NRAL | Chapter 72

~Chapter 72~

 A Proper Price

A sudden scream rang out, startling the people nearby. The noise, coming from the upper floor, was clearly not normal. Anyone could tell something terrible had happened.

Sigh.

Eleanor let out a quiet sigh of relief.

After Arlo had gone up in the elevator, things had not gone exactly as she had planned.

She had expected Nora to come storming in, even guessed the Duke of Astria might accompany her—but what she hadn’t predicted was Fabian’s reaction.

Fabian’s role today wasn’t just to hand Arlo the hotel room key. He was also supposed to go to the front desk and report that there was an issue with the room, so someone would go check. But for some reason, he hadn’t completed his task and had fled the scene. It seemed that when he saw Arlo in person, he lost his nerve.

This was troublesome. Eleanor had never intended for Countess Annabelle to be harmed. Not out of sympathy, but because that part wasn’t hers to carry out—she had her own target for revenge.

Even while arguing with her father and Nora, her mind was racing with ways to go upstairs without raising suspicion.

Luckily, Arlo had given her the perfect excuse.

A scream full of pain? That’s a good sign.

Could it be that the item she had prepared “just in case” had really worked?

Heart pounding, Eleanor widened her eyes dramatically and muttered,

“That voice… could it be Arlo?”

Her words, loud enough to be heard by those nearby, caused an even bigger stir.

“What? Are you saying His Highness went upstairs?”

“I don’t know for sure. But I recognize that voice…! We should check!”

Eleanor shook her head quickly and stepped forward urgently. As she began to move, the Duke, Nora, and a few others followed her instinctively.

“You’re not allowed to go up.”

A large security guard stepped in front of Eleanor, blocking her way to the elevator.

“The upper floors are for suite members only. If you don’t have a membership, access is strictly prohibited.”

“You didn’t hear that scream just now?”

“No matter what happens, my job is to prevent non-members from entering.”

He repeated the same line like a trained parrot. As expected of high-end hotel security, he was well-trained.

“…Then let me ask you this. Did His Highness the Crown Prince take this elevator just a moment ago?”

“I can’t answer any questions regarding member information—”

“If that scream really did belong to His Highness, and he’s in danger right now, then you’re basically putting the Crown Prince of the Juvenile Empire at risk. If anything happens to him, you won’t escape the consequences.”

The guard, who had been unmoving, suddenly flinched. Clenching his jaw, he looked straight at the noblewoman before him.

Though Eleanor Astria was officially known as a fake, everything from her gaze to her posture and the way she spoke radiated the dignity of a true noble. It was impossible to believe she wasn’t real.

“Are you really willing to risk your entire life over a job that will last just a few years?”

“I… I…”

The guard unconsciously took a step back. Just as he hesitated and was about to move aside—

“Out of the way!”

If Eleanor had used words, her father used action.

Duke Astria, a man as large as any young knight, shoved the guard aside with brute force.

The Duke of Astria hurried into the elevator. Among everyone there, he was the most anxious. If something truly happened to the Crown Prince, the one who would suffer most would be him.

He had invested so much in putting Arlo on the throne. If Arlo were to be assassinated, all his efforts and money would go to waste.

Eleanor, Nora, and several Astria knights entered the elevator with him. The ride up felt endlessly slow, like time had frozen inside the metal box.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the elevator came to a stop. The duke dashed out the moment the doors opened, pausing only briefly to decide—

Which way should he go: left or right?

A faint moan came from the left hallway, ending the Duke’s hesitation.

“Your Highness!”

Thump, thump, thump—Duke Astria ran, his heavy footsteps echoing. Eleanor was right behind him.

As they got closer to the scene, a sharp, bloody smell hit their noses. Things had clearly gone more out of control than Eleanor had expected.

He didn’t die… right?

That would be a problem. Eleanor didn’t want Arlo to die. She wanted him to live a long life in pain and disgrace—not a quick end.

When she reached the suite, she peered into the open doorway with an anxious heart.

What filled her vision was something as red as Arlo’s hair.

“Gasp…!”

One of the knights from House Astria who had arrived late sucked in a sharp breath.

Inside the dimly lit suite was a gruesome scene.

Arlo was collapsed on a bed soaked in blood. Next to him stood Countess Annabelle in only a shift dress, clutching a blood-dripping weapon.

