“Baron Amieux.”
Eugène fled to the opposite side of the noises to avoid encountering the Duke as much as possible, stood there, and was startled by the sudden voice. Eugène almost attacked him reflexively, but later realized that his opponent was Baron Bouilhet, and managed to stop. Baron Bouilhet looked indifferently at the blade that had narrowly missed his temple and thoroughly surveyed Eugène’s shabby state.
“… Baron Bouilhet? What are you doing here?”
Eugène asked, panting for the breath he had been holding back for hastily stopping the attack. Baron Bouilhet grabbed Eugène’s wrist, looked around, and put his finger to his lips.
AD
“Please speak no more and follow me quietly. I shall get you out of here.”
As everyone knew, Baron Bouilhet only moved on the Emperor’s orders. Eugène, knowing whose agent he was, silently nodded and followed him. The atmosphere surrounding them grew increasingly maddening. The pursuers who seem to have aimed for killing rather than capture because of Duke Fernand’s joining were searching for him with their swords in front.
Baron Bouilhet sneaked into a corner of the maze garden, cleverly avoiding the wild crowd, and moved an eagle-shaped decoration in front of a dead end to reveal a small secret passageway.
Eugène had never imagined that such a device would exist in the maze garden and watched the spectacle in surprise. Baron Bouilhet looked at him with a strict gaze and urged him to go inside quickly.
“Please get in.”
Eugène crawled into the passageway as told, and Baron Bouilhet followed and set back the entrance of the passageway to its original position. Baron Bouilhet came in from the barely crawlable entrance into a wider area, made a gesture to not speak again, and took the lead in the dark passageway.
He guessed it when he had witnessed the way the Emperor visited his room in the past, but there seemed to be secret passageways hidden here and there in the imperial palace that others did not know. However, such passageways were secretly passed down only between the Emperor and the crown prince, and as a result, rumors abounded and the nobles had little chance to actually confirm their existence.
However, Baron Bouilhet seemed to not only know the passageways in detail but also thoroughly grasp most of their structures. The secret passageways of the imperial palace were treated to be as strictly confidential as if they were the last lifeline of the imperial family. The fact that they shared such a place was clear proof of how great the Emperor’s trust in him was.
Eugène knew that Baron Bouilhet was one of the Emperor’s closest aides, but he had no idea how much trust he actually had in him. But now he could see that His Majesty’s most favored vassal was neither the Duke of Chirac nor Marshal Basin, but him. Eugène shook his head inwardly as he saw Baron Bouilhet, who was receiving a favor that others were not aware of.
AD
“Cr sbe wjs jigfjvs xcbk, ktja sbe rjk abvjs wera yf xfqa j rfmgfa ecali atf vjs sbe vlf. Po Llr Zjpfras tjv cba yfilfnfv atja sbe kbeiv vb atja, P kbeiv cba tjnf bqfcfv atf qjrrjufkjs lc atlr kjs.”
Djgbc Dbelitfa’r wbvfra jaalaevf vlv cba mtjcuf, fnfc jr tf oewyifv jybea atgbeut atf qjrrjufkjs, ktfgf la kjr tjgv ab rff fnfc jc lcmt jtfjv klatbea olgf. Seuècf ibbxfv ja tlr ragjluta yjmx jcv wbnfv klat vloolmeias. Ktbeut tlr ilof kjr rjof obg atf alwf yflcu, tlr ybvs raloofcfv klat atf atbeuta atja tf kbeiv rbbc wffa Llr Zjpfras.
If he had been a delicate noble lady, he might have passed out without being able to overcome this terrible tension.
“… I heard my name outside. They had completely concluded that I was the culprit. How did that happen?”
“It is because of the Duke of Fernand. As soon as the news reached the Duke’s residence, Prince Merrick rushed to the court and visited your dwelling first. Sure enough, you were away and no one, including the attendant in charge, knew where you were. The commotion made His Majesty realize your situation. As soon as His Majesty grasped the situation, he sent me with the command to secure your personal safety.”
Eugène was strangely disturbed by Baron Bouilhet’s expression of ‘personal safety’ rather than the simple ‘safety’. But if he saw what he had done, he couldn’t ask any more questions, since he had nothing to say even with ten mouths.
They turned corners and climbed the stairs again and again in the dark. The floor where no one came in and out was dusty to the point of leaving footprints, and the cobwebs and dust were sticking to the body soaked in sweat like a mess, making his current state look fabulously splendid.
