Chapter 8
After a brief silence, Agnes opened her mouth with a determined expression.
“Very well. Then, please break off your engagement with Victoria, and give me a bonus equal to the amount of your family’s debt.”
For a moment, a faint sneer crossed Ergon’s lips.
‘So, as expected, the goal from the beginning was to break the engagement.’
“Very well.”
Breaking the engagement was not difficult for Ergon, and he had more money than he knew what to do with. However, he lacked the ability to clear himself of the false accusation in an instant—something like psychometry, for instance.
Agnes seemed quite surprised that Ergon accepted the conditions immediately.
“Just a moment ago, you said breaking the engagement was difficult because of your promise to your uncle…”
“I was curious to see how you would respond.”
“What? Hah.”
Agnes was dumbfounded, but she couldn’t afford to miss this golden opportunity to take revenge on her uncle’s family.
As she composed herself, a sudden worry crossed her mind.
“But what if I touch the poison packet and the culprit’s face doesn’t appear…”
“Just find it by touching anything and everything. Then I will certainly keep my promise.”
As Ergon spoke firmly, Agnes pressed her lips into a straight line and nodded with a solemn expression. It was the moment their deal was sealed.
“Tomorrow, I will announce the dissolution of my engagement with Victoria and introduce you as my new fiancée. That way, it will seem natural when I take you to an audience with His Majesty.”
“What?”
Agnes’s expression hardened at the words “new fiancée.” Noticing this, Ergon reassured her.
“Don’t worry. Once we find the real culprit, I will break off the engagement with you as well. I’ll give you a settlement.”
“How many times do you plan to break engagements…”
“As many times as I like.”
Ergon cut Agnes off mid-sentence. Then, with an arrogant smile, he added,
“I can do that.”
Agnes recalled his reputation in high society. An incorrigible playboy with status and wealth second only to the Emperor himself. Surely, breaking off a couple of engagements wouldn’t even leave a scratch on him. Agnes couldn’t help but smile bitterly.
Even as morning broke, dark clouds hung over the top tower of the Earl’s residence. It was just after breakfast when news as gloomy as the weather arrived.
“This is absurd!”
At Ergon’s unilateral declaration of the broken engagement, Victoria collapsed to the floor and burst into tears.
“Hic…!”
She had wanted to become the only Duchess in the Karlia Empire, but Agnes had ruined everything. Victoria was beside herself with rage.
“How could he throw me away for that crazy bitch…!”
At dawn, Ergon had stopped by the annex and taken Agnes away. Without any notice, he came and went like the wind, leaving behind only a single letter at the main building. It stated his intention to change his fiancée from Victoria to Agnes. It was a notification, not a request, and of course, there was no room for refusal on their part.
“That womanizing bastard!”
Jeremy, looking at his weeping sister, exploded with indignation. No one in the family had expected Victoria’s marriage to fall apart like this.
“Are you just going to sit back and do nothing?”
Charlotte, furious, began to nag her husband. But George, as if he didn’t even see his family’s faces, spoke calmly.
“Of course, I’m not pleased, but to be coldly honest, our family suffers no loss.”
Only the partner had changed; the Winchester family would still become the Duke’s in-laws. The Duke’s promise to repay the family’s debts hadn’t vanished.
Even if Victoria’s situation seemed pitiful for now, wasn’t her partner a pompous playboy who changed partners every three months anyway? There were few eligible noble ladies who hadn’t met him, so once some time passed, there would be no issue with her marriage. Of course, Charlotte didn’t seem to agree with that.
“Is that kind of numbers game the problem right now? Victoria has been made a laughingstock!”
“Of course, the numbers are the main problem! Do you know how much debt we have to pay back immediately?”
“That’s all your doing!”
“Are you saying I did that just for my own benefit?”
George and Charlotte raised their voices in argument, while Victoria and Jeremy fumed, cursing Ergon and Agnes indiscriminately.
