Chapter 64
Just as Alice turned away from the window, Kylus turned his head towards the mansion.
And he watched Alice’s retreating figure disappear from the window.
He had thought she would be watching.
Because, by his order, she hadn’t taken her eyes off Lady Quillian’s coffin until entering the mansion.
But it wasn’t a gaze of sympathy or pity.
It was a look of suspicion.
Alice seemed to be thinking the same thing as him.
That Lady Quillian and Edellm hadn’t committed suicide.
And they probably suspected the same person behind their deaths.
Lariella Pentium.
The benevolent mother of the Pentaum Empire, Her Majesty the Empress.
Kylus turned his gaze away from Alice’s bedroom as the lights went out.
He stared with cold eyes at the pitch-black remains of the two people.
When Lord Hasis brought the coffins of Lady Quillian and Edellm, Kylus pretended to focus on the coffins, but in reality, all his senses were sharply attuned to Lord Hasis.
He was certain there was something hidden between the Empress and Lord Hasis.
And as if to prove it, the moment he received the daggers and suicide notes, Lord Hasis had a twisted smile on his lips.
It was a very unpleasant smile, as if mocking those being deceived.
Though the clear sneer made him feel disgusted, it turned his suspicion into certainty.
Lady Quillian and Edellm had died at the hands of the Empress.
To begin with, those two weren’t the type to have the guts to commit suicide.
How could people too scared to even take poison slit their own throats?
Did she kill them because I said I would bring them back?
If there was a reason she couldn’t send them back to me alive… does Lady Quillian know something about the Empress?
Kylus swallowed hard at his misjudgment.
He had thought the Empress had taken the two to keep him in check.
Even if Lady Quillian wasn’t of Dearrut blood, Edellm was of the previous Duke’s bloodline.
While Lady Quillian might not be his match now, if Edellm survived to his coming-of-age ceremony, he would have been in line for the Dearrut succession.
Kylus had assumed the Empress was aiming for that.
If the Empress was particularly wary of the Dearrut duchy… it would be because he wasn’t supporting the Second Prince.
The matter of the Crown Prince appointment.
There was no other reason for him and the Empress to clash.
It seems the Empress has staked quite a lot on that one issue.
Judging by her silencing not only Lady Quillian but also Edellm, the Empress might have already set quite a few things in motion.
For the Second Prince’s sake, that is.
Trying to kill Alice too… She has a cruel nature, mercilessly killing those who know her secrets.
Cruelty.
Isn’t that a word that truly doesn’t suit the Empress, praised as the benevolent mother of the nation?
Kylus’s dark eyes glinted dangerously at the instinctive feeling that bringing down the Empress wouldn’t be easy.
“…It won’t be easy,” Tessiri said, as if infuriated.
“To die like this without a proper investigation or trial. We couldn’t even finish things with our own hands… it’s frustrating.”
Tessiri was glaring at the black ashes with his fists clenched tight.
How could Kylus not understand that feeling?
The person most angry at Lady Quillian’s sudden death was Kylus himself.
Considering all the atrocities Lady Quillian had committed, even gnawing on her bones wouldn’t be enough to quell his anger.
Yet before the revenge could even begin, it came to an absurd end.
Kylus was just as filled with rage as Tessiri, but now a greater enemy was waiting for him.
He couldn’t afford to dwell on what was already done; he now had someone to protect.
“Don’t waste emotions on what’s already happened. Davit, gather the ashes and scatter them at a garbage dump far from the duchy. Make sure they can’t come near this place even as dust.”
“Yes, Your Grace.”
As Davit went to call the servants, Tessiri turned to Kylus.
“More importantly… who on earth killed them? Surely not His Majesty the Emperor…”
“The Emperor doesn’t have the courage for such a thing.”
“…Then you do suspect Her Majesty the Empress.”
Tessiri knows that Kylus suspects the Empress.
After all, Kylus had ordered him to investigate the Empress’s background.
“Yes. How is the investigation on the Empress going?”
“So far… we haven’t found anything particularly suspicious.”
“Hmm, so there’s nothing directly connected to her…”
Kylus furrowed his brow.
She’s someone who has perfectly concealed her true nature until now… There might not be any forces directly related to her.
Perhaps there are separate people who carry out her orders and handle the aftermath.
