How To Tame An Empress (BOOK I)

Chapter 10- The Man Who Won

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I glared down at where the man stood, the crowd cheering for him after he had just killed someone. In a normal situation, I too would have applauded him but on this day, where I so clearly ordered for there to not be a single death, I was a ticking timebomb.

Linus stood beside me as I glared daggers into the crowd, my jaw constantly ticking with anger after Ria ran away to possibly throw up.

The dead man's body still lay there, blood pouring out of him like a fountain, his head still staring at all of us, the last moments of his life recorded in those eyes, even I could clearly see that from this far distance.

This is exactly what I wanted to keep Ria from seeing.

"Explain,"

I seethed, talking to none other than Linus, the man that was supposed to carry out my order to the competitors, telling them to withdraw from killing the opponent.

"What the hell went wrong? Did I not clearly tell you to inform those in charge and the competitors themselves to keep from killing the other? Tell me, and you better have one hell of an excuse to be able to think you can get away with ignoring your Emperor's command,"

"I-I do not understand what went wrong either, your majesty. I am definite that I clearly spoke your orders to the two men and they even agreed-"

"If you are definite then why the hell is there a man with no head over there!" I lost my patience, yelling with a booming voice as I pointed to the dead man, a man that was sure to be the cause of Ria's nightmares for the next few days.

Linus jumped, staring at the ground as he bit into his lip.

"Do not timidly look away like some sort of damsel and explain to me!" I furiously stormed over to him, grabbing him by his lapels as I raised a fist to punch him square in the face and hopefully knock a few teeth out in the process, possibly even see his head roll of his shoulders.

"I- I-"

"Stacius! What are you doing to him!?" I watched as Ria ran over to us, pushing me away from Linus, surprise on her face as she didn't understand what was going on.

"He disobeyed my orders so I'm punishing him. Simple,"

"What orders? And since when have you been the one to punish others. You have an entire Empire filled with soldiers for a reason," I huffed, running a hand through my hair but failed due to the wreath and instead went to sit back down on my chair.

"Someone, get rid of that bastard," I spat and a few soldiers that were standing near the back moved forward to grab him by his forearms, attempting to drag him away if not for Ria who jumped forward, protecting him. Only succeeding in furthering my boiling anger.

"Ria, leave him," I bit out.

"Stacius. I'm sure there is a valid explanation for this, Linus is not the kind of man that would deliberately disobey you. There must have been some sort of miscommunication and even if there wasn't then how important of an 'order' was it?"

I stood back up, walking around my chair to go to her and I stared down at her as she raised her head, tilting it back to keep her sharp gaze connected to mine. And slowly, I raised a hand, placing it on her cheek before moving to wrap it around her neck and pull her body to mine, she hugged me without another thought as I inhaled her calming scent.

"Instead of stuttering, will you tell me what happened?" I told Linus, feeling calmer now thanks to the mere presence of my wife. If he survives this debacle then he owes his life to her.