Meanwhile, the Duke’s carriage, carrying Agnes and Ergon, departed for the Imperial Palace.
Taken to the Duke’s residence at dawn by Ergon’s hand, Agnes had been adorned to suit the role of “the Duke’s new fiancée.” The puffed skirt, which she hadn’t worn since she was thirteen, felt awkward, but she didn’t show it and pretended to look out the window.
Unaware of what would happen to her today.
As they entered the high-ceilinged audience chamber, she saw the Emperor, Jack, seated on the throne.
Once the kindest brother in the world. Ergon’s heart ached as soon as he saw Jack’s stern face.
His brother had changed around the time he hit puberty. The brother he thought would always be on his side suddenly became stingy and cold. The change in the brother he admired was a shock and a wound to Ergon.
Desperate to win his brother’s heart back, Ergon became top of his class at the academy and neglected neither horseback riding, swordsmanship, nor martial arts. But the more he tried, the more distant his brother became.
Then, a fight broke out among the female students who liked Ergon at the academy. That day, Jack smiled at Ergon after a long time.
That was how his brother showed his former kindness only in moments of his younger sibling’s heartbreak, despair, and failure.
“Have you been well, Your Majesty?”
After bowing deeply, Ergon got to the point.
“I repeat, I am truly innocent.”
But Jack only leaned back in his chair and stared at him expressionlessly. Ergon glanced briefly at Agnes standing directly behind him.
Agnes wore the luxury dress Ergon had bought and even had heavy makeup on, but she looked noticeably nervous. Probably because she was in the presence of the Emperor. The next moment, Ergon made a request to Jack.
“If you don’t believe me, please show me the poison that was supposedly found in my drawer.”
Jack barely moved a finger from where it rested on the armrest. His secretary took out the poison packet that had been kept in storage. The powdered poison was wrapped in a paper packet, and that packet was wrapped again in a white handkerchief.
Ergon took it, then deliberately dropped the packet as if by mistake. Only the handkerchief remained in his hand.
Agnes, standing close by, bent down and naturally picked up the packet that had fallen to the floor.
Suddenly, the face of a bearded, middle-aged man flashed through her mind. He was the culprit who had hidden this packet among the evidence confiscated by the Imperial Guard.
Taking back the packet Agnes handed to him, Ergon declared to the Emperor,
“I swear, this is a poison I have never seen before.”
“That’s something that will be determined after an investigation.”
Jack replied coldly and gestured again. The secretary approached Ergon once more and held out his hand.
Ergon looked back at Agnes. Agnes gave a small nod. The moment Ergon returned the poison packet to the secretary, Jack commanded,
“I don’t want to see your face any longer. Get out.”
Ergon immediately led Agnes out of the audience chamber. In the corridor, Ian was waiting for them, his face tense with anxiety.
Ian was the only person who knew that Agnes was a psychometry user and the details of their agreement.
“Did you see anything?”
As soon as they exited the long corridor into the open air, Ergon turned his shoulder towards Agnes. Agnes lowered her voice to answer.
“I saw a man.”
“Really? What did he look like?”
“He seemed middle-aged. He had a beard, and his eyes were wide-set…”
As he listened to Agnes’s description, Ergon furrowed his neat brows. It seemed unlikely they could identify the culprit by gathering such fragmentary information.
“Can you draw him?”
“What? Ah, yes.”
Ian, as if he had been waiting, pulled out a notebook and pen from his jacket’s inner pocket and handed them to Agnes.
Out of habit, Agnes put on her gloves first, then took them. Then, furrowing her brow, she diligently moved her right hand.
Ergon watched her quietly. Then, his eyes gradually narrowed, and he scratched his forehead with a perplexed look.
“Is that a drawing? Or is it just scribbles?”
Despite Ergon’s comment, Agnes didn’t stop her hand, and after a moment, the composite sketch was complete. And Ergon was utterly astonished.
