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Chapter 81
“…Why are you so sure?”
“Shut your mouth, Louise. Do you even know anything about her?”
“Okay. I don’t know about her. Still, I believe what I have seen and heard. I don’t know what the woman was previously to you, but now, you’re not in Minase Persen’s eyes. You know, too. On that day, you said that the woman threw you away and went to the Duke of Persen’s arms!”
“….”
“So, Rupert. Let go of your lingering feelings and act according to the plan…”
“…No. I can’t. Minase abandoned me and loved someone else? No. Clearly, there must be something.”
 
“….”
Rupert’s red eyes, denying Grand Duchess Blaine’s words, were glistening with emotions that were unknown whether it was obsession or love.
Mumbling that it could not be as if he was brainwashing himself, he suddenly realized something and placed his chin on one of his hands before falling into his thoughts. Even though he did not know why, he was confident that the current Minase was strange. Another thing for certain was that he needed to find out about her ‘unusual’ appearance, which he had previously overlooked.
As Grand Duchess Blaine said, whether she changed her mind or any other circumstance had arisen, it was impossible to just ignore it.
Rupert, who was contemplating who and how to find out through whom in this part, quietly asked the attendant standing by him.
“Where is Judith now?”
“They’ll come here after completing the work that the Lord has ordered.”
<small>[ T/N: Since Korean has a general absence of gender-specific pronouns, grammar, etc. It wasn’t specifically referred to Judith’s gender in this chapter, so I’ll use ‘they’ until it’s actually mentioned! ]</small>
“Didn’t they say when?”
“They said it would take fifteen minutes to get here, so Judith will probably come soon.”
“I see.”
Rupert nodded her head in response to the servant’s answer, then pulled out a pocket watch from his pocket and checked the time.
It was then.
He heard someone knocking. To that sound, a maid standing in front of the door said as if answering.
“Who are you?”
“It’s Judith.”
“Come in. The Viscount Guinivis was waiting for you.”
Rupert blinked as if waiting for an answer from outside the door, and the maid opened the door.
The person who entered the room was relatively small for a man but large for a woman. The person, who identified as Judith, paid their respects by bending their knees in front of Rupert, wearing robes deep enough to hide their face.
Rupert asked, raising him up with a single gesture.
“Well. What happened to what I ordered?”
“Before that, I have something to tell the Viscount.”
“What is it?”
“Now, the Duke of Persen has informed the Marquis of Loengram that he’ll be returning to his estate.”
At Judith’s report, Rupert looked startled and asked in an urgent voice.
“…What? The reason is?”
“It’s said that the Duchess of Persen’s health is in critical condition. He feels sorry for Grand Duchess Blaine and the Marquis of Loengram, though they say that it’s impossible to continue to enjoy a banquet with a sick person.”
“…Ridiculous. That’s an excuse. The medicine I gave her would have done the detoxification of the mulberry, which caused the poisoning in her body, but she suddenly became critical? It’s impossible…”
“….”
“So, are they going back now?”
“Yes. Judging by the movements of the Persen knights, it seems that they’ll leave in a few hours at the latest.”
Rupert snorted as if he was frustrated by Judith’s subsequent report.
Seth’s actions were quick, as if he had been waiting for this to happen. Well, he was well aware that the lowly man was not interested in banquets or the play of the nobles, but that did not mean he did not commit the rudeness of returning without meeting the schedule of the banquets even Grand Duchess Blaine attended.
Besides, now that it was now divided into the Empress faction and the confederate faction, there was no way that he, who had risen to the throne with one cunning political force, would miss a good opportunity to gather information like this and go back.
Still, he was trying to go back, using the seriousness of his wife, whom he does not even love, as an excuse to go back…?
‘What’s the reason he’s pulling his tail away and running away so quickly?’
There must have been a reason. Rupert muttered in a low, subdued voice.
“…There’s something I’m not aware of that he’s hiding. Is there any reason that he doesn’t want to be caught? Otherwise, there’s no explanation.”
“Well, is that so? Indeed, it could be that the Duke of Persen did it out of sheer concern for her wife.”
At his muttering, Judith bit their mouth without answering. Instead, Vivian, who had been keeping an eye on them, carefully offered her opinion.
Hearing her words, Rupert smiled coldly as he turned to her.
“Young Lady Vivian. Are you saying that now because you want it to be that way, or is it because you don’t want it to be?”
“That, of course…”
“Of course, Young Lady should hope this goes well. Wouldn’t that make you the Duchess of Persen you so longed for, rise to a higher position than your terrifying father, and take possession of the fortune?”
“…Yes. However—”
“If you really have that kind of heart, I hope you don’t dare complain over your thoughts and do what you’re asked to do. What has the Young Lady been doing the past few days? You said you were going to seduce the Duke of Persen, but he couldn’t keep his eyes on you for a second.”
“….”
At his criticism, seeing Vivian bite her lips firmly as if in anger, Rupert laughed out loud sarcastically.
“What’s that expression? Do you regret holding my hand secretly without your father knowing?”
“….”
“Don’t forget. It was you who begged me to become a wealthy aristocratic wife so that you could trample on your mother and father, who had always despised you.”
Rupert, who shut her mouth, prevented Vivian from raising a counterargument in a cold voice, brushed up his disheveled hair. Then, he turned to Judith, who stood quietly in front of him and waited for the order.
“I heard your report. First of all, don’t get caught and act naturally. Those lowly minions are specialized in sniffing out traitors, so you shouldn’t show any gaps. For now, our plan is to discuss it again after you arrive safely at the Persen Castle.”
“I see, my lord. So, in the meantime, will the investigation into the Duchess of Persen stop?”
“Of course not, keep going! Investigate her tracks and report it through Robert.”
“I’ll take your orders.”
“Oh, and…”
“Please name it.”
Instead of rushing his words, Judith waited quietly for the next word. Rupert paused for a moment at the sight, then suddenly smiled sweetly and opened his mouth again.
“Make sure you bring me all the dolls Minase made for the children a few hours ago.”
“….!”
“It doesn’t matter how much I pay. If they refuse to give it to me, you are allowed to take it by force.”
“…I see, Viscount.”
…Her body, her mind, and everything she made with her hands are mine.
Rupert’s eyes glistened with madness as he commanded Judith.
At the same time, although Grand Duchess Blaine and Vivian’s faces were strangely distorted as they watched, Rupert did not care. It was because his head was now full of thoughts of a woman named Minase Persen.
 
