Chapter 103
Vivian shook her head at Rupert’s words before asking in a harsher tone.
“Another nobleman? Whom are you referring to? Listening to the Viscount, it seems like you’re still trying to find out who it would be. Then, when will I be connected with the unknown person, and when will I be able to wield his wealth and title as I please? Yes?”
“Haha. Young Lady Vivian, as you know, a marriage between nobles isn’t something that can be arranged so quickly. It takes at least a couple of months…”
“…A couple months? A couple months?! Ha! I told you that Loengram Castle doesn’t even have enough money to pay the salaries of the people in the castle for the next month right now! The last three days of banquets have squandered most of the wealth we had!”
Vivian shuddered with betrayal and anger as she shouted at Rupert.
Loengram’s ambitions for central politics had already exhausted the castle’s wealth, as they had recklessly organized an army and fought unprofitable wars.
In such a situation, it was Rupert who approached them to create a place to bring Minase Persen out of the castle. Promising Marquis Loengram’s advancement to central politics and Vivian’s elevation in status in exchange for creating the space, the Marquis and Vivian threw everything they had into the banquet for him.
“If this goes well, I’ll make it all up to you.”
That was what Rupert had promised Vivian and Marquis Loengram.
And now that he was being vague and making them wait months longer, Vivian couldn’t help but be furious. She exclaimed, spreading her tattered dress with both hands as if showing.
“Look at this! I even had to sell the jewels in this dress, but two months?! No! I need you to settle everything you promised me, Viscount, in a month at the latest!”
“Okay, okay. Calm down. Calm down, Young Lady Vivian. I didn’t say I wasn’t going to keep my word, did I?”
“Do you think I could be calm right now?! If you want me to calm down, bring me someone who will give me wealth and status right away!”
“We’ll have to see this through before we can work on anything else. This must be done first, and it will all be settled in a week or so at the latest. Besides, it wouldn’t be too much of a disadvantage to the Young Lady to have the Duke of Persen fall.”
“…What do you mean?”
“When that lowly man perishes, the Emperor will have all the remaining property before he gives away parts of that wealth… no, he’ll give most of it to Louise, so she can take a portion of it and give it to the Young Lady. So, it means that you can manage his fortune faster than marrying him.”
“….”
Vivian, who had been glaring at him with a scowl on her face, relaxed her frown ever slightly at his next words. Still, as her anger remained, Rupert added his words as if to calm her down.
“So for now, just trust me and be patient, Young Lady Vivian.”
“…Can I really trust you?”
“Of course.”
Vivian looked at Rupert’s face, which seemed to be pleading with her to believe him as he gave a firm answer. In the end, she sighed heavily, as if she had no choice in the matter, before straightening out her clothes. She then glanced back at Rupert with a somewhat collected expression.
“All right. I will trust the Viscount, so you must keep the promise you made with me.”
“I promise.”
“Then, I’m going to excuse myself now… Grand Duchess, I apologize for raising my voice while you’re still ill.”
“It’s alright, Young Lady Vivian. Just make sure you get home safely.”
As if she hadn’t lost her temper, Vivian gracefully bent down and opened the door to the Grand Duchess’s bedroom and walked out.
Thud.
As the bedroom door slammed shut and Vivian’s footsteps faded into the distance, Rupert’s face, which had been smiling sweetly only moments before, instantly hardened.
“There’s a lot of greed for a person who hasn’t been able to do the given task properly.”
Swearing harshly, he soon turned and went to sit beside Grand Duchess Blaine, who was sitting on the bed with a pale face. Then, the Grand Duchess, who had been sitting still without engaging in the conversation between the two, reached out and swept his disheveled hair back behind his ear.
Grabbing Grand Duchess Blaine’s hand that was up to his ear, Rupert lowered it down while grumbling in a frustrated voice.
“Who is it that, out of ambition, forcibly raised an army and squandered their family property in a fruitless war, and whom was she blaming?! After forcing us to revise the plans because she can’t complete one thing that occupies her mind, Seth Persen, and yet expected something in return?!”
“Don’t be angry, Rupert. You don’t need to waste your emotions on a woman like that.”
“Okay. Louise, you’re right, I should probably take care of the things at hand before I waste my emotions on a woman like that.”
Rupert nodded heavily at the Grand Duchess’ words.
Yes, right now, the priority was to bring Minase’s soul back to this world.
He spoke, struggling to control his rising irritation.
“Louise, if the Emperor returns this evening, don’t forget to pretend to be sick and shake him. We must never let that woman in prison be acquitted.”
