***
The sky, which had sprinkled pure white snow not too long ago, was pouring down rain today.
A rainy evening. An ordinary carriage rattled through the streets of the quiet capital city.
Outside the water droplets on the carriage window, the evening scenery of the capital wet with rain flowed dimly. Everyone had their shutters locked.
“I believe that with the clever Highness, you would understand Rachel’s will.”
It was Madam Rachel who spoke first.
“…but I never dreamed that His Highness would accompany his woman for some small talk.”
Instead of answering, Damian whispered to Lily with a cold expression.
“…that woman doesn’t like me being here.”
“Your Highness.”
When Lily sighed and scolded Damian, Damian smirked and deftly said ‘oops’.
“My mistake. I promised to be polite.”
It wasn’t a joke when Damian told Lilian she’d be ‘overprotected’ the other day.
It was very unusual for Lilian to do wrong to Damian.
And Damian was no fool to miss a golden opportunity.
There was nothing Lilian could offer in response to Damian’s straightforward attitude, which demanded physical evidence other than the trustworthiness of Madam Rachel.
Damian whispered to Lilian, who couldn’t find the words to answer.
“To be left behind and frantically worry about your safety…it’s such a terrible thing to me. Please allow me to protect you, okay?”
The only time Lily, the most Turinian of all Turinians, the personification of uprightness and self-control, backed down was when Damian was weak. At times like this, Lilian would let Damian go, knowing full well that half of it was Damain doing it on purpose.
In any case, seeing Lilian’s contemptuous eyes, Damian pretended to be solemn. In the end, even Madam Rachel couldn’t help but say a word.
“I’ve heard that you two have a good relationship, but you’re closer than I thought.”
“…a story that moves national history can’t be called small talk. His Highness just thought so and accompanied me.”
Since he knew the circumstances, she meant to cover the story properly at this point.
“If Her Highness said so, then it is so.”
Damian’s eyes narrowed as Rachel laughed and played along. Everyone was wary of Rachel, but from Rachel’s point of view, she didn’t seem afraid that she might pose a threat to Lilian’s safety.
Who could harm the Grand Duchess when Damian Rupenwein was in such close-guard?
No one would believe her if she said this, but in Rachel’s eyes, Damian…she could feel a strange competitive spirit aimed at her.
“The reason why we made it such a difficult place to meet today.”
The Grand Duchess’ words broke Rachel’s thoughts.
“I feel compelled to hear a valid explanation of what you are claiming.”
“Yes, I know.”
Madam Rachel’s demeanor was very neat, having achieved a dreamy drunkenness and a little madness.
Lilian asked.
“Who are you?”
“…”
Rachel had been the prey of the empire’s tabloids for nearly a decade.
“I am…”
No one asked Rachel who she was.
Rachel involuntarily took a deep breath.
And for the first time, she replied.
“…I am the one who dares to claim to be a servant of His Majesty the late emperor.”
A story that no one would be able to hold back laughing at.
However, the eyes of the Grand Duchess as she listened to Rachel’s confession were very calm.
The Grand Duke lurking behind her twitched his eyebrows, but since his wife was silent, it seemed that he’s trying to remain silent for now.
Rachel was able to safely continue her story.
“I was born as the second daughter of the Viscount who ruled the Dynak region.”
A story from long ago.
***
“I’ll tell you first, but it’s a very common story.”
Rachel’s father, the Viscount, never had a son to succeed him.
Inheritance of the Dynak region could only be handed down to direct male descendants because of a long-ago contract.
Rachel was a worthless daughter.
She once wanted to prove her brilliance to her father. But it was a futile effort.
Rachel turned sixteen and got married at an early age.
When she was young, Rachel hoped that her marriage would give her a better life. The home she was born into wasn’t happy with her, but she thought that in the home she built herself, she would be able to make it happy.
However, premature expectations blinded Rachel. Rachel, anxious to get out of her father’s care, overlooked her husband’s ego, his aggression, and his habit of drinking and betting big while gambling.
The relationship between the couple quickly cooled. Her husband became indifferent to Rachel. But worse than that, she was trying to stop his wastefulness and he started jabbing his hands at Rachel.
It was that same day ten years ago. During the conversation, on the day of the banquet at the imperial palace, Rachel’s husband tried to bet an absurdly large amount on a trivial bet stemming from a quarrel.
Rachel, of course, tried to stop it, but her husband, whose pride was stimulated, forgot that the place was the imperial palace and hit his wife.
Fortunately, there weren’t many people who witnessed the marital fight or one-sided violence that took place on a balcony in the corner.
After her husband left in a huff, Rachel didn’t cry. Quietly and swiftly, she groomed herself as best she could and tried to leave.
But…
“…Your Majesty!”
An unexpected person suddenly appeared in front of her eyes. Rachel hurriedly fell to her knees.
Why is His Majesty here?
Did he hear?
In an instant, thousands of thoughts came to mind. Idoel said to Rachel who bowed her head.
