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Episode 123: Road to Ruin
“Y-Your Majesty…”
Mary Jane DeCzeco.
It was a name that was clearly etched in my mind from the moment I visited Shadow.
To be precise, the name that appeared in the letter Shadow gave me.
〈P.S. Instead of Deborah’s real name, on the entrance to Calypso, the name ‘Mary Jane DeCzeco’ was written.〉
Actually, she was an extra that appeared quite often in the original.
Mary Jane was the precious child of the Baron of DeCzeco, and was not Deborah’s maid to begin with.
But about three years ago.
When her father took part in the business of the Duke of Douglas and the Aktoum imperial family, he fell into Deborah’s trap and made a huge mistake.
‘Low status and inexperience, trying to do business related to the imperial family…’
‘…Just based on Deborah’s words…’
‘He trusted her completely and lost.’
Baron DeCzeco, who was trying to raise his poor family, was in danger of paying huge compensation.
A loss that couldn’t be fully repaid even if repaid from generation to generation.
In fact, it could have been ‘the downfall of the Baron of DeCzeco’.
It was Deborah who hid that fact.
That was her typical way of exploiting a person’s ‘weakness’.
‘From then on, his daughter had to do all sorts of nasty things.’
As Deborah’s limbs, no, she had become her slave.
Mary Jane DeCzeco was just a girl with a good heart who loved her family very much.
Knowing how much Baron DeCzeco loved her, in order to protect her father, she did the dirty work that Deborah asked her to do.
That made her even more cornered.
All Deborah had to do was threaten, ‘Do you want to see your family ruined’, and each time Mary Jane gave in.
She even lent her name to the Calypso entry list.
Baron DeCzeco would not be completely unaware that his daughter was being treated like this.
‘It’s gone so far now.’
To the point of rummaging through my office; me, the monarch of another country and the crown princess of this country, meant that she was risking her life.
But for me this was…
‘It’s a chance.’
It felt like a sharp instinct and cold reason had penetrated my heart.
‘A golden opportunity to destroy Deborah forever.’
Mary Jane, who would normally shut her mouth for fear that things would go wrong;
In a life-threatening situation like now, there were few options.
And I was going to offer her the best of all her options.
‘Deborah, Yuria got involved with you and killed herself.’
It was not just Yuria.
Baron Hermish Tevlon was also executed on ‘the day of the high priest’s visit’.
They were all people who would not have died if not for Deborah.
How many people were led on the road to ruin?
‘……She must have done that countless times in her life……’
Deborah always took a step back and controlled people, as if she’s doing a ‘shadow puppet show’, and when things happened, she slipped away.
It was time to spotlight what was behind the shadows.
The time has finally come to stop Deborah’s journey.
I made up my mind and looked down at Mary Jane.
Her forehead was pressed on the floor, and the back of her head, with her hair in a tight ponytail, was trembling.
“Your Majesty the Queen, I have committed a deadly sin. What, w-what I was trying to do in the office… I- I- I’ll say e-everything, everything.”
“Mary Jane.”
“……Yes?”
Her tear-soaked face looked straight at me.
What I was going to say now was something that Mary Jane would have never expected to come out of my mouth.
“I know that Baron DeCzeco made great losses in the imperial business.”
“!”
Her eyes widened to the size of a candle’s flame.
Her expression was as if I could hear a desperate cry that her family and herself were dead and over.
I slowly leaned over to make close eye contact with her.
“But you don’t have to be afraid.”
“…….”
“From now on, if you do what I tell you, I will untie the leash that Deborah put on you and your family.”
“….…”
Mary Jane’s eyelashes fluttered slightly.
Holding her chin softly, I asked,
“Can you?”
I could tell without hearing her answer.
* * *
“The Queen’s ‘Emergency Public Hearing’ is open!”
“I think that woman has been mincing Aktoum’s national budget.”
“I thought so. What, you work for Aktoum’s prosperity and development? That witch-like woman?”
“I didn’t believe it from the beginning either. I got goosebumps from her wicked eyes, really!”
The Aktoum social circle was heated with the news of the ‘Queen’s Public Hearing’.
Whenever they met at any social gathering, they would talk about this. Even if there were no social gatherings, they would gather and talk about it.
The queen, who seemed to be fully established in Aktoum, was embezzling the budget?
There was no such reversal, and there was nothing to talk about.
In particular, the Nine Nobles who opposed Berylia (the expression ‘remnant group’ would be more applicable now) was bound to get even more excited.
“Madam Deborah’s requested this public hearing!”
“You’ve got evidence of embezzlement.”
“That’s great, Madam Deborah.”
‘These people aren’t even as good as dogs.’
Deborah was internally swearing, but the feeling of being noticed in society for the first time in a long time was very flattering.
