Everyone, including Cardinal de Mare, stared wide-eyed at the dockworker.
He said, scratching the back of his neck as if he felt awkward about the attention.
“I remember the order because it was so unique.”
He was one of the vagrants Ippolito had met through a friend who was involved in smuggling earlier in the year.
Ippolito had little interest in those who were inferior to him, but on the contrary, Ippolito was clearly impressed by the tramp.
“Usually, people ask to be killed, but there are almost no people who ask to be beheaded and taken to a fishmonger... They just tell you to throw them in the river, or throw them in the outskirts, or make sure they don’t get caught. Oh, and I remember you smoking a lot of cigarettes indoors.”
Ariadne smirked to herself, saying, “That’s very Ippolito.” He made excuses, thinking that her laughter meant something else.
“Oh, everyone in our neighborhood smokes indoors, but smoking cigarettes is a bit out of style. Everyone smokes cigarettes.”
Ippolito turned red and blue as he swung at the dockworker.
“It’s a mother ship!”
He was on the verge of lunging at the sly man.
Ippolito, who had barely managed to come to his senses and was afraid of showing the shameful appearance of throwing a punch in front of his father, appealed to Cardinal de Mare.
“Father! It is a well-known rumor throughout the capital that Mother asked him to cut off the head of the dead maid and leave it at the fishmonger! Everyone knows this story, so you can just make it up!”
“You know that the young master is quite famous, right?”
The Cardinal frowned at the story he had never heard before and turned to the dock worker.
"What?"
The dockworker, who had received the attention of the higher-up, became a little excited and started to chatter.
“We sell things like that, tobacco, cigarettes.”
He began to explain what cigarettes were, using gestures and footwork, curling his fingers into a circle.
“If you put this in a pipe or roll it up and smoke it, it’s really cool. It feels like the top of your head is pierced! These days, rolling it up is more popular than smoking it in a pipe.”
The Cardinal gestured irritably.
He had no need to know anything about the life-destroying drugs that were popular among the lower classes.
“Just get to the point.”
“Master de Mare is a famous distributor, so his name is known among us.”
“Cough!”
The Cardinal coughed wildly as he heard the sound.
“Cough, cough!”
Ariadne hurriedly handed him a glass of water.
The Cardinal drank the water in one gulp, then spat out a dragon's breath that had been drawn from the bottom of his lungs.
“What the—?! Ippolito is a distributor?!”
The dockworker, slightly surprised by the Cardinal's violent reaction, waved his hand.
“Oh, that’s it, it’s not like it’s something that big, but all the trade between northern exchange students has to go through that de Mare master...”
“I sent you there to study!”
The dockworker's friendly explanation ended with the Cardinal's shout.
“You bastard, are you out of your mind or not?!”
CEO Caruso watched the situation and thought it was really interesting that the father was more shocked that his son was a cigarette distributor than that he had killed a person, but he couldn't bring himself to show it.
'That's because he's a priest. The Holy See teaches that any drug that affects the mood is harmful.
No, but isn't that a bottle of alcohol on top of the cabinet? No, but wait a minute. The Holy See teaches that not only are hazardous substances bad, but also that you shouldn't kill?'
While even the intelligent CEO Caruso was confused by the de Mare family's home education policy, Ariadne, who was accustomed to such discrepancies, quickly found her way.
“So, you’re saying that Brother Ippolito personally found a hitman and ordered him to kill Maletta?”
“Oh, we’re not like we’re hitmen or anything.”
The dock worker waved his hand and said.
“Normally, I just do ‘trading’ and sometimes I take on commissions. I don’t take on just anyone! I only take on commissions when regular customers I have a business relationship with ask me to!”
Ariadne had been waiting to hear that. She smiled and asked.
“There must have been a connection. Then it must have been difficult for my mother, who was an ordinary woman, to contact you.”
He nodded vigorously.
“We have no business meeting the Madam. We deal in tobacco, alcohol, and such, and have nothing to do with the luxuries she would use.”
“So, in the end, it was brother Ippolito who took the initiative in killing Maleta?”
That wasn't something a dock worker could answer.
Ariadne also did not ask, expecting an answer.
However, she simply turned her body and looked alternately at Cardinal de Mare and Ippolito.
“Brother Ippolito was the mastermind behind Maletta’s murder, and when my father decided to hold my mother responsible for the escalation of the situation, he didn’t offer a single word of excuse for my mother, but simply placed the blame on her.”
Cardinal de Mare's goatee trembled. Ariadne pushed him on.
