It was only when Rolf's face turned red from the strangled wound that Fernand threw him to the floor.
"Ugh... croak... gulp. Gulp!"
Rolf coughed loudly.
Fernand sat down with his knees bent deeply in front of Rolf, who was barely breathing, as if he were trying to tear the child's flesh from his body.
"Yes, now tell me your excuse."
Fernand chuckled as if he found Rolf funny.
Although he was originally a nobleman or a transcendentalist, he had a shallow personality, but now Fernand was no different from a street thug.
"Charlotte's adoption, and the registration of the illegitimate child. You were the one who pushed for it all? It seems you're desperate to push me out. Tell me the reason for your dirty betrayal in front of me."
Rolf fell to his knees, groaning.
"Did you promise to make Mrs. Becker a Countess? How much money did you take for it? Or did you two get together?"
Fernand ground his teeth loudly.
"Master... I, I had no choice. I did it with all my heart for the Count's sake. For the Albrecht family..."
"Even dog barking is so refreshing."
Fernand kicked Rolf's knee with the toe of his shoe.
"Uh... I have something to tell you. Odette is Siegfried's biological daughter!"
Rolf thought that the secret about Odette's birth could stop Fernand. If he knew this, Fernand would understand his actions.
"But? But what is the reason for that?"
But that was the wrong decision.
Rolf closed his mouth in bewilderment and confusion.
"Odette is a woman anyway. If I don't die, she gets nothing. But an illegitimate child is different. If it's a son, I have to share the property with him no matter what."
He chuckled again.
"Besides, unlike Odette, that newborn is my real father's blood relative. If my father wanted to, he could make him into a replacement for me. He is someone who truly threatens my position."
"I, I really do it for the young master and the Albrecht family..."
"And you say it's for me? You tried to start a rebellion against the successor just for me? You've already crossed the line."
"..."
"Write a letter like this one more time. Then you'll be the first to die screaming. Do you understand?"
Rolf nodded in horror. Fernand grabbed the back of Rolf's neck and pulled it down.
"Hey, you! What are you doing!"
At that moment, the angry Count was seen coming out into the garden. Fernand came to the Count's mansion to report Rolf's tricks to the Count, but seeing him with his illegitimate child, he felt that there was no point in reporting to him.
So he quickly got back on the carriage.
"Go quickly."
He gave the order to his coachman. The carriage left the mansion, leaving the Count behind.
***
"It seems like I've managed to suppress that guy's energy a little bit."
Fernand was convinced that Rolf harbored illegitimate ties to him and had fathered an illegitimate child with Charlotte.
'Are you thinking of secretly registering an illegitimate child behind my back?'
He took the letter out of his bosom again and read it through. Rolf's appeal was consistent.
To stop Odette, he must adopt Charlotte and make the illegitimate child officially registered as the second son of the Albrecht family.
Fernand was also angry with the Count.
'I may have made some mistakes, but how could you not discuss something so important with me?'
His father was treating him with an unusually cold attitude.
Even though Fernand was the sole heir, there was not a single word about adopting Charlotte.
'It's the first time my father has treated me like I don't exist.'
He could tell instinctively that his father was trying to give up on him, somewhere in his heart.
And Fernand thought it was not because he had strangled his father, but because of Rolf's tricks.
Rolf intends to bring in a successor to replace Fernand and become his retainer to take control of the Count's residence.
"I really thought your prediction was right."
Fernand looked across the carriage with a softened voice...
There was Lord Kodel there. Fernand felt a little empty after seeing with his own eyes the dinner table with his illegitimate child.
"Isn't that a common occurrence? A butler betraying his master. I'm cautious about saying this, but especially in the case of Count Albrecht's family, there was a rebellion due to the butler's betrayal."
"I'm sorry," said Kodel in a pitiful voice.
Fernand smiled bitterly at those words.
During Fernand's death trial, the few friends he had originally had all but disappeared. The only friend he had left to play poker with was Gustav Kodel.
He felt a little embarrassed because he felt like he had been embarrassed in front of such a friend.
"If you weren't here, I would have been a fool all by myself. It was strange that the adoption story, which hadn't made any progress for two years, was suddenly moving forward."
Kodel nodded at Fernand's words.
"From Miss Charlotte's point of view, it's even stranger that she would only lose if she came to Albrecht now."
Fernand flinched at Kodel's disparaging remarks about Albrecht, but he wasn't wrong.
"According to the detective... he said that he brought Charlotte in to make the illegitimate child the rightful heir, right? Charlotte, Rolf, Mrs. Becker. These three are all working together to trick the Count into making the illegitimate child the rightful heir."
Fernand thought that suspicion was a leap of faith until he received the detective's report.
"But, after following Moller's advice, didn't you eventually discover Rolf's true nature?
"Charlotte is a girl from the mountains, so she couldn't have planned this. There must be someone from the cathedral controlling her."
Fernand recalled the reports he had received from Detective Moller at Kodel's words.
'Come to think of it, wasn't High Priest Raphael's name mentioned repeatedly?'
It was Raphael who personally received, reviewed, and approved all the documents in Charlotte's adoption process. It was Raphael who coordinated the conditions. It was Raphael who submitted the final approval documents to the cathedral. It was Raphael who wrote the congratulatory speech.
'Even the beginning of this whole story began when Rolf overheard the conversation between High Priest Raphael and Charlotte by chance.'
Isn't that too much of a coincidence?
He meets Odette, and then you suddenly overhear a conversation between High Priest Raphael and Charlotte?
'Yeah. There's no way that country bumpkin who knows nothing wouId have planned it himself...'
It seemed more likely to him that Raphael, Rolf, and Mrs. Becker had joined hands.
He wasn't sure. But he figured that just like he had suppressed Rolf's spirit. He should threaten Raphael by pretending to know, so that there would be no trouble later.
"Let's go to the cathedral."
After getting Kodel out of the coach, Fernand ordered his coachman.
He headed towards the cathedral like that.
***
"Call High Priest Raphael!"
Fernand, heading to the cathedral, spoke rudely to the cathedral's knight.
Because he wanted to hear an answer.
"You cannot meet with the High Priest in advance unless you have an appointment, Count Albrecht."
But the knights were stubborn. When Fernand was blocked in his path, he forced himself into the cathedral. When the panicked knights tried to chase him. Fernand, who had lost his sense of judgment, habitually summoned insects to build a defensive wall.
"Where are you, High Priest Raphael?! I know you're in league with that bastard Rolf, so come out now!"
Fernand, who had become even more excited during the scuffle with the knights, entered the priest's residence without paying attention to the commotion that was occurring.
And finally, he found High Priest Raphael.
In the desk of Raphael's personal office, High Priest Raphael sits with his head bowed.
Fernand strode over to him and slammed his fist on the desk.
"What are you plotting with Rolf? Yes? What are you plotting with Charlotte to have Albrecht adopt her?"
Fernand was determined not to go back until he heard a definitive answer.
But at the same time as the sound of the desk being slammed, Raphael, who was sitting on the chair, fell sideways.
Then, with a thud, he fell to the floor, like a corpse.
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