Eugène was busy wiping the dust off his body as he walked down the passageway. His Majesty was not one to readily feel sympathy for others. It was clear that the more appalling his appearance was, the greater His Majesty’s wrath would be.
“This is the place.”
Eugène turned his head to the side so as not to watch as Baron Bouilhet maneuvered a device in the wall to create a new entrance. The wall opened with a creak, revealing a part of the splendid palace. Eugène followed Baron Bouilhet into the room.
In the dark room with only a few candlesticks lit, the scent of roses wafted along with the thick vapor. In the middle of the room was a bathtub filled with hot water, and the Emperor was standing next to it. Eugène involuntarily raised his head, and when he saw the Emperor, who was wearing only a light robe, was glaring at him terrifyingly, he lowered his eyes.
“How far will you go to test Us?”
When Eugène knelt without a word at his feet, the Emperor asked in a rather low, seething voice like thunder echoing in the dark clouds. Eugène could not make any excuses, so he quietly bowed his head. The Emperor, who had been glaring at Eugène as hotly as if he were about to spit out fire, strode towards him and grabbed him by the collar.
“Do you find Our warning to be humorous? We clearly commanded you to stay out of this matter. We even threatened you that We will not let you go if you risk your own safety in this matter. Nevertheless, you made a joke out of Our consideration for you and ultimately, brought things to this point. All right, what are you going to do now? Do you know how to deal with this damn situation?”
The Emperor brought Eugène’s face, which was messed up with sweat, dust, and cobwebs, right in front of his own, and made sarcastic remarks as if he would tear his cheeks. Eugène had closed his eyes because he couldn’t face him and was finally able to open his mouth after a while.
“I apologize. I will readily accept any punishment.”
“How funny. Did you say that you will readily accept any punishment?? You seem to have absolutely no idea how much a person can be humiliated in life. If you did not know until now, We shall tell you personally. As you said, from now on, everything you will suffer through will be the punishment for your wrongdoing.”
The Emperor tore off Eugène’s overcoat as soon as he finished speaking. The overcoat, which had been messily tainted with grass leaves while wandering around the maze garden and was once again ruined in the secret passage, was already unrecoverable, but after being thrown away by the Emperor’s hand, it turned into a shape that could not be called a piece of clothing.
While Eugène was taken aback, the Emperor roughly took off his shirt and even touched the pants he was wearing below without hesitation. Eugène, startled, looked at the Emperor with eyes wide open. He had no idea what the Emperor was going to do to him now.
“What are you doing right now, Your Majesty?”
“You are not one who obeys Our orders right away. If We order you to take them off, you will be bothered to waste your time by asking why.”
“Your Majesty… ”
“We have no time to argue with you. If you want to live, shut your mouth and simply go along with what We are doing!”
The Emperor tried to take off Eugène’s pants, but seemed to get more and more irritated with it, and just dragged him into the bathtub. The spacious porcelain bathtub that the two could fit in was filled with hot water mixed with perfumed oil. The Emperor threw Eugène, who could not even take his pants off, into the water, took off his robe, and went into the bathtub.
The water suddenly entered Eugène’s mouth, and he struggled to suppress the harsh coughing and tried to get up in a hurry. However, getting out of the bathtub made of porcelain, which was slippery all around, in a state of great bewilderment was not as easy as he had thought.
The Emperor got on Eugène’s waist, which was almost buried in the bathtub, and plunged his head into the water. After floundering for a while, he managed to find balance and raise his head, but the Emperor’s strong grip dunk his head into the water again. He swallowed hot water suddenly and gasped for breath.
When the Emperor saw that the dust had nearly been swept away after submerging his head into the water twice, he grabbed Eugène’s chin and slammed his lips against his. Regardless, he was exhausted and even hot water had gone into his airway, so his lungs hurt as if they were tearing apart. There was even an aggressive kiss on top of that all, so this was like complete torture.
While they scuffled, Baron Bouilhet scrupulously erased Eugène’s traces. He left the Emperor’s clothes intact, took only Eugène’s clothes, went outside, and burned them all without leaving any evidence behind.
But Eugène was not in the right state of mind to look back at how Baron Bouilhet was cleaning up after him. He was stunned to the point of passing out because of the Emperor’s kiss, which came out of nowhere, but he could not escape the Emperor’s tenacious attacks in the closed bathtub.
