How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 29- To Be Free of Him

***

"Please, Stacius! I'll do anything! Anything!... Stacius!"

I paused in my actions just as the sword was about to cleanly slice through his neck and silently stared at him, who was too relieved to even be able to react.

Dropping the sword, I turned around and went over to Ria who was crouching on the ground, Claud standing beside her as she cried, her tear-stained face leaving a weird throbbing feeling in my chest.

Squatting down in front of her, I stared at her, waiting for her to raise her head to meet mine and when she did, I gently wiped her tears away, leaning down to lightly peck her lips before pulling away and gifting her with a small smile.

I wonder if that was enough of a lesson?

"Undo his restraints," I nudged my head towards Linus and the guard didn't think twice to do as I had ordered.

"But... Why?" Claud was the only one brave enough to ask.

"Did you not hear my wife's plea?" I asked and they shut up and continued to do as told.

"From tomorrow onwards, Claud will be Ria's new personal bodyguard. Linus will continue as he was before Ria came to the palace. Am I understood?" A series of ′Yes, your imperial Majesty's′ was heard after that.

"Did you learn your lesson?" I asked Ria, ignoring the rest of the people in the room and only concentrating my attention on her.

She blinked, brows furrowing in confusion.

"My lesson? What are you-" She cut herself off, eyes slightly widening as if she didn't want to accept the fact that this was all part of my plan to teach her a lesson, I never planned on killing Linus, I just needed to scare both him and my wife a little bit.

It seemed to have worked.

At least, just for that short amount of time.

"This was all part of your plan? You never intended on hurting him?..." She breathed out, doubt clouding her gaze as she turned to look back at me and answering her question, I innocently nodded my head.

"Yes, I had to teach you a lesson, after all... I told you, flower, that as Emperor, I need to make decisions that I see are best for this Empire and it seemed like both you and Linus needed to be taught a lesson. I could have killed him but that would do me no good as, I hate to admit it, but he is a decent soldier," I grumbled the last part.

In the next moment, within the blink of an eye, a sharp stinging pain jolted through my cheek and my head even rang a little due to the angry force.

Shakily, stuck in a shocked trance, I turned to look at my wife who was glaring at me with such rage that it would have been enough to put the great fire of Rome to shame. I almost flinched back but I realised what the cause of pain on my cheek was.

"You..." I started, doubting what she had just done.

Placing a hand on my cheek, I massaged the area, the pain making it obvious that it wasn't just my imagination that was getting the better of me.

"You slapped me," I mumbled. And quite hard as well.

"Was this fun for you?" She spat out, ignoring my words as I slowly began feeling myself tremble, trying my best to keep from bursting, to keep my temper from rising over the top but it was already obvious... This wasn't going to end well.

"Is it fun...? To watch me cry and beg? To mess with an innocent person's life? To get your satisfaction from the pain you inflict on others?... Is it fun!? You treat me like a fool, like a possession you can control at your will! But how many times will you make me remind you that I'm a human too!?" She screamed, so loudly that her voice cracked.