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Chapter 282: The Truth About Princess Loraine
Aldrey looked out the window and narrowed his eyes.
"What is it?" Grand Duke Flamecrest asked.
Aldrey didn’t answer immediately. He spoke only after a few seconds.
"Nothing. I thought I sensed something outside the window earlier, so I looked."
Grand Duke Flamecrest narrowed his eyes and glanced outside.
"But I haven’t sensed anything this whole time," he said
Aldrey sighed at this.
"Maybe I’m too tired from dealing with all of this problem, and I’m becoming overly sensitive to everything. If even Father doesn’t sense it, then it must be my imagination," he said.
Grand Duke Flamecrest stood up and placed a hand on Aldrey’s shoulder.
"All right, let’s end it here for today. It’s not good to keep overthinking it. Let’s wait until tomorrow and see if we find something to help us."
Aldrey nodded and gave a slight bow before leaving the room. Grand Duke Flamecrest watched his son’s retreating back, which seemed burdened with a heavy weight, and couldn’t help but feel pity for him. Although this was the entire family’s problem, in the end, Aldrey was the one who had to bear the full weight of it. The proposed marriage and Commander Marcus—everything was connected to him.
Grand Duke Flamecrest looked out the window once more. He walked toward it and stood there, gazing at the beautiful moon hanging in the night sky. The silence was profound, with not even the faintest sound from nocturnal creatures to break it. Little did he know, despite the stillness, someone stood not far from the window, concealed in the shadows of the night, silently watching his every move.
"So that’s Grand Duke Flamecrest," Aldrian thought. He had finally met his grandfather from his father’s family. Aldrian had arrived earlier, positioning himself near the window and overhearing part of their conversation. However, when his father suddenly glanced in his direction, he vanished in an instant, ensuring his presence went unnoticed.
Aldrian smiled bitterly. His father had sensed his presence outside—something even an Emperor-stage cultivator shouldn’t have been able to detect. Was it his father’s intuition? Or was it something else?
He also wondered what they were talking about. He didn’t understand anything from their conversation, but it seemed to involve the imperial family. Aldrian had already covered the entire mansion with his domain and sensed the presence of some individuals who didn’t seem like they were from the Flamecrest family. He thought that they were members of the imperial family and thinking it would be better to check the imperial family first.
After checking the imperial envoy, Aldrian found what he had been looking for and appeared outside, not far from Princess Loraine’s room. He stood on top of a branch, where he could see inside the room. There, he saw someone sitting in a meditative position atop a cultivation mattress.
She was a beautiful blonde-haired woman wearing a night robe that accentuated her curves. Immersed in her own cultivation, she remained completely still, unaware that Aldrian was watching her. From her information, Aldrian knew that this must be Princess Loraine, the princess of the Vindas empire and the one leading the imperial family’s envoy here.
There was nothing unusual about Princess Loraine; she seemed like a normal princess with a noble aura. However, after watching her for a few seconds, Aldrian sensed a feeling he was already familiar with when encountering certain people.
"This irked feeling again," he thought.
That was a significant sign and clue for him that Princess Loraine was somehow connected to the devils. Aldrian smiled, finally finding another clue that seemed likely tied to the devil incident this time. If his guess was correct, it appeared he could solve the Flamecrest family’s problem much faster than he had predicted.
He then concentrated and created formations to cover the entire princess’s room, ensuring that nothing from inside could leak out. Whatever happened inside the room would remain undetected from the outside.
After he was done, he teleported right beside her body but didn’t do anything to her. Even though he was only a few centimeters away, she still couldn’t detect his presence. As he neared her, the irked feeling grew more intense. He truly couldn’t sense anything ominous about this princess. Her beautiful face was mesmerizing to anyone who saw her, and her aura felt so pure that no one would ever believe she had any connection to the devils.
However, Aldrian knew he couldn’t ignore his feelings and intuition, so he firmly decided to make a move and look for evidence from her.
