“A murderous mastermind! That’s ridiculous!”
Grand Duke Odes shouted. He decided to hold on and see what happens. He had to escape from this place somehow. He will plan for tomorrow.
A stream of onlookers followed behind Pope Louis and Cardinal de Mare.
They were high-ranking clergy in charge of various positions in the Holy See in Trevero, Cardinals who had gathered from each country and were the real powers of each country, and high-ranking nobles who were not royals but were dispatched on behalf of the royals, including the mercenary captain, the Ironclad Variati.
The continent's greatest luminaries lined the hallways, noisily chatting.
“What’s going on?”
“A murderous mastermind? How can it be this vicious?”
"Amen."
When he saw the faces of the people who had come in, a cold sweat ran down Grand Duke Odes's back. There was no way he could admit to Lariesa's crimes here.
Grand Duke Odes shouted in a louder voice.
“Prince Alfonso! Stop your base slander!”
He can't be exposed here. He won't admit his daughter's flaws to the world.
“Just because you don’t want to marry my daughter doesn’t mean you can make such ridiculous accusations about her!”
Alfonso's lips were tightly shut.
Grand Duke Odes had absolutely no understanding of the man known as Alfonso de Carlo.
If Grand Duke Odes had just agreed to forget about the marriage and apologized for Lariesa's behavior, Alfonso would have ended things at that point.
He felt no need to expose to the public what Princess Lariesa had done.
Of course, there was resentment and emotional overload from what had been suffered, but it was up to each person to deal with it on their own.
Prince Alfonso saw it not as a loss, but rather as a natural fate for humans.
But Grand Duke Odes was so absorbed in the thought that he could not afford to lose even a single bit, although it was more like the minimal consequences of his daughter's actions, that he decided to condemn Prince Alfonso to the utmost, even when the marriage fell through.
He rolled the abacus without realizing it.
'If we condemn Prince Alfonso as a womanizer who abandons his first wife and marries a new woman...'
While the Grand Duke Odes was making these calculations, Prince Alfonso fiddled with the bag at his waist with a stern expression.
Ariadne immediately knew what Alfonso was thinking.
When she tapped Alfonso and nodded toward the bag, Alfonso let out a small sigh.
The person who did not want emotional revenge was him, and it was not something he could force on others.
And Alfonso was also beginning to feel that Grand Duke Odes's actions were going beyond what he could tolerate.
In the meantime, if his woman wanted revenge, it would be natural for him to give it to her. He took off the bag and gave it to her in its entirety.
Ariadne took out a book from it, opened it to a specific page, and handed it to Alfonso. Alfonso glanced at the page Ariadne had handed him.
“Your Highness. This is your last chance.”
If this were made public, Lariesa would be finished. He spoke in Lattan, the common language of the continent, so that the Grand Duke Odes could understand.
“Take your very sick daughter and return to the Kingdom of Gallico. If the Grand Duke apologizes to the woman who will become my wife on behalf of your daughter, I will consider it a disturbance caused by a sick person and let it pass.”
Alfonso's last act of generosity. Ariadne was about to feel offended, but she ended up laughing. This is how Alfonso is.
The blond boy she loved was always kind to everyone and warm to the weak. She couldn't just pick out the good parts.
Since she chose Alfonso, this was something she had to take responsibility for.
Ariadne loved Alfonso for all these reasons because she knew where his gentle smile came from.
On the other hand, Grand Duke Odes glanced sideways at the crowd at Prince Alfonso's offer.
Accepting that means admitting to these people that his precious baby is hurting.
Grand Duke Odes glanced towards Lariesa this time.
He was momentarily shaken by the sight of her appearance, which anyone would say was not normal, but his resolve strengthened when he thought of Grand Duchess Bernadette praying for two hours at a time with Lariesa at home.
Grand Duke Odes gritted his teeth and shouted. It was an act of throwing away his last lifeline.
