Karl was just as shaken to the core by this astonishing coincidence, but what surged up immediately afterward was a bone-deep chill and lingering fear.
He had almost... almost committed a grave mistake, driven by desire!
If... if he had not stopped just now...
If the princess had not bitten him just now...
If things had truly developed to a point beyond all remedy...
Then he, Karl von Schmidt, would have left an indelible mark on the woman who was both the nominal fiancée of his beloved's brother and the sweetheart of the brother of the woman who was his nominal fiancée.
He would not merely have betrayed Charlotte emotionally; he would have trampled, at the very edge of human relations, the most inviolable bottom line!
A Political Marriage was one thing, but sleeping with the future sister-in-law of the fiancé of the younger sister of the brother of his nominal wife...
He would completely lose Charlotte, lose any goodwill from the Rochefort Family, and might even provoke unforeseeable hatred and revenge! A Political Marriage was one thing, but sleeping with the future sister-in-law of the fiancé of the younger sister of the brother of his nominal wife...
This was simply a tangled mess enough to ruin his reputation and drag Carnford into a bottomless abyss from which there would be no return!
This could no longer be described as simple "cheating" or "betrayal." This was an ethical catastrophe capable of destroying every relationship, making Earl Rochefort's family break with him completely, making him lose Charlotte forever, and making the princess lose Henry as well!
He could not even imagine what kind of eyes Charlotte would look at him with if she found out; nor how furious Earl Rochefort, that elder he respected and relied upon, would become.
A chill