But what came out of Lucrezia's mouth was not a name, but spit.
“Pfft, pfft!”
A spurt of phlegm, bubbling with white foam, hit Ariadne in the face and fell to the floor. Ariadne expressionlessly raised the back of her hand and wiped the hot liquid off her face.
“What kind of mother would sell her child? I won’t do it! I can’t do it!”
Ariadne grabbed Lucrezia by the hair as she fell to the floor and shook her without mercy. Lucrezia screamed in pain as if her hair was being pulled out.
“Please pass on this boiling maternal love to your son.”
She looked up at Lucrezia with her cold green eyes.
“But don’t think I won’t find out. I’ll chase you to hell and back and find Ippolito’s dirty blood. Don’t think your son will be grateful to you.”
Ariadne said coldly.
“You know what the first thing I’ll do when I get out of here is? I’ll go talk to Ippolito. Your son.”
Ariadne paused for a moment and then continued.
“He died after admitting that he was different from the other three.”
Fear filled Lucrezia's purple eyes.
“Ippolito will hate you forever.”
Lucrezia was furious.
“Please, please. Leave my son alone. Ippolito is a good boy. He has never done anything to you, has he?”
She crawled on her knees and clung to Ariadne's skirt.
“Don’t you also hate the de Mare family being handed over to a relative you don’t know? If there is no man in the house, the end will be miserable. There needs to be a man in the house. You need one too.”
Lucrezia clung to Ariadne's silk skirt and sobbed.
“My Ippolito, just leave my Ippolito alone.”
In her imagination, Ippolito was not a gray-haired young man in his early twenties. He was a baby of three or four years old, but also a mature man in his thirties. He was a husband, a son, a lover, the culmination of all her dreams and hopes.
“Ippolito didn’t betray me. My son couldn’t help it. It was my fault for getting caught. Why did I get caught killing someone?”
Lucrezia begged Ariadne.
“What should I do to get my son to stay quiet?”
“...”
“Please, tell me anything. I’ll tell you anything. A hidden room in the mansion? An emergency fund hidden outside? Anything.”
“...I know as well as you do that you have nothing left.”
Lucrezia looked at Ariadne and laughed out loud.
“How can our illegitimate daughter be so smart! She knows everything!”
She walked over to the wooden table and picked up an opaque glass vial on a silver tray. The purple liquid it contained was Lucrezia's favorite thing to kill people with.
“Then I’ll give you this. Do you hate me? Do you hate me so much that you want to kill me?”
Lucrezia uncorked the vial and drank it in one gulp.
“I will give you my life.”
A stream of purple liquid flowed down the corner of her mouth.
"Please."
She looked up at her hated illegitimate daughter and begged.
“I’m sorry. I feel sick when I see you. Simon was such a good man. Without you... My marriage would have been perfect... I felt loved...”
Lucrezia's horse's tail gradually sank. She lowered her head without finishing her words. Ariadne stood alone in the northern cellar and looked down at Lucrezia. She pushed Lucrezia, who had fallen forward, with her shoe.
“Huh? What did you say?!”
“My eardrums are going to burst, Sancha.”
“No, Miss! Did Miss Rossi really admit with her own mouth that Master Ippolito, no, that damned Ippolito, is a cuckoo chick?!”
"Yes."
Ariadne, who had returned to her room neatly with a pale face and a look of weeping gone, leaned against the sofa as if she was tired, and began taking off her earrings, necklaces, and other ornaments one by one and placing them on the side table. Sancha, who had forgotten to care for the young lady because she was so surprised, was surprised when Ariadne took out the precious metals herself and quickly helped the young lady finish undressing.
“Why are you so surprised? We both heard Maleta’s confession.”
“No, but I never thought so!”
Sancha continued her story as she carefully combed Ariadne's voluminous hair with an intricately crafted wooden comb.
“Maleta, she was the kind of person who could pick up anything. In fact, there would have been nothing she wouldn’t have said to catch your eye back then.”
“That’s true.”
“Oh, what a shame!”
The mountain girl rolled her feet.
“You shouldn’t have gone down alone and brought a witness with you! What kind of witness is that? If you had brought Cardinal de Mare and had him stand outside the cellar door to eavesdrop on the story, that damned Ippolito would have been finished in one fell swoop!”