“My mother didn’t even know why she was dying.”
Ariadne's calm, green eyes scanned Cardinal de Mare.
“She didn’t even know that her own son had framed him. And father didn’t even ask mother about what had happened.”
That was true. Cardinal de Mare had not had a proper conversation with Lucrezia since the Black Magic incident.
That was because he thought they wouldn't be able to communicate anyway.
The Cardinal felt some remorse there.
'If only I had asked Lucrezia back then...'
It was a thought that crossed his mind for a moment, unconsciously. However, just thinking about such a notion was extremely painful.
If you think about it that way, then Cardinal de Mare is to blame for Lucrezia's death.
It was not Lucrezia's fault nor Ippolito's impudence.
Cardinal de Mare shook his head sharply. That is the only conclusion that can be reached rationally.
But emotionally, he just couldn't accept it.
He wanted to think of something else. His second daughter's sharp voice cut into his thoughts.
“Are you a human being? When father tried to kill mother, you knew that it wasn’t your mother who did it, but you!”
"Shut up!!"
The eldest son reacted harshly.
“Shut your mouth if you don’t know anything!!”
Ippolito turned the decibels up to the max and screamed as loud as he could.
The intention was that since he couldn't win with logic, he would win with brute force.
His son screamed hysterically.
“Shut up, shut up!! Shut your mouth!!”
His head started hurting so much. He didn't want to see this or that.
The children had no idea what their father was thinking.
The second daughter was very busy.
“How much did your mother treat you! How could you hit the back of your mother’s head, whom you loved so much? You murderer!”
“This is going to be a disaster!!!”
Ippolito raised his hand and approached Ariadne. Ariadne cried out.
“Don’t come any closer!”
“You have to try this to know how scary it is!”
“Everyone stop!!!!!”
The Cardinal shouted. In an instant, the study became quiet. But the Cardinal could not control his anger and continued shouting.
“Stop it!!! Everyone get out!! Everyone get out!!! I don’t even want to see you!!!”
He looked at Ippolito and Ariadne in turn, then pointed toward the study door.
“Both of you, get out.”
He didn't even glance at CEO Caruso and his goons, but the two of them quietly tidied up and moved toward the door.
Ippolito was the first to slam the door and leave, grumbling in frustration. Two people followed him.
Finally, Ariadne, who was left in the room, looked at Cardinal de Mare with poisonous eyes.
Cardinal de Mare also glared at Ariadne. I wish you would disappear from my sight!
But the second daughter, who resembled him exactly, did not let her father go so easily.
“Father. You said you were a man who took care of his family.”
Hatred hung at the corner of her mouth.
“Are you going to hand the hilt of a knife to the son who stabbed his own mother in the back?”
The Cardinal's green eyes darkened.
Click.
Even the second daughter left, and only silence flowed in the Cardinal's study, where he was left alone.
When Ariadne came out into the hallway, she saw that Ippolito had already stormed out of the east wing where her father's study was located.
Only CEO Caruso and the vagabond he brought were standing around awkwardly, waiting for Ariadne.
She smiled at CEO Caruso.
Things didn't always go smoothly, but human affairs don't always go perfectly according to plan.
It seemed like they had roughly conveyed what needed to be conveyed.
“Thank you for your hard work today.”
CEO Caruso, who made a lot of money thanks to her, answered politely.
“No. It’s something I have to do for the young lady. And I didn’t do anything. This guy did it all.”
CEO Caruso gestured at the tramp with his chin. Ariadne's smile grew a little wider.
“You heard what the Cardinal said.”
She said to the tramp.
“I wish you wouldn’t tell anyone what happened today.”
Ariadne took a pouch containing a handful of gold coins from her bosom and handed it to the vagabond.
“This is your reward for today. Be careful on the way back.”
Ariadne bowed to CEO Caruso and slowly returned to her room.
In fact, the best way to shut the mouths of vagabonds was to kill them.
Even if we wanted to handle things more humanely, we should at least get San Carlo to leave.
Isn't it obvious what those guys are going to do?
He'll go to the tavern on the docks and brag about what happened that day as if it were a tale of heroism, and he'll brag excitedly about seeing the corruption of a high-ranking official.
However, Ariadne's interests did not necessarily coincide with the Cardinal's interests.
'What's wrong with the rumor that Ippolito de Mare killed his own baby in the womb of a maid and even betrayed his mother, framing her for his crime and killing her?'
It's not like it's an unfair rumor, right?
She thought about it this way and snickered. She had to admit it honestly. Her father was good at reading people.
