The King's Lover-Chapter 476: Worse For Us

"You’re right, this changes nothing!" Rylen yelled back at his cousin.

Caius looked at his cousin with a dumbfounded expression as he tried to figure out what the hell Rylen was talking about and how he could dare to speak to him in that manner.

However, they both knew Caius couldn’t condemn him to death outrightly. Rylen was equally a high-ranking noble, a prince, and if his father had ascended the throne, he would be the future king.

A trial would have to be held, and perhaps Rylen might be punished for drugging him, but Caius had no proof of that. It didn’t help that a lot of lords had seen him drinking.

Rylen also hadn’t done anything wrong by taking him to Caira’s room. This was his wife’s chambers, and whether he disliked it or not, it wasn’t a crime. Despite him being about to take the throne, it would be hard to rule in his favor.

"What are you talking about, Rylen? You drugged me and took me to Caira’s chambers. Is one betrayal not enough? Have you lost your mind?"

Rylen shrugged and took a step back. He looked down at his feet and whispered, "Perhaps."

Caius felt his anger rise again. "Is that all you have to say? Did Father put you up to this because I told him the marriage was fake?"

Rylen jerked his head up. "Fake?" he mumbled softly, and his eyes widened.

It made sense. He hadn’t been able to wrap his head around Caius’s acceptance of the marriage and had known something was off from the start. He just couldn’t figure out what it was.

"Did you not know?" Caius didn’t understand what he was doing. Rylen had committed a grave offense against him, and this was not the time to have an amicable conversation. However, he needed to know.

"No, Your Grace." However, the marriage didn’t mean much to him, not when Caius didn’t do his duty, and neither did it make things any better for Rose as Caius was still insistent on keeping her even though she would end up no more than a mistress.

However, Rylen still blamed Caius and felt almost no remorse towards Caius, he only regretted the action. After all, it was his fault in the first place. If he had just stuck to his obligation.

"Why did you do it?" Caius asked darkly. "It won’t change anything. I won’t pick Princess Caira over Rose."

Rylen scoffed and ran his hand through his hair. He couldn’t stop thinking about it and had regretted every moment after he left Caius in her bedroom. The next morning, he couldn’t bring himself to find out and had kept busy welcoming the lords, with Caius out of reach.

He heard what happened. Caius hadn’t left her room until the next morning. He was seen shirtless and barefoot leaving her room. Caira remained in her room for the rest of the day. However, she showed up to breakfast today, and she looked better than she had when he dropped Caius off.

He couldn’t bear it and had wanted to know. He couldn’t speak to her during breakfast and decided to do so after, but she avoided him, and Mara told him she would rather not see him. It was for this reason that he was late to see Caius.

"Did you sleep with her?" he suddenly blurted.

It was a question he had asked himself multiple times during the day but he had phrased the question to Caira, and now he was blaming Caius.

Caius almost fell off his chair at his cousin’s question. He winced as he recalled the morning after, feeling utterly disgusted.

"What are you talking about? You’re the one who drugged me and put me in her bedchambers. You don’t get to ask me that!"

Rylen paced, and for the first time, Caius noticed his cousin was more distressed than him. At first, he thought it was fear as to what he had done or perhaps some guilt, but as he watched him more closely, Caius realized it was closer to anger.

Is he angry at me?

That didn’t make any sense. Caius was the one who should be furious. The one who had been betrayed by his own cousin. Yet, here Rylen was acting as though Caius was the one who had committed a grave crime.

"Why did you do it?" he asked again. "Did he put you up to it?"

Rylen stopped pacing and stood in front of the desk. "The princess is mine," he simply said.

Caius blinked, but he wasn’t surprised at Rylen’s declaration, just slightly disappointed. He couldn’t see a situation where he would do something of this manner to Rose, no matter what the situation was.

"Is she?" he asked. "This only makes things worse, and surprisingly for both of us."

Rylen gripped the edges of the table until his knuckles turned white and his fingers grew numb. He had expected more of an outburst from Caius and had braced himself for that. Rather, Caius was looking at him with pity.

Rylen knew Caius was stubborn. Even if he had to fight for as long as possible, Caira wasn’t going to get what she wanted. Her actions wouldn’t make him choose her, but he knew that wasn’t what Caira wanted.

Rather, she was covering up the damage, as she had called it, and that hurt. She didn’t want the alliance to crumble because of her. However, putting reasons behind her actions didn’t help. He couldn’t get her words out of his head, and everything made him angry.

"Why did you do it, then? If you want her, you could have had her! I would have let her go in the blink of an—"

Rylen swiped his hand over the table, sending all the documents crashing to the floor. "Do you think I don’t know that?!" he yelled over the sound of papers falling.

"You don’t want her! You’ve never wanted her! Do you think I can’t see that?!"

"Why did you do it?" Caius asked, it was his turn to raise his voice. "If she is yours, as you say, why would you betray me like that?! And this time around, making things worse for us!"