“That’s what’s driving me crazy, damn it! To think that damn guy would use the huge sum of money he earned from the agreement with Resinia for something like this. If only that damn Cyril Olvern had incited the Grand Duke more back then, things wouldn’t have turned out this way. No, if only Emily Linburton had done her job properly…”
“…”
“Damn it! How is it that every single person who offers to help us is a foolish, incompetent idiot! It’s beyond frustrating!”
The Duke screamed, growing more furious the more he thought about it. After a long moment of huffing and puffing, he finally regained his composure and asked the Marquis of Cadogan,
“You’ve taken care of all the people who were bribed by the Grand Duke, haven’t you? You didn’t foolishly leave them alive, did you?”
“…”
“Why aren’t you answering!”
“…I’ve already kicked out all the servants except for the butler, the head maid, and a few others, since we don’t know who leaked our secrets to that Ashid. But… there were so many of them to get rid of…”
“…”
“And they’re all low-ranking nobles, so if we just eliminated them like assassins or commoners, the crown prince might be implicated… I’m sorry.”
“Ugh, ugh!”
At the Marquis of Cadogan’s answer, Duke Rodian let out a beast-like groan and pounded his chest. He wanted to yell at him for being so foolish as to leave them alive, but he couldn’t. The Marquis of Cadogan was right. He himself had only been able to replace the servants in his own mansion, not kill them.
‘That damn guy!’
The Duke gnashed his teeth, recalling the handsome face of the hateful Ashid Alveric.
He should have killed him too when they assassinated Empress Julia. No, he should have eliminated him when he was in the North. No. He should have incited a border dispute somehow. In any case, every past action related to that guy was filled with regret.
And then, another person, another obstacle that kept tripping him up, came to the Duke’s mind.
‘Daniella Enchantto. That damn woman is the problem! She must be the one cleverly manipulating that guy who is blinded by revenge.’
Once or twice could be a coincidence. But this was the third time.
He had failed to get rid of that woman three times.
Duke Rodian’s two eyes gleamed with a malicious and eerie light. He muttered to himself in a low voice,
“This time… this time, neither of them will get away. Not that guy, and not that woman…”
He then turned to the Marquis of Cadogan, who had a hardened expression, and continued,
“How is that girl from the Strand family? Is she still foolishly lying in bed, confined to her home?”
“…No. She’s sending me letters every day, trying to win me back. She says since things have turned out this way, we should get engaged, and she’s burning with a desire for revenge, saying she won’t let the Grand Duchess Alveric get away with publicly shaming her family.”
“…Hmph! That’s more like it!”
Duke Rodian scoffed as if mocking Helena. With a vile expression, he rubbed his hands together and continued in a sinister voice, “Tell that girl that this is her last chance to turn everything around. And tell her that if she succeeds, it’s the only way for you and her to survive.”
“Yes, Uncle.”
The Marquis of Cadogan answered briefly and then hesitated before speaking again.
“…But what will you do if Helena succeeds? If she does, she’ll demand the promised reward and ask me to get engaged to her.”
At that, Duke Rodian let out a hollow laugh as if he had heard something absurd.
“That’s obviously out of the question. Although that girl’s brother, Richard Strand, is a High Priest, and their family has produced High Priests for generations, she’s still too low-class to be your wife. You are the future emperor’s closest vassal and relative, so your wife must be at least a Princess or a Grand Duchess of the Empire. A princess from a wealthy kingdom would be acceptable too. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Yes. I think so too. …Helena is pretty and lovely, but she’s not good enough to be a proper wife.”
The Marquis of Cadogan quickly agreed. For him, Helena was nothing more than a fun plaything. Besides, he was starting to get tired of her obsession. Marrying her was out of the question.
Duke Rodian cackled with a vile expression and said,
“Exactly. We’ll just throw a token reward at the Strand family. The money is a bit of a waste, but once the job is done, we’ll recoup everything, so it won’t be a problem.”
“Do you mean that after you successfully eliminate Ashid Alveric, you’ll get rid of the Strands too?”
“Of course. If we leave them alive, they’ll constantly threaten us and demand rewards. …Shouldn’t we get rid of future problems in advance?”
“That’s true.”
When the Marquis responded with a sneaky smile, the Duke spoke again.
“Send a reply to the Strand girl. Tell her to carry out the plan we’ve prepared soon. Coax her gently, as if she can get both the money and you if she succeeds. But don’t write that you’ll directly get engaged to her.”
“Of course.”
The Marquis of Cadogan replied with a relaxed demeanor. Both of them burst into laughter at the same time. They were completely unaware that a maid cleaning the adjacent room was hearing their entire conversation.
The Alveric Grand Duchy, the North, Greenthorn Castle West, Anstel Village.
This place, belonging to the Grand Duke Ashid Alveric, was a frequent site of conflict with the neighboring Kingdom of Achilles and the Grand Duchy of Angeli.
It was also a region where three hospitals and five schools had recently been built as part of Grand Duchess Daniella Alveric’s charity work.
All the schools were already open, and two of the three hospitals were operational. The last one to be opened was Saint Raphaella Hospital, which had attracted even more attention because it was set to provide free treatment to wounded veterans who had made great contributions to the defense of Anstel Village.
The hospital’s manager, Baronet Witgen Wissling, was busy putting the highest-grade restorative medicines and ointments he had purchased from nearby temples and pharmacists into the warehouse in preparation for the opening. Dressed in a white priestly robe and a hood that covered his face, he continuously gave instructions to the lower-ranking priests from the temple.
“Bring them in carefully! The patients who will be coming here are those who the Grand Duchess Alveric specially ordered to be treated well, so if any of the restorative medicine bottles or ointments are cracked and rendered unusable or have a bad effect on the patients, we’ll both be in big trouble!”
“Yes, we know. We’ll be careful.”
One of the lower-ranking priests replied respectfully.
A moment later, after they had brought all the medicines in, they came out of the warehouse. Just as Witgen was about to close the warehouse door, one of the lower-ranking priests let out a shriek.
“Ah, my necklace! I think I dropped my necklace in the warehouse!”
“…Hah, what? I’ll find it and send it to the temple later, so please go back for now!”
“No! That necklace also serves as a temple pass, so I absolutely must find it! Please, open the warehouse door!”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake.”
“I’ll just find the necklace and come out right away, okay?”
Witgen clicked his tongue at the constant pleas and opened the locked door.
“There’s no choice. Find the necklace and come out quickly.”
“Thank you!”
The priest smiled warmly at Witgen and bowed, then quickly went inside the warehouse. She immediately turned her back to the door to keep her actions from Witgen’s sight.
Pretending to look for the necklace, she felt around the medicine boxes and the surrounding area, then took out a vial of poison with a cloth-covered lid and a thin needle from the pocket of the robe she wore over her priestly robe. She urgently stabbed the vial’s lid with the needle, getting some of the transparent poison on the tip.
Then, she began to stab the lids of the ointment boxes without hesitation. The bottom of the ointment boxes was metal, but the top was made of thick cloth, making it flimsy enough to be punctured by a needle.
She knew the characteristics of these boxes very well. After all, the pharmacist who had been bribed by her and her brother, the High Priest, had deliberately made them that way.
“Phew.”
After quickly stabbing dozens of ointment boxes with the poisoned needle, she let out a low sigh.
She felt relieved that the plan had been a success and also a strange sense of accomplishment, and a smirk crept up on her lips. It was just as she was putting the needle, which had served its purpose, deep into the poison bottle and hiding it in her robe pocket.
