Chapter 196: Chapter: 195 A lustful woman’ desire.[4]

"Milk?" Uriel repeated softly with slight confusion in his voice. "But don’t we already have milk here?"

As he spoke, he calmly reached his hand toward the table, trying to grab the glass beside him.

Unfortunately...Instead of touching the glass of milk, his hand somehow caught an entire roasted chicken leg instead.

The dining table became strangely quiet for a second.

Uriel looked down at the chicken in his hand peacefully. "...Ah."

Uriel gave an awkward smile before slightly raising the chicken leg.

"My apologies," he said calmly. "It seems I misunderstood."

He was just about to place it back down and ask someone to guide him toward the milk properly when suddenly...Ciel leaned closer again.

Far too close. Her soft chest lightly pressed against his shoulder beneath the table while her long red hair brushed against his robes gently.

The faint smell of perfume drifted through the air as she slowly leaned near his neck with a smile beautiful enough to ruin lives.

"No," she whispered softly. "Not ordinary milk..." Her warm breath lightly brushed against his skin.

"What I meant was..." She paused dramatically for absolutely no reason except to mentally destroy Cecilia.

"...woman’s milk."

Cecilia finally reached her limit. "ENOUGH!"

She stood up from her chair so suddenly that the utensils on the table shook slightly.

Everyone immediately turned toward her in confusion.

The elegant princess who had been smiling calmly this entire time now had a completely red face from suppressed anger.

The veins near her forehead twitched dangerously while she stared directly at Ciel like she was only one second away from committing attempted murder in front of the Saint himself.

Ciel blinked innocently. "What happened?"

That fake innocent face almost made Cecilia ascend directly to heaven from rage.

However, just as Cecilia looked ready to launch herself across the table, Uriel slowly reached out and held her hand gently.

Or at least...That was what he intended to do. Because unfortunately, his hand missed slightly. Instead, his palm landed much higher against her inner thigh.

Directly on a very sensitive spot. Cecilia’s entire body froze instantly. Her mind went completely blank.

The anger disappeared. The thoughts disappeared. Even her soul briefly disconnected from reality.

Meanwhile, Uriel remained completely unaware of the disaster he had just caused.

"Cecilia," he said softly with a calm smile, "please calm down. Don’t forget why we came here."

Cecilia stared at him silently. Her brain was no longer functioning properly.

Across the table, Ciel’s eye twitched violently. This dining hall was becoming more dangerous every minute.

"Is there something bothering you, Princess?" Duke Scarlet asked with genuine confusion while holding a spoon in one hand.

Beside him, the three wives copied his exact expression perfectly like synchronized mirrors.

Cecilia slowly sat back down. Her movements looked elegant on the outside.

Inside her head, however, several thousand thoughts were currently crashing into each other.

"My apologies," she said with a beautiful smile. "It seems there was a mosquito buzzing around the Saint."

Her eyes slowly shifted toward Ciel.

The meaning behind those words could not have been more obvious.

Ciel smiled sweetly in return. The atmosphere between them instantly became colder than winter.

Meanwhile, completely unaware of the silent war happening right beside him, Duke Scarlet simply laughed warmly.

"Haha! I see, I see. Well then, let us continue eating!"

Everyone returned to their meals afterward.

Well...Most of them. Uriel calmly continued eating peacefully without noticing anything strange.

The Duke happily enjoyed the expensive dishes.

The three wives occasionally glanced toward Uriel every few seconds like young girls seeing their first love.

The servants focused entirely on survival.

And Cecilia...Cecilia spent the rest of lunch enduring the greatest trial of her entire life.

Because Ciel simply refused to stop.

Every few minutes, the red-haired woman found another excuse to move closer toward Uriel somehow.

Sometimes she brushed against his arm. Sometimes she leaned near him while speaking. Sometimes she simply stared at his face openly without even pretending anymore.

At one point, Cecilia was genuinely considering whether murder could be legally justified under emotional suffering.

Still...She endured it somehow.... though barely...Because despite everything, she still remembered why they had come here in the first place.

After some time, lunch finally came to an end.

The servants soon brought desserts onto the table along with bowls of cold ice cream decorated with fruits and sweet syrup. The atmosphere became calmer afterward as everyone slowly relaxed into their seats.

Then Duke Scarlet suddenly spoke again while scooping a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.

"So," he began casually, "how is His Majesty doing these days? I heard he suddenly fell ill."

The moment those words appeared...The atmosphere shifted slightly.

Cecilia calmly placed her spoon down before answering. "His Majesty is doing fine."

Her voice remained smooth and composed, but internally she already understood what the Duke truly meant.

There was no way a man like Duke Scarlet would not know about the current situation inside the royal family.

In fact...He probably understood it better than most nobles in the empire.

That was exactly why he had arranged Ciel’s engagement with Crypian Thorne.

The Thorne family supported the First Prince, Sebastian Evander, in the battle for succession.

Once Sebastian eventually became Emperor, the Thorne family’s influence would rise tremendously even if they lived across another continent.

And by tying the Scarlet family directly to them through marriage, Duke Scarlet was playing an extremely profitable game.

If everything succeeded, his territory could expand even further in the future.

And for the Thorne family...They would gain a direct connection to the Holy Empire itself.

Who knew?

Perhaps someday, the child born from Ciel and Crypian might even gain enough status to stand near the throne itself.

The Duke looked relaxed while eating his dessert casually.

But beneath that warm smile sat a man carefully moving pieces across a giant political board.

Unfortunately for him...

His daughter currently looked far more interested in climbing onto the Saint instead of marrying Crypian Thorne.