Free Web NovelChapter 66: Begging The Duchess
Ace flinched, his chest heaving, his grip on her jaw trembling violently.
Her voice was completely calm but the sheer venom in her calm voice was worse than any blade he had faced on the northern borders.
"I did it because I wanted you to look at me!" his voice rasped, "I wanted a reaction out of you. But you don’t even hate me, do you? You are so unfeeling..."
"What about it? You know what, Ace... Feeling anything for me only led to me ending up in a sad... even pathetic state," Evelina murmured, her breath brushing against his lips, "So I will make sure it never happens again. You will never matter to me more than I want you to."
Something inside Ace completely snapped.
The last thread of his self-control vanished.
He leaned down, his head tilting as he descended towards her.
Evelina’s heart gave a violent thud against her ribs.
The world narrowed down to the heat of his skin that made her feel so strange... and the burning hunger in his eyes.
An inch away from her lips, the heat of his breath was a scorching contrast to her cold skin.
Her eyelashes fluttered, her throat tightening as the dangerous attraction threatened to pull her under.
Even with her breath caught in her throat, even with her body reacting to his overwhelming proximity, Evelina didn’t let any of her feelings show own her face as she remained still.
Ace froze.
His lips were a hair’s breadth from hers. He could see the slight tremor in her collarbone, feel the rapid flutter of her pulse beneath his fingers on her jaw but when he looked into her eyes, there was no emotion in them at all.
If he gave in to his feelings and claimed her lips, it would be a humiliating defeat to him. It would be a open confession that she had driven the unconquered commander of the North to absolute madness, while she looked down on his desperation.
And one thing about Ace was... he didn’t like being defeated like that.
"You truly are a something, Evelina."
He violently let go of her jaw, pulling his hands away from the wall as if the stone had suddenly turned to fire.
He stumbled back a step, shaking his head frantically, his dark hair falling over his forehead as he tried to clear the suffocating fog from his mind.
Without a single word, he turned on his heel. His heavy black cape billowed behind him as he strode toward the doors, yanking them open so hard the hinges groaned, before storming out into the corridor and slamming the wood shut behind him with a deafening crash.
[System Error!]
[The System is glitching... Service in process... Failed to calculate the accumulated Heart-Wrecker Points.]
If it was before, Evelina would have been stunned. The System rarely acted up like this before.
But in the recent days, she has gotten used to such sights. Ace’s actions had become so unpredictable that he made both the System... and her glitch at times.
Left alone in the room, Evelina remained pressed against the stone wall for a quiet minute. Her posture was still upright, her hands flat against the masonry, but her breathing was coming in shallow intervals.
A vibrant rose-colored flush had crawled up her neck, staining her normally pale cheeks with an undeniable heat. Her lips were slightly parted, tingling from the warmth of the almost-kiss.
She raised a trembling hand, her slender fingers lightly touching her lower lip.
The scam of a System that had glitched while estimating Ace’s stats finally beeped at this moment, distracting Evelina from her current situation for a moment.
[System Notification: Heart Rate Elevated by 45%.]
[Warning:Target Ace’s behavior has bypassed all statistical probability models. High risk of psychological interference.]
[Heart-Wrecker Points generated from Target’s range of emotions: +20,000 Points!]
Evelina pinched the spot between her brows. Ace... would never get to her. He would never be able to distract her from her goals. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com
And at any cost... she was going to make sure of that.
...
Soon, catastrophe broke out but with a series of panicking couriers riding their horses to death along the Capital highway: a sudden disease had wiped out the southern silk crops. Ninety percent of the empire’s luxury fabric supply was completely ruined, turning the premium warehouses into graves of rotting mold.
In high society, fabric was not just clothing; it was both the symbol of status, and power. Within two days, the price of a single yard of premium silk spiked beyond the cost of a warhorse.
Panic rippled through the grand estates. The elite were suddenly facing a winter where all their wealth could not buy them the proper attire required to enter the imperial courts.
Inside the grand council hall of the Alvarez Estate, the air was suffocatingly tense.
Evelina sat at the head of the long table, her posture perfect and her emerald gown cascading around her like a tranquil sea.
Across from her sat the high advisors of the Northern Council; the very men who, just weeks prior, had laughed behind their sleeves at her ’bored woman’s hobby.’
The heavy oak doors groaned open, and a hush fell over the room as Ace walked in.
He had not spoken a word to Evelina since the confrontation in her chambers and one couldn’t read through the expressions on his darkened face.
As he took his seat at the opposite end of the table, his dark eyes instantly cut through the distance, locking onto hers.
The silence between them was charged with the kind of tension that made Evelina flush for a moment. But then, she inhaled a deep breath and averted her gaze gracefully.
"Your Grace," One of the council members stammered, breaking the silence as he practically threw himself out of his chair. His knees hit the floor with a heavy thud, "We come to beg for the Duchess’s indulgence. The southern market has collapsed. The Capital is demanding textiles for the upcoming winter gala, and the Council faces total financial ruin if we cannot fulfill our quotas."
Evelina reached out, her slender fingers curling around the handle of her porcelain teacup.