“The woman next to you is truly a monster, a witch, a seductress. She has clouded the eyes of a fair and just Prince to the point of making him refuse to marry my daughter!”
Alfonso shook his head. There was no room for reform. He approached Pope Ludovico with the parchment in his hand.
“Your Holiness, Spiritual Leader of the Continent, Liberator of the Land of Yesak, I am truly ashamed to ask you to intervene in such a difficult matter. I would like to ask you to read this paper.”
The Pope accepted the note with a curious face. He had been observing the bag held by Countess de Mare for some time.
He was already thinking of asking Prince Alfonso to show him the paper secretly if he didn't bring it to him.
The Pope looked at the parchment and immediately burst into laughter.
“Oh dear, Grand Duke Odes is trying to be too kind to his daughter.”
Cardinal de Mare, who was standing nearby, asked.
"Yes?"
“Your daughter is a hero! If your daughter is a witch and a siren, then whoever kills and slays her is a hero!”
While Cardinal de Mare had no idea what was going on, Pope Louis read the booklet aloud.
"April 12, 1907. The assassination attempt of the 'Etruscan Woman' by bribing a servant of the de Mare mansion failed. Thinking that the locals would be more knowledgeable, the follow-up action was left to 'Tail'.
...(omitted)...
May 18, 1907. The 'tail' also failed. The carriage axle was cut, but the target was slightly injured. I plan to take refuge for the time being."
The Cardinal's mouth opened wide at the mention of 'de Mare Mansion'.
“What, what?”
On the other hand, the expression on the face of the Grand Duke of Odes upon hearing the date and goal was distorted.
It was when he praised his daughter and left her to do as she pleased because Lariesa had enslaved the Prince's closest aides.
His wife was supposed to take care of his daughter after hearing that she had an accident, but oh my. Looking at the dates, it seems that his wife, far from taking care of his daughter, participated in her accident.
But the truth does not necessarily triumph.
Even though he was collateral, he was born into the royal family and enjoyed all the benefits, and even conceived the worst, so Grand Duke Odes shouted firmly.
“Who do I know who did that? I guess Cardinal de Mare has a grudge!”
It wasn't a wrong statement. Cardinal de Mare didn't always make good friends or build friendships.
But that was never a good strategy. Ariadne, who had expected that Grand Duke Odes would act like that, handed the next piece of paper to Alfonso.
He was secretly swearing. This time, Alfonso handed it over to the Pope, who was looking at him with an expression like a puppy waiting for a snack, without even checking the contents.
The Pope, who received the second piece of parchment passed from hand to hand, read it aloud this time too.
"Kill or otherwise harm Ariadne de Mare, the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal de Mare of the diocese of San Carlo in the Etruscan kingdom.
March 18, 1023,
"Lariesa de Vala."
“Oh my.”
The Pope spoke loudly in Latin.
“There’s no room to escape from here?”
The Pope had no intention of actually taking sides.
It was true that he cared for Prince Alfonso, but he loved him only because he was a great general in the Crusades, not because he cared for the human being himself.
'If I get branded a scoundrel in the Central Continent, I'll have to go on another holy war.'
For Ludovico, either way, it was a flower party. He treated the situation purely as fun. But it was much more fun than he had expected.
“Did your hatred last long? You kept making assassination attempts from 1023 to 1027?”
The color of the Grand Duke of Odes's face changed from red to blue to pale from moment to moment.
If he could, he would have grabbed Lariesa's wrist and run out of there. The Pope chuckled.
“I don’t know if this is due to the incompetence of the Grand Duke of Odes or the high level of Cardinal de Mare’s house defense. How is it that after four years of trying, they haven’t managed to get a single scratch? You haven’t managed to get a single scratch, right, Cardinal?”
The Pope chuckled as he recalled Arthur's perfect hands. He couldn't stop laughing.
When he first faced the fact that he was going to die, he couldn't accept it at all, but once he truly accepted that fact, the remaining days felt like a playground.