After a few seconds, he decided to make his presence detectable to her. As he had predicted, the princess instantly opened her eyes and launched a palm strike covered in blue flames. However, Aldrian simply grabbed her wrist, and her attack came to an abrupt halt.
She widened her eyes as she realized she couldn’t move her hand. Aldrian’s grip was so strong that she couldn’t budge it even the slightest bit. She had tried to strike Aldrian with her power of her Middle Duke stage, but he easily grabbed and held her hand.
Unfortunately for her, the power of the Duke stage was no longer threatening to Aldrian since his breakthrough to the Marquess stage. Even if he were outside his domain—let alone now, with him being inside it.
Aldrian wanted to make it quick and clean, leaving no traces of his presence. After successfully grabbing her wrist, he touched her forehead and sent a jolt of lightning directly to her soul. Everything happened so fast that the princess had no time to react. Even if she had, she wouldn’t have been able to overpower Aldrian, so her struggles were futile.
The princess’s eyes instantly rolled back from the shock to her soul, and she fainted. Aldrian didn’t waste any more time and immediately delved into her memories, eager to confirm some of his suspicions.
After a few minutes, he was finally done and released his hand from the princess’s forehead. He looked at the fainted princess with an expressionless face, but inwardly, he thought to himself,
"As I thought, the technique the princess possesses, along with the blue flame she just used, is the same as the one I encountered when I faced that guy."
’That’ guy Aldrian mentioned was the same person who forced his mother to flee for her life before he eventually came to her rescue—
The Lust Devil.
To think that this princess has a seemingly ordinary relationship with that dead man! He had not yet seen the Lust Devil’s memories about her at that time because the Devil Lord killed him before he could access those memories.
Their relationship is not just any ordinary relationship—this princess is actually considered one of the Lust Devil’s harem. No wonder the Lust Devil could use the same technique that Princess Loraine had used.
Aldrian still remembered how the Lust Devil had desperately tried to block his Pillar of Heaven’s Judgment. One of the techniques he used was this blue flame, and the information from his Eyes of Heaven also confirmed that it was the same technique, with the same name, as the princess’s.
Another thing is, the princess consciously chose the Lust Devil and willingly made herself a pawn of the devil within the Vindas Empire. All of this was driven by her own feelings—the feelings that could blind any being, despite the danger.
The feeling of love.
Princess Loraine had actually fallen in love with the Lust Devil. When they first met, the princess didn’t know that he was the devil, as the Lust Devil had disguised himself. Over time, the Lust Devil worked his way into her heart, making the princess fall deeply in love with him to the point where she had slept with him.
From that moment, the princess was brought to the devil’s side, her body and heart already in the Lust Devil’s grasp.
To be honest, although the Lust Devil is nothing more than a scumbag who uses every woman he meets, that son of a bitch knows how to treat them in a way that makes them fall in love with him. Well, Aldrian’s mother is the rare exception.
The Lust Devil never hurt the hearts of his harem, at least not in front of them. He always did things to make those women remain loyal to him—besides, of course, using his hypnotic techniques.
Aldrian suddenly grinned wickedly. Besides that, he also found that the princess’s presence here was indeed part of the devil’s plan. This was all a grand scheme to plunge the empire into chaos. The Flamecrest family was merely a part of the devil’s plan, not the end point.
From her memories, it seems she still doesn’t know that the Lust Devil is already dead. That fact has been exploited by the devils to bring her here, using the name of the Lust Devil. Her true purpose here is not to help the Flamecrest family with their current problem.
Her purpose here is to further tarnish the Flamecrest family, ensuring they can never lift their heads again. The fall of the Flamecrest family will be the first step in plunging the entire Vindas Empire into chaos.
Also, Aldrian finally grasped the imperial family’s proposal toward the Flamecrest family that his father and Grand Duke Flamecrest had discussed. After learning all of this, he was determined to ensure that the imperial family would never have a chance to shove that proposal down his father’s throat. He would not allow any disruption to his father’s and mother’s harmony!
