Chapter 003
“Keuhuk…!”
The Count collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud.
Ioret looked down coldly at the Count groaning at her feet.
In the past, Catherine had set Ioret’s wedding date to coincide with the kingdom’s Foundation Day.
Foundation Day was a national event comparable to the King’s birthday celebration. It was also the occasion where the largest number of goodwill delegations from neighboring kingdoms attended.
Catherine had supervised every part of the wedding process.
Ioret had to have a luxurious yet shameful wedding ceremony while the neighboring countries watched. It was Catherine’s scheme to make her an international laughingstock.
‘I should have suspected Catherine then. How foolish I was to believe her words that it was for the sake of my dignity.’
There was no way to disobey Catherine, the Crown Princess, right now. With Ioret’s current power, she could not stop the wedding.
But what if the groom disappeared?
“Pri—Princess, do you think you’ll be safe after doing this…?”
The Count barely opened his eyes and looked up at her. Thanks to her striking him with the candlestick with all her might, blood was streaming down the Count’s head.
Ioret leaned over, being careful not to get blood on her dress.
“Every night, you whip those boys.”
The Count had even brandished a whip stained with those children’s blood at her.
“I can’t even count how many children died at your hands.”
Every dawn, Ioret had gone out to the forest to make graves for the dead children. Even the watchers, including Lish, had not stopped that much.
“Among the children you kidnapped and killed, wasn’t there the second son of the Telsia Countship?”
“Keu—heup, how…?!”
It was a fact she had learned shortly after her marriage, while secretly caring for the injured children at the Count’s mansion.
“There is a law that states those who marry into the royal family must not have committed a crime within three generations. What you committed is strictly murder.”
“Is—Is there proof!”
“The boys trapped in the basement of your mansion are the witnesses. Shall I send the capital’s security officers to check right now?”
The Count’s face turned as white as a sheet.
Ioret snapped at him, suppressing her urge to vomit.
“If you don’t want to be executed for the crime of daring to insult the royal family, do as I say. Then I will keep my mouth shut.”
The Count instinctively shrunk his shoulders.
The eyes of the princess, who was forty years younger than him, held a chilling sharp edge.
An overwhelming pressure, even greater than that of Crown Princess Catherine, who was praised as the next leader of the kingdom, weighed down on the old man.
Was that girl with the eyes of a tiger truly Princess Ioret?
The timid princess who had burst into tears in front of him only a week ago?
The Count, overwhelmed by fear, nodded frantically at Ioret’s following words.
“I—I understand…”
“Good, then.”
Ioret swung the silver candlestick once more.
The Count’s eyes rolled back.
Ioret threw the silver candlestick and the tableware from the table over his body.
Ioret immediately left the dining room and hid behind a curtain. Her hands were trembling violently.
Ioret feared violence as much as she was accustomed to it. She tightly clenched her pale hands.
‘It’s okay, Ioret. It’s okay. This is nothing.’
A human heart is of no use for revenge.
Both Catherine and Benedix had achieved victory by doing things that were incomprehensible to Ioret’s common sense.
Moral values, philanthropy, pity, empathy, and understanding.
If she had to discard all those things to break them, Ioret could discard them a thousand or ten thousand times.
Besides, merely striking someone’s head was a drop in the bucket compared to what Ioret had suffered at the hands of the Count in the past.
Her pupils, which had been shaking violently, soon settled into a cold stillness.
Ioret did not go out into the hallway but waited behind the curtain for a moment.
It was about time.
Before long, Lish’s scream echoed from the dining room.
* * *
“Who was injured?”
Catherine, the Crown Princess of Elovis, furrowed her eyebrows.
Catherine, who had just finished lunch, was enjoying a leisurely tea time.
Duke Valere sat across from her, who was wearing a beige dress as bright as the afternoon sun.
Benedix Valere.
He was just a man she had pulled to her side out of necessity, but his neat appearance was as good as a dessert.
Catherine was using Benedix as eye candy while waiting for news of the lunch between her half-sister and the old Count.
But there had been no word for an hour, and now, who was injured?
The chamberlain of the royal castle reported urgently.
“That is, it is said that Count Castelane suffered a severe head contusion while having dinner with Princess Ioret. The Count is currently unconscious and undergoing treatment.”
“What on earth could cause a head to crack during a meal?”
When Catherine asked sharply, the chamberlain broke out in a cold sweat.
“That is, it is said that the Princess’s maid accidentally dropped a tray… onto the Count’s head.”
“Ioret’s maid? Do you mean Lish Keith?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Does that make any sense right now?”
Lish Keith was an experienced maid hand-picked by Catherine herself. She was not someone who would make such a ridiculous mistake.
Instead of the bewildered Catherine, the Duke questioned the chamberlain.
“Was Princess Ioret there too? Was she also hurt?”
“No—No, that’s not it. Her Highness the Princess is safe.”
“Speak clearly. If the Count lost consciousness, wasn’t there a major accident? Where is Ioret?”
The Duke’s eyebrows distorted fiercely as he checked on the princess’s well-being. He didn’t even seem to notice Catherine glaring at him.
“Calm down, Duke. Chamberlain, are you sure Lish made a mistake? Or perhaps Ioret shifted her mistake onto her…”
“Princess Ioret is not the type of person who can do that, Your Highness.”
The Duke cut him off and asserted.
It was annoying, but he was right. Her younger sister was stupidly kind.
Because she had been locked in the tower and tamed to be gentle since she was young, she was innocent and even timid.
Since she was so dull as to call Catherine ‘sister’ and rely on her even while having her things taken away one by one, it was obvious she wouldn’t even think of framing someone else for a mistake.
However, an inexplicable sense of incongruity arose.
Everything of Ioret’s was in Catherine’s hands. There had never been a disturbance she hadn’t intended. Not even once.
Catherine put down her teacup and stood up.
“I must go see Ioret. Where is she now? Is she with Count Castelane?”
“No. That is…”
The hesitating chamberlain lowered his head.
“The Princess is having an audience with His Majesty the King.”
* * *
The King of Elovis was famous for being a brilliant strategist in his younger days.
He greatly expanded the territory of Elovis and elevated the kingdom to the ranks of great powers.
Although there were various noises in the royal family, his reign for the people was flawless, and he was praised as a wise king.
However, as he aged, his youthful brilliance faded.
After losing two queens in succession, the King enjoyed himself by changing mistresses every month.
With a brilliant Crown Princess and loyal subjects, there was no need to worry about state affairs.
For the King, who had achieved early and dazzling accomplishments, only a comfortable and lazy remaining life remained.
Just one thing, if the marriage of his second daughter could be successfully concluded.
When Catherine hurriedly entered the audience chamber, the King had a troubled expression on his face with his second daughter in front of him.
“Please forgive Lish, Father.”
Behind Ioret, Lish Keith was kneeling and bowing her head. The sleeves and dress of the maid, whose wrists were tied behind her back, were entirely covered in blood.
“Lish didn’t do it on purpose. It was just a mistake, so could you please forgive her generously?”
“No, Your Majesty. When I entered, the Count was already collapsed!”
A pale Lish shouted.
“I only went to the bedroom to find something the Princess asked for. The Princess entered the dining room first!”
The King rubbed his throbbing temples.