Every day is a bonus. Today is a day full of bonuses. He wished he had lived like this a long time ago. He really regrets that he only has a few days left to live.
It was not the father who was still in his right mind, but the daughter who had really fallen for it, who refuted the evidence that could not be moved, while even the Pope was not on her side.
Lariesa leapt forward and shouted at the Pope.
“Yes! I did! So what!”
A commotion spread through the crowd. The daughter of Grand Duke Odes, regent of the Kingdom of Gallico, had admitted to being the mastermind of murder!
“I gave you everything! I saved you so many times! I even gave my soul to you!”
To say that even the soul was burned was a risky statement made at the headquarters of the Yesak Church.
However, Grand Duke Odes focused on the previous sentence, 'I am the one who saved you many times.' Of course, it was a wrong judgment. However, at the moment, he had few options.
“That’s right! That’s right! How sincerely we supported you, Prince!”
A man who abandoned his wife when things got better. If this situation becomes more solid, won't there be sympathy for Lariesa?
The Grand Duke of Odes's mind was busy.
It was a time when the judicial power belonged to the King, and since Philip was like that, if he did not send Lariesa to court, his daughter would not have to go to prison, but that was only assuming that public opinion was quiet.
When the Etruscan kingdom, with the support of the Holy See, demanded that Lariesa be properly punished, there was no answer.
Especially since he was only a regent and not a King.
Even if the Etruscan kingdom demanded punishment for Lariesa, it had to be made to sound like nonsense. Grand Duke Odes shouted, his blood boiling in his throat.
“We sent 100,000 ducatos of gold to Prince Alfonso as military aid, helping him become a war hero, and now you're abandoning my daughter because she tried to get rid of your mistress?"
When the words 'get rid' stirred a stir among the assembled crowd, Grand Duke Odes thought that if only royalty had been present, no one would have batted an eye, but the clerical rabble were helpless—he hastily added:
“My daughter, our Lariesa, was wrong. Even if she was his lover, murder is not something that can be done. Of course.”
But his true feelings inevitably leaked out like water in a leather bag.
“But isn’t that right? How much must that child have suffered alone? The position of the Princess is hers, but the Prince keeps flirting with a strict woman!”
“...!”
Ariadne was genuinely furious. And this time, so was Alfonso.
Those 100,000 ducats in gold are the slush funds created by Queen Marguerite.
The things that his mother collected in despair, even doing things she shouldn't have done. Those guys should never claim that they are theirs like that.
“This all happened because our Lariesa didn’t know how to calculate, and because she was pure enough to truly love someone she could marry for political reasons!”
Grand Duke Odes continued to make absurd claims.
“Why must you abandon such a good daughter and force her into a corner so cruelly, Prince?”
Grand Duke Odes should have known not to bring up the story of the 100,000 ducats when Countess de Mare was standing next to Prince Alfonso.
He had been informed by Elko that the 100,000 ducats were Count Ariadne's personal money. He thought it was rather easy.
'Who would believe that a young woman like that had a fortune of 100,000 ducats?'
By the time the books are counted, the granaries are opened, and the receipts are taken, it will have already been. Some facts are important only at a particular moment. Issues are volatile.
'The truth doesn't matter. What matters is that it looks plausible right now. If I can just get away with it here, I can somehow bury the rest.'
What Grand Duke Oded did not consider was that this was the headquarters of the Yesak Church, and that there was often more information gathered here than in the palaces of each country.
Pope Ludovico's smile became subtle.
“A hundred thousand ducats worth of gold?”
At that moment, the door at the entrance to the corridor that the Grand Duke Odes had blocked with a candlestick was finally opened.
Because it wasn't a proper lock, it couldn't withstand the vibrations of the security guards running around and shaking it hundreds of times.
The mercenaries from the Northern Sea Alliance in charge of security and the civilians in charge of protocol came running, lost in thought.
But among those who rushed in, there was one who was a trap. It was Brother Baldessar, the acting head of the Abbey of Aberruche, who had nothing to do with security or protocol.