Ariadne answered as if she was tired.
“How many times in life does something happen so coincidentally and so easily?”
She ran her fingers through the hair that Sancha was combing.
“My father, His Eminence Cardinal de Mare, is a more... affectionate man than you might think. If he had heard me pressuring ‘Miss Rossi,’ he would have come running in barefoot.”
Sancha answered with a sullen look.
“That’s true...”
“It’s not just the Cardinal. If I had had someone I trusted waiting outside the door, the testimony would have been unreliable, and if I had had someone like a butler who was supposedly neutral, he wouldn’t have been able to respond to an emergency.”
The Cardinal's love for his wife had been strong and intense for about twenty years before Ariadne appeared and exposed Lucrezia's faults one by one and made them public. Because of this, the family members were confused about which line to take until Lucrezia's death. If Miss Ariadne ran upstairs to kill Madame Lucrezia four hours earlier than Cardin de Mare had ordered, it would be a great disaster.
“I didn’t kill Lucrezia before the time my father said. I think there’s a better than 50% chance that the gentleman will be capricious tomorrow morning.”
“Huh? After all that trouble? How hard it was to convince Mr. Scampa and the local cooperative representatives! No way, Miss!”
“Shall we make a bet?”
“Okay! I win this one.”
“What should I bet?”
“Um... If I lose, I’ll give you your favorite snack!”
Sancha took a liking to the sugar cookies from La Montan Confectionery. They were expensive luxury items that even with Sancha's much-needed salary, she couldn't afford to eat them often.
“Wow, you walked a lot?”
“I’m going to win anyway.”
Ariadne answered with a chuckle.
“If you really win, I’ll give you the new pearl hairpin I made for you.”
Sancha's eyes widened.
“Miss, that’s a dress that you got matched with at Collezione for this year’s Mass. Can I have it?”
Ariadne answered with a smile.
“I walked because I had nothing to do.”
“Miss! Aren’t you being too confident?”
“You'll know when you see.”
Ariadne smiled self-deprecatingly. She knew her father very well. Sancha began to comb the hair that Ariadne had tangled with her fingers.
“My heart is pounding at the thought of receiving a jewel worth over 15 ducats.”
“You little punk.”
“Oh, but it’s such a shame. We have to keep the story that the scoundrel Ippolito has a different seed among ourselves!”
Ariadne looked up at the mountain tea.
“Who would just hand that over to us? I never let go of the cards that come into my hands.”
"Yes?"
“Where in the world is there anything without evidence? Let’s take some time to look for it. During the recent investigation, I heard that Lucrezia entered the de Mare family with a full stomach. I think if I dig deep into the Rossi family, I’ll find something.”
“Those people are Ippolito’s relatives... Shall they tell you the story honestly?”
“If they were of sound mind, they would never do that. But if you look closely, you will find a crack somewhere. Time is on our side.”
Ariadne looked up with confident eyes.
“No, no, that won’t work.”
Killing Lucrezia. Last night, after much thought, he gave up and went to sleep, thinking that there was no other way out, but when he woke up in the morning, he couldn't do it. That woman had been warming his bedside for over 20 years. Now, it was more than love, it was a habit.
“The local cooperative people don’t know Lucrezia’s face very well.”
There will be a similar woman in the house. Instead, he can kill her and get away with it. Lucrezia's identity will be washed away, and she will be sent to the Bergamo farm for a long time. After about ten years, she will be brought back to San Carlo...!
“Excuse me. Where is the item I am sending to Madame Lucrezia?”
The personal servant guarding Cardinal de Mare's bedroom called for his butler, Nicolo.
“Where is that thing? Put it aside for a moment.”
Nicolo said with great regret.
“Your Eminence, Cardinal. If it is what you are talking about, it has already been taken down. Everything... is finished.”
"What?"
He opened the curtains on the window and looked out at the sky outside where the sun was high in the sky.
“What are you talking about! What time is it!”
“It’s already been three hours since the first rooster crowed. The stuff has already been taken down... and the body has been collected.”
The butler Nicolo nodded to the servant and quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. In the empty bedroom, the Cardinal sobbed for a long time.