 
 
It was a night of pitch-black darkness without a single shed of moonlight.
It was a gaping, late night when even the servants who stood by on watch could not overcome the pouring sleepiness, so they leaned on the wall of the hallway and took a short sleep. A woman with her long blonde hair messed up was sitting on a small chair by the bed in her pajamas.
As if she was waiting for someone, she was staring at her closet, biting her lower lip with a face without makeup.
All of a sudden, when she suddenly heard a voice outside the door, she moved closer to the long black curtain that covered the window and closed the slit even tighter. It was because no one should have noticed that she was awake now.
“Oh, dear.”
At that moment, a young man’s voice that was neither low nor high was heard from within her room, where she should have been alone. Turning her head as if waiting, a man with his whole body covered in a gray robe opened the door disguised as a wardrobe and walked out.
The man, with long pale purple hair hanging out of his robe while holding a bead the size of his palm in one hand, said to the woman who was staring at him.
“It’s a beautiful night, Madam.”
“A night without moonlight is beautiful?”
“On a night like this, you can make up your own secrets to your heart’s content. For example, the Duchess using her secret passage to attract a man.”
“A man… Rumor has it that you’re a mixture between a demon and a human. I’ve also heard that you’re an old man who has lived such a long time that I couldn’t even fathom with my poor imagination. According to the rumors, it seems that you’re not human before you are a man?”
“Haha, indeed. The vitriol and arrogance doesn’t change even on the verge of being ousted by your husband for cheating as the rumor has it, Duchess.”
“So, are you laughing at my situation now?”
“Is that possible? How dare a small wizard like me flutter ridicule at the Duchess?”
As he approached her with a smirk, the woman frowned her face at the man who kissed her on the back of her pale hand. She was offended by the smile of the dubious man, full of pure fun and curiosity, without any hostility or favor.
The man with the robe covering his face uttered with a deeper smile.
“So, why did you personally call me to your bedroom on this beautiful late night?”
“…I have a favor to ask of you.”
“What is it? Do you want to have a secret just between me and you, as I expected?”
“No.”
“Oh, that’s disappointing. So, what can I do for you?”
“…Make me disappear from this world.”
Her answer to the man’s question was quite unexpected. A smile disappeared from the lips of the man who was slightly seen under the robe at her words. He stared at her slowly as if to examine the intentions of her words.
She snorted at the man’s gaze as if he was looking at a child wishing for the impossible.
“There’s no need for you to doubt it since this is the truth without a single lie.”
“…Make you disappear. Do you know what that means?”
“Of course.”
“…So, you’re asking me to put a curse that harms the Madam’s life?”
“Well, that’s not bad either.”
“What’s the reason? The appearance of the Madam I had heard of seemed like a person with a stronger attachment to life than anyone else.”
“Why do you think so?”
“If she hadn’t had a strong attachment to life, would a young lady from a noble family who had lost all her family honor and fortune even arrange an arranged marriage with a man whom she hated more than dying? Perhaps if it was someone else, I’d have bitten my tongue.”
With a smirk, she stared at the man with a cold gaze. He already knew everything she was trying to say, yet the way he turned her words around like a clown who kept telling jokes was ridiculous.
 
 
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