Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads-Chapter 136 --

Seraphina looked genuinely shocked now, clearly not expecting this level of confrontation.

And then, of course, someone had to intervene.

"But this is not ’your’ empire."

Kieran’s voice cut through the tension. He stepped forward from where he’d been standing with the other consorts, his military bearing making the movement commanding.

"This is ’our’ empire," Kieran continued, looking at Larus with barely concealed hostility.

Larus turned to look at Kieran, and his expression shifted to something almost playful.

"I know, dear ’brother’," he said sweetly.

Kieran actually stumbled slightly. "’Brother?’"

Larus covered his mouth with one hand, turning to look down at Heena with wide, innocent eyes. "Your Majesty, did I say something wrong?"

Heena was controlling her laughter with every ounce of discipline she possessed.

Because come on—who ’didn’t’ like a man who would fight for them like this? Even though Heena wasn’t some weak damsel who needed protecting, this was still entertaining as hell.

"No," Heena said, her voice perfectly controlled despite the amusement dancing in her eyes. "You said nothing wrong."

She turned to look at Kieran with raised eyebrows.

"If we don’t call you ’brother,’ should we call you ’father’?" she asked innocently. "What would be more appropriate?"

Kieran looked at Heena, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. "Your Majesty, I am an only son. I don’t have a brother."

"Oh," Heena said, as if just realizing something. "But I don’t have only one husband. So they can’t just call each other ’Lord’ all the time. That would be terribly confusing and formal for family, don’t you think?"

She turned, looked at Larus with a warm smile, then back at Kieran.

"If we go by proper titles, you should be addressing him—" she gestured to Larus, "—as ’Your Majesty’ at all times too. Not ’Prince Larus.’ He will be Emperor Consort. The title demands respect."

The crowd murmured at that.

Kieran’s face had gone white, then red.

"However," Heena continued pleasantly, "that seems unnecessarily formal for people who are, technically, family through marriage. So ’brother’ seems like a reasonable compromise, doesn’t it?"

She smiled at both of them.

"Unless you’d prefer to use full titles constantly? I’m happy to require that if informality bothers you, Consort Kieran."

Kieran stood there, clearly struggling with multiple levels of rage and humiliation.

Larus, meanwhile, looked absolutely delighted.

"I’m perfectly happy to call him ’brother,’" Larus said cheerfully. "Though if he prefers ’Your Grace’ or ’Commander’ or some other formal address, I’m flexible."

"How generous of you," Kieran said through gritted teeth.

"I thought so," Larus agreed, completely missing—or deliberately ignoring—the sarcasm.

Seraphina, clearly realizing she’d lost control of the situation, tried to interject:

"Your Majesty, I truly meant no disrespect—"

"Then you should leave," Heena said, her pleasant tone never wavering. "Since you’ve offered your congratulations and clearly didn’t mean any disrespect, your purpose here is complete. The guards will escort you out."

"But I was invited—" Seraphina started.

"By whom?" Heena asked sharply.

Silence.

Seraphina’s mouth opened, then closed.

"The invitation list was personally approved by me," Heena continued. "Your name was not on it. Your family’s name was not on it. So I ask again—who invited you to my engagement reception?"

Seraphina looked genuinely panicked now, her protagonist confidence cracking.

"I... I thought... as a member of the nobility, even though my family’s rank has been reduced, I still have the right to attend imperial functions—"

"You have the right to attend functions where you are invited," Heena corrected coldly. "This was an ’invitation-only’ event. You were not invited. Therefore, you are trespassing."

She gestured to the guards stationed around the ballroom.

"Remove her. Escort her from the palace. And find out how she got past security in the first place. Someone clearly failed their duty tonight."

Two guards moved forward immediately.

Seraphina looked around desperately, clearly expecting someone to defend her, to speak up, to activate that protagonist halo that usually made everyone protect her.

But Larus had already poisoned that well. By pointing out her rudeness, her disrespect, her improper behavior—he’d made it socially dangerous to defend her.

Any noble who spoke up now would look like they supported disrespecting the Empress.

The guards reached Seraphina.

"My lady," one of them said formally, "please come with us."

"This is outrageous!" Seraphina said, her voice rising. "I came here to offer congratulations, and I’m being treated like a criminal!"

"You came here uninvited and disrespected the Empress," Larus said calmly. "In most kingdoms, that ’is’ criminal behavior."

The guards took Seraphina’s arms—gently but firmly.

As they began to escort her out, she looked back at Heena with an expression of betrayed innocence that would have melted hearts in any other situation.

"Your Majesty, please—I only wanted to see you happy—"

"Then you can see it from outside the palace," Heena said pleasantly. "Goodbye, Lady Seraphina."

The guards removed her from the ballroom.

The moment she was gone, the tension broke like a released bowstring.

Conversations resumed, though now everyone was talking about what had just happened.

Heena turned to Larus, genuinely impressed.

"That was well handled," she said quietly.

# The Unexpected Confession

---

Larus looked at Heena seriously and said, "That is mine."

Heena blinked, confused. "What?"

"No one should look at my wife like that," Larus said firmly.

"Like what?" Heena asked, genuinely puzzled.

Larus paused, his expression becoming almost possessive. "Like that lady just now—Seraphina—was looking at you. Full of... longing. Admiration. Love."

He stepped closer, his voice dropping lower.

"You are ’mine’. I can fight with the five consorts for you—that’s expected, that’s politics. But that doesn’t mean just ’anyone’ can come and fall in love with my wife."

Heena was completely dumbfounded.

Even System 427 wanted to say something, but the words just wouldn’t come out. He floated there with his mouth hanging open, processing what he’d just heard.

Did Larus just... claim ownership? Express jealousy? Over ’Seraphina’ of all people?

The protagonist who had been trying to catch the male leads’ attention?

This world was broken. Completely broken.

---

The engagement ceremony concluded successfully, and according to the original plan, the wedding was supposed to happen the very next day.

’Was’ supposed to.

But thanks to Heena’s aunt, who made such a tremendously long fuss that it echoed through three palace wings, Heena had to postpone the wedding for five days.

"How ’dare’ you make this marriage small!" the Duchess had shouted, her fan snapping open and closed with sharp ’cracks’ that punctuated her words. "This is the Empress’s ’primary consort’ entering the palace! The wedding needs to be a ’grand’ wedding! The ceremony of the century! Every noble family should be sending gifts! Every kingdom should be sending representatives! The preparations need to be ’perfect’!"

And on and on and on.

So after enough arguments to wear down ten people’s patience, the wedding was pushed back five days. And honestly, Heena considered that a victory—if not for her intervention, the aunt had been about to postpone it for a whole ’year’ to "properly prepare."

Five days was a compromise.

A hard-won, exhausting compromise.

---

The next afternoon, Heena was sitting in her office, working through a stack of documents that never seemed to get smaller.

A knock sounded at the door.