Tyrant of the Ruined Sun-Chapter 189: Night of the Masquerade 8

I bit back the hearty laugh that was rapidly building in the pit of my stomach, as I beheld his embarrassed self, an image that was so opposed to his ordinary demeanour of calmness bordering on apathy, with some even believing it to blatantly trespass onto the realm of frigid cruelty, as he very rarely ever laughed or even smiled in public, yet always managing to stare frightful holes into everyone around him with his soulful emerald eyes, that never allowed one to fully understand what he thought.

Sadly, I couldn’t further partake in this amusing act any longer, as we had already reached our destination, where our brides to be were currently standing with a plethora of other ladies, none of whom I recognized or cared enough to know, chattering on about some random piece of gossip that pertained to some meaningless rumour, while cunningly managing to sneakily sprinkle some words of flattery within, like a handful of loose landmines of treacherous poison within an ocean of honey.

And though my ears had easily caught on to a clever few, who were only speaking intermittently, subtly directing the follow of conversation into their desired path, turning their meaningless drivel into a gateway to either earn favour with the two; or more probably, to gleam whatever insight they could of Eve’s mysterious identity; a curiosity further fuelled by her entrance by my side.

Some even seemed to be trying to gage the true intentions of this arranged marriage between us and the eastern empire, either probably hoping it to be a temporary thing, built on fleeting and momentary benefit, or simply curious of the price paid by each empire for this unprecedented arrangement to occur; yet amongst them lay ones who were even more insidious, a smaller subsection I noticed hiding behind benevolent masks while laying in wait, ready and waiting to inject their whispered perfidious poison of care and concern, as they seemed to want to gage Ziyi’s personal satisfaction with the matter, and of course trying to framing it as though she was a victim while subtly highlighting my brothers shortcomings.

Something he also cleverly noticed, as his earlier bashfulness became an estranged memory, buried behind a chiselled mask of frigid hate and simmering wrath, that was all clearly reflected in the souls of his eye.

Feelings that seemed so utterly superfluous within a few seconds, as he had blatantly forgotten who the two ladies we before us were.

Ziyi was a fish in water among all those conniving vixens and vipers, managing to dance around their attempts with the agility of a flower petal in a light breeze, meanwhile Eve remained mostly quiet, only speaking when spoken to, or when attempts to uncover her identity became too obvious and ambitious, wherein she would immediately meld both truth and lie into a confusing, yet charismatic string of solid sounding logic that would not easily show it’s inconsistencies, even if they dwell on it later tonight, for only the truly intelligent could unravel the layered intricacy of her veiling words, and be able to lay witness to all their subtle inconsistencies.

A far cry from her experienced self in my past life, who’d fully mastered the art of falsehoods, making her lies sound no different from the truth, even to the most perceptive of ears, but it was well enough to misguide the foolish few before her today.

But it was then that our silent viewing of them came to an end, as Eve, seemingly sensing our eyes upon them, shifted her faceless mask in our direction, prompting a few to do the same, until like a line of falling dominos, they all turned to us too, and as though planned and practiced, everyone who beheld us in that moment had the colour of their faces snatched from them, before they all instinctively took a step back and respectfully bowed.

I cared little for their fear fuelled respect, or their terror driven dread, as I stepped towards them, arm extended in invitation, before I gentlemanly bowed while my other hand lifted my mask, allowing me to plant a kiss on her delicate knuckles, as I then confidently asked "May I have this dance my lady?"

A small smile graced Eve’s lips then, with my only regret being that I could not behold it at this moment, as she replied, gladly accepting with a nod and a humorous tone "It will be my honour, lord."

I merely chuckled in response, as I led her onto the dance floor, being shortly followed by Nizam and Ziyi, who mimicked our actions almost one to one, with the attached on addition of a glancing glare from Nizam as they left the gaggle of girls behind.

And so we joined the rest of the gathered nobles, seamlessly merging within their ranks, as we swayed to the tune of the slow, atmospheric music, before I smirkingly asked in a voice that was barely enough to scrape her ears over the harmonious symphonies of song and the synchronized clicking of heels "So how goes you assessment so far?"

I knew a light smile again graced her lips at my question, as she replied "It’s still too early to accurately say, but she’s sharp. Much sharper than I initially expected."

"Is that so?" I casually asked, as she slowly twirled in my arms.

