32. Provocation

Only then did the count, who had been frozen in shock, finally snap out of his daze.

“You…you…you all…” He looked at Pi Min, then at the man dressed as a woman, his eyes filled with disbelief. “Who gave you permission to be at my ball, at my ball…”

The count, his face flushed and panting, was unable to utter the next sentence. He simply stared intently at the two people embracing each other with his bloodshot eyes wide open.

"How...how could you do this?"

The entire audience was stunned by the Earl's anger and held their breath, not daring to even breathe loudly.

But the eye of the storm remained unfazed, showing no remorse or guilt whatsoever, instead stating matter-of-factly, "Why not?"

If the count had any thread of anger within him, it would have snapped the moment he heard those words.

He laughed in exasperation, staring at the person who had publicly provoked him, looking him up and down for a long time before shaking his head with a wry smile: "You did it on purpose, didn't you? You deliberately tried to provoke my authority and test my patience. It's okay, it's okay, I don't mind, I'm not angry."

He closed his eyes, adjusted his breathing for a moment, and when he opened them again, his expression had returned to its previous gentle and refined state.

He even reached out to one of the men dressed as women again, making a gesture of inviting him to dance, and said in a friendly tone, "If you're willing, you can still be my countess."

It's clear that he really likes someone dressed as a woman.

It was so funny that Pi Min could only cover her mouth tightly, but the trembling of her body still betrayed her true feelings at that moment.

Guessing that she was trying hard to suppress her laughter, the person's expression became increasingly impatient, and the look in their eyes towards the count even turned into a hint of murderous intent.

He curled his lips into a smirk and coldly questioned the man before him: "Is becoming your countess some kind of honor? Does being chosen mean you have to accept it? Didn't you ask me if I was willing? Well, I can give you the answer now: I, am, not, willing! I hate arrogant, self-righteous people the most!"

After a barrage of rejections, he looked down at the girl in his arms, his eyes unconsciously softening.

"Love should be a two-way street, not a gift from one to the other! Poor thing, you'll never experience the beauty of true love."

After he finished speaking, he reached out again to lift Pi Min's head and, under her incredulous gaze, kissed her hard.

The gasps of surprise from the guests filled her ears, and a soft touch came over her lips. Pi Min froze on the spot as if struck by lightning, her scalp tingling and her heart pounding wildly.

One kiss was bad enough, but he actually dared to kiss me a second time in public?!

Does this guy in front of me even know what he's doing?

Not only did she openly reject him at the count's ball for choosing a bride, but she also openly kissed someone else, effectively giving that person a cuckold's horns.

This is practically defying the laws of nature, like dancing on the grave of an old ghost—it's suicidal!

Sure enough, even with his good temper, the count still exploded upon witnessing this scene.

"Enough! Do you really think I'm dead if I don't show my power?"

It could even be a physical explosion.

As the count roared, he swelled up like an inflated balloon, until he reached a height of three or four meters before stopping his expansion.

If the banquet hall hadn't had a high enough ceiling, his arrogance would have definitely led to a tragedy.

Even so, many tables and chairs were overturned and many decorations were knocked over, turning the originally orderly banquet hall into chaos in an instant.

"This script is really something else! I thought it was a vampire story, but the boss doesn't drink blood, he turns into the Hulk. Oh, no, not the Hulk, but the Red Giant. Tsk tsk, how could you make someone so angry!"

The plot development was so outrageous that Pi Min's face was numb from laughing so hard.

It wasn't until the Count's inflated hand swung down hard that she finally regained some awareness that she was fighting a monster.

Pulled aside by someone, Pimin rolled and narrowly avoided the attack, finally understanding the suffering of those elegantly dressed noblewomen in the Middle Ages.

The corset made it hard to breathe, and the enormous crinoline restricted her movements. If the man hadn't reacted quickly and pulled her back, she would definitely have been struck by the count's slap.

However, while the two instigators escaped unscathed, the group of players who had been excitedly watching from behind suffered greatly. Unable to dodge in time, they were instantly swept aside by the Earl's giant hand.

Fortunately, the huge crinoline, while making movement inconvenient, also served as a cushion, so although the players fell one by one, looking dizzy and disheveled, no one was injured or killed.

After figuring out the situation, everyone spontaneously began tearing off their clothes and jewelry. In an instant, headbands, sleeves, skirt aprons, petticoats, and even the skirts themselves were thrown all over the floor. The players tacitly kept only their petticoats and underpants. With their antics, the originally elegant ballroom instantly resembled a pajama party.

"Who gave you permission to take off your clothes like that? No, you're ruining my ball!" Seeing this, the count, who was already furious, became even more enraged, trembling with rage, and the entire castle began to shake with his movements.

Just as the players were looking at each other, debating whether to put their clothes back on, one person, then two, then three, then four people suddenly walked into the banquet hall…

The ladies of the past, dressed in their finest attire, suddenly lifted their skirts and gracefully entered the hall.

As expected of the victors of previous dungeons, the players were terrified and wished they could stay far away from the Earl. However, they did not hesitate to step forward and surround the Earl, who was clearly not in his normal form, and started talking all at once.

"I'm done!"

"I've had enough of this monotonous life!"

"I'm fed up with the endless parties!"

"Who do you truly love? Choose one of us!"

"Keep your true love, and set the others free!"

...

Surrounded by the elegantly dressed countesses, the count, who was in a fit of rage, deflated like a punctured balloon and quickly returned to his normal size.

He couldn't understand why the ladies, who had always lived in harmony, would suddenly launch an attack, especially when he was at his most vulnerable.

He could only soften his voice and soothe them one by one.

"I love you, of course I love you."

"Oh, then I'll go."

"Of course, I love you too."

"You love her, you love her, but you don't love me, then I'm leaving too!"

"No, no, no, that's not what I meant!"

"Nana, my darling, don't leave me!"

"Lina, my baby, don't go!"

...

Sure enough, being a fishpond owner isn't easy. He couldn't appease one person, and he kept pleasing one only to provoke another. In a short time, he was sweating profusely and in a panic.

You must make a choice today, and you can only choose one!

"No! I can't do it, I love them all, I love them all!" The count clutched his head in anguish, looking somewhat like a pathetic man caught in a conflict between his mother and daughter-in-law.

Despite being of different species, he seemed to genuinely love everyone.

He was seen fumbling with the lady's leg one moment and tugging at her sleeve the next, moving with extreme caution, as if walking on thin ice. He was a completely different person from the one who had been furious just moments before, as if he wanted to smash the whole hall to pieces.

As the count spun around like a top among the ladies, being whipped around by their angry wives, the players, who were originally facing a test, became mere spectators, standing aside and occasionally letting out gasps of surprise in response to the ladies' reactions.

First, he was publicly humiliated by a pair of "lesbians," and then he was forced to choose one of them by the ladies. The Earl is really having a lot of bad luck today.

Everyone, without prior agreement, shed a tear for the Earl.

Only one man dressed as a woman looked at him with disdain and mockery: "Choosing a bride from each participating civilization—he doesn't want a bride, he just wants spoils of war."

"It's more like pets than lovers. Owners of multiple pets always claim that they love every single one of their little darlings. They love them all and can't bear to part with any of them. In reality, what they love is nothing more than an omnipotent narcissism that allows them to arbitrarily control the fate of all their pets."

As the man finished speaking, a sly smile appeared on his lips.

"I want to see how he plans to end this situation."