If such rumors spread through the neighborhood, it would be a blow to the family.
However, she had no affection for the 'de Mare family' itself.
But Cardinal de Mare should have known: he didn't have many options to begin with.
He has only a fake eldest son who is a cuckoo's nest, the eldest daughter who is obsessed with decoration and luxury, and a second daughter who is quick to calculate and meticulous but does not love her family.
'If I had revealed today that Ippolito was not my father's son, would my father have been more receptive?'
Ariadne hesitated for a moment but then shook her head.
Cardinal de Mare is not a man to believes claims without evidence.
It was better to gather things quietly and thoroughly and then strike him down in one fell swoop than to bring up the subject first and give the fool Ippolito time to prepare himself, or to ruin the Cardinal's impression of him.
'...If the title doesn't go to Ippolito personally.'
If Ippolito were to receive the title, it would be difficult for Cardinal de Mare to abandon his false son Ippolito.
Ariadne shook her head again. Worrying about a future that hadn't yet arrived would only give her a headache.
She was slowly learning how to endure the burden.
'If Ippolito accepts the title, I will have to commit myself to a convent.'
If she were to enter while Cardinal de Mare was still alive, wouldn't she be able to secure the position of abbess?
Her innately thoughtful personality was not easy to let go of even when she tried to. She sighed lightly.
But Ariadne was sure of one thing.
I think my father's condition is exactly the same as mine right now.
'Father, make a wise decision.'
A week had passed since then. The house was a sheet of ice. It seemed determined to follow the increasingly cold weather outside.
No one spoke to anyone else. Cardinal de Mare was confined to his quarters and even had his meals taken separately.
Ippolito and Isabella also hated meeting Ariadne so much that they came down to avoid her time.
These were peaceful days, except that the kitchen staff at the de Mare mansion were forced to serve two separate meals.
The family's routine was broken by a messenger arriving from the palace.
“His Majesty the King’s royal decree has arrived!”
Ariadne's green eyes lit up. The Cardinal, who had been shut in on the second floor, also ran out of the study.
Ippolito and Isabella came down to the first-floor landing and chatted away, completely unaware of what was going on.
"What's this?"
“I don’t know, did we do something wrong?”
Ariadne thought to herself.
'It's just a joke, you idiots.'
The question was who would receive the title.
He said, scratching the back of his neck as if he felt awkward about the attention.
“I remember the order because it was so unique.”
He was one of the vagrants Ippolito had met through a friend who was involved in smuggling earlier in the year.
Ippolito had little interest in those who were inferior to him, but on the contrary, Ippolito was clearly impressed by the tramp.
“Usually, people ask to be killed, but there are almost no people who ask to be beheaded and taken to a fishmonger... They just tell you to throw them in the river, or throw them in the outskirts, or make sure they don’t get caught. Oh, and I remember you smoking a lot of cigarettes indoors.”
Ariadne smirked to herself, saying, “That’s very Ippolito.” He made excuses, thinking that her laughter meant something else.
“Oh, everyone in our neighborhood smokes indoors, but smoking cigarettes is a bit out of style. Everyone smokes cigarettes.”
Ippolito turned red and blue as he swung at the dockworker.
“It’s a mother ship!”
He was on the verge of lunging at the sly man.
Ippolito, who had barely managed to come to his senses and was afraid of showing the shameful appearance of throwing a punch in front of his father, appealed to Cardinal de Mare.
“Father! It is a well-known rumor throughout the capital that Mother asked him to cut off the head of the dead maid and leave it at the fishmonger! Everyone knows this story, so you can just make it up!”
“You know that the young master is quite famous, right?”
The Cardinal frowned at the story he had never heard before and turned to the dock worker.
"What?"
The dockworker, who had received the attention of the higher-up, became a little excited and started to chatter.
“We sell things like that, tobacco, cigarettes.”
He began to explain what cigarettes were, using gestures and footwork, curling his fingers into a circle.
“If you put this in a pipe or roll it up and smoke it, it’s really cool. It feels like the top of your head is pierced! These days, rolling it up is more popular than smoking it in a pipe.”
The Cardinal gestured irritably.
He had no need to know anything about the life-destroying drugs that were popular among the lower classes.
“Just get to the point.”
“Master de Mare is a famous distributor, so his name is known among us.”
“Cough!”
The Cardinal coughed wildly as he heard the sound.
“Cough, cough!”
Ariadne hurriedly handed him a glass of water.
The Cardinal drank the water in one gulp, then spat out a dragon's breath that had been drawn from the bottom of his lungs.