“Oh my, mother! Sob, sob!”
Ippolito cried louder than anyone else in the front row during the funeral mass. He managed to shed real tears. But none of his family members gave him a warm look.
Lucrezia begged Ariadne.
“What should I do to get my son to stay quiet?”
“...”
“Please, tell me anything. I’ll tell you anything. A hidden room in the mansion? An emergency fund hidden outside? Anything.”
“...I know as well as you do that you have nothing left.”
Lucrezia looked at Ariadne and laughed out loud.
“How can our illegitimate daughter be so smart! She knows everything!”
She walked over to the wooden table and picked up an opaque glass vial on a silver tray. The purple liquid it contained was Lucrezia's favorite thing to kill people with.
“Then I’ll give you this. Do you hate me? Do you hate me so much that you want to kill me?”
Lucrezia uncorked the vial and drank it in one gulp.
“I will give you my life.”
A stream of purple liquid flowed down the corner of her mouth.
Gulp!
It was terribly bitter. It felt like her stomach was melting. Lucrezia looked at Ariadne and made her last plea.
“I will give you my life, but you must spare my son. Please, do not touch my beloved Ippolito, so that my son can live as the son of Cardinal de Mare.”
Lucrezia deeply regretted not having told Ippolito who his father was in advance. If Cardinal de Mare had learned of Ippolito's birth, he could have gone to find his real father and asked for help. Now that he was in this state of ruin, the only person who could convey her will to her son was that odious illegitimate child.
“Tell Ippolito to bring his mother’s favorite flower to the grave. Your roots are there.”
Will Ippolito understand? Will Ippolito not understand, and will the terrifying girl absorb everything like a sponge absorbs water?
“I will give you my life, but you must spare my son. Please, do not touch my beloved Ippolito, so that my son can live as the son of Cardinal de Mare.”
Lucrezia deeply regretted not having told Ippolito who his father was in advance. If Cardinal de Mare had learned of Ippolito's birth, he could have gone to find his real father and asked for help. Now that he was in this state of ruin, the only person who could convey her will to her son was that odious illegitimate child.
“Tell Ippolito to bring his mother’s favorite flower to the grave. Your roots are there.”
Will Ippolito understand? Will Ippolito not understand, and will the terrifying girl absorb everything like a sponge absorbs water?
As if to prove that Lucrezia's fears were justified, Ariadne's green eyes were shining intelligently as she looked at Lucrezia.
Cough!
She was gradually losing her mind. At the end of her life, there was only one thing Lucrezia could do.
"Please."
She looked up at her hated illegitimate daughter and begged.
“I’m sorry. I feel sick when I see you. Simon was such a good man. Without you... My marriage would have been perfect... I felt loved...”
Lucrezia's horse's tail gradually sank. She lowered her head without finishing her words. Ariadne stood alone in the northern cellar and looked down at Lucrezia. She pushed Lucrezia, who had fallen forward, with her shoe.
Crush.
She was still warm, and her limbs were still flexible. But when she put her hand under her nose, she found that there was no breath.
'Dead.'
Lucrezia died protecting Ippolito until the end. However, Ippolito was not a son worth it. Ariadne, feeling depressed, picked up the glass bottle lying on the floor and threw it roughly on the floor.
'Dead.'
Lucrezia died protecting Ippolito until the end. However, Ippolito was not a son worth it. Ariadne, feeling depressed, picked up the glass bottle lying on the floor and threw it roughly on the floor.
Clang!
The thick, opaque glass shattered into pieces with a clear cracking sound and a dull thud at the same time.
'Why!'
Why did Lucrezia die protecting such a foolish and ungrateful son? Why did my mother die so early? Why was there no one left who loved me so blindly? Why! That rascal Ippolito, who did not deserve love, was loved by such a mother, and why did Arabella have to die alone in her bed?
'Why!'
Why did Lucrezia die protecting such a foolish and ungrateful son? Why did my mother die so early? Why was there no one left who loved me so blindly? Why! That rascal Ippolito, who did not deserve love, was loved by such a mother, and why did Arabella have to die alone in her bed?
It was unfair. It was so unfair!
