Too Lazy to be a Villainess - Chapter 300

Chapter 300: The Tyrant’s Pride
[Emperor Cassius’s POV—Everheart Estate, Grand Hall—Continuation]

The hall was still trembling when she walked out.

The scent of fear lingered heavier than the perfume—nobles frozen in their silks, breaths caught, as if one wrong movement might summon her wrath back through the doors. My daughter’s wrath.

I stood there, unmoving. The Emperor of the Elorian Empire—yet for the first time in a long while, it wasn’t my voice that held the hall hostage.

It was hers.

The echoes of Lavinia’s command still clung to the marble, sharp and alive. Disown your daughter before midnight. I almost smiled.Almost.

Around me, courtiers exchanged frantic whispers, some pretending to look away, others trying to guess whether I was furious… or amused.

They didn’t know me well enough.They never did.

My gaze followed her retreating figure until the doors shut behind her. Then I exhaled—slowly, deliberately—hands clasped behind my back.

Cassius Devereux did not often feel pride. Pride was a foolish, dangerous thing for a ruler.But tonight… I allowed myself a taste. Because my daughter hadn’t just silenced Count Talvan.

She’d silenced everyone.

A smirk tugged at my mouth as I heard the whispers growing again, cautious, trembling.

“I can’t belive her highness…order to Disown Lady Eleania…””She humiliated Count Talvan publicly—””Did you see His Majesty’s face? He must be furious!”

Furious? No.They wouldn’t understand.

I turned slightly, my eyes sweeping the room—each noble pretending composure, each terrified of meeting my gaze. Even Regis Everheart looked pale beneath his confident smile, pretending this hadn’t just become my daughter’s stage instead of his son’s coronation.

Pathetic.

Count Talvan still knelt, trembling faintly, his face ashen. The man who’d dared to speak against the Crown Princess—against my blood.

And yet… she hadn’t needed me to lift a finger. She’d crushed him on her own.

A deep, satisfied hum stirred in my chest.

“You seem very happy, Your Majesty,” came Ravick’s voice from behind me—steady, familiar, laced with that quiet amusement only he could afford in my presence.

I didn’t turn. I just smirked, eyes sweeping over the stunned nobles below.

“Of course, I’m happy, Ravick. Look at them.” I gestured lazily toward the crowd. “See how they tremble? Shocked, terrified, wondering if they should clap or crawl.”

Ravick chuckled softly. “She is your daughter, Your Majesty. Fear was never meant to knock at her door.” Then, after a pause, “But… forgive me, I feel there’s another reason for that smile.”

I leaned back in my chair, resting my chin on one hand, my voice dropping to a murmur.”You know me too well, Ravick.”

He smiled faintly. “I’ve served you all my life, Your Majesty. I’ve learned to read your silences better than your words.”

A low laugh escaped me—quiet, sharp. “Yes, I suppose you have. And you’re right.”

My gaze flicked toward the dais, where Osric Everheart still stood frozen in place—his jaw tight, his composure cracking.

“Yes, Ravick,” I said, voice rich with satisfaction. “I’m happy because my clever daughter just stopped an engagement announcement… without even realizing it.”

Ravick’s brows lifted slightly. “But, Your Majesty, Her Highness loves Lord Osric. One day she’ll surely marry him—and I doubt even you can stop that.”

“Hmm.” A smile curved at my lips—slow, deliberate. “No, Ravick. I have a feeling she won’t.”

He tilted his head. “A feeling, Your Majesty?”

“Yes,” I said quietly, eyes narrowing in Osric’s direction. “Because my daughter doesn’t belong beside someone who bends to the will of others. She was born to stand above them.”

Ravick studied me for a long moment, then said softly, “You must be proud, then.”

My gaze lingered on the door where Lavinia had disappeared. For a heartbeat, the sharp edge of my expression softened. “Proud?” I repeated. “No word in the Empire feels enough for what I feel when she raises her head like that.”

He smiled faintly but then added with a sigh, “Still, I pity myself, Your Majesty. I thought I’d finally rest after decades with a sword—but you didn’t bring that new law when I was captain.”

I let out a low laugh. “Because you didn’t need it, Ravick. People already feared you.”

Then, with a glint of something colder, I added, “But I want you to make Haldor the same. He is Disciplined, yes, and loyal, yes… but he is not merciless.”