“It might be the right thing to pretend not to know, but…”
He heard.
Idoel continued to speak to Rachel, who turned white.
“Let me tell you one thing. Madam Notil, if you want a divorce, I’d be happy to help.”
Words she’d never heard before.
Rachel was so embarrassed.
Her hair seemed to be bleaching white, but she was sure of one thing.
“…how could a judge take up His Majesty’s time with something like this?”
Idoel quietly shook his head. Rachel then suddenly raised her head and saw a friendly smile on the emperor’s lips.
“You are my subject and it’s right for me to look back. My time is not wasted, so don’t worry about that.”
But, funny enough, at that moment, Rachel was more afraid of her husband than the Emperor. She felt as if her husband would kill her without a second thought if she spoke wrongly here.
It was an irrational thought, but the brain that was engulfed in violence was not in a state where it could think normally.
Rachel barely said this with trembling lips.
“Your Grace is overwhelming but this humble subject cannot handle it, so please take it back…”
“…I see.”
Fortunately the benevolent and wise Idoel didn’t persuade Rachel any further.
Rachel knew it would end there, but…
“A month after that, His Majesty sent my husband to a place very far away, to a place guarding the border.”
Her husband, who misunderstood that he was trusted by the emperor, departed happily for his new assignment without the slightest suspicion.
Thanks to Idoel’s handling, Rachel was able to get out of her nightmarish days so easily.
“From then until the day I die, I vowed not to forget the grace of His Majesty the Emperor.”
“…”
“That was the most fatal mistake this Rachel made.”
She vowed not to forget the Emperor’s grace, but there wasn’t much Rachel could do. As a token of her appreciation, Rachel began to present a flower from her hometown, her beautiful flower which bore her own name.
And Claude Rupenwein used the flower to kills Idoel.
“…how did you know that?”
“When it comes to the aristocrats of the capital, everyone has a ghostly sense. Most people had a vague intuition of who Claude Rupenwein was and what he was like. I did too.”
As soon as news of the emperor’s death came, Rachel immediately approached Claude. Claude, who had just been rejected by his lover Aratine, spent the night with Rachel to vent his anger.
Damian muttered involuntarily.
“So easy?”
“Yes, it was that easy.”
At the time, Claude thought that because Aratine loved him, she would be glad that her husband, an obstacle to her love, had died. But Aratine mourned the death of her husband.
Claude was distraught with the feeling of betrayal. Rachel had recovered her weapon from her childhood thanks to Idoel, who had removed her husband.
Rachel gently seduced Claude, who had lost his temper, and heard the truth from him.
Everything.
How the heart she had dedicated was used.
She was told in full detail that her loyalty had cost the life of the emperor she adored.
Rachel was so angry that the blood vessels in her white eyes burst.
And at the same time she became cold as ice.
The corners of Rachel’s mouth trembled as she smiled.
“I really congratulate you, Your Highness. Now you understand Rachel’s will.”
“Wait, so that means…”
“Yes, I pretended to have it all behind my back. The gift of flowers to His Majesty, using my husband’s honor as an excuse, and Claude’s learning of Dynak’s old adage, I spoke as if I had planned it.”
Damian shook his head.
“Did my stupid second brother believe it?”
“Your Highness is seeing the results now.”
That said, he believed it.
“Oh my God.”
Damian sneered cynically. Rachel explained.
“Claude Rupenwein is a man with high self-esteem compared to his insignificant abilities. He always believed that people didn’t know he wasn’t a respectable person.”
Rachel, through her husband, knew the psychology of such a severe human waste.
She was able to tell Claude what he most wanted to hear.
“For a long time, I thought that Your Highness was the person who should be His Majesty!”
So Claude believed Rachel’s words that she had planned this.
‘Yeah, I’m a better person than my brother! It’s this wise woman who recognized me!’
In Claude’s mind, doubting Rachel became the same as doubting his own greatness.
Rachel nailed the idea.
“Please give me a chance to serve Your Highness as Your Majesty, and this Rachel will help you have the position that Your Highness should have.”
After hearing the story, Lilian asked.
“Why did you do that?”
Rachel must have had countless opportunities. She would have been able to take revenge even if she didn’t do such a risky thing as to make Claude emperor.
At those words, Rachel soaked up arsenic for the first time.
“Her Highness is wise and also truly good.”
Clearly, Rachel could have chosen to accuse him of what she found out that night. She could hand over Claude to justice.
But…
“It’s too easy. The laws of this world can never punish him for his sins.”
Since he coveted his older brother’s seat and his wife without knowing the right amount’ he deserved to suffer the pain of being betrayed and lost by a petty mistress whom he believed he was taking advantage of thoroughly at the moment when he thought he had it all.
It would scrape all the bones of his body down to the marrow with a sharp awl and cut the nerves from end to end, causing pain.
Rachel, who said that, was still laughing.
“Your Highness, I want a dog’s death, not that son of bitch.”
Only then would she be able to repay the guilt of being used to kill the emperor she respected.
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