Apparently, she had stabbed and slashed at Arlo’s lower abdomen over and over again with it, cutting his flesh.

“Help His Highness now—and arrest the Countess!”

The Duke of Astria roared loudly.

Snapping out of their shock, the knights rushed into the suite.

“No, no! The Crown Prince came at me first…!”

Countess Annabelle shook her head in panic, her white slip dress drenched in Arlo’s blood. But no one cared to hear the words of someone caught in the act of trying to murder the Crown Prince.

The knights roughly subdued her, and people had started to crowd outside the room, glaring at her like she was the most wicked woman alive.

“I had no choice! He tried to force himself on me—!”

Even as she was dragged away, she kept yelling in desperation. But no one listened.

***

Before dawn, the entire Juvenile Empire was in an uproar.

The royal family tried to pressure newspapers to suppress the story, but even they couldn’t silence public gossip.

The emperor’s mistress had tried to kill the crown prince. In a luxury hotel suite, no less.

It was an unprecedented scandal, and the people were fascinated. The royal family, on the other hand, had a major headache.

Countess Annabelle was immediately thrown into prison. From the moment she was arrested, she kept saying the same thing: she had been resting in her hotel room when Arlo suddenly barged in and tried to rape her.

Unfortunately for her, there was no evidence to support her story—but there was plenty of evidence to prove her guilt.

When Arlo briefly regained consciousness during treatment, he said:

“My body… felt strange. Dizzy… hot… I think it started after I smelled something in the room.”

Several candles had been lit in the suite. Upon investigation, they were revealed to be aphrodisiacs.

Not only that, but a type of rare tea leaf was found among the Countess’s belongings—one known to have drug-like effects.

Given the circumstances, the investigators came to two main theories:

1. Countess Annabelle used drugs to weaken the Crown Prince and then tried to kill him.
   
2. Or, more likely—she planned to drug and frame him as a rapist, but things went wrong, and she stabbed him in a panic.
   

Either way, she was guilty of a serious crime.

But then came the question: why had Arlo gone to the mistress’s hotel room in the first place?

An anonymous tip revealed the missing piece:

“Countess Annabelle, despite receiving the Emperor’s favor, dared to bring another man into her bedroom, dishonoring the royal family. As a loyal citizen, I reported her to the Crown Prince, who went to the suite to investigate himself.”

So the official story became: Arlo had gone to confirm information about the Countess’s adultery, only to be drugged and attacked.

Later, when Arlo fully recovered, he never revealed that he had actually gone to meet Eleanor.

Naturally—saying that he had mistaken the “blonde woman” in the room for Eleanor and ended up being assaulted would make him look foolish. Saying he went to uphold royal law and got attacked sounded far more noble.

He did briefly suspect Eleanor’s involvement, but even he had to admit she seemed unrelated to the countess’s actions.

The identity of the anonymous informant was never revealed. But the Emperor did learn about Fabian, which is why the imprisoned Countess screamed:

“Fabian Robinson was with me! Bring him as my witness!”

She was desperate not to take the blame alone. But Eleanor knew that was a terrible mistake.

Fabian refused to testify. The Emperor, already furious that his son was nearly killed, was even more enraged that the Countess dared demand another lover as her witness.

Her one chance at mercy vanished, and the trial’s outcome was obvious.

“Gracie Annabel shall be confined to Dixon Monastery. Her punishment shall end only with death.”

Dixon Monastery was notorious—people died there every year. It was essentially a death sentence, though softer on paper. Likely, it was the emperor’s final act of pity.

While Arlo and Empress Genevieve were furious, Eleanor was pleased. Just like she didn’t want Arlo to die easily, she didn’t want Annabelle to be executed either.

Now the Countess would never see her son again. As the child of a criminal, he would never be recognized as imperial—and would fall under the house of the late Count Annabelle, whom she had always looked down on.

It was a punishment well suited for the woman who had tried to make her son emperor—by sterilizing other women.

The nobility, once impressed by Countess Annabelle, now clicked their tongues in disbelief at how far she’d fallen.

But soon, everyone’s attention shifted—this time to Arlo’s condition.

Sadly, it wasn’t out of concern for his health as a future emperor. Rather, what the nobles really wanted to know was:

“Did he… really lose it down there?”