Chapter 214 – Hate Between Neighbors
Klaus and Love looked at each other, still not believing they were actually neighbours.
Love’s face was twisted in disgust, and he could already quite tell that the woman wished Emrys was here instead of him.
That realisation made him remember the Royal Event. The event he had been so eager to attend, not only to see Cassius, but also to meet Love, who was supposed to be his wife.
Klaus had spent quite a number of hours watching drama films and reading short love stories in order to be more prepared.
That was how he was.
When something interested him, he gave it his all. In the same way, he wouldn’t move an inch if something didn’t appeal to him.
Love had been interesting to him.
She was the youngest daughter of the Rune Tower, so her background was good enough for him.
She was a model too, with a certain physical appeal that made other men toss in their sleep thinking about her.
Now, that was something Klaus wanted his wife to be.
From a good background, beautiful, and perfect beside him.
However, all of these were external factors. And no matter how good they were, Klaus didn’t want to marry someone with no brain inside their skull.
But all of his thoughts had been useless.
Love de Bayard didn’t care about him. Her whole attention was on Emrys, and even now, she was devoting herself to him.
Now Klaus knew this matter didn’t deserve his full attention, but a wounded pride was hard to get past.
And a man whose pride was hurt was a dangerous animal.
Klaus took a deep breath, feeling the air throughout the hallway, and looked at Love coldly.
"You know what, little bitch, I’ve changed my mind." He hissed, moving to stand before her.
"Insecure bastard." Love retorted, her hands clenching. "I dare you to call me ’little bitch’ again. If you think you’re stronger than me because of your rank, you’re more pathetic than I thought."
"You bark a lot, yet you don’t bite. Stop making a fool of yourself and listen to me." He leaned his face slightly forward. "I’ve thought about it, and if the death of one of us is the ultimate outcome, then let’s make it more entertaining while we’re at it."
Love frowned her pink eyes, yet kept listening.
"You claim you love Emrys so much, and you even tried to prove it by making yourself a kind of martyr, sacrificing yourself to make him the third ranker." He smiled mockingly. "But I know damn well you don’t love him. What you love is what being with Emrys represents for a woman like you, who cares about nothing but follower counts and popularity on the Net. And your actions in the Test just proved it to me. You wanted the world to see you helping him and forfeiting. Love, you damn bitch — you’re trying to craft your image on the Net as a loving, loyal person ready to do anything for the man she loves. Which you fucking aren’t."
He cocked his head, his black eyes blacker than a starless night. "You love no one but your own lowly self, you self-centred bitch."
Love smiled thinly, yet her pink eyes grew colder and colder. "The surest way to recognise a fool is that he’s so bloody certain of his own words, even when they make no sense."
"No sense, huh?" Klaus laughed harshly.
"Yes." She scowled. "No fucking sense. You’re standing here finding every reason to justify why I didn’t choose you. Grow up, Klaus. You have far too much ego for someone who is nothing."
He frowned.
She smiled provocatively, her voice low like a deadly snake. "You’re not Cassius. He’s better than you in every possible way, yet he isn’t half as arrogant as you. Tell me what that means? I’ll tell you, Klaus: Cassius doesn’t feel the need to shout to everyone that he’s better."
Klaus’s body trembled, his jaw tight, veins slithering across it.
"Now look at Emrys," her smile widened ever so slightly, "he’s so much better than you that even comparing the two of you is an insult to him. Yet you don’t see him whispering that he’s the best every moment. I could go even further and talk about the Prince."
She shrugged. "He falls short of Cassius and Emrys, but he has the presence of someone who doesn’t need validation. And that alone makes him better than you... insecure little bastard."
She gathered her saliva and spat at him, looking at him with disdain.
Klaus looked at the spit on his clothes. His eyes went empty with silent anger.
Yet Love continued.
"With that, who are you to say anything about me? You can ask anyone in this whole Academy, or even the Kingdom: who is Klaus? Guess what the first thing they’d say would be?"
She lifted her bandaged finger. "Cassius’s childhood friend." She barked a laugh, loud and grating. "That’s what you are to them. The childhood of Cassius, the Palatine, the damn monster. And if we go deeper, the second thing they’d say is ’Heir of Handoff.’ The thing is, you’ll never hear any of them name a single quality of your own. Because you don’t—!"
Faster than she could see or react to in her wounded state, Klaus moved, grabbed Love by the throat, and with a burst of wind in his arm, slammed her back against the wall.
The breath was robbed from Love’s lungs, her eyes widening, dilating, a sharp pain shooting through her back.
She gritted her teeth in an attempt to bear the sudden pain, then glared at Klaus.
Her lips smiled mockingly at his face, which looked ready to kill her on the spot.
"I dare you." She breathed, smiling wider. "I dare you, Klaus. This is who you are, isn’t it? Instead of fighting the man who stole your woman, you attack the woman. Talk about being weak."
"I have no business with Emrys." He replied with a grunt. "You threw yourself at him. So my business is with you, bitch. But you know what, Love? Fuck all of this."
"What?"
"From now on, Love, I don’t care if you love Emrys, and I don’t give a fuck if you hate me. I have only one objective now." He smiled coldly, his hand moving to her jaw. "And it’s to make my name the first thing that comes to your mind every morning and every night."
Love looked at him, wide-eyed, then laughed mockingly. "Another way to prove to yourself that you’re special. You truly are pathetic."
"Then I’ll show you just how pathetic I am."
"If you think you can achieve what you just said, then you think far too highly of yourself." Love replied, then, "but if you want to play that badly, then by all means. However, remember, Klaus..."
Her voice shrank to a dreadful whisper.
"If you lose this useless attempt, you’ll become nothing but a man trying to matter to a woman who never spared him a single thought." She licked her lips. "And I will deeply enjoy seeing you in that wretched state."
Klaus looked at her for a while, then with crushing strength, forced her jaw open. Love winced in pain, mouth wide open, watching his cold eyes on her.
"We shall see. And don’t you ever fucking dare spit on me again."
Using wind, he snapped her jaw shut with crushing force, hard enough to make her teeth clatter and rattle.
The pain was far beyond what she had expected.
Her pupils shrank in agony, then flushed the red of anger, but Klaus was smiling, albeit without a single shred of humour.
"Let’s begin, bitch."
He released her jaw, snapping his hand away, and took a step back, watching her.
Love raised her head, looking at him with hatred so deep it was a wonder she didn’t lunge at him.
"Using my weakened state, Klaus. What a man you are!" Her voice dripped with disdain.
But Klaus said nothing more. He simply walked toward his room, unlocked it, and stepped inside wordlessly.
Nothing more was said, yet everything was confirmed.
Love twisted her lips, still feeling the pain in her teeth and jaw, aching and throbbing. She cursed under her breath and picked up the bag of food again.
Opening the door to her room, she stepped inside and saw Diaila Law, her now roommate, talking on her phone, saying something about her mother being crazy.
Sensing her presence, Diaila turned to look at her. Smiling, the innocent girl tried to speak with her, but Love spared her one disdainful glance and she froze like ice.
"Don’t you dare approach me or talk to me, lowly noble." Love spat, then walked toward her own bed, thinking about the recent confrontation with Klaus, and how she needed to enter the top ten soon in order to get her own room.
She sat on her bed, her body still aching, and moved her hand to her jaw, massaging it.
’I’ll kill that bastard.’
The pain refused to settle.
—End of Chapter 214—