“What the—?! Ippolito is a distributor?!”
The dockworker, slightly surprised by the Cardinal's violent reaction, waved his hand.
“Oh, that’s it, it’s not like it’s something that big, but all the trade between northern exchange students has to go through that de Mare master...”
“I sent you there to study!”
The dockworker's friendly explanation ended with the Cardinal's shout.
“You bastard, are you out of your mind or not?!”
CEO Caruso watched the situation and thought it was really interesting that the father was more shocked that his son was a cigarette distributor than that he had killed a person, but he couldn't bring himself to show it.
'That's because he's a priest. The Holy See teaches that any drug that affects the mood is harmful.
No, but isn't that a bottle of alcohol on top of the cabinet? No, but wait a minute. The Holy See teaches that not only are hazardous substances bad, but also that you shouldn't kill?'
While even the intelligent CEO Caruso was confused by the de Mare family's home education policy, Ariadne, who was accustomed to such discrepancies, quickly found her way.
“So, you’re saying that Brother Ippolito personally found a hitman and ordered him to kill Maletta?”
“Oh, we’re not like we’re hitmen or anything.”
The dock worker waved his hand and said.
“Normally, I just do ‘trading’ and sometimes I take on commissions. I don’t take on just anyone! I only take on commissions when regular customers I have a business relationship with ask me to!”
Ariadne had been waiting to hear that. She smiled and asked.
“There must have been a connection. Then it must have been difficult for my mother, who was an ordinary woman, to contact you.”
He nodded vigorously.
“We have no business meeting the Madam. We deal in tobacco, alcohol, and such, and have nothing to do with the luxuries she would use.”
“So, in the end, it was brother Ippolito who took the initiative in killing Maleta?”
That wasn't something a dock worker could answer.
Ariadne also did not ask, expecting an answer.
However, she simply turned her body and looked alternately at Cardinal de Mare and Ippolito.
“Brother Ippolito was the mastermind behind Maletta’s murder, and when my father decided to hold my mother responsible for the escalation of the situation, he didn’t offer a single word of excuse for my mother, but simply placed the blame on her.”
Cardinal de Mare's goatee trembled. Ariadne pushed him on.
“My mother didn’t even know why she was dying.”
Ariadne's calm, green eyes scanned Cardinal de Mare.
“She didn’t even know that her own son had framed him. And father didn’t even ask mother about what had happened.”
That was true. Cardinal de Mare had not had a proper conversation with Lucrezia since the Black Magic incident.
That was because he thought they wouldn't be able to communicate anyway.
The Cardinal felt some remorse there.
'If only I had asked Lucrezia back then...'
It was a thought that crossed his mind for a moment, unconsciously. However, just thinking about such a notion was extremely painful.
If you think about it that way, then Cardinal de Mare is to blame for Lucrezia's death.
It was not Lucrezia's fault nor Ippolito's impudence.
Cardinal de Mare shook his head sharply. That is the only conclusion that can be reached rationally.
But emotionally, he just couldn't accept it.
He wanted to think of something else. His second daughter's sharp voice cut into his thoughts.
“Are you a human being? When father tried to kill mother, you knew that it wasn’t your mother who did it, but you!”
"Shut up!!"
The eldest son reacted harshly.
“Shut your mouth if you don’t know anything!!”
Ippolito turned the decibels up to the max and screamed as loud as he could.
The intention was that since he couldn't win with logic, he would win with brute force.
His son screamed hysterically.
“Shut up, shut up!! Shut your mouth!!”
His head started hurting so much. He didn't want to see this or that.
The children had no idea what their father was thinking.
The second daughter was very busy.
“How much did your mother treat you! How could you hit the back of your mother’s head, whom you loved so much? You murderer!”
“This is going to be a disaster!!!”
Ippolito raised his hand and approached Ariadne. Ariadne cried out.
“Don’t come any closer!”
“You have to try this to know how scary it is!”
“Everyone stop!!!!!”
The Cardinal shouted. In an instant, the study became quiet. But the Cardinal could not control his anger and continued shouting.
“Stop it!!! Everyone get out!! Everyone get out!!! I don’t even want to see you!!!”
He looked at Ippolito and Ariadne in turn, then pointed toward the study door.
“Both of you, get out.”
He didn't even glance at CEO Caruso and his goons, but the two of them quietly tidied up and moved toward the door.
Ippolito was the first to slam the door and leave, grumbling in frustration. Two people followed him.