The Emperor ravaged Eugène’s mouth as harshly as if he were replacing his anger with a kiss. He intertwined his tongue with Eugène’s, who was too astounded to show any other reaction,
Eugène was so startled that the Emperor intertwined his tongue with his own, unable to respond, and grazed the inside of his sweet-smelling mouth, causing it to bleed.
That wasn’t all to his wild behavior. The Emperor roughly bit his lower lip, as if it were meat meant to be eaten instead of his lips, and licked his upper lip, which was dripping with blood, urging the blood to flow more.
Sweet.
The Emperor muttered unconsciously, licking the stream of blood flowing over his torn lips with his tongue. The strong and trained body of the man was firmly stiff under his body and was frozen defensively. Eugène’s gray eyes, which had always shone deep and profoundly, were clouded by difficult breathing, and his lips, occupied with panting, trembled each time he dug into them.
To forcibly suppress a rebellious man and give him a kiss as if dominating him was a completely different sensation from embracing the gentle and lovely ladies tenderly. Even though all of this was not intended for pleasure in the first place, an unknown tremor seeped under his skin. The Emperor, feeling an unbearable urge to take more and go deeper than necessary, took his lips off him.
When Eugène lowered his head to cough, the copper-colored nape that had always occupied the corner of his head was revealed before his eyes. The Emperor first became conscious of Eugène’s body after discovering that the mark of another man remained in this place.
There was still a faint smell of sweat on his skin, which was as smooth, and shiny as if it had been smeared with oil. The Emperor shoved his teeth into his neck and suppressed the man who reflexively rejected him with force. Even though Eugène squirmed as he crouched in unexpected pain, the Emperor had no intention of readily pulling away.
Eugène was astonished and raised his arm to push him away, but his defiance was meaningless as he was unable to strike the Emperor. The Emperor gripped his wrist tightly, pressed it against the bathtub, and caressed his neck.
While the Emperor showered him with kisses, nothing came to Eugène’s mind. Not only did he not know what on earth this was all about or why the Emperor was doing this to him, but it was also hard to understand exactly what he was going through.
“Baron Amieux.”
Eugène fled to the opposite side of the noises to avoid encountering the Duke as much as possible, stood there, and was startled by the sudden voice. Eugène almost attacked him reflexively, but later realized that his opponent was Baron Bouilhet, and managed to stop. Baron Bouilhet looked indifferently at the blade that had narrowly missed his temple and thoroughly surveyed Eugène’s shabby state.
“… Baron Bouilhet? What are you doing here?”
Eugène asked, panting for the breath he had been holding back for hastily stopping the attack. Baron Bouilhet grabbed Eugène’s wrist, looked around, and put his finger to his lips.
AD
“Please speak no more and follow me quietly. I shall get you out of here.”
As everyone knew, Baron Bouilhet only moved on the Emperor’s orders. Eugène, knowing whose agent he was, silently nodded and followed him. The atmosphere surrounding them grew increasingly maddening. The pursuers who seem to have aimed for killing rather than capture because of Duke Fernand’s joining were searching for him with their swords in front.
Baron Bouilhet sneaked into a corner of the maze garden, cleverly avoiding the wild crowd, and moved an eagle-shaped decoration in front of a dead end to reveal a small secret passageway.
Eugène had never imagined that such a device would exist in the maze garden and watched the spectacle in surprise. Baron Bouilhet looked at him with a strict gaze and urged him to go inside quickly.
“Please get in.”
Eugène crawled into the passageway as told, and Baron Bouilhet followed and set back the entrance of the passageway to its original position. Baron Bouilhet came in from the barely crawlable entrance into a wider area, made a gesture to not speak again, and took the lead in the dark passageway.
He guessed it when he had witnessed the way the Emperor visited his room in the past, but there seemed to be secret passageways hidden here and there in the imperial palace that others did not know. However, such passageways were secretly passed down only between the Emperor and the crown prince, and as a result, rumors abounded and the nobles had little chance to actually confirm their existence.
However, Baron Bouilhet seemed to not only know the passageways in detail but also thoroughly grasp most of their structures. The secret passageways of the imperial palace were treated to be as strictly confidential as if they were the last lifeline of the imperial family. The fact that they shared such a place was clear proof of how great the Emperor’s trust in him was.