She nodded in response, adding "She’s already guessed my identity. Though she’s afraid to say it out loud, fearing the cost of, in the off chance, she is mistaken."

"Which one?" I then teasingly asked, and she instantly realized the slightly selfish aim of my words, yet none the less she still obliged me. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

"My identity as your lover, so the less important one." She finished with a jokingly haughty tone.

"Has she now?" I responded with a chuckle.

"Well, it isn’t exactly the most well kept secret in the world. Especially after your actions earlier, though I doubt she thinks I’m the empress, as I am not from a famous noble house." She further explained, as she non interestedly shrugged.

"I wonder how stunned she would be when you not only reveal to her your true position, but also your real heritage." I expectantly mused allowed.

"She also seems to suspect me as the brown haired woman, though that one is purely guess work on her part." She added after a moment.

"And how did you realize that?" I asked in a curious tone.

"She purposefully mentioned the surprise she felt when she saw you dancing yesterday with a brown haired woman, and when I showed very little reaction to it, the idea must’ve been planted then, but as I’ve said, it little more than a budding idea in her head right now."

I lightly laughed at the insinuation of her words, before laying them all out to bare "So her current running theory is me indulging in the company of two woman."

An unconscious smile had undoubtedly bloomed behind her mask, as she teasingly replied, while choking down the laugh tickling the back of her throat "You better be careful, my lord, or else your carefully curated image of a ruthless, emotionless, cold blooded despot will soon be replaced by that of an extravagant womanizer."

A hearty laugh nearly escaped me, before I knowingly asked "So do you want her?"

She seemed surprised by my question for a bar a moment, before her mind recalled an important detail and then stating "... It seems I had a liking to collect talented people in my past life too."

"I would describe it more akin to an unquenchable avarice than a simple liking." I teasingly corrected.

And a light giggle finally escaped her mouth then, at last being let loose to freely seep out from her rosy lips, like a wind chimes gentle song after being held captive for so long, before she then anticipatorily queried "So will you let me have her then?"

I mused the idea for a moment, before a predatory smile took hold of my features, before I then vaguely answered "Perhaps, but that would entirely depend on you sincerity love."

"And how would I need to show you that precisely?" She answered without skipping a beat, her tone just as playfully suggestive as mine.

"Why don’t you guess?" I playfully whispered next to her ear, earning me another gleeful giggle from her, a sound I hadn’t realized how dearly I missed it until I heard it again.

And so the eighth day of the Banquet ended, with our banter echoing harmoniously with the sound of our dance, and beneath the scrutinising eyes of all those present; until we eventually stopped, having our fill for the night, and returned to our wing; making way for the ninth day of the Nights of Masquerade, which unexpectedly flew by with little fanfare, with even Marius and his master Octavian doing very little throughout it.

Which was slightly expected, as they needed to recover after the last blow we handed them. Though we obviously did not let our guard down, for we were sure they were in the midst of readying another strike to deliver us, and we needed to be ready; not to avoid the attack but to precede it with our own, for we held the initiative at the moment and we couldn’t simply let it slip from our fingers.

So we doubled our efforts into espionage on the enemy camps, with Eve’s abilities proving themselves to be uniquely useful in this regard, as one would expect, granting us a far greater advantage over them than before.

And though not as important, a slightly amusing irregularity did occur this day, which came in the form of Ziyi and her brother joining us for breakfast, wherein she instantly began by proclaiming her profuse apology to Eve for not realizing her true identity, something she undoubtedly became aware of from her brother and father last night, after we had all retired; while Weixiao, as any good brother would, took the opportunity to incessantly tease her for it for the rest of the day, something that nearly brought the poor girl to tears, had Eve not assured her time and time again of her lack of guilt, and our own fault in the matter, for we had intentionally kept and obfuscated that information after all.

Meanwhile during the ball that night, very little had changed yet again, with no unordinary cliques being formed or movements that caused any sort of concern, permitting us a rare night of utter peace.

And so was the ninth day, which finally allowed passage for the tenth, and last day of the Nights of Masquerade to pass into memory, and hopefully without any further turmoil; yet obviously, that was only but a fantasy, a cruelly sweet wish akin to a fleeting dream.

For on the last day of the Masquerade, an annoying anomaly would occur, one that utterly tarnished a plan I had devised not two days ago.

"I greet the Ruinous Dragon." I familiarly cold and steady voice grinded itself against my ear, as I turned around to look upon the bowing form of the Mistress of Misery.