Francis' eyes dilated at the sight of the woman next to Matthew and even his face instantly turned pale. Then, he furiously shifted
his gaze toward Jason. Jason was the one he asked to keep a close eye on Harper, yet she had been found and taken away by
Matthew.
Seeing the look on Francis' face, Jason felt a bit guilty. He was meaning to tell Francis the truth that Harper had regained her
memory as well as her special fighting ability. Even the secret guards in the Sleek Palace failed to stop her from running away.
After all, Matthew was with her the entire time, which made them unmatchable. But he couldn't let Francis find out the truth. If
Francis were to find out that he hid this from him, it would only make him even more furious.
"My empress, don't you think that you're in the wrong place?" Francis asked in a resolute tone as he stared at Harper, not
bothering to look at Matthew at all.
However, Harper merely yawned and pretended to be sleepy. Then, she said to Matthew, "Darling, please save me. I have been
trapped in the Imperial Palace for days, and I couldn't really eat or sleep well. What's more, I felt so sad and lonely. Especially
these officials are really annoying! On one hand, they cursed me and claimed that I was a woman of easy virtue. But on the other
hand, they forced me to marry Francis. I have really been wronged."
When they heard her words, all the ministers broke out in a cold sweat. They all groaned in their hearts, 'Lady Harper, you can't
accuse us of anything. We have never really forced you to marry Prince Francis. It was you who wrote a divorce agreement to
Prince Matthew so you could marry Prince Francis. We had nothing to do with that. You did this in order to get a higher status
and become the future empress. So, why are you suddenly blaming us for everything?'
Although they were actually quite furious deep inside, none of them had the guts to speak out. If they dared to say anything that
would contradict her, they were afraid that she might say even more absurd things to Matthew. Matthew loved and trusted her a
lot, so he would certainly blame them instead. She was such a cunning and spiteful woman!
"Yes, you are right. They all deserve to be punished," Matthew said soothingly.
"And it's not just these officials, but your nephew as well!" Harper protested as she pointed toward Francis, pulling a long face.
"This guy copied my handwriting and wrote a divorce agreement to you. And he even made it known to everyone, which made
me look like a wicked woman who was accused of abandoning her original husband all for the sake of wealth and fame. You
really need to teach him a lesson!"
"Yeah, I need to teach him a lesson," Matthew echoed.
There was a blank look on Francis' face, and his smile had long disappeared. He had actually guessed that Matthew would
return, but he hadn't anticipated that Lucas would still be alive. Even before, Francis had suspected that his father wanted Lucas
to be the heir, so he sent his men all the way to kill him. However, he never would've thought that Lucas managed to escape by
faking his death. Needless to say, Matthew was the one who came up with this idea. After all, he did not believe that Lucas was
smart nor capable enough to pull it off all by himself.
"It's good to know that you're all right, Uncle Matthew. But you've already divorced her. She is going to be my wife and empress
soon. Don't you think what you're doing is inappropriate?" Francis felt extremely offended and upset upon seeing Matthew
holding Harper in his arms.
After that, Matthew put down Harper and made her stand firm. "Wait right here. I'm going to teach that arrogant guy a lesson
first," he said with such tenderness in his eyes.
"Okay! Slap him in the face for me," Harper said, encouraging him.
"Okay." As soon as he said that, he flew down in an instant and went straight toward Francis in an aggressive manner. Seeing
this, Jason immediately stood in front of Francis to fight with Matthew head-on. However, with just one swift move, he was
thrown out by Matthew with ease and flew directly toward the palace wall. As she watched from a distance, Harper thought that it
must be extremely painful to suffer such an attack coming from Matthew.
Francis couldn't risk being careless when faced with Matthew's attacks. As soon as Jason was thrown out, Francis launched an
attack at one of Matthew's vital parts. But Matthew swiftly turned over and dodged the attack. In the blink of an eye, his killing
intent came spilling out his body. The people around him were so frightened that they froze on the spot. Everyone knew that
Matthew was extremely powerful on the battlefield. As long as he was standing on the battlefield, it would be impossible for his
enemy to escape his attacks. Before, they had assumed that this was just an exaggeration. But at that moment, they had the
chance to witness everything firsthand and it turned out to be true. The malicious aura emanating from him sent shivers down
their spines as they watched this fierce fight. They desperately wanted to get as far away from them as possible, but they were
so frightened that they couldn't do a thing because fear had rendered them completely immobile.
Although Zack was good at martial arts to some degree, he didn't really have exceptional skills. He could only fight with ordinary
people. So, when he was faced with such an overwhelming atmosphere, his face turned pale a bit. Then, he took a step
backward calmly and moved away little by little. Truth be told, he was actually thinking of talking to Matthew about what
happened today.
Maxwell also did the same thing as Zack had done; he was able to slowly back off from the fighting. But the same thing couldn't
be said for the other officials, as they were quite pitiful. They could barely even move a muscle. Some of them were so scared
out of their wits that they fell on their knees on the ground and couldn't stand up.
Noticing this, Lucas finally walked toward the officials and moved quickly. He helped the ministers up one by one to lead them to
safety. He didn't want them to become the collateral damage. After all, this country still needed them.
The ministers who harbored resentment toward Lucas could not feel more grateful to him at this point. If Lucas hadn't helped
them, they could have been badly hurt, or worse, killed.
With all of the ministers taken out of the dangerous area, Matthew no longer had to hold back. To everyone's surprise, Francis,
who had always been weak, appeared to be so skilled in fighting that he could hold out against Matthew for such a long time.
Could it be that he wasn't actually sick all these years?
Jason directly hit the palace wall and fell to the ground, causing him even more pain. At that moment, he could tell that all of his
bones had been broken. It felt so bad that he stared at Matthew with such resentment. 'Uncle Matthew, you are such ruthless. In
spite of everything, I am still your nephew. Even though I am just two years younger than you, I am still your nephew. How could
you have the heart to beat me up so badly? What if I got killed?'