Eugène knew that Baron Bouilhet was one of the Emperor’s closest aides, but he had no idea how much trust he actually had in him. But now he could see that His Majesty’s most favored vassal was neither the Duke of Chirac nor Marshal Basin, but him. Eugène shook his head inwardly as he saw Baron Bouilhet, who was receiving a favor that others were not aware of.
AD
“Cr sbe wjs jigfjvs xcbk, ktja sbe rjk abvjs wera yf xfqa j rfmgfa ecali atf vjs sbe vlf. Po Llr Zjpfras tjv cba yfilfnfv atja sbe kbeiv vb atja, P kbeiv cba tjnf bqfcfv atf qjrrjufkjs lc atlr kjs.”
Djgbc Dbelitfa’r wbvfra jaalaevf vlv cba mtjcuf, fnfc jr tf oewyifv jybea atgbeut atf qjrrjufkjs, ktfgf la kjr tjgv ab rff fnfc jc lcmt jtfjv klatbea olgf. Seuècf ibbxfv ja tlr ragjluta yjmx jcv wbnfv klat vloolmeias. Ktbeut tlr ilof kjr rjof obg atf alwf yflcu, tlr ybvs raloofcfv klat atf atbeuta atja tf kbeiv rbbc wffa Llr Zjpfras.
If he had been a delicate noble lady, he might have passed out without being able to overcome this terrible tension.
“… I heard my name outside. They had completely concluded that I was the culprit. How did that happen?”
“It is because of the Duke of Fernand. As soon as the news reached the Duke’s residence, Prince Merrick rushed to the court and visited your dwelling first. Sure enough, you were away and no one, including the attendant in charge, knew where you were. The commotion made His Majesty realize your situation. As soon as His Majesty grasped the situation, he sent me with the command to secure your personal safety.”
Eugène was strangely disturbed by Baron Bouilhet’s expression of ‘personal safety’ rather than the simple ‘safety’. But if he saw what he had done, he couldn’t ask any more questions, since he had nothing to say even with ten mouths.
They turned corners and climbed the stairs again and again in the dark. The floor where no one came in and out was dusty to the point of leaving footprints, and the cobwebs and dust were sticking to the body soaked in sweat like a mess, making his current state look fabulously splendid.
Eugène was busy wiping the dust off his body as he walked down the passageway. His Majesty was not one to readily feel sympathy for others. It was clear that the more appalling his appearance was, the greater His Majesty’s wrath would be.
“This is the place.”
Eugène turned his head to the side so as not to watch as Baron Bouilhet maneuvered a device in the wall to create a new entrance. The wall opened with a creak, revealing a part of the splendid palace. Eugène followed Baron Bouilhet into the room.
In the dark room with only a few candlesticks lit, the scent of roses wafted along with the thick vapor. In the middle of the room was a bathtub filled with hot water, and the Emperor was standing next to it. Eugène involuntarily raised his head, and when he saw the Emperor, who was wearing only a light robe, was glaring at him terrifyingly, he lowered his eyes.
“How far will you go to test Us?”
When Eugène knelt without a word at his feet, the Emperor asked in a rather low, seething voice like thunder echoing in the dark clouds. Eugène could not make any excuses, so he quietly bowed his head. The Emperor, who had been glaring at Eugène as hotly as if he were about to spit out fire, strode towards him and grabbed him by the collar.
“Do you find Our warning to be humorous? We clearly commanded you to stay out of this matter. We even threatened you that We will not let you go if you risk your own safety in this matter. Nevertheless, you made a joke out of Our consideration for you and ultimately, brought things to this point. All right, what are you going to do now? Do you know how to deal with this damn situation?”
The Emperor brought Eugène’s face, which was messed up with sweat, dust, and cobwebs, right in front of his own, and made sarcastic remarks as if he would tear his cheeks. Eugène had closed his eyes because he couldn’t face him and was finally able to open his mouth after a while.
“I apologize. I will readily accept any punishment.”
“How funny. Did you say that you will readily accept any punishment?? You seem to have absolutely no idea how much a person can be humiliated in life. If you did not know until now, We shall tell you personally. As you said, from now on, everything you will suffer through will be the punishment for your wrongdoing.”