He blinked. “Merciless, Your Majesty?”

I turned my gaze on him fully for the first time that night, the amber light from the chandeliers reflecting in my eyes.

“A tyrant,” I said quietly, “always needs a tyrant captain. Teach him that compassion is only for the Emperor’s blood, and never for those who test it.”

Ravick exhaled through his nose, half weary, half amused. “So, I’m not getting my rest after all.”

“Not until Lavinia takes the throne,” I said with a smirk.

He chuckled. “Then I suppose I’ll die in service.”

Before I could reply, a hoarse, trembling voice broke through the heavy air. “Y-Your Majesty…”

Count Talvan.

The man still had the audacity to raise his head.

He took a hesitant step forward, voice shaking. “Your Majesty, please—you must convince Her Highness to reconsider. This decree—it’s reckless! She cannot simply rewrite hierarchy, or order—”

I looked down at him slowly. And just like that, the warmth I’d held a moment ago vanished.

“I wasn’t aware,” I said softly, dangerously, “that you’d been granted permission to instruct my daughter.”

He froze, paling.

“Or,” I continued, rising from my throne, my voice low but cutting through the air like thunder through silk, “that you’d somehow earned the right to teach me what my bloodline can and cannot command.”

The man crumbled instantly, dropping to his knees. His words stumbled over one another.”N-No… Your Majesty, I didn’t mean—I only—”

I descended the marble steps slowly, each footfall deliberate, echoing like the march of judgment.

“Count Talvan,” I said quietly, almost kindly—and that softness was far worse than a shout. “Do you even understand what you’ve just implied?”

He shook his head, trembling. “I…apologize, your majesty—”

“My daughter,” I stopped him with a glance, “is the Crown Princess of this Empire. In five years, she will take my throne—and when that day comes, her word will not need my approval. It will be the law itself.”

The nobles held their breath. The chandeliers quivered. Even the torches along the walls seemed to burn quieter.

“So learn, Talvan,” I murmured, taking another step closer, “and teach your heirs well… what it means to bow before the law made flesh.”

He dared to glance up, confusion flickering in his eyes. “Your Majesty—”

I cut him off with a glance sharp enough to silence entire armies. “Her words are law, Count Talvan. And if she declares that after the Crown Princess, the highest position shall belong to the Captain of the Imperial Knights…” I let the sentence hang, heavy as an executioner’s blade: “Then so it shall be.”

Gasps rippled through the nobles. No one moved. No one even blinked.

Then came the whispers—soft, frantic, poisonous.

“What! That means… now we have to bow before the Imperial Captain?””I heard he was a commoner.””Impossible—Her Highness can’t mean that—””Silence,” someone hissed. “Do you want the Emperor to hear?”

Their murmurs died at once, fear choking their tongues.

“From this day forth,” I continued, my tone cold and absolute, “her decree stands. The Captain of the Imperial Knights will outrank every noble house in this Empire. Every duke, count, and lord will bow first to the Crown Princess—and then to him.”

I turned my gaze to the trembling girl on the floor.Eleania Talvan.

Her jeweled hair was a tangled mess now, her painted lips pale. She couldn’t even lift her head.

“And as for you…” I said softly. The hall went utterly still. “You have until midnight to see that her decree is fulfilled.”

Count Talvan stiffened, his head still bowed.

“By midnight,” I repeated, my voice cutting through the silence, “your family will carry out the disownment she ordered. Fail to do so…” I leaned in slightly, my tone a whisper of thunder. “…and you will find your estate stripped from the Imperial registry before the sun rises. Along with your name.”

The Count’s shoulders shook. “Y-Yes, Your Majesty.”

Satisfied, I straightened, my cloak trailing like a shadow behind me. I turned to Ravick, who was watching silently from the foot of the dais.

“Ravick,” I commanded, “see to it that Count Talvan obeys before midnight. If he hesitates, remind him what hesitation costs in this Empire.”

Ravick bowed, his voice steady. “As you command, Your Majesty.”

I cast one last look across the hall—the nobles frozen like statues, the air thick with fear and awe. And I couldn’t help the faint, razor-edged smile that curved my lips.

My daughter had ruled this room before I ever spoke a word. I only sealed the crown she’d already claimed with her voice.

With that thought, I turned and strode away—my footsteps echoing in the silence, pride gleaming cold and bright in my eyes.