Grand Duke Odes shouted. He decided to hold on and see what happens. He had to escape from this place somehow. He will plan for tomorrow.
A stream of onlookers followed behind Pope Louis and Cardinal de Mare.
They were high-ranking clergy in charge of various positions in the Holy See in Trevero, Cardinals who had gathered from each country and were the real powers of each country, and high-ranking nobles who were not royals but were dispatched on behalf of the royals, including the mercenary captain, the Ironclad Variati.
The continent's greatest luminaries lined the hallways, noisily chatting.
“What’s going on?”
“A murderous mastermind? How can it be this vicious?”
"Amen."
When he saw the faces of the people who had come in, a cold sweat ran down Grand Duke Odes's back. There was no way he could admit to Lariesa's crimes here.
Grand Duke Odes shouted in a louder voice.
“Prince Alfonso! Stop your base slander!”
He can't be exposed here. He won't admit his daughter's flaws to the world.
“Just because you don’t want to marry my daughter doesn’t mean you can make such ridiculous accusations about her!”
Alfonso's lips were tightly shut.
Grand Duke Odes had absolutely no understanding of the man known as Alfonso de Carlo.
If Grand Duke Odes had just agreed to forget about the marriage and apologized for Lariesa's behavior, Alfonso would have ended things at that point.
He felt no need to expose to the public what Princess Lariesa had done.
Of course, there was resentment and emotional overload from what had been suffered, but it was up to each person to deal with it on their own.
Prince Alfonso saw it not as a loss, but rather as a natural fate for humans.
But Grand Duke Odes was so absorbed in the thought that he could not afford to lose even a single bit, although it was more like the minimal consequences of his daughter's actions, that he decided to condemn Prince Alfonso to the utmost, even when the marriage fell through.
He rolled the abacus without realizing it.
'If we condemn Prince Alfonso as a womanizer who abandons his first wife and marries a new woman...'
While the Grand Duke Odes was making these calculations, Prince Alfonso fiddled with the bag at his waist with a stern expression.
Ariadne immediately knew what Alfonso was thinking.
When she tapped Alfonso and nodded toward the bag, Alfonso let out a small sigh.
The person who did not want emotional revenge was him, and it was not something he could force on others.
And Alfonso was also beginning to feel that Grand Duke Odes's actions were going beyond what he could tolerate.
In the meantime, if his woman wanted revenge, it would be natural for him to give it to her. He took off the bag and gave it to her in its entirety.
Ariadne took out a book from it, opened it to a specific page, and handed it to Alfonso. Alfonso glanced at the page Ariadne had handed him.
“Your Highness. This is your last chance.”
If this were made public, Lariesa would be finished. He spoke in Lattan, the common language of the continent, so that the Grand Duke Odes could understand.
“Take your very sick daughter and return to the Kingdom of Gallico. If the Grand Duke apologizes to the woman who will become my wife on behalf of your daughter, I will consider it a disturbance caused by a sick person and let it pass.”
Alfonso's last act of generosity. Ariadne was about to feel offended, but she ended up laughing. This is how Alfonso is.
The blond boy she loved was always kind to everyone and warm to the weak. She couldn't just pick out the good parts.
Since she chose Alfonso, this was something she had to take responsibility for.
Ariadne loved Alfonso for all these reasons because she knew where his gentle smile came from.
On the other hand, Grand Duke Odes glanced sideways at the crowd at Prince Alfonso's offer.
Accepting that means admitting to these people that his precious baby is hurting.
Grand Duke Odes glanced towards Lariesa this time.
He was momentarily shaken by the sight of her appearance, which anyone would say was not normal, but his resolve strengthened when he thought of Grand Duchess Bernadette praying for two hours at a time with Lariesa at home.
'I am the head of the household. I can't abandon my children.'
“The woman next to you is truly a monster, a witch, a seductress. She has clouded the eyes of a fair and just Prince to the point of making him refuse to marry my daughter!”