The Emperor tore off Eugène’s overcoat as soon as he finished speaking. The overcoat, which had been messily tainted with grass leaves while wandering around the maze garden and was once again ruined in the secret passage, was already unrecoverable, but after being thrown away by the Emperor’s hand, it turned into a shape that could not be called a piece of clothing.
While Eugène was taken aback, the Emperor roughly took off his shirt and even touched the pants he was wearing below without hesitation. Eugène, startled, looked at the Emperor with eyes wide open. He had no idea what the Emperor was going to do to him now.
“What are you doing right now, Your Majesty?”
“You are not one who obeys Our orders right away. If We order you to take them off, you will be bothered to waste your time by asking why.”
“Your Majesty… ”
“We have no time to argue with you. If you want to live, shut your mouth and simply go along with what We are doing!”
The Emperor tried to take off Eugène’s pants, but seemed to get more and more irritated with it, and just dragged him into the bathtub. The spacious porcelain bathtub that the two could fit in was filled with hot water mixed with perfumed oil. The Emperor threw Eugène, who could not even take his pants off, into the water, took off his robe, and went into the bathtub.
The water suddenly entered Eugène’s mouth, and he struggled to suppress the harsh coughing and tried to get up in a hurry. However, getting out of the bathtub made of porcelain, which was slippery all around, in a state of great bewilderment was not as easy as he had thought.
The Emperor got on Eugène’s waist, which was almost buried in the bathtub, and plunged his head into the water. After floundering for a while, he managed to find balance and raise his head, but the Emperor’s strong grip dunk his head into the water again. He swallowed hot water suddenly and gasped for breath.
When the Emperor saw that the dust had nearly been swept away after submerging his head into the water twice, he grabbed Eugène’s chin and slammed his lips against his. Regardless, he was exhausted and even hot water had gone into his airway, so his lungs hurt as if they were tearing apart. There was even an aggressive kiss on top of that all, so this was like complete torture.
While they scuffled, Baron Bouilhet scrupulously erased Eugène’s traces. He left the Emperor’s clothes intact, took only Eugène’s clothes, went outside, and burned them all without leaving any evidence behind.
But Eugène was not in the right state of mind to look back at how Baron Bouilhet was cleaning up after him. He was stunned to the point of passing out because of the Emperor’s kiss, which came out of nowhere, but he could not escape the Emperor’s tenacious attacks in the closed bathtub.
The Emperor ravaged Eugène’s mouth as harshly as if he were replacing his anger with a kiss. He intertwined his tongue with Eugène’s, who was too astounded to show any other reaction,
Eugène was so startled that the Emperor intertwined his tongue with his own, unable to respond, and grazed the inside of his sweet-smelling mouth, causing it to bleed.
That wasn’t all to his wild behavior. The Emperor roughly bit his lower lip, as if it were meat meant to be eaten instead of his lips, and licked his upper lip, which was dripping with blood, urging the blood to flow more.
Sweet.
The Emperor muttered unconsciously, licking the stream of blood flowing over his torn lips with his tongue. The strong and trained body of the man was firmly stiff under his body and was frozen defensively. Eugène’s gray eyes, which had always shone deep and profoundly, were clouded by difficult breathing, and his lips, occupied with panting, trembled each time he dug into them.
To forcibly suppress a rebellious man and give him a kiss as if dominating him was a completely different sensation from embracing the gentle and lovely ladies tenderly. Even though all of this was not intended for pleasure in the first place, an unknown tremor seeped under his skin. The Emperor, feeling an unbearable urge to take more and go deeper than necessary, took his lips off him.
When Eugène lowered his head to cough, the copper-colored nape that had always occupied the corner of his head was revealed before his eyes. The Emperor first became conscious of Eugène’s body after discovering that the mark of another man remained in this place.
There was still a faint smell of sweat on his skin, which was as smooth, and shiny as if it had been smeared with oil. The Emperor shoved his teeth into his neck and suppressed the man who reflexively rejected him with force. Even though Eugène squirmed as he crouched in unexpected pain, the Emperor had no intention of readily pulling away.
Eugène was astonished and raised his arm to push him away, but his defiance was meaningless as he was unable to strike the Emperor. The Emperor gripped his wrist tightly, pressed it against the bathtub, and caressed his neck.
While the Emperor showered him with kisses, nothing came to Eugène’s mind. Not only did he not know what on earth this was all about or why the Emperor was doing this to him, but it was also hard to understand exactly what he was going through.