Finally, Ariadne, who was left in the room, looked at Cardinal de Mare with poisonous eyes.
Cardinal de Mare also glared at Ariadne. I wish you would disappear from my sight!
But the second daughter, who resembled him exactly, did not let her father go so easily.
“Father. You said you were a man who took care of his family.”
Hatred hung at the corner of her mouth.
“Are you going to hand the hilt of a knife to the son who stabbed his own mother in the back?”
The Cardinal's green eyes darkened.
Click.
Even the second daughter left, and only silence flowed in the Cardinal's study, where he was left alone.
***
When Ariadne came out into the hallway, she saw that Ippolito had already stormed out of the east wing where her father's study was located.
Only CEO Caruso and the vagabond he brought were standing around awkwardly, waiting for Ariadne.
She smiled at CEO Caruso.
Things didn't always go smoothly, but human affairs don't always go perfectly according to plan.
It seemed like they had roughly conveyed what needed to be conveyed.
“Thank you for your hard work today.”
CEO Caruso, who made a lot of money thanks to her, answered politely.
“No. It’s something I have to do for the young lady. And I didn’t do anything. This guy did it all.”
CEO Caruso gestured at the tramp with his chin. Ariadne's smile grew a little wider.
“You heard what the Cardinal said.”
She said to the tramp.
“I wish you wouldn’t tell anyone what happened today.”
Ariadne took a pouch containing a handful of gold coins from her bosom and handed it to the vagabond.
“This is your reward for today. Be careful on the way back.”
Ariadne bowed to CEO Caruso and slowly returned to her room.
In fact, the best way to shut the mouths of vagabonds was to kill them.
Even if we wanted to handle things more humanely, we should at least get San Carlo to leave.
Isn't it obvious what those guys are going to do?
He'll go to the tavern on the docks and brag about what happened that day as if it were a tale of heroism, and he'll brag excitedly about seeing the corruption of a high-ranking official.
However, Ariadne's interests did not necessarily coincide with the Cardinal's interests.
'What's wrong with the rumor that Ippolito de Mare killed his own baby in the womb of a maid and even betrayed his mother, framing her for his crime and killing her?'
It's not like it's an unfair rumor, right?
She thought about it this way and snickered. She had to admit it honestly. Her father was good at reading people.
If such rumors spread through the neighborhood, it would be a blow to the family.
However, she had no affection for the 'de Mare family' itself.
But Cardinal de Mare should have known: he didn't have many options to begin with.
He has only a fake eldest son who is a cuckoo's nest, the eldest daughter who is obsessed with decoration and luxury, and a second daughter who is quick to calculate and meticulous but does not love her family.
'If I had revealed today that Ippolito was not my father's son, would my father have been more receptive?'
Ariadne hesitated for a moment but then shook her head.
Cardinal de Mare is not a man to believes claims without evidence.
It was better to gather things quietly and thoroughly and then strike him down in one fell swoop than to bring up the subject first and give the fool Ippolito time to prepare himself, or to ruin the Cardinal's impression of him.
'...If the title doesn't go to Ippolito personally.'
If Ippolito were to receive the title, it would be difficult for Cardinal de Mare to abandon his false son Ippolito.
Ariadne shook her head again. Worrying about a future that hadn't yet arrived would only give her a headache.
She was slowly learning how to endure the burden.
'If Ippolito accepts the title, I will have to commit myself to a convent.'
If she were to enter while Cardinal de Mare was still alive, wouldn't she be able to secure the position of abbess?
Her innately thoughtful personality was not easy to let go of even when she tried to. She sighed lightly.
But Ariadne was sure of one thing.
I think my father's condition is exactly the same as mine right now.
'Father, make a wise decision.'
***
A week had passed since then. The house was a sheet of ice. It seemed determined to follow the increasingly cold weather outside.
No one spoke to anyone else. Cardinal de Mare was confined to his quarters and even had his meals taken separately.
Ippolito and Isabella also hated meeting Ariadne so much that they came down to avoid her time.
These were peaceful days, except that the kitchen staff at the de Mare mansion were forced to serve two separate meals.
The family's routine was broken by a messenger arriving from the palace.
“His Majesty the King’s royal decree has arrived!”
Ariadne's green eyes lit up. The Cardinal, who had been shut in on the second floor, also ran out of the study.
Ippolito and Isabella came down to the first-floor landing and chatted away, completely unaware of what was going on.
"What's this?"
“I don’t know, did we do something wrong?”
Ariadne thought to herself.
'It's just a joke, you idiots.'
The question was who would receive the title.
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