Fania collapsed in front of my eyes. He spurted out blood from his mouth, while scratching his own throat.
I didnāt clearly remember what happened afterwards. Only that, an extreme fear overwhelmed me, fear of having Fania die on me.
Then I felt infuriated to the one who caused Fania to suffer; this was a while after Fania had regained consciousness. Most likely because that overwhelming fear was finally suppressed.
I know who did it. It was Lady Algarina. The Kingās second consort. As the daughter of the grand ducal family, she possesses a sizable authority.
Since they were young children, Lady Algarina had been betrothed to the King. When their marriage was only about a year away, her seat as the Princess Consort was suddenly taken away by a royal princess from Sotis.
The position that should belong to her was unexpectedly lowered to be the Second Consort, she must have felt terribly agitated. Alas, she could not mess with the Princess Consort, lest it would incur a diplomatic problem. The worst consequence would be a war.
Lady Algarinaās grudge was later directed to the next generation.
She would never let the children of the Princess Consort inherit the throne. She would ensure her son (the First Prince) to be the next king and she herself would become the Queen Dowager. This would be her warning against Princess Consort Jane, who had pushed her down to become the second consort.
For that sake, she must have tried to eliminate me, but it resulted with Fania getting hurt instead. He was brought to the brink of death.
I could never forget the scene where Fania passed out in front of my eyes. On top of that, Faniaās body bore the brunt with a disability that could never be cured in his entire life.
Unforgivable. I will absolutely never forgive her.
Nevertheless, it is impossible to charge her now. There was no proof.
Even if my young self made a big fuss out of it, they would only quieten me down, or quite the opposite, I would end up getting cornered.
I had petitioned to the King multiple times. However, nothing came out of it, with reasons such as there was no proof, or the timing was not good whatsoever.
I knew that the King and Lady Algarina were engaged since childhood, so the King might have a soft spot towards her. So I certainly could not pin my hope on the King.
Although I am a prince, I am nothing but a powerless child. But after seeing my loved one get hurt, I have no intention to just sit idly by. I shall never forgive the ones who hurt my most important person. Just another step, and I would lose Fania forever.
I can only handle this by myself. Iāll do it thoroughly. Iāll make them suffer greater than what death can do to them. For that sake, Iāll use whatever means available to me.
A faint light has sparked in the depth of Alfredās eyes.
While Alfred was devising various tactics for his plan, a message came in from Bailard, saying āI found someone who might be usefulā.
Bailard acts as a conduit to the church, and he is also connected to the market. Furthermore, his fanatic believers who worship him as their goddess, also work for him. Thereās nothing Bailard couldnāt obtain, be it information or human resources as long as he wishes for it.
Alfred came in person to the cell where the man was said to be imprisoned. Locked inside the cell was a man in late 40s with a regular build who didnāt give much impression, just like anybody out there. To say he had a normal appearance, right then he was looking shabby.
āHe seems useful.ā In response to Alfredās comment, the man shrank further inside the cell, curling himself into a smaller posture.
From Alfredās demeanour and appearance, he mustāve sensed that this person is a nobility. If he incurs this personās displeasure, itās not hard to guess what would happen to himself.
The person in the cell was named Gwynne. This was the third time he was put in prison. All three times he was convicted of the same crimeāmarriage swindling. He played with the hearts of countless women, cheating them of their money in the process.
Gwynne targeted people who were not confident in their appearance and middle-aged ladies who were bad in romance. These ladies, when approached by visually-attractive men with their flowery words, they not only would be suspicious and ignore it, they would be on guard instead.
So Gwynne makes use of his dull look to his advantage, in no time these ladies would fall prey to his trickery.
āIāll offer you a chance. What, itās actually an easy task. If itās you, you surely can accomplish it splendidly.ā Gwynne stared at the noble boy who was sneering.
Gwynne who swindles people for his livelihood takes pride in his ability to figure out peopleās nature. The boy in front of his eyes, despite his young age, he possessed frighteningly dark eyes. Gwynne quickly fathomed that he could give no other answer than āyesā.
The order Gwynne received was to cajole a particular lady. The lady was usually so occupied with her work that he missed the timing for her marriage. She seemed to have a job as a lady attendant to a prominent madam. To Gwynne, this was a simple job.
Once this job is done, he would receive an amount of money and be allowed to escape to a foreign country. This should be his final job in this country. Gwynne then used all tricks possible to fulfill this clientās request.
Only after Gwynne had escaped the country, that he immediately discovered that Lady Algarina suffered untreatable horrendous inflammation on her face; this was due to the cosmetic that was brought in by her attendant lady.
authorās note:About the chronicle of events.
Around half a year after Fania was poisoned, Alfred started to make a move for his revenge. Then another half a year for him to find Gwynne. It took nearly a year from when Gwynne started cajoling the attendant lady, then passed the cosmetic and finally inflamed Lady Algarinaās face.
Until the completion of the revenge against Algarina, more than 2 years passed since Faniaās poisoning. The story about this revenge(?) will appear again from another POV. I guess it will be told in more detail then, so please wait a while for it.