Ariadne kicked the glass shards again, still furious. She had thought revenge would be fun. Ariadne suddenly realized that her cheeks were hot. They were tears. It was not because she was sad about Lucrezia’s death. It was because she realized that nothing would change even with her death.
***
Ariadne stayed in the northern cellar for a long time and returned late. She returned to her quarters and told Sancha to collect Lucrezia’s body. After returning from collecting Lucrezia's body, Sancha finally heard from Ariadne about what had happened in the northern crypt.
“Huh? What did you say?!”
“My eardrums are going to burst, Sancha.”
“No, Miss! Did Miss Rossi really admit with her own mouth that Master Ippolito, no, that damned Ippolito, is a cuckoo chick?!”
"Yes."
Ariadne, who had returned to her room neatly with a pale face and a look of weeping gone, leaned against the sofa as if she was tired, and began taking off her earrings, necklaces, and other ornaments one by one and placing them on the side table. Sancha, who had forgotten to care for the young lady because she was so surprised, was surprised when Ariadne took out the precious metals herself and quickly helped the young lady finish undressing.
“Why are you so surprised? We both heard Maleta’s confession.”
“No, but I never thought so!”
Sancha continued her story as she carefully combed Ariadne's voluminous hair with an intricately crafted wooden comb.
“Maleta, she was the kind of person who could pick up anything. In fact, there would have been nothing she wouldn’t have said to catch your eye back then.”
“That’s true.”
“Oh, what a shame!”
The mountain girl rolled her feet.
“You shouldn’t have gone down alone and brought a witness with you! What kind of witness is that? If you had brought Cardinal de Mare and had him stand outside the cellar door to eavesdrop on the story, that damned Ippolito would have been finished in one fell swoop!”
Ariadne answered as if she was tired.
“How many times in life does something happen so coincidentally and so easily?”
She ran her fingers through the hair that Sancha was combing.
“My father, His Eminence Cardinal de Mare, is a more... affectionate man than you might think. If he had heard me pressuring ‘Miss Rossi,’ he would have come running in barefoot.”
Sancha answered with a sullen look.
“That’s true...”
“It’s not just the Cardinal. If I had had someone I trusted waiting outside the door, the testimony would have been unreliable, and if I had had someone like a butler who was supposedly neutral, he wouldn’t have been able to respond to an emergency.”
The Cardinal's love for his wife had been strong and intense for about twenty years before Ariadne appeared and exposed Lucrezia's faults one by one and made them public. Because of this, the family members were confused about which line to take until Lucrezia's death. If Miss Ariadne ran upstairs to kill Madame Lucrezia four hours earlier than Cardin de Mare had ordered, it would be a great disaster.
“I didn’t kill Lucrezia before the time my father said. I think there’s a better than 50% chance that the gentleman will be capricious tomorrow morning.”
“Huh? After all that trouble? How hard it was to convince Mr. Scampa and the local cooperative representatives! No way, Miss!”
“Shall we make a bet?”
“Okay! I win this one.”
“What should I bet?”
“Um... If I lose, I’ll give you your favorite snack!”
Sancha took a liking to the sugar cookies from La Montan Confectionery. They were expensive luxury items that even with Sancha's much-needed salary, she couldn't afford to eat them often.
“Wow, you walked a lot?”
“I’m going to win anyway.”
Ariadne answered with a chuckle.
“If you really win, I’ll give you the new pearl hairpin I made for you.”
Sancha's eyes widened.
“Miss, that’s a dress that you got matched with at Collezione for this year’s Mass. Can I have it?”
Ariadne answered with a smile.
“I walked because I had nothing to do.”
“Miss! Aren’t you being too confident?”
“You'll know when you see.”
Ariadne smiled self-deprecatingly. She knew her father very well. Sancha began to comb the hair that Ariadne had tangled with her fingers.
“My heart is pounding at the thought of receiving a jewel worth over 15 ducats.”
“You little punk.”
“Oh, but it’s such a shame. We have to keep the story that the scoundrel Ippolito has a different seed among ourselves!”
Ariadne looked up at the mountain tea.
“Who would just hand that over to us? I never let go of the cards that come into my hands.”
"Yes?"