“Tessiri, from tomorrow, investigate Lord Hasis instead of the Empress. Watch his every move, no matter how small, without missing anything.”
“…Yes.”
“Also, from tomorrow, assign Ruyd to guard the Duchess.”
Tessiri’s eyes widened slightly.
Lord Ruyd was the vice-captain of the Black Lion Knights.
His rank was too high to be assigned as a guard.
But only someone of that skill level would put Kylus’s mind at ease.
No, in truth, he wanted to stay by her side all day himself… but unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.
So for now, he had to be satisfied with Ruyd.
Tessiri hesitated for a moment but quickly bowed his head.
“I’ll inform Lord Davit right away.”
As a sharp aide, he understood that Kylus regarded the Duchess as special.
Kylus, thinking of Alice, looked at the black powder being poured into sacks.
You never dreamed that the Alice you brought would save me, did you?
If she had known, Lady Quillian would never have chosen Alice.
But in the end, Lady Quillian’s choice revived Kylus’s life.
Should I have told her this fact in advance?
If she had known, I could have seen her beating the ground with regret.
It would have been quite a satisfying sight.
No, perhaps now that she’s become a soul, she might know the truth.
If so, may she repeatedly regret as she sees her physical body reduced to a handful of ashes.
“Thank you sincerely for sending Alice to me, Mother.”
Kylus etched Lady Quillian’s pitiful end into his eyes as her remains were loaded onto the cargo carriage, wearing a chilling smile.
Hoping that her soul would fall into hell.
* * *
All traces of Lady Quillian and Edellm disappeared completely from the duchy overnight.
Despite the strong smell of burning that had permeated the air, when the sun rose, not a single black soot could be found in the courtyard in front of the main building.
But the commotion was just beginning.
Lady Quillian’s people who remained in the duchy.
The head maid and the Countess who had directly participated in Kylus’s poisoning, along with several servants, met their end in the underground prison.
Kylus didn’t show the mercy of keeping the remnants alive.
And even the servants indirectly chosen by Lady Quillian were all expelled from the duchy.
They didn’t dare show any resistance, claiming it was unfair or unjust.
Because they had seen with their own eyes the corpses coming out of the underground prison.
Thus, for a day, the duchy was silently busy.
People were evicted en masse, and new people came in.
With Lady Quillian’s death, the duchy underwent a major personnel change.
And Alice spent the day quietly in her room, watching the busy movements of people.
Pondering over the chance meeting between Lady Meltain and the Third Prince.
Fortunately, everyone was too busy adapting to the changes in the duchy to bother Alice much.
Ah, except for just one person.
The guard knight Kylus had assigned to her.
‘Ruyd Ostein.’
A knight with long, fiery red hair and yellow eyes that seemed to glow even at night.
He was also the vice-captain of the Black Lion Knights.
Although he didn’t have a major role in the original story, he appeared fairly often, so Alice recognized him at a glance.
Of course, she didn’t show it.
‘From today, I’ll be in charge of guarding the Duchess. I look forward to working with you.’
Although she was a bit surprised by the sudden assignment of a guard knight, Alice quite liked Ruyd.
Partly because he was handsome, but the main reason was that he was someone who had survived until the end in the original story.
The Monster Wave that had taken the lives of numerous supporting characters.
It was the final event in the book.
And most of the duchy’s knights and the Third Prince’s forces who had helped Lady Meltain there had died.
The Monster Wave that erupted at the western end was larger than expected, and the imperial family didn’t send reinforcements.
But in the end, the Third Prince and Lady Meltain, who had stopped the monsters there, returned to the capital hailed as heroes of the empire.
The nobles who had declared neutrality all supported the Third Prince, and when the Emperor tried to appoint the Third Prince as Crown Prince, the story ended with the Empress’s downfall as she recklessly tried to kill the Third Prince.
For now, she couldn’t be certain whether the events of the original story would happen sequentially or not, but the important thing was that Ruyd had survived.
One who survived through hardships and adversity.
Doesn’t it seem like he might have some good energy?
Like a lucky charm.
Especially since she was in a very precarious situation now, she welcomed someone with good energy.
‘I look forward to working with you too, Lord Ruyd.’
So she had sincerely welcomed him, but the problem was that this lucky charm was sticking to her more closely than she had expected.