Alfonso shook his head. There was no room for reform. He approached Pope Ludovico with the parchment in his hand.
“Your Holiness, Spiritual Leader of the Continent, Liberator of the Land of Yesak, I am truly ashamed to ask you to intervene in such a difficult matter. I would like to ask you to read this paper.”
The Pope accepted the note with a curious face. He had been observing the bag held by Countess de Mare for some time.
He was already thinking of asking Prince Alfonso to show him the paper secretly if he didn't bring it to him.
The Pope looked at the parchment and immediately burst into laughter.
“Oh dear, Grand Duke Odes is trying to be too kind to his daughter.”
Cardinal de Mare, who was standing nearby, asked.
"Yes?"
“Your daughter is a hero! If your daughter is a witch and a siren, then whoever kills and slays her is a hero!”
While Cardinal de Mare had no idea what was going on, Pope Louis read the booklet aloud.
"April 12, 1907. The assassination attempt of the 'Etruscan Woman' by bribing a servant of the de Mare mansion failed. Thinking that the locals would be more knowledgeable, the follow-up action was left to 'Tail'.
...(omitted)...
May 18, 1907. The 'tail' also failed. The carriage axle was cut, but the target was slightly injured. I plan to take refuge for the time being."
The Cardinal's mouth opened wide at the mention of 'de Mare Mansion'.
“What, what?”
On the other hand, the expression on the face of the Grand Duke of Odes upon hearing the date and goal was distorted.
It was when he praised his daughter and left her to do as she pleased because Lariesa had enslaved the Prince's closest aides.
His wife was supposed to take care of his daughter after hearing that she had an accident, but oh my. Looking at the dates, it seems that his wife, far from taking care of his daughter, participated in her accident.
But the truth does not necessarily triumph.
Even though he was collateral, he was born into the royal family and enjoyed all the benefits, and even conceived the worst, so Grand Duke Odes shouted firmly.
“Who do I know who did that? I guess Cardinal de Mare has a grudge!”
It wasn't a wrong statement. Cardinal de Mare didn't always make good friends or build friendships.
But that was never a good strategy. Ariadne, who had expected that Grand Duke Odes would act like that, handed the next piece of paper to Alfonso.
He was secretly swearing. This time, Alfonso handed it over to the Pope, who was looking at him with an expression like a puppy waiting for a snack, without even checking the contents.
The Pope, who received the second piece of parchment passed from hand to hand, read it aloud this time too.
"Kill or otherwise harm Ariadne de Mare, the illegitimate daughter of Cardinal de Mare of the diocese of San Carlo in the Etruscan kingdom.
March 18, 1023,
"Lariesa de Vala."
“Oh my.”
The Pope spoke loudly in Latin.
“There’s no room to escape from here?”
The Pope had no intention of actually taking sides.
It was true that he cared for Prince Alfonso, but he loved him only because he was a great general in the Crusades, not because he cared for the human being himself.
'If I get branded a scoundrel in the Central Continent, I'll have to go on another holy war.'
For Ludovico, either way, it was a flower party. He treated the situation purely as fun. But it was much more fun than he had expected.
“Did your hatred last long? You kept making assassination attempts from 1023 to 1027?”
The color of the Grand Duke of Odes's face changed from red to blue to pale from moment to moment.
If he could, he would have grabbed Lariesa's wrist and run out of there. The Pope chuckled.
“I don’t know if this is due to the incompetence of the Grand Duke of Odes or the high level of Cardinal de Mare’s house defense. How is it that after four years of trying, they haven’t managed to get a single scratch? You haven’t managed to get a single scratch, right, Cardinal?”
The Pope chuckled as he recalled Arthur's perfect hands. He couldn't stop laughing.
When he first faced the fact that he was going to die, he couldn't accept it at all, but once he truly accepted that fact, the remaining days felt like a playground.
Every day is a bonus. Today is a day full of bonuses. He wished he had lived like this a long time ago. He really regrets that he only has a few days left to live.
