Chapter 80: Annulment Ceremony (3)
"Your Highness, I understand you must have felt dissatisfied with me and felt frustrated, but I cannot allow myself to be dragged in the mud like this."
Soren’s eyes turned bloodshot as his nostrils flared. He glared at her with murderous intent as if he couldn’t wait to get his hands on her.
"You’re spouting nonsense! You fabricated whatever this is just so you can—"
"I don’t want to marry you, Your Highness," Aisha stopped him from continuing. She turned to the Council Elders and the emperor. "Please end the ceremony now. I have nothing more to say, and there is no need to continue the engagement between me and His Highness, Prince Soren."
The Council Elders sat below the emperor. There were ten of them with varying ages, and all of them were humans. They exchanged glances with each other and discussed what just happened without letting their voices land in everyone’s ears.
No one had expected this turn of events. If what Aisha had shown them was real. Then, the prince had an intimate relationship with another woman. And if the money he had given her was to compensate her for what he had done and the prince agreed on it, then there was no need to take it back from Aisha.
Some of the elders still sided with the prince.
The world doesn’t look down on people who aren’t monogamous, and thus, his actions cannot be judged as evil. It was only unfortunate that this was revealed publicly. And as a royal prince who had an honor and image to keep, he would have to deal with this huge blow.
"How can we be sure that what you have shown us is real? What if, like what His Highness said, you fabricated this?"
Aisha didn’t understand why they were still prolonging this. But she answered anyway, "You can verify the truth, as the woman he’s entangled with is here."
"Who is she?"
Letting her gaze roam in the hall, she finally stopped where the Novalis family were seated. She looked at Irene, who looked like her tail had been caught with a pale face, and spoke loudly enough for everyone to hear.
Since the recording she wanted everyone to watch was crushed before it could show who was with the prince, she had to make sure everyone knew who it was.
"She is my sister, Irene Novalis."
***
Irene had never felt this excited before.
To think that Soren and Consort Gabriel would gather a lot of people just to witness the annulment ceremony, she couldn’t wait to see how Aisha would face everyone when she walked down the aisle all alone!
Aisha had made her suffer time and time again. Even the night she broke her neck, Irene couldn’t believe she could do that to her. And what was the most annoying thing was that Zenick lied to their parents while she was unconscious!
He told everyone that he saw her fall from the stairs, and that was how she got her neck broken. Their parents had little reason to doubt his words. They immediately believed him and didn’t let her expose that it was Aisha who had done this to her.
She couldn’t even use that incident in her favor because she woke up exactly on the same day of the ceremony. And she had also suffered a heavy backlash from overusing her ability, so she couldn’t use it on anyone.
Fortunately, even if she couldn’t do anything to Aisha right now, Soren and Consort Gabriel were there to deal with her.
The only scenario that Irene couldn’t believe happened was that the youngest admiral of the association would walk down the aisle with Aisha.
Seeing that extremely handsome man, who was also an SS-rank Sentinel, together with Aisha almost twisted her guts into ribbons.
But Irene did not believe that he was close to Aisha. She surmised that he was just doing her a favor and pitying her for walking alone.
After that, things went as she had expected. The Judge exposed Aisha’s past actions and even the money she received from the prince. Everything had been going so well that Irene could barely contain the smile from rising on her lips.
Until—
"She is my sister, Irene Novalis."
Hearing her name suddenly being mentioned in front of everyone, Irene almost forgot to breathe. Numerous pairs of eyes immediately moved and fell on her figure with curiosity.
This development was not what she was expecting, where Aisha had to give up everything and leave while in tears. How did Aisha even get a hand on that recording?
Prince Soren’s interest in her wasn’t exactly a secret, and some people had already known that he was courting her. But they haven’t made things public since she didn’t want to ruin her long-curated image in front of everyone.
Moreover, the two of them had secretly measured their compatibility rate. And the result was an astonishing 88 percent. Irene was happy to learn this, but she pleaded with Soren not to reveal it yet, feigning concern for Aisha. It was a request she had made to the prince a year ago.
But the most important thing that Irene had never revealed to anyone was that although she obsessively wanted the prince to be hers, she was also eyeing the other powerful S-ranked Sentinels for herself.
If she agreed to the marriage with Prince Soren too soon, wouldn’t she lose the chance to meet the other Sentinels?
Now that things have ended up like this, how can she avoid it?
Irene forgot to think, as she had become the focus of everyone’s attention. Even the emperor looked at her with eyes that made her feel fearful of him.
"Sister, you have to say something!" Theon held her upright as she swayed under their gazes.
Snapping out of her stupor, Irene couldn’t allow Aisha to continue. She wanted to refute her words and say that it wasn’t her. Since the recording didn’t clearly show her, it was fine to say this. But that would mean she was offending Soren and Consort Gabriel by denying it.
"I... I—umh." She swallowed hard.
Even as she wanted to speak, her mind came up blank.
"My daughter has nothing to say."
Irene saw her father stand up, drawing most of everyone’s stares.
"And she has done nothing wrong. Because the one who should have been engaged to the prince is Irene, not Aisha."
Dominick’s revelation was met with questioning and confused looks. No one could understand what he was talking about.