“Yes, just trust me.”
“…Ah, thanks to you, Louise. I could never have made it without you.”
Saying so, he gazed at Grand Duchess Blaine with an emotional gaze and squeezed her hand once affectionately.
The Grand Duchess blushed at the sight and reached for his hand, but Rupert quickly withdrew it.
So far, everything has been going his way. All that remained was for the spirit of Minase to return to this world. In fact, it was the end of everything they had been preparing for and the beginning of a new plan.
‘…Minase, my lovely but foolish lover.’
It was cute that she dared to think of leaving him.
Did she think that he wouldn’t be able to find it? It was clear that she didn’t even know a tenth of what he felt for her.
‘Now, you can never leave my side again.’
He would now bind that beautiful soul to his side forever.
As he thought so, Rupert’s eyes burned dark and red with possessiveness and obsession for Minase.
14. For the Sake of You, My Beloved (2)
Meanwhile, Vivian, who came out of the Grand Duchess’s bedroom, paused in front of the room for a moment. While glaring at the closed door with a stern expression, she muttered.
“He wants me to believe and wait…? Who’s going to believe that?”
Up until now, she’d watched Viscount Rupert Guinivis take advantage of countless people with his empty promises. Still, she never thought that he would say that to herself and thought she would be deceived by that.
“Ha…!”
Vivian snorted coldly.
While she had thought that he was someone who would simply discard her when her usefulness waned, she hadn’t expected him to betray her like this. After the anger had swept through her mind, she shuddered with a sense of betrayal that came later. What had she been dedicated to so far? She got her hands dirty till here, but what did she get?!
She glanced down at her hands, which trembled with anger.
‘…He will give away the wealth after the fall of Duke of Persen? Is he toying with me to give me just a few pennies?’
When he said he was going to give her a share, he meant he was going to give her a penny.
Meanwhile, Rupert himself would eventually try to monopolize the Duke of Persen’s fortune for himself. Besides, as the Emperor’s Sword, Duke Persen had amassed a vast fortune by winning impossible wars. And when he told her to wait until he found someone new to marry her, he was telling him that he was going to drag things out until she got tired and gave up.
She had been used and abandoned. Vivian was blinded by a sense of shame and seething rage at being played by Rupert like a fool.
“He lied to me like this… it was what he planned from the beginning.”
Part of her wanted to run back through the bedroom door and finish off the Grand Duchess of Blaine and Viscount Rupert Guinivis.
However, this was the imperial palace, and it was certain that if she attacked them rashly, she would be dragged to the dungeon like that woman, branded as a witch, and headed to the stake. Besides, she didn’t have anyone to rescue her like she did.
‘D*mn it! D*mn it, d*mn it…!’
Vivian chewed on her lower lip and turned away with difficulty. Even though she was backing down for now, it would never end this way.
Never.
If it were her downfall, she’d make sure to show the bitter taste to those two as well. Repeating that to herself, Vivian slowly made her way across the palace corridors, desperately clutching at those notions in her brain.
She hadn’t even noticed the eyes watching her since she’d stepped out of her bedroom, as all she could think about was getting revenge on the two people who’d betrayed her.
It was as if time had stopped.
Dragged by the knights and imprisoned in the deepest part of the dungeon, Min-ha scanned her surroundings with a blank gaze.
As she glanced around, wondering if Bediviel, who had been brought along with her, might be nearby, but except for the faint light from the torches intermittently stuck in the walls, she couldn’t hear any signs of presence in the dark prison.
“Ha…”
In the end, Min-ha gave up looking around and sat down on the rotting wooden hammock and curled up into a ball.
She hadn’t gotten any sleep until now, so she wanted to lay down comfortably though she couldn’t. However, she couldn’t help but shudder even more at the cobwebs that covered the ceiling, the occasional insect crawling on the stone walls, and the footsteps of rats scurrying up and down the prison corridors.
Trapped in an environment she had never experienced before, Min-ha buried her face between her knees tiredly and only blinked her eyes.
Some people said that when they wanted to cry because it was too hard, the tears wouldn’t come out, and it was true. Min-ha smiled bitterly and lifted her head before patting her cheeks with both hands.
‘…Let’s keep our heads up. Don’t give up yet. As the old saying goes, if you want to die, you live, and if you want to live, you die.’
Min-ha tried to raise her mood, which kept sinking into darkness.
What if the verdict went wrong tomorrow? Was she going to die? What would happen to her then? Those negative thoughts kept creeping into her mind.
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