It was not the father who was still in his right mind, but the daughter who had really fallen for it, who refuted the evidence that could not be moved, while even the Pope was not on her side.
Lariesa leapt forward and shouted at the Pope.
“Yes! I did! So what!”
A commotion spread through the crowd. The daughter of Grand Duke Odes, regent of the Kingdom of Gallico, had admitted to being the mastermind of murder!
“I gave you everything! I saved you so many times! I even gave my soul to you!”
To say that even the soul was burned was a risky statement made at the headquarters of the Yesak Church.
However, Grand Duke Odes focused on the previous sentence, 'I am the one who saved you many times.' Of course, it was a wrong judgment. However, at the moment, he had few options.
“That’s right! That’s right! How sincerely we supported you, Prince!”
A man who abandoned his wife when things got better. If this situation becomes more solid, won't there be sympathy for Lariesa?
The Grand Duke of Odes's mind was busy.
It was a time when the judicial power belonged to the King, and since Philip was like that, if he did not send Lariesa to court, his daughter would not have to go to prison, but that was only assuming that public opinion was quiet.
When the Etruscan kingdom, with the support of the Holy See, demanded that Lariesa be properly punished, there was no answer.
Especially since he was only a regent and not a King.
Even if the Etruscan kingdom demanded punishment for Lariesa, it had to be made to sound like nonsense. Grand Duke Odes shouted, his blood boiling in his throat.
“We sent 100,000 ducatos of gold to Prince Alfonso as military aid, helping him become a war hero, and now you're abandoning my daughter because she tried to get rid of your mistress?"
When the words 'get rid' stirred a stir among the assembled crowd, Grand Duke Odes thought that if only royalty had been present, no one would have batted an eye, but the clerical rabble were helpless—he hastily added:
“My daughter, our Lariesa, was wrong. Even if she was his lover, murder is not something that can be done. Of course.”
But his true feelings inevitably leaked out like water in a leather bag.
“But isn’t that right? How much must that child have suffered alone? The position of the Princess is hers, but the Prince keeps flirting with a strict woman!”
“...!”
Ariadne was genuinely furious. And this time, so was Alfonso.
Those 100,000 ducats in gold are the slush funds created by Queen Marguerite.
The things that his mother collected in despair, even doing things she shouldn't have done. Those guys should never claim that they are theirs like that.
“This all happened because our Lariesa didn’t know how to calculate, and because she was pure enough to truly love someone she could marry for political reasons!”
Grand Duke Odes continued to make absurd claims.
“Why must you abandon such a good daughter and force her into a corner so cruelly, Prince?”
Grand Duke Odes should have known not to bring up the story of the 100,000 ducats when Countess de Mare was standing next to Prince Alfonso.
He had been informed by Elko that the 100,000 ducats were Count Ariadne's personal money. He thought it was rather easy.
'Who would believe that a young woman like that had a fortune of 100,000 ducats?'
By the time the books are counted, the granaries are opened, and the receipts are taken, it will have already been. Some facts are important only at a particular moment. Issues are volatile.
'The truth doesn't matter. What matters is that it looks plausible right now. If I can just get away with it here, I can somehow bury the rest.'
What Grand Duke Oded did not consider was that this was the headquarters of the Yesak Church, and that there was often more information gathered here than in the palaces of each country.
Pope Ludovico's smile became subtle.
“A hundred thousand ducats worth of gold?”
At that moment, the door at the entrance to the corridor that the Grand Duke Odes had blocked with a candlestick was finally opened.
Because it wasn't a proper lock, it couldn't withstand the vibrations of the security guards running around and shaking it hundreds of times.
The mercenaries from the Northern Sea Alliance in charge of security and the civilians in charge of protocol came running, lost in thought.
But among those who rushed in, there was one who was a trap. It was Brother Baldessar, the acting head of the Abbey of Aberruche, who had nothing to do with security or protocol.
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