Episode 54. He Will Never Return
Adele's hands, which were clutching the hem of his cape, were visibly shaking.
"A lie... right?"
"Poor Adele."
"No..."
Adele had a pleading expression, as if asking him to say that.
However, Stone smiled strangely and whispered in her ear.
"He will never return."
Thud.
Adele's knees buckled as she no longer had the strength to stand. Tears soon flowed down her cheeks.
Seeing Adele like that, Stone approached Jan again and begged.
"Your Majesty, please forgive her for repenting like this."
Jan looked down at Adele, who was kneeling on the floor and crying, and nodded. To anyone who saw her, she looked like she was repentant and asking for forgiveness.
“I promise, I will grant the Marquis’s request. One, listen carefully. From this moment on, there will be no forgiveness for murder. Adele, you must especially remember to live your whole life in repentance for the Oswalds.”
There was no answer from Adele, who lowered her head.
“Answer, Adele!”
Jan urged with a dignified voice.
Then Adele muttered in a deep voice.
“Lies...”
“What?”
Jan glared at her with an angry face.
Adele staggered to her feet and lurched toward Stone.
“All lies. Stone, everything you said was a lie. Lies! Lies! Lies! Aaaah! Chris, what did you do to Chris? Give Chris back!”
Adele screamed as if she were having a seizure and rushed toward Stone.
The guards who came running quickly caught her. Meanwhile, Adele writhed like an angry beast and howled at Stone.
“You devil! What on earth have you done? Aaaah! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!”
Stone looked at Adele with a complicated expression. Then he spoke as if to tell Jan and the others to listen.
“Your Majesty, I actually didn’t want to tell you this story for the sake of Adele’s honor. But now I have no choice.”
“Tell me.”
“Eight years ago, the day before my father passed away, she came to my bedroom with a tattoo on her back. It was the same initials of my horse’s rump, Stone. Then she ran at me, saying she would become my woman just like now. Her obsession went beyond the limit, almost like she was going crazy. And in the end, the next day, she killed my father like that...”
Jan’s expression distorted.
Tattoos were the exclusive property of slaves and prostitutes. They symbolized someone’s ownership. So it was something unimaginable for noblewomen.
“Can you prove that now?”
“If you have any doubts, check her back.”
The people stared at Adele with unkind eyes. And he clicked his tongue and muttered as if he had seen the tattoo on her back.
Adele could only laugh now. The trap Stone had set was so strong that even resistance was meaningless.
He was going to tear her apart in front of everyone. So that she would never be able to live like a human again.
That was when.
“Ah! Someone, someone seems to be coming over there!”
Someone pointed to the entrance to the palace forest.
A black shadow was gradually revealing itself from inside the forest. The silhouettes vaguely visible in the darkness were two horses. However, only one was carrying a person. The other horse had an empty saddle.
“Ugh!”
The guard screamed at that moment. Adele had bitten the hand of the guard who had caught her. She ran madly toward the forest while they missed.
“...!”
Then she stopped suddenly.
The person who was revealed as the figure gradually became clearer was... It wasn’t Christine. The horse that had carried Christine had returned with an empty saddle.
“What’s going on?”
The man who brought Christine’s horse reported to Jan’s question. He was one of the remaining four winners who participated in the competition.
“We found the Count’s horse in the Valley of the Wolf. No matter how much we called and looked for him, we couldn’t find the Count. I guess...”
The audience murmured at the unexpected answer. They couldn’t believe that Count Weiss, a war hero, had gone missing in the palace forest.
“Don’t worry, the Count will return safely soon. So everything will proceed as planned.”
Jan relieved the crowd by clearing the air. At that, most of the people who had been agitated looked sympathetic. After all, it was Count Weiss of all people.
“Is it your doing?”
Meanwhile, Jan asked quietly so that only Stone could hear.
“If you go to Wolf’s Valley tomorrow morning, you will find his bone fragments.”
Jan’s face twisted in shock at Stone’s answer. However, he soon regained his composure as he became aware of his surroundings.
“No way... the Count?”
“I clearly saw him being thrown into Wolf’s Valley.”
“No way...! You didn’t say you would kill him?”
Stone instead persuaded Jan.
“If he can’t be on my side, he is a very dangerous person. It would be better to deal with him when the opportunity arises, Your Majesty.”
The two had joined hands before this match began. As proof, Jan told Stone where he had hidden the treasure and offered him one favor. He didn’t know it was a favor to pardon Adele.
But he killed Christine, too.
No, could he really kill him?
At that moment, Stone lowered his voice and whispered like a devil.
“Don’t you covet the Count’s vast wealth?”
Jan became very uncomfortable. Stone’s sparkling blue eyes seemed to pierce through him.
In fact, the national treasury was on the verge of depletion due to the long war, and the royal finances were also at their worst. The bank owned by Christine was barely maintaining itself by using national bonds.
At a time like this, it was inevitable that he would covet his property.
“So you’re thinking of driving that woman crazy and making the Oswalds the guardians?”
Stone answered with a quiet laugh.
