Chapter 3
“Keuhuk…!”
The Earl collapsed onto the floor with a loud thud. Ioreth looked down coldly at the Earl moaning at her feet.
In the past, Catherine had set Ioreth’s wedding date to the kingdom’s Foundation Day. Foundation Day was a national event comparable to the King’s birthday celebrations. It was also the occasion where the largest number of goodwill delegations from neighboring kingdoms attended. Catherine oversaw every part of the wedding process. Ioreth was forced to hold a luxurious yet humiliating wedding while the neighboring countries watched. Catherine schemed to make her an international laughingstock.
‘I should have suspected Catherine back then. I was foolish to believe her when she said it was for my dignity.’
Right now, there is no way to disobey Catherine, the Crown Princess. With Ioreth’s current power, she could not stop the wedding. But what if the groom disappeared?
“P-Princess, you think you’ll be safe after doing this…?”
The Earl managed to open his eyes and look up at her. Thanks to her hitting him with the candlestick with all her might, blood was streaming from the Earl’s head. Ioreth leaned over, being careful not to get blood on her dress.
“You whip young boys every night.”
The Earl had even thrust those blood-stained whips at her.
“I cannot even count how many children have died at your hands.”
Every dawn, Ioreth used to go out to the forest to make graves for the dead children. The observers, including Lishi, did not stop that at least.
“Among those kidnapped and murdered children, was there not the second son of the Earl Telsia family?”
“Keuh, hup, how…?!”
This was a fact she had learned after the marriage, while secretly caring for injured children at the Earl’s mansion.
“There is a law that anyone who marries into the royal family must not have committed a crime for three generations back. What you have committed is clearly murder.”
“I-is there proof!”
“The boys trapped in your mansion’s basement are the witnesses. Shall I send the capital’s security officers to check right now?”
The Earl’s complexion turned as white as a sheet. Ioreth snapped at him, suppressing her nausea.
“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 Earl reflexively hunched his shoulders. The eyes of this princess, forty years younger than him, held a chilling sharpness. A sense of intimidation greater than that of Crown Princess Catherine—who was praised as the next leader of the kingdom—crushed the old man.
Was this girl with the eyes of a tiger really Princess Ioreth? The same timid princess who had burst into tears in front of him just a week ago? Overcome by fear, the Earl nodded frantically at Ioreth’s following words.
“I, I understand…”
“Good, then.”
Ioreth swung the silver candlestick once more. The Earl’s eyes rolled back. Ioreth threw the silver candlestick and the silverware from the table onto his body.
Leaving the dining room immediately, Ioreth hid behind a curtain. Both of her hands were shaking violently. As much as Ioreth was used to violence, she feared it. She clenched her pale hands tightly.
‘It’s okay, Ioreth. It’s okay. This is nothing.’
A human heart is of no use for revenge. Catherine and Benedix had both seized victory by doing things that were incomprehensible by Ioreth’s standards. Moral values, philanthropy, pity, empathy, and understanding. If she had to discard all those things to defeat them, Ioreth could discard them a thousand or ten thousand times. Besides, merely bashing a head was a drop in the bucket compared to what the Earl had done to her in the past.
Her wildly shaking pupils soon settled into a cold stillness. Ioreth did not go out into the hallway but waited behind the curtain for a moment. It was about time. Not long after, Lishi’s scream echoed from the dining room.
“Who was injured?”
Catherine, the Crown Princess of Elobis, arched her eyebrows. Having just finished lunch, Catherine was enjoying a leisurely teatime. Sitting across from her in a beige dress as bright as the afternoon sun was the Duke of Valere.
Benedix Valere. He was merely a man she had pulled to her side out of necessity, but his handsome looks made for a good “dessert.” Catherine had been using Benedix as eye candy while waiting for news of the luncheon between her half-sister and the old Earl.
But there had been no word for over an hour, and now, who was hurt? The King’s Chief Chamberlain reported urgently.
“Well, it is said that Earl Castlein suffered a severe head contusion while having dinner with Princess Ioreth. The Earl is currently unconscious and undergoing treatment.”
“What on earth could happen during a meal to cause a head to be cracked?”
As Catherine questioned sharply, the Chief Chamberlain broke into a cold sweat.
“Well, it is said the Princess’s maid accidentally dropped a tray… onto the Earl’s head.”
“Ioreth’s maid? Do you mean Lishi Keith?”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
“Does that even make sense right now?”
Lishi Keith was a skilled maid personally selected by Catherine. She was not someone to make such a ridiculous mistake. Instead of the bewildered Catherine, the Duke questioned the Chamberlain.
“You say Princess Ioreth was also there? Was she injured as well?”
“N-no, that is not the case. The Princess Highness is safe.”
“Speak clearly. If the Earl is unconscious, wasn’t there a major accident? Where is Ioreth?”
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, is it certain that Lishi made a mistake? Or perhaps Ioreth shifted her own mistake onto her…”
“Princess Ioreth does not have the personality to do such a thing, Your Highness.”
The Duke declared flatly. It was annoying, but he was right. Her sister was nice to the point of being stupid. Because she had been locked in a tower and tamed since she was young, she was innocent and even timid. She was dull enough to rely on Catherine and call her “Sister” even while having her things taken away one by one, so it was obvious she wouldn’t even think of the idea of framing someone else.
However, a strange sense of unease was felt. Everything about Ioreth was in Catherine’s grasp. There had never once been a disturbance that she had not intended. Not once.
Catherine set down her teacup and rose from her seat.
“I must go see Ioreth. Where is she now? Is she with Earl Castlein?”
“No. That is…”
The hesitating Chamberlain lowered his head.
“The Princess is currently having an audience with His Majesty the King.”
The King of Elobis was famous as a brilliant strategist in his youth. He greatly expanded the territory of Elobis and placed the kingdom among the ranks of great powers. Although there was some noise within the royal family, his reign for the people was flawless, and he was praised as a wise king.
However, as he aged, the brilliance of his younger days faded. After losing two Queens in succession, the King enjoyed himself by changing mistresses every month. Since there was a brilliant Crown Princess and loyal subjects, there was no need to worry about state affairs. For a King who had achieved dazzling accomplishments early on, only a comfortable and lazy remaining life was left.
Just one thing—if the marriage of his second daughter could be concluded successfully.
When Catherine rushed into the audience chamber, the King was wearing a troubled expression in front of his second daughter.
“Please forgive Lishi, Father.”
Behind Ioreth, Lishi Keith was kneeling with her head bowed. The sleeves and dress of the maid, whose wrists were bound behind her back, were covered in blood.
“Lishi did not do it on purpose. It was merely a mistake, so could you not generously forgive her?”
“No, Your Majesty! When I entered, the Earl was already collapsed!”
A pale Lishi cried out.
“I only went to the bedroom to find an item the Princess asked for. The Princess entered the dining room first!”
The King rubbed his throbbing temples
