to the others, pretending to be something she was not, their expressions soured. They took several steps back, making it clear they were finished with her.
“Damn it! Why are you treating me like I have the plague?! You make it seem like what I did is unforgivable! Every noblewoman on campus takes part in this sort of thing! It is a rite of passage!” Marie gave them the saddest expression she could manage.
It was too little, too late. They knew what she was, and there was no undoing the revelation.
“Lord Gilbert… do what you will with Miss Lafan.” Julius turned away, wiping his hands of her.
“What?!” Marie tried to bolt from the bed, but her bindings pinned her in place. “Don’t leave me to the wolves! You are no better than your ex-fiancées!”
Gilbert gestured to the men he brought forward. Julius and his companions expected them to cart the wounded woman away, but the guards lunged for the five of them instead. Before they could resist, the burly students seized them and forced them toward the doorway.
“Unhand me!” Chris thrashed against their grip. “Do you have any idea what you are—”
“That is enough, Chris!” Lord Arclight materialized in the doorway, his jaw clenched. “Do you have the faintest idea of what you have done? The royal palace was already in an uproar over the purge yesterday, and you threw fuel on the fire.”
“We are going to have a long chat with you idiots.” Lord Field glared at his son. “There is a right way and a wrong way to end an engagement, and you chose the worst path. It appears we were too lenient in your upbringing. We’ll correct that posthaste.”
As Julius and his friends were hauled away, their mothers and sisters entered the room. They leveled ferocious glares at the stunned Marie.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, homewrecker.” Queen Mylene signaled her bodyguards to seal off the hallway. “We are going to have a long conversation about your behavior. You destroyed the promising futures we charted for those boys, and you will pay for it. I hope you are ready to atone for your crimes for the rest of your life.”
“Haha… Can we be civil and talk this out?” Marie offered a weak smile as the women closed in around the bed.
“No.”
Each woman grabbed a piece of her bound body and began wailing on her. Unable to move, Marie could only lie there and take the punishment. Her tormented cries for help filled the hall, but no one came to her aid. Mylene ensured that.
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