Jan quickly began to calculate.
If Christine really died, Adele would inherit most of his property. However, if Adele was not of sound mind, he could appoint the Oswalds as guardians. Then he could divide the vast property between the Oswalds and himself.
If he buried Adele somewhere under the pretext of getting treatment, no one would come looking for her.
“This is how everyone becomes happy, Your Majesty.”
However, Jan could not believe it until he saw Christine’s body with his own eyes. There was no way that he, a member of the wolf clan, would have been easily defeated.
“And as promised, I will turn public opinion in the nobles’ chamber to Your Majesty. If you control the senior nobles, there is nothing left that threatens Your Majesty.”
At that moment, Jan finished his calculations.
If he could only get the nobles on his side, he didn’t need Christine. Moreover, he was feeling a strange pressure from him, who was becoming increasingly difficult to control.
The war was over, and now what he needed was the power of the nobles. At this point, it was more advantageous to join hands with Stone, a prominent political family.
It wasn’t in the plan to get rid of Christine, but if that happened, and if he could get his hands on that enormous fortune...
“Good, I’ll trust you.”
That was how everyone would be happy.
***
Jan approached Adele.
“Adele, did you ever give Count Weiss tea before the game?”
Adele, who had been holding onto Christine’s words and was out of her mind, looked back curiously.
Why was he asking such an obvious question?
Since it was cold, the players naturally drank warm tea before the game. Adele had also brought tea and cookies to feed Christine.
“...Yes.”
Then Jan turned around and shouted,
“Arrest Adele Grills immediately!”
Slurp. Slurp.
As soon as the order was given, the guards surrounded Adele in a circle and aimed their swords.
Jan added,
“He is a suspect in the murder of Count Weiss.”
Adele doubted her ears.
“Murder... you say? ...Me...him?”
“The Count drank the tea you gave him and went into the game, and then he met with disaster. The poison slowly spread, and he lost consciousness and fell down the valley. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have suffered such a ridiculous accident. Now that she’s done it once, it’ll be easy the second time.”
To Adele, this situation didn’t seem real.
This was definitely a dream.
A truly terrible nightmare.
“Evil woman!”
Someone shouted at Adele. Then, as if they had been waiting, shouts erupted from all directions.
“She’s a witch! Burn her at the stake!”
“Bring the Count back to life immediately!”
The people who already disliked Adele as Christine’s fiancée rose up like wildfire and shouted. They looked as if they would rush in and stone her to death at any moment.
***
“It’s horrible, that woman was Count Weiss’s fiancée.”
“That’s right. She must have planned to kill him and steal all his enormous wealth, didn’t she?”
“Oh my, it’s creepy! That must be the real story of that woman?”
Listening to the people’s gossip, Seira covered her mouth with the end of her fan and laughed quietly.
As expected of my brother!
‘To finish off Adele in one breath like this.’
“Will the Emperor really be angry even if I play a better card?”
“What did you talk about with the Emperor?”
As expected, Stone had definitely joined hands with the Emperor.
If the Emperor were on his side, it wouldn’t be a big deal to ruin Adele.
Finally, Seira felt like her stuffy feelings were going away. Of course, she was very sorry that Christine was wrong.
‘Adele, you really fit in as the Lady of the Basement.’
***
“Huh!”
A short laugh escaped Adele’s lips after a while of being absent-minded. Then she slowly looked around at the people who were swearing at her.
Her hat was off, her hair was messy, her eyes were bloodshot, and she was laughing. It was so bizarre and sinister. She could almost be called a witch.
“I’m disappointed, Your Majesty.”
Adele stared straight at Jan while surrounded by the swords of the guards.
Just as pain can’t be felt after a certain point, she was now free of anger and fear.
‘In the worst case scenario, I’ll just die here.’
That would be more satisfying than the Stone's will.
Should I slit his throat with the guard's sword in front of him?
Shouting, "You can never have me!"
No.
"I will become an evil spirit and curse you and the Oswalds forever!" She should curse him and die.
"Yeah, that wouldn't be so bad."
As she thought that, Adele couldn't stop laughing.
Jan made a sour expression as he watched Adele like that.
"Do you have something to say?"
Instead of answering, Adele untied the cape around her shoulders and began to take off her dress.
Among so many people watching and the guard's blades surrounding her, she acted as if she had no shame.
People murmured at her unexpected behavior. Some people clicked their tongues, saying she was really crazy. Some whispered that she had some kind of plan.
But they couldn't take their eyes off her.
“What are you doing! Stop it now!”
Shouted Jan in panic.
At the same time, Adele’s gorgeous dress fell to the dirt floor.
“I’ll prove that everything Stone said is a lie.”
She was wearing a corset over a thin chemise and grabbed the hem of her dress from her shoulders.
Everyone murmured as her smooth white back was revealed in the darkness. There really was a tattoo in the middle of her back.
But that was...
“Christine?”
Jan slowly read the tattoo on her back.
The letters engraved along both shoulder blades, centered on the straight spine, were clearly ‘CRISTINE.’
His name covered her back like wings.
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