“Where in the world is there anything without evidence? Let’s take some time to look for it. During the recent investigation, I heard that Lucrezia entered the de Mare family with a full stomach. I think if I dig deep into the Rossi family, I’ll find something.”
“Those people are Ippolito’s relatives... Shall they tell you the story honestly?”
“If they were of sound mind, they would never do that. But if you look closely, you will find a crack somewhere. Time is on our side.”
Ariadne looked up with confident eyes.
***
Cardinal de Mare usually woke up right at the first cock crow in the morning. However, he had tossed and turned the night before, so he fell asleep at dawn and got out of bed long after the sun had risen.
“No, no, that won’t work.”
Killing Lucrezia. Last night, after much thought, he gave up and went to sleep, thinking that there was no other way out, but when he woke up in the morning, he couldn't do it. That woman had been warming his bedside for over 20 years. Now, it was more than love, it was a habit.
“The local cooperative people don’t know Lucrezia’s face very well.”
There will be a similar woman in the house. Instead, he can kill her and get away with it. Lucrezia's identity will be washed away, and she will be sent to the Bergamo farm for a long time. After about ten years, she will be brought back to San Carlo...!
“Excuse me. Where is the item I am sending to Madame Lucrezia?”
The personal servant guarding Cardinal de Mare's bedroom called for his butler, Nicolo.
“Where is that thing? Put it aside for a moment.”
Nicolo said with great regret.
“Your Eminence, Cardinal. If it is what you are talking about, it has already been taken down. Everything... is finished.”
"What?"
He opened the curtains on the window and looked out at the sky outside where the sun was high in the sky.
“What are you talking about! What time is it!”
“It’s already been three hours since the first rooster crowed. The stuff has already been taken down... and the body has been collected.”
Thud.
Cardinal de Mare collapsed on the bed.
“Oh, Lucrezia, this cannot be.”
He covered his face with both hands.
“Lucrezia...”
“Oh, Lucrezia, this cannot be.”
He covered his face with both hands.
“Lucrezia...”
The butler Nicolo nodded to the servant and quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. In the empty bedroom, the Cardinal sobbed for a long time.
***
Lucrezia's funeral was simple. It was announced outside that she was sick. They refused to pay for respects, using the excuse of an epidemic. Sancha cursed the Cardinal's capriciousness and brought her sweets. Ariadne did not bother to tell Ippolito Lucrezia's will—bring your mother's favorite flower to the grave, for your roots are there—but it was Ariadne's way of venting her anger on Ippolito and keeping him in check.
No matter how she looked at Lucrezia's will, it was a hint as to who Ippolito's father was. Ariadne decided not to tell Ippolito and to look into it slowly on her own. And a brat like Ippolito had no right to hear his mother's will. She hesitated for a moment about whether to tell Ippolito, "Your mother admitted that you were of a different father and died." But she soon decided not to. She was not sure about Ippolito's reaction.
If Ippolito had heard the story from Ariadne, he might have been intimidated and made a series of mistakes while losing his pace, which could have been a good result, but on the other hand, it could have been a situation where he would have committed a terrible crime and been prepared in advance. Ariadne did not think highly of Ippolito, but he was fundamentally a very cautious person. She preferred to eliminate him for sure, even if it took time, rather than risking it and taking risks. Ippolito would later find out that the secret of his birth had been revealed, in a much more fatal way.
“Oh my, mother! Sob, sob!”
Ippolito cried louder than anyone else in the front row during the funeral mass. He managed to shed real tears. But none of his family members gave him a warm look.
Mr. Scampa and the representatives of the local cooperative officially announced that the suspicion that Paola Scampa’s death was related to Lucrezia de Rossi was a misunderstanding. They received a generous bereavement payment and an even more generous local development fund.
Mr. Scampa laughed in vain as he looked at the pile of gold ducats on the table in his clean but modest living room. It was a large sum that he would never touch in his lifetime. But his daughter would not return. He sold all his assets and packed his bags. He was going to go far away. He had left his old mother a sufficient retirement fund. He would never return to San Carlo.
The Cardinal de Mare palace held two portraits during the short winter. And finally, spring came.
From Taranto, the court of San Carlo returned.
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