So, with an elegant expression, she put down the teacup and wiped her lips with a soft lace handkerchief, and put on a humble pretense.
“I am always acting with the heart for Aktoum.”
“Indeed, it’s Madam Deborah!”
Deborah smiled gently and turned her gaze to the head of the table.
“…….”
There, Johann was sitting quietly, drinking tea.
He didn’t normally participate in such gatherings, however, this event had no choice but to stimulate his curiosity.
He wanted to hear it in-person once. What were the nobles talking about? He was also curious about the authenticity of this incident…
‘Isn’t it very strange?’
‘She is embezzling the budget?’
The richest woman on the entire continent, for what?
Was it a mistake she made before receiving the Terra mine?
Or was she only showing money on the outside, when she actually didn’t have it?
“What do you think of this, Archduke Marquis?”
Deborah asked Johann, who was just sitting there without a word. She didn’t like the way he looked at her.
Additionally, she still had feelings of resentment over how he last treated her.
“I do not know.”
Neither yes nor no, Johann just vaguely shrugged his shoulders and glared.
“Only when the sin is confirmed will it be worth making a judgment.”
Finally, the next day.
The Queen’s ‘Emergency Public Hearing’ was held.
About 80% of the nobles of Aktoum participated.
Some of the Queen’s supporters did not attend the misery, while some took part as they believed in her innocence.
And, quite a few nobles attended with their eyes wide open, hoping for the downfall of Berylia.
In the place where countless people were sitting, full of different thoughts and desires…
Finally, the queen appeared.
Arm in arm with the crown prince, in a very relaxed and friendly manner.
“!”
No one knew if it was acting or if it was real leisure.
With the exception of Rixus.
* * *
10 minutes before the public hearing—
I was alone in the waiting room with Rixus.
He said playfully as he ran his hand over his neat, knife-life collar.
“How is it? I’ve tried to dress up like a prince who’s been overrun by his wife and is drenched in sorrow.”
“It suits you well. Because I’m dressed like a wife who’s ‘slapped her husband in the back and betrayed him while sober.'”
The corners of his lips raised as he looked at the dried rose-colored dress with an open back.
His long fingers ran gently across my bare back.
“It’s my taste.”
For a queen who was summoned to a public hearing, she was dressed in an unbelievably frivolous way.
Common sense would be to come out wearing plain and colorless clothes.
I dressed like this on purpose.
The nobles who hated me would want to see me shrink and withdrawn today.
And this dress was my answer to them.
It meant to screw off and eat it.
“It’s much more my taste to do this kind of thing…”
Rixus’ lips landed on my shoulder line.
I wrapped the back of Rixus’ head and made him lean a little more on my shoulder.
‘…I’m glad to hear that. Now I feel a little clearer.’
My heart, which had been weakened by the shock of the blue rose, now felt like it was being firmly seized.
‘Yes, I can’t be shaken.’
After going through what Deborah did again, and the feeling that Johann was suspicious……
I realized that I had no time to wander and cry.
As I did that, the story that embraced this cruel fate was flowing without hesitation.
Enemies were constantly moving.
Hoping for the destruction of me and Rixus.
So, avoiding my most powerful ally, Rixus, was of no use in this situation.
‘……If I keep away from him now, what will be different?’
The line had already been crossed, and Rixus and I had become lovers.
All were my choices. Whatever the consequences of this, I had to accept it and overcome it.
‘So, Rixus.’
Even if I met an ending where I died at his hands…
“…….”
“Let’s go in, Rixus.”
‘I’ll take out all the trash in front of you.’
Today, Deborah;
And if we concluded that even Johann was an enemy, then even Johann.
With a strong will, I placed a small kiss on the cheek of Rixus, who was burying his face in my shoulder, and whispered,
“Because a sinner can’t be late.”
Rixus followed my lips with a chuckle and smirk, and gently pressed his lips to mine and whispered back.
“It’s such a stress-free public hearing.”
“It’s probably just us.”
By now, Deborah must have been insanely nervous.
She must have been determined to put me to ruin at this public hearing.
It was the same for me. I was going to see Deborah’s ruin today.
It remained to be seen who would go down first today.
Soon, we stood in front of the door of the public hearing hall.
“Her Majesty the Queen and His Highness the Crown Prince!”
The heavy mahogany door opened with a loud notification from the doorkeeper.
Upon entering, dozens, no– hundreds of gazes poured in from all directions like bamboo spears.
I slowly looked at the audience with an attitude that was not at all daunted by those gazes.
Among them, the most noticeable gaze was the rigid Deborah’s…
…And Johann’s eyes.
When our eyes met, I raised the corners of my lips and smiled.
“!”
Johann